Heather Denise Botting, née Harden, also known as Lady Aurora, (born 21 September 1948), is a professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
The original high priestess of Coven Celeste, she is a founding elder of the Canadian Aquarian Tabernacle Church[1] and was the first recognized Wiccan chaplain in a public university.
She was brought up a Jehovah's Witness, living on a small farm on the outskirts of Newmarket, where her parents raised chickens, pigs and ponies.
[3] Conforming to the instructions of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the controlling corporation of Jehovah's Witnesses, at high school she opted for the "special commercial" (as opposed to academic) program.
[4] Since their potential union suffered the disapprobation of their respective parents, Heather and Gary eloped in October, 1966—only to discover that nobody had noticed, and it became inconvenient to tell anyone.
[19] Realizing that most of her Canadian family had become committed Jehovah's Witnesses, in 1966 Lysbeth expressed concern to Heather that her tradition of the "Old Religion" (i.e. Wicca) would be lost forever.
However, because of the severe social strictures placed upon them by Jehovah's Witnesses, including fear of being disfellowshipped, they stayed in the "broom closet" for years—the "gestation period" of Coven Celeste—discussing their new faith only with fellow pagans.
Over the next 40 years it went through several permutations, spreading from Ontario east to Newfoundland and west to British Columbia, north to the Northwest Territories, and south as far as Corpus Christi, Texas.