22:51 Oct 23, 2009 

For clarity, I'm making it a somewhat freer translation.

"...But since these alleged older members remained behind the scenes, as invisible as the “Secret Chiefs” of the Golden Dawn and the Mahatmas of Theosophy, Gardner himself became the head of the Wicca movement."

22:48 Oct 23, 2009 

In German you would say "die von ihm vorgeschobenen Leute hinter den Kulissen". He is claiming to have been given power from people that no one but him know of...

22:43 Oct 23, 2009 

Just wanted to understand what you were saying.

22:42 Oct 23, 2009 

Kim, please don´t beat me up on that one, it is almost 1 a.m. over here, and I am everything but certain that you can actually say "allege to", but I definitely am certain that "alleged" would fit nicely...

22:39 Oct 23, 2009 

the people he 'alleged to'?

22:38 Oct 23, 2009 

This is exactly how I understood the sentence as well. Nonetheless I would try not to lose the "postuliert" in the translation. I understand it as "vorgeschoben" and thus would translate it as "alleged"... "...but since the people he alleged to remained behind the scenes..."

22:34 Oct 23, 2009 

These older adherents sound as if they have 'passed to the other side' to me. On other words like the Mahatmas for Theosophists, he 'communicates' with them by psychic means and 'channels'/'intuits' what they have to say. It is from them that he is claiming to have been given permission to initiate new members. The 'elders' of the religion can thus only be invisible.

22:30 Oct 23, 2009 

To me it makes the most sense that the people behind the scenes whom he "postulated" are the ones who [he alleges] gave him the permission to initiate others-- i.e., they're neither the new members he did initiate nor people he himself were alleging to be behind the scene. That makes the most sense with the comparison to the famous "Secret Chiefs" and Mahatmas. In other words, could it be something like: "Gardner pole-vaulted himself straight to the top, declaring himself to be an agent of witchcraft who was granted permission—from other, older members of the tradition—to initiate new members. But since these people [older members] remained behind the scenes, as invisible as the 'Secret Chiefs' of the Golden Dawn and the Mahatmas of Theosophy, he himself became the head of the Wicca movement."

21:14 Oct 23, 2009 

"G. schwang sich erst zum Vermittler des Hexentums auf und behauptete, es sei ihm von anderen, älteren Anhängern des Kults erlaubt worden, neue Mitglieder einzuweihen. Da die von ihm..."

21:03 Oct 23, 2009 

Can you give us some more source text regarding the 'postulierten Leute'?