In 1990, while on a speaking tour in Massachusetts, he suddenly fell ill and was diagnosed with AIDS-related cryptococcal meningitis.

In 1983, Scott Cunningham was diagnosed with lymphoma, which he successfully overcame. He also believed that Wicca, which had been a closed tradition since the 1950s, should become more open to newcomers.Ĭunningham was also drawn to Huna and a range of new age movements and concepts that influenced and colored his spirituality. Ĭunningham practiced a fairly basic interpretation of Wicca, often worshiping alone, though his book series for solitaries describes several instances in which he worshiped with friends and teachers. In 1980, Cunningham began initiate training under Raven Grimassi and remained as a first-degree initiate until 1982 when he left the tradition to pursue a solo practice of witchcraft. During this period he had as a roommate, magical author Donald Michael Kraig and often socialized with witchcraft author Raymond Buckland, who was also living in San Diego at the time. After two years in the program, however, he had more published works than several of his professors and dropped out of the university to write full-time. He studied creative writing at San Diego State University, where he enrolled in 1978. Scott was openly gay for much of his life. Outside of many trips to Hawaii, Cunningham lived in San Diego all his life.Ĭunningham had one older brother, Greg, and a younger sister, Christine. The doctors in Royal Oak declared the mild climate in San Diego ideal for her. The family moved to San Diego, California in the fall of 1959 due to Rose Marie's health problems. Scott Cunningham was born at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, the second son of Chester Grant Cunningham and Rose Marie Wilhoit Cunningham.

His work Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, is one of the most successful books on Wicca ever published he was a friend of notable occultists and Wiccans such as Raymond Buckland, and was a member of the Serpent Stone Family, and received his Third Degree Initiation as a member of that coven. Cunningham is the author of several books on Wicca and various other alternative religious subjects. Scott Douglas Cunningham (J– March 28, 1993) was an American writer.

A guide for the solitary practitioner