Mary Ellen Tracy (aka Sabrina Aset) (born 1943) is the

high priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many god ...

ess of the Church of the Most High Goddess, who was convicted in 1989 of a single

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

count of running a house of

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

in connection with the operation of the church, located in

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Tracy is a graduate of the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

, cum laude in chemistry, did graduate work in chemistry at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, and received her masters in Environmental Sciences/

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

The Church

According to Mary Ellen and Wilbur Tracy, the couple – both former devout and dedicated

Mormons Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and ethnocultural group, cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's d ...

– created and founded the Modern Egyptian

neo-pagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common simila ...

Church of the Most High Goddess following a

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

received at an oceanside cottage in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, California, in the year 1984. In testimony later given in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

superior court, Wilbur Tracy described "a brilliant light," through which "knowledge was being poured in without voice." Tracy further claimed that

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

appeared to him as an old man, with flowing white beard and long white hair.

On April 24, 1984, in broad daylight, I had a revelation that changed my life and the way I perceive the world and others. However, because I was blinded by the ignorance of the modern education, which I foolishly accepted as knowledge, I did not immediately understand the full impact of the revelation. I failed to understand that the mind can perceive only what the mind can conceive. What I experienced was beyond my conception, while my perception was completely distorted by what I had been taught was enlightenment. It was only when I set aside my prejudices – those beliefs which I had been conditioned to accept as fact, but which were in fact false – that I began to understand the experience.

As a result of their alleged divine experience, Mary Ellen and Wilbur Tracy founded the Church of the Most High Goddess, with precepts based on their own research into ancient

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

practices. Tracy, a

classical scholar Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

in her own right, assumed the role of High Priestess of the church, whose

duties included engaging in

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

with congregants. According to Tracy herself, she had sex with over 2,000 men as part of a ritual of spiritual cleansing. In a post on her church's website, Tracy, who is bisexual, stated that she had had sexual contact with thousands of men and women over the course of her religious activities. As a result of her various legal difficulties, Mary Ellen Tracy was asked to permanently discontinue her voluntary work with the ''Placerita Canyon Nature Center'' in Newhall, California. During the late 1980s, ''The Newhall Signal'', a

daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

, presented a series of articles about the Church of the Most High Goddess, founded by Mary Ellen Tracy and her husband Wilbur Tracy, where sexual acts played a fundamental role in the church's sacred rites. The articles aroused the attention of local law enforcement officials, and in April 1989, the Tracy's house, located at 6601 West 5th St, Los Angeles, was searched and the couple arrested on charges of

pimping Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...

, pandering and

. They were subsequently

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

in a trial in state court and sentenced to jail terms: Wilbur Tracy for 180 days plus a $1,000.00 fine; Mary Ellen Tracy for 90 days plus mandatory screening for

STDs A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral s ...

Film and television

During the early 1990s, Mary Ellen Tracy hosted her own

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

talk show series, ''Sabrina On ... ''. She has also appeared in a number of

x-rated An X rating is a film rating that indicates that the film contains content that is considered to be suitable only for adults. Films with an X rating may have scenes of graphic violence or explicit sexual acts that may be disturbing or offensive ...

films under a variety of stage names, including the ''Positively Pagan'' series, and ''Club Head 2'' (1991). On January 29, 1992, Mary Ellen Tracy was featured on a

television broadcast Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

of ''

Donahue Donahue is the Americanized version of Irish surname Donohoe, which, in turn, is an Anglicized version of the ancient Irish name "Donnchadh" (sometimes "Donncha"). Donncha was a common “first name” in 9th century Ireland, and when the use o ...

'', as well as ''

The Montel Williams Show ''The Montel Williams Show'' (also known as ''Montel'') is an American syndicated tabloid talk show, hosted by Montel Williams, which ran from July 8, 1991 to May 16, 2008. On January 30, 2008, the end of production of new episodes of ''The Mo ...

'', appearing with such other

New-Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consid ...

spiritualists as

Aidan Kelly Aidan A. Kelly (born October 22, 1940) is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he w ...

, First Officer of the ''Southern California Local Council of the

Covenant of the Goddess The Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens (or congregations). It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among witches and to secure ...

'', and Avilynn Waters of the ''Los Angeles Nest of the

Church of All Worlds The Church of All Worlds (CAW) is an Neopaganism in the United States, American Neopagan group whose stated mission is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia (mytho ...

''.

References

External links

Website for Sabrina Aset (Mary Ellen Tracy)''A Feminine Feminist'' by Sabrina Aset, High Priestess of the Church of The Most High Goddess
*

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110711002545/http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.%5CCA%5CPLS%5C1996%5C19960828_0178.ca.htm/qx Find A Case: August 28, 1996 Sabrina ASET et al., Appellants v. Gil Garcetti, as District Attorney, etc., Appellant Appeal from Second Appellate District, Division 4, No. B087160]
Novelguide.com: Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tracy, Mary Ellen 1943 births 21st-century American chemists American modern pagans Converts to pagan religions from Christianity Former Latter Day Saints Kemetism Living people Founders of modern pagan movements University of Miami alumni American women television hosts 21st-century American women American bisexual actresses American LGBTQ broadcasters LGBTQ clergy 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American pornographic film actresses Bisexual pornographic film actresses American members of the clergy convicted of crimes Priestesses American women founders

The Church

Film and television

See also

References

External links