Customer Reviews

Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca And Paganism in America

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book among many in my local bookstore and purchased it on the fact that the cover was eerily close to a vision in a dream I had over a year ago. I have never been happier to have had such a dream! This book, I found, was completely amazing.

While many books on Paganism focus on practice, perhaps a few focusing on philosophy, very few focus on any actual scholarship. This specific book focuses on the history of contemporary Paganism, from Gerald Gardner to more modern influential groups, such as the Church of All Worlds. The depths the author, Mr. Chas S. Clifton, provides for anyone interested in history and Pagan academia runs deeps.

The author begins with examining Gerald Gardner and the beginning of British Wicca, looking at both Gardner's claims of a long-line of witches and historical evidence to this claim. Following this, the author discusses how Wicca came to America and how it spread.

The second chapter focuses on the change of Wicca from a Mystery Religion to a "nature" religion. The author brings to use the idea that Wicca combined a triple-form of nature, ranging from the Cosmic, Natural (Earthly), and Erotic. He shows us how Wicca became changed through the changing social changes affecting America during this time.

Throughout the rest of the book, Mr. Clifton shows his readers the struggles and effects Wicca has had in America (such as, for example, the effort to change the image of the popular "Witch), the influence Paganism has had in Popular Culture (and vice versa), and a look at other Pagan groups that have influenced Paganism on a whole (which may, or may not, have started before Wicca).

If one is interested in the history of Paganism, specifically Wicca, this is a great book to sate that interest. This book is a wonderful example of Pagan scholarship so needed in the Pagan community. I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to be a Pagan, claiming to be a Pagan, or vaguely interested in knowing about Pagans.

Since the release of Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of The Moon" back in 2000, I have yearned for a book that would take an in-depth look at the history of modern Paganism in America. So I was more than a little excited and hopeful when I heard that Pagan academic Chas Clifton was rising to the task in his new book "Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America". Finally a book that would take a look at how modern Paganism and Wicca took root in American soil and became one of the fastest growing faiths in the country.

Clifton - knowing that he could in no way cover everything that has happened from the 1930s to the present - has chosen with this book to lay down some basic parameters for talking about modern Pagan history in America. First he concentrates on Wicca: it being the largest and most influential modern Pagan religion in America. Secondly, when moving out from Wicca he generally stays with groups that claim to follow "nature" or "earth" religions. Not getting much attention in this history are the "reconstructionist" Pagan faiths and feminist Wicca.

"...the story of contemporary Paganism in America has too many strands to enumerate. Because of my wish to focus on many Pagans' claim to follow "nature religion," I have for the most part set aside those groups that pay more attention to ethnic roots, such as reconstructed Greek, Roman, ot Norse religions. Their history remains to be written. Even these, however, may yet welcome the label of nature religion or earth religion as it becomes more widely accepted in the larger society. Likewise, I have give the origins of feminist Wicca a fairly brief treatment; since the appearance of Starhawk's The Spiral Dance in 1979, it has received much attention, perhaps to the point of obscuring its context in the larger Pagan story."

These limitations allow Clifton to focus on some little known figures and give credit to some unlikely heroes. One of those unlikely figures responsible for the rapid growth of Wicca and Paganism in America is journalist and parapsychologist Hans Holzer. Holzer, who has written over 138 books in his lifetime was one of the first people to introduce the idea of religious Witchcraft to a mass audience. At a time when finding books written by Pagans was difficult at best, just about anyone could find a cheap paperback copy of "The Truth About Witchcraft" during the 1970s.

"Ever since I wrote "The Truth about Witchcraft," hundreds of people have approached me to show them the way to the nearest coven." - Hans Holzer

Another major theme that emerges in the book is the author's discussion of Wicca (and other related faiths) evolving into "earth" or "nature" faiths. The book plots the course of American culture's heightened awareness of environmental issues and how - post Earth Day in 1970 - modern Pagans were uniquely situated to advance themselves as theologically in tune with the needs of the environment. Clifton also lays out three different kinds of "nature religion" that in one way or another encompass most of modern Pagan religions active today. The first is "Cosmic Nature" (dealing with abstract notions of nature), the second "Gaian Nature" (dealing directly with the natural world), and the third is "Erotic Theology" (dealing with the human body).

These three natures blend and intersect with Wicca and other related faiths (and most modern Pagan theologies incorporate at least two of these concepts) to create a unique "earth religion": a religion grounded in our sacral relationship with the cosmos, our ecosystems, and our bodies.

There is so much more I wish I could cover in this review, the "Gardnerian Magnet", the evolution of non-traditional Wicca, how British Wicca spread in America, and how the notorious Satanist Anton LaVey ended up interviewed or mentioned in most of the books about Witchcraft during the late sixties and early seventies. My only quibble with this book is that I wished it three times as large. This is really only what I hope will be the first in a series of books about how modern Paganism emerged and grew in American soil. Chas Clifton has done yeoman's work here and should be highly praised. An essential book for anyone interested in our history, and how that history is shaping the future of modern Paganism. The bar has just been raised.

I read Mr. Clifton's blog, which is where I first heard of this book. It's a wonderful and amazing study of the origins of Wicca in America - while the history of Wicca in England is a necessary topic to cover in a book like this, Clifton thankfully doesn't go into much detail about it (plenty of books can be found covering that subject. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft is the essential book for that subject).

I only have one complaint - too short! I wish it was longer, much longer. Great book, but I wish the topics were covered more indepth. Still, it's a great history of paganism and "nature worship" in the states and definitely worth a read and a place on any pagan or comparative religion bookshelf.

A history of American Wicca. Excellent book. Very well written. Clifton makes the "what happened before" accessable to even the casual reader. For those of us who wish to read actual history in addition to our mythical history this is a must have tome.

"her hidden children the Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America" by Chas S. Clifton, is a sobering study into the dark and often misunderstood world of "Wicca", and ..."the Craft."

The book is actually a very well researched text and would make a superb referral book to any college course in Wicca and Paganism in America.
The reality of Wicca's genesis and those who helped mold it's contemporary theology only serves to tarnishes the mystique of the subject matter.

I personally, would have preferred a more flowing "story-book" form of literary expressiveness. This would have allowed the reader to maintain just a wee-bit more of that "magical mystery." However, that thought alone is "magical thinking" and would have been unrealistic.

This is a very good chronological study and academic interpretation of
Witchcraft, and Paganism. Like most religions that have undergone years of transformation, the reader can only wonder; "Was there ever a real honest to goodness witch?"

Clifton's study shows the reader there are many brands of self- proclaimed witchs, but... none with a broom!

In my opinion, this is a 4-star book based on the deep caldron of superb information the author gives to his reader. It should be a constant companion to those who have an honest interest in the truth of religions and those who profess them.

Joseph R. Calmia

During the Middle Ages (and well into the Renaissance period) scholars, inquisitors, and other "learned men" established an official definition and depiction of witchcraft. This "empirical truth" of the past era is now an acknowledged falsehood in the eyes of most modern scholars who believe that the matter was actually one of hysteria and politics (no witches, no witches' sect).

Modern scholars are now doing today what was being done in the past centuries. In other words they are establishing a definition and depiction of Wicca, once again based on empirical truth. Here again we find an official depiction in which we are told what is true and what is not. Unfortunately the "objective view" of modern scholars is as tainted now as was the view of learned men in past centuries.

In Clifton's book, Her Hidden Children, the author uses words like "purported" instead of reported or claimed. The word purported is far from objective, as is the word "liar" which the author also uses when referring to certain figures in Wicca and Witchcraft today. The personal bias of this so-called "objective" scholar is no more apparent than in his dealing with the topic of hereditary witches. Clifton sees the lack or absence of documentation as absolute proof of the non-existence of hereditary witches (of whom he is highly critical of throughout the book). He goes on to comment that the lack of documentation is "convenient" for people that claim hereditary lineage. In truth the lack is probably anything but convenient for these individuals, for it brings only skepticism, criticism, and alienation to anyone who openly admits to a family tradition.

Many modern scholars point to the depiction of the former image of the witch as evil, and they say that modern witches cannot be descended from them because the modern beliefs and practices bear no resemblance. However, since the former depiction has no roots in any real historical sect, the argument holds no water. It's a failed attempt to have it both ways during a debate.

Clifton's book purports to be a warm, humorous, and sympathetic telling of the origins and evolution of Wicca by an insider. However in this regard it fails to deliver the hype that appears in the endorsements on the back of the book. In the telling of Wicca's story the author uses the accounts of popular figures and organizations as the definitive foundation from which Clifton creates his material for the book. In doing so he fails to take into account the 70 to 80 percent of solitary practitioners who comprise the true body of Wiccan religion. These are the people who actually wrote the history of Wicca and continue to do so without documentation or celebrity status. So again, the empirical truth of scholars is narrow and political, pertaining only to a handful of examples of practitioners who achieve the public eye and who thereby become the role models and definitives (despite being only a minority presence among Wiccans as a whole).

With `Her Hidden Children' Clifton joins the ranks of the new batch of learned men, a brotherhood of such figures as Ronald Hutton, who carry on the work of those during the period of the Inquisition who gave us the official definitions and depictions of witches and witchcraft. Their views are as foreign now to the truth as were those back then in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Ironically modern scholars like Clifton, while dismissing the idea of any lineage tradition, are actually carrying on one of their own from the time of the Inquisition. Through this they maintain themselves as the authorities who tell us what is truth and what is not, no matter what we experience and believe on our own.