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The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft New Ed Edition
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For centuries, pagan witchcraft has been linked with chilling images of blood rituals, ghostlike druids, and even human sacrifices. But while Robert Hutton explores this dark side of witchery, he stresses the positive, reminding us that devotion to art, the natural world, femininity, and the classical deities are also central to the practice of wicca. Indeed, the author shows how leading figures in English literature--W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, and Robert Graves, just to name a few--celebrated these positive aspects of the religion in their work, thereby softening the public perception of witchcraft in Victorian England. From cunning village folk to freemasons and from high magic to the black arts, Hutton chronicles the fascinating process by which actual wiccan practices evolved into what is now a viable modern religion. He also presents compelling biographies of wicca's principal figures, such as Gerald Gardner, who was inducted into a witch coven at the age of 53, and recorded
many clandestine rituals and beliefs.
Ronald Hutton is known for his colorful, provocative, and always thoroughly researched studies on original subjects. This work is no exception. It will appeal to anyone interested in witchcraft, paganism and alternative religions.
- ISBN-100192854496
- ISBN-13978-0192854490
- EditionNew Ed
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateMay 31, 2001
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.5 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
- Print length512 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Hutton's book is a must-read not only for anyone interested in modern Paganism, or the occult, but it also embodies a deep insight into the development of British society and culture." -- Pavel Horak , Czech Academy of Sciences
"An excellent reference edition...I highly recommend it."--Weekly Alibi
"Hutton uses his historical skills to tease apart some of the themes in this popular rural romanticism, and to locate their purely modern origin."--Times Literary Supplement, UK
"Hutton's book is excellent..."--Times Literary Supplement
"Hutton has synthesized a huge body of sources, and woven together a fascinating narrative with supreme skill. The reader is sure to be gripped by the wonderful cast of characters that he assembles...Hutton shows us that paganism is a matter of interest not only for the classicist and archeologist, but for the modern historian as well. In doing so his Triumph of the Moon proves to be a triumph of cultural history."--Owen Davies, History Today (UK, Vol. 50 No. 3)
About the Author
Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is the author of seven other books, including The Stations of the Sun, which The Times Literary Supplement called "a tour de force from one of the liveliest and most wide-ranging English historians." He lives in the United Kingdom.
Product details
- Publisher : Oxford University Press; New Ed edition (May 31, 2001)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 512 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0192854496
- ISBN-13 : 978-0192854490
- Item Weight : 1.18 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.5 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #889,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,075 in Wicca
- #2,558 in Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
- #2,875 in Magic Studies (Books)
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Hutton is a British historian who has spent 10 years or so researching pagan history. He recent book deals with the social and cultural forces that led to the emergence of Wicca in the middle of the 20th century. He then chronicles the major trends in Wicca in the last half of the 20th century. In one chapter he discusses the Starhawk/Budapest feminist California liberal misandrist turn that paganism took in the 1980s. Hutton describes how their badly misandrist and overly emotional writing lacked any scholarly credibility, but nevertheless had a major impact of Wicca and paganism in general for two decades. With publication of Hutton's book and others we are finally beginning to see some signs of returning to a more balanced pagan literature.
His history is incomplete however, and he makes some of the same mistakes and assertions that he criticizes others for making. For example in the first half of the book Hutton extensively details literary references to witches and claims about historic roots. Many pages are each devoted to Margaret Murray and others. Then toward the end he waives off all of that in a page or two by simply asserting that it has been disproved. He provides nothing close to supporting data to demonstrate that claim. A few years ago I attended a workshop by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowikci (21 books and other publications listed on Amazon) where she described in detail her study of an actual pagan village that kept itself hidden since the Norman invasion, and which had written records of village life since that time. According to Nowicki the village was finally over run by urban sprawl in 1990 but most of the residents have relocated to a new hidden village that still follows pre-christian pagan traditions. Nowicki says that her mother was born in the pagan village. Either Nowicki was lying to everyone who has attended her workshops describing the pagan village, or Hutton's scholarship that "disproved" the survival of actual pagan villages is sadly lacking. I have also researched or become aware of several other pieces of information that leads me to believe 1) that some of the historical witch trials and hangings were in fact people whom modern pagans would recognize as pagan witches, and 2) that some family tradition witches were actually surviving pagan witches. Hutton asserts that all claims to any pagan survival have been disproved, and in fact are not possible, but he offers no proof and provides no data. A widely published author, Initiate Wiccan HPS, and leader of a Ceremonial Magick society in the UK such as Ashcroft-Nowicki cannot be waived off by assertion without some evidence that her claims are false. My own family admitted to being witches at the Salem trials, but their stories have been deleted from current histories rather than researched and discounted. You won't find their names on lists of witch trial victims published in the last half century. Today's historians would rather claim that all the witch trial victims were really Christians. That's not scholorship, that's just avoiding the disagreable facts.
On the positive side Hutton does provide a lot of information about Gardner and subsequent Wiccan history. His observations about the state of Wicca today are interesting. I was especially fascinated by the discussion trying to fit Wicca into anyone's scholarly classification system for religions and religious branches. Wicca, it seems, doesn't fit any classification system and religious scholars don't know what even to call it. I would recommend the book to all Wiccans and interested parties, but keep in mind that it's not the last word on a lack of pagan roots.
Hutton clearly realizes that his subject is a matter of belief and faith to Wicca's adherents, and therefore his careful conclusions are largely relative and theoretical. His writing style is plain-spoken and academic, his approach studiously matter-of-fact throughout.
Since he is a historian and not a psychologist, Hutton steers away from any investigation of the archetypal witch image as a apparent constant of the human psyche and condition, focusing instead on whatever traceable elements of a genuine `witch tradition' and survival existed and exist in fact.
Considering that witches appear both everywhere and nowhere throughout history, Hutton pulls off a remarkable piece of speculative detective work. He remains uncommonly fair and open-minded throughout, considering all claims equally and going so far as to express that he does not deny the possibility that the gods and goddesses of Wicca--including Pan--exist objectively. If this is a simple placating measure, Hutton handles it with aplomb.
The author states that the most important argument of his book is that Wicca is the result of a combination of cultural forces and undertones that have developed in England since 1800, including the Murray thesis as a erroneous theory and modern myth rather than as a hypothesis having any basis in fact.
But it's not difficult to believe--by any means--that some remnant of pre-Christian religions existed in dynamic form during the Middle Ages, continued to be practiced and came to be identified as witchcraft by the dominant Christian establishment.
This proposed pagan religion--presumably involving some form of 'nature worship'--may have not been a focused, formalized religion in fact, but something more akin to Ireland's 'fairy faith'--a powerful belief system that took a wide variety of forms in diverse parts of Europe.
Since veneration of different aspects of nature as a means of insuring a bountiful harvest seems to be a fairly common and probably spontaneous phenomena among man when in the early stages of development, why should some trace of this not have continued into the Middle Ages among agrarian people?
Murray may have been all wrong in her both carefully and carelessly accrued specifics, but at least partially correct generally.
Though Carlo Ginzburg was apparently unclear about how his discovery of the "benandanti" in the Fruili region linked, if at all, to Murray's thesis, the example Hutton gives of the century-old witch community on the Welsh island of Mon is fairly impressive, especially since he is able to identify at least three other 'pagan witch traditions' older than and apparently independent of Gardnerian Wicca.
Among those who helped produce 'the pool of ideas and impulses' which led or may have contributed to the formation of Wicca are key figures James Frazer, James Michelet, Margaret Murray, Charles Godfrey Leland, Samuel Liddell Mathers, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, and Dion Fortune, each of whose work Hutton carefully considers.
Hutton clearly loves his subject; the reader senses that no one would secretly enjoy discovering solid proof of a pagan survival of this kind more than he.
His sympathy, however, never compromises his rigorous scholarly standards. This is a cautious, well-considered and erudite book that should educate most and offend few.
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When this work first appeared it was mostly attacked by non-informed Wiccans who deemed it an attempt to demolish their belief system.Those more enlightened were aware that Hutton had an agenda in that his goal was to install Wicca as a new religion in its own right.In order to do so Hutton needed to lose Wiccas 'Ye Olde' tag attached to it by its New Age cohorts.In this he did a fine job though sadly it was short lasting and today the web is full of sites maintaining an ancient pedigree for something that is not as old as the Beano comic.
It is old news that Hutton has leanings towards modern neo-pagan groups such as the re-invented Druids and inevitably this has coloured his opinions.Yet it is that which Hutton chose to omit that is as important as that which he chose to investigate.Whilst Gerald Gardners involvement is given fair treatment,much of that founders personal life-which has a direct bearing on the motives behind Wiccas construction,is conspicuous by its absence.This theme-of highlighting the nice side and playing down or even concealing the more sinister or alarming aspects of witchcraft in modern times is seen throughout.Thus it is no surprise to find the absence of such personalities as Charles Pace(a notorious member of Rae Bones coven)nor the examination of other groups both claiming pre-Gardnerian roots,and active during the time,such as WhiteSone and Arddhu.Of note here is that those latter groups were vehemently anti-Wiccan holding views entirely antagonistic to its promotion as a form of 'White' witchcraft.But then,any attempt to suggest an older witchcraft is met with a vicious attack by Hutton,who then loses his polite approach and dons a stiffer cap,as in his treatment of Rhiannon Ryalls claims.
Huttons claim that Cornwall remained Christian whilst the rest of the country returned to paganism with the arrival of the Saxons can only be true up until the late 7thC-and then only in Mercia,as by then Christianity had taken hold of the country.This he says is attested by the number of dedicated Saints found in Cornwall.Ironically one would have assumed Huttons eagerness to suggest these 'Saints' to be Christianised forms of ancient Cornish gods which considering there is no historical record relating to such Saints,is a distinct possibility.
Overall Triumph is a great base to explore Wiccas origins,its personalities and politics further as Hutton has done much of the mundane groundwork for you.The casual reader should be reminded that this work explores the origins of modern neo-pagan 'witchcraft' and is not an investigation into any survival of the witchcraft found in earlier times which Gardner had claimed he was revealing.That claim of course was as bogus as his doctorate.
That it fulfilled a spiritual need, which is why it continues to grow today, is something else that Hutton makes clear in his book, so this is not a Daily Mail demolition job by any means. Instead it is a forensic analysis of the origins of the Wicca, and the role that Gerald Gardner played in that.
Funnily enough, I bought this book in tandem with The Secrets of the Santa Muerte , which argues that the Mexican version of the British Wicca is actually an invention from the 1990s. It appears that on both sides of the Atlantic the old religions are no longer meeting the people's needs.








