The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft
by Ronald Hutton
Published by Oxford Paperbacks
Description
Until recently Wiccans--the name that present day witches prefer--used
to claim that their religion was a recreation, even a continuation of
ancient beliefs widespread in Europe before Christianity drove them out.
Most of today's Wiccans are more honest, more ready to accept that theirs
is a new religion, self-consciously created to serve a need not met by
existing mainstream religions.
Ronald Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon is a history of modern
pagan witchcraft, examining not only its origins half a century ago but
the many ideas and enthusiasms of the last few centuries that paved the
way for it. He finds powerful influences in 18th and 19th-century Freemasonry,
19th-century Rosicrucian-type societies, including the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn, as well as in the tradition of wise women, dispensers
of herbal remedies and folk wisdom. Interestingly, these last, who many
Wiccans would see as the main forerunners of themselves, Hutton finds
to have little real significance. With the benefit of scholarly insight,
he also points out the unreliability of the most influential literary
and / or supposedly academic works supporting the idea of ancient European
religion, such as Charles Leland's Aradia, Margaret Murray's
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches,
J.G. Frazer's The Golden Bough and Robert Graves' The White
Goddess.
Hutton, a regular contributor to TV documentaries about Neo-Pagansism,
is Professor of History at Bristol University. The Triumph of the
Moon is that rarity, a very readable academic book, which will be
fascinating to anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft. --David
V. Barrett
Review One
Review Summary
Comments
Ronald Hutton deserves to be canonized -- if that's not a contradiction in pagan terms -- for his service to the entire modern pagan movement.
The Triumph of the Moon is his fourth book so far looking at the folklore and pagan religions of the British Isles, from Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, through The Making of Merry England, and Stations of the Sun, to this wonderful and exhaustive study of the origins of the modern pagan movement.
Hutton, himself a pagan brings a scholar's eye for detail to his work. He quietly, effectively and decisevely demolishes all the foundation myths that were built into modern witchcraft by its founders -- Gerald Gardner et al.
He quite clearly sets the modern movement as growing out of the mythical and occult stirrings of the last quarter of the nineteenth century -- exposing any claims to 'continuity' with a mythic golden pagan age, where we all danced round the stone circle and marked Beltane and Samhain with bonfires etc -- as nonsense.
Many wiccans have anticipated all this increased historical honesty of the Craft, and now describe themselves as 'traditional/herediatary' rather than Gardnerian or Alexandrian. They cite a tradition handed down by cunning men or wise women, who would dispense herbal remedies and folk wisdom.
While these village herbalists/curers did exist, Professor Hutton says they have had little real significance on the modern movement. Sorry folks.
And for anybody who still believes in Margaret Murray's books, such as The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches, or Charles Leland's Aradia as reliable historical texts (and on a personal note I have met some who still do - incredibly) then he has some similarly bad news. They are more poetry and wishful thinking, rather than serious works. Interesting for whatr they reveal about contemporary beliefs -- but not to be cited as historical evidence.
Nevertheless, Professor Hutton makes it quite clear that despite modern paganism's decidedly modern beginnings (can anybody really establish evidence of covens operating before Mr Gardner's famous New Forest encounter?) this does not undermine the validity of wicca as a religion.
Indeed he quite clearly points out that it is a British triumph in one sense -- a modern religion that Britain (largely) has given to the rest of the world.
To sum up: The book is wonderful -- if you area pagan you should read it -- and if you're not -- well read it anyway -- it's Ronald Hutton at his best.
Review Two
Review Summary
Manufacturing mythologies
Comments
Hutton has performed an outstanding service to scholarship with this study. Avoiding politics and polemics, he provides the historical roots of a phenomenon clearly of recent invention. Pagan, Druidic and Wiccan organizations dwell on their roots from a distant past. Hutton shows their origins are in more modern literature and structured on organizations such as the Freemasons. There are, he emphasizes without rancour, no truly verifiable ancient origins for modern witchcraft. Although some readers may be deterred by the scholarly tone of this work, it is precisely Hutton's detached view of these social phenomena that has been lacking. He has filled a long-vacant niche and done it gracefully. More importantly, he's given us a valuable history that will endure.
The underlying theme is clear - the claims of modern pagans, "wiccans" and other occult groups to clear roots deep in prehistoric times is invalid. Hutton's research reveals the creation of various gods and goddesses arose from 18th Century literature. None of the Enlightenment or Romantic era writers used valid sources to claims that Pan, Diana or other "natural" deities persisted into modern times. All of the themes of "earth" or "cosmic" religions resulted from some disaffection - usually, but not always, with rigid Christianity. These literary creations found a ready readership, usually among intellectuals, later with a wider public, disillusioned in no small part by the social disruptions of industrialising Britain. A "return to nature" and its fabricated deities was an alluring solution to perceived woes. The key point in translating this literary background for modern audiences, of course, is Frazer's "The Golden Bough". It's astonishing to learn this book remains in print.
As Hutton leads us through the groves of literary invention, he frequently points out the brambles the journey offers. It's easy to become ensnared by enthusiasm replacing scholarship. Phrases like "without sources", "no research" and "leaping beyond evidence" occur with depressing frequency. Yet note the lack of "fabricated", "contrived", or "invented". Hutton is at pains to show that however ephemeral the origins, these writers, and their avid readers, firmly believe in what they say. What they believe in seems to vary with each individual, but that seems to be the nature of religions, ancient or modern, according to Hutton. Pan, for example, is mischievous, diabolical, sexually rampant or idyllic in turn as successive writers portrayed him over the decades.
The research underlying this study is staggering. Over fifty pages of annotated bibliography plus numerous interviews and personal correspondence support this work. He even manages to work in The X-Files and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series! Hutton's crowded reading schedule offers a hedgehog of pointers for the interested, but the book must be read closely to determine which are worth following. Some sources are more noteworthy than others, of course. If modern Paganism can be said to have a "founder" it is in the figure of Gerald Gardner. His writings, most of which fall into Hutton's scanty resource base category, initiated the wave of pagan witchcraft active in Britain and America today. Hutton shows how, despite schisms and divergences, Gardner's idea crossed the Atlantic to find ready acceptance in North America. There, merged with radical feminism, it not only took root, but rebounded across the sea to reinvigorate the British pagan movement. However, lack of cohesion leads Hutton to view it as having a "luxuriant complexity".<P>Hutton is at pains to avoid blemishing his study with "reactivity" or "reflexivity". The former, he explains, is influencing the beliefs or behaviour of those under study. "Reflexivity" is what the historian undergoes when examining his own motives and reactions to the information acquired. He steadfastly rejects the second while striving to minimize the first. It's a difficult balance, but he has achieved both successfully. The only real shortcoming in this book are the typos - jarring in a work published by an academic press. One might like some illustrative material to break the monotony of text. He also fails to list any Web sources. Even with the vaporous nature of Internet sites, some of the organizations he cites can be found. None of these limitations fail to intrude on a worthwhile and important study of an overlooked phenomenon. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Review Three
Review Summary
A triumph indeed.
Comments
Have you read Margot Adler? Have you studied Dion Fortune? Have you skimmed
The Farrars and danced with Starhawk? Have you immersed yourself in all
the books you could possibly find on Modern Paganism, Witchcraft, Druidry
and Wicca and now consider yourself to be in officially educated confusion?
Then throw them all away, and read this instead.
On second thoughts, don't throw them away, just keep them very very close
at hand as you'll wish to re-read and cross-reference until your eyes
are spinning once you but glance at the Notes completing The Triumph of
the Moon. Never mind the chapters, this book is worth buying for the references
alone. Suffice to comment that it draws extensively from previously unpublished
sources and stems from direct personal contact with some, if not all,
the alleged greats of modern pagan witchcraft's last half century. Hutton
handles the politics of bitchcraft and the machinations of social history
with great skill, and if you are searching for a possible history of modern
pagan witchcraft based on fact rather than whimsical conjecture then you
could do no better than to rest awhile here.
In fact, overall one could do no better than to take this text as a foundation
for all other forays into the field. For in wading through these mists
of pagan historiography Hutton manages to hold aloft a fog lamp for the
wayward seeker, providing a plethora of roads to study and arming the
would-be student with a map and compass of understanding with which to
explore these diverse and controversial fields yet still further. What
he does not do is provide anyone with any answers, but then with religion
one could argue that there aren't any anyway.