The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft

The Triumph of the Moon, by Hutton,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.

Ronald Hutton's 'Triumph Of The Moon' is an excellent historical study and exploratory overview of Wicca. Since its history is an extremely volatile and complex subject, in his preface Hutton is wisely modest about the present limits of the information available to scholars and the scope of his abilities and intentions--no promises to absolute knowledge are made.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.

Hutton's Triumph of the Moon is spellbinding and absorbing until the very last page, but his pseudo academic lunacy is unconvincing. He charts Wiccan's origins, from ancient atavistic agrarian ritual, through to its capture by post-modern radical feminist Marxists. His thesis, that Wicca is a UK made new religion never holds any water and his notion that few pagans were ever really persecuted, and those that were, were victims of peasant bigotry and not elite oppression is just silly; as though the Cathars were never annihilated, Hypatia was never murdered by the Christian mob, Joan of Arc was never burnt at the stake, dark age folk were never bullied into forsaking the old gods in favour of Judeo-Christianity...need I go on? What he could have legitimately argued (if he were not part of the deception) is that a native spiritual tradition, with archaic Proto-Indo-European roots, was hijacked in 1970's America by Jew materialists (ie Starhawk) into leftist psycho-babel until any authentic spiritual element had been eradicated. Interestingly enough this kind of deception and deliberate perversion, is exactly how black magic is executed.

This now famous investigation into the history of modern neo-pagan witchcraft is superbly written as one would expect from a scholar of Huttons magnitude.Based around Wiccas early personalities and politics in an attempt to show how this belief evolved,the casual reader may be satisfied with the overall conclusions reached or indeed suggested by Hutton.However, those rather more involved will immediately spot Huttons selected bias.Great care is taken to highlight the more acceptable elements of Wicca and he suggests that though the Wiccans align themselves with the more sinister image of the witch found in historical trials,they are in fact more in line with the harmless Cunning Folk who generally offered aid-for payment,to the general community as opposed to the witch who was malignant to that community.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.

Thirty-odd years ago I remember a debate that I had with a friend who shared my interest in esoteric matter about the nature of British Wicca. He took the view that it was all an invention of Gerald Gardner, whereas my line was that although Gardner may have added things to the mix, he was still working with some pre-existing traditions. Reading this book it looks as if my friend was correct. The evidence is now pretty compelling that Gardner basically cobbled together what became the Wicca himself, and the tradition goes back no further than him.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. The Secrets of the Santa Muerte

Unfortunately the print was so small, even with spectacles it was difficult to read. What I could manage was interesting enough, and referred to the old occultist such as Crowley and Dion Fortune.

Hutton's excellent book manages to be both scholarly and highly readable. Instructive, too, and thought-provoking. However, the Oxford paperback edition contains extremely small print which does rather tend to spoil the reading experience. One small point of interest: pages 303-5 refer to a Welsh-language television documentary on Paganism, mainly on Ynys Mon (Anglesey). Hutton refers to the programme as being called "Elidir". This is incorrect, as Elidir was the name of the production company, not the programme itself. Yes, I know, only a small error, but one that calls for correction.