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

by Ronald Hutton

Overview

Ronald Hutton is known for his colourful and provocative writings on original subjects. This work is no exception: for the first full-scale scholarly study of the only religion England has ever given the world; that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Its
pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading of figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W.B. Yeats, D.H.
Lawrence, and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the world since 1950. Densely researched, Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into a hitherto little-known aspect of modern social history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191622410
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	02/15/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	524,834
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, Bristol University

Ronald Hutton is senior Professor of History at the University of Bristol, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Learned Society of Wales, and the British Academy. He is the historian on the board of trustees which runs English Heritage, and chair of the Blue Plaques panel which awards commemorative plaques to historic buildings. He has published sixteen books and eighty-one essays on a wide range of subjects including British history between 1400 and 1700, ancient and modern paganism in Britain, the British ritual year, and Siberian shamanism. His previous publications include Rise and Fall of Merry England (OUP 1994), Stations of the Sun (OUP 1996; current ed. 2001), and The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present (Yale University Press 2017).

Table of Contents

Macrocosm

1. Finding a Language
2. Finding a Goddess
3. Finding a God
4. Finding a Structure
5. Finding a High Magic
6. Finding a Low Magic
7. Finding a Folklore
8. Finding a Witchcraft
9. Matrix
10. God (and Goddess) Parents

Microcosm

11. Gerald Gardner
12. Gerald's People
13. The Wider Context: Hostility
14. The Wider Context: Reinforcement
15. Old Craft, New Craft
16. The Man in Black
17. Royalty from the North
18. Uncle Sam and the Goddess
19. Coming of Age
20. Grandchildren of the Shadows
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

An excellent reference edition....I highly recommend it.

Weekly Alibi

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.
— History Today

Owen Davies

This spirited, amusing and immensely informative history of paganism in 19th- and 20th-century Britain centers on Wicca, the system of witchcraft Gerald B. Gardner introduced to a startled public in the 1950s. The book's first half takes the reader on a breakneck tour of Victorian and Edwardian culture, demonstrating that Wiccan belief and practice owe much to the scholars, novelists and poets who resurrected Pan and the Goddess, crafting romantic visions of a pre-Christian past. The second half proceeds at a more leisurely pace, detailing the development of British witchcraft over the past 50 years among Gardner's followers, critics and rivals. In this meticulously researched book, Hutton modestly demolishes myths perpetuated by both pagans and their hostile critics and maintains an attitude that is at once skeptical and ultimately sympathetic. He displays astounding breadth, with literary references ranging from Keats to Mary Daly, and peppers his work with insightful portraits of characters such as Madam Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, D.H. Lawrence, Dion Fortune, Alex Sanders, Starhawk and the obscure 19th-century wonder-worker and wart-healer known as Cunning Murrell. In a field generally characterized by polemical or apologetic historiography, Hutton's exceptional work is by far the most scholarly, comprehensive and judicious analysis of the subject yet published. It will remain the standard for many years to come. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is a fine book. The story it tells is compelling and persuasive, and no one, after reading it, will think about Britain in quite the same way again.
—Times Literary Supplement

T.M. Luhrmann

"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 Horák, Czech Academy of Sciences, Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher