Product Description

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

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34208 in Books
• Published on: 1995
• Format: Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 he 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

Kevin Sharpe, The Sunday Times, 5/12/99
"an excellent study of the only religion England gave the world: pagan witchcraft. Scholarly and incisive, writing with verve and passion, Hutton exposes the Victorian fascination with the pagan ... "

Review
A remarkable book ... passionate yet written with calm and clarity ... a passionate, important and consistently fascinating book. (Journal of Ecclesiastical History )

Important insights. (Journal of Contemporary History )

The Triumph of the Moon, which is densely argued and heavily annotated, leaves little doubt that the history which modern occultism has constructed for itself is bunk ... It all makes for riveting reading and, despite Hutton's demolition of the supposed lineage of witchcraft, I am tempted after reading his book to become a witch myself. (Robert Irwin, The Independent )

Hutton's book is excellent ... Hutton uses his historical skills to tease apart some of the themes in this popular rural romanticism, and to locate their purely modern origin. (T. M. Luhrmann, Times Literary Supplement )

An excellent study of the only religion England gave the world: pagan witchcraft. Scholarly and incisive, writing with verve and passion, Hutton exposes the Victorian fascination with the pagan ... Hutton writes a brilliant history of a faith that draws on ancient texts yet speaks to present concerns. (Kevin Sharpe, The Sunday Times )

Customer Reviews

A pleasent change from the Frazer & Murray fantasies!
Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton to my mind is an essential read for any practicing wiccan or witch. It's a historical book of two halves. The first half is an exploration & history of the facets that make up modern pagan witchcraft, such as the Goddess, the God, cunning folk, high ritual magic, secret societies, paganism etc, then the second half is an account of how the different strands came together. It's the first proper scholarly investigation by a respected historian, and helps avoid the pitfalls of false histories etc.

It can also be used as a springboard by reading the works cited in each part so as to further an understanding of modern Craft.

Triumph of the Moon, although historical in tone, is still sympathetic to modern Witchcraft & its practitioners, pointing out that it is a valid independent religion (and discussing why), not a cult, sect etc, that its modern origin makes it no less valid, & doesn't attempt to discuss whether spells, healing etc really work, only that people use it & there are cases in which the intended result seems to have occured.

After reading it, although the romantic notion of wicca being an age old religion will be shown to be a fantasy (which deep down most people already suspected), and that it is a modern synthesis of older & new ideas, I for one found myself feeling better than ever about being a witch.

A triumph indeed.
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.

Paganism meets intellectual rigour, & comes out rather well
As several people have already said here, the incomparable Ronald Hutton has done the Pagan community an immense service with _Triumph of the Moon_. Indeed, he achieves the near-impossible: he has produced an academic monograph on the origins of modern Pagan witchcraft capable of satisfying those on the inside (Pagans) _and_ those on the outside (academics and society at large).

Hutton brings his characteristic wit and penetrating insight to bear upon the 'history' of modern witchcraft, and the result is simultaneously a sobering and an uplifting read. This is no mere hatchet job on the always-shaky historical claims of Gardner _et al_; it is a wide-ranging and extremely intelligent study of social, intellectual and spiritual trends in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which places the modern Craft in its worldly context. A succession of poets, academics, cunning folk, anthropologists, Masons and occultists are discussed, illuminating social currents of the day, and exploring the contribution of each to the great mosaic that became the modern Craft.

The myths, too, are explored: Margaret Murray, 'the burning times', Gardner's Book of Shadows and the myth of prehistoric 'Great Goddess' are all carefully examined, and gently (or not so gently) punctured. Yet I cannot emphasise enough that this is not an attack on Paganism - that it can only, in fact, make it stronger. The first (Gardnerian) witches' claims to the antiquity of their tradition may have been spurious, but Hutton makes it clear that this removes nothing from the fact that there was 'something in the water', so to speak, of early twentieth century society. Far from appearing a deceitful aberration, Gardner and others are shown to be expressive of a mood of their times, taking the logical next step in giving Paganism a structure and greater definition.

Two caveats (because I feel I ought to...): 1) The focus - both in historial chapters and in the sociological case study at the end - is upon coven witchcraft, with little space for solitary workers (although this is perfectly reasonable in terms of what Hutton is trying to); 2) From an article in 'Pagan Dawn' a little while back, I gather that Hutton's research is ongoing, and there's a possibility of a second edition at some point in the future!

Hutton is an engaging and lucid writer, as adept at discussing long-term social trends as he is at providing lively pen-portraits of the various writers and witches who parade through his pages. An enjoyable and an enlightening read for anyone with an interest in the Craft or in 20th century social history. Wonderful.