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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 principle 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.
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.
Anonymous
Posted August 31, 2001
Scholarly and honest book. Some in the pagan community like to create their own myths. This pops them without a bias. This book is more on events and personalities in Britain. However, it contains little regarding the pagan movement in the USA. Highly recommended read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 10, 2001
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It will give you all the details on how Wicca came to be created in the mid-twentieth century, based on literary, artistic, and academic fashions, the practices of fraternal orders and occult societies, old and new folk customs, and other cultural roots (real and imagined) going back to the 1700s. Hutton leaves no hope for those who wish to believe in a constantly existing Pagan religion in Britain or in a connection between the early modern witch trials and Paganism. No one can claim to be knowledgeable about the true history of modern Witchcraft who has not read and carefully studied this text. This meticulously documented book pounds the final nails into the coffin of the claims Gardner made (and others inflated) that Wicca was an ancient surviving British Pagan religion of Witchcraft. None but the most stubbornly fundamentalist of Orthodox Wiccans can deny it any longer, though I¿m sure they will continue to try, as a few of the negative reviews here demonstrate. Hutton's work supports and amplifies the research into Wiccan history that I and other modern writers have done over the last thirty years. Indeed, the chapter in my new eBook ('Witchcraft: A Concise History') on Gerald Gardner and the birth of Wicca owes a great deal to his clear exposition of complex details. Every Wiccan should have this book on their shelves.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 11, 2000
If you are interested in Wicca or any form of Neo-Paganism, this is the book to read. It cuts through the fog that has been woven around the origins of Wicca and shows conclusively what we know about its origins. The book reads like a detective novel, with Dr. Hutton closing off escape routes one by one until the only one left leads to the truth. Very highly recommended.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 24, 2003
If you are interested in Modern Pagan Witchcraft this book is a must have. It covers it all, is well written and very interesting.
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Posted October 28, 2001
Triumph is a book that any modern Pagan must own to weed through the jungle on nonsense available. Every responsible teacher should have it near the top of their reading list. I know I do.
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Posted August 12, 2009
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Overview
For centuries, pagan witchcraft has been linked with chilling images of blood rituals, ghostlike druids, and even human ...