Modern Witchcraft - Building a future from history is a grand and ambitious theme for a one day conference. It is to the credit of the Cenre For Pagan Studies that they posed the question. My intuition is that the day, however unifying in theme will in time be recognised as less cauldron and more forking of paths.
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This observation should not be taken as denigrating the event in any way, which was professionally run, well attended and with erudite presentations. I am not going to give a blow by blow account of the proceedings either. What concerns me is the ideas and the currents that I can ascertain stirring beneath the surface of witchcraft. It is a witchcraft we are passionately drawn to in our own individual ways, a crucial point which I will return to.
For a forking of paths to occur, there must first be a coming together and this truly was. Wicca is assessing itself, older, hopefully wiser, and paradoxically more naked than it has ever been. This is a witchcraft that has accepted Triumph of the Moon, and the disenchantment, even auto da fe of some of its most cherished myths. It is a witchcraft that is literate, self-aware and diverse. Many traditions, covens and approaches were present. Those who only know the digital shadow of Wicca, or view it in absentia as Traditional British Witchcraft, may be unaware of the dilemma which I wish to expose, not with the supposed candour of the tabloid press that Doreen Valiente and the Pagan Front/Federation battled against, but with clearer and less salacious motivation.
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Rufus Harrington summed up the problem, he mused wistfully on the romantic ideals that drew him to Wicca, the ideas of the persecution, the revolutionary opposition and yes, the sexual frisson. All these seem absent in the Modern Pagan Witchcraft that is now being proposed as orthodoxy, if not as absolute then certainly as the dominant strand. They have become haraam. This is in no small part due to the work of Ronald Hutton, whom the day honoured. His approach placed him at odds with both the academic establishment and entrenched ideas within the pagan community. To quote the metpahor used by Rufus, both are fearsome dragons which he poked with pointy sticks. Hutton has prevailed and it was his vision that the day articulated. We still witness some unpleasant personal attacks on Ronald Hutton, but he remains profoundly grounded, approachable and obviously joyful. As the only celebrity paganism has, and with obvious charisma (weirdly enhanced by his somewhat Austin Powers sartorial splendour), it would be easy for him to fall foul of egotism. This is not the case. He is a credit to his professions. I simply thoroughly disagree with his conclusions about the way that witchcraft should proceed into the future, which does not impute upon his scholarship of the past.
Hutton in attacking the foundation myths is not engaged in a deliberate project of disenchantment. Far from it. He has a solution as well as a critique. For him, modern pagan witchcraft is the flower of English culture and history. It draws upon the mythic histories and stories which are embedded in the land. He names Kipling, Shelley, Swinburne (and many an holy bard) as part of our lineage. He sees beauty in ritual and the survival of an hermetic knowledge cloistered in our academies. It is a compelling narrative, and beautifully told. He proposes that it is in the artistry of our ritual, our imprecation of the Goddess, our drawing down, that we can be accepted as part of culture.
It is here however that the roads fork, and in my approach to witchcraft, definitively. Hutton wants us to step away from the sense of victimhood and injustice of a witchcraft that defines itself by the trial records of the inquisition. We are not to be defined by the torments inflicted by the hounds of god, nor the propaganda of curse and blight. The witch has been set up, rather like the Monty Python scene in the Holy Grail:
We are not, according to Hutton, to define ourselves in opposition, or to demonstrate our social difference, but should instead join the inter-faith family. I reject this as anathema. We stand outside.
The solution of Ronald Hutton is that we become the fully fledged form of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Yet, where are the Shelleys, the Swinburnes, the great artists? They seem conspicuously absent on the modern scene. A few fantasy writers, however gifted in their genre, does not make a compelling case.
Why should we accept a religious paganism as our future over the operative witchcraft which was the stock in trade of our predecessors, for both good and ill?
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Our culture has not embraced paganism or witchcraft, it has simply stopped openly persecuting it. We were given examples during the day of how Doreen Valiente and the PF worked tirelessly to acheive this respectable status for us. However, this is an argument articulated in a total cultural vacuum. Though they no doubt had an impact, the wider disenchantment of culture is a process of mono-cultural corporate capitalism. The modern world simply does not care about us. The witch hunt has turned on Islam in search of a 'demonic' conspiracy. The value system is simply the bottom line. We are portrayed as harmless cranks for the most part and trotted out at Halloween for a cheap joke. The danger, the fire, the frisson that Rufus Harrington remembered is becoming just that, a memory.
Hutton artfully gave examples of how the same historical evidence can be read to reveal contradictory meanings. So here is mine. Modern Pagan Witchcraft as it is being proposed seems to bear no relationship to Witchcraft itself.
The label 'Pagan' was initially adapted as an umbrella term by the 'Pagan' Front BEFORE anyone was self-identifying as pagan. Now we have a large number of people defining themselves as pagan ministered to by a small network of initiatory covens. The number of covens is collapsing as formal initiation falls away. This was attested to on the day by an Alexandrian initiate, who dared to suggest that the rise of the hedgewitches and the eclectics was leading to a witchcraft so diffuse as to be meaningless, (he was more circumspect in expressing it) but I have heard this complaint from many quarters and from within many lineages.
Far from being healthy, the argument could be made that modern pagan witchcraft is already on the wane. The lack of fire is evident in the dearth of young people at this, and many other events. Modern pagan witchcraft seems irrelevant to the concerns of their lives, it is tangential to their struggles, which are about to become immeasurably harder.
We are not in the midst of an extinction crisis, or the death of the oceans, we are far past the tipping point. Witchcraft must respond to this or it is empty escapism. I have been assertive in expressing this and will continue to do so, see more here and the blog entry Question 13. Our future is not one of pastoral bliss, but of industrial collapse, famine and war. This future is far nearer than we dread. We are in crisis, ecological, social, political and spiritual: yet I see precious little of this communicated in the world of witchcraft, which in assessing the legacy of the great and good of its founders risks becoming irrelevant in the here and now.
My lineage is diffferent, and in keeping with the stated position of Ronald Hutton, equally viable. For me Witchcraft is neither 'pagan' nor a 'religion'. It is explicitly grounded in opposition, revolution, the land, the European spirit tradition, and yes, sex, drugs and ecstasy. It does not apologise. It is outside of the mainstream culture which is raping and destroying the world. It fights back.
There is another more uncomfortable history which we should not excise. The witch or shaman is an ambivalent figure. They break taboos. They go to places that others cannot, and miraculously return. They curse and kill as well as cure. You should be afraid of them.
This is why the current generation are looking to a supposedly Traditional Craft for their answers rather than seeking out Wiccan covens.This is why we are publishing books about Brazilian and Cuban witchcraft that have a living tradition of effective magic. This is why we are looking again to the grimoires and a spirit tradition in the West which stretches back to the Goes and the ancient world.
I would prefer witches rediscovered Jules Michelet and encountered the work of Jack Parsons and their transformative and transgressive power, rather than trading it in for harmless coexistence with a culture that is in catastrophic failure. (Those who have not come across Jack Parsons may enjoy the presentation I gave on the subject here, a talk I also gave at the PFSW.)
The elements which I define my witchcraft by seem to be as razed as the stubble fields of Autumn in the golden future of Roland Hutton. The road forks, but I hope that this parting can also be made in the manner of friends. My prediction is that the troublesome word 'witchcraft' will eventually be excised for the more accurate 'modern paganism' and will be pursued by those who choose that path. Initiated Wicca will follow the same arc of decline that Masonry has. I am delighted that people find meaning and beauty in their ritual. I was happy to give Ronald my enthusiastic applause, to celebrate the life and work of Doreen Valiente, to recognise the work that John Belham-Payne et al do. But we walk another way, more perilous, more fraught, and more cogent with our reading of history.
These words are mine, as are any misunderstandings of the ideas presented by those who spoke.
Peter Grey
This observation should not be taken as denigrating the event in any way, which was professionally run, well attended and with erudite presentations. I am not going to give a blow by blow account of the proceedings either. What concerns me is the ideas and the currents that I can ascertain stirring beneath the surface of witchcraft. It is a witchcraft we are passionately drawn to in our own individual ways, a crucial point which I will return to.
For a forking of paths to occur, there must first be a coming together and this truly was. Wicca is assessing itself, older, hopefully wiser, and paradoxically more naked than it has ever been. This is a witchcraft that has accepted Triumph of the Moon, and the disenchantment, even auto da fe of some of its most cherished myths. It is a witchcraft that is literate, self-aware and diverse. Many traditions, covens and approaches were present. Those who only know the digital shadow of Wicca, or view it in absentia as Traditional British Witchcraft, may be unaware of the dilemma which I wish to expose, not with the supposed candour of the tabloid press that Doreen Valiente and the Pagan Front/Federation battled against, but with clearer and less salacious motivation.
Rufus Harrington summed up the problem, he mused wistfully on the romantic ideals that drew him to Wicca, the ideas of the persecution, the revolutionary opposition and yes, the sexual frisson. All these seem absent in the Modern Pagan Witchcraft that is now being proposed as orthodoxy, if not as absolute then certainly as the dominant strand. They have become haraam. This is in no small part due to the work of Ronald Hutton, whom the day honoured. His approach placed him at odds with both the academic establishment and entrenched ideas within the pagan community. To quote the metpahor used by Rufus, both are fearsome dragons which he poked with pointy sticks. Hutton has prevailed and it was his vision that the day articulated. We still witness some unpleasant personal attacks on Ronald Hutton, but he remains profoundly grounded, approachable and obviously joyful. As the only celebrity paganism has, and with obvious charisma (weirdly enhanced by his somewhat Austin Powers sartorial splendour), it would be easy for him to fall foul of egotism. This is not the case. He is a credit to his professions. I simply thoroughly disagree with his conclusions about the way that witchcraft should proceed into the future, which does not impute upon his scholarship of the past.
Hutton in attacking the foundation myths is not engaged in a deliberate project of disenchantment. Far from it. He has a solution as well as a critique. For him, modern pagan witchcraft is the flower of English culture and history. It draws upon the mythic histories and stories which are embedded in the land. He names Kipling, Shelley, Swinburne (and many an holy bard) as part of our lineage. He sees beauty in ritual and the survival of an hermetic knowledge cloistered in our academies. It is a compelling narrative, and beautifully told. He proposes that it is in the artistry of our ritual, our imprecation of the Goddess, our drawing down, that we can be accepted as part of culture.
It is here however that the roads fork, and in my approach to witchcraft, definitively. Hutton wants us to step away from the sense of victimhood and injustice of a witchcraft that defines itself by the trial records of the inquisition. We are not to be defined by the torments inflicted by the hounds of god, nor the propaganda of curse and blight. The witch has been set up, rather like the Monty Python scene in the Holy Grail:
We are not, according to Hutton, to define ourselves in opposition, or to demonstrate our social difference, but should instead join the inter-faith family. I reject this as anathema. We stand outside.
The solution of Ronald Hutton is that we become the fully fledged form of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Yet, where are the Shelleys, the Swinburnes, the great artists? They seem conspicuously absent on the modern scene. A few fantasy writers, however gifted in their genre, does not make a compelling case.
Why should we accept a religious paganism as our future over the operative witchcraft which was the stock in trade of our predecessors, for both good and ill?
Our culture has not embraced paganism or witchcraft, it has simply stopped openly persecuting it. We were given examples during the day of how Doreen Valiente and the PF worked tirelessly to acheive this respectable status for us. However, this is an argument articulated in a total cultural vacuum. Though they no doubt had an impact, the wider disenchantment of culture is a process of mono-cultural corporate capitalism. The modern world simply does not care about us. The witch hunt has turned on Islam in search of a 'demonic' conspiracy. The value system is simply the bottom line. We are portrayed as harmless cranks for the most part and trotted out at Halloween for a cheap joke. The danger, the fire, the frisson that Rufus Harrington remembered is becoming just that, a memory.
Hutton artfully gave examples of how the same historical evidence can be read to reveal contradictory meanings. So here is mine. Modern Pagan Witchcraft as it is being proposed seems to bear no relationship to Witchcraft itself.
The label 'Pagan' was initially adapted as an umbrella term by the 'Pagan' Front BEFORE anyone was self-identifying as pagan. Now we have a large number of people defining themselves as pagan ministered to by a small network of initiatory covens. The number of covens is collapsing as formal initiation falls away. This was attested to on the day by an Alexandrian initiate, who dared to suggest that the rise of the hedgewitches and the eclectics was leading to a witchcraft so diffuse as to be meaningless, (he was more circumspect in expressing it) but I have heard this complaint from many quarters and from within many lineages.
Far from being healthy, the argument could be made that modern pagan witchcraft is already on the wane. The lack of fire is evident in the dearth of young people at this, and many other events. Modern pagan witchcraft seems irrelevant to the concerns of their lives, it is tangential to their struggles, which are about to become immeasurably harder.
We are not in the midst of an extinction crisis, or the death of the oceans, we are far past the tipping point. Witchcraft must respond to this or it is empty escapism. I have been assertive in expressing this and will continue to do so, see more here and the blog entry Question 13. Our future is not one of pastoral bliss, but of industrial collapse, famine and war. This future is far nearer than we dread. We are in crisis, ecological, social, political and spiritual: yet I see precious little of this communicated in the world of witchcraft, which in assessing the legacy of the great and good of its founders risks becoming irrelevant in the here and now.
My lineage is diffferent, and in keeping with the stated position of Ronald Hutton, equally viable. For me Witchcraft is neither 'pagan' nor a 'religion'. It is explicitly grounded in opposition, revolution, the land, the European spirit tradition, and yes, sex, drugs and ecstasy. It does not apologise. It is outside of the mainstream culture which is raping and destroying the world. It fights back.
There is another more uncomfortable history which we should not excise. The witch or shaman is an ambivalent figure. They break taboos. They go to places that others cannot, and miraculously return. They curse and kill as well as cure. You should be afraid of them.
This is why the current generation are looking to a supposedly Traditional Craft for their answers rather than seeking out Wiccan covens.This is why we are publishing books about Brazilian and Cuban witchcraft that have a living tradition of effective magic. This is why we are looking again to the grimoires and a spirit tradition in the West which stretches back to the Goes and the ancient world.
I would prefer witches rediscovered Jules Michelet and encountered the work of Jack Parsons and their transformative and transgressive power, rather than trading it in for harmless coexistence with a culture that is in catastrophic failure. (Those who have not come across Jack Parsons may enjoy the presentation I gave on the subject here, a talk I also gave at the PFSW.)
The elements which I define my witchcraft by seem to be as razed as the stubble fields of Autumn in the golden future of Roland Hutton. The road forks, but I hope that this parting can also be made in the manner of friends. My prediction is that the troublesome word 'witchcraft' will eventually be excised for the more accurate 'modern paganism' and will be pursued by those who choose that path. Initiated Wicca will follow the same arc of decline that Masonry has. I am delighted that people find meaning and beauty in their ritual. I was happy to give Ronald my enthusiastic applause, to celebrate the life and work of Doreen Valiente, to recognise the work that John Belham-Payne et al do. But we walk another way, more perilous, more fraught, and more cogent with our reading of history.
These words are mine, as are any misunderstandings of the ideas presented by those who spoke.
Peter Grey
