The triumph of the moon : a history of modern pagan witchcraft
Ronald Hutton (Author)
"This is the second, and extensively revised, edition of the first full-scale scholarly study of what is arguably the only fully-formed religion that England has ever given the world: that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Ronald Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a history of attitudes to witchcraft, paganism 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 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 public world since 1950. Thriller writers like Dennis Wheatley, and films and television programmes, get similar coverage, as does tabloid journalism. The material is by its very nature often sensational, and care is taken throughout to distinguish fact from fantasy, in a manner not hitherto applied to most of the stories involved. Consistently densely researched, Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into an aspect of modern cultural history which has attracted sensational publicity but has hitherto been little understood. This edition incorporates all of the new research carried out into the subject by the author, and by others who have often been inspired by this book, during the twenty years since it was first published."--Publisher's website
Print Book, English, 2019
New edition View all formats and editions
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019
History
xvii, 516 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm
9780198827368, 0198827369
1112371897
PrefaceAcknowledgementsMacrocosm1: Finding a Language2: Finding a Goddess3: Finding a God4: Finding a Structure5: Finding a High Magic6: Finding a Low Magic7: Finding a Folklore8: Finding a Witchcraft9: Matrix10: God (and Goddess) ParentsMicrocosm11: Gerald Gardner12: Gerald's People13: The Wider Context: Hostility14: The Wider Context: Reinforcement15: Old Craft, New Craft16: The Man in Black17: Royalty from the North18: Uncle Sam and the Goddess19: Coming of Age20: Grandchildren of the ShadowsNotesIndex
Previous edition: 1999