Paganism and Alternative Beliefs

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999)
Ronald Hutton

Everything Paganism Book (2004)

Selene Silverwind

Pagan Resurrection: A Force for Evil or the Future of Western Spirituality? (2006) 
Richard Rudgley

The History of British Magic After Crowley (2007) 

Dave Evans

What Do Pagans Believe? (What Do We Believe) (2013)

Graham Harvey

  

The Secret History of the World (2007)

Jonathan Black, Mark Booth

 

Triumph of the Moon is the near-definitive account of the new religions that emerged, largely from the UK, in the last century. Hutton is sympathetic but rigorously academic. He has swept away the traditionalist claims of some founders whilst ensuring respect and dignity for practitioners. It is the founding text for understanding the context for any further reading in this field. 

 

Although very US-centred, the Everything Paganism Book is a good beginners text which is fair to all strands of contemporary neo-pagan thought and which has some useful material on ethics and community. A recommended introduction even for Brits. 

 

On the other hand, Graham Harvey's, little book in the Granta series on belief (What Do Pagans Believe?) irritated me. Possibly because of limitations of space, it presented an overly ideologically-correct 'green' interpretation of neo-paganism, part of a current attempt to shoe-horn it into the current cultural mania for environmentalism. There is no reason to suppose the two -isms are identical and there are better guides including Silverwind's.

 

Pagan Resurrection is a very odd book which contains some useful material on 'irrationalist' thinking in general and on the extreme Right (to which we will be returning in later reviews). The book cannot seem to decide whether it approves of Odinist thinking as a sound response to the emergence of universal archetypes or as harbinger of something much darker. 

 

The truth is probably somewhere inbetween. Most Heathen pagans are not right-wing nutters although they are equally unlikely to be socialist collectivists. The implicit association of the radical Right with Heathenism is (in this book) a trifle confused. A relatively easy read, worth a quick run-through but not in the 'Hutton' category by any stretch of the imagination. 

 

Christina Oakley Harrington of Treadwells called Evans' A History of British Magic Since Crowley a 'romp' and an oft-entertaining romp it is - but is not as much of a history as Evans might claim. It is too long, too poorly edited and too personal and there is no real overview of how this curious sub-culture emerged when and how it did. 

 

Evans was very courageous in tackling the subject and it was not entirely his fault that he was ill-served by weak editing. Similarly, to complain about his being too personal may miss the point. He has tried (I think failed) to develop a new language of academic engagement but I applaud the attempt which is worth a lot more than the vast majority of dry tomes produced out of PhDs that add little to the sum of real knowledge.

 

The book is certainly not without value. It does contain important new research but I read it in the end more as an aide to a thoughtful exploration of how the techniques of this community can be distilled from what can only be described as the charlatanism and trickery of some of its alleged leaders. For those genuinely interested in this area, this is worth reading but the subject awaits its Ronald Hutton

 

What I would like to have seen Evans do was reverse his technique - that is, write a personal book on magick in which he deals with the issues of charlatanism, engagement and belief without trying to prove himself to the academic community. That is the book that I think he should have written.

 

Reviewing The Secret History of the World amongst pagan-related texts is a bit of a cheat because it really belongs to the world of loopy traditionalism and irrationalism which we will meet again when we look at the Far Right. There is no suggestion of a political agenda here so it would be equally wrong to review it in a political context. It is best considered as part of alternative occult and conspiracy thinking where all is not as it appears to be (which is probably true although not in the way envisaged by the authors).  We will be reviewing other 'alternative reality' books in due course.

 

It is certainly a romp! It could be read as a cynical attempt to capture interest in the occult (which is different from the pagan but often overlaps socially), as an occult attempt to re-introduce the 'Hidden Masters' to the wider public, as a 'sinister' ideological project to undermine the Enlightenment (which is where we might be on the edge of a political project), as playfulness, as an attempt to rehabilitate imagination and subjectivity as equal to rational thought, as an experiment in creating a 'grand narrative' for the esoteric or as genuine attempt to create an esoteric morality based on 'art' (pp 380-1) - or all or part or something else."

 

On balance, it is recommended as a work to stimulate the imagination - but do retain your critical faculties throughout. Perhaps I should have reviewed it in our sister fiction blog but since it purports to be 'true' that would not have been fair either. It is best regarded (on balance) as a creative bit of fun that rather overwhelms the mind as a literary adventure that pretends to be a description of reality. It is not.