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The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 232.

Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. New York: Oxford University Press. Page 199.

22, no. 2. Canadian Folklore Association.Ronald Hutton (2000) "Paganism and Polemic: The Debate over the Origins of Modern Pagan Witchcraft." Folklore, vol.

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton. Oxford University Press (Nov 4, 1999) She lives near Santa Cruz, California.

In Modern English, the term Wicca () refers to Wicca, the religion of contemporary Pagan Witchcraft. It is used within the Pagan community under competing definitions. One refers to the entirety of the Pagan Witchcraft movement, while the other refers explicitly to traditions included in what is now called British Traditional Wicca. Although pronounced differently, Wicca is related to the Old English word wicca, which referred to sorcerers in Anglo-Saxon England.

In 1999, the English historian Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol had published his own study of Wiccan history, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft.

The term Wicca appears to have developed within the Pagan Witchcraft community during the early 1960s, as increasing numbers of Pagan Witches learned of the Old English term wicca, the etymological origin of the Modern term witch. This etymological fact had been referred to five times in Gerald Gardner's book The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959), as well as in other early texts propagating Pagan Witchcraft, such as Doreen Valiente's Where Witchcraft Lives (1962) and Justine Glass' Witchcraft, The Sixth Sense – and Us (1965). None of these specifically referred to the Pagan Witchcraft religion as Wicca. The earliest known published reference for the word Wicca is within an advertisement published in a 1962 issue of Fate magazine; in this, a Cardiff-based group of Pagan Witches advertised a tradition as "Wicca–Dianic and Aradian".

Among these was Evan John Jones, who would later become an author upon the subject of pagan witchcraft. Jones had met Cochrane through his wife Jane, as they both worked at the same company. Chapter One.

Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press, 2001. p62 The word could allegedly set the workings of a mill into motion without the aid of human assistance.

After translating and editing the material, it took another two years for the book to be published. Its fifteen chapters portray the origins, beliefs, rituals, and spells of an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition. The central figure of that religion is the goddess Aradia, who came to Earth to teach the practice of witchcraft to peasants in order for them to oppose their feudal oppressors and the Roman Catholic Church. Leland's work remained obscure until the 1950s, when other theories about, and claims of, "pagan witchcraft" survivals began to be widely discussed.

Maxine Sanders (born Arline Maxine Morris; 30 December 1946, in Cheshire) is a key figure in the development of modern pagan witchcraft and Wicca and, along with her late husband, Alex Sanders, the co-founder of Alexandrian Wicca.

Charles Cardell (1892–1977) was the founder of a Pagan Witchcraft tradition that rivalled that of Gerald Gardner's in southern England during the 1950s. A psychologist and stage conjurer, Cardell ran a company named Dumblecott Magick Productions from his home in Charlwood, Surrey, from where he also controlled a local coven that was spied on by the press, leading to a well-publicised court case. Having been involved with Spiritualism as well as Pagan Witchcraft, Cardell initially befriended Gardner, but in 1958 they had an argument, and in 1964 Cardell tried to discredit him by publishing much of the then-secret Gardnerian Book of Shadows. Cardell used the term Wiccen to refer not just to members of his own tradition, but to all followers of the Pagan Witchcraft religion, placing an advert in Light magazine, the journal of the College of Psychic Science, entitled "The Craft of the Wiccens" in 1958.

Using the word "Witchcraft" in this context can result in confusion both with other, non- religious forms of witchcraft as well as other religions—such as Satanism and Luciferianism—whose practitioners also sometimes describe themselves as "Witches". Another term sometimes used as a synonym for "Wicca" is "Pagan Witchcraft", although there are also other forms of modern Paganism—such as types of Heathenry—which also practice magic and thus could be described as "Pagan Witchcraft". From the 1990s onward, various Wiccans began describing themselves as "Traditional Witches", although this term was also employed by practitioners of other magico-religious traditions like Luciferianism.

A pentacle is a star with circle around it. It is used by many adherents of Wicca. This symbol is generally placed on a Wiccan altar to honor the elements and directions. Wicca (), also termed Pagan Witchcraft, is a modern Pagan religion.

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press. Dr. Leo Ruickbie, in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, analysed the documented evidence and concluded that Aleister Crowley played a crucial role in inspiring Gardner to establish a new pagan religion.Ruickbie, Leo(2004).

Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1991.Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999Kitteredge, G. L. Witchcraft in Old and New England. 1951. pp. 275, 421, 565.

In the early 1950s, English Wiccan Gerald Gardner, founder of the Gardnerian tradition, referred to the Pagan Witchcraft community as the Wica. He claimed to have learned the term during his initiation into the New Forest coven in 1939. By the late 1950s, Gardner's rival Charles Cardell, founder of his own tradition, had begun referring to the religion's followers as Wiccens, and possibly used Wicca in reference to the religion itself. The inclusive use of the term Wicca—referring to the entirety of Pagan Witchcraft religion—has been traced to Britain in the early 1960s, when it was used by various groups and publicised through use in adverts, magazines, and other literary sources.

The advert may have been linked to Charles and Mary Cardell because Mary was allegedly born in Wales and Cardellian Witchcraft had apparently venerated a goddess under the name of Diana. However, many Pagan Witchcraft groups would have adopted the deity name Diana and Aradia, these being the goddesses featured in the American folklorist Charles Leland's supposed account of a Tuscan witch tradition, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899). Another early use could be found from December 1965, in the penultimate issue of Pentagram, the newsletter of the Witchcraft Research Association. Here, a small column on Halloween made reference to "the Craft of the Wiccan", apparently referring to the entire Pagan Witchcraft community.

Hutton, R.,The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford University Press, pp. 205–252, 1999.Kelly, A.A., Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: a History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939–1964, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.Valiente, D., The Rebirth of Witchcraft, London: Robert Hale, pp.

23(3) November. Pages 339-354. The situation was further complicated by the rise of new religious movements that considered witchcraft to be a religion. These perspectives do not claim that witches actually consciously enter into a pact with Satan because Satan is not normally believed to exist in Wicca or other modern neo-pagan witchcraft practices.

Cerridwen Fallingstar in 2009 Cerridwen Fallingstar (born Cheri Lesh, November 15, 1952), is an American Wiccan Priestess, Shamanic Witch, and author. Since the late 1970s she has written, taught, and lectured about magic, ritual, and metaphysics, and is considered a leading authority on pagan Witchcraft.. The Pagan Alliance. May 8, 2010. p. 10. MoreMarin. September 10, 2009.

Hutton responded to Frew in an article published in the journal Folklore in 2000. Entitled "Paganism and Polemic: The Debate over the Origins of Modern Pagan Witchcraft", in the paper Hutton commented that Frew's work had been a "historiographical landmark", being "only the second contribution to one of the key scholarly debates in the history of contemporary religions".Hutton 2000. p. 103.

Madre, depending on its usage (for example: madrear—"to beat" or hasta la madre—"full"), is an insult to one's mother. This dishonors her, and the reputation of the family. It can be profane in Mexico, where there is a cultural taboo against matriarchal families (because of associations with pagan witchcraft). Chinga tu madre ("Fuck your mother") is considered to be extremely offensive.

Since the publication of Leland's Gospel, Aradia has become "arguably one of the central figures of the modern pagan witchcraft revival" and as such has featured in various forms of Neopaganism, including Wicca and Stregheria, as an actual deity.Magliocco, Sabina (2009). 'Aradia in Sardinia: The Archaeology of a Folk Character' in Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon. Hidden Publishing.

The Feri Tradition is an initiatory tradition of modern Pagan witchcraft. It was founded in California in the 1960s by the Americans Victor Henry Anderson and his wife Cora Anderson. Practitioners have described it as an ecstatic tradition rather than a fertility tradition. Strong emphasis is placed on sensual experience and awareness, including sexual mysticism, which is not limited to heterosexual expression.

The widespread adoption of Wicca in reference to Pagan Witchcraft would have brought benefits to its practitioners, who were widely maligned and faced persecution for their practice of witchcraft; an emotive term often associated with Satanism that had negative connotations in the Western imagination. Doyle White argued that the practitioners' presentation of themselves as Wiccans rather than witches removed some of the social stigma that they faced.

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. He suggests that the Black Annis of Leicestershire legend was based on a real person named Agnes Scott, a late medieval anchoress (or by some accounts a Dominican nun who cared for a local leper colony), born in Little Antrum, who lived a life of prayer in a cave in the Dane Hills and was buried in the churchyard in Swithland.Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press. pp. 274–275. .BBC – h2g2 – Black Annis – Legend of Leicester Hutton suggests that the memory of Scott was distorted into the image of Black Annis either to frighten local children or due to the anti-anchorite sentiment that arose from the Protestant Reformation. In the Victorian era the story of Agnes Scott, or Annis, became confused with the similarly named goddess Anu.

In later years, Hutton would write further historical studies of the contemporary Pagan movement, producing The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999) and Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (2009). In 2011, a writer for the New Age magazine Kindred Spirit noted that Hutton had become a "well-known and much loved figure" in the British Pagan community.Whitlock 2011. p. 33.

305 Charles Isaac Elton in 1882 referred to her as a "white fairy".Charles Isaac Elton, Origins of English History, B. Quaritch, 1882, p.253. Robert Graves later fitted her into his concept of the Threefold Goddess, in which she was interpreted as a form of the destructive side of the goddess.Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 192.

Page 33. Soon after, this theory began to be adopted by other classicists in France and Germany, such as Ernst Kroker, Fr. Lenormant and M.J. Menant, who further brought in the idea that the ancient peoples of Anatolia and Mesopotamia had influenced the Greek religion, and that therefore they also had once venerated a great goddess.Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft.

During its lifetime The Cauldron was edited by Michael Howard who "has been active among pagans and ritual magicians since the early 1960s".Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, OUP, 2009, p.371. Contributions have included: "The Leaves of Hekate – the Plant Lore of the Thessaly Witches" by Daniel A. Schulke, "Land Guardianship" by Sarah Lawless, "Traditional Fairy Lore" by Professor Ronald Hutton.

The first were the members of a hereditary tradition of Pagan witchcraft, while the second were the practitioners of a similar yet separate tradition of Pagan witchcraft which, Liddell alleged, had been greatly influenced by Pickingill in the nineteenth century. The third source cited by Liddell was his own experiences gained from being born into a witchcraft family and subsequently being initiated into both of the aforementioned traditions and a separate "cunning lodge". He claimed that most of the information that he was publishing came from "Elders", or older members, involved in the first two of these traditions, and that as such he could not vouch for its accuracy, going so far as to state that he doubted the veracity of much of it. Noting that these Elders themselves had very different opinions on Gardnerian Wicca, he also stated that the Elders ceased providing him with new information in the early 1980s.

From 1970 onward, increasing numbers of books teaching readers how to become Pagan Witches were published; the earliest was Paul Huson's Mastering Witchcraft (1970), which made no reference to Wicca. This was followed by Raymond Buckland's The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft, in which he propagated his newly developed tradition of Seax-Wica; utilising Wica as the name of the tradition, he also referenced the Wicca as the name of the religion as a whole. Contrastingly, during the 1970s the term Wicca was rejected by feminist Pagan Witchcraft groups in the United States, in particular the Dianic tradition; the term does not appear in the early works of Zsuzsanna Budapest and Starhawk, although the latter would adopt it by the 21st century. This was part of a phenomenon that took place during the 1970s and 1980s, as the term Wicca became increasingly associated purely with Gardnerianism and Alexandrianism (together known as British Traditional Wicca in North America), rather than with other variants of Pagan Witchcraft.

The Triumph of the Moon - The Rise of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1999, page 140 When Michelet's La Sorcière was first published in France, it was, according to historian Ronald Hutton, "greeted with silence from French literary critics, apparently because they recognized that it was not really history". In 1893, an American suffragist, Matilda Joslyn Gage, published Woman, Church and State, in which she claimed that in the prehistoric world, humanity had been matriarchal, worshiping a great Goddess, and that the witches of the witch cult had been pagan priestesses preserving this religion.The Triumph of the Moon - The Rise of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1999, page 141 In 1897, the English scholar Karl Pearson, who was the professor of Applied Mathematics at University College London and an amateur historian and anthropologist, expanded on Michelet's theory. Pearson agreed with the theory of a prehistoric matriarchal society, and concurred with Gage that the witch-cult was a survival of it.

Contemporary Paganism, also referred to as Neo-Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre- modern Europe.Carpenter 1996. p. 40.Lewis 2004. p. 13. The religion of Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and is one of several Pagan religions.

The reception of Aradia amongst Neopagans has not been entirely positive. Clifton suggests that modern claims of revealing an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition, for example those of Leo Martello and Raven Grimassi, must be "match[ed] against", and compared with the claims in Aradia. He further suggests that a lack of comfort with Aradia may be due to an "insecurity" within Neopaganism about the movement's claim to authenticity as a religious revival.Clifton, p. 61.

There are two separate definitions of the term Wicca that have been used in Paganism and Pagan studies since circa 1980. The first developed in England during the 1960s. Broad and inclusive, it covers most, if not all, forms of modern Pagan Witchcraft, especially if they share sufficient theological beliefs and ritual practices to be considered denominations within a common religious movement. In contrast, the second developed in the United States during the late 1970s.

501 It has been edited since its inception in 1970 by the author Marian Green,Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, OUP, 2009, p.337. who also organises an associated annual Quest Conference. Its 169th issue was published in March 2012 and included articles by herbalist author Val Thomas, editor of The Cauldron Mike Howard, and Diana Demdike, an early collaborator of Green.Quest 169, March 2012, p.

Most covens would not admit members under the age of 18. They often do not advertise their existence, and when they do, do so through Pagan magazines. Some organise courses and workshops through which prospective members can come along and be assessed. A modern Pagan witchcraft altar A commonly quoted Wiccan tradition holds that the ideal number of members for a coven is thirteen, though this is not held as a hard- and-fast rule.

In the same period the first Kemetic groups were formed, with the tradition itself originating in the US. Wicca, introduced by Gerald Gardner in 1964, is the best known of the Neopagan movements. Charles Cardell, Gerald Gardner's rival during the 1950s Pagan Witchcraft Movement in England, actually coined the term "Wiccens" referring to Pagan Witches. Men were not the only founders of Pagan beliefs. Feminist based practices were on the rise during the 1960s and 1970s.

Born in London in 1944 but raised in a rural area, Green met other pagans after entering university at 29. she had worked in publishing for most of her career. Green rejects the idea, dominant in the period after the revival of pagan witchcraft by Gerald Gardner, that witchcraft needs to be coven-based and organised around formal initiations conferred by coven leaders. She teaches that the old divinities can be encountered in the natural world, alone and without prescribed ritual forms.

Celtic Wicca is a modern tradition of Wicca that incorporates some elements of Celtic mythology.Raeburn, Jane, Celtic Wicca: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century (2001), Hutton, Ronald (2001) The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. It employs the same basic theology, rituals and beliefs as most other forms of Wicca. Celtic Wiccans use the names of Celtic deities, mythological figures, and seasonal festivals within a Wiccan ritual structure and belief system, rather than a historically Celtic one.

This practice may derive partly from Masonic traditions (such as the use of the Square and Compasses), from which Wicca draws some material,Hutton, Ronald The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (pp52-61). and partly from the rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The latter made much use of material from medieval grimoires such as the Key of Solomon, which has many illustrations of magical tools and instructions for their preparation.

Scholars of Paganism like Joanne Pearson and Ethan Doyle White have characterised Feri as a Wiccan tradition. The latter noted however that some practitioners of modern Pagan Witchcraft restrict the term Wicca to British Traditional Wicca, in which case Feri would not be classified as Wicca; he deemed this exclusionary definition of the term to be "unsuitable for academic purposes". Instead, he characterised Feri as one form of Wicca which is nevertheless distinct from others, such as British Traditional Wicca, Dianic Wicca, and Stregheria.

Dennis D. Carpenter noted that the belief in a pantheistic or panentheistic deity has led to the idea of interconnectedness playing a key part in pagans' worldviews. The prominent Reclaiming priestess Starhawk related that a core part of goddess-centred pagan witchcraft was "the understanding that all being is interrelated, that we are all linked with the cosmos as parts of one living organism. What affects one of us affects us all." Another pivotal belief in the contemporary Pagan movement is that of animism.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. but the relationship between the two appears warm: Hutton has written in the foreword to Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: "Philip Heselton is the most interesting, valuable and enjoyable author who has yet written on what is becoming one of the greatest riddles in the history of modern religion: the origins of pagan witchcraft".Hutton in Heselton, Philip (2003),Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft. Milverton, Somerset, England:Capall Bann Publishing. p.11.

Kelly 2007. The prominent English historian Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol later devoted the latter part of his book The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991) to an examination of the contemporary Pagan religions that took these pre-Christian religions as a core influence. He followed this with several studies of British folk customs, but in 1999 returned to the field of Pagan studies when he published The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, the first academic study of Wiccan history.Hutton 1999.

In 1958, three separate groups of witches approached her, asking for her to verify Gardner's claims. Dafo did not respond to two of these, and denied having any involvement other than a theoretical interest in the craft to the third.Hutton 1999. p. 212-216. The historian Ronald Hutton, in his 1999 book The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, said that he had not researched into Dafo's past, because she would not have wanted such a thing, as most of her family were strict Christians.

Robert Cochrane (26 January 1931 – 3 July 1966), who was born as Roy Bowers, was an English occultist who founded the tradition of Pagan Witchcraft known as Cochrane's Craft. Born in a working-class family in West London, he became interested in occultism after attending a Society for Psychical Research lecture, taking a particular interest in witchcraft. He founded one coven, but it soon collapsed. He began to claim to have been born to a hereditary family of witches whose practices stretched back to at least the 17th century; these statements have later been dismissed.

Using both original research and secondary analysis of a broad range of anthropological and sociological findings, Ruickbie gives estimates for the numbers of people involved in neo-pagan witchcraft in the UK, their age, gender and income distribution. He also asked participants in his own research about the nature of their religious experience, their relationship with the gods, their practice of magic and their beliefs about its effects. Witchcraft Out of the Shadows was listed under 'Further Reading' in Owen Davies' 2009 book Grimoires: A History of Magic Books.

As a child, Greenwood had found a greater spiritual connection with the natural world than with organised religion. During the late 1970s, she embraced second-wave feminism and came across feminist forms of Pagan Witchcraft through Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark (1982). Attracted to this new religious movement, she undertook an undergraduate degree in anthropology and sociology at Goldsmiths' College, where her final year research project focused on women's spirituality. Exploring the topic in further depth, she devoted a PhD to the subject, thereby conducting the research underpinning Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld.

Contemporary Paganism, or Neo-Paganism, is a wide variety of modern religious movements influenced by the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe.Carpenter 1996. p. 40.Lewis 2004. p. 13. The religion of Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and is one of several Pagan religions. The figure at the forefront of Wicca's early development was the English occultist Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), the author of Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) and the founder of a tradition known as Gardnerian Wicca.

It has been claimed that Anderson could speak Hawaiian, Spanish, Creole, Greek, Italian, and Gothic. In the mid-1950s Victor and Cora read Witchcraft Today, a 1954 book by English Wiccan Gerald Gardner, with Cora claiming that Victor corresponded with Gardner for a time. The Pagan studies scholar Chas S. Clifton has suggested that the Andersons used Gardner's work as a "style guide" for the development of their own tradition of modern Pagan witchcraft. Similarly, Kelly stated that the Andersons' tradition "began to more and more resemble that of the Gardnerians" as the couple learned more about the latter, adopting elements from it.

The Cauldron was a non-profit-making, independent, esoteric magazine featuring serious and in-depth articles on traditional witchcraft, Wicca, ancient and modern Paganism, magic and folklore. It was published quarterly in the UK in February, May, August and November between 1976 and 2015.Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, OUP, 2009, p.289. It was founded to cater for pagan witches, giving space in particular to non- Gardnerian traditions of witchcraft and so provided some balance to The Wiccan (now Pagan Dawn), the mouthpiece of the Pagan Front (later the Pagan Federation).

The first part of their US tour was documented on the DVD 'Shevolution', released by Blackwing Films in 2006. The most recent program, released in 2017, is a Swedish documentary on the rise in popularity of witchcraft and its feminist connections. The first film crew to be allowed access behind the commune walls since the cessation of the Rockbitch live performances, the documentary contains a recap of their musical career, and provides insight into their pagan/witchcraft roots with how it underpinned their music and interviews with Babe. Amanda and Jo subsequently went on to form the band Syren with singer/songwriter Erin Bennett, who joined the Rockbitch commune in 2006.

Pearson theorized that during the Christian era, the religion began to emphasise the male deity, which was then equated with the Christian Devil. Pearson also made the claim that Joan of Arc had been one of the last few priestesses of the religion. He was, however, unlike Michelet or Gage, opposed to the group and to Goddess worship in general, believing that it was primitive and savage.The Triumph of the Moon - The Rise of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1999, page 149-150 Charles Leland was an American folklorist and occultist who travelled around Europe in the latter 19th century and was a supporter of Michelet's theories.

During the 20th century, interest in witchcraft in English- speaking and European countries began to increase, inspired particularly by Margaret Murray's theory of a pan-European witch-cult originally published in 1921, since discredited by further careful historical research.Rose, Elliot, A Razor for a Goat, University of Toronto Press, 1962. Hutton, Ronald, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1993. Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford University Press, 1999. Interest was intensified, however, by Gerald Gardner's claim in 1954 in Witchcraft Today that a form of witchcraft still existed in England.

Blavatsky claimed that she had made physical contact with these adepts' earthly representatives in Tibet; but also, that she continued to receive teachings from them through psychic channels, through her abilities of spirit mediumship.Hutton, R. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford, 2000; ), p. 19 Ideas about this secret council of sages, under several names, were a widely shared feature of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century esotericism. Arthur Edward Waite, in his 1898 Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, hinted at the existence of a secret group of initiates who dispense truth and wisdom to the worthy.

During the 18th century a group of gentry, led by Benjamin Hyett II, organised an annual procession dedicated to Pan, during which a statue of the deity was held aloft, and people shouted "Highgates! Highgates!". The tradition died out in the 1830s, but was revived in 1885 by the new vicar, W. H. Seddon, who mistakenly believed that the festival had been ancient in origin. Seddon's successor, however, was less appreciative of the pagan festival and put an end to it in 1950, when he had Pan's statue buried,The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton, page 161-162 although it was later dug up and placed within the grounds of Painswick House.

Contemporary Paganism, which is also referred to as Neo- Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe.Carpenter 1996. p. 40.Lewis 2004. p. 13. The religion of Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, is one of a number of different Pagan religions, and developed in England during the first half of the 20th century. The figure at the forefront of Wicca's early development was the English occultist Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), the author of Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) and the founder of a tradition known as Gardnerian Wicca.

" In his published writings, Gardner propounds the idea that his Pagan Witchcraft religion dated back at least to the Anglo-Saxon period, when Old English was the dominant language. Wica soon became an accepted term among the early Gardnerians, as Gardner's followers and initiates became known. Patricia and Arnold Crowther, a Gardnerian High Priestess and High Priest who operated a coven in Sheffield, use the term in their book The Witches Speak (1959), writing that "[T]he Red Queen told Alice that she made words mean what [she] wanted them to mean. She might very well have been talking about witchcraft, for today it is used to describe anything that one wishes to use it for.

The author's name was not printed, although it had probably been produced by one of the figures involved in editing Pentagram, such as Gerard Noel or Doreen Valiente. In July 1968, a group of British Gardnerians began publishing a magazine titled The Wiccan, while Welshman Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in the United States that same year. In the 1960s, the Gardnerian initiate Alex Sanders founded his own tradition, which became known as Alexandrian Wicca; he used the terms Wicca and the Wicca in reference to the entire Pagan Witchcraft religion. One of Sanders' initiates, Stewart Farrar, describes Wicca as "the witches' name for their Craft" in his book What Witches Do (1971).

Witchcraft Out of the Shadows begins with a survey of historical influences from classical times, northern European paganism, and medieval and early modern Europe. It then describes the roots of modern neopagan witchcraft in groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and individuals such as Aleister Crowley and Doreen Valiente. Particularly important is the critical analysis of the claims made by Gerald Gardner about Wicca, as well as a detailed discussion of the liturgical content of Gardner's Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical and its sources. The final part of the book is an overview of modern neo-pagan witchcraft belief and practice, drawing principally on Ruickbie's own doctoral research.

Other influences upon early Wicca included various Western esoteric traditions and practices, among them ceremonial magic, Aleister Crowley and his religion of Thelema, Freemasonry, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. To a lesser extent, Wicca also drew upon folk magic and the practices of cunning folk. It was further influenced both by scholarly works on folkloristics, particularly James Frazer's The Golden Bough, as well as romanticist writings like Robert Graves' The White Goddess, and pre-existing modern Pagan groups such as the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry and Druidism. It was during the 1930s that the first evidence appears for the practice of a pagan Witchcraft religion (what would be recognisable now as Wicca) in England.

Contemporary Paganism, which is also referred to as Neo-Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre- modern Europe.Carpenter 1996. p. 40.Lewis 2004. p. 13. The religion of Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and is one of several Pagan religions. The figure at the forefront of Wicca's early development was the English occultist Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), the author of Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) and the founder of a tradition known as Gardnerian Wicca.

Contemporary Paganism, which is also referred to as Neo-Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe.Carpenter 1996. p. 40.Lewis 2004. p. 13. The religion of Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and is one of several Pagan religions. The figure at the forefront of Wicca's early development was the English occultist Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), the author of Witchcraft Today (1954) and The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) and the founder of a tradition known as Gardnerian Wicca.

Model of a cunning woman at the museum In keeping with Williamson's original plan, most of the exhibits in the museum feature artefacts related to historical folk magic and the cunning folk. This includes a room which recreates a tradition cunning woman's cottage, termed "Joan's cottage", with a mannequin of a nineteenth century cunning woman, surrounded by various herbs and divination tools. The museum also contains exhibits devoted to the witch trials in the early modern period, the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, as well as other esoteric practices such as ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and alchemy. There is also a small case on modern religious Satanism, in which a distinction is drawn between it and modern Pagan witchcraft.

4 "Revival and diversification texts", pp. 170 – 185, "Paul Huson: Preliminary Preparations" In 1971 Lady Sheba (Jessie Wicker Bell, 1920–2002), the Kentucky-born self-styled "Queen of the American Witches", published what she claimed was her family's centuries-old grimoire, but which in fact contained material substantially plagiarised from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, and also included poetry by Doreen Valiente that was, and is, still under copyright. Doreen Valiente also published information on the subject of pagan Witchcraft, such as the 1973 book An ABC of Witchcraft, which contained a self-initiation ritual for solitary practitioners. Following this, other Wiccans decided that it would be better to simply reveal the Wiccan mysteries to the public in their true form.

Aradia began to be examined within the wider context of such claims. Scholars are divided, with some dismissing Leland's assertion regarding the origins of the manuscript, and others arguing for its authenticity as a unique documentation of folk beliefs. Along with increased scholarly attention, Aradia came to play a special role in the history of Gardnerian Wicca and its offshoots, being used as evidence that pagan witchcraft survivals existed in Europe, and because a passage from the book's first chapter was used as a part of the religion's liturgy. After the increase in interest in the text, it became widely available through numerous reprints from a variety of publishers, including a 1999 critical edition with a new translation by Mario and Dina Pazzaglini.

Writing in his later biography of Eddie Buczynski, the Pagan independent scholar Michael G. Lloyd noted that Adler's book was a marked departure from earlier books dealing with Pagan Witchcraft which continued to equate it with either historical Early Modern witchcraft or Satanism. In her 1999 study of American Wiccans, A Community of Witches, the sociologist Helen A. Berger noted that Drawing Down the Moon had been influential in getting many Wiccans to accept the non- existence of a historical Witch-Cult from which their religion descended.Berger 1999. pp. 21-22. Along with Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark (1982), Adler's book politicized practices of Paganism and witchcraft by emphasising their radical and feminist aspects, and as a result drew many radical feminists into their orbit.

Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland's 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and historians.Hutton 1999. p. 148. In Leland's Gospel, Aradia is portrayed as a Messiah who was sent to Earth in order to teach the oppressed peasants how to perform witchcraft to use against the Roman Catholic Church and the upper classes. Since the publication of Leland's Gospel, Aradia has become "arguably one of the central figures of the modern pagan witchcraft revival" and as such has featured in various forms of Neopaganism, including Wicca and Stregheria, as an actual deity.

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft is a book of religious history by the English historian Ronald Hutton, first published by Oxford University Press in 1999. At the time, Hutton was a Reader in History at Bristol University, and had previously published a study of ancient pre- Christian religion, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991) as well as studies of British folk customs and the Early Modern period. The Triumph of the Moon dealt with the early history of Wicca, a contemporary Pagan religion which developed in England in the early 20th century. The first academic study to tackle the entirety of this subject, Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wicca's development and argued that many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best.

In The Pomegranate: A New Journal of Neopagan Thought – then a scholarly but not yet academic publication – two separate academics published reviews of Hutton's book. Gina O'Connor of the University of Colorado praised the intricate nature of Hutton's investigation, arguing that its purpose was twofold; both inspiring further, in-depth investigation and weave together a picture of the cultural milieu from which Wicca could emerge. She noted however that Hutton had failed to examine any influence on early Wicca from the countries neighbouring England, and wondered whether further investigation would reveal that England was not the only home of Pagan Witchcraft. She furthermore remains unconvinced by Hutton's argument that Gardner was the definitive founder of Wicca, but nevertheless proclaims that whether one accepts Hutton's arguments or not, his book remains the "most comprehensive and readable" of its kind.

The Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White noted that a column on Halloween that was contained in the fifth issue of Pentagram featured the second oldest printed use of the term "Wicca" in reference to Pagan Witchcraft that he was aware of. Although the name of the column's author was not included, Doyle White speculated that it might have been Noel or Valiente. An advert for Pentagram was placed in the U.S. magazine Fate. The scholar of modern Paganism Chas S. Clifton suggested that Noel had chosen to advertise in Fate because it was the only magazine devoted to paranormal phenomena which was distributed nationally across the U.S. This advert introduced the American Witch Joseph Wilson to Pentagram, and on the basis of it he decided to establish his own American publication, The Waxing Moon: A Witchcraft Newsletter.

The popular image of the Greek god Pan was removed from its classical context in the writings of the Romantics of the 18th century and connected with their ideals of a pastoral England. This, along with the general public's increasing lack of familiarity of Greek mythology at the time led to the figure of Pan becoming generalised as a 'horned god', and applying connotations to the character, such as benevolence that were not evident in the original Greek myths which in turn gave rise to the popular acceptance of Murray's hypothetical horned god of the witches. The reception of Aradia amongst Neopagans has not been entirely positive. Clifton suggests that modern claims of revealing an Italian pagan witchcraft tradition, for example those of Leo Martello and Raven Grimassi, must be "match[ed] against", and compared with the claims in Aradia.

Core teachings acknowledged by most branches of the tradition include the concepts of the Three Souls and the Black Heart of Innocence, the tools of the Iron and Pearl Pentacle (now commonly also used by Reclaiming (Neopaganism)), as well as an awareness of "energy ecology", which admonishes practitioners to never give away or waste their personal power. Trance experiences and personal connection to the Divine are at the heart of this path, leading to a wide variety of practices throughout the larger body of the tradition. In his study of Wicca, Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White characterised Feri as a "Wiccan" tradition. He noted however that some practitioners of modern Pagan Witchcraft restrict the term "Wicca" to British Traditional Wicca, in which case Feri would not be classified as "Wicca"; he deemed this exclusionary definition of the term to be "unsuitable for academic purposes".

It was organized into covens, through which members were initiated through three ascending degrees of competence and authority and which were governed by a high priestess, supported by a high priest. More historical context to the pagan practice of Wicca can be found in the book Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft That book discusses Wiccan life, covering how and why people convert to Wicca; its denominations; its sociological demographics; its political beliefs, particularly in terms of environmentalist issues; the impact of anti-Wiccan persecution; the transmission of Wiccan and Pagan culture; and the history of academic analysis of Wicca. The Meaning of Witchcraft is a sequel to Gardner's previous book on the subject, Witchcraft Today, which was published in 1954. Chapters include: Witch's Memories and Beliefs, The Stone Age Origins of Witchcraft, Druidism and the Aryan Celts, Magic Thinking, Curious Beliefs about Witches, Signs and Symbols, The Black Mass, Some Allegations Examined.

In ensuing years, many other authors would publish books containing Wicca in their titles which advocated solitary practice of Pagan Witchcraft; best known were Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (1988) and Silver RavenWolf's Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation (1998), but other examples included Gerina Dunwich's The Wicca Garden (1996), D. J. Conway's Wicca: The Complete Craft (2001), Raymond Buckland's Wicca for Life (2004) and Wicca for One (2004), Arin Murphy-Hiscock's Solitary Wicca for Life (2005) and Ann-Marie Gallagher's The Wicca Bible (2005). It was also adopted by American novelist Cate Tiernan as the title of her series of young adult novels. The term Wicca was employed in an increasingly eclectic manner by authors like RavenWolf, who considered it to be a synonym for witchcraft. In turn it began to be adopted on a wider scale, being popularised in India by Ipsita Roy Chakraverti and being adopted by a French Luciferian group, Le Wicca Française.

Buczynski moved in with Slater to an apartment in the Brooklyn Heights in June 1972. That year, the couple decided to open up an occult store, named The Warlock Shop, at 300 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights, New York City; alongside this venture, they also founded a company, Earth Religion Supplies, Inc, which would later go into publishing. Officially opening on June 21, 1972, the back room of the shop would also be used for weekly lectures and would be rented to various occult groups who wanted to assemble there. Still eager to be initiated into a Pagan Witchcraft, or Wiccan, tradition, Buczsynki began contacting various covens requesting initiation, including the Gardnerian Wiccan coven run in Louisville, Kentucky by Fran and Gerry Fisher and the Algard Wiccan coven that had been founded by Mary Nesnick; the former refused due to the long-distance between them and the young man, while the latter declined due to Buczynski's homosexuality.

1899 cover of Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches In 1862, French historian Jules Michelet published La Sorcière (The Witch), in which he adapted the theory further. Michelet, who was a liberal and who despised both the Roman Catholic Church and absolute monarchies, claimed that the Witch Cult had been practiced by the peasants in opposition to Roman Catholicism, which was practiced by the upper classes.A New History of Witchcraft, Russell & Alexander, Thames & Hudson, page 147 He claimed that the witches had been mostly women (he greatly admired the feminine gender, once claiming that it was the superior of the two), and that they had been great healers, whose knowledge was the basis of much of modern medicine.The Triumph of the Moon - The Rise of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Ronald Hutton, page 140 He believed that they worshiped the god Pan, who had become equated with the Christian figure of the Devil over time.

Ultimately however, he felt that as an "account of the folkloric practices of a burgeoning social scene", Witching Culture warrants "high praise".Fine 2005. In her review, published in the History of Religions journal, Stefanie von Schnurbein of the Nordeuropa-Institut, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, wrote that Magliocco dealt with "a sadly understudied issue" in her study, but that "To the disappointment of a reader who expects a theoretically advanced discussion of these relations [between religious culture and academic thinking], the historical argument and material do not go far beyond Ronald Hutton's in-depth study of the history of modern pagan witchcraft, The Triumph of the Moon." Continuing with her review, Von Schnurbein opines that Magliocco manages to create a "vivid impression of, and informed insights into, the different facets and contradictions of a contemporary religious movement", one that "allows for well-informed critiques of the problem of rooting spirituality in ethnic or cultural heritage and of the problem of cultural exploitation through borrowing".

Whilst the historian Keith Thomas had touched on the subject of English popular magic in his Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), in a 1994 article on the subject of the cunning folk, the historian Willem de Blécourt stated that the study of the subject, "properly speaking, has yet to start." These ideas were echoed in 1999, when the historian Ronald Hutton, in his The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, remarked that the study of the cunning folk and European folk magic was "notoriously, an area that has been comparatively neglected by academic scholars." Nonetheless, articles on the subject were published in the late 1990s, primarily by the historian Owen Davies, who in 2003 published Cunning- Folk: Popular Magic in English History (which was later republished under the altered title of Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History in 2007). This was followed in 2005 with the publication of Emma Wilby's Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic, which took a somewhat different attitude to the cunning craft than Hutton and Davies, emphasising the spiritual as opposed to simply practical side to cunning folk's magic.