Pagan Scholarship and anti-Pagan Propaganda

by David Griffin

"Pagans today have NO roots in antiquity!"

"Because we wiped out every trace - We KNOW."

Many Pagans today believe there are no clear links between ancient and modern Paganism. They are convinced there exist only reconstructed Pagan traditions and that any direct, lineal survival of ancient Paganism has been completely debunked by modern scholars.

Such misunderstandings are unsurprising, since modern Pagan research has been misrepresented over and over on Christian websites, blogs, etc. Most Christians are neither involved nor even interested in such shenanigans. There are, however, elements within Christianity that still have not given up trying to suppress Paganism, especially now that Paganism is growing, and are not above using modern propaganda methods to achieve their objective.

Take, for example, the impartial sounding Religious Studies blog. There you find claims that any connection between modern and ancient Paganism has been thoroughly debunked by modern Pagan scholars. Yet on the same blog, you find the historical veracity of Jesus proven by mere quotation of Biblical scripture!

Why is it that aspects of Paganism are subjected to one standard of scrutiny and those of other religions to a completely different yardstick?

Sadly, even "pro-Pagan" scholars are not above such double standards. Take for example, how Pagan "hard polytheists" have recently been branded fundamentalists by Wiccan Sabina Magliocco, Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology of California State University, Northridge, when Magliocco wrote in the article you can read here, 

"These [Pagan Fundamentalisms] have centered around two hot-button topics: the historicity of Wiccan foundational narratives, and the nature of the gods." -Sabina Magliocco

Sabina Magliocco

Why is it that Pagan hard polytheists are branded fundamentalists, yet Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who likewise believe in the objective existence of THEIR Gods are not likewise denigrated, nor are Hindu hard polytheists for that matter either.

Such a double standard coming from a self-identified Wiccan is unethical enough on its own, but out and out fear mongering about an unspecified and unsubstantiated "Rise of Pagan Fundamentalism" has no place  in responsible academic research.

Let us next examine the foundational narratives relevant to the survival of ancient Paganism, likewise branded fundamentalist by Dr. Magliocco. Note that Magliocco is quite careful to confine her fear mongering about "Pagan fundamentalists" to Wicca, regarding the "historicity of Pagan foundational narratives."

Such caution is thrown to the wind in anti-Pagan propaganda elsewhere describing Pagan scholarship, however. In the article on the Religious Studies blog entitled, The origins of neopaganism and Prof. Ronald Hutton we find, for example:

"Some neopagans, however, claim that their religion is a direct, lineal survival of ancient paganism...  

... How much of this is actually true? In particular, how much of modern Wicca is a genuine survival of ancient paganism?... The evidence shows that Wicca was created by Gerald Gardner and a small number of other middle-class occultists between the 1920s and the 1950s ... 

the Religious Studies article then wildly concludes:

... Paganism as such disappeared from Europe with the spread of Christianity, and did not reappear until the pagan revival got under way in the 19th century."

Ronald Hutton

Note the way the above, anti-Pagan propaganda narrative seamlessly jumps from Prof. Hutton of Bristol University's Department of History's research on Wicca in southern England to the unsupported conclusion that Paganism as such disappeared from Europe with the spread of Christianity.

I am not suggesting that Pagan scholars like Prof. Magliocco or Prof. Hutton are secretly persuing a Crypto-Christian agenda. These scholars are indeed, however, playing directly into the hands of Christian propagdists out to impede the growth of Paganism.

What is it then that contemporary scholarship actually does say - if not that Paganism disappeared from Europe until the 19th Century Pagan revival?

Prof. Magliocco, for example, readily admits that:

"There are very clear links between ancient and modern Paganisms ...  The links can be found in folk customs, in the Western tradition of magic and esotericism, and in art, literature and philosophy." -Sabina Magliocco

This statement is strongly supported by data provided by anthropological informants of my wife, anthropologist/initiate, Leslie McQuade Griffin, as we shall see below. Dr. Magliocco, however, continues:

"As an anthropologist, I am bound by a code of ethics which demands that I put the good of the communities I work with before anything else, including my research program and professional advancement."

I am not questioning Dr. Magliocco's ethics in particular, but the above statement invokes the entrenched belief held by many Pagans that the ethics of academic research can be blindly trusted. This, in reality, is not always the case, as Leslie McQuade shockingly outlines here:

Leslie McQuade Griffin

"As an archeologist, I have had the great fortune to work in some pretty amazing places, from the English Heritage, Eartham Pit dig in West Sussex where Homo heidelbergensis was discovered during the dig, to the Botai dig in Kazakhstan for the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Natural History, where I was told to cover up the discovery of artifacts made of bone which bore a striking resemblance to screw drivers, which would be astonishing for the time period - to the Chatan-cho dig Okinawa where we were ordered to conceal our discoveries by the Japanese government since they didn't like that we found Koreans rather than Japanese.
I left archeology when the sanctity of scientific data was repeatedly sacrificed for political expedience. As a scientist, I wanted no part in such hypocricy."

Thus, when McQuade began to concentrate more on ethnography, she was already aware of the profound role scholarly bias and even political expediency frequently play in academic research. On significant archeological digs, McQuade was ordered to manipulate and suppress data to skew results of research.

On the subject of Pagan survival, HPS McQuade recently wrote:

"Initiates also hid themselves within Christianity itself, transmuting the ancient Egyptian symbols into versions easily hidden in the symbols and tenants of the new, aggressive faith for re-emergence when the time was both safe and right. 

As has been demonstrated by my Italian Pagan informant, Dianus del Bosco Sacro, in his article, “The Great Rite, Hermeticism and the Shamanic-Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi,” these same initiatic mysteries can be found preserved encoded in divergent symbol systems across centuries, from the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries of ancient Pompeii to the symbols of Hermetic alchemy, only to reappear in Leland’s “Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches.” [Fenris Wolf V: Journal for Magical Anthropology, Stockholm 2013] 

In addition to Dianus, Frater Lux E Tenebris, my alchemical Master and point of contact with the Golden Dawn's Secret Chiefs, has additionally agreed to serve as anthropological informant for Leslie's Pagan ethnographic research. Leslie showed the present article to Frater L.e.T. for comment this morning. Frater LeT added the following to conclude the article:

"There is not one form of Paganism, but two that have survived since antiquity. Prof. Magliocco and others are correct in their observations regarding folk customs, cunning folk, etc. These, however, are but remnants of a "low" Pagan tradition, crumbs of ancient wisdom found among ignorant common folk, mixed with superstition, etc. 

There is, however, a pure Pagan current that survived by remaining completely underground. The ancient Pagan Sacerdotal tradition was preserved by initiatic societies, and there is plenty of publicly available evidence of this survival. For example, Pagan thought reached its apogee with Plotinus. From there arise all of the visible teachings that follow. 

Many Pagan mysteries were concealed inside Christianity itself albeit under another name, for example in Gnosticism in the early centuries. We find Pagan teachings again in the writings of Giordano Bruno, the high magic of Tomas Campanella, Marcilio Ficino, and the group gathered around the De Medici family. 

We find Pagan teachings again in Trithemius and Agrippa, who while posing as Christians in order to protect themselves, nonetheless communicated the ancient Pagan Celestial Magick. Just look at the letters his "Christian" friends sent to Agrippa before the publication of his occult philosophy (which contains PAGAN Magick with but a Christian veneer), warning Agrippa to be very careful lest he be arrested, tortured, and burned. 

Paganism was deeply occulted following the edicts of the Emperors so that it might not be destroyed. But even much of the structure of the Christian church itself is Pagan in origin, including the title today used by the head of the Christian church, Pontifex Maximus. 

And these are but the external signs of what was preserved occulted by the Sacerdotal Colleges, later becoming Rosicrucian and the initiatic orders, and transmitted to us today. 

Thus there is not doubt that Paganism has survived. The scholars know this, although they choose to focus on the "low" Pagan tradition  as it survived mixed with superstition in folk magic, etc. To admit the survival of the "high," Sacerdotal Pagan tradition is not in the interest of Christianity." 

The time has come for Pagans to let go of overly naive trust in academia. Academia is never perfectly objective. Scholarly bias nearly always plays a role in research - and even manipulation and supression of data to skew results are not unheard of.

Pagan scholars be should be even more wary how statements they make may be misrepresented by others and turned against our Pagan community, and as far as ethics go, there is no place in academia for fear mongering,

Historians and anthropologists investigating the survival of remnants of Pagan antiquity should examine the Western esoteric tradition more closely.

That no remnants of ancient Pagan "high" Sacerdotal traditions have yet been uncovered, does not necessarily mean they no longer exist.

Scholars may have just been looking in the wrong places...

"A chair? Impossible."

...or sitting on the data all along!

Witch Hunts and Holocaust Denial

by Golden Dawn Imperator

David Griffin

Regular readers of the Golden Dawn blog will recall ongoing debate regarding the survival of important aspects of ancient Pagan times and their relevance to contemporary esotericism. There are still leaders in the Golden Dawn community, for example, who even today remain in denial of the extent of witch trials and other persecution. For example, on July 17, my esteemed Golden Dawn colleague, Peregrin Wildoak, wrote on his Magic of the Ordinary blog:

"I was surprised that some magical folk still referred to ‘the Burning Times’ as a factual series of events, where Pagans were persecuted by ‘the church’. Nick Farrell, in his normal wise manner, responded by saying, “It is an article of religious faith a bit like the virgin birth.” If this is so, and I think Nick is technically correct, then have all my previous articles and postings back to 1989, where I critique the Burning Times as myth not history..." -Peregrin Wildoak

I respectfully differ with Fratres Wildoak and Farrell about this. Witch trials are not at all an article of religious faith. They are, on the contrary, a question of historical record - A record that, tragically, been misrepresented, understated, and denied over and over for years - in the same propaganda-like manner that"historical revisionists" have tried to minimize or deny that the Holocaust in Nazi Germany ever occured.

Once in a while it comes as a much needed breath of fresh air, when a serious Pagan scholar reminds us of the actual historical record - bringing the discussion back to reality - away from the realm of conspiracy theories and the propaganda tactics of Holocaust denial.

Such is the case with a wonderful article written by "Apuleius Platonicus" over on the Egregores blog that you can read HERE. The article is entitled "Witch trials were comparatively rare?"

Egregores Blog

The data Apuleius presents over on Egregores is so important in dispelling the notion that witch trials are merely an "article of religious faith" like the virgin birth, that I am reproducing it for the benefit of Pagans in the Golden Dawn community in its entirety:

Once again I must turn my attention to the unedifying public spectacle of a noted scholar grotesquely misrepresenting the most basic historical facts in the name of dispelling "myths". The following is from an op-ed piece written by Malcolm Gaskill ("one of Britain's leading authorities on the history of witchcraft", if he does say so himself, and, to be fair, he is in fact a well respected scholar and author of innumerable important publications on historical Witchcraft) and published in The Guardian on April 5, 2010 (Witch-hunts then -- and now): 

"The history of witchcraft helps us to understand this tragic phenomenon [modern cases of violence against people accused of Witchcraft]. Unfortunately, the subject remains littered with powerful myths. Some modern witches sing a protest song called Catch the Fire, which mentions the 9 million women burned during the "witch-craze". Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code says 5 million. The actual figure was about 50,000. This still might seem a lot for an imaginary crime, but viewed in context of time, space and population levels, it's clear that witch trials were comparatively rare. Plus executions followed in only about half of trials."

Were witch trials really "comparatively rare"? (Uh, and "compared" to what, exactly?) Well, in the comparatively small nation of Scotland, which was hardly the epicenter of the European Witch-hunts, there was one year (1649) in which there were 399 documented Witchcraft trials. In fact, during the next 12 years there were over 1000 more trials, for a sustained average of over 100 a year from 1649-1661. If we view these Scottish Witch trials "in context of time, space and population levels", this would be the equivalent of nearly half a million 21st century American citizens being put on trial for the crime of Witchcraft over a span of 13 years. And while it is true that only half (a mere 250,000 or so!) of these would be convicted and then publicly burned at the stake, the other half would still be severely tortured before being acquitted. And by "severely tortured" I am referring to methods that would make Guantanamo look like a tropical vacation resort. Here is another way of putting these deaths in "context": the rate at which people were burned at the stake for the crime of Witchcraft in Scotland between the years 1649 and 1661 was three times higher (or more) than the rate at which young Americans died in Vietnam between the years 1963 and 1975. For more information on the Witch-hunt in Scotland, see these three posts of mine and links therein:

• Benevolent Magic and "The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft"

• Julian Goodare Contradicts His Own Data on Witches and Healers

• Malevolent Magic and "The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft"

In Iceland, an even smaller country and another place that does not figure prominently in the history of Witch-hunting, there were "only" 20 executions for Witchcraft (that we have good documentation for). But this was in a nation with a population at the time of about 50,000 inhabitants (about 1/20 that of Scotland). And all of these executions took place in less than three decades. That means that if we again look at the "context of time, space and population levels", Witch-hunting was almost as intense in Iceland as it was in Scotland. For more in the Witch-hunts in Iceland, check out these links:

• The Executed

• Angurgapi: The Witch Hunts in Iceland

• Witchcraft and Sorcery in Iceland

So much for the periphery. What about the places that were at the center of the action? In just a few regions of what was at the time the Holy Roman Empire (in what is today western Germany and some bordering regions of France and Switzerland), the phenomenon of Witch-hunting reached such a frenzy that otherwise staid and sober scholars have actually felt compelled to employ the term "superhunt". These are the very same scholars who, like Gaskill, never tire of lecturing modern Pagans on the grave sin of historical exaggeration. In just one of these outbreaks (in Alzenau, just east of Frankfurt) nearly 10% of the adult population was put to death (and these were predominantly women, so one in six adult women were executed). 

Although the European Witch-hunts lasted over three centuries (from the Witch trials in Valais which began in 1427 and in which over 350 people were put to death in 20 years, to the last trickle of official trials and executions in the mid 18th century), and  ranged from one end of Europe to the other (from Transylvania to Scotland and from Sweden to Spain), the superhunts were highly concentrated outbursts of murderous Witch hysteria that accounted for almost a quarter of all executions for Witchcraft in Europe (according to William Monter). These concentrated outbreaks of Witch killings occurred in Trier (1586-95), Mainz (1593-1631), Fulda (1602-06), Cologne (1627-35), Bamberg (1616-30), and Waldenburg (1616-30), leading to the deaths of at least 10,000 people in a relatively small region of Europe over a span of just 45 years. [See Monter on "Germany's Superhunts" in Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 4: The Period of the Witch Trials.] 

The bottom line is that it is an act of scholarly malfeasance to blithely state that "it's clear that witch trials were comparatively rare." Sadly, though, it has become de rigueurfor certain self-appointed demythologizers to squander their academic credentials in the service of this kind of revisionist propagandizing, which aggressively promotes the (comforting to some) notion that Witch-hunts, Inquisitions, heresy-hunting, and other sins of the past, really weren't all that bad after all. I mean, well, "comparatively" speaking, you know!" 

See also: 

"Witches and other evils": Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud on Witches and Witchcraft 

Julian Goodare Contradicts His Own Data on Witches and Healers

- Apuleius Platonicus

For Pagans in the Golden Dawn community interested in the question of Witch Hunts and Pagan survival, I strongly encourage you to follow the "Egregores" blog HERE. Another highly interesting blog about Pagan survival is "Aedicula Antinoi: A Small Shrine of Antinous" that you can follow HERE.

These blogs are each written by Pagan academics who dare not to toe the Hutton "anti-Pagan-survival" party-line. These academics blog under pseudonyms, apparently to preserve their jobs, since their positions are, after all, rather politically incorrect for the biases of today's academy.

EXPOSED: Vatican Conspiracy and Pagan Roots (Answer to Ronald Hutton)

by Golden Dawn Imperator

David Griffin

"Our lives begin to end ...
... the day we become silent about things that matter!" 

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

Triumph of the Moon (1) is a monumental study for which Professor Ronald Hutton deserves accolades regarding the origins of Wicca in Southern England. In this well-researched work, tenured historian Dr. Hutton presents a rather convincing argument that Wicca is a synthetic religion pieced together from bits of Gerald Gardner's personal experiences in India with Goddess worship, anthropological data from Dr. Margaret Murray, Sir James Frazier and Charles G. Leland, and the Golden Dawn, with membership drawn in part from the Naturist (Nudist) movement in England.

Dr. Ronald Hutton

Prof. Hutton clearly states in Triumph that the scope of his study is limited to Wicca in Southern England. My primary objection to Dr. Hutton's methods is the manner in which he, in later chapters of Triumph, makes sweeping and unsubstantiated generalizations about the lack of survival of elements of ancient Paganism in Continental Europe - without providing a single shred of historical data to to back up such pronouncements that completely violate the stated scope of Hutton's otherwise fine study.

That Hutton apparently disproved the origin claims of the antiquity of WICCA in BRITAIN is one thing. That he makes unsubstantiated, sweeping judgements about the rest of the European continent outside his study area is quite another matter.

Another significant problem with Hutton's conclusions, in my opinion, is Hutton's overly anglo-centered world view. Put most simply, Prof. Hutton's writing all too often conflates Wicca in Britain with Witchcraft and Paganism in the rest of the world.

Thirdly, if Hutton truly discounts "oral tradition" as he has repeatedly stated, why does he rely so heavily on it in Chapter 20 of Triumph?

Finally, my most important objection to Triumph is the way that Hutton cites personal anecdote as though it were anthropological data. Hutton may be a respected historian, but he is not an anthropologist and lacks training in the rigors of the ethnographic method. Hutton's attempt at the anthropological method is clearly outside his field of expertise.

Had Hutton not violated the stated scope of "Triumph of the Moon" and had he not tried to play anthropologist by presenting personal anecdote and conjecture as though it were data, Triumph might have completely deserved the fauning praise it has gotten over the years. Sadly, however, as a fatal flaw, Hutton violated several fundamental rules of academia in an otherwise fine study.

I have repeatedly raised these and other objections to Professor Hutton's methods and conclusions on numerous previous occasions (for example, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). It is noteworthy that Professor Hutton even today fails to properly address objections to his methods and conclusions according to established academic protocols, instead derisively disparaging his critics with remarks like:

"[It is remarkable that] counter-revisionism is represented most prominently by men, who often employ a very testosterone- rich language of swagger and taunt." (2)

Max Dashu

Such remarks are by no means unusual from Dr. Hutton in relating to his critics. Hutton's disparaging behavior toward independent Pagan researchers like, for example, Max Dashu and Don Frew is well known throughout the Pagan community.

Don Frew

Instead of actually addressing objections to his methods and conclusions, Hutton instead has merely made the same sweeping and unsubstantiated pronouncements over and over like a broken record. While such methods are stock and staple of the rough and tumble world of political propaganda, they have no place in legitimate academic discourse.

"If the service is free, you are not the customer.

You are the product!" - Internet meme

For example, Dr. Hutton just published a "free" article in the latest issue of the Pomegranate Pagan journal, entitled "Revisionism and Counter-Revisionism in Pagan History." In this article, Hutton writes:

"No evidence was found in Europe of a self-conscious Pagan religion surviving the formal conversion of a state to Christianity. A large number of meticulously researched  local studies of the early modern witch trials found no solid evidence that its members had been practitioners of such a religion." (3) 

Regarding actual evidence in the early witch trials of survival of elements of Paganism since antiquity, Professor Paolo Portone, president of the CIRE institute of ethno-historical research, has made some relevant points in his article, "Aradia, Myth and Reality of Witchcraft" (4), which I translated into English and you can read here.

This article presents evidence, contrary to Hutton's above statement, regarding how the myth of the "evil witch" was made up by the Inquisition out of whole cloth from the remnants in Italy of the Pagan cult of Diana, the Lady of the Game, or Domina Ludi. Portone's argument is compelling, taken directly from the trials of Sibilla and Pierina before the Inquisitor of Milan, first in 1384 and then again in 1390.

Additional evidence is presented in Prof. Portone's article entitled Magical Ointment and the Night Flight of Witches (Hypothesis on the Presence of Shamanic Rituals in Medieval and Modern Europe), (5) which I translated into English and you can read here. Professor Portone has presented important additional evidence regarding Pagan survival from antiquity from the witch trials in his new book which I am presently translating for him entitled La Strega e il Crocifisso. (6)

Merely because Dr. Hutton and the revisionist historical camp have failed to find "evidence" of Pagan survival in continental Europe, this certainly does not mean that such evidence never existed nor that it does not continue to exist even today. There are several major problems with such narrowly defined "evidence."

1. The evidence Hutton claims does not exist was supressed and actively destroyed by the Catholic church for many centuries and continues to be so destroyed even today.
2. The descendants of any surviving Pagan traditions in Europe outside of Britain certainly must have gone deeply underground in order not to be killed. 
3. Any written evidence of the type admissible to historians could have meant certain death to any surviving Pagans.
4. This means that the tradition could only have survived orally and hidden in numerous places. 
5. Such oral evidence comprises anthropological rather than historical data. 
6. Thus the historical method is not the correct modality with which to interpret the data to begin with.
7. Historians like Dr. Hutton have been looking for the wrong kind of data in the wrong places. Were I to look for fish in the sand rather than in the sea, I could, using Dr. Hutton's methods, likewise claim that no evidence of fish had been found, and suggest even that fish appear to have become extinct, when in reality I have been looking in the wrong place and using incorrect methods all along.

Thus, Hutton and other historical revisionists may be technically correct, but only if we accept their extraordinarily limited definition of what constitutes "evidence." In fact, I have no doubt that Professor Hutton's claim that "No evidence was found in Europe of a self-conscious Pagan religion surviving the formal conversion of a state to Christianity", certainly DOES represent the wishful thinking of the Vatican, which has done everything possible for centuries to ensure that such "evidence" does not continue to exist. Nonetheless, Hutton's statement above proves nothing more than that the relevant data falls outside the purview of the historical method.

Hutton continues:

"The present fuss over revisionism in Pagan history is not a debate in the normal sense, because the counter-revisionists have not invited supporters of revisionism to a discussion: rather, they have sought instead to persuade other Pagans to stop believing those supporters. It is not clear what they are supposed to believe instead, because no counter-revisionist history has been developed: the implication of the attacks is that the traditional story is somehow correct after all, but it is never explained exactly how." (7)

The above statement is not entirely accurate, unless Hutton is deliberately excluding anthropological data from his "discussion." A new body of anthropological evidence in support of Pagan survival has recently emerged through Italian anthropological informants, Diana and Dianus del Bosco Sacro, presently being vetted by independent anthropological researcher, Leslie McQuade, to be presented for peer review before the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.

A glimpse into this fresh data was recently published by Dianus del Bosco Sacro in the article entitled "The Great Rite, Hermeticism, and the Shamanic-Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi." (6)

As I translated this article for publication in the latest journal of the Institute of Comparative Magico-Anthropology, I am reproducing the translator's introduction below due to its high relevance to the in refiuting Dr. Hutton's revisionist historical position.

The Great Rite, Hermeticism, and the

Shamanic-Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi

as revealed by

Dianus del Bosco Sacro

Grand Conservator of the Sacred Forest Tradition

as authorized by

Diana del Bosco Sacro di Nemi e Benevento

38th Arch Priestess of the Sacred Forest Tradition

translated and Introduced by

David Griffin

Guardian of the Mysteries of the Sacred Forest

Translator’s Introduction

Dr. Ronald Hutton's historical tome, "Triumph of the Moon," examined the modern origins of Wicca in the British Isles, demolishing the belief of most Neo-Pagans in any substantial Pagan survival from antiquity. The unexpected reemergence from Italy last year of the previously occulted Shamanic-Pagan tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi, therefore understandably generated a certain amount controversy in the Neo-Pagan community.

The present article, written by Dianus del Bosco Sacro, details for the first time how Hermetic alchemists, from a hidden Partenopean initiatic center, secretly preserved essential elements of ancient Paganism from the Inquisition during the dark age of Christianity. During the course of Dianus’ exposition, we shall witness how the sexual mysteries of The Geat Rite comprise an unexpected and omnipresent Ariadne’s thread, demonstrating the  continuity of Pagan elements from the most ancient times until today.

Throughout history, we encounter the same, sublime sexual mysteries again and again, albeit clothed in ever changing symbols: from the rites of Dionysos, Diana, and Janus to sexual mysteries depicted in the frescoes the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii and their impact on Gerald Gardner and the Great Rite of Wicca – from the rich symbolism of Hermetic alchemy to the sexual mysteries encoded in Charles Godfrey Leland’s “Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches.”

According to the lore of the Shamanic-Pagan tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi, The Great Rite first arose with the ancient shamanism and sacerdotal lineages of the Great Mother Goddess in Continental Europe. While these primordial sexual mysteries were preserved along Matriarchal lines in Europe, they also spread to Sumeria, Babylon, and Egypt, where over time they evolved into the Royal Art of Alchemy.

Following the conquest of Egypt, the sexual mysteries of alchemy were carried to Rome by Priests of Isis. Arriving along the Partenopean coast in Naples, Cuma, and Pompei, this masculine Priesthood encountered the great Pagan Matriarchs. These Patriarchal- alchemical and Matriarchal-sacerdotal-shamanic lineages immediately recognized their sexual mysteries to be so similar, they could only have arisen from a common source.

Thus began the intimate collaboration between Pagan Matriarchs and Hermetic Masters, which would endure occulted for many Centuries. So it came to pass that, when the Pagan Matriarchs faced eradication at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, they found sanctuary in the Parthenopean initiatic school of Hermetic Masters.

Most historians and anthropologists, it turns out, have been looking in the wrong places for evidence of Pagan survival since antiquity. For the real evidence lies not amongst folk magic and cunning folk, but masked in the symbols of Hermetic alchemy.

With the article introduced above, an important new track supporting the notion of ancient Pagan survival has emerged, presented by vetted anthropological informants. This is, however, a line of research that will require objective and dispassionate follow up in pursuit of truth, as this new information requires, to properly evaluate the data, a mastery of the secret alchemical "language of the birds," the symbolical language which reveals the deepest secrets of Hermetic alchemy only to the eyes of the initiate.

In conclusion, I must ask:

1. Are Professor Hutton and the historical raevisionist camp actually interested in historical truth regarding Pagan survival since antiquity - or do some of them have a hidden agenda?
2. Is it mere coincidence that the positions of Professor Hutton's revisionist camp so perfectly support the long term interests of the Vatican - that no evidence of Pagan survival from antiquity should have survived?
3. What IS then the actual bias of Dr. Hutton and the other revisionist historians?

I personally think that Pagans lose an extremely precious aspect of their religious faith when they are deprived of the historical roots of their religion in the ancient past, especially since vetted anthropological informants now state that this includes a still surviving INITIATIC Pagan heritage.

If historical roots are unimportant, then why does Catholic Christian doctrine cling so tenaciously to a myth of the historicity of the life of Jesus Christ, despite the absence of any substantial concrete historical evidence?

Indeed, if historical roots are unimportant, then why has the Vatican over the centuries gone to such lengths to destroy all evidence of survival of any remnants of ancient Paganism?

Finally, who stands to benefit most from a popular belief among contemporary Pagans that they have but a newly invented religion without any surviving, substantial historical roots in antiquity?

After all, does a tree deprived of its roots not quickly die?

Are we to allow our Pagan roots in antiquity to become mere dead objects of historical curiosity, hidden away to collect dust in some Vatican museum?

It is important to understand that research is NEVER written without bias. It is not an intentional bias; it is just a fact that our perception of the world damages our ability to examine it from any other perspective. References to this fact are given below.

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods applications. London: Sage.

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2008). The craft of research (3rd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Van de Ven, A. H. (2007). Engaged Scholarship: A Guide for Organizational and Social Research: Oxford University Press.

Bedeian, A. G. (2004). Peer review and the social construction of knowledge in the management discipline. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3(2), 198-216.

Endnotes

1. Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon (Oxford, Oxford University Press 1999).
2. Hutton, Ronald. “Revisionism and Counter-Revisionism in Pagan History” Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies [Online], 13. 13 Dec 2012, p.251.
3. ibid., p.227.
4. Portone, Paolo, (2002). Aradia, mito e realtà della stregoneria in una ballata toscana dell’Ottocento , STORIA, ANTROPOLOGIA E SCIENZE DEL LINGUAGGIO, vol. 3; p. 115-120, ISSN: 0394-7963.
5. Portone, Paolo, (1993). L’unguento magico e il volo notturno delle streghe. ARS REGIA, vol. 14; p. 15-26.
6. Portone, Paolo, (2008). La strega e il crocifisso. Radici cristiane o cristianizzate. AICURZIO (MB): Gruppo Editoriale Castel Negrino.
7. Hutton, ibid, p. 250.
8. Del Bosco Sacro, Dianus “The Great Rite, Hermeticism, and the Shamanic-Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi” The Fenris Wolf: The Institute of Comparitive Magico-Anthropology, 5 (Edda Publishing: 2012, pp. 53-76.

History and Holocaust Denial: Ronald Hutton and "Peregrin Wildoak"

by David Griffin

Despite our order inviting the ENTIRE Golden Dawn community to join us in building peace and despite our offering to share new Golden Dawn teachings from the Secret Chiefs with the entire GD community at the upcoming Golden Dawn Peace and Harmony Pow Wow...

...Believe it or not -  the 20 year old Witch Hunt against our order unsurprisingly continues unabaited - with Peregrin Wildoak (who hides his real name to avoid prosecution for libel) again using "anonymous" Sock and Meat Puppets to attack our order. 

For the benefit of new readers:

"Peregrin Wildoak" is a Historical Revisionist: 

1. who never uses his real name, hiding instead behind anonymity to avoid prosecution for libel 
2. who denies that there was any Pagan Holocaust at all 
3. who disputes that there were any Pagans ever killed by the Inquisition at all, and 
4. who even disputes that there ever were any Pagan or Egyptian mysteries! 

"Peregrin," while hiding behind anonymity, has been one of the most venomous attackers of our order in the 20 year Witch Hunt waged on the Internet against the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega.

Historical Revisionist
"Peregrin Wildoak"

In a desperate and highly transparent bid to maintain strife in the Golden Dawn community, Peregrin is again using sock puppets - in a fruitless attempt to scuttle the upcoming Golden Dawn Peace and Harmony Pow Wow in order to continue the two decades old Witch Hunt against our order. Clearly, there are those who would stop at nothing to prevent peace and harmony in the Golden Dawn community!

Unsurprisingly, Peregrin's latest "anonymous" sock again sets up and knocks down the same straw man arguments we have witnessed Peregrin publish time and time again, this time misrepresenting statements I have made critical of the scholorship of Professor Ronald Hutton of Bristol University.

For the benefit of new readers, Peregrin and his various sock/meat puppets have been republishing "ad nauseum" the same tired propaganda talking points on this subject over and over for years now, yet Peregrin never addresses even one scholorly objection to his straw man arguments!

In other words, the real question here is:

"Why is the anonymous "Peregrin Wildoak" and his sock and meat puppets so obsessed with the subject of Pagan survival since antiquity?" 

This is a highly relevant question, considering Peregrin's claim to have allegedly abandoned Paganism to become a Buddhist convert, whereas Peregrin instead consistently writes as a Christian propagandist and has even bragged about being a Christian apologist. Add to this Peregrin's utter obsession with the subject of Pagan survival since antiquity in his writings, and something begins to smell as fishy as an outdoor fish market on a hot summer's afternoon.

To avoid confusion arising from Peregrin's socks' latest propaganda, below I repeat my "actual" objections to Prof. Hutton's scholorship in "Triumph of the Moon." I might add that Hutton has never addressed these criticisms, even though he has replied to several other issues I raised here.

Demigod Professor - Ronald "Q" Hutton

Triumph of the Moon is a monumental study for which Professor Hutton deserves accolades regarding the origins of Wicca in Southern England. However, Hutton clearly states in Triumph that the scope of his study is limited to Wicca in Southern England.

My primary objection is the manner in which Hutton, in later chapters of Triumph, makes sweeping generalizatioins about the lack of survival of elements of ancient Paganism in Continental Europe without providing a single shred of historical data to to back up such unprofessional statements, which completely violate the stated scope of Hutton's study.

That Hutton disproved the origin claims in antiquity of Wicca in BRITAIN is one thing. That he makes unsubstantiated, sweeping judgements on the rest of the European continent is quite another matter, however, especially when the scope of Triumph of the Moon was limited to Wicca in southern England. The greatest problem with Hutton, in my opinion, is that, in his anglo-centered world view, Hutton conflates Wicca with Witchcraft.

Secondly, if Hutton truly discounts "oral tradition," why does he rely so heavily on it in Chapter 20 of Triumph?

Finally, my most important objection to Triumph is the way that Hutton cites personal anecdote as though it were data. Hutton may be a respected historian, but he is not an anthropologist and lacks training in the rigors of the ethnographic method.

Had Hutton not violated the stated scope of "Triumph of the Moon" and had he not tried to play anthropologist by presenting personal anecdote and conjecture as though it were data, Triumph might have deserved the fauning praise it has gotten from the anonymous "Peregrin" and his various sock and meat puppets. Sadly, however, as a fatal flaw, Hutton violated several fundamental rules of academia in an otherwise fine study.

Regarding the actual survival of elements of Paganism since antiquity, Professor Paolo Portone, president of the CIRE institute of ethno-historical research, has shown in his article, "Aradia, Myth and Reality of Witchcraft," how the myth of the "evil witch" was made up by the Inquisition out of whole cloth from the remnants in Italy of the Pagan cult of Diana, the Lady of the Game, or Domina Ludi. Portone's argument is compelling, taken directly from the trials of Sibilla and Pierina before the Inquisitor of Milan, first in 1384 and then again in 1390.

Finally, I have several times suggested that historians of ancient Paganism have been looking in the wrong place for traces of elements of Pagan survival since antiquity, as they have never yet bothered to examine in this context in the texts and rich imagery of Hermetic alchemy!

Finally, an open message to the anonymous "Peregrin":

Peregrin, 

You are not fooling anyone. EVERYONE sees through your sock and meat puppetry.
Unlike you, I have no need to to hide behind fake names or the skirt tails of "anonymous" sock puppets. Unlike you, I use my REAL name. 

If I have something to say, Peregrin, I say it to your face like I am now, and I stand behind MY words like a man. Are you not man enough to take responsibility for YOUR words under YOUR real name? 

Or are you just afraid your GD students will call you on your stirring strife in the GD community yet AGAIN? 

In any case, you and your socks are the only ones still stiring strife in the GD community today. 

Keep it up, Peregrin, and you will share the same fate as Robert Zink, with your GD students voting with their feet. 

The time for Peace and Harmony in the Golden Dawn community is NOW, whether Peregrin Wildoak and his anonymous puppets like it or not. 

- David Griffin

99% of the Golden Dawn community wants peace and harmony and an end to 20 years of internet bullshit causing strife in the our community.  Don't miss the International Golden Dawn Peace and Harmony Pow Wow, March 29 - April 9, 2013 near Las Vegas, Nevada.

EVERYONE is invited - Even the 1% still attacking our order. What a great way to put strife behind us - by all sitting down, relaxing, and sharing together as brothers and sisters!

Come share a full week of good food, good company, and new magic released especially for this occasion by the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn's Third Order! You can find complete Pow Wow details here.

We look forward to receiving you at Alpha Omega Temple.

Your Hosts,
David and Leslie Griffin

The Wrath of Q & The Return of Ronald Hutton

by David Griffin

Readers of the Golden Dawn blog, may well remember the somewhat irreverent article I wrote here last year in response to an interview here by Caroline Tully with Professor Ronald Hutton, a British historian regarded by many Pagans as embodying nearly God-like stature.

Well, guess what?

Q is back ...

Pagan Luminary, Prof. Ronald "Q" Hutton

... and in a follow-up interview here addresses several of the issues I have raised here on the Golden Dawn blog as well as on The Great Rite blog in response to his initial interview.

Having called Prof. Hutton a "maverick historian" for years, when he made disparaging remarks about the "Wiccan" who called him that, I wrote:

"As a practitioner of the Sacred Forest of Nemi Italian Shamanic tradition, I am outraged at Hutton calling me a "Wiccan," much like James T. Kirk the time Korax the klingon called Kirk "an overbearing Tin Plated Dictator with delusions of Godhood and a Denibian Slime Devil."

In the new interview, Prof. Hutton now clarifies:

"The first [matter to clear up] is that the Wiccan whom I quoted as describing me as a ‘maverick historian’ was Ben Whitmore, and no other."

Well, I am glad we finally cleared that up!

In the initial interview on Necropolis Now, Prof. Hutton wrote:

"neither Carlo [Ginsburg] nor any other reputable historian since 1980 has argued that the people accused of witchcraft in early modern Europe were practitioners of a surviving pagan religion."

Challenging this statement, I  translated into English a wonderful article by Italian Ethnohistorian, Paolo Portone  on "Witches Flying Ointment and the Night Flight of Witches" here and also translated Professor Portone's, "Aradia and the Myth or Reality of Witchcraft" that I published here.

Professor Hutton now writes:

"A classic example of the former sort who has featured in the present debate is Carlo Ginzburg, and of the latter, Paolo Portone. They are very different sorts of author, Carlo being one of the world’s great research scholars and Paolo a polemical writer who draws mostly on existing publications. I have, however, a personal affection and respect for both: Carlo, as I have written before, is a friend, and I am trying to find Paolo a translator and publisher for his book in English." 

Under normal circumstances I would be pleased to translate Prof. Portone's book, as I did with his articles. With the tidal wave of new initiatic magical practices and teachings just released by the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn, however, I am presently inundated with translation work  of  initiatic and spiritual, rather than merely historical value.

I do not rule out more translation for Prof. Portone as a future possibility, however, should the Tsunami of new magic ever abate.

Hutton continues:

"This might give some pause to those who see us as in opposition to each other. Neither of them champion the idea of a surviving medieval or early modern pagan religion, separate from Christianity and in opposition to it, let alone one which survived till modern times. Both emphasise instead the importance of ancient pagan elements absorbed into medieval and later Christian culture, carried on by people who assumed that they were themselves Christian even if other kinds of Christian did not always agree. I am completely in agreement with them in doing so, the main difference between us being that I have hitherto concentrated more on the way in which the pagan elements got filtered back out of the Christian in modern times to create a set of resurrected Pagan religions."

As a Hermetic and Shamanic-Pagan initate, I am not first and foremost interested in history. However, my academic beef with Hutton still remains with the sweeping judgements he makes in "Triumph of the Moon" about initiatic traditions of which he has no real knowledge, together with his tendency to play anthropologist due to his lack of proper training in the ethnographic method, as in Triumph, where he frequently cited personal anecdote as though it were historical data. If Hutton discounts oral tradition, why does he rely so heavily on it in chapter 20 of Triumph of the Moon?

Moreover, by dismissing the initiated, Hutton cuts himself off of any true understanding of the ancient faith, because non-initiates can't keep their mouths shut about ancient truths. Hutton will never find the ancient Pagan path, because he refuses to do what is necessary to gain the actual data. Instead, he is left analyzing only the dregs that the initiatic traditions have rejected.

Just because historians have not found evidence of Pagan survival does not mean that none exists. It only means that they are looking in the wrong places and are out of their depth in regard to initiatic traditions, better evaluated by the anthropologist trained in the ethnographic method.

In this regard, I recently translated a groubdbreaking article written by anthropological informant, Dianus del Bosco Sacro entitled "The Great Rite, Hermeticism, and the Shamanic Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi". This article, that will appear at Beltane in The Fenris Wolf (Journal of Magical Anthropology), details for the first time how Hermetic alchemists, from a hidden Partenopean initiatic center, secretly preserved essential elements of ancient Paganism from the Inquisition during the dark age of Christianity. During the course of Dianus’ exposition, we shall witness how the sexual mysteries of The Geat Rite comprise an unexpected and omnipresent Ariadne’s thread, demonstrating the continuity of Pagan elements from the most ancient times until today.

Throughout history, we encounter the same, sublime sexual mysteries again and again, albeit clothed in ever changing symbols: from the rites of Dionysos, Diana, and Janus to sexual mysteries depicted in the frescoes the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii and their impact on Gerald Gardner and the Great Rite of Wicca – from the rich symbolism of Hermetic alchemy to the sexual mysteries encoded in Charles Godfrey Leland’s “Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches.”

According to the lore of the Shamanic-Pagan tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi, The Great Rite first arose with the ancient shamanism and sacerdotal lineages of the Great Mother Goddess in Continental Europe. While these primordial sexual mysteries were preserved along Matriarchal lines in Europe, they also spread to Sumeria, Babylon, and Egypt, where over time they evolved into the Royal Art of Alchemy.

Following the conquest of Egypt, the sexual mysteries of alchemy were carried to Rome by Priests of Isis. Arriving along the Partenopean coast in Naples, Cuma, and Pompei, this masculine Priesthood encountered the great Pagan Matriarchs. These Patriarchal/alchemical and Matriarchal/sacerdotal/shamanic lineages immediately recognized their sexual mysteries to be so similar, they could only have arisen from a common source.

Thus began the intimate collaboration between Pagan Matriarchs and Hermetic Masters, which would endure occulted for many Centuries. So it came to pass that, when the Pagan Matriarchs faced eradication at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, they found sanctuary in the Parthenopean initiatic school of Hermetic Masters.

Most historians and anthropologists, it turns out, have been looking in the wrong places for evidence of Pagan survival since antiquity. For the real evidence lies not amongst folk magic and cunning folk, but masked in the symbols of Hermetic alchemy.

So, my parting words for Professor Hutton?

"If you want to catch dear, hunt in the forest, not in the city.

 If you want to find initiatic survival, then search among initiates."

And if you want to hunt Klingons, the bridge of the Enterprise is a good place to be.