Featured Academic Review
'Origins of Modern Witchcraft' by Ann Moura © 2000 Llewellyn ISBN 1-56718-648-3 Paperback 256 pages + Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography and Index $14.95 (U.S.)
Dust off your history and anthropology texts before you start reading this book. The first chapter is devoted to the earliest civilizations known, and what many of us remember from school is seriously challenged. This is a book which will force you to look at things from a perspective which many of us do not find "normal."
I'm sure that some people will be put off by the premise that the origins of Witchcraft can be traced back to the Indus valley. There has always been a Euro-centric bias in the Craft as it has been practiced in the last half-century or so. It takes a conscious effort to step outside of that box.
This book is not going to be appealing to the large majority of the, for lack of a better term, "Buffy Witches." It assumes a level of intellectual honesty and open-mindedness which is, unfortunately, lacking in many of the current generation of Wiccans. It also assumes an ability to work through parts which are as stimulating as a sirocco.
This is a book aimed at a relatively limited audience. I do not recommend it to newbies, but do most heartily recommend it to those Elders concerned with teaching the newbies. Many of the ideas need to be presented to the newcomers to chew on, but I fear the vast majority of them would become discouraged with it and put it aside long before finishing it.
While I'm not sure that all the etymologies she puts forth hold true (that's not a field I am overly familiar with), they nevertheless make for interesting speculation.
Ms. Moura, at one point makes a convincing case regarding the "shock value" of mixed gender covens meeting in the nude, in the eyes of a population only slowly emerging from A Victorian way of thinking. She shows how it may have been an attempt to "…demonize the stifling effects of the Victorian Age," even as it attempts to continue the male dominance which was, and still is, prevalent in Western society. Thus she makes a case doe the primacy and validity of solitary practice of the Old Religion.
This book will undoubtedly upset some initiatory-based traditionalist. Ms. Moura is definitely a believer in, and advocate for, finding what works for the individual. She clearly states that, in her opinion, there is no need for an established priesthood, because of the innate equality of all people. Her explanation of Green Witchcraft is simply putting a different name to the phenomenon of eclectic Paganism.
Whether or not you agree with her premises and/or conclusions; if you are open-minded and honest, you have to admire her approach to the history of the development of religion.
I found this book to be one of the best I have read in a very long time. It was challenging to many concepts I thought I had given a lot of consideration to, as well as being intellectually challenging. Many of the books dealing with the development of the Craft ignore all the religious thought which must have preceded the emergence of the religion on the European continent. Obviously, mankind did not originate in medieval Europe, so there must have been other influences.
Do not read this book if you are not willing to work at it. It is not an easy read. It IS, however, a stimulating, interesting way to expand your consideration of what Paganism and the Craft evolved from.
Reviewer: Mike Gleason
If you would like to join in on a discussion about this book, please go to the forum here: Origins of Modern Witchcraft