NEW

lllHHiama

tVxe Gods of the ancients to the new religion* o f ,

v t ° ' " 7 \ \ r. !I 'lf~ lo,l»y
Edition
Digital

Prom the
maker s of
 HISTORY OF

hat's the difference between 'pagan' and 'Pagan? W e use

the first to describe the historical followers o f ancient
polytheistic and pantheistic religions, the pre-Christian
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, Celts and Norse and
Anglo-Saxons. They and their religions existed, in
some cases, centuries before the term came into use. It was meant
to be an insult, a put-down, used deliberately to infer that those who
practiced such faiths were old-fashioned and out o f the regular flow o f
society. Then, in the 20th century, the term was reborn. Today's Pagans
have reappropriated it for their ow n use, to describe their practise o f
a collection o f contemporary faiths rooted in those o f yesteryear. This
bookazine explores both, looking at the historical faiths o f our ancestors
and at how they have been revived today.
It's important to note that these pages focus on the European
and Old World faiths that had a key influence on each other and on
modern-day Paganism. M any poly- and pantheistic faiths from around
the world, in particular those practised by peoples w ho were invaded
and marginalised during the colonial era, were incorrectly classified
as 'pagan' during the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in decades of
cultural appropriation o f their sacred rites and symbols. Today, many
indigenous communities around the world understandably don't want
their unique religions lumped in w ith other, unrelated ones beneath
an umbrella term that's far too large. For that reason, we'll concentrate
solely on the modern-day Paganism o f the West, and the faiths from our
shared historical heritage that inform and inspire m any o f its traditions.
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W id e ly
ie c y c le d
8 Paganism: From past to present
A brief history o f Western polytheism then and now

18 Gods o f ancient Egypt

Discover this evocative ancient pantheon

26 The Greeks and their religion

How did the ancient Greeks follow their faith?

30 The Twelve Olympians

Meet the most important Greek deities

32 Divinities o f death
The denizens of the ancient Greek underworld

34 Ancient Roman religion

How Roman religion developed

38 Religion o f the Celts

The mysterious religion of prehistoric Europe

42 Viking myths j
Norse cosmology explained |

44 Voluspa: The Prophecy

o f the Seeress
The complete Norse mythology in one poem

50 Anglo-Saxon Paganism
The faith o f post-Rome, pre-Christian England

56 Syncretism: Melding pagan faiths

How religions influence and affect each other
^ / • m! f jr j yi
60 Lighting the pyre
When witch panics sent pagan faiths underground for centuries

64 The hidden worlds o f Esotericism

How modem magicians rediscovered occult knowledge

70 The ancient witch religion

Was there truly an andent European witch cult?

78 Gardner’s genesis ofAVicca

How Gerald Gamer came up with modem Wicca
y /L Mkd J k \ ' / / if / / / ml v

84 The man behind Alexandrian Wicc? ,|

Explore another strand of the Wiccan faith

88 Stregheria
The traditional witch religion o f Italy
 fW\
m

ju —vis
jg >-
• SBf py-i' u>7?m gPgpil
jrjjp f m Em ik

90 Hedgewritches, herbs and healing

Ancient and modern align for solitary Pagan practitioners

92 Druidry: Myth, magic and music

How Welsh legends brought about the rebirth of the Celtic faith

96 Heathenry today
T h e m o d e r n fa c e o f N o rs e -s ty le w o r s h ip /—

‘ Y iW iP
i 102 The Pagan ritual llM B S
What do witches do? Sm

$ 104 The Horned God r^ ^ p iS

Not a devil but a deity d 'J fih fS S

%... -^~Tl
> 106 The Great Goddess
The Mother o f most Pagan faiths
* t$ \' juttW
"
„- 108Full Moon, esbats & magic ^4 Ban'®fflm
Spells, rites and rituals celebrated every month ■maio-l' ®,I;
110 The W heel o f the Year

112 Yule
The midwinter celebration

114 Imbolc
First signs o f spring

116 Ostara
The spring equinox

118 Beltane
May Day celebrations

120Litha
Midsummer festivities

122 Lughnasadh
The first fruits o f the harvest

124 Mabon
The autumn equinox

126 Samhain
The real Halloween
With many modern
practitioners
claiming ancient
roots to their beliefs,
just what is the tm e
history of paganism
across the world?
W ritten b y D ee D e e C h ain ey

Defining moment
The first ritual
monuments of Europe The druids of the The word 'paganism*
4th - 3rd millennium BCE Celtic Iron Age The word ‘pagan’

Paganism: W hile the w ord ‘paganism’ was never applied to early ritual
practices from the Neolithic period, it is here that w e see the
first rituals monuments o f Europe being built - many o f which
The first mention of
the druids appeared in
Com m entarii de Bello
was first used as
a derogatory term
to mean someone

from are still used today b y modern Pagans. Megalithic tombs

were used as tribal territorial markers, and for collectively
G allico by Julius Caesar,
written some time in the
50s BCE. The druids were
practicing a
polytheistic religion
by Christians in the
burying the dead. Many were orientated to the solar festivals.

ancient to Newgrange, in Ireland, has a small hole in the front chamber

which aligns to the midwinter solstice sunrise, allowing light
suppressed during the
reigns of emperors Tiberious
and Claudius, and are not
Roman Period, in the
4th century. Before
this, it merely meant
mentioned after 1 CE. 'civilian'.
modem to enter the tomb on this day. Many modern Pagans still flock
there to mark this festival, in a revival o f ancient practices. 1st century BCE 4th century CE

Primal rites Ancient Mesopotamian

Paleolithic peoples create
artwork based around
the acknowledgement of
prey animals and the ritual
propitiation of their ancestors.
Some paintings include
strange, human-animal hybrids
that are later theorised to be
shamanistic figures.
Paleolithic era
Defining m om ent
religion
Polytheistic belief in ancient
The decline of the Etruscans
Mesopotamia spanned Late 4th century BCE
numerous cultures, Polytheistic Etruscan religion, beginning in the 7th century BCE, specifically
including Sumer, Akkad, acted as an entry point for Greek deities and m yth to be introduced into
Assyria and Babylonia. Roman worship. The Etruscans believed that deities controlled all natural
The creation epic - the phenomena in the world, and could be bargained w ith to change their will.
story of the goddess Main deities o f their pantheon included the earth goddess, Cel, the sky
Tiamat - is named the
god, Tin, and his consort, Uni. Believers would leave offerings to the gods,
Enuma Elish. Numerous
w ho resided in sacred places like tombs, where ancestor worship also took
versions exist, and many
scholars believe the story place - for example at Tarquinia, in Lazio, Italy. By the late 4th century
dates to the late BCE, Etruscan religion began to be assimilated into the Roman religion
second-millennium that surrounded it. W hile divination was comm on in many traditions, the
BCE or before. Etruscans w ere particularly well-known for the practice.
 Paganism: From past to presen t

f oday, the word 'pagan', for many, conjures Western paganism, from antiquity to the modern

f
' up images o f nubile maidens frolicking day, and no attempt w ill be m ade to include religions
naked under the full moon, or costume- from further afield to keep a clear focus and avoid
clad revellers cavorting around burning appropriation. A narrow definition o f ancient
effigies am ong ancient stones. W hile these paganism w ill be explored, used in the past to speak
scenes m ay contain elements o f truth, they couldn't about those involved in the worship o f nature and
be further from the reality o f the m odern religious associated deities. Pagans in the past, as w ell as those
traditions covered b y the umbrella term 'Pagan' today, often revered m ore than one d eity
today. For centuries, it was claimed / g B s E ? -" usually w ith at least one god and
that ‘witches' worshipped the Devil, goddess, and often m any more,
acting as his servants on earth vl\ P form ing a pantheon o f gods
and dealing in diabolical magic. n 'y 'r M
Man
a nyy Pagans
agans ^,1 and goddesses; this is called
Yet, despite som e o f the Pagan pantheists,
are pa theists, I m polytheism. Pantheism was
deities often being depicted \ sjy ' b elievin
elie vin g that
hat nature 'flu also common, where people
w ith horns or antlers, like the y l \ and
and the l liverse are
the universe are s fjj! \ believed that the universe
Horned God and Cernunnos, m anifei „r //h itself is a manifestation o f
m anifestations of
ations ot
true Pagans do not even b elieve 1® , . . (fk the divine. In pantheism, no
• the divin e
in the Christian Devil, so the idea ' 1 r V is particular god or goddess exists
o f Pagans as Devil-worshippers is as an entity. W hile m any different
nonsense. W hile m any misconceptions types o f pantheism have existed, in
abound, encompassed w ith in these pages ^ m any different forms, usually 'god', or
are a range o f articles that aim to separate fact the divine, is com posed o f the physical world
from fiction, true history from fallacy, and uncover itself and everything in it - a living, breathing planet,
the real face o f Paganism b y casting aside m illennia w ith the sacred residing w ith in all things, and within
o f bias, rumour and denigration, perpetuated since each one o f us. M any are still pantheists today. W e
the ancient Romans themselves first made such w ill also explore contemporary Western Neo-Pagan
w ild claims. The scope here is lim ited purely to practices said to stem from these older traditions.

------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------

"True Pagans do not believe in the Christian Devil"

--------------------------------------------- ' iiV ---------------------------------------------

Christianity becomes
the religion of Rome
Roman polytheistic religion was
replaced by Christianity in the 4th
century CE. Emperor Constantine
issued the Edict of Milan in the
year 313 CE., which decriminalised
Christianity. In 380 CE Christianity
became the official religion of the
Roman Empire, with the Edict
of Thessalonica.
380 CE
The Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson is thought to
have compiled this collection
of Norse myths, legends and
history from earlier texts in the
13th century. While its accuracy
is challenged, it has become one
of the definitive works of ancient
Norse religion.
13th century
Defining m oment
Neo-Pagan popularity
2011
By the year 2011, the UK Census reported that approximately
53,172 people claimed Paganism as their religion in England
alone, w ith 3,448 in Wales. This number does not include
those w ho identified themselves as belonging to particular
traditions, so it is likely that the number is much higher
than this. A campaign was held at the time, to encourage
practitioners to list their religion under the umbrella term
'Pagan', rather than their specific path, to give a clear indication
o f the number o f adherents. The same census reported those
identifying with the Wiccan religion, a specific branch o f
Paganism, numbered 11,026 in England and 740 in Wales.

jgfntonot Defining m oment

tly yttcytinv *>tjrtkrv
ten.
The Mabinogion
12th-13th centuries Alchemy in Europe Wicca Order of Bards.
.bfctivfckbira The Mabinogion is one o f the earliest sources
o f British myths and legends. Written in M iddle
Many claim alchemy
was introduced into
Wicca was first officially
introduced to the world
Ovates and Druids
OBOD, the order's acronym,
Welsh, two main sources outline 11 Welsh tales Latin Europe in 1144 by Gerald Gardner in was founded in 1964 by Ross
dating from earlier, oral traditions. These are The CE when Book o f 1954. The initial premise Nichols, after splitting with
a^oxcuyafbcfKi Red Book ofHergest, and The White Book of the Com position
o f Alchem y was
for the tradition, based
on earlier beliefs and
the Ancient Druid Order. The
focus of the group is to teach
f*crubi>yi*oiduu Uyrt Rhydeich. The first version o f the tales published
translated from Arabic. practices, was initially the principles of Druidry,
i&abttmfe ' ‘ in English date to the 18th and 19th centuries,
yet the versions b y Lady Charlotte Guest are by
The translator himself, conceived by Gardner and since its founding it has
Robert of Chester, and Doreen Valiente a become the most well-known
far the most famous as it was the first complete states this as fact in his decade before. Druid organisation in
volume. The text is said to be made up o f four preface to the book. 1954 the world.
parts, called the 'Four Branches o f the Mabinogi'. 1144 CE 1964

polytheism and
nature-based faiths
For thousands o f years, people engaged in nature worship, revering pantheons
o f gods. Yet this was not one unified religion, but spanned m an y traditions
eople have wondered at the mysteries
P
;of the natural world since the times
o f prehistoric tombs and stone circles
were erected, observing the seasons and
the dance o f the Sun and M oon in the
heavens, and across time, these beliefs have been
held b y major religions and minor cults alike. From
the beginnings of recorded history, humankind
has tried to make sense o f their grandeur, revering
the astral bodies and phenomena o f the natural
world as gods. In m any ancient faiths, the world
began when order was brought to the world by
the gods. For the ancient Babylonians, the first
10
gods w ere a dragon-like race of beings, w ith the
world springing from Tiamat, the great dragon, a
symbol o f chaos and destruction. Ancient Greek
faith was no different, and Hesiod's Theogony, from
700 BCE tells the story o f the beginning of the
cosmos, when the gods established their dominion
over all things. Here, a race o f primordial gods was
born: a way of understanding the ebb and flow o f
the planet's natural cycles, and aetiological myths
sprung up to explain their role and existence in life:
In the beginning was Chaos, the genderless void.
From this primordial being were b o m the deathless
gods: Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the Deep Abyss), Eros
o f the Roman hearth goddess, Vesta,
charged w ith protectin g Vesta’s flame,
from which any householder could
relight their o w n hearth
(Desire), Erebus (Darkness) and N yx (Night). Next,
from Gaia followed Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains)
and Pontus (Sea). A pantheistic belief, Gaia is seen
as the personification o f the Earth itself, and the
beginning o f all life upon it. Through union with
her son-lovers, Uranus and Pontus, she gave birth to
the Titans - the second generation o f gods and the
first pantheon - also, the giants and the sea gods.
A firm distinction is made in Greek m yth between
the primordial gods, and the Olympians - the third
and fourth generation of gods, children o f Kronus,
the youngest Titan w h o overthrew his father,
Uranus, to establish the Olympians gods as the new
 Paganism: From past to presen t

Ancient Greek religion was complex, made up
o f many different traditions, yet it comprised of
three parts: the worship of deities, heroes and
the dead. There was no official priesthood, or
unified canonical text for people to follow, religious
ceremonies were undertaken at a local level,
conducted b y local priests or overseen by well-
Norse religion established families.
household gods at a fam ily shrine set up within
their homes.
Celtic religion usually refers to the beliefs of
the people o f Iron Age and Roman periods in
Britain, along with the Celtic tribes o f Gaul, the
Hallstatt and La Tene cultures o f the 8th century
BCE to the end o f the 5th century CE. Lucan, a
1st century CE Roman poet, acknowledges their

-------0------- W hile most ceremonies were performed at altars,

Originally an oral tradition, much of what
w e know about the religion comes from Old
Norse and Icelandic texts - including the Eddas
and Sagas - which w ere written between the
8th to 14th centuries CE, yet incorporated
elem ents o f earlier beliefs. The Norse pantheon
consisted o f tw o groups of gods, the /Esir, who
represented universal forces in the cosm os and
kept primordial chaos at bay - including the
gods Odin and Thor, and the Vanir - including
Freya and Freyr. While originally warring groups,
they eventually realised that they could co-exist
and formed a truce. Unlike gods in some other
polytheistic religions, the Norse gods were
not all powerful, but limited by fate: Baldr, the
shining one, actually dies at one point, to later
return to life after Ragnarok, the ultimate battle.
Further races appear in the mythology, from
dwarves, to vaettir -anim istic spirits of the land -
to jotnar, or giants, the ancestors and enemies
o f the gods, w ho can intermarry with them. In
practice, followers o f this tradition were not led
by priests, but instead rituals and w orship were
led by kings and chiefs, including sacrifices.
Wandering female seeresses, or volva, moved
from place to place, bartering divination, healing
and prophesy for food and lodging as part of
their shamanic magical practice called seidr.
Interpretatio germanica was
a method used by Germanic
peoples, to equate Roman gods
like Jupiter with their own deities
like Thor, in around the 1st
millennium BCE
divine rulers. Tradition taught that Kronos, too,
would in time be overthrown b y his ow n son, Zeus.
Like in m any ancient polytheistic religions, w e see
the imagery o f a new wave of gods replacing an
older group, and m any scholars see this as a sign o f
a new culture or wave of belief replacing an older
religion w ithin a region, cultural displacement of
belief told through stories o f cosmic battles and
end-times myths.
w ith animal sacrifice and food offerings
worship o f a triad o f deities, including Taranis, god
o f thunder, Esus and Toutatis. Belief in
given up to the gods while prayers the antlered god Cernunnos seems
were said or hymns sung, some to have been widespread, as
M any areas
did not have such temples. evidenced on the Gundestrup
One o f the most shadowy had localised and cauldron, yet m any Iron
and intriguing goddess cults specific gods during Age gods were worshipped
-U
is that o f Nyx, a chthonic the Iron Age. at a local level, and were
goddess, and personification specific to their region.
W e k n ow little
o f night. Texts say that black Much o f what w e know
about these unique
bulls were sacrificed up to her, about these religions comes
local gods and
w ith their entrails burned on from archaeology, and from
purifying fires as m ilk flowed traditions classical writers, whose accounts
upon them. One o f the most were filled with propaganda
well-known forms o f ancient Greek against a foreign people - nothing
cult worship was the Eleusinian Mysteries, about religion is recorded in writing from the
annual rites dedicated to the agricultural goddess Celts themselves.. These accounts report a special
Demeter. In associated myths, the cyclical nature priestly class o f druids, who performed divination
o f the year and its seasons are explained b y the from the flight o f birds and entrails o f sacrifices
abduction o f the goddess’ daughter, Persephone, to animals. Much later, in the Middle Ages, Welsh
the Underworld - which equates to winter - and her and Irish Christian clerics recorded old m yths and
return, with the onset o f spring. Hero cults were a epic tales, attributed to the Celtic peoples, yet the
huge part o f ancient Greek belief, arising from older religion had already died out by this stage. The
ancestor cults, and centring on hero figures thought material remains controversial to this day, with
to be semi-divine. This type o f worship focussed some believing they contain ancient wisdom
on heroes' tombs, with chthonic rites performed passed on b y the bards of oral tradition, while
to honour them like sacrifice and libations o f wine others argue the tales, while attractive, are pure
or grains; they were believed to offer protection to fabrication b y later monks.
those living near to their resting places.
Interpretatio graeca was a concept where
Image source Monsiau
other religions and belief systems were
compared and contrasted to Greek models, in
order to understand them better. M any Roman
beliefs paralleled the Greek, and often deities
were paired with their Greek counterparts:
Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus were
equated as omnipotent sky gods. The Romans
were well-known for the sheer number o f
deities that they worshipped, as well as for
the equation o f native gods with their own
for purposes o f integration o f indigenous
populations during the creation o f their
empire. There was a great focus on the proper
methods o f practice o f prayer and ritual in
Roman beliefs, as it was believed to enhance
social order. The practice o f divination by
auguries was common. Roman religion was
deeply intertwined with normal everyday life, Th e Olym pian pantheon
traditionally includes 12 g b l s l i
and worship often took place at a very low- a symbolic number including* IV
the main Greek deities Zeus, 1
level: most families would worship their own
Poseidon and Athena, yet this
differs depending on sources

11
 While the word 'pagan' has ancient roots, just who were these early
practitioners: the first pagan precursors or just idolatrous heretics?
ngin al^, the w ord 'pagan' only existed

a
: to express a sense o f 'otherness',

J without actually defining a particular

: group or religion. T he word 'paganus'
' was first used in the Roman Empire,
m eaning 'country dweller'. By the 5th century
it had becom e a slur, used by Christians to
describe anyone w h o follow ed the old gods
after Christianisation had becom e widespread,
or follow ed a non-Abrahamic faith in general.
The word held connotations o f barbarism and
belonging to the rustic, uneducated country-folk,
instead o f the m odem , educated city dwellers.
Ironically, most push-back against Christianity
came from groups working w ith in cities. Because
o f this, the religious overtones are now thought
b y som e to stem from 2nd and 3rd century use
b y Roman soldiers to indicate civilians, or even
som eone incompetent belonging to the military
itself, and m any suggest that it was adopted
because o f its symbolism, w ith Christians
considering themselves 'milites Christi', or soldiers
in Christ.
Most o f what w e know about pagans from early
times is purely from the words o f clerics and those
aim ing to press their Christian faith on peoples
that were unbelievers, w ith descriptions o f them
brim m ing w ith prejudice and propaganda against
them. There was, in fact, no such thing as a 'pagan
religion'; people castigated as 'pagans' practiced a to self-identity or describe their o w n beliefs and they were heretics contravening the Christian
range o f beliefs and rituals, and could belong to traditions, and this was the case right up until the faith. By the 16th century the w ord was used
any number o f religious sects across the world - 20th century. to indicate anyone follow in g a false religion -
including all polytheistic and nature-based faiths. During the m edieval period this trend including Catholicism, when seen against the
Equivalent words w ere 'Hellenes' - worshippers o f continued, and ‘pagan’ was used to describe backdrop o f the Protestant Reformation.
Greek pantheons - and 'haithno' for Gothic tribes, anyone follow in g an exotic or obscure religion, Throughout the M iddle Ages and the early
w ith 'heathen' itself linked to Old English 'haederi used to im ply that practitioners worshipped idols: m o d em period, witch-hunts becam e common,
and likened to Old High German 'heidan', with
m any tracing it to mean 'heath-dweller'. None
o f these words w ould be used b y practitioners
12

"By the 17th century the popularity of magic
and related ideas began to wane"
Hermes
Trismegistus
was once
thought by
some to be a
contemporary
of Abraham, yet
scholars now
doubt that he
ever existed
and m any people were tried - and killed - for
performing magic and sorcery. The Inquisition,
beginning in 12th century France, spread
throughout much o f Europe, to the point where
both the Spanish and Portugese led campaigns
against heresy across their empires, with tribunals
undertaken in non-Christian cultures across
Africa, Asia and the Americas. In the 16th century,
the Goa Inquisition went so far as to try recently
converted Christians for reverting back to their old
polytheistic faiths o f Hinduism, as w ell as Islam.
W hile ancient 'pagan' practices w ere m any and
varied, the ancient m ythology o f the Greek and
Roman world itself saw new popularity
with alchemists and magicians alike
during the Renaissance. For those
in the upper echelons o f society, Early
it seemed natural to turn to anthropologists
the occult for answers to used 'pagan' as
questions that could not be
an um brella term,
answered by science. This
projecting colonial bias
only fed the opposition to
the practice o f witchcraft, and
onto disparate and
what was once seen as mere rich polytheistic
folk religion was, by the mid- traditions
15th cen tu ry, view ed as a highly
developed theology o f the Devil,
instigating m ore prosecutions for witchcraft
in Europe. Yet, for the alchemists and magicians,
Graeco-Roman m ythology became popular once
Paganism: F rom past to presen t
more. W ith origins in Late Antiquity linked with
Hellenism and Gnosticism, Hermeticism came into
its own in the 15th century. This was an esoteric
tradition involving the teachings o f the elusive and
mythical figure of Hermes Trismegistus, m entioned
b y Plutarch in the first century CE. His body o f
texts, known as the Herm etic Corpus, was said
to draw upon the ancient Egyptian m ythology of
the god Thoth, and the Greek god Hermes in a
three-fold form. His teachings were said to centre
around alchemy, magic, and astrology. During the
Renaissance, magic and ritual were inexorably
linked with spiritual and religious beliefs, and held
a fascination for many w ho saw their practice as a
high art. The artes magicae, or seven magical arts
set out in 1456, were practices forbidden b y the
Church, that included necromancy, and telling the
future through cards, bones or visions rising in
fire or smoke amongst others. Hermeticism soon
developed to include a wide array o f esoteric beliefs
and ideas.
By the 17th century, the popularity of magic and
related ideas began to wane for many due to the
dangers faced during the witch persecutions. This
tim e was labelled the period of Disenchantment.
During the early m od em period, the
word 'paganism' becam e an umbrella term,
encompassing m any disparate ideas and peoples.
Scholars - in a sense proto-anthropologists - began
to classify all polytheistic faiths under this label,
which held disdainful Western connotations o f the
primitive. These v ery different religions - from all
across the world - w ere syncretised and bundled
together as 'polytheistic faiths', often resulting in
glaringly inaccurate perceptions o f their core values
and beliefs. This trend ran parallel to the
dissolution o f the Holy Roman Empire,
and a rise o f colonialism, with the
British Empire being regarded
with fresh esteem.
The Romanticism o f the
18th and 19th centuries
saw a renewed interest in
the religions and practices
o f the ancient world, from
Greece to Rome, and further
afield. The Brothers Grimm
were working during this time
in Germany, fascinated w ith piecing
together beliefs and practices from earlier
times from folk and fairy tales, w ith Peter Christen
Asbjornsen and Jorgen M oe playing the same role
in Norwegian legends and traditions. With the
Victorians came an obsession w ith the mysteries
o f ancient Egypt, soon labelled as 'Egyptomania'.
Some pantheons, like those o f the Greco-Roman
world, were seen as more civilised than others,
warranting greater attention from inquisitive
followers. During this time, prominent British
figures stepped forward to lead a revival in faiths
closer to home, one o f these being Welsh doctor,
W illiam Price. Influenced b y similar efforts by
antiquarian and sometime-fantasist Iolo Morganwg
in the 18th century, Price, an ardent nationalist,
attempted to revive what he believed was the
ancient Celtic religion o f the druids. As Arch
Druid, he founded a druid group, and organised an
eisteddfod at Pontypridd in 1844.
The famous German alchemist and astrologer,
Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von
Hohenheim, was more com m only known
as Paracelsus, Interested in m edicine and
toxicology, he introduced new Herm etic ideas
o f illness in the 16th century, believing that the
human body and the natural w orld around it
were in sync. This was the core belief at the
centre o f his D octrine o f Signatures, that all
ailments must have a matching cure, with many
o f the plants used resembling the specific part
o f the body they would naturally heal. Many
see him as a prophet, with the ability to divine
the future, yet he is also known for his dabbling
in demonology. Another striking addition to
Herm etic thought, later adopted by many
Pagans today, was the idea of elemental beings,
with a different type o f creature linked to each
element: salamanders for fire, undines for water,
sylphs for air and gnom es for earth. W hile many
m odern Pagans would not believe firm ly in the
existence o f these beings, they do sometim es
come into beliefs and practices for some.
Many fraudulent writings, claiming to be from
Paracalsus, were created in the 16th century -
many so convincing that even experts cannot
tell them apart.
' image source: Wellcorne Collection gallery
 History o f Paganism

Did m odern day Pagan traditions stem from the 19th century interest in magic
and the occult, or do they have a m ore ancient history?
he Occult Revival o f the 19th and Revellers wait for the sunrise

T
20th centuries saw a growing
interest in occult and magical
themes, delving into scientific
on the Summer Solstice at
Stonehenge each year, with
many Pagans marking the
festival in this way

theory, alchemy, astrology and

the world o f mediumship. Movements like
theosophy and Hermeticism claimed to draw
on ancient magic, often passed on to initiates
within secret sects, working undercover to
avoid persecution and detection b y Christian
oppressors. Much o f this drew on the work
o f the alchemists from the 12th century
to the Renaissance, w h o claimed to base
their practices in ancient texts and beliefs -
much o f it Egyptian and classical, including
attributing much to the shadowy figure
o f Hermes Trismegistus himself. Leading
figures in the Occult Revival include Madame
Blavatsky, Samuel Liddell Mathers, Arthur
Edward Waite, and later Aleister Crowley, Dion
Fortune, and Israel Regardie, By 1908 the term
'pagan' had been reclaimed, and became used
to describe nature-worshippers, polytheists and
pantheists alike.
Since then, the definition o f the word has
changed and developed over time, and meaning disrespect o f sacred stories and practices that have dress, or using traditional sacred stories from other
very different things to different people - even often been passed dow n generations, and usually faiths as part o f their own beliefs.
today, and it's one that is constantly being belong to groups that have traditionally been Countless paths and traditions of modern
redefined. W hile m any still equate Paganism with enslaved or persecuted, hence the argument that Paganism exist today most o f these are a form o f
devil worship and Satanism, these are very distinct this cultural appropriation feels like yet another nature worship, and they usually have an element
practices. Others are very wary o f having their own violation o f things they hold sacred. Modern Pagan o f polytheism or pantheism within them. Wicca
religions and indigenous belief systems equated practitioners should always remain aware o f the is one o f the most well-known. Many followers o f
w ith m odern Paganism, particularly non-Western impact of performing sacred rites and rituals from this path call themselves witches, or Wiccans; their
faiths like Voudoun - which stems from African indigenous and m inority religions, one example practice involves honouring the Goddess and her
tradition - as well as Native American and First being cleansing w ith white sage - a sacred Native counterpart, the Horned God. Most practitioners
Nations groups. Appropriation is a major issue that American and First Nations act - m im icking sacred follow a sequence o f festivals known as the W heel
m any feel encroaches on their ow n belief system,
w ith people from outside the cultures and religious
traditions in essence 'cherry picking' beliefs, "Appropriation is a major issue that many feel
deities and practices that appeal to them, and
mimicking these in their ow n personal practice. encroaches on their own belief system"
M any people claim that this shows a huge level of
o f the Year, a cycle o f eight sacred festivals that
follow the d ivine union o f the Goddess and God,
including his birth, their union, and his death
and rebirth. Wiccans often use the sym bol o f the
pentagram to express their beliefs in the elements:
fire, earth, air, water and usually a fifth: spirit; the
pentagram shows h ow all o f these elements are
related, and does not contain any overtones o f
evil or devil worship - it is a potent, inherently
positive sym bol that represents the balance o f
all things in the universe. Wiccans often use the
M oon as a sym bol o f the Goddess, and link their
practices w ith the w axing and w aning o f its cycle.
There are tw o types o f modern druidry or
Druidism: revivalist druidry and reconstructionist
druidry, both called a form o f Celtic spirituality as
they revere Celtic deities and the natural world.
Practitioners com e together to m eet in groups,
called 'groves', similar to the idea o f a W iccan
coven. The Order o f Bards, Ovates and Druids
is an organisation w ith over 20,000 members,
spanning 50 countries, dedicated to teaching
about druidry - the name reflects the
different levels o f initiation into the
tradition. Druids look to the old
stories o f the Welsh and Irish WI
r There
is ddebate as to
myths and legends, like those w
w heth
heth eer today's Pagan
from the Mabinogion, and t p r a c t ic e ' fo llow ancient
practices
celebrate the deities therein, rd f, . ,...
, \ i\ traditions
traditioi or attem pt to /
M any believe that the ancient u j
teachings o f the original {iK
revive what w e think /
r e v lv e 1
druids are contained w ithin w u* those
thos traditions
these stories, and this is the on ly
w ay o f recovering know ledge o f
such ancient practices that w ere lost
w ith the com ing o f Christianity, along w ith
the writings o f Christian clerics. Many argue
against this, saying that these traditions do not
trace back to ancient times, and are revivalist
traditions. Claims abound that the tradition was
reinvented in m odern times, tracing m odern
druidry back to 18th century Britain w hen the
Image sout€e:Gett
A 19th centu ry im aginative
recreation o f w hat an
ancient Arch Druid m ight
look like, from The Costume
o f the Original Inhabitants
o f the British Islands
tomb in Anglesey
i
1
Here, w e see a
pentagram laid out
on a Wiccan altar.
Th e pentagram
sym bolises
veneration o f the
elem ents and
cardinal points
Ethno-
Iron A g e and Romano-British people - and their
druid priests - were glorified and idealised w ithin nationalism:
the Romanticist m ovement. M any say this gained
religious elements in the 19th century, when
Heathenry, racism
practitioners tried to recreate a form o f indigenous and the alt-right
British spirituality, and argue there is no w ay that
ancient Iron Age practices can be reproduced
accurately, as too little is known about them; many Unfortunately, m ythology and religious traditions
^ practitioners refute this. have a long history o f being co-opted by minority
thenry, or Heathenism, is a groups with white nationalist and racist agendas.
Ethno-nationalists and the alt-right often use ideas
K
>an path that practitioners
o f an ancient hereditary tradition and belief system
%
d ew as follow in g the
practices o f the Germanic
as a way of stirring up a tribal sense o f belonging
to a certain place and culture, which by default
castigates anyone w ho does not share these
Peoples o f the Iron A ge
traditions or tribal heritage as an outsider: often
and early m edieval era,
posing them as people to be feared, or conquered
including Denmark and the as an enemy. Today, some on the fringes o f the
southern areas o f Norway Heathen movem ent misuse their tenets and
and Sweden. Worship
myths, peddling racist agendas through the idea
o f a 'pure1 race, w ho can trace their roots back to
| \) centres around animism,
the Vikings, imagining them selves as warriors or
ind the pre-Christian gods shield maidens. Many of these people are shunned
the Vikings - Odin, Freyja, by mainstream Heathens, w ho remain angry that
their beliefs are being misused and misrepresented
and others in the pantheon.
by those with Neo-Nazi, and similar, agendas. Many
Practices and beliefs are reconstructed o f these ethno-nationalists are intent on spreading
from fragmentary archaeological evidence and ludicrous conspiracy theories, posing non-white
historical texts, including the Prose and Poetic people as infiltrators intent on supplanting an
imaginary 'European race', and usually targeting
Eddas, relating to myths, legends and histories.
m inority and vulnerable groups like refugees
T w o main parts o f the tradition are sei5r - a fleeing war as their enemies. Many such individuals
shamanic type o f magic that includes divination have been linked to terrorist attacks throughout
and shamanic journeying - and galdr, using spells Europe and America. These groups should not
be confused with true followers o f the modern
and incantations, often in the form o f chanting
mainstream Heathenry, and they can often by
or song. Other practices include honouring the identified by their use o f the terms 'folkish' or
gods w ith libations o f alcohol, often w ith a toast 'volk*, and sometim es claim 'Odinism ' o r 'W otanism'
as their faith.
to the gods. Other forms o f Heathenry can include
traditions stem m ing from old German gods, or
those o f the Anglo-Saxons.
18 Gods o f ancient Egypt 26 The Greeks and
their religion

Km' ^

The Twelve
; } Olympians

42 Viking myths
 U'— JL WHitT WW
f 34 Ancient Roman religion 38 Religion o f the Celts

44 Voluspa: The Prophecy

o f the Seeress

■ifc§
■ if
/ Ang o-Saxon
ElPaganism / a\‘ \u 1« | 1Sgir
■m
b irwrvByjj H Divinities |
' of death
- tfc. 'Ml %
 The ancient Egyptians are perhaps best know n for their com plex
religion, w hose hundreds o f gods w ere worshipped in som e o f the
most spectacular temples ever built

Written by Pom Reseigh-Lincoln ^

-M - s early as 17,000 BCE, carvings
.M l o f w ild cattle alongside strange
Mlf t hybrid creatures at the site o f Qurta
in southern Egypt suggest an
Ml early belief in the hidden forces of
ML ML nature. W ith Egypt's earliest stone
sculpture at about 7,000 years old believed to
represent a cow, it is clear this was an animal that
played an important role in the lives o f the early
Egyptians. So too did their desert environment,
in which the dominant Sun was worshipped as a
variety o f gods, much like the River Nile, whose
annual life-bringing floodwaters were likewise
venerated as divine.
As these aspects o f the natural world gradually
developed into individual gods, each region o f
Egypt also had their ow n local deities whose
characters evolved through stories and myths.
One o f the key myths for the ancient Egyptian
people was the story o f creation, when the
primeval waters o f chaos receded to reveal a
mound o f earth on which life first appeared.
Yet with so many different deities throughout
the Nile Valley, each region claimed that life had
been created by their ow n local god. In Egypt's
earliest capital, Memphis, their chief deity Ptah
had emerged from the waters to summon up all
living things by simply speaking their names,
while at the nearby city o f Sais, creation was
regarded as the handiwork of the goddess Neith.
Meanwhile at Hermopolis, life had been sparked
into being through the combined energies of
eight gods, four male frogs and four female
snakes, while in the far south at Aswan, the ram­
headed god Khnum had created all life on his
potter's wheel.
But the most important creation myth centred
on Heliopolis, where the supreme deity was the
Sun god Ra. Worshipped as 'the Mother and
Father o f AH', the Sun produced tw in children
Tefnut, goddess o f moisture, and Shu, god o f air,
who in turn produced the sky goddess Nut and
the earth god Geb, parents o f tw in couples Isis
and Osiris, Seth and Nephthys.
W ith Isis and her brother Osiris claimed as
Egypt's first rulers, they were succeeded by
their son Horus, then the 'Followers of Homs',
demigods w h o preceded the first human rulers,
each o f whom was regarded as the gods' child.
Over the subsequent 3,500 years o f pharaonic
history (c. 3100 BCE-395), Egypt's pantheon o f
deities continued to expand as more gods were
introduced and some merged together, creating a
complex and varied pattern o f religion.

18
 History o f Paganism

Meet the gods of Egypt &/

Yfo
\|| T o the
Egyptians,
w ritin g w as sacred
iL
\ |A
A lm ost 1,500 deities are know n b y nam e and as it gave reliability, and
J) enabled all kn ow ledge
m any o f them com bine w ith each other and share
Tfe, o f the w orld to be A ff
characteristics. Here are som e o f the m ost important recorded f V>

God of the Sun
Ra was Egypt's most important
Sun god, also known as Khepri
when rising, Atum when setting
and the Aten as the solar disc.
As the main creator deity, Ra also
produced twin gods Shu
and Tefnut.
God of the Earth
As the grandson of Ra and the
son o f Shu and Tefnut, green-
skinned Geb represented the
Earth and was usually shown
reclining, stretched out
beneath his sister-wife Nut.
Goddess of the sky
As granddaughter of Ra, Nut
was the sky goddess whose
star-spangled body formed
the heavens, held above her
brother Geb by their father
Shu, god of air.
Goddess of motherhood
and magic
The daughter of Geb and Nut,
Isis was the perfect mother
who eventually became
Egypt's most important deity,
'more clever than a million
gods' and 'more powerful
than 1,000 soldiers'.
O siris
God of resurrection
and fertility
Isis's brother-husband Osiris
was killed by his brother
Seth, only to be resurrected
by Isis to become Lord of the
Underworld and the god of
new life and fertility.

H oru s Nephthys
God of Kingship God of storms and chaos Goddess of protection
When his father Osiris Represented as a composite As fourth child of Geb and Nut,
became Lord of the mythical creature, Seth was Nephthys was partnered with
Underworld, Horus a turbulent god who killed her brother Seth, but most
succeeded him as king on his brother Osiris, only to be often accompanied her sister
Earth, and became the god defeated by Osiris's son and Isis as twin protectors of the
with whom every human avenger Horus, helped by Isis. king and of the dead.
pharaoh was then identified.
 The anim al cults o f ancient Egypt
The Egyptians greatly respected the natural
world, particularly animals whose spirits were
worshipped as divine. With Egypt’s earliest
known art representing animals alongside
humans, various creatures were placed in
human burials as early as c. 4 0 0 0 BCE. and
the relationship was a fundamental part of
Egypt's evolving religion.
Gods could be portrayed entirely as an
animal, or in human (anthropomorphic) form
with an animal's head, as imitated by masked
priests. Many deities also had a sacred
creature, which was worshipped in life then
mummified at death.
The most important of these was the Apis
Bull of Memphis. Believed to house the soul
of the creator god Ptah when alive, it was
then worshipped as the underworld god
Osiris after its death when the next bull was
selected to continue the cycle. Other sacred
bulls and cows were worshipped elsewhere
in Egypt, with other animal cults including the
sacred crocodiles of Sobek, representing the
power of the king, and the sacred rams of the
creator god Khnum. There were also the ibis
and baboons representing the god Thoth, and
the cats sacred to the feline deity Bastet. Such
creatures were mummified in their millions
as physical manifestations of the divine and
symbols of Egypt's devotion to its creatures.

Ptah T h o th N eith Am un H a th o r Sekhm et

God of creation and
craftsmen
Ptah was a creator god and
patron of craftsmen whose
temple at Memphis, known
as the ‘House of Ptah's Soul' -
‘hut-ka-ptah’ - is the origin of
the word ‘Egypt’.
God of learning and
the moon
As the ibis-headed god of
wisdom and patron of scribes,
Thoth invented writing
and brought knowledge to
humans. His curved beak
represented the crescent
moon, and his main cult
centre was Hermopolis.
Goddess of creation
As a primeval creator deity
represented by her symbol
of crossed arrows and shield,
warlike Neith, 'Mistress of the
Bow', was worshipped at her
cult centre Sais in the Delta.
God of Thebes
Initially the local god of
Thebes, whose name means
'the hidden one', Amun was
combined with the Sun god
Ra to become Amun-Ra, king
of the gods and Egypt's
state deity.
Goddess of love, beauty
and motherhood
Often represented as a cow
or a woman with cow ears,
Hathor symbolised pleasure
and joy and as a nurturing
deity protected both the
living and the dead.
Goddess of destruction
The lioness goddess Sekhmet
controlled the forces of
destruction and was the
protector of the king in battle.
Her smaller, more kindly form
was Bastet the cat goddess,
protector of the home.

"Gods could be portrayed

t in animal or human form,
or as a human with an
animal's head"
•---------------------- -------------------------------- .

Anubis T a w eret Bes M aat

God of embalming
and the dead
The black jackal god
Anubis was the guardian
of cemeteries and god of
embalming, who helped judge
the dead before leading their
souls into the afterlife.
Goddess of the home and
childbirth
Taweret was a knife-wielding
hippopotamus goddess who
guarded the home, a protector
of women and children who
was invoked during childbirth to
scare away evil forces.
God of the home and
childbirth
Bes was a dwarf-like god o f the
household who protected women
and children alongside Taweret,
like her carrying knives for
protection, in his case he carried
musical instruments for pleasure.
Goddess of truth
and justice
As the deity who kept the
universe in balance, Maat’s
symbol was an ostrich feather
against which the hearts o f the
dead were weighed and judged in
order to achieve eternal life.

I
 History o f Paganism
Temples
of the gods
The Egyptians built temples
as homes for their gods,
believing their spirits resided
inside their statues to which
a constant stream of offerings
were presented
As early as c. 3500 BCE, the Egyptians built
temples for their gods. Initially made of w ood and
reeds, these soon became permanent structures
o f stone that form ed the centre o f almost every
settlement throughout the Nile Valley.
Evolving over time into ever m ore elaborate
structures, the Egyptians aligned their temples to
their environment, to the cardinal points, and to
the m ovem ent o f the Sun and stars.
Each temple's sacred space was also enclosed by
a huge exterior w all o f mud-brick, within which the
temple itself was made up o f a series o f successive
stone-built shrines and courtyards. Accessed
through pylon-shaped gateways once flanked by
tall cedar w ood flag poles and secured b y huge
cedar w ood doors, the temple walls were covered in
brightly painted scenes o f gods and kings, and like
their floors and ceilings, often inlaid with precious
metals and gemstones.
Then, to heighten the sense o f reverence, the
temple layout became progressively smaller and
darker until reaching the innermost sanctuary,
which housed the gods' cult statues. These were
believed to contain the gods' spirits, before which
daily rituals were performed to maintain the divine
presence and satisfy the gods w ho would in turn
protect Egypt. W ith the gods in residence, the
temples became storehouses o f divine power that
could then be redirected through rituals for the
benefit o f the country.
To keep these sacred spaces ritually pure, only
royalty and designated clergy were allowed inside
- the majority of people were confined to the
temple's outer areas, where the main administrative
buildings were located. For Egypt's temple
complexes were not only religious centres, but their
outer precincts a combination o f tow n hall, library,
university, medical centre and law court - places
where people came together for the purposes o f
com m unity life at the heart o f which lay the spirits
o f the very gods themselves.
Obelisks
Beyond the third pylon stood a
series o f obelisks up to 32 metres
high. These granite pillars were
once tipped w ith gold to catch
the first rays o f the sun and w ere
erected by pharaohs Tuthmosis
I, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III.
Innermost sanctuary
The most sacred part o f the temple was
the innermost shrine housing the gold cult
statue o f Amun, before which the high priest
perform ed the daily rites and made offerings
stored in the surrounding chambers.
Hypostyle hall
Beyond the second pylon lay the roofed
hypostyle hall. Made up o f 134 columns, most
15 metres high w ith the central tw elve columns
21 metres high, each was carved to imitate
papyrus reeds, since the hall symbolised the
primeval waters from which life first emerged.
First court
The temple's first court once housed ten
huge papyrus-form stone columns that
form ed the Kiosk o f King Taharqa (690-
664 BCE) built along the main east-west
axis, together w ith several smaller shrines
and royal statues from various periods.
Pylon gateway
The first o f a series o f ten monumental
stone gateways originally w ith huge
doors o f bronze-covered cedarwood.
A series o f eight grooves in the pylon's
facade housed a series o f 60-metre-
high cedarwood flagpoles to which the
gods' standards were attached.
W orship beyond
the temples
With access to Egypt's temples restricted to royalty
and clergy, the temples' outer walls sometimes
incorporated shrines featuring images of "listening
ears'. These allowed the gods to hear prayers
from the general population, with the Amun of
Karnak praised as a god 'who comes at the voice
of the poor', while the goddess Hathor ‘listens
to the petitions of every young girl who trusts in
her'. People also worshipped at home within small
domestic shrines, containing small busts of deceased
ancestors and statuettes of favourite gods and past
monarchs. The deified queen. Ahmose-Nefertari,
and her son, Amenhotep I, were more popular than
Amun at the workers' village Deir el-Medina. Families
within the home also used magic.
 Gods o f ancient Egypt

Temple of Rhonsu
This smaller temple was built
for Khonsu, son o f Amun and
his goddess w ife Mut. With her
temple located a little further
south, it is connected to the
temples o f Khonsu and Amun
by further sphinx-lined avenues.

Temple harbour
Like most temples, Karnak
was linked to the Nile by
a canal which opened out
into a harbour fronting the
entrance. This allowed the
gods' cult statues to travel
in and out o f the temple by
water, and was also used
for royal visits.

Sphinx avenue
The processional route along Kam ak’s main
east-west axis lined w ith sphinxes whose rams'
heads symbolised Amun's sacred animal. Further
sphinx-lined avenues ran along the temple’s north-
south axis to the temple o f Amun's w ife Mut, and
a further five kilometres south to Luxor temple.

The festival calendar

The Opening of the Year
(N ew Year's Day)
Month 1, day 1 (19 July)
The Egyptian New Year
began with the start of the
annual Nile flood, which
brought water to the desert
landscape and allowed
crops to grow. With the
floodwaters repeating the
moment of creation, it was
a time of national rejoicing
when hymns claimed
"the whole land leaps for
joy' and people threw
flowers, offerings and even
themselves into the water.
Opet Festival
Month 2. days 15-26
(September)
The Opet Festival began as
an 11-day event when the cult
statue of Amun was taken
out of Karnak. accompanied
by musicians, dancers,
soldiers and the public.
The procession travelled
five kilometres south to
the temple of Luxor, where
the god's statue was joined
by the pharaoh in secret
ceremonies designed to
replenish royal power, amidst
feasting and rejoicing.
The Festival of Khoiak
Month 4, days 18-30
(November)
The Festival of Khoiak
celebrated the life, death
and resurrection of Osiris.
Since this was based on the
agricultural cycle in which
the crops cut down were
grown again, ceremonies
included planting seeds in
Osiris-shaped containers. It
was celebrated when the Nile
floodwaters were receding,
leaving rich, black sediment
on the riverbanks into which
new crops were planted.
Festival of Bastet
Month 8, days 4-5
The cat goddess, Bastet,
was closely linked to the
lioness Sekhmet and cow­
like Hathor, these deities’
lively worship involving
much singing, dancing and
drinking - all key elements
of Bastet's annual fertility
festival. Boatloads of men
and women would arrive
at her cult centre Bubastis
to celebrate, when it was
reported that 'more wine is
drunk at this feast than in the
whole year'.
Festival of the Valley
New Moon, Month 10
At the annual Festival of
the Valley, the cult statue
of Amun was taken out
from Karnak and across
the Nile to Thebes's west
bank. While it was here, the
statue visited the tombs
and temples of the previous
kings that were buried
there, accompanied by the
local population, who would
also visit the tombs of their
own relatives to feast with
their spirits and leave them
food offerings.
Festival of the Beautiful
Meeting
New Moon. Month 11
This festival celebrated
the marriage between the
god Horus of Edfu and
goddess Flathor of Dendera.
Beginning 14 days before
the new moon. Hathor's cult
statue was transported 70
kilometres south to Edfu
temple, where it was placed
beside the statue of Horus.
14 more days of festivities
involved the participation of
the royal family alongside the
general population.
 History o f Paganism

Pow er of the priests

Ancient Egypt's priests were known as 'servants of god',
who carried out religious rites before the gods’ statues
instead of a human congregation

Each successive pharaoh was regarded as a child
o f the gods, and as the gods' representative on
Earth, was also the supreme high priest o f every
temple. However, with so many different temples
throughout Egypt, the pharaoh's duties had to
be delegated to each temple's high priest, who
was often a royal relative selected by the king to
guarantee their loyalty.
Within large temples like Karnak or Memphis,
the power of the priests was considerable, since
the temples owned much land and the temple
treasuries were v ery wealthy. The priests also
controlled the gods' cult statues, which functioned
as oracles, whose pronouncements were interpreted
b y the priests, and could pass judgment in legal
cases and even influence royal succession. A t times
when the crown was weak, the high priests' powers
became so great that some took on additional roles
as military generals, whose struggles w ith the
monarchy could lead to civil war.
Yet most o f the tim e the priests carried out their
role, helping the king maintain strong relations
w ith the gods whose spirits were believed to dwell
within their cult statues. Housed in the sanctuary
at the innermost part o f the temple, it was here
that the high priest led daily rites, assisted b y a
staff o f male and female clergy, from the 'god’s
w ife' priestess to the deputy high priest who
oversaw supplies o f offerings and the temple
scribes w ho kept accounts and composed ritual
texts. There were also lector priests w h o read out
these texts, temple astronomers or 'hour priests'
w h o calculated the correct timings for rituals,
and temple dancers, singers and musicians
w h o entertained the gods and impersonated
them in ritual dramas wearing masks and
elaborate costumes. Other staff included
the temple gardeners, brewers, bakers
and butchers w ho supplied the daily
offerings, the temple weavers, jewellers,
barbers and w ig makers w ho supplied
both the gods and their clergy, and the
numerous craftsmen, carpenters and
builders w ho undertook building work,
carried out repairs and kept the temples
in good order. In fact so numerous were
such personnel that eventually over
100,000 people were em ployed in the
upkeep o f Egypt's three main temples
o f Karnak, Memphis and Heliopolis.

Magic and m edicine

Ancient Egyptian religion and magic were
indistinguishable, and hidden forces in both
were regarded as the main cause of illness
Although most communities had part-time medical men and
'wise women', people also slept in the temple's medical centre
(sanatorium) in the hope they would be cured through divinely
inspired dreams. These were interpreted by the priests, some
of whom were also doctors. Since goddess Sekhmet controlled
the forces of disease, her priests, believed capable of calming
her, were therefore doctors specialising in diseases. Priests
of the scorpion goddess Selket, patron of healers, cured
bites and stings, while childhood illnesses were treated by
invoking the mother goddess Isis, whose magic appears in
various prescriptions including "a remedy which Isis prepared
for the headache of Ra'. Even deified mortals were believed
to have such powers, from the polymath Imhotep claimed
as a son of the god Ptah and later identified with the Greek
god of medicine Asclepius to the official Amenhotep, credited
with miracle cures a thousand years after his death. In most
cases, treatment involved wearing amulets, reciting magical
incantations and taking medicines made from all manner of
ingredients, from water poured over gods' statues to sour milk
and even crocodile dung.
 Gods o f ancient Egypt

Night f Before dawn ^

Ritual ablutions
Since the priests had to bathe
Ritual ablutions
To be ritually pure, the priests
twice a day and twice at night,
bathed in the temple's sacred lake,
a fourth bath maintained ritual
shaved off all hair and gargled
purity, while the hour priest
with natron salt solution, before
astronomers monitored the
dressing in linen robes and
night sky from the temple
k reed-woven sandal.
roof'observatory'.
/ v ; a

r Sunrise ^
Sunset Morning ceremony
Evening ceremony At dawn the high priest entered
In a reverse of the morning the shrine and awoke the god's
ceremony, the high priest once spirit in its statue. This was then
more entered the shrine to put \ * l* * * 'iZ cleansed, anointed and dressed,
and offered the finest foods
the god's spirit to rest, burning
spicy kyphi incense to create a while frankincense was burned
restful environment. k to purify the surroundings. .

Evening
Ritual ablutions
To maintain ritual purity
throughout the day, the
priests had to bathe once
again before re-entering th
eringthe
gods' presence.
A
DAY IN THE
LIFEOFA Pre-noon
HIGH PRIEST W
•
Reversion of offerings
and ritual ablutions
Once the god had its fill of food
The high priest's day was a series offerings, these reverted to the
priests as breakfast. Then to
A of duties performed at set times a maintain ritual purity, the high
W to satisfy the gods who would L priest bathed once again before
re-entering the gods'
then keep all things in order presence.

W Various time; ^
Various rituals
With numerous rituals
performed by the high priest
and clergy at various times,
these were not only set by
k the 'hour priest’ astronomers
k but carefully measured with a
clepsydra water clock.
1 W Noon ^
' f Midday ceremony "
A t noon, the high priest re­
entered the shrine, this time
burning myrrh resin while
A I sprinkling water to further 1
M k purify the temple's shrines M

k .

The high priests' powers became so great

© Alamy, Corbis, Joe Cummings. Thinkstock. Walters Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons

that [it] could lead to civil war"

- . -

Priestesses
Women were priestesses to both goddesses and gods,
undertaking similar roles to their male counterparts and
receiving the same pay. The most common priestess
title was 'chantress', with some women impersonating
goddesses in rituals and the wives of high priests holding
the title ‘leader of the musical troupe'. Although most high
priests were men, as were the lector priests who read out
sacred texts, women held both these offices at times. Yet
the most important priestess was the 'God's Wife', a title
held by a succession of royal women acting as the human
consort of the god Amun at Karnak. The God's Wife led
sacred processions with the king or his deputy the high
priest, and like them could enter the innermost shrine
to make offerings to keep the gods content. She also
took an active role in defending Egypt by magical means,
shooting arrows into ritual targets and burning images of
enemies. As the role brought great wealth and prestige,
kings appointed their sisters or daughters as God's Wife
to enhance their own status. Eventually regarded as the Anahi was a Chantress of Amun and the
equivalent of a king, shown with kingly sceptres, these
women could delegate on the king's behalf, both within
j Leader o f the Musicians of Osiris and Khnum,
around 1100 BCE. Images show her playing her
the temple and in matters of state. I sacred sistrum rattle for the gods' enjoyment
 History o f Paganism
The Greeks
and their
religion
Ancient Greek religion was diverse, contradictory,
and endlessly inventive, much like the
Greeks them selves
Written by Mare DeSantis
reek religion had no formal set of
G
beliefs or practices to which all had to
conform or accept. The Greeks had their
mythological stories, m any o f which
were shared all over their country, but
they did not develop a rigorous system o f beliefs
about them. The Greeks, for example, had no one
sacred text, such as the Bible, at the core o f their
religion. Often Greek myths differed from place to
place, as well as the particular stories told about the
gods and heroes.
Sometimes these stories were w ildly
contradictory o f others. Several gods had clearly
overlapping areas o f authority that could not be
reconciled. Greek m ythology was the product o f
centuries o f unregulated storytelling by som e o f
history's m ost creative and innovative people. Their
myths explained the origins o f the gods, the nature
o f the world in which the Greeks lived, and what
they believed to be their history. If their m ythology
m ight appear to be lacking coherence at times, that
is a m od em judgement that would have puzzled
the Greeks themselves.
Furthermore, unlike the case in m odern times,
the ancient Greeks lacked a concept o f a clear
division between the realm o f religion and that
26
of non-religious life. For them, it was a seamless
whole, with the gods, o f which there were many,
demanding and receiving the worship and
sacrifice delivered by both the state and by private
individuals regularly.
In fact, the Greeks had no specific word for
'religion1as w e m ight understand it. Religion was
simply part o f their everyday life. Rituals were
conducted at all important public and private
events and a deity was routinely consulted before
any major undertaking. A fortunate result in one's
life was often responded to w ith a votive offering to
a god, vow s o f thanks, or some other public form o f
recognition o f the particular deity to w hom success
was owed.
There were 12 major gods and goddesses o f
the Greeks. These were the Olympians, so named
because they reside atop Mount Olympus. Zeus was
the lord and master o f them all. Hera, his w ife (and
sister) was his queen. With him also was Aphrodite,
goddess o f love, bright Apollo, and his virgin
sister Artem is the Huntress. Demeter, goddess o f
growing things, was there also. Athena there was,
the goddess o f w isdom and patroness o f heroes.
Hephaestus too was an Olympian. He was the lame
but matchless smith o f the gods. Hermes was Zeus'
 The Greeks and their religion

Fam ilies *
f b elieved that
th ey m igh t b e able to
fin d on e another in the
afterlife if the m em bers
w ere buried close to
one another f-

Alexander Consulting the

Oracle o f Apollo (painting b y
Louis Jean Francois Lagrenee)
 History o f Paganism
The city o f Delphi was the
home of Apollo's oracle
The Olympic
Games
One festival that was attended by Greeks o f all the
cities was the Olympia in honour o f Zeus Olym pios
(of Mount Olympus). First recorded as taking
place in 776 BCE at Olympia, the Olym pic Games
were held every four years and only the Greeks
were allowed to attend them. The games initially
involved just one event, a foot race, but over time,
several other com petitions w ere added to the
O lym pic programme for the competitors.
Though it was an athletic competition, the
religious nature o f the festival was always present.
The Olym pia began w ith sacrifices and prayers
offered to Zeus. Next, all o f the competitors swore
an oath before Zeus' altar and statue. Breaking this
oath might result in a stiff fine or disqualification.
There w ere then two further public sacrifices, with
one conducted on the day o f the full m oon and the
second on the last day o f the festival.
While the games were being held, all of the
states o f Greece were bound to observe an
armistice. This sacred truce was im plem ented so
that com petitors and others travelling to watch
the games could attend them w ithout fear of harm
befalling them.
—*
—
fleet-footed messenger. Brutal Ares was the lord of
war, while Poseidon was the god o f the sea and its
creatures. Rounding out the Olympian pantheon
was Dionysus, the god o f wine and revelry.
Dionysus was a later addition; earlier pantheons
instead feature hearthfire goddess Hestia.
In addition to the m ighty Olympians, the Greeks
had hundreds o f lesser deities. Having so
m any gods o f their own meant they
were relatively open-minded
when it came to the gods of
non-Greeks. They readily
identified or equated
foreign gods with similar
ones o f their own. They
had no cause to deny
the existence of anyone
else's gods. The easy­
going attitude toward
the deities o f foreign
peoples did not mean the
Greeks were unserious about
religion. Religious practices
were taken very seriously. Treaties
between city-states were solemnised
by oaths sworn b y the gods as well as sacrifices.
Breaking such a treaty might bring about a disaster.
The gods o f the Greeks had their ow n priests and
priestesses. These men and w om en oversaw the
rites performed in honour o f the gods and tended
their temples, shrines, and sanctuaries. They did
not involve themselves with the spiritual concerns
o f the worshippers. There was little in the w ay o f
formal doctrine for priests to know or follow. There
were several features to worship that all Greeks had
in common.
"There were 12 major
gods and goddesses
o f the Greeks. These
were the Olympians"
PRAYING
Prayers were the usual means by which people
communicated with the gods. The primary parts of
a prayer were the invocation, in which the person
called upon the deity using his name, title, and
abode; the argument, in which the supplicant gave
reasons to the god as to w h y he should help, which
might include a recitation o f good deeds performed
by the mortal or making a note that the god was
known for his helpfulness; and the prayer itself,
which was a request for som e kind o f divine aid.
M any lands o f relief m ight be sought, such as an
end to sickness or drought.
PURIFICATION
The cleansing o f the com munity from pollution
(or miasma), was of enormous importance to the
Greeks. Private individuals might be purified by
washing. Often purification was undertaken before
som e important action or perhaps as required by
the calendar. The Athenian Assembly
underwent ritual purification
before the beginning of
a meeting b y having a
sacrificed piglet carried
around the members.
Sometimes a com munity
might undergo a mass
purification driving out
human scapegoats.
Ritual purification
could be effected by
washing or sprinkling.
Fumigation was also
used, along with seawater
and water drawn from a sacred
spring. Sacrifices would also suffice for
purification, with the blood o f the victim used to
wash away the pollution o f an unclean person.
SACRIFICES
Sacrifices were o f vast importance in Greek
worship. Both animals and vegetables were seen
as appropriate sacrifices to the gods. With animals,
the victim was brought to the altar of a god in
a procession where it was sprinkled with water.
These drops caused the animal to nod, which to
the Greek m ind was its acceptance o f its sacrifice.

Hair was then cut from the animal and a prayer
was said to indicate what the sacrificer wished
for in return for the sacrifice. The animal was
dispatched via a cut to the throat and its meat
divided out into portions. T he first was for the god.
The second, the entrails, were roasted and eaten
by the participants o f the sacrifice. The rest of
the meat was then boiled and given out to those
present at the ritual.
FESTIVALS
Festivals were important parts o f Greek public
religion. Hundreds o f public religious festivals were
held every year by the various communities of
ancient Greece. About one in every three days of
the year was devoted to a festival o f one land or
another. Though particular practices and the deities
most prominently honoured might
vary from city to city, religion
was a central element that
Apollo's
served to distinguish Greeks
from non-Greeks. oracle at Delphi
The basic features continued to offer
o f a festival were the pronouncem ents
procession, the sacrifice,
until the shrine was
and the feast. Outside o f
destroyed b y the
these, local practices could
in vadin g H eruli in
differ widely. Most festivals
owed their origins to
267 CE
agricultural rituals carried out
to ensure a bountiful harvest. They
were typically held seasonally w ith the
Thesmophoria held in honour o f Demeter, m ostly
The Greeks and their religion
ORACLES
As m ight be imagined, with sickness and
death ever-present in ancient times, the Greeks
were often very anxious about the future. The
reasonable desire for reassurance led m any to seek
out advice from the gods, which was obtained
through their oracles. There were ten such oracles
who foretold the future, after a fashion, for mortal
men. Foremost among these was the oracle o f
Delphi, where the Pythia, a priestess o f Apollo,
delivered her pronouncements on behalf o f the
god. In words attributed to Apollo himself, the very
purpose o f the construction o f his temple there
was so that he could give 'unfailing advice through
prophetic responses' in it. Another famous oracular
shrine was that o f Zeus found at Dodona in Epirus.
Questions put to the god's oracle were often very
personal, such as whether the supplicant
should get married or make a voyage
across the sea. The response was
usually simply yes or no.
Sometimes the answers could
be more complicated and have
major consequences. Right
before the m ighty Persians
invaded Greece for a second
tim e in 4 80 BCE, the Athenians
consulted the oracle at Delphi.
The Athenians knew that their
situation was dire, and some were
even considering packing up and leaving
for safety in Italy. The historian Herodotus tells us
that the priestess Aristonice told them that ‘only
l a y
tfiS
On, ..................... ........
The Greeks believed that the dead needed help
in crossing the boundary between the world of
the living and Hades, the gloom y realm o f the
dead. Those left behind sought to bury the dead
as quickly as they could, or else the unburied
dead w ould be condem ned to roam for many
years along the banks o f the Styx, the river that
marked the boundary between them and Hades.
The retrieval o f the bodies of the dead
and their proper burial was of tremendous
im portance to the living. In 4 0 5 BCE, ten
Athenian admirals won a great naval victory at
Arginusae but failed to collect the corpses of
their slain sailors on account of a storm that
came up suddenly. On their return to Athens
they were put on trial for dereliction of duty
despite having won the battle. Several o f the
admirals were executed.
W ithin days of death, the body was to be
buried, with the corpse being carried to the
place o f burial. Both bodily burial and cremation
were available, with cremation thought to be
m ore prestigious. The ashes o f the dead were
placed in an urn w hich was itself then buried.
M ost Athenian burials took place on the roads
leading out of the city. Burials inside the city
were not allowed because o f a wish to avoid
pollution by the dead. A fter interment, the
graves were not forgotten, but were tended to
regularly by the surviving relatives, especially by
the wom en of the family.

taking place in the autumn.
Another important festival was the Great
Dionysia held annually in Athens. Athens was
particularly fond o f festivals, and was said to have
held twice as many as any other city in Greece.
Plays formed an important part o f the Dionysia,
with four days devoted to such presentations, three
for tragedies and the fourth and last was reserved
for comedies.
the w ooden wall shall not fall.' This baffling
response was open to many interpretations,
but Themistocles, the leading man at Athens,
cleverly interpreted this to mean that they
would have to rely on their navy, the ships
themselves being made o f wood, to fend o ff
the Persians. The Athenians would go on
to lead the combined Greek fleet to a great
naval victory at Salamis soon afterward.

The Parthenon was the great

temple o f Athena in Athens

29
 History o f Paganism

Lord of Olympus
Mighty Zeus was the lord and king of the Olympian gods,
Messenger o f the gods
and father of many gods and heroes. His domain was the Son of Zeus by the nymph Maia, Herm es was the god of
sky and he was master o f the weather. His animal was the messengers and travellers. He acted to guide others to their
eagle, the greatest o f all birds. Zeus was the m ost powerful destinations. In the Iliad, he brings King Priam of Troy through
of all the gods - perhaps even stronger than all of them put the Greek lines to meet with Achilles to recover the body o f his
together - yet he was not invincible, and he could not defy slain son, Hector. W hen Hera, Athena and Aphrodite needed
the wishes of his divine brethren with impunity. to find their way to Mount Ida to
Zeus oversaw oaths and hospitality, while his divine participate in the Judgment
radiance was enough to burn mere m ortals to ashes. He of Pans, it was Hermes ----- --
also had a roving eye and would have many amorous trysts w ho led them to their
with nymphs and other w om en w ho w ere not his wife. destination. It was also jt p jf
Through Danae he w ould father the hero Perseus, slayer of Hermes w ho conducted d f'Jt / |r
serpent-crowned Medusa,- Heracles, destined to become Persephone out of the M
a demigod on Olympus; and Helen, the m ost beautiful Underworld and to T
woman o f all. Zeus had many other dalliances, and Hera, Demeter in the world £
his wife, would seek vengeance for her humiliation by it ] j J i
afflicting them.

ians
Th e gods o f Olym pus w ere a fractious fa m ily o f glorious
majestic, schem ing and treacherous deities

Poseidon ^
^ Lord o f the sea
\ Poseidon was the full brother o f Zeus and son of Cronus.
Goddess of
Si W hen the three brothers. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, wisdom and war
1|| overthrew their father. Poseidon took the sea as his realm. Athena, goddess of wisdom, was the
l| j Like the sea, Poseidon could be placid one m om ent and daughter o f Zeus by the goddess Metis. The
t il raging the next, and his weapon and symbol o f authority bright goddess was the deity of civilisation, <
ii was the three-pronged trident. The vengeful Poseidon as well as a patroness of many Greek
■ ensured that the Greek hero Odysseus would be delayed heroes. In the Iliad, we find her siding
for years in returning to his home island o f Ithaca for with the Greeks against the Trojans
his blinding o f the sea god's son, the Cyclops. He was during their ten-year war in which she
responsible for earthquakes, and was known as Earth- directly intervened to help them. One
shaker among Greeks. significant form o f assistance comes
at the beginning o f the Iliad where she
restrains the warrior Achilles from killing
Agamemnon. In the Odyssey, we see
Dionysus her helping another favourite, Odysseus,
make his way from Troy to Ithaca.
God o f wine and revelry Athena was also the patron deity of
Dionysus was the god o f wine and vine. The son o f Zeus by the mortal Athens, the greatest of all Greek cities. In the
woman Semele, worship o f him by his devotees was am ong the m ost 5th century BCE, the Athenians would build
startling o f all the Greek gods. Women figured prom inently in his cult. The the Parthenon, the m ost magnificent of ail
leaders, known as maenads, partook in ecstatic, sometim es violent, rituals temples, dedicated to her.
in which they engaged in frenzied dancing and tore w ild animals The goddess was noble in aspect and
to pieces. Greek wom en would attend his demeanour, but could be harsh to those
cerem onies by going into the hills to engage w ho displeased her. Tiresias had the
in processions led by the maenads misfortune to espy her w hile she bathed,
There they would drink themselves to r and she struck the poor man blind for his
stupefaction in the Bacchanalia. f f jk W i - transgression against the gods.

Queen o f the gods
Glorious Hera was both the wife and sister of Zeus,
and queen of the gods. Her purview was marriage and
m otherhood, but despite her position as wife to Zeus,
she was hardly the happiest of spouses. Her husband’s
philandering ways made her extrem ely jealous and she had
a particular hatred for Heracles, Zeus's son by the mortal
woman Alcmene. Hera constantly sought to avenge her
humiliation by Zeus by afflicting Heracles, who had really
done her no harm. She despatched snakes to kill the boy
when he was just an infant, but she found her murderous
plan thwarted when little Heracles killed them both. She
later made him go mad, and w hile he was insane, he killed
his wife and children.
Hera could be m urderously jealous of Zeus's lovers
themselves, too. She persuaded Semele, the mother
of the god Dionysus, to insist that Zeus appear to j d
her in his full divine splendour. Reluctantly, he
did so, and the poor woman was reduced to ffJ K ,
ash by his overpowering radiance. B m fL ^
Apollo M Hephaestus was th e great smith of the
God o f music,
healing and prophecy
Handsom e A pollo had his tw o main cult centres in
Greece at Delphi and on the island o f Delos. Delphi was home
to his chief oracle and priestess, the Pythia, also known as
the Oracle of Delphi. There at his shrine she would receive
petitioners seeking to question her about the future.
The weapon o f Apollo was the bow. When his priest Chryses
was mistreated by the Greeks at Troy, he struck dow n many
o f them with plague-carrying arrows. He was also said to
pull the Sun behind him in his airborne chariot, and was
som etim es given the name Phoebus, meaning 'bright'.
Artemis
Virgin goddess of the hunt
Artem is was the twin sister o f Apollo and daughter of Zeus by Leto.
She was a virgin huntress - often depicted carrying a bow and arrows
- and also the patroness of women undergoing childbirth. Being
the goddess of virginity and a protector o f young girls, she fiercely
guarded her own modesty. When the unlucky hunter Actaeon
stumbled upon her while she was bathing in a sacred spring, the
goddess, outraged at having been seen unclothed, turned him into
a stag for his transgression. His own hounds prom ptly tore him limb
from limb.
Ares
God o f war
War in all its fearsom e brutality was represented by Ares.
He was the son of Zeus by his queen, Hera, but was
little liked by his father and the other gods. The Greeks
them selves had little love for the deity on account o f the
horrors that war brought with it.
One goddess that did favour Ares, though, was Aphrodite,
the love goddess, with whom he fathered four children, but
she was at the time already married to Hephaestus. Two o f
these children were Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror), each
representing concepts closely associated with war.
Divinities o f death
Demeter
| ->T The* goddess o f
\' ■ growing things
/ f t The goddess of the earth,
I S jr w m otherhood, fertility and the harvest
was known as Demeter. A s the ultimate
source o f the grain that the Greeks used
to make their bread, she was enorm ously
im portant to them. Her main festival was the
Thesmophoria, held every autumn to ensure a good harvest.
Demeter figures prom inently in the explanation for the seasons,
and thus the annual cycles o f birth, life, death, and rebirth
seen in the natural world. The story begins w hen Hades, lord
of the Underworld kingdom that also bore his name, stole the
goddess's daughter Persephone.
1 The smith o f Olympus
pantheon. Unlike the other deities, w ho were
physically perfect, Hephaestus was lame, and
was thus the epitom e o f the outsider am ong the
^ gods. He was cruelly m ocked by the other gods for his
deform ity though they admired the products o f his hands as
he was the patron of all w ho worked with metal. Learning that
his faithless wife A phrodite was making love to Ares, he made
a magic net that fell upon them w hile they were abed. Thus
trapped, he summoned the other Olympians to view and mock
the adulterous pair.
Aphrodite
Goddess o f love
The goddess o f love and beauty, Aphrodite was born out o f the sea
foam when Cronus tossed the severed genitals o f Uranus into the
waves, though another myth gives her a less gruesome birth and
makes her the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Dione. Her
major cult centre was Cyprus, where she is said to have been
born. Oddly, the loveliest o f goddesses was married to the
VA ugliest of gods, Hephaestus the lame smith o f Olympus.
She was not faithful to him, and was once caught naked in
war, by a magic
cuckolded and
?d prom inently in
ajan War. When
ena each sought to
ost beautiful, they
son o f the king of
: between them,
ad him power,
■omised victory,
-odite told him that
uld make the most
>eautiful woman
in the world
his own.
 History o f Paganism
mm
Divinities
of death
W ith fe w exceptions, the divin e inhabitants o f the
Underworld w ere strange, cold, dark, unlovable
and terrifying, but they all had a role to play
Hades
Ruler of the Underworld
As the brother and equal o f Zeus and Poseidon, and the lord
o f the Underworld and king o f the dead, Hades was am ong
the grandest o f the Olympian gods, but he was not often
worshipped or invoked, and he rarely took centre stage
in stories. In fact, Greeks disliked even saying his name,
which was thought to be unlucky. T h ey used all sorts o f
alternatives and euphemisms to avoid it.
Am on g other things, he was Pluto ('the rich’) because as
a god o f the earth he helped make crops grow, hoarded
precious metals and minerals, and was a creator o f
wealth, w h ile w ith some bitter irony he was Polydegmon
('the hospitable’) as all humankind came to
him eventually, and he was Pylartes (‘the
gatefastener') as once you were his
guest you couldn't leave.
Although people hated what
he stood for, Hades wasn't
regarded as being evil. He
wasn't a devil, but m ore
^ V o f a w ise but stern prison
warden, interested in
> 1 justice i f a bit o f a rule-
vv m onger and jealous o f
his prerogatives - it was
dangerous to try to cheat
or escape him.
f The Underworld was
know n as the House o f
.8 * Hades, but in som e tales
he was a reluctant resident;
it was said that when Zeus,
V Poseidon and Hades d ivided the
cosmos b etw een them the
Underworld wasn't what
he'd been hoping
for. Hades may
m ean ‘the
' * unseen’.
Thanatos
Fetcher o f souls
W hen the thread spun, cut and measured
by the Moirai came to an end, Thanatos (‘death’) would com e for
you. He was the personification o f death, the Greeks' Grim Reaper.
The son o f N yx (‘night’) and the brother o f Hypnos (‘sleep’), he was
almost impossible to cheat, and it was perilous to try. Heracles, as
always, was the exception, and was the on ly person to beat death.
Although Sisyphus succeeded in tricking Thanatos, he later suffered
everlasting torment as punishment.
Hecate
Goddess of fertility and witchcraft
The ancient poet Hesiod thought the Greeks made between the Underworld, death
that Hecate was one of the most and fertility, which makes a certain sense. It's also
im portant divinities, benevolent a good example o f the variety and contradictions
and full of gifts. This was her in her of their m yths.Hecate was linked with infernal
aspect as fertility goddess. When magic, necromancy, ghosts, herb lore and poison,
she appeared in Apollonius of favouring the night and places thought of as
Rhodes' version o f the tale of no man's land. However, Hecate was said to
Jason and the Argonauts, she have been a sym pathetic friend to Demeter and
was the dread goddess. Persephone, who she helped guide to and from
To an extent this Hades. Hecate is accompanied by nymphs called
dem onstrates the association Lampads, who carry lit torches.
Styx
Goddess o f the river
Styx ('abomination') lived in a silver-pillared
palace in the Underworld, and was much
respected by Zeus after she aided him in the
war against the Titans. She was the ruler o f
the River Styx, which flow ed from Mount
Chelmos in Arcadia d ow n into the Underworld,
where it ran nine tim es round the kingdom
o f the dead. As a mark o f respect, Zeus
proclaimed that no oath sworn b y the waters
o f Styx should ever be broken, and even divine
oathbreakers were severely punished. Styx was
said to b e a daughter o f Oceanus and Tethys.
 Divinities o f death

Nyx
Goddess o f night
Am on g the m ost ancient o f Greek deities, N yx
('night') was b om o f primordial Chaos. She was the
m other o f some o f the most fundamental - and
often terrible - gods and goddesses, m any o f them
without male intervention. These included som e o f
the Underworld's most important divine inhabitants,
not least Thanatos, and deities w h o were related to
death in various ways, such as Hypnos
• ('sleep'), Oneiroi (‘dreams'), Nemesis
('retribution'), Moros ( ‘fate’), Ker
j ('doom') and Geras (‘old age'). N yx
successfully defied Zeus when he
wanted to expel Hypnos from Olympus,
and was not to be trifled with.
The daughter o f Zeus and Demeter, Persephone was
originally a grain goddess, like her mother. She became an
eminent, if part-time, resident o f the Underworld after she
was abducted b y Hades.
Having persuaded his brother Zeus - but not his sister
Demeter - that he should marry Persephone, Hades seized
her in his chariot and took her to the Underworld. W hen
Demeter eventually found her abducted daughter, she was
told that she could on ly bring her back if she hadn't eaten
anything while in the House o f Hades, but Persephone had
eaten som e pomegranate seeds. Zeus then pronounced a
compromise settlement in which Persephone would marry
Hades and live w ith h im as queen o f the Underworld for
either four or six months a year - the stories vary - and then
spend the remainder o f her tim e in the upper realm. In the
other m yths in which she features, Persephone gives no sign
that she objects to being queen o f the dead, and she and
The Hades act together.
Persephone is one o f the most allegorical divinities, with
Moirai her tim e in the Underworld symbolising the temporary

Guardians death o f winter, and her tim e in the upper world symbolising
the return o f fertility e very year.
o f destiny
Could anyone or anything stand up to, or even overrule Zeus?
Possibly the Moirai (‘allotters'), depending on w ho you listen
to. The Moirai - generally called the Fates - were much older
than the gods o f Olympus, and were believed to determine,
or at least record and supervise, personal destiny and things
to come. W h en you were born, they would measure out your
allotted lifespan and your fortune. Although it's not always
clear and is som etimes contradictory in the myths, they
didn't seem to make decisions; what they said was instead an
impersonal expression o f order and balance in the universe.
Nor is it clear whether the gods were w holly subordinate to
their rulings or could change fate - there are examples of
both.Clotho ('she w h o spins'), Lachesis ('disposer o f lots') and
Atropos ('inevitable') were often pictured as old women, with
one spinning out a thread for each person's life, one cutting
it and one m easuring it. The symbolism is clear enough,
however ambiguous their role. In one story Apollo was said
to have got round them b y getting them drunk.

Roman
religion
The Rom ans ruled an em pire but w ere ruled b y a pantheon o f gods
w ho controlled every aspect o f their lives
he Roman m ind was an odd one;
T
hard-nosed pragmatism was meshed
with deeply held superstition. While
the lock-step legions o f the Empire
marched across the world people felt
that the m ight o f Rom e was supported not so
much b y their fearsome m ilitary prowess but
by the goodw ill o f the gods. It is impossible to
understand Rome without knowledge of their
pre-Christian faith.
The foundational m yth of Rome shows the
importance they placed on divine signs. W hen
Romulus and Remus both wanted to found a city
they marked out the sky and waited for the gods
to send them a message. Remus saw six eagles,
but Romulus saw a full dozen and that is w h y w e
study 'Roman' paganism and not ’Reman1. The
ancient gods worshipped b y the Romans were
Ancient
Written by Ben Gazur
all clearly and closely related to the deities of the
Greek world. Zeus the Father (Zeus Pater) of the
Greeks m orphed into Jupiter o f the Romans while
maintaining his role as the king o f heaven. There
is some evidence that both Zeus and Jupiter
developed from earlier proto-Indo-European gods
but other deities were absorbed into the Roman
pantheon within historical memory.
Italy was once hom e to m any colonies sent out
by Greek city-states. These held on to the gods
o f the cities that had founded them. A s Rome
expanded its influence b y conquest these cities
entered into the Roman world and their gods
became the gods of Rome. Diana, Minerva, Venus,
and Hercules are all thought to have become
Roman gods in this way.
Before these additions had been made,
Roman paganism was influenced by that o f the
Etruscans. The Etruscans pre-dated Rome and
controlled a large area o f land bordering Rome
in the 9-6th centuries BCE. By the time Rome
absorbed the final Etruscan cities it had long
before taken up m any o f their religious practices.
The Etruscans studied nature for signs o f the
gods' instructions. Haruspices were priests who
used the entrails o f sacrificial animals to read the
w ill o f heaven. The practically m inded Romans
would continue to use this method to predict the
future for centuries to come.
Roman paganism in its purest form of around
100 BCE was already therefore a religion of
borrowings. W hile there were proud noble
families w ho looked down on 'foreign' faiths even
the haughtiest would have had to admit that
gods had long been imported to the city. In 217
BCE Italy was being ravaged b y Hannibal and his
 Ancient Rom an religion

The Romans had 12 major gods

but came to recognise many
hundreds of minor and foreign
deities as powers

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 History o f Paganism

army. Against the warnings o f priests the Romans
m et Hannibal in battle at Lake Trasimene and
they suffered one o f the worst defeats in history.
Clearly the gods had not been on the side o f Rome.
Consulting the sacred Sibylline Texts it was decided
that Rome would have to bring Venus of Eryx, a
city on Sicily, to Rome. The Romans offered this
goddess a huge bribe and a temple in the heart o f
Rom e if only she would relocate. The image o f the
goddess was transferred to Rome and the worship
o f Venus Erycina inaugurated. Rom e went on to
defeat Hannibal.
Prayer for a Roman was not a quiet act of
contemplation allowing communion between the
worshipper and the worshipped. Roman religion
was performative. Worship was loud, colourful, and
smelly. A Roman temple was the scene o f chanting,
gaudily painted images o f the gods, and the bloody
sacrifice o f animals. For the gods to be propitiated
they had to be seen to be offered something.
There is some evidence that human sacrifice
m ay once have played a role in Roman paganism.
In one legend after an earthquake opened a chasm
in the forum o f Rome it was feared that the gods
were displeased. The city was told to offer its most
precious item to pit to placate the gods. Marcus
Curtius put on his battle armour, mounted his
horse, and leapt into the hole, declaring that bravery
was the most valuable possession o f the Romans.
The chasm closed over him and Rome was
saved. Some believe that gladiatorial battles were
originally funerary rites w ith the dead fighters as
offerings to the deceased.
If humans were once offered to the gods, by the
and cows were often slaughtered. The victim was
supposed to be w illingly killed so attempts were
made to keep it calm before a priest stunned it
with a hamm er and slit its throat. After the sacrifice
feasts were held at which the gods, in the form of
their sacred images, would have been present. A
portion o f the sacrificial beast was burned so that
the gods could enjoy their offering through the
smoke while their followers feasted.
Sacrifices could be small affairs to bless a family
or huge offerings to save the city. In order to
survive in the war against Hannibal the city offered
Jupiter every single animal b om that spring. For
those unable to afford a bull it was also appropriate
to give the gods a drink o f wine, bunch o f grapes,
or honey cake. Not all the services o f the gods were
large enough to require a whole ceremony.
In a polytheist pantheon there is always room
for another deity. Within a Roman home there
would be a small shrine to those gods which were
specially honoured within the household. The
Lares Familiares and Di Penates were gods w ith a

At sites across the Roman em pire strange tim e o f the Roman Empire it was animals that took special role within the household. The Di Penates
monuments have been found underground. In up the burden o f placating the gods. Sheep, pigs, took care o f the fam ily w ho owned the home.
dom ed caves statues depict a young man in the
act of slaying a bull. Known as the Tauroctony
these sculptures are the remains of the cult of a
god known as Mithras.
Mithraism was just one of many 'mystery "Prayer for a Roman was not a quiet act
cults' that flourished during the Roman Empire.
These cults were often foreign im ports that o f contemplation"
offered followers access to secrets hidden from
outsiders. Some prom ised to reveal the secrets
of the afterlife. We know very little o f what the
followers of Mithras believed but some clues are
found in his temples.
Mithras is sometim es shown as being born
from a rock, dining with the god Sol, or with a
lion-headed figure surrounded by snakes. The
central image o f the tem ple is always the bull
slaying, but nothing is known o f the meaning of
the act. We do know that Mithras worshippers
called them selves 'syndexioi' - those who shake
hands. Perhaps the secret of Mithras was in the
bonds formed between followers. The cult was
popular among soldiers and persisted until the
4th century CE when it was suppressed as a
rival faith to Christianity.

The tauroctony (bull slaying) was the

focus of worship in Mithraism and echoed
the tradition of animal sacrifice found in
mainstream Roman paganism
 Ancient Rom an religion

Every tim e the family dined a small portion

would be offered to a fire to include the
Penate in the meal. The Lares Familiares
were responsible not only for the fam ily but
for everyone, including slaves, w h o lived
within the house.
Some found the profusion o f deities
bemusing. St Augustine, a hostile witness
on Roman paganism, mocked the littleness
o f some Roman gods. He records how
Cardea watched hinges, Forculus guarded
doors, and Limentinus was responsible
for thresholds. Augustine wondered how
it could be that one human guard was
enough to watch a doorway when three
gods were required. In more vital areas
like the harvesting o f corn he lists ten
gods w h o have a role in the various stages
o f the crop's development.
Paganism's ability to add new gods
offered Roman emperors a unique
political opportunity. Romans w ere used
to worshipping figures that had once
been mortal. Romulus him self is said
to have mysteriously disappeared into heaven. It Unfortunately Julius' flesh was not as impervious
was even accepted that some people had divine to daggers as his statues.
ancestry. Aeneas, founder o f Rome, was the son of W hen Caesar was murdered he was officially
Venus and through h im Julius Caesar was able to declared a god. This allowed his adopted son
claim to the descendent o f a goddess. Caesar was Augustus to call h im self Divi Filius - Son o f
honoured by some as a living god and a house built God. Augustus itself was a name he chose for its
for him at the Republic's expense was shaped like a religious associations. He allowed citizens outside
temple. Statues were set up to Caesar as a divinity. o f Italy to build temples in his honour but, perhaps
remembering the fate o f his uncle, forbade it at
Rome. W hen sailors from Alexandria offered him
divine honours he was pleased. They claimed it
was through him that they were able to sail the
seas in peace, trade, and had liberty. This is the
practical Roman definition o f a deity - a being
able to render aid to worshippers. Augustus was
therefore a god worth worshipping. On his death
a senator saw an eagle rise from the funeral
pyre and so it was decided Augustus would be
honoured in Rome too. M any o f his successors as
emperor followed him into the sky as they died.
The Emperor Vespasian even mocked the Imperial
Cult on his deathbed. "Alas," he said, "I fear I am
becom ing a god."
The fall o f paganism in Rom e was tied to the
Imperial family. Constantine was the first emperor
to make Christianity legal in the empire and over
time pagan symbols, including the statue o f Victory
in the Senate house were removed. The Emperor
Julian was the last pagan emperor but his short
reign was unable to bring back religious toleration.
After his death in battle, supposedly saying "You
have won, Galilean," the Roman world becam e ever
m ore and finally exclusively Christian.
 H istory o f Paganism

Celtic paganism spanned a thousand years and the entire European

continent, yet is little know n tod ay W h o w ere the m ysterious
worshippers in those dark forests?
Written by Ben Gazur

he forests, hills, and plains o f Europe did not give the gods o f the Gauls their native refer to one god known b y different epithets in

T
were terrifying for the ancient Greeks
and Romans, The primordial gloom
of woods where no civilised person
set foot was the location o f human
sacrifice and dark rites. The north, east, and west
o f the continent was the home o f barbarians, and
these people they called the Celts.
W hile the classical world tended to think
o f them as a single society, the reality was a
patchwork o f tribes and peoples. The Celts
may have shared much linguistically and
culturally but they were never one nation. From
Spain to Bulgaria, the wilds o f Scotland to the
Mediterranean, and over a thousand years m any
local differences in their religion evolved. Celtic
paganism is a difficult faith to firm ly grasp.
Relying on hostile sources such as Caesar
obviously requires care. In his work Caesar
names but referred to them b y their Roman
counterparts, claiming the main deity o f the
Gauls was Mercury. The Gaulish Celts apparently
had m any images o f their gods, but the
archaeological evidence for this is scant. It may
be that the Celts o f Gaul used w ooden statues
o f their gods and that these have not survived.
Some scholars dispute this and believe that the
Celtic tribes m ostly worshipped in nature and
their gods were not personified in human form.
In the evidence w e have o f Celts, from Britain
all the way to modern Turkey, w e find mention
o f hundreds of deities by name, m any mentioned
only once. It may be that these gods were very
local and specific to a tribe. The goddess Sequana
had power over the river Seine, and Celts
hundreds of miles away would have no need of
her aid. It may also be that many names may
different places. It is also true that many gods
were worshipped across wide areas.
Many place-names throughout Europe make
reference to a god known as Lugus. Lyon in
France, Lothian in Scotland, and Legnica in
Poland are all named in his honour. The god
Lugh o f the Irish Celts, again related to Lugus,
displayed m any o f the attributes Caesar described
the Celtic 'Mercury' having. He was a god o f
skills, arts, and good kingship. Votive inscriptions
and descriptions in Irish and Welsh poetry paint
Lugus as a brave and ideal sovereign.
Other gods from across the Celtic tribes may
lack the same name but can be placed into
categories that clearly crossed tribal boundaries.
Mother-goddesses, called Maries, have been
found throughout north-western Europe, Mostly
shown on altars and statues as a group o f three
The Celtic world was full of
deities, monsters, and heroes.
The Gundestrup Cauldron shows
many scenes of Celtic myth

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 History o f Paganism
Influence on
Christianity
Celtic paganism was absorbed into Roman
religion in many areas, but in the relatively
un-Romanised Ireland it was Christianity
that submerged it. Medieval Irish texts that
preserved Celtic tales were sometim es glossed
by the scribes who copied them to suggest that
paganism prefigured the coming of Christianity.
The replacement o f Celtic polytheism w as not
total though and som e aspects ended up within
Irish Christianity. The horned god Cernunnos
appears to have influenced the image o f St
Ciaran who is said to have lived in the forest
and whose first followers w ere animals. This
syncretism may have smoothed the adoption of
Christianity for the Irish Celts.
St Brigid is one of the m ost im portant
saints o f Ireland, yet there are som e scholars
w ho doubt her historical existence because St
Brigid shares her name with a Celtic goddess.
It seem s that this goddess was simply adopted
into Christianity as a saint. The goddess was a
nurturing one, and similar imagery and miracles
are given to both. Both are associated with holy
wells in Kildare and sacred flames guarded by
attendants were used in the worship of both.
Despite the obvious Christian imagery
surrounding depictions o f St Brigid many think
she was once a pagan deity
111111111 i i 11111111
"The number o f deities with power and lethal
prowess in battle is extensive"
animals, especially deer. His partially animal form
m ay suggest a strong link w ith nature. From what
w e know o f Celtic pagan practices, nature was of
paramount importance.
Much o f what w e know about the ancient Celts
comes from outside sources. In particular the
Celts themselves never wrote dow n their religious
beliefs. Caesar in his Conquest o f Gaul mentions
that this was to stop the spread of the doctrines
outside their priestly class, the druids, and to
preserve the skills o f those who memorised the lore
o f the Celts. People w h o write things down, it was
thought, tend to forget those things. Unfortunately
what those things they wanted remembered were
have been forgotten.
Druidic training in the Celtic religion could last
for 20 years and they were leaders in society as
well as in religion. Druids acted a repositories o f
history, lore, medicine, and law. Called on to advise
kings they could also pass legal sentences. Yet their
most important role was in acting as intermediaries
these goddesses were popular Celtic deities that between the Celts o f Gaul, Britain, and Ireland, and
were associated w ith sacrifice but also with bounty. the gods. One druid, named Diviciacus, impressed
One o f the goddesses is always depicted with an the Roman statesman Cicero with his ability to
overflowing basket of fruit and vegetables. predict the future through augury.
War must have been a major aspect of life Druids have left no material presence in the
in the Celtic tribes. The number o f archaeological record. It seems that they
deities with power and lethal performed their rituals in groves in
prowess in battle is extensive. forests. Pliny the Elder describes
For the Celts it seems that white robed druids climbing
In Ireland, Celtic
war itself was em bodied oak trees to harvest mistletoe
paganism had a
b y a goddess. In southern with a golden sickle. The
Gaul a warrior might profound effect on mistletoe was used to cure all
invoke Andarta but when Christianity, w ith pagan manner o f ailments as long
Boudicca rode dow n the deities reinterpreted as as it did not touch the ground.
Romans in Britain she called The knowledge o f botany and
Christian saints
out for aid from Andraste. medicine was inseparable from
In Ireland the Morrigan was a druidic religion.
triple goddess w ho personified the Though individual Druids may have
havoc o f battle, the skill o f arms, and pleased the Romans and impressed the
the playing out o f fate in warfare. It is impossible Greeks w ith their knowledge o f natural philosophy,
though to know if Celts from different areas would as a class they were seen as a threat. The druids
have accepted these variously named deities as the taught the theory o f transmigration o f souls, a form
same goddess. o f reincarnation, and this was thought to make
Perhaps the most striking Celtic deity was the Celts fight more fearlessly, as they were not afraid
Horned God. Images and statues from across o f dying in battle.
Europe have been found o f a man crowned b y a The idea o f human sacrifice may also have
pair o f antlers. His widespread depiction suggests unnerved the Romans. Many sources mention
he developed early in the Celtic period and was druids offering up human victims, including
important in the pagan pantheon. Often called Caesar's description o f burning them in wicker
Cernunnos, the god is sometimes surrounded by cages, and there is some evidence to support these
 Religion o f the Celts

not insist on religious purity. As long as the gods of

Rom e were respected, and sacrifices made in the
Emperor's name, then people were free to worship
any other gods they wanted.
Where the Romans found Celtic sites o f worship
they erected temples and shrines. Springs and
rivers were places where Celts offered valuable gifts
to the gods. By building Roman-style temples they
regularised worship there and brought the Celts
into the Roman world. Romans also associated
native gods w ith ones within their ow n pantheon.
The Celtic Sulis worshipped at Bath became Sulis
M inerva under Roman rule. Yet the influence was
not all in one direction.
Epona is the Celtic goddess o f the horse. For the
ancient tribes horses were vital in warfare, travel,
and agriculture. Though her name is Gaulish,
depictions o f a maiden on a horse have been found
throughout Europe. In her early role she may
have played a role in fertility as well. The martial
Romans adopted Epona into their religion as a
protector o f cavalry. Apuleius describes a shrine in
a stable being decorated with roses and inscriptions
invoking Epona have even been found in Rome
itself. Conquerers are often conquered by those
they subjugate.

claims. Bog bodies, corpses superbly preserved in

bogs across Europe, are often found to have been
ritually strangled, and must have played some part
in Celtic religion.
Once Gaul and Britain were conquered in the 1st
century CE the Romans set about civilising their
new subjects - and that required suppression of
the druids. Tacitus records h ow almost the entire
Roman army in Britain was used to drive out the
druids, finally pushing them to the Welsh island o f
Anglesey, on the north-western coast:
"On the shore stood the opposing army w ith its
dense array o f armed warriors, while between the
ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies,
with hair dishevelled, w aving brands. A ll around,
the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and m m ’* * ~
pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our
soldiers b y the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their
limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless, and
exposed to wounds."
The druids used all their power of language and
religious authority but it was no match for legionary
forces. The druidic tradition in Britain withered
thereafter, though it m ay have survived in Ireland vri

for several more centuries.

MET v
Yet the death o f the druids was not the collapse
o f Celtic religion. There were still those Celts who
lived outside the Roman Empire in the east. Even
within the borders of the Empire people still | /jr * *
continued to worship the old gods. The Romans did
 Before th ey becam e Christian, the Vikings had a rich
polytheistic folk faith that featured a collection o f gods
: ost m yths and religious stories tell
their peoples’ tale o f the world's
?creation, but unusually, the early
Viking m yths also tell o f its
; destruction. Before Christianity
swept through the Scandinavian lands - a process
that started in the 8th century - N orw ay Sweden
and Iceland had their o w n hom egrown pantheon
o f gods, som e o f w h om w e still know from
comics, film s and TV. In fact, you m ay be familiar
w ith the central idea o f Norse cosm ology - the
'world-tree', Yggdrasil - thanks to a diagram drawn
by the titular hero o f Marvel's Thor.
Yggdrasil, a m ighty ash tree gnawed by the
w y rm Nidhoggr at its roots and crowned b y an
unnamed eagle, plays host to four deer (Dainn,
Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Durahror) that feast on its
boughs, and a squirrel named Ratatoskr, who
travels up and down, sow ing discord betw een the
eagle above and the serpent beneath. The ‘Nine
Realms' o f Norse cosm ology are connected b y the
roots and branches o f the tree, and although they
are not all specifically or consistently nam ed in
the ancient sources, today's consensus tends to
agree that they are comprised o f Midgard (Earth,
hom e o f humans), A lfh eim r (hom e o f the elves),
Niflavellir or Svartalfaheimr (hom e o f the dwarves
or alternatively the 'dark Elves'), Jotunheimr
(hom e o f the jotnar, or giants), Vanaheim (hom e
o f the Vanir, a type o f god), Niflheim (one of
the primordial realms, that o f ice and mist),
Muspelheim (the other o f the primordial realms,
that o f fire), Hel (the realm o f the dead, ruled b y a
"The Norns are three female deities who
decide the fate o f both humans and gods'
------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------
42
Written by April Madden y—
queen o f the same name), and Asgard, the home the goddess Skadi is o f jotnar parentage too (as, in
o f the most pow erful gods. The tree is tended by fact, is Odin), w hile Loki's daughter Hel, queen o f
the Noms, three fem ale deities w h o decide the the underworld, was born to the jotunn Angrbofla.
fate o f both humans and gods. The tw ins Freyr and Freya and their father Njordr
The leader o f the gods, the aesir, is Odin, are vanir, another race o f gods entirely. The Aesir-
sometimes know n as the Allfather. This w ise Vanir War is a m yth that tells o f the first ever war
and crafty king could be represented as a hale and its eventual resolution, which sees the tw o
and hearty warrior in late m iddle age, races becom e allies.
ruling over his hali in Asgard, Most o f the gods have several
or as a seem ingly innocent, partners and children, some
seem ingly simple beggar with Norse aesir, som e vanir, som e jotnar,
a wide-brim m ed hat pulled cosm ology is one w ith younger generations
lo w over his brow w hile he o f the fe w religious often displaying a
wandered through Midgard, combination o f the powers
fram eworks to have a
presumably to disguise the possessed b y their parents'
com plete D oom sday
fact that he had just one races. Other less well-known
scenario w ith in its
eye - having plucked out the members o f the pantheon
other in exchange for wisdom. th eolo gy include Tyr, the one-handed
This was b y no means the most god o f war, idunn, goddess o f
dramatic thing Odin had ever done youth and her husband Bragi, god
in his endless quest for know ledge ■ o f poetry, Loki's horde o f children (some
also hanged h im self from Yggdrasil for nine days monstrous, som e not) and M gir and Ran, the
and nights in order to unlock the secrets o f the rulers o f the sea. Their nine daughters, the waves,
runes, or writing. are collectively the mothers o f Heimdallr, the god
To us, the m ost famous o f Odin's sons is Thor, w h o watches for the beginning o f Ragnarok.
a protective warrior god associated w ith oak trees Ragnarok, or 'the tw iligh t o f the gods', is the
and thunder. Yet w hile he was (and remains) the prophesied end o f the world; a great battle in
most popular god o f the Norse pantheon, his which the denizens o f Muspelheim, led by their
half-brother Baldr was revered as 'the best’. Baldr king Surtr and b y Loki, war against the rest o f
was killed b y the trickery o f Loki, w ho is not the gods. Few o f the major m ale names in Norse
an ass (a god) at all, but a jotunn, or elemental m yth ology are foretold to survive the conflict -
giant. And he is far from the on ly mem ber o f the on ly some o f the children o f Odin and o f Thor,
pantheon w h o isn’t a m em ber o f the aesir race - together w ith most o f the goddesses (a notable
exception is Sol, the sun goddess, w h o bears a
daughter to follow in her footsteps shortly before
her death), are predicted to escape the rains o f fire
and destruction and bring a n ew world into being,
together w ith tw o humans, L if and Lifprasir, w h o
w ill repopulate Midgard. W hether the cycle then
begins anew, the stories do not tell us.
During the Christianisation o f Scandinavia, the
new faith adopted the language of the old, with
'Hell' adapted from the Norse 'Hel'. Christians had
previously referred to their theological place of
punishm ent by the name o f the Greek god of the
Underworld, Hades, or Inferno', meaning fire. Yet
the Norse Hel wasn't a plain o f torm ent - far from
it, according to some sources. Hel, ruled over by
the goddess of the same name, was where those
who had died of sickness, old age or accident
went. It's often described as dreary, but some
stories, especially those dealing with the death
of Baldr, describe Hel decorating her hall and
hosting a feast to welcom e the best of Odin's sons.
Warriors who died in battle, meanwhile, were
shared equally by Odin and Freya; some going
to the god's hall Valhalla, others to the goddess'
m eadow Folkvangr, where they were feted and
fed, and where they could enjoy daily battles
follow ed by banquets for eternity.
Written by Dee Dee Chainey
 oluspa, m eaning 'prophecy o f the wise- am azing level o f detail and layer upon layer o f cosmology, and that the land o f m en is but one

f
wom an or seeress’, is the first book m ythic symbolism just w aiting to be unearthed; o f these. First is the creation o f the worlds from
o f the Poetic Edda, often seen as the if w e dig just a little b elow the surface, w e find a formless void, which som e have since called
m ost important. It is preserved in its an intricately w oven tapestry o f stories that w e Ginnungagap. In the beginning there was no land
entirety in the Codex Regius (1270 CE), can trace like the boughs o f Yggdrasil itself, as nor sea. There was no heaven, and no earth, so
each
containing stories from oral tradition written on tales branches out to further stories o f the certainly no grass upon it; and all that existed was
gods brought to life w ith in the pages. The order
vellu m sheets during the 13th and 14th centuries chaos. In this chaos lived the ancient being Ymir,
and com piled later, as w ell as in part in Hauksbok
o f the verses changes in the different sources, w ho som e say was a giant. In this void, the sons
(c. 1334). Rather than bein g the dry, laborious
andverse
modern translators have often continued this o f Bur - nam ed Odin, Vili and Ve, the first o f the
that people m ight first assume, Voluspa is trend,
in fact switching them around to suit their own /Esir gods - raised up the skies, created the earth
reading
a rip-roaring adventure o f raging battles, rife with o f the poem, yet most scholars v ie w the and rocks, and w hen this was done the sun shone
death, destruction and gut-wrenching anguish. order used in the Codex Regius as the d ow n and m ade the land green w ith grass
Filled w ith tales o f gods and heroes, the poem most useful for understanding the ~ :. ^ and vegetation for the first time.
tells o f a w ild wise-wom an or witch - know n as tale in its entirety. W A A t this time, the skies and astral
a volva - regaling Odin w ith her visions o f the T o understand the Eddie bodies too had to be organised.
\v great deal o f
beginning o f creation, and w oefu l tales o f the end poems, w e must first The disir held a holy council,
pre-Christian Norse
times, know n as Ragnarok in Norse myth, when understand the m ythical and decided a place to put the
gods w ould fall, the earth w ould be w ip ed clean, world in which the stories
ft ^ th e o lo g y w as preserved YfA Sun, the M oon and the stars.
and humanity w ould repopulate the land once took place, and Voluspa sets in oral traditions before This is h ow they created the
more, w ith on ly a few o f the gods at their side. the scene for this perfectly. W U) b ein g collected and morning, midday, afternoon
W
Some scholars suggest that the Elder Edda is an The p oem opens w ith a Ijf w ritten d o w n in and night. From the w axing
invaluable repository o f know ledge o f Germanic volva calling for all m ankind “ books o f p oetry
It and w aning o f the Moon, and
myth; and Voluspa is the m ost com plex and to listen to her words. Here they the rising and setting o f the Sun,
detailed description o f both the creation and are called 'the sons o f Heimdall', tim e itself gained meaning, and the
destruction o f the world that has ever existed in which refers to the tale about when years began to pass.
this part o f the globe. T h e work o f both Icelandic the watchman o f the gods took on the form A tim e o f plenty ensued, and the TEsir built
and Norw egian poets is notoriously complex, and o f a wanderer nam ed Rig, travelling from house up great temples and altars across the plane of
often seen as impenetrable to those uninitiated to house, and fathered the progenitors o f each o f Ithavoll, the m eeting place o f the gods. Here too
into the form and style o f such verse. This form the three classes o f humans - the thralls, freemen they set up forges smithing ore, ham m ering out
is com posed o f around 60 fornyrdislag ('old and nobles - in a similar vein to the caste system, tongs and tools alike. Tim es were joyful: they
verse’) stanzas - m eaning ‘the w a y o f ancient m aking Heim dall the father o f all mankind. spent their hours playing games at tables, gold
words' - w ith each usually betw een tw o and The witch builds the scene well, telling the was abundant, and they wanted for nothing.
eight lines long, but most often four lines. The listeners that she was raised long ago by the Yet this gaiety was not to last. Soon three
stories contained in Voluspa are also preserved ancient jotnar, or giants, and begins to describe giantesses came from Jotunheimr, the land o f the
by Snorri Sturluson, in his Prose Edda, yet the what the universe was like at the beginning o f giants. Once more, the gods called an assembly
Poetic Edda version is much more lively, w ith an creation. She tells o f the nine worlds o f Norse m eeting to decide what must be done. It was
 History o f Paganism

The children of Loki and

the giantess Angrboda

F E N R IR T H E W O L F
Fenrir is a monstrous w o lf a son o f Loki raised by the gods
w ho hoped to tam e him, and m inimise the chaos he might
wreak in the world. He, along with his siblings, is later
sum m oned by Odin, as it's foretold that they will cause
disaster for the gods. Fenrir is fated to devour Odin at
Ragnarok, and because of this prophecy he is bound with
the chain Gleipnir, forged by the dwarfs from six things
that don't exist: the sound o f a cat's footfall, the beard of
a woman, the roots o f a mountain, the sinews o f a bear,
the breath of a fish, and the spittle o f a bird. During the
binding, Fenrir bites o ff the hand o f the god Tyr in revenge.
The chain will hold him until the end of the w orld, when
he will finally break free to fulfil his destiny and slay Odin.
Fenrir is father o f the wolf-children Skoll and Hati who steal
the Sun and Moon at Ragnarok.
JO RM U NG AND R
TH E SERPENT
Also known as both the World Serpent and Midgard
Serpent, Jorm ungandr is the gigantic serpent fated to kill
his nemesis Thor at Ragnarok. Jorm ungandr was thrown
into the ocean that circles Midgard by Odin, and grew
large enough to encircle the w hole world and even grab
his own tail in his maw. One m yth tells how Thor pulled
Jorm ungandr out o f the ocean, after baiting his line with a
huge ox head on a fishing trip w ith Hymir, who cuts the line
as Thor is reaching for his legendary hammer in order to
kill the sea serpent. In another meeting, the giant Utgarda-
Loki disguises Jormungandr as a cat. and charges Thor with
lifting it with his great strength. Thor manages to raise just
one o f the cat's paws from the ground - still, it was a great
feat, considering he managed to lift the gigantic World
Serpent at all.
O ften seen as the goddess of the underworld, here in
Voluspa Loki's daughter is said to rule over th e place of
the same name. Hel is an underworld realm o f the dead,
where the w icked undergo torture, seen as a great mansion
with many halls. In general, Hel is thought to have been
appointed as ruler of the realm, and given control over the
nine worlds, after being cast dow n to Niflheim by Odin.
It is here that she receives a portion o f the dead - those
w ho die peacefully, o f sickness or old-age - with heroes
and those who die in battle instead going to Valhalla, the
resplendent hall o f Odin, w hile Freyja w elcom es others
to Folkvangr, 'the Field o f the Warriors'. Often described
as half-black or blue and half-flesh-coloured with a grim
demeanour, Hel is called a 'troll-woman' o r ogre, and is
extrem ely fierce.

proclaimed that the race of dwarfs must be raised,
from the blood and bones o f the sea giant, Brimir -
who some say is the very same Ymir, whose body
was used by Odin, Vili and Ve to fashion the earth
in the Prose Edda. So from the earth
dwarfs were created in man’s likeness, the first
and greatest o f these being Motsognir, with a list
o f many more following him in what is known as
the 'Catalogue of Dwarfs'. Many o f the dwarf-names
found here were used by JRR
rdlcein in his books about
the plight o f the hobbits, and
other creatures o f Middle
Earth, with the name
'Gandalf' being the most
well-known o f these, said
to m ean 'magic elf. Other
name meanings include
'm ighty thief, 'wind e l f and
‘oak shield'. The witch tells
that the dwarfs came from
the rocks and mountains,
through the wetlands, up to
the plains where they made
their home in the sands.
The poem seems to shift here, when three of
the ^Esir com e to the world from their assembly,
and w e are told o f the creation o f the first man
and woman: Ask and Embla, meaning 'ash' and
'elm1, who are without a destiny, and without all
sense and spirit. (Strangely, while Snorri doesn't
give us the names o f the first humans in the Prose
Edda, he does say that they are made out o f trees,
confirming the connection here in Voluspa.) W e are
also told that they do not yet have blood, cannot
move, and are without colour. The tw o are devoid
o f life until the three gods com e to them, and
bestow gifts upon them: spirit from Odin, sense
from Hoenir, and heat and goodly colour from
Lothur, which some believe is an older name for
Loki, the trickster figure o f Norse myth who is often
associated with fire and flame.
Here, the volva describes the mythical Yggdrasil,
a gigantic evergreen ash tree that stands at the
centre of the nine worlds. It is covered in shining
white loam, and all the rains and dew that cover ^juuu -urn, uunot. u» vu
the valleys o f earth flo w from it, as it stands above
the W ell o f Fate, Urflarbrunnr. This well is guarded
by the three Nom s themselves - Urflr, Verdandi,
and Skuld - the rulers o f destiny w h o set dow n the
laws o f men, choose their lives, and dictate their
fate, similar to the three Fates in other mythologies.
Next, the witch speaks directly to the god
Odin, telling him that she knows all, including
the lengths he is w illing to go to in order to learn
o f his ow n destiny - indeed even the location o f
his eye. This reference conjures the tale o f when
he sacrificed his eye in return for a drink from
the waters o f M im ir’s well. W hile this passage is
shrouded in m ystery here in Voluspa, the Prose
Edda explains that the well's waters contain both
w isdom and intelligence, and M lmir him self drinks
from them each morning, the source o f his own
knowledge and wisdom. Because she too knows
all, she remembers the first war in all the
worlds, when the being Gullveig was
speared by the gods, and then
burned three times in the hall 1 B etw een
o f Harr - or Odin - only to be r th em L ok i and his
reborn three times also. After
M d r e n are responsible
this burning she was named
for m ost o f the events
Heidr - or Heidi - and was
a great witch, all seeing and
that precipitate the
wise in the ways o f magic, Norse apocalypse o f /
bewitching the minds o f all I* Ragnarok f'
who saw her magical feats, and
able to tame even wolves; yet, it
is added that she was a joy to all evil
people w ho beheld her. The witch was said to
have performed seidr magic, which archaeologists
believe to be of a shamanic nature, using trances Th e blind Hodr killing his brother Baldr w ith 9 U
and other sorcery to cast spells. Some have a branch o f m istletoe given to h im b y Loki,
from an Icelandic 18th century manuscript
suggested that this w itch is in fact the goddess
Freyja, who was the first of the Vanir gods to
com e among the Aisir, and whose mistreatment
led to the great ALsir-Vanir war, recounted next
in Voluspa. Indeed, Ynglinga saga says that it was "In this chaos lived the ancient being Ymir,
Freyja herself who introduced seidr magic - a
purely Vanir practice - to the j-Esir gods.
w ho some say was a giant"
The war began when Odin hurled his spear,
and the w all that protected the /Esir gods was
broken through by the warlike Vanir. Once more, the works so that they were not completed in that the watchman w ill use to warn the gods of
an assembly was held, to decide whether the the allotted tim e bargained, at which the giant the oncoming destruction at the end o f the world,
/Esir gods should pay a fine, or if both pantheons threatened the gods. Thor rose up in anger and and call them to battle when the rainbow bridge is
could be worshipped, side b y side. The latter was killed the giant, breaking their oath to him, which breached. In Gnmnismal this is called Bifrost - it
decided upon, and both the .Esir and Vanir were led to the tw o races becoming sworn enemies. separates Asgard from the realm of men.
to be worshipped in equal measure. Another Here, the audience would be familiar with the tales, This is the point where the vdlva’s words turn to
story is alluded to here: a giant was tasked with and would think to the final battle, Ragnarok, in the real reason for Odin's audience: her prophecy
rebuilding the demolished walls o f Asgard, the which the giants would form a faction of the gods' for the future, that o f the fate o f the gods. First she
home o f the gods, after the Vanir broke them enemies. The volva underpins this by interjecting refers to the slaying o f Baldr, the son o f Odin, and
down. In return, he would be given the Sun and w ith more secret knowledge about the gods: this the goddess Frigg, the shining one o f the gods.
Moon, w ith Freyja as his wife. This promise was time that the horn o f Heimdall, called Gjallarhorn, W hile not recounted in detail here, the tale tells
broken when the gods charged Loki with delaying is hidden under the world tree. This is the horn that Frigg, a worried mother, made all things on

47
 History o f Paganism
Earth swear an oath not to harm her son - all but
mistletoe, deem ed too weak to hurt him. After
this, the gods often took to launching weapons
at Baldr in sport. However, she says that in her
visions mischievous Loki brought a mistletoe
branch to Baldr's brother, Ho5r, w h o happened
to be blind. Ho3r fatefully threw the
branch at Baldr, and killed him. In
retribution, Lolci was tied to a
rock using the entrails o f his if
son, and a venomous serpent m y th o lo g y was
set above his head. His w ife
on ly w ritten d o w n after
Sigyn stood faithfully by,
the Christianisation o f
catching the drips in a bowl,
Scandinavia, so som e
yet she had to go to empty
it whenever it became full, stories have a m ore
and each time venom landed Biblical slant
on Loki the Earth shook with his
writhing. That shaking is said to be
an explanation for earthquakes.
Following this, the gods w ill be overwhelm ed
b y their enemies: the jotnar w ho reside on the
banks o f the icy River Slith, the dwarfs of the
golden halls o f the dark fells, and the dead who
The Elder Edda
We are still unsure as to w ho originally created
Voluspa, where it was written, or who, indeed,
compiled the entire E ld e r Edda in which the
poem appears, although many have suggested
Saemund the Wise, an earlier scholar who lived
from 1056-1133 CE, as the man w ho compiled
the P o e tic Edda. Many scholars argue that
Voluspa is too rich in pagan imagery, with an
unparalleled force o f belief and vividness, for
it to have been written by a Christian intent on
archaising the tale: most say that it was written
- w ithout doubt - by a pagan. However, most
also now accept the Christian ideas interwoven
through the poem, particularly in the last stanza
which m entions ‘a mighty lord that rules over
all’. Because of this, the poem is thought to date
to the years where Scandinavia was transitioning
from pagan beliefs to Christianity - at some
point around the 10th century - and written by
an Icelander with some exposure to Christianity.
A version of Voluspa also appears in
H auksbok ('book o f Haukr'), which is thought to
be penned by many people, yet mainly written
and compiled by the Icelandic lawspeaker and
knight of Norway, Haukr Erlendsson, in the 14th
century. Originally one manuscript, it is now in
three parts, with many portions being lost. This
manuscript, like many others that still survive,
is thought to contain fragments from older
docum ents that recounted the myths, but now
no longer exist.
reside in the realms o f Hel. The volva tells Odin
o f her vision o f a great hall in Hel, the underworld
realm o f the dead, covered in slithering venomous
serpents, or else w ith walls w oven from their
spines; in this place the worst of men wade in
sluggish rivers, those w ho have broken oaths,
perjurers, murders, and seducers. Here
too lurks NiQhoggr, meaning 'malice
striker', a serpent-like dragon who
Norse gnaws on the roots o f the world-
tree, and represents all the evil
in the world; here he sucks on
the blood from the corpses o f
the dead, while the w o lf tears
at men.
N o w the seeress lists the signs
that presage Ragnarok. First, the
sun will grow dark. Great storms
w ill sweep across the land, and
three roosters w ill crow to give the signal
that the battle is about to commence. Eggther, the
watchman o f the giants, sits, cheerfully playing
on his harp, when the first, the red cockerel Fjalar
('deceiver') crows from the forests o f Jotunheimr
While the poems preserve the words o f the
authors, and their voices speak to us through
time, their faces are lost to us forever
"As the world tree
bends and groans, the
fire jotnar w ill come
forth"
to wake the giants for battle. N ext to be heard will
be the cries o f Gullinkambi from Valhalla, the great
hall, where the gods w ill awake to his call. And
the third and last call w ill be from Hel’s rust-red
rooster, from the depths o f the underworld. Next,
Garmr, the hell-hound guardian o f the gates o f the
underworld, w ill howl, break his chains and run
amok. Heimdall w ill blow his Gjallarhorn calling
the gods to their last battle, while Odin seeks
wisdom from Mimir's severed head. Odin is said to
carry this head with him as it gives him counsel,
after he embalmed It and magically gave it power
to speak. As the world tree bends and groans, the
fire jotnar w ill com e forth, and the World Serpent
writhes, creating gigantic waves that roll across the
seas. Having broken free from its mooring in the
tum ult the giant Hrym w ill set sail from the east in
his ship Naglfar - made from the finger and toenails
o f the dead. Aboard this vessel is the jotnar army,
preparing to battle the gods in the final showdown
o f the world's end. From the north, Loki stands at
the helm o f a ship carrying the dead o f Hel.
It's said that, during these times, brother w ill kill
brother, and no one w ill be spared. The Earth will
shudder under the w eight o f the violence o f swords
and axes, from the debauchery that transgresses
even fam ily bonds, and soon the world w ill sink.
After a final council, the gods face their enemies
in the bloody battle that is their fated doom. Odin
w ill be eaten alive b y Fenrir, Loki’s w o lf son; Thor
defeats his nemesis, the World Serpent, in combat,
only to fall to the ground after just nine steps,
able to take no m ore after being subjected to its
poisonous breath; Freyr will be killed by the warrior
giant w ho rules the fiery realm o f Muspelheim. The
sun grows dark, the heavens blacken as the hot
stars whirl d ow n to earth, and fires touch the skies
as the earth is submersed under the waters.
After a time, the seeress sees the Earth re-emerge
once more from under the waters, and a lone eagle
hovers above a mountain, fishing in a waterfall.
The surviving gods gather at their m eeting place on
the planes. Here, they ponder what has happened,
and talk o f the great battle, the World Serpent, and
the w isdom o f the runes. Finally, it's said that the
golden games tables will once m ore stand in the
verdant grass, as a symbol o f brighter days.
 In the aftermath, Baldr and his blind brother,
Ho3r, w ill return from Hel to live once more among
the gods, and the fields o f the land spring up, fertile
and bearing crops without being sown. Tw o sons
w ill inhabit the world, and the hall o f Gimle - the
post-Ragnardk world - w ill be thatched with gold,
as the righteous rulers live happily thereafter.
Yet, here, at the end, w e see the shadowy dragon
Nidhoggr rise once more. Only this time, he carries
the corpses o f men on the backs o f his wings as he
flies. M any think that the dragon Nifihoggr is the
herald that announces the beginning o f Ragnarok -
but is he instead a sym bol o f renewal, as the world
is reborn into a new day? A t this, the volva, too,
sinks; her prophecy is at an end.
W hile som e m ay say the happenings recounted
in Voluspa are nothing more than stories crafted b y
an active imagination, it's thought that the worship
o f the Vanir originated in the Baltic, and around
the North Sea, later spreading northwards to
Scandinavia. One might expect conflict w hen two
different belief systems confront each other for the
first time, and m any scholars believe that this is the
explanation for the kEsir-Vanir war o f mythology.
Only when the belief systems - and pantheons -
"The earth w ill shudder under the weight o f
the violence o f swords and axes"
were conflated, and merged into one m ythology
did the frictions subside. Indeed, it’s said that
the war ended only when hostages were finally
exchanged. Scholars have argued that this m yth
runs parallel to the idea o f an invasion o f Germanic
fertility belief systems by a more sanguine religion;
for instance the invasion o f the Indo-Europeans,
which would fit well with the descriptions o f how
the Vanir pitted themselves against the kEsir gods.
The historical accuracy o f the events described in
Voluspa - and indeed the Edda as a whole - is still
w id ely debated b y scholars, but it's w idely believed
that the stories preserved in these mythologies may
w ell be fictionalised accounts o f real events.
Was there a true history o f clashing cultures,
o f a battle to rival all others, that begun when
hostages were taken from one tribe and mistreated
by another? W e w ill never know the truth o f these
events; instead w e are left to match these remnants
o f poem s to the fragments left in the archaeological
record in our imaginations only. Too little exists
to ever be completely sure o f their truth. Yet with
these vellum leaves, and these dark tales o f death
and destruction, w e can see into the minds of
old; a glimpse back in time, into an era when war
was commonplace and magic ruled. As the ships
that once creaked through primordial waters were
carried along b y the waves as sea serpents lashed
at their creaking planks, these tales are carried
dow n to us so that w e too m ay know their secrets.
And on days dark with thunder, when the waves
are battering the land as if the World Serpent
has unleashed his m ighty tail, w e too can listen
carefully for the call o f three solitary roosters, in
case they are followed b y the fateful trumpeting of
the Gjallarhorn from realms unseen...
49

£ hen the Romans w ith drew their
W
r forces from Britain around 410
■ CE the people they left behind
were left in both a tricky m ilitary
........... situation and a confused religious
state. The Roman Empire was officially a Christian
one, yet outside o f cities and the elite m any British
people clung to their paganism. Even Christians
referenced older pagan traditions. A mosaic from
Hinton St M ary depicts both Jesus and a range
o f m ythical Greek figures. This m ixture o f faiths
was not to last however - the Anglo-Saxons were
coming, and bringing their o w n religion.
In the pow er vacuum left b y the Romans bands
o f warriors from Northern Europe came to Britain.
The monk Gildas described in his Ruin o f Britain
how the "impious and fierce" Saxons were invited
to protect the southern parts o f Britain from the
w ild attacks o f northern tribes. H e thought this
invitation was like w elcom ing "wolves into the
sheep-fold." As a Christian Gildas saw the Saxons
not just as a threat to British sovereignty but as
Anglo-Saxon paganism
enemies o f his god. For the next 300 years the
dom inant religion in Britain was what today we'd
call Anglo-Saxon paganism.
N o British person at this tim e w ould have
called themselves 'pagan'. It was a — f l in the British landscape. The god
derogatory term applied to them
Christian writers but has been
used ever since to describe NO
Traces
their religion. W ithout a central W/Z Saxor
| W thought;
figure o f religious authority
Anglo-Saxon paganism was canh ef
m ore akin to the folk practices
o f the Celtic paganism from k n g ilS il 1
w hich it evolved, in that m any 0 ie Week
local variants form ed across tribal S V®1■i,
and national boundaries. W h ile the . - jA A
continental invaders brought their own
beliefs it seems likely that in Britain their
religion m erged w ith the existing paganism o f the
people to create a novel Anglo-Saxon paganism.
Unfortunately the Anglo-Saxons themselves
have left us no w ritten account o f their religion.
Anglo-Saxon paganism left few
material remains. The Franks Casket, a
whalebone box, preserves some of the
precious few images remaining
A ll the evidence w e have comes from later sources
after the arrival of Christian missionaries. Much
o f the evidence for Anglo-Saxon deities comes
from the names they have left embedded
W oden still speaks to us from
places like W ednesfield and
f A n glo- Ail Woodnesborough. Anglo-
lligious / Saxon paganism must be
i th eolo gy ' Jko reconstructed from the
, • Jlfx fragments scattered across
n d in tn e n fl j 3
many different texts and
mes O f t h e l o c a t i o n s around England.
For Anglo-Saxons the
world was controlled by fate.
^ Wyrd, as the Anglo-Saxons
called it, is the force that m oves
everything under heaven. As the poem
B eow ulf says "W yrd [fate] goes ever as it must."
There was no use struggling w ith it and it is
impossible to separate w y rd from our lives. Every
aspect o f our destiny is inherent in everything w e
do. This fatalist v ie w o f existence points to Anglo-
Saxon paganism as being a religion o f this world. It
m ay do us good to invoke the gods, but on ly if w e
were fated to invoke the gods in the first place.
Those gods w e m ight call on were many. Anglo-
Saxon paganism was polytheistic and included
m any deities that seem familiar to those w h o have
studied Norse and Germanic paganism. The chief
god o f the Anglo-Saxons was Woden, w h o bears
m ore than a passing resemblance to the Norse
Odin. W oden was a god o f war but also wisdom.
His skill w ith runes associated W oden w ith magic.
Runes were not used for w riting long prose
texts but usually for short inscriptions either
in com mem oration o f som eone or in calling
for supernatural aid. The m onk Bede, a famous
historian, mentions h ow w hen a man called Imm a
was captured b y enemies he kept escaping. The
captors suspected Im m a was using 'loosening
words', likely runic inscriptions, to slip his
shackles. Bede, o f course, assures us that it was
saying Christian mass that freed his bound hands.
T iw was the god o f war that Anglo-Saxons
called on for victory in battle. To the bellicose
kingdoms o f Anglo-Saxon Britain his skill at arms
was a prized one. Thunor was the Anglo-Saxon
equivalent o f the Norse Thor. Thunor was the
protector o f the com m on man and humanity as a
whole. W ith his hamm er he kept the giants at bay.
His ham m er sym bol was particularly popular on
goods left in burials.
Anglo-Saxon graves are a major source o f our
knowledge o f their beliefs on the afterlife. The
bod y o f the dead seems to have been o f little
importance to survival in the afterlife. W h ile most
people were buried there was also a tradition o f
cremation. The burned remains w ould be placed
in a pottery urn, som etimes decorated w ith the
swastika o f Thunor or the runic sym bol o f Tiw.
Those bodies buried w hole w ere often
accompanied by grave goods, w hich m ight have
been meant to accompany the deceased into the
next life. Men, and even boys, w ere given weapons
w hile w om en w ere interred w ith household objects
and jewellery. We m ay never know exactly what
the actions Anglo-Saxons perform ed for the dead
represented however; som e o f them do not have
obvious meanings. Decapitations were com m on on
the dead and the head m ight be placed in m any
positions in relation to the body.
The living Anglo-Saxon worshipped the gods
in a variety o f locations. Sacred groves perhaps
stretching back to the tim e o f the Celts m ay have
been preserved into the Anglo-Saxon period.
'Hearg' in Old English meant a holy grove or
shrine. Places w ith the word 'harrow' in them
often derived from such places. W eohs b y contrast
were smaller shrines found b y roadsides. No
archaeological evidence for human constructed
sites o f worship has been found but there are
references in later texts to them. In Pope Gregory's
letter to Mellitus he says: "The idol temples o f
that race [the English] should b y no means be

"The landscape itself might have been alive in

1 Lacnunga: Book some sense to the people o f this period"
of Spells
Im ages and descriptions o f
drinkin g suggest that such
gatherings had ritual meanings
The Lacnunga is a collection of Anglo-Saxon and fostered com m unity and
medical texts and charms that gives us a glim pse bonds o f loyalty
at how the Anglo-Saxons may have used their faith
to heal themselves. Many of the cures offered
in the Lacnunga are sim ply various mixtures of
plant and animal bits that may do some good if
nothing better is on offer. Yet several charms call
on powers beyond the mere ingredients o f the
medicine, and one remedy has even been proven
to kill the antibiotic-resistant MRSA bacteria.
One gives examples o f rituals to be done by
m others in various situations. A mother who
cannot nurse her infant must step three times over
a dead person's grave, if that does not work she
must take a sip o f cow's milk and spit it in running
water and then take a drink from the stream.
In the ‘ Nine Herbs Charm,' Woden the god
is specifically named. In the poem, nine plants
including mugwort, thyme, and fennel are
m entioned as being particularly efficacious against
wounds becom ing infected, and it is W oden who is
credited with creating these plants.

"A snake cam e craw ling, it b it a man

Then Woden took nine glory-tw igs,
Smote the serpent so th at it flew into nine p arts.”

w . ' v y 5: ;

Th e gods could o ffe r m ore than supernatural

support. Odin placed herbs in nature and taught [5 . ■- . X i' •

humans h ow to create m edicines

 Saxon paganism

Th e legend ary brothers H englst and

Horsa w ere the m ythical leaders o f the
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes w h o in vaded
Britain and founded a lin e o f kings

W oden, the Anglo-Saxon kin g o f the gods,

o ffered n ot on ly m ilitary success but
w isd o m and access to m agical pow ers

destroyed, but only the idols in them. Take holy ale w ere raised and toasts made to those present Tuesday is Tiw's Day, and W ednesday still belongs
water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars in a chieftain's hall. Oaths o f loyalty and friendship to the m ost high god Woden.
and place relics in them. For if the shrines are w ell w ere spoken betw een those present and gifts In folklore the Anglo-Saxons have left their
built, it is essential that they should be changed given to guests. To ensure that a sym bel did mark too. Wayland the Smith was a popular figure
from the worship o f devils to the service o f the not descend into a drunken riot one person was in Anglo-Saxon m ythology. A fam ed maker o f
true God." appointed to keep it holy. magical goods, he appears in several Old English
As w ell as gods the Anglo-Saxon world was one One o f the events at a sym bel was often the poems, including B eow ulf and his im age is found
inhabited by m ighty heroes, strange other races recitation o f fam ily lineages as a w ay o f honouring carved in stones and the Franks Casket. A t an
like elves and dwarves, and threatening giants. both the livin g and the dead. In one list o f royal ancient Neolithic barrow tomb dating from around
The landscape itself m ight have been alive ancestors W oden is given as the progenitor 3,400 BCE know n as Wayland's Smithy, local
in som e sense to the people o f this o f the line. This was not an attempt people in the 18th century believed an invisible
period. Anglo-Saxon paganism to claim divine ancestry, but spirit would shoe their horse if given an offering.
may have incorporated Farm ing w as rather a later Christian attempt Old faiths may linger long after the last believer
animistic beliefs that spirits ve ry im portant to cast the pagan gods o f has gone, it seems.
existed in various places, the Anglo-Saxons as m erely
to Anglo-Saxon faith,
trees, and rocks. Offerings humans o f the deep past.
’ w h ich had specific spells
left in springs and Christianity took some
woodlands could either be and prayers for blessing ‘ tim e to return to Britain.
to the gods or to the spirits and healing livestock^ W h ile some kings took
special to a single location. and land to Christianity quickly,
What occurred during Anglo- others hedged their bets.
Saxon pagan worship is again an Bede records h ow King
open question. Anim al sacrifice seems Raedwald o f East Anglia kept
to have been part o f their ritual worship. a pagan idol in the same temple
Bede says that Novem ber was once know n as as a Christian altar. M any Christian
Blod monath - Blood Month. “Blod-monath is the kings lost their thrones to pagans, or
month o f immolations, for it was in this month w ere follow ed b y pagan successors.
that the cattle which w ere to be slaughtered were Eventually though Christianity
dedicated to the gods". T he m od em English word becam e the dominant faith o f
'Bless' is derived from the Old English ‘Bletsian’ England.
m eaning 'to consecrate w ith blood’. Like many Not all traces o f Anglo-Saxon
early faiths Anglo-Saxon paganism m ay not have paganism could be exorcised from
been as clean as m odern religions, yet there was the country however. The days o f
also jo y in their religious practice. the w eek that w e use derive from
Anglo-Saxon and Norse writings tell us o f the Anglo-Saxon names for them and
drinking rituals called symbel. H om s o f mead or their gods. Thursday is Thunor's day,
 Ifoporflfotfifrbamm

Syncretism: Melding -
^ #? • j i 'E&S^BSf - -
pagan faiths

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70 T h e a n c ie n t w itch relig io n
 Melding pagan faiths
Ideas and concepts flo w b etw een religions, but h ow is it that
som etim es w hole gods are able to flit betw een pantheons?
' o religion is pure. Even those religions
that are revealed directly b y gods
must exist in a human world in which
ideas are exchanged every day. As
> believers react to new ideas from
other faiths they refine their own opinions on the
divine. Even denying the tenets of another faith
can reshape an entire religion. Religions evolve
and that is w h y studying the history o f religion
can be so profitable.
Sometimes when followers of different religions
come into contact with each other they do
not deny the truth that the others hold sacred.
Instead o f reacting against them they learn from
each other and may exchange beliefs. This is
called syncretism and it has been occurring for
as long as humans have discussed their religions
w ith each other.
It has been proposed that som e m yths preserve
the notion o f gods being imported into a new
religion. The tales o f Dionysus have him being
Written by Ben Gazur
born o f a relationship between a mortal wom an
and Zeus w ithin the m ythological past, so he was
a new god. The legends also speak o f him com ing
from the east with a band o f followers. Could this
be a garbled version o f a novel deity being added
to the pantheon? Other Athenian Greek gods are
given definite birthplaces outside o f Athens such
as Aphrodite, called Cypris - Lady of Cyprus.
Pagan and polytheistic religions are particularly
adept at including new gods into their pantheon.
The Greek and Romans were not dogmatic
in their faith and had no texts that placed
limitations on w h o they could worship. As new
situations occurred n ew gods could appear
to fulfil new roles. In the 5th century BCE an
influx o f Thracian immigrants led to the cult o f
the huntress goddess Bendis being introduced
to Athens. This goddess shared m any o f the
attributes and functions o f the Greek goddess
Artemis, though their worship was kept separate,
but Bendis' festival was celebrated by Athenians
and Thracians alike. There was m ore than enough
room for both in Athenian theology.
The ability o f the Greeks to recognise aspects
of their ow n gods in the deities o f other
civilisations facilitated religious syncretism. W hen
the historian Herodotus described cultures at
the periphery o f his world for a Greek audience,
he did not hesitate to refer to the foreign gods
b y Greek names. Under his gaze Am on o f the
Egyptians becomes analogous to the Greek Zeus.
W hen talking about the Scythians it is Papaois
that he identifies as Zeus.
There may have been attempts to 'purify' Greek
religion at times in Athens. Plutarch describes
how “Diopeithes brought in a bill providing
for the public impeachment o f such as did not
believe in gods, or w h o taught doctrines regarding
the heavens". This action was directed against
a natural philosopher w ho was attempting to
describe the world without reference to the gods.
Later, when Socrates was put on trial, one o f the
Syncretism: M elding pagan faiths

Rom an deities and

Greek deities becam e
sycretised over
centuries, but both
pantheons allow ed
the addition o f n ew
gods from oth er faiths
 History o f Paganism
The myth of
the Flood
In the ancient days God became angry at
humans and it was decided that they would
be all wiped out in a flood. One man, however,
was chosen to survive. He built a huge boat and
boarded it with his family. The flood came and
the world was drowned. Eventually the boat
settled on a mountaintop...
This story no doubt sounds familiar but it
is not the flood narrative from the Bible but
the one from the E p ic o f Gilgam esh. W ritten
around the 18th century BCE it predates the
tale o f Noah by centuries. When the story of
Utnapishtim, the human chosen to build the
boat, was rediscovered, it sent shockwaves
through the Christian world.
It is not just gods that can be transferred
between faiths but stories too. The tale as told
in Gilgam esh has many different resonances
to that in the Bible and would have had a
different meaning for those w ho heard it. It is
an interesting aspect o f syncretism that though
sharing ideas and even gods may help to bring
people closer it is im possible to be certain they
mean the same thing to everyone.
hnt c uS are tOUnd in cuItures across the w orld
tale that has been borrow ed from m an y tim es
charges against him was worshipping gods that
were not native to the city. Yet despite these actions
the Greeks would continue to recognise gods from
other pantheons.
Part o f the reason that the Greeks were so
willing to accept new gods was that they were
travellers, explorers, and conquerors. Alexander
the Great ruled a vast polyglot empire that was
home to m any religions. W hen he visited his new
dominions he would show respect for his subjects
by participating in their rites and rituals. In Egypt
In m yth Dionysus, and Bacchus, are
depicted as jou rneyin g from the East - a
possible reference to their foreign origins
"Roman paganism was sometimes deployed
to ensure cohesion across the Empire"
he crossed the desert to the oracle o f Am on at In Roman religion the god Mars was an ancestor
Siwa. Here he was told that he was the child of o f the martial Roman people, while the warrior
a god. From Alexander's faith in the truth o f this god Ares was a relatively minor god to the Greeks.
oracle the worship o f a god called Zeus Am on who The Romans were also
melded a Greek deity with an Egyptian god polytheistic and w illing to
would develop. take in n ew gods. Apollo
In the fracturing o f Alexander's empires was imported whole from
in the wake o f his death, more merging Greek mythology. With
o f pagan religions occurred. Ptolemy, one the spread o f the
of Alexander's generals and successors, Roman Empire
became Pharaoh of Egypt. There he more syncretism
introduced the cult o f the god Serapis, in religion would
Serapis was a synthesis o f the Egyptian begin to blur
gods Osiris and Apis, but was presented in
the Greek style. His worship was meant to
help unite Ptolemy's Greek and Egyptian
subjects. As Hellenistic pagans m ixed with Th e g o d Serapis
Asians, syncretism occurred outwards. w as a synthesis
o f the Egyptian
The bodhisattva Vajrapani was a fearsome gods Osiris and
protector o f Buddha and in central Asia came Apis, w ith
attributes to create
to be represented by the equally strong Greek a figure acceptable
hero-god Herakles. to both Greeks and
Egyptians alike
Greek city states had spread throughout the
Mediterranean world in the centuries before
Alexander. Trade w ith local populations went
beyond food and goods. In the Italian peninsula
Greek religion was readily taken up. Some of the
gods o f the Greeks and the Italians were similar
because they had both developed from the earlier
Proto-Indo-European pantheon. Zeus the Father
('Zeus Pater’) and Jupiter even shared similar
names. There were, however, clear differences
between the tw o pantheons.
 Syncretism: Melding pagan faiths

between conquerors and conquered, as soldiers

.LU U uiLiu um Lim uLi v*t a t a t m u n n ;
(and their families) from n ew Imperial territories,
brought their beliefs into the Empire.
The mysteries o f Isis enjoyed great popularity
.
in both Greek and Roman societies. Mystery
cults were a com m on part o f the religious scene
that allowed people to come unusually close to
the gods. W hile public worship o f the gods in
ceremonies often kept the crowd distant from the A
deity, in a m ystery cult re-enactments of the god’s 4'
is * >
story made a personal connection to the divine.
Isis, originally an Egyptian goddess, underwent
Hellenisation under the Ptolemies and in this
ti
’civilised' guise entered the Greek world. k*
Other m ystery cults, like that o f Mithras, spread W
across the Roman world. The Mithraeum in
London that is n ow open to the public is just one
o f hundreds o f underground temples dedicated
to Mithras that have been unearthed. Wherever
worship o f the god began (likely Persia) he ended
up in lands unimaginable to his original priests. ■
i- >
Roman paganism was sometimes deployed
to ensure peace and cohesion across an empire
with many different peoples in it. The god Apollo,
whom the Romans had taken from the Greeks, C T O ' DEO' *
ATI rv \W
\ GONM'SFRTT T
was syncretised to the Celtic god Belenus. Belenus
seems to have driven the sun across the sky in his
11 A F . D R V M ' PP O M A' Ai
O M P 'A K f O t V M
chariot, as Apollo is said to have done, so it was
easy for the Romans to make the identification o f The Tauroctony, bull-slaying, w as the
m ost sacred im age in Mithraism. A
them as the same god. Yet an act meant to bring god o f u nknow n origin, he was soon
outsiders into their religious sphere also introduced adopted b y m any Roman pagans

the Romans to the worship o f Belenus. Inscriptions

to him have been found in Italy itself. and ideas between cultures, some see the adoptit
W hile polytheistic religions show a rare o f practices held sacred by a society, especially b;>
adaptability to the introduction o f n ew religions, people without a proper understanding o f them,
syncretism can occur even in faiths that seem to as deeply hurtful. W hen a holy item or rite is
deny the existence o f other gods. Some gods, like appropriated from a marginalised culture it can
the Irish Brigid, were incorporated directly into feel as if their culture is being stolen and erased,
Christian faith by making her into a saint. not honoured.
Thanks to the global reach o f many This can be problematic for
faiths today it is possible to access m odem Pagans. Though
deities from cultures that have Syncretism has some claim that paganism
nothing to do w ith the place in various forms existed
both go o d and bad
o f one's birth. A Christian in in Europe for centuries
sides. It can teach us
Korea may have no idea who throughout the Christian
the goddess Brigid was
m ore about h ow cultures period, most scholars
when they call on relate, but there's believe that m odem
Saint Brigid to always a danger o f European Pagan faiths followers o f their brand o f Paganism. For modern
intercede on r are reconstructions or Pagans w ho follow an eclectic pantheon, the charge
appropriation
their behalf. synthetic creations. Polytheistic o f cultural appropriation can feel particularly hard
te S v
This disconnect reconstructionists have formed to answer. A person m ay feel drawn to worship the
between believers Pagan religions around the remaining Celtic Danu, the Roman Antinous, and the Inuit
and belief has been under folklore and practices o f cultures as diverse Sedna, all at the same time. Are they choosing
ever closer examination w ith the as the Greeks, the Norse, and the Aztec. Some to wear their faith in other cultures' gods as a
current discussions surrounding question how these faiths can claim to be identical fashion, or are they honestly expressing a powerful

' f i H cultural appropriation. W hile no to the original when so much has been lost. Many conviction in the power o f these beings? This is
T * 1 : one denies that our existence is n ew followers o f old beliefs say that their devotion a question all m od em Pagans must consider, and
enriched by the trading of views and faith is sufficient to make them authentic find a heartfelt and honest answer to.
i * T
 History o f Paganism
Lighting
the pyre
H ow m edieval Europe w ent from disbelieving in
the pow er o f w itches to fearing a sinister secret
society bent on subverting the masses
^ Written by Edoardo Albert
he Middle Ages get a bad press in
T
all sorts o f areas. In the history of
witchcraft, the idea o f zealous m edieval
inquisitors consigning an old crone to
the flames because o f the slander o f a
neighbour and a reputation as a 'wise woman' is
well established - and not always true.
In fact, the witch trials and witch crazes o f
Europe and North America were a product of
the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, when
men, having cast o ff the shackles o f m edieval
superstition, became convinced through all the
best and most scientific o f arguments that there
really were witches in their midst and resolved to
burn them out. Think o f the treatment o f magic in
medieval romances as compared to Shakespeare
and Jacobean drama. In the former, there is magic,
but it is fantastical - magical, no less. But as we
enter Elizabethan and Jacobean Britain, magic
moves from the realm o f fantasy to a present
danger. In m edieval times, to encounter magic
meant to enter the realm o f faerie; in Shakespeare
and Marlowe it meant the necromancer next door.
During that vast expanse o f time from the fall
of the Western Roman Empire to the dawning
of the Renaissance, the idea o f witchcraft was
both popularly accepted and officially dismissed.
This was in distinction to Roman law, which had
stipulated that sorcerers be executed, although
that did not stop m any an emperor from including
soothsayers in their private entourages. Curse
tablets (execrations against some person the writer
wished to harm) were com m on throughout the
Roman period and an accepted form o f redress in
an age without courts or police forces. But should
someone go further and contract a necromancer to
curse a person to death, then Roman law specified
death b y burning as punishment for such a crime.
In comparison, the law code promulgated
by Charlemagne in the 8th century stipulated
-JJL 1
 History o f Paganism
that if the accused, b elieving someone to be
a witch, had that person burned, then the
accused should be executed for murder. Such a
turnaround conformed w ith the teaching o f the
Catholic Church, which stated that witchcraft was
superstition. For according to no less an authority
than St Augustine, and as formulated in the Canon
Episcopi in the 10th century, the supposed power
One o f the key events in European history
that helped to conflate the ideas o f sorcery
and heresy was the condem nation of the Poor
Fellow-Soldiers o f Christ and of the Temple of
Solomon, the Knights Templar.
King Philip the Fair o f France, having
determ ined to destroy the Knights Templar
to obtain their resources and negate his huge
debts to them, needed a pretext. The Knights
had a reputation for secrecy that had allowed
rumours as to their practices to flourish. At
dawn on Friday, 13 October. 1307, Philip's agents
arrested the master o f the order and its highest
officers and put them to torture in various
locations. The warrant for their arrest began
with a telling phrase: "God is not pleased. We
have enemies o f the faith in the kingdom."
Under unimaginable duress they confessed to
heretical acts, blasphemy and sorcery. Although
there was little basis in these accusations, they
provided sufficient pretext, when combined
with the pressure Philip placed on the trial
judges, to ensure the condem nation and
execution o f Jacques de Molay, the order's
Grand Master, and the suppression o f the
Templars. A s well as connecting sorcery and
heresy in the European mind, it also prefigured
another key aspect of later w itchcraft trials: that
the prosecuting authority was not the church
but the secular authorities.
o f witches was purely illusory: it was the persistent
belief in the reality o f these powers that was M A L L E V S
heretical. The Canon, which was part of church
law, did mention that some w om en believed that
MALEFICARVM,
M A L £ F'C AS E T E A R V M
they could fly through the night on the backs o f hxrciim fraracacontcrcm,
fell beasts, but it labelled such w om en as 'foolish' Lx V A R U S a v c t o r i b v s cov.ru trvs
S . in ijuatuoi T piuos iuftd diftrifemus,
and 'stupid' for believing that they could do such
things. The fault, according to the Canon, lay in
being tricked by the Devil into believing such
powers were real, rather than the reality o f witching f-1 i t i Z Z T r r "•
powers, which it labelled as illusory.
TOMVS P R I M VS. .
However, com mon folk remedies and charms ....
o f the tim e could, when view ed with the more
suspicious eyes of later witch hunters, easily come
to be view ed as magical. For instance, as a ward
against lightning people wore sealskin, or a farmer
might ask a virgin to plant a new olive tree to
ensure a fruitful crop. But these were all largely
practices o f the com m on people. The practice of
sorcery in the middle ages was a real concern, but
since it required learning and education the people
accused of it were largely male, since few wom en
could read Latin, the language o f scholarship.
Necromancy, as this form o f sorcery was foundations for the later w itch trials
called, involved summoning the dead. Belief in
its possibility was widespread in the middle ages, are complex, but a major contributory factor
having its foundation in the story o f Samuel and were the profound dislocations produced by the
the witch of Endor. Saul, king o f Israel, facing recurring outbreaks o f the Black Death in the 14th
an invasion by the Philistines and still century and the consequent perceived
tormented b y his envy for the young spread o f heretical sects. To the
David, repaired to a witch and medieval worldview, such a
required her to summon the Som e scholars calamity required a cause
spirit o f the prophet Samuel in some falling away by
argue there
from the dead. She did so, society from God's laws,
really was a w itch
and the spirit o f Samuel told and thus the search for
Saul that he had forfeited cult com posed o f scapegoats began. The
m arginalised people
God’s warrant and that on the first victim s were Europe's
m orrow the Philistines would w h o preserved som e Jewish communities, but
utterly defeat his army and ancient beliefs in the febrile atmosphere
he him self would die. W ith this widespread am ong the
Biblical warrant, the possibility of survivors, suspicions spread
summoning the dead for the purposes more widely. So w e find that church
of prophecy and the unveiling of authorities, having initially pooh-poohed
mysteries was accepted, but the means the reality of sorcerous powers in earlier times,
to accomplish this were generally began to entertain the belief that these powers were
written in grimoires, magical text real. The Idea o f the witches' sabbat, where wom en
books that told, sometimes in code entered into a pact with the D evil and committed
and usually in Latin, h ow to perform all sorts o f terrible acts, began to be accepted as
the requisite ceremonies. So any true b y society.
putative necromancer needed not W ith the idea o f a pact with the Devil in place,
only to be able to read, but to read it became possible to countenance uneducated
Latin too. As such, records show that people being able to perform the powerful acts o f
the majority o f people accused of magic that had previously only been associated
necromancy in the first half o f the with necromancers. After all, while a simple village
14th century were men. wom an would obviously not have the knowledge
However, b y the 15th and 16th necessary for casting spells, once she had made a
centuries, beliefs had begun to pact with the Devil, he could supply the knowledge
change. The reasons for this shift that the witch lacked. Theologians began to work
 Lighting the pyre

out the implications o f such ideas, with disastrous
consequences. Covens o f witches, as opposed to
solitary practitioners, implied an organised, secret
cult, and one antithetical to society. What was
worse, this cult was hidden w ithin the body o f
believers: the enem y was within. The response was
an explosion in witch trials.
Before 1420, there are less than a 100 recorded
witch trials in Europe. Over the next ten years,
the number o f accusations jumps, with some
200 people having been executed. W here before
magic had been an illusion caused through the
Devil's trickery, n ow it became an active collusion
with Satan and, as such, the worst sort of heresy.
W ith the link between witchcraft, the Devil and
heresy established to the satisfaction o f Europe's
educated elites, the elements were in place for the
unleashing of all-too-human demons.
Even so, the idea would likely have remained
confined to the clerical and secular elites o f Europe
if not for one transformative and, in this case,
disastrous invention: the printing press. W e are
used to thinking o f the printing press as one o f the
m ost beneficial inventions in human history, but in and the popularisation o f witches and sorcery
one area at least, it served a malevolent function. in contemporary culture that reached its literary
For it was through the widespread dissemination o f heights in Shakespeare's Macbeth and Marlowe's
books and pamphlets made possible by this new ­ Dr Faustus, and the confluence o f ideas that
fangled invention that the idea o f the evil witch in formed the early m odern idea o f the witch was
league with the Devil spread through all reaches o f nearly complete.
European society. A ll that was needed was the final
In 1472, Heinrich Kramer's Malleus ingredient: the conviction o f the
Maleficarum (Ham m er o f Witches) educated classes that magic was
was published, synthesising in fact real. This conviction was
Accusations
the Devil's brew o f ideas provided by, of all people,
that would inform the later
o f w itchcraft w ere the Renaissance humanists.
European witch trials, and in generally levelled b y For in their rediscovery of
particular the identification neighbours, so the ancient knowledge, among
o f w om en w ith witches. panic m a y have been the most prized o f their
Kramer believed that women's findings was the ancient
due to village
spiritual weakness and a Hermetic wisdom o f Egypt,
tensions
proclivity to evil that he traced and the speculations of the
back to Eve dangling the apple Pythagoreans and Kabbalists.
o f temptation under Adam's nose Humanists such as Marsilio Ficino
made them naturally susceptible to the and Erasmus view ed this as high
Devil's blandishments. Couple this with woodcut magic, but once that was admitted as real then its
illustrations o f hags and crones riding broomsticks. counterpart, black magic, became its necessary and
obvious counterpoint.
In a time when the educated elites were busy

"What was worse, this cult was hidden within dabbling in numerology and astrology, it was easy
to imagine similar but diabolical groups gathered
the body of believers: the enem y was within" in covens for the ruin o f the world. The stage was
set for the age o f witch persecutions.

The Three Witches, as described

in Macbeth, show h ow the idea
o f witchcraft had develop ed and
changed at the start o f the early
m odern period

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 The hidden worlds of
Esotericism
W hat is the nature o f reality? To uncover the truth you'll
have to join one o f the m any orders from history w h o
kn ow what is really going on
Written by B en Gazur

umans have always hungered to occurred in the dark caverns. Mystery cults were excluded from their teachings. The Pythagoreans

H
have secrets revealed to them. To popular for the exclusivity they offered but they
hold hidden knowledge is to set also provided those w ho joined with spiritual
oneself apart from the com mon herd benefits. Many m ystery cults showed the death
of humanity. Many religions and and rebirth o f a god or goddess. By taking part in
societies have certain rituals, roles, and truths
this resurrection
that worshippers were often offered a
are concealed from the outside world. Western
better afterlife than the gloom y underworld most
people were bound for in Greek religion.
Esotericism deals with all those movements
through European history that have offered Some m ystery cults gave their followers tips
members n ew paths to universal wisdom,on
access
getting to the good places in the afterlife, or
to the gods, and uncanny powers. charms to ward o ff evils they would find there.
Esotericism derives from a Greek word Orphicism saw the dead buried with golden
meaning 'belonging to an inner circle'. tablets w ith instructions on h ow to keep your
Throughout the ancient world there w ere many m ind intact in the underworld. The m ystery cult
groups that worked to keep their knowledge o f Isis seems to have given people a way to be
secret. In the pagan world m ystery cults were reborn into a new life to avoid permanent death.
common. A t the Eleusinian Mysteries initiates Religious esotericism was only one form
were led underground and sworn to absolute o f hidden knowledge m the ancient world.
secrecy about all that took place. So effective was Philosophers could be equally cryptic with
the injunction to silence that n ow w e are left with their beliefs. The Pythagoreans m oved into
only scattered fragments of what rites m ay have communes together so that outsiders would be
also taught about the transmigration o f the
soul, cycles o f rebirth and the path to m ove
ever upwards with each life. T hey treated their
mathematical discoveries with as much secrecy
as their divine revelations. Hippasus left the
Pythagorean school and told the world about
dodecahedrons and was promptly drowned at sea
for his impiety.
Even Plato, w ho wrote down his theories for
others to read, was not free from the urge to
conceal certain teachings. In the possibly spurious
Second Epistle o f Plato he warns a follower never
to write down certain doctrines and to burn the
letter. The accepted dialogues of Plato point to a
similar esotericism. His famous Allegory o f the
Cave tells us that there are higher realms beyond
our perceptions, which is a message many
modern Pagans would agree with. O nly those
that have been freed from the world o f the senses
can lead others to knowledge o f the true world.
Esotericism deals w ith things that
are norm ally hidden from us and
involves, metaphorically, sticking
our heads outside the universe
fflM
H istory o f Paganism

lln 1614 an anonym ous book was published

in Germany under the title Fama Fratern itatis
Rosae Crucis - The Fame o f the Brotherhood of
the Rosy Cross. This text revealed the travels
o f a d octor in the Holy Land where he learned
the true secrets of religion from secret Arabic
masters and returned to form the society o f
the Rosy Cross, or Rosicrucians, as they would
becom e known.
Other books soon followed that developed
the theories o f brotherhood. Rosicrucianism,
like Kabbalah, was supposed to reveal the one
truth that lay behind all faiths. Using allegories,
symbols, and esoteric revelations, they offered
insights into natural science, magic, and
ultimately God.
Many people at the tim e o f the first
publication took the book as an allegorical
rather than a true telling o f a real journey. One
author o f a later Rosicrucian text sim ply referred "The pathway o f knowledge to higher powers
to it as a 'ludibrium' - a little joke. Despite most
people agreeing that the brotherhood never is the essence o f Esotericism"
really existed it has had a large effect on many
w ho created esoteric societies afterwards. The
idea o f a secret group o f individuals seeking
to im prove the world, yet operating without Later followers o f Plato would go further than dominate religion in the West. The history o f the
the knowledge o f the rest o f mankind, was seeking mere knowledge of the divine: they would early Church however tells a different story.
appealing to many thinkers. It would allow them seek unity with it. Plotinus called this joining with Gnosticism was b om amidst the strong debates
to pursue knowledge without the need to deal
the divine 'henosisl From henosis the practice o f about the nature o f the Divine that Christianity
overly much with the messy business o f actually
interacting with the hoi polloi. Theurgy developed. Because the world o f physical stirred up. Gnosis is simply the Greek word for
objects is illusory, meditation and purification of knowledge and the Gnostics believed that they
the body allowed the soul to transcend it. were the ones w h o possessed the fundamental
Rituals were employed in Theurgy in much the truths of creation. It was gnosis that was the path
same w a y that shamans seeking altered states of to salvation. W hile the Gnostics did believe in one
consciousness w ill use drums and chanting. The highest god, they also believed in lower powers
goal o f Theurgy is to perfect the self by combining called Aeons, The material world that w e live in
it with God or gods. M any m odem Pagans use was a creation o f one o f these Aeons and into the
their rites to seek com munion w ith the gods in a degenerate matter o f the world sparks o f the divine
similar way. Some practitioners used talismans became entrapped. Humans are those fragments o f
to focus their efforts and it is from these than divinity. Only through knowledge of reality can w e
many magical symbolic systems developed. reunite with god.
W hile perfecting oneself is a noble goal in itself, This pathway o f knowledge to higher powers is
there were practitioners w ho used it as a path to the essence o f Esotericism. M any m odern Pagan
supernatural powers. theologies also operate on a belief in their deities
The first centuries o f the C om m on Era were being aspects o f reflections o f a single supreme
tumultuous ones both politically and spiritually. god. By offering to teach worshippers a path out
Philosophers began to speak ever more o f one o f the material world and into the sublime via
God yet mystery cults proliferated within the the gods, modern Pagans are following in ancient
Roman Empire. People sought new ways to pathways. Some Gnostic sects taught that Jesus
understand the universe. It is very easy to write was a saviour sent by the highest god to bring the
history in such a w ay that w ith the advent light o f knowledge and escape from the physical
of Christianity, monotheism was destined to world to humans. This idea o f a messiah is one

»6

that would be reasserted again and again in 20th
century mystical thinking.
The fall o f the Western Roman Empire left
Europe as a complex network o f religions.
Paganism o f various sorts existed alongside
Christianity with much interchange
between the two. Eventually
Christianity becam e the
dominant religion and much
esoteric thought was lost
or became mere folklore
as orthodox teachings
came to hold sway over the
continent. Western Esotericism
was eventually reborn from
knowledge preserved in the East,
particularly b y Arab and Jewish
scholars.
Kabbalah is a type of Jewish mysticism
that had a great deal o f influence and introduced
a form o f Esotericism palatable to a Christian v iew
o f nature. According to Jewish writings "Moses
received the Torah from Sinai, and transmitted it
to Joshua; and Joshua to the elders; and the elders
to the prophets; and the prophets transmitted it to
the m en o f the great assembly." In the original text
the word 'received' is "ICibbel" from which Kabbalah
received its name. The idea is that an unbroken
Hermes Trismegistus is the
legendary author o f many
esoteric texts used for centuries
as sources of spiritual guidance
The hidden worlds ofEsotericism
line o f transmission exists for teachings given
directly to Moses from God. Kabbalah explained
that there were levels of understanding in Biblical
writings. These went from the literal meaning o f a
text, to the allegorical, to the teasing out
o f word meanings, to a secret and
divinely inspired Kabbalistic
subtext. There were those who
used Kabbalah as a w ay o f
channelling God's power
for their ow n purposes. The
tale o f the Golem, a clay
figure brought to life by
carving a sacred word on his
forehead, expresses a sense o f
the Kabbalist's aims.
Searching for hidden
meanings in arcane books would
becom e an obsession for some Western
Esotericists. Hermeticism took works attributed to
Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the Thrice-Greatest)
and sought an ultimate truth concealed in his
teachings. The figure o f Hermes is clouded in a
mysterious past. Previously people thought he
was a contemporary o f Moses w ho had predicted
the com ing o f Christianity but now most scholars
believe the collection o f works that bear his name
was created much later. He is mentioned b y several
"Western Esotericism was
eventually reborn"
writers o f antiquity, with Saint Augustine being
very sniffy about the magic in his works.
The works ascribed to Hermes are called
the Hermetica and are m ostly dialogues in
which he instructs a student towards wisdom.
The rediscovery o f the Hermetic texts in the
Renaissance gave a new birth to Hermeticism.
Though the renewed study o f Greek convinced
some that the Hermetica was no older than the
2nd-3rd centuries CE, most remained convinced
o f the truths it offered to unlock. Thomas Browne
wrote these newfangled scholars “shall never laugh
m e out o f the philosophy o f Hermes, that this
visible world is but a portrait o f the invisible."
One o f the most important lessons for the
Hermetics was that o f 'As above, so below'. They
thought that in the world there were images o f
the greater universe beyond our knowledge and
our reason. It also taught that all things were
connected. A change in our world would be echoed
by a change in the higher realms. Pagans and
witches have used this idea in creating tables of
correspondence to guide their magical practices.
Those with the proper understanding would
be able to find an object in this world that
resonates w ith an aspect o f the upper worlds. The
use o f idols in Pagan worship hints at the link
between the physical and the spiritual world as
 H istory o f Paganism
the image or statue connects to the divine. Other
'correspondences' - links between realities - used in
magic could be a closely guarded secret.
Tied to the concept o f correspondences is the
theory o f signatures. Since ancient times natural
philosophers have been seeking treatments for
diseases in nature. The theory o f signatures posited
that clues were planted in flora and fauna that
hinted at their uses. If a plant looks like an eye,
as the flow er Eye Bright is supposed to, then a
medicine made from it w ill be especially useful in
healing eye conditions.
As Paracelsus described it “Nature marks
each growth... according to its curative benefit”.
Pliny the Elder had used the most basic form of
this sympathetic magic when he prescribed the
lungs, livers, and kidneys o f animals as useful in
treating the human organs. W ise people sought
out ever subtler and shrouded signatures left by
providence. Those w h o worked too hard and got a
headache would have taken walnuts to soothe their
overworked brains.
There were those w ho w ere not satisfied with
looking to nature for the things provided by the
gods. The aims o f alchemy w ere all to do with the
perfection o f reality. They wanted to transmute
base elements into gold, free the human body from
ageing and disease, and finally to stave o ff death
forever. Even though these are worldly
desires, within alchemy there was a
strong desire to perfect the soul
as well as the flesh. In mystical A lch em y had
texts dating back to ancient both a profound
Egypt and Greece, alchemists im pact on W estern
hunted for both the path to
Esotericism and
wealth and the path to
form ed the foundation
w isdom simultaneously.
Alchem y made m any notable
o f m odern-day
scientific discoveries that paved
the w ay for m od em chemistry.
Zinc was first distilled b y an Indian
alchemist. Phosphorus was isolated by an
alchemist attempting to make the philosopher's
stone from urine. Some o f the greatest minds
turned their efforts to alchemy. Sir Isaac Newton
wrote voluminous notes during his alchemical
researches. His discovery that all the colours of
light could be freed from white light using a prism
showed just how much there was hidden within
nature. The notion o f the concealed is one that
has entered many Pagan systems o f thought today
where gods and powers m ay inhabit the world
unseen by human eyes... at least, not those of
the uninitiated.
Historical progress from the Age
o f Enlightenment to the modern
technological b oom can
appear like an unstoppable
steam engine belching
smoke as it thunders
down a predetermined
track. Rationality has won
and superstition has been
chem istry exposed as a ghost without
a sheet. But humans are more
than rational calculating machines.
Just as saboteurs threw shoes into
factory machines to protest the com ing o f
industrialisation, others have bucked against the
tyranny o f logic and found ways to knowledge
unavailable to the scientist.
Spiritualism emerged in 1848 in N ew York when
tw o young girls, the Fox sisters, discovered that
they were able to communicate with a ghost that
haunted their home. Getting the spirit to rap on
floors, they slowly teased out the story o f its death.
Soon the sisters became famous and people could
be found around the world listening to tables being
tapped by phantoms wanting to tell their stories.
Though the girls later admitted to perpetrating a
hoax, Spiritualism was accepted by m any as a way
to breach the barrier between the living and the
dead. Those able to act as conduits for conversation
with spirits had access to knowledge that others
could not compete with. Heaven becam e as easy
to reach as if they had a telephone. In an age of
com m on premature death, such contact must have
been a com fort to the bereaved. Figures such as
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the hyper-logical
Sherlock Holmes, became a keen Spiritualist.
Spiritualism led to a renewed interest in fields
o f revealed wisdom that had been ignored for
centuries. Individuals m ay have practised magic on
their own, but now that people were again openly
discussing things beyond the ken o f scientists, like-
m inded seekers of truth began to com e together.
Theosophy developed out o f the work o f Helena
Blavatsky, who believed, as m any esoteric thinkers
do, that there was once a single world religion.
Drawing much from Hindu and Buddhist beliefs,
the Theosophists believed that a mystical saviour
figure occasionally visited Earth to impart wisdom
to humanity
Blavatsky wrote in her book The Secret Doctrine
that "Maitreya is the secret name o f the Fifth
Buddha, and the Kalki Avatar o f the Brahmins - the
last Messiah who w ill com e at the culmination
o f the Great Cycle." This led to a boy called Jiddu
 It is impossible to overestimate the effect
Aleister Crowley has had" Eliphas Levi
Father of
Krishnamurti being identified as Maitreya and
being groom ed to take his place as the next great
scandal or two), perhaps under the influence o f
"the wickedest m an alive” Aleister Crowley.
Occultism
spiritual leader o f mankind. Unfortunately for Crowley later founded the religion o f Thelema,
Theosophers, Krishnamurti later rejected their m erging it w ith O.T.O. - the Masonic-inspired
Eliphas Levi is an unlikely figure in the history
teachings and denied he was Maitreya. 1 sw Ordo Tem pli Orientis. The foundational
o f Western Esotericism. Born Alphonse Louis
Despite the failure o f the Theosophical text o f the faith, The Book o f the Law, was Constant he w as a fervent Catholic and Socialist o f
project Theosophy experienced dictated to him by an astral, or spirit, deep convictions. Despite never taking holy orders
he used the title o f A bb ot and w ore robes. When
som e popularity in the early & being called Aiwass. Thelem a
he published his Testam ent o f L ib e rty be was
20th century. Using psychic teaches that every human has a
arrested and sentenced to prison for its supposed
a j t W ill that directs them towards call for insurrection. His disappointments as an
searched for the A k a s b ic jj[ jj^. j| what they should do, and that author and political figure gave him time to further
his studies o f the esoteric arts.
r Q this individual W ill is aligned to
In 1853, while Spiritualism was playing to
the Cosmic W ill that orders the eager audiences throughout the West, Constant
changed his name to Eliphas Levi and began
ever or w ill ever occur. W h en J■ * It is impossible to overestimate publishing tracts on the history and practice of
magic. His Dogm a and R itu al in H igh M agic fed
Rudolf Steiner left Theosophy f | m * the effect Aleister Crowley has
into the esoteric feelings o f the time and led to
1 had on W estern Esotericism and new interest in previously ignored occult fields.
society, he took what he occult thought. Even though he Further books explored Kabbalistic readings o f
It is impossible to know what the universe, tarot cards, and the true nature of
had learned from the etheric »
happened in the Eleusinian Mysteries, reveal ed much, even this prolific
Jesus. Following his death his w ork fed into many
Akashic Records. but here we see worshippers offering I writer held some things back
Demeter wheat esoteric societies who took up his research as
Other esoteric orders relied for followers alone. "O.T.O. is in soon as it was translated into English. Levi may not
more physical manifestations for their inspiration. possession o f one supreme secret. The w hole o f have been too impressed by some o f the things he
The Hermetic Order o f the Golden Dawn was its system is directed towards communicating to inspired though ,as he said, "To practice magic is to
be a quack; to know magic is to be a sage."
created around 60 pages o f encoded writing its members, by progressively plain hints, this all-
know n as the Cipher Manuscripts. These papers im portant instruction." You cannot be esoteric if
Levi was instrumental in bringing Baphomet back
describe rituals and teachings to be imparted you let outsiders know everything. into popular consciousness
to initiates. The origins o f these texts remains Paganism today com es in m any varieties; as
mysterious, though most researchers believe they m any varieties as there are gods. Even defining
were created by the founders o f the Golden Dawn. Paganism can be difficult because it involves so
The Golden Dawn eventually fell apart, riven from much that is mysterious and ineffable. Personal
w ithin by a series o f internal squabbles (and a relationships w ith deities, spirits, and the reality
they represent are fundamental to m odern
Kabbalah constructed a tree Paganism, so in a sense all Paganism is
mected aspects
o f reality, reason, and God esoteric as it gives access to hidden realms
H*c ell porta ictrigi
that those outside the faith can never enter.
Much o f modern Paganism deals with looking _
backwards to m ore ancient times and the religions'
that our ancestors followed. This in itself is an
ancient pursuit. Even the Greeks o f classical
Athens recognised the antiquity o f Egyptian
religion and wondered at the antediluvian secrets
10135 it m ay hold.
There is an urge in humans to find spiritual
m eaning and also an urge to form exclusive
groups. Together these drives have spurred the
creation o f m any a mysterious religious order that
claims access to secret knowledge, know ledge to
be revealed only those admitted to the group.
Those in search o f esoteric w isdom w ill have to
look beyond these pages. Most Pagans w ill tell you
that what is worth learning cannot be taught. A t
least not by humans.
H istory o f Paganism

Goya's Witches' Sabbath matches many

of the descriptions of what would later be
described by the witch-cult hypothesis

The ancient
witch religion
Before the com ing o f Christianity, w as there a
pagan religion that tied Europe together? A n d has
it su rvived in an unbroken line to this day?
If W If he Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry for
■I witchcraft in the 1929 edition must have
"w surprised m any readers o f the time. In it
the author boldly asserts that,
"When examining the records o f the
mediaeval [sic] witches, we are dealing with the
remains o f a pagan religion which survived, in
England at least, till the 18th century."
It goes on to describe h ow followers o f this old
religion can still be found in France and Italy.
Despite the best efforts o f the church this religion
flourished for centuries. In fact, many priests
"were only outwardly Christian and carried on
the ancient rites." The encyclopedia termed this
m ovem ent 'The Witch-cult1.
Through all editions o f the Encyclopaedia
Britannica until the 1960s, this authoritative
definition o f witchcraft remained in place. It
influenced not only the casual reader's vie w o f
the history o f witchcraft but also played a role in
shaping popular books and m ovies for a generation.
The ancient witch religion
^ Written by Ben Gazur ^
Yet today most scholars reject the idea o f a pan- Years) she was an accomplished archaeologist,
European religion of witches. historian, folklorist, and Egyptologist. She became
What was this witch-cult that was apparently the first female archaeologist to teach at a British
so widespread? To look into this w e must explore university, but her research could not be contained
the life and opinions o f the author o f the entry on in any one area. Even as a child Murray had taken
witchcraft and the evidence they found for note o f the rhymes and folklore told by
a pan-European pagan belief system. the old people w ho lived nearby. Her
The greatest proponent o f the interest in folklore became more
witch-cult hypothesis was the focused when she spent time
undoubtedly brilliant and Murray's w itch in Glastonbury and began to
redoubtable Margaret Murray, bottle w as recently ponder the legends of the
and it was she w ho wrote displayed at the Holy Grail. She collected
the above statements for the items related to witchcraft
A shm olean Museum's
encyclopedia. Others like and even donated a bottle to
Spellbound exhibition
Karl Ernst Jarke in 1828 had the Ashmolean Museum that
about m agic
proposed theories that witches was said to contain a trapped
were, in fact, followers o f a pagan witch inside it.
religion, but Murray was the first to In 1917 Murray presented a
fully explore the idea. In the course o f paper called 'Organisations o f Witches
her long life (her autobiography published in in Great Britain.' This marked the beginning
1963, was optimistically titled M y First Hundred o f the witch-cult hypothesis. As Murray remarked,
 H istory o f Paganism
Charles Leland was convinced that an ancient
religion o f witches existed. From this belief
he concluded that there may well be a holy
scripture used by them, and set out to find it.
Published in 1899, Aradia, or the Gospel o f the
W itches, is the result o f his research.
The prose and poems of the book describe
how the goddess Diana w as impregnated by her
brother, the light-bringer Lucifer When Diana
gives birth to a girl she names her Aradia. Aradia
is given the task of teaching w itches how to
protect the weak against the strong. Aradia then
departs, but calls her witches to gather naked
each Full Moon in the forest to celebrate with
a consecrated meal called the Sabbat. Back in
the heavens with her mother, Aradia can still be
called on to use her powers.
The text o f Leland’s A rad ia covers more of
the legends associated with Diana but also
describes practical magic. Should you want to
have a good vintage of wine, it tells you how to
pray to the goddess. If it is love you want, then
there is a spell for that. Aradia is now a central
figure in many Wiccan sects.
Murray's description of the witch-cult is vivid and fascmatm;
until that point witch rituals and cults had not magic can be found that show how they tried to
been subjected to scientific study. Over 31 pages of eradicate the religion o f the witches.
immaculately sourced research, Murray did exactly A 7th century Archbishop o f Canterbury had to
that. This paper was followedup by several books issue a decree against anyone who:
that further explored the witch-cult: The W itch-cult “...goes about as a stag or a bull; that is, making
in Western Europe, The God o f the Witches, and him self into a w ild animal, and dressing in the
The D ivine K ing in England. Her findings were skin o f a herd animal, and putting on the heads
startling to some, but utterly bewitching to others. o f beasts; those w h o in such wise transform
Murray's description o f the witch-cult themselves into the appearance of a wild
is vivid and fascinating. She never animal, penance for three years;
argues that magic is objectively real because this is devilish."
but instead studies the beliefs From sources such as
held b y witches themselves, Th e significance these Murray was able to
in just the same w ay an o f the num ber 13 to reconstruct what she believed
anthropologist m ay study the were the inner workings o f
m agical practitioners
belief system o f any other the witch-cult. Each coven
is h igh ly influenced b y
faith: as an example of belief, of exactly 13 m embers (a
Margaret Murray's
without questioning its reality, devil's dozen) was led by a
veracity, or lack thereof. theories about it master, often called th e Devil1
lb
Murray believed that by b y Christian investigators. This
studying ancient myths, legends, person was considered a god
and historical records, a conserved incarnate by the witches and had to
set o f rituals found in many countries and be obeyed in all things. He also had the task
m any times could be discerned. These existed as o f instructing his witches in the performance o f
a religion followed b y many people, but with the magic and rituals.
spread o f Christianity, the older pagan ways had Murray was not concerned in her works with
to be suppressed. At first it was only kings and operative magic - casting spells and curses - she
lords w ho converted, leaving the majority o f people instead studied ritual magic; the beliefs and actions
still following the old faith. In m any early texts that underpinned the society o f witches. It is this
produced b y the church, references to devilry and organisation o f witches that was focused on the
 The ancien t witch

Devil, as she called the head of a coven.

Indeed the witches themselves in their
testimonies at trials always claimed it was
'the D evil1they were meeting. He - Murray
concludes the leader o f a coven was almost
always male - would conduct the religious
services observed on the witches' sabbath
and often led his colleagues in fertility
dances. Sometimes he would appear to his
followers either dressed in the form o f an
animal or be represented at a sabbath b y a
real animal. Sometimes the witches would
know the true identity o f their master, but
sometimes it might be a mystery as to
who was leading them.
The god worshipped by the witches
was a matter o f dispute. Sometimes it was
a two-faced deity called Janus or Dianus, h e sabbath was presided over by a man
Qften d ie t e d as 'the Devil' or Horned God
who was one o f the earliest gods known and Murray suggested that infanticide and'
to the Romans. Murray sometimes refers cannibalism may have occurred

to the witch-cult as the Dianic cult in

honour o f their god. In later work Murray posits Once inside the cult, members could look
a H om ed God, perhaps Pan or Cernunnos, at the forward to regular meetings with the Devil, which
centre of witch worship. All manner o f horned featured sermons and instruction. Cotton Mather, Margaret
creatures can be seen as its manifestations. The the Puritan American minister, said "The witches Murray
championed
Minotaur, Herne the Hunter, and Naigamesha all are organized like Congregational Churches." The the idea of a
show its hallmarks. Headdresses made from the similarity o f the organisation o f witches to a church long-lasting
religion o f
skulls and antlers o f deer have been found that was taken by Christians as a m ockery o f their the witches
are approximately 11,000 years old and m ay well ow n rites. As w ell as sabbaths, there were also four and made it
one of the
represent objects used in religious rites. If annual grand celebrations. These great feasts most popular
outsiders glimpsed a man dressed as featured all-night dancing and feasting theories about
European
this H om ed God it is easy to see and certain other, unmentionable, witchcraft
how witches could have been obscene rites. Perhaps the most
interpreted as literal devil offensive charge hurled at
Murray theorised
worshippers by them. the witches was that they
that folkloric
The Devil w ho presided sacrificed and consumed the
traditions like Dorset's
over the coven could be a flesh o f babies.
harsh master. Absence from H orned Ooser w ere In a 1918 paper Murray
a sabbath could lead to a survivals from the considered the evidence
whipping or beating with witch-cult for child sacrifice. She found
an iron rod. Several witches' that babies, often unbaptised
confessions refer to the Devil newborns, were sometimes taken
bearing this iron rod and using it b y witches for special services.
when people tried to quit the cult. Those Here the babies would be killed, often
who attempted to reveal the secrets o f the witches b y inserting a needle in the brain, and the flesh
were put to death. As the Roman Catholic church prepared for consumption. One w ay o f ensuring
would often call for the death o f all witches, it is witches never confessed was to feed them the
not hard to see w hy a witch-cult m ight want to tongue of a baby - this
remain a private and anonymous club. w a y the witch's own
Those w ho were b om to members o f the witch- tongue would be as
cult w ere introduced to it at a very young age, as powerless as a baby's
soon as they could talk. Those seeking to convert to reveal their secrets.
from Christianity w ere first forced to renounce Later, in The God o f the
their baptism. They then placed one hand on the Witches, Murray dialled back
head and one on the foot and swore that all that her discussions o f child
was between would be devoted to the god of the sacrifice and dark
witches. People joining were often given a witches' magic to make the
mark somewhere to confirm their membership. witch-cult more
 H istory o f Paganism
palatable. Adults could also serve as sacrifices.
Murray thought that the traditional stories o f
selling one's soul to the d evil could be derived
from witches buying the right to live for pleasure
for seven years, i f they are w illin g to die when
those seven years are up. In The D ivine K ing in
The
Horned God
According to the w itch-cult hypothesis the
central figure of veneration was a Horned God
representing fertility. A t m eetings the leader o f a
coven would em body the god and even dress up
as the deity. One o f the reasons that Christians
were so hostile to witch-cults was because the god
of the witches so much resembled the Christian
idea o f the Devil.
Images o f horned gods can be attested well
into prehistory. In the Cave of the Trois-Freres in
France around 13,000 BCE, someone sketched
high on a wall the image o f a man with an animal
tail and the antlers o f a deer. The discoverer of
this picture called it T h e Sorcerer' and Margaret
Murray thought it the earliest depiction of a deity
on Earth. Today the Horned God is often called
Cernunnos, after a Gallo-Roman sculpture from the
1st century CE was discovered with that name and
the image o f an antlered figure. In Wiccan belief,
the Horned God can represent the masculine, but
also animals and the vital forces o f the wild. Some
consider him the god who carries the souls o f the
dead to the afterlife. He is often paired with the
Goddess as one of tw o chief gods.
England, Murray traces sacrifices tied to the kings
o f Britain from W illiam the Conqueror to James I.
These deaths range from the mysterious shooting
o f W illiam II w ith an arrow to the murder o f
Thomas Becket, possibly at the King's command.
She claim ed other famous people m ay have served
as voluntary sacrifices to the witch-cult, including
Joan o f Arc and early serial killer Gilles de Rais.
Thus a whole religion can be traced from the
hom ed figures painted on cave walls in the
Neolithic age to the early m odern world before
Christianity finally triumphed and eradicated the
witch-cult. Yet even then there were those w ho
w ou ld not let it die.
Margaret Murray's work was influenced by
the anthropological studies o f George Frazer
as published in The Golden Bough. In that
book Frazer compared religions and folklore
from around the world in an attempt to find
commonalities. He developed the theory that
m any myths in m any places can be traced back
to fertility rites and that m any depended on the
sacrifice (often symbolic) o f a king or god who
w ou ld later rise again.
Frazer took the title o f his book from a painting
by Turner, also called T h e Golden Bough', which
showed a scene from the Aeneid where a golden
branch is offered to Hades to allow Aeneas to pass
into the underworld. Just as Aeneas w ould return
from death, so too w ou ld the god o f the fertility
cults. He w ould die at the harvest, as crops
do, but return to life in the spring, like
a m ythical vegetation god.
Mlf M argaret Murray
f w as the first fem ale
0
archaeology lecturer
ever appointed in the UIC.
y She specialised
in E gyp tology
A horned figure, often identified
with Cernunnos, from the
Gundestrup Cauldron discovered
in Denmark dating from -300 CE
Central to the witch-cult were leaders
who were gods incarnate, often dressing
a horned animal that led the church to
consider witches as devil-worshippers
That Frazer found echoes o f these fertility
rites and beliefs in many cultures obviously
strengthened Margaret Murray's thesis o f a
widespread witch-cult. Nor was the witch-cult
hypothesis the first sympathetic reassessment of
witchcraft. La Sorciere by Jules Michelet recast
the victim s o f the witch trials as w om en rebelling
against the brutalities o f life under feudalism and
the church. T hey w ere desperate people turning
to sorcery in search o f the w ealth and pow er that
was denied to them by their social betters. T hey
were not themselves heirs to an ancient cult but
they took inspiration from folklore and myth.
Charles Leland claim ed to have discovered that
societies o f witches still existed and follow ed what
he called the Old Religion. Aradia, published
in 1899, is the result o f his search for a ‘gospel’
o f that faith. M any o f the beliefs attested in
it, such as witches’ meetings called
'sabbats', w ould later be found in
Margaret Murray's witch-cult
hypothesis too.
The grounds for proposing
a witch-cult had already
been set out, but it was
Murray's scholarship that
gave it greater credence. As
i
soon as it was published it
(\
m et a very w illin g audience.
Thanks to its success,
Murray was given the job o f
producing the entry on witchcraft
for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1929,
introducing her witch-cult theory to even more
people. It was an attractive theory to both sceptics
w h o denied that witchcraft was real and to
believers w h o saw magic as part o f their heritage.
Am on g believers was the author Robert Graves.
In his b ook The W hite Goddess he argued for
the existence o f m ainly matriarchal societies in
prehistory that worshipped a fem ale deity. He
gathered evidence from m any cultures but insisted
that the truth could on ly be view ed b y those
w ith a poetic mind. Indeed his whole w ork only
makes sense if one uses poetic logic and accepts
m any 'if-then' arguments. Graves further publicised

the Greek myths and a novel, Seven Days in New
Crete, which imagined a world where worship
o f the goddess was widespread. In his works he
reconstructed a Celtic tree goddess called
Druantia (derived from the Gaelic
word for 'oak; the word 'druid'
shares the same root) who O pinion
has since been adopted b y
is still split
Neopagans as a fertility deity.
o ver Murray and her
Graves was not the only
person influenced by the work, and later criticism
witch-cult hypothesis who often overshadows
has helped shape modern her initial academ ic
beliefs. Gerald Gardner was reputation
one o f the most influential
voices in m odern Wicca. A keen
follower o f the witch-cult hypothesis,
he thought the underlying religion had
long ago died out, until he apparently discovered a
surviving coven practising in southern England's
N ew Forest. Using the knowledge he learned there,
Gardner wrote m any o f the foundational texts of
Wicca and helped to create several other covens.
Gerald's influential book Witchcraft Today was
published w ith an introduction by Margaret Murray.
Problems w ith the witch-cult and the other early
studies o f comparative anthropology soon emerged.
Fieldwork and discussions with people living in the
cultures Frazer had described showed he had often
misunderstood their beliefs. As Margaret Murray
said herself in the opening line o f The W itch-cult
in Western Europe, "The subject o f Witches and
Witchcraft has always suffered from the biased
opinions o f the commentators." Many felt that she
fell into her ow n trap and that the evidence used
by Murray and Frazer was cherry-picked to fit their
pre-conceived notions o f what they thought they
would find.
Historians found Murray's reliance on the
testimonies given at witch trials troubling. That
most o f these confessions would have been given
under duress does not feature in Murray's analysis.
For her the witches speak nothing but the truth.
M odem research shows h ow close questioning of
The ancient witch religion
a subject can get them to confirm almost anything
an interrogator suggests.
M any scholars today question the conclusions
Murray drew from her extensive research. Some of
her findings, such as that 'the Devil' always wore
a hat, are superficial and silly-sounding today. But
she also believed that legends of fairies may have
been a reference to a diminutive race o f humans
w h o once shared the land with modern humans
and w ho m ay have passed some o f their religion
to the witches. Archaeological searches have been
unable to confirm their existence, but Murray's
academic position at University College London
gave her theory a patina o f respectability.
Some also find fault with Murray's affection for
numerology. A n y tim e the numbers 13 or seven
could be found she took it as proof o f the influence
o f the witch-cult. That the Older o f the
Garter originally had 26 members
is evidence that King Edward III
formed it on the basis o f two
covens (2 x 13). The opposite is
also true in that sometimes
the avoidance o f the number
13 is held up as evidence o f
a conscious desire to rebel
against the old religion. Of
course, if you look closely at
m any numbers you w ill find
them in som e w ay derived from or
related to 13 or seven.
Yet to attack the minutiae o f the witch-
cult hypothesis is perhaps to miss the important
points raised b y the theory and the longings that
underpinned it. Murray was a supporter o f women's
suffrage who matched in several demonstrations.
She m ay have been aware o f the work o f American
suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage, who thought o f
the persecution o f the witches as nothing but an
expression o f the m isogyny deeply entrenched in
society. Others, female and male, would also find
in the witch-cult ways to right the wrongs they
Much of the evidence for the witch-cult
was extracted under torture by those
who were seeking to oppress it
The Sorcerer, a cave
painting of a man with
antlers, may reveal
beliefs in horned gods
going back many
thousands o f years
perceived within
the world.
Were there religions
that pre-dated and
permeated Europe
before the advent
o f Christianity?
Undoubtedly there were.
Can oral tradition preserve practices and traditions
for centuries? We know this is true. Is it possible
that a folk religion could have continued in some
form? Absence o f evidence is not always evidence
o f absence. All w e can say for certain is that many
today do still ascribe to the witch-cult hypothesis.
As the work o f Murray and others has been
incorporated into Wicca and other Neopagan belief
systems, w e can see how powerful the idea is.
Many worship the Great Horned God and the Great
M oon Goddess as described by the early followers
o f the witch-cult theory. Ask a Wiccan or other
Pagan practitioner today and they are likely to tell
you they feel a powerful connection to an ancient
tradition. Whether this is the one suggested by
Murray or the basic human need for belief may be
up for debate, but the influence of the witch-cult
©Alamy
hypothesis most certainly isn't.
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96 Heathenry today
 U tilising ancient and recent w ritings and com m entary, Gerald
Gardner brought W icca into m odern religious discourse during the
m id-20th century and becam e its first m edia star
^ Written by Mike Haskew

' odern Wicca traces its origins to
the early 20th century and the
r research and practice o f individuals
drawn to mysticism and occultism
who sought a connection to the
religions o f the ancient world, particularly those
o f northern and western Europe.
W hile debate as to the religion's true origin
continues, modern Wicca was popularised during
the 1940s and 50s, particularly in the writings
and teachings o f Gerald Gardner, a former British
civil servant and adventurer who travelled
w idely during his lifetime. He was drawn to the
exploration o f pagan religions o f Asia and Africa
as well as the ways o f the druids and other
practitioners. Wicca today includes followers who
gather in covens, generally of up to 15 members,
w ho practise witchcraft and the worship o f
nature. T hey revere a female deity, or Goddess,
and other associated deities.
Wiccans generally see their religion as based
in pre-Christian tradition, while it also includes
elements o f numerous ancient religions,
drawn from m any pre-existing traditions and
interspersed w ith the esoteric writings o f ancient
and modern mystics. The religion includes
ceremonial magic, tenets o f Freemasonry,
Spiritualism, Theosophy, and the religion o f
Thelema and its founder, the mystic Aleister
Crowley. The foremost proponent o f modern
Wicca, indeed the “Father o f Wicca", Gardner
popularised the religion in the mid-20th century.
particularly with the release o f his Book o f
Shadows, a collection o f the writings, spells and
traditions o f others brought together w ith some of
Gardner's own thoughts and interpretations.
Gardner's journey through the world o f
mysticism was lifelong. B om in Blundellsands,
Lancashire, England on 13 June 1884 to a wealthy
fam ily engaged in the timber trade, he grew
up under the influence o f his Irish nursemaid,
Josephine 'Com1McCombie, and saw much more
of her during his formative years than his own
parents. He was a sickly boy, and his fam ily
financed m oves w ith Com to the French Riviera,
the Canary Islands, and the coast o f Africa.
Along the way, he developed a fascination with
armaments that also lasted his entire life.

78
 Gardner's genesis ofW icca

l * mr
Gerald Gardner, the Father of
Wicca, strikes a mysterious pose.
Gardner popularised the religion
during the 1940s and 50s

) In 1907, ^
' Gardner join ed m
the L egion o f \
Frontiersmen, a h om e A
guard set to defend //}
against a Germ an A
S invasion ts >
 Gardner spent nine years in Madeira, a W h ile w orking on a rubber plantation, Gardner The Pagan
Portuguese island colony, and rarely returned to was befriended b y an Am erican Muslim named
England. Since he was abroad for much o f his Cornwall, who introduced him to the tenets o f
Sabbats
youth, Gardner never attended formal schools that faith. W h ile amassing real estate that totalled
and essentially taught h im self to read and write. hundreds o f acres, Gardner made the confession
Wiccans and other pagans celebrate eight major
After Com married David Elkington, owner of o f the Islamic faith but never becam e a practising
holidays, or Sabbats, during a calendar year.
a tea plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka today), Muslim himself. Soon after the outbreak o f World
These holy days make up the wheel o f the year
Gardner m oved w ith the couple and learned the War I, he joined the Malay States Volunteer Rifles, and are based on ancient pagan holy days marking
rudiments o f running the enterprise. He became but later concluded that he could help the war the Earth's m ovem ent around the Sun and the
change of seasons. Some Wiccans celebrate only
fascinated w ith the Buddhist beliefs o f the local effort m ore significantly by returning to England.
the four cross-quarter days, Imbolc, Beltane,
Singhalese people. Returning to England in He arrived in 1916, attempted to enlist in the Royal Lughnasadh and Samhain, w hile others will
1907, he gravitated toward a fam ily o f relatives, Navy, but was denied due to health issues. He celebrate all eight holy days, including Yule,
the Sergenesons, w h o were interested in fantasy volunteered to work in a hospital outside Liverpool Ostara, Midsumm er and Matron.
Imbolc, or St. Brigid's Day. the first holy day of
and mysticism. They often described and experienced the horrors o f combat-
the year, is observed on 1 and 2 February. Marking
experiences such as seeing fairies. ft wounded soldiers w h ile working as early spring. Imbolc recognises em ergence from
Gardner claim ed also that these J r ^ an orderly. A recurrence o f his w inter and lauds St. Brigid as a goddess. Ostara,
fam ily m embers introduced p Gardner
G a ^ jfe v malaria prompted a return to the spring equinox, is observed around 21 March,
comm em orating the arrival of spring after the
him to the story that his o w n participated
partic Ited in \J Malaya that autumn, and
long winter. Beltane, also known as May Day, is
grandfather was a practising W/7 archaeological
a ic h a e o ;ical digs he worked for the local celebrated on 1 May. Beltane is a celebration of
witch. H e often told a story V •M/r' inEEggypt y p t and d becam
becam ee ' lid governm ent as an inspector fertility and procreation.
M idsum m er is celebrated on 21 June, the
that the fam ily believed an yW \
afello
fellow :he Royal
w (o f the Royal o f rubber commerce,
sum m er solstice and longest day of the year.
ancestor had been burned Anthrc 1 ' 1 //h probably amassing some Wiccans observe the union of Heaven. Earth and
Anthropological) O glC a iff? wealth as he took bribes to
at the stake as a witch in Sun, while stressing healing magic and energy.
IInstitute in the
the !
Newburgh in 1610.
Gardner returned to Ceylon
late in 1907 to participate in the
'• M fl
L n s titl
I W - s>.
X 1930s
1- is
in
vj
ignore a brisk black market
trade in opium.
Lughnasadh, also called Lammas, is celebrated on
1 August, marking the first o f three harvest events.
Mabon, the autumn equinox, is observed on 21
For Gardner, a turning point in
September, marking the second harvest festival as
administration o f a rubber plantation ^ his life o f occult enquiry occurred in the season changes from summer to autumn.
that his father had invested in. He became 1927 as his father suffered from dementia, Samhain, All Hallows' Eve. is celebrated on 31
October, marking the pagan new year, the night
interested in Freemasonry and joined the lodge in prompting a return to England. Visiting spiritual
o f the dead. Yule is celebrated between 20-22
the capital city o f Colombo, but within four years mediums and attending seances and other December to mark the winter solstice, the longest
the rubber enterprise had failed. His father sold rituals, he believed that spirits o f deceased fam ily night o f the year. The observance sym bolises the
the real estate, and Gardner wandered to Borneo. members were quite active. A n encounter w ith return of the Sun to rule the sky.

Considering h im self an amateur anthropologist

and archaeologist, he associated w ith the native -
Dusun and Dyak peoples on the Asian island.
He was enthralled b y their social customs, and "Gardner believed that spirits o f deceased
particularly their religious practices, reportedly
participating in native rituals. During this period fam ily members were quite active"
he contracted malaria and m oved on to Singapore.
------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

the spirit o f a dead cousin profoundly affected his
perspective on mysticism, and from that time he
devoted much o f his academic interests to the
ideas of Spiritualism and an afterlife.
A whirlwind courtship and marriage took
place that summer when he m et Dorothea
Frances 'Donna' Rosedale. He proposed the
next day, and tw o weeks later, on 16 August, the
couple married. Soon they returned to
Malaya, and Gardner renewed his
association with Freemasonry
while working on archaeological In a 1951
digs and becom ing more
m agazine
involved with folklore,
interview , Gardner
mysticism and anthropology.
asserted, “O f course I'm
During the 1930s he travelled
further, spending time in a witch. A n d I get
Egypt, and in London he was great fu n out
introduced to the cult o f the
Mother Goddess. He lectured
and wrote a book on weaponry and
travelled throughout Asia, retiring to
England at the insistence o f his w ife after his
father's death in 1935.
Even after returning to Europe, the wanderlust
continued, and Gardner travelled to the Middle
East, becom ing taken with the pagan goddess
Ashtoreth and studying the deities o f other ancient
religions o f the region, including Judaism. Plagued
b y chronic poor health, he was referred to a
doctor who suggested that nudism might improve
his physical fitness. As a member o f a club in
north London, he is thought to have m et several
influential people, one o f whom introduced him to
a contemporary pagan religion called Dionysianism.
W hile traveling in the Mediterranean and living
for months on the island of Cyprus, he wrote the
novel A Goddess Arrives. After returning to England,
he helped dig air raid trenches in London and
Gardner's genesis o f Wicca
The 'Book o f Shadows' is an ancient term
that originally related to the body of spells,
incantations and ritual information belonging
to an individual witch. Upon that witch's death,
their personal book was traditionally destroyed.
However, Gerald Gardner, the father o f modern
Wicca, used the title as a vehicle for a collection
o f such spells and ritual material in combination
with his own writings and observations when
he published Book o f Shadow s during the late
1940s or early 1950s. Gardner promoted his
Book o f Shadow s as containing early spells
volunteered as an air raid warden as World War II and incantations that were rooted in ancient
erupted in 1939. texts. Further analysis revealed that much of
Relocating temporarily to Highcliffe to escape its content was taken from the Renaissance
grimoire text called the Key o f Solom on along
incessant German bombing o f London, Gardner
with other writings.
became involved with the Rosicrucian Order Doreen Valiente, the one-tim e high priestess
Crotona Fellowship, whose founder Alexander o f the Bricket W ood coven, later made extensive
Sullivan claimed to be the reincarnation o f revisions to Gardner's Book o f Shadows
w hen serious questions as to its authorship
numerous historical figures, including Pythagoras
and content emerged. Some observers have
and Francis Bacon. W hile questioning speculated that the concept o f the Book o f
many o f the group's beliefs and Shadows, as Gardner prom oted it, was his own
practices, Gardner became invention. Valiente said that the idea came
to him after view ing a magazine ad in 1949,
particularly fond o f several of
and she w as among the first to question his
its members. In September assertions. He reportedly responded to her
1939 he was taken to an inquiry by saying, "Well, if you think you can do
better, go ahead."
old house, required to
remove his clothing, and Gerald Gardner
guided through some sort of
popularised modern
Wicca with the
initiation ceremony during publication of his B o o k
o f S h a d o w s in the mid-
o f it" which he heard the word
20th century
‘wica’ and recognised it as Old
English for 'witch'.
He later asserted that
this group constituted the
N ew Forest coven. He became
interested in druidry, a religious
movem ent that stresses
harmony amongst all things
in the natural world, and
joined the Ancient Druid
Order, a fraternal organisation
that initiated its members. He
frequented its ceremonies and
rites such as its Midsummer ritual
at the ancient Stonehenge site. At
the same time, he joined the Folk-Lore
Society and the Society for Psychical
Research, while speaking on various topics.
In the spring o f 1947, Gardner m et Aleister
Crowley, who had founded the religion o f
 History o f Paganism

predated Christianity, as explained in the writings Forest coven along with some
o f author Margaret Murray. Gardner began to o f his ow n observations and
advocate the practice of paganism, including some contributions. W hile he asserted
o f its rituals, in his fictional work High Magic's Aid, that much o f the book was
as he sought to revive the religion. He utilised rooted in ancient witchcraft,
the Key o f Solomon, a Renaissance grimoire text, a great portion of the Book o f
as a basis for much o f his work, and began to put Shadows is believed to have
together his own volum e of relevant information, originated with the Key o f
known as Ye Bok o f Ye A rt Magical Solomon, the Gospel o f Witches,
Numerous Wiccan spells which was written b y Charles
and incantations were written in Godfrey Leland and belonged
the book, and Gardner later said to an Italian coven, the
; Gardner's high
that it was the basis for his writings o f Crowley, and even
priestesses initially Book o f Shadows, a text that poet Rudyard Kipling.
sold m an y o f helped to popularise Wicca W hile observing the
his possessions to in the mid-20th century. Midsummer ritual in 1953,

Ripley's Believe It or Gardner had travelled Gardner initiated Doreen

, Not! after his
Thelema in 1904. Their association
grew, and Gardner was elevated to high
status in the Ordo Templi Orientis, a fraternal
order in which Crowley was an influential member.
Crowley died in 1947 and Gardner learned of
this while travelling around the United States.
For a w hile he led the Ordo Templi Orientis in
Europe, but soon m oved on to his most significant
investment o f time and effort.
Throughout his formative years, Gardner had
become more familiar with contemporary pagan
faiths, which w ere in a rudimentary form in the
1920s, borrowing both from ancient witchcraft and
new ideas. He came to the conclusion that these
were the surviving remnants o f a witch cult that
frequently to London and Valiente into Wicca, and she
visited a nudist club called later becam e high priestess
Spielplatz, and his interest o f the Bricket W ood coven.
in druidry had increased. He She assisted Gardner in the
purchased land near the tow n of preparation o f the Book o f
Bricket W ood and became active in another Shadows for publication
nudist enclave nearby. He later purchased an old and later made significant
building, deem ed a 'witch's cabin’, from a friend alterations to it after much o f its
and brought it to Bricket Wood, where he held a content was deem ed to have
sort o f pagan ritual possibly based on ceremonial been lifted from other works. Nevertheless,
magic, founding the Bricket W ood coven during Gardner had asserted that earlier witches had
the 1940s. Its first members came from the nearby refrained from recording their rituals and
nudist colony. incantations for fear o f persecution. Later, however,
Although the phrase 'Book o f Shadows' has as they began to do so, the Book o f Shadows had
long been descriptive of a witch's personal becom e a significant text, raising the profile
volum e that contains their ow n spells and rituals, o f Wicca in popular culture and subsequently
Gardner explained that his book contained ancient attracting a growing number o f followers during
information given to him as a m em ber o f the N ew the 1950s and 60s.

Defining m om ent
The family practitioners
Early 1907 A whirlwind courtship A doctoral degree
Although his Anglican fam ily has had little to do w ith their Gardner marries Perhaps compensating
relatives, the Sergenesons, because the latter are Methodists. Dorothea Frances for his lack of formal
Gerald becomes enamoured w ith them as they are w illing Rosedale, known as education, Gardner
to discuss the paranormal w ith him and relate tales o f such Donna. The two have purchases a doctoral
occurrences in their lives. From the Sergenesons, Gardner met only days earlier, degree of dubious
learns an old story that his grandfather had actually been a coincidentally on the academic value. He
same evening that begins using the title
witch, and hears that one o f his ancestors had been tried and
Gardner met the ‘ Dr/ and makes further
found guilty o f witchcraft in the early 1600s. That relative
medium who conjured unsubstantiated
was burned for the crime. The tim e Gardner spends with up his late cousin. academic claims in 1951.

Timeline
these relatives fuels a growing interest in the occult, leading 16 August 1927 September 1937
to further discoveries.

1927 1937

1884 1 1927 1936

Gardner is born
On this date, Friday the
13th, Gerald Gardner is born
into a wealthy family in
Blundellsands, Lancashire,
England. His father, William,
and mother, Maria, have five
sons and three daughters.
13 June 1884
Travels abroad begin
Gerald's ill health at age
four prompts his nursemaid.
Josephine ‘Com’ McCombie, to
offer to take the boy abroad.
Travels to France, the Canary
Islands, the African coast and
Madeira follow.
S u m m e r 188 8
A government employee
Gardner accepts a position
in the Office of Customs in
Malaya, travelling extensively
as an inspector of the rubber
industry. He becomes
responsible for overseeing
opium commerce and probably
accepts bribes.
September 1923
Meeting a mystic
After travelling to Britain to
visit his sick father, Gardner
begins evaluating mysticism
and experiences contact
with dead relatives. One
mystic apparently summons
a deceased cousin, leaving a
lasting impression on Gardner.
28 July 1927
Retirement and
return to Britain
Gardner retires from the civil
service, intending to remain
in Malaya; however. Donna
insists that they return to
Britain, facilitating further
adventures in the occult and
Gardner's foray into Wicca.
January 1936

82

This
and t
resides
B o o k o f Shadow s
individual's collection
Through the blend o f ancient, contemporary and
personal writings, tenets and perspectives, Gardner
developed the modern Wicca religion and became
know n as its father. After the British government
repealed its long-standing Witchcraft Laws in
1951, Gardner published Witchcraft Today, another
popular text, three years later, and
The Meaning o f Witchcraft in 1959.
Along w ith his close circle of friends,
particularly Valiente, he led the
transformation o f modern witchcraft
into the Wicca movement. Capitalising
on the turbulent times, the principles
of Wicca - including a break from
traditional religion, growing interest
in occultism and spirituality, and an
emphasis on unconventional lifestyles
and harmony with nature - grew in
popularity in Britain, the United States,
Continental Europe and Australia.
Gardner promoted Wicca at every
opportunity, even inviting the media to write
articles on the topic in the belief that publicity was
the only w ay for the faith to grow. W hile some of
the resulting public scrutiny was unfavourable,
interest continued to expand. One o f the most
difficult aspects o f Wicca emanates from its mystic,
secretive nature. Throughout Western history,
'witches' were incorrectly associated with Satanism,
and Wiccans still struggle to get those unfamiliar
with it to differentiate it from devil worship.
Dunng his last years, Gardner continued to guide
the Bricket W ood coven. He brought several high
priestesses into the Wicca fold, including Valiente,
Lois Bourne, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone.
He became a principal in the Museum o f Magic
and Witchcraft, then located on the Isle o f Man,
and associated w ith others w ho helped popularise
Wicca, including author Robert Graves, whose book
The White Goddess became a prominent vehicle for
the rising popularity o f the religion.
Gardner died in 1964 at the age of 79. As so often
in his life, he was travelling at the time. Intending
to visit Lebanon, he collapsed with a massive
heart attack at the breakfast table one morning
aboard ship. He was buried in Tunisia with little
fanfare - but not before he had becom e the catalyst
for a religious m ovem ent that counted m ore than
50,000 members in Western Europe and the
United States b y the early 1980s.

Defining m om ent Defining moment

August 1939
W hile residing in Highcliffe, Hampshire, the Gardners attend a
play about the life o f Pythagoras in a small theatre associated with
the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship. Although Donna dislikes
the production, Gerald is inquisitive and begins attending local
meetings o f the mystic group. He soon becomes critical o f many o f
its beliefs, particularly the claims made b y its founder, Alexander
Sullivan, that he is the reincarnation o f several famous individuals.
W hen a group leader declares that Britain will not become involved
in World War II and the country declares war on Nazi Germany the
following day, Gardner discounts the organisation's veracity.
Questions and comments
Summer 1953
Doreen Valiente reviews the Book o f Shadows and questions
Gardner's source material, particularly noting that some
passages are similar to the writings o f well-known occultist
Aleister Crowley, w hile others m ay have been taken from the
Key o f Solomon - a text thought to have originated during the
Renaissance - and other works rather than ancient sources as
Gardner had represented. He reportedly admits that he has
appropriated these materials to supplement his own writings
and other available information included in the book. Valiente
undertakes a substantial revision o f the text, destined to
becom e popular during the surge o f interest in modern Wicca.

1939
Initiation into New
Forest coven
Gardner is friendly with
several Rosicrucian members,
particularly Edith Woodford-
Grimes, or 'Dafo'. They take
him to a house owned by
Dorothy Clutterbuck, 'Old
Dorothy', where he is initiated
into the New Forest coven.
September 1939
1947
The Bricket Wood coven
Buying land at Bricket
Wood near Hertfordshire,
Gardner also purchases
an old "witch's cottage',
and reassembles it there.
During Midsummer, he
hosts a ceremony and
becomes founder of the
Bricket Wood coven.
21 June 1947
1951 1953
Repeal of the
Witchcraft Act
The British government
repeals the Witchcraft Act
of 1735, prompting Gardner
to begin publishing his
writings. The Book o f
Shadows becomes a
prominent text during the
growth o f modern Wicca.
22 June 1951
1964
Initiation of Doreen Valiente
After corresponding with
Gardner since the prior year,
Doreen Valiente requests
initiation into the Bricket Wood
coven during Midsummer
observances. Although he
hesitates at first, Gardner
agrees. Doreen soon becomes
high priestess.
21 June 1953
:
Death of Gardner
While travelling to Lebanon,
Gardner dies aboard ship and
is buried in Tunisia. Years
later his grave is relocated
and a plaque attached to it
that reads, 'Father of Modern
Wicca. Beloved of the
Great Goddess.'
12 February 1964

83
 H istory o f Paganism

A lex Sanders (born Orrell A lexan der

Carter) took Britain’s witchcraft w orld b y
storm through the creation o f Alexandrian
W icca and a string o f scandals
 The man behind Alexandrian Wicca

\
\

« — - »

V \

The man behind

Alexandrian
Wicca
H ow one m an created his ow n brand o f witchcraft,
and in doing so created a phenom enon that is still
rocking the W iccan com m unity today

y W ritte n b y P o p p y-J ay P a l m e r ^

fter his unconventional upbringing, it's
no surprise that Orrell Alexander Carter,
later known as A lex Sanders, went on
to establish Alexandrian Wicca, a brand
► o f witchcraft that took Britain by storm.
Raised in an English working-class family,
his mother and grandmother introduced him to
esoteric ideas from a young age, which lead him
to a career as a medium in his local Spiritualist
churches, as w ell as the study and practice o f
ceremonial magic. Since Sanders' initiation into
witchcraft there have been m any contradictory
accounts as to how it happened. Even Sanders'
version is inconsistent. But his most famous
account, as given in his biography, King O f The
Witches by June Johns, goes as follows: "One
evening in 1933, when I was seven, I was sent
round to m y grandmother's house for tea."
"For some reason I didn't knock at the door as I
went in. and was confronted by m y grandmother,
naked, with her grey hair hanging down her waist,
standing in a circle drawn on the kitchen floor."
According to Sanders, his grandmother told him to
step into the circle, take o ff his clothes and put his
head between his thighs. Nicking his genitals with
a sickle-knife, she said, "You are one o f us now."
However, it has since been revealed that the
scrotum-nicking part o f the story wasn't actually
true, and was instead fabricated for publicity. Once
he became famous, Sanders gained a reputation
for exaggerating and making things up about his
early life.

85
 History o f Paganism
m m

For a few years after working as a medium, and treated him as one o f the family. He threw job man at John Rylands Library in Manchester
Sanders went on to have a somewhat normal great parties and becam e sexually promiscuous, to gain access to an original copy o f the Key o f
life. He got a job in a manufacturing chemist's and had everything he wanted. However, the Solomon. However, an allegation that he had
laboratory in Manchester, and even m arried and black magic eventually turned sour: one ^ defecated in the library's basement led
had tw o children. But he still harboured a deep o f Sanders' favourite mistresses to the discovery that he had also
interest in the supernatural. His first w ife, Doreen com m itted suicide, and his ij been ripping out the pages o f
Stretton, didn't approve. The marriage eventually sister was injured in a shooting jb S ?rs his coveted book and taking
failed when Sanders wanted more children and accident and diagnosed w ith Jj claim escent 1 them home. As a result, he
Stretton didn't. According to his second w ife terminal cancer shortly jflj from 1 ’entury was almost prosecuted until
Maxine, a fellow Wiccan, Sanders was grief- afterwards. The turn o f V,, tM/ , _ . ’ it was agreed that he would
\ur w e ls h i :e O w ain , 1 , . , ,,
stricken, and cursed Stretton w ith fertility. She events led to an epiphany, V¥ v 1 A ff return the materials and be
remarried and had three sets o f twins. and it was then that Sanders Glyndv ITtrayed dismissed from the library
Following his divorce and loss o f custody over decided to stop using m agic I f 3S a n ia n b y without being charged,
his children, Sanders became isolated, and decided for selfish reasons and to teach Sha leare PV k Sanders finally embraced
to live life on the 'left-hand path'. According to it to others instead. I W icca in the early 1960s
Sanders, he began to dabble in black m agic in an But his bad luck continued: in V ^ ' k Ia follow in g correspondence and
attempt to gain m oney and sexual success. Soon 1963, Sanders started studying the ^ m eetings w ith Sheffield occultist
after, he was taken in by an extrem ely wealthy works o f Egyptian m age Abramelin, w ith more Patricia Crowther. He convinced the Manchester
m iddle-aged couple that claim ed he was the unfortunate consequences. He claimed angels Evening News to run a front-page article on the
double o f their late son. T hey fed and clothed him, told h im to seek work as a book-duster and odd- subject, and both lost his job and grew estranged
from the Crowther family, w h o refused to initiate
him, as a result. He eventually found someone

Sanders became isolated, and decided to live else to initiate him into a different coven. Over the
years, many initiates came and went, but Sanders
life on the left-hand path”' remained and worked his w ay up to H igh Priest
status. Shortly afterwards, Sanders m et his second

W icca has greatly d evelop ed since

its conception, w ith neopaganism
taking on historical beliefs o f the
past, but adding a n ew spin

w ife Maxine, w h o he made his High Priestess. The
pair married, m oved to London and continued
running their coven and teaching witchcraft classes
from their basement flat. By 1965, Sanders had
developed his own brand o f witchcraft, known as
Alexandrian Wicca, claimed over 1,500 initiates
in 100 covens, and declared him self 'King o f
the Witches’.
Like other traditional witchcraft systems,
Alexandrian Wicca believes that only a witch can
make another witch through an initiation. As with
Gardnerian Wicca, the initiation for Alexandrian
Wicca consists o f three levels, often referred to
as the 'first', ‘second’ and 'third' degree, with only
second and third degree witches being able to
initiate n ew witches, and only thirds being able
to initiate others to third degree (also known as a
’High Priestess' or 'High Priest'). Some Alexandrians
have added a preliminary rank called ‘neophyte'
or 'dedicant' since the level system's conception so
potential witches can get a taste before committing.
Neophytes are not bound by oath, but are also not
considered to have officially joined the tradition,
and are therefore not able to experience certain
aspects o f its oath-bound rituals. W hen put side
by side with Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian is
more eclectic, with Maxine Sanders noting that
Alexandrians take the attitude of 'if it works, use it'.
Following a newspaper article published about
him in 1969, Sanders shot to fame both inside
and out of the Wicca community. His goings-on
inspired June Johns' romanticised biography and
the 1970 film Legend O f The Witches, and led to
The man behind Alexandrian Wicca
television appearances and public speaking events.
However, he was often criticised by other witches
w h o believed that he was exploiting the Craft, even
though Maxine Sanders often insisted that he was
merely trying to divert attention away from other
witches. One such publicity stunt involved Sanders
promising reporters that he could bring a corpse
back to life when the media started to get curious
about the activities o f the couple that ran Sanders'
coven. Putting on a show, Sanders had an associate
pose as a doctor to verify that the ‘corpse’ was
dead before he com menced reading an 'ancient'
invocation that was actually a Swiss roll recipe
read backwards, which caused the 'corpse' to
com e to life. Unbelievably, the repoiters bought it.
Despite the scandals, Sanders was also famous
for pulling o ff a number o f magical feats. He was
alleged to have created a 'spiritual baby' called
Michael, whose birth was believed to be a result
o f a sacred act o f masturbation that occurred
betw een Sanders and a male assistant (Sanders
claimed that Michael disappeared to grow up, but
later returned in spirit to forcibly make Sanders
party hard, insult people and act odiously).
Sanders' other alleged magical feats included the
following: curing a heroin addict, curing a woman's
cystitis by w illing it away, curing a wom an o f
cancer by sitting at her hospital bed for three days
while pouring healing energy into her via her feet,
ending multiple pregnancies, and getting rid of
warts b y wishing them on others. Sanders' most
famous feat, however, involved his ow n daughter,
Janice: she was bom in dry labour, with one foot
twisted backwards. After being told there was
nothing to be done, Sanders anointed the foot with
olive oil and set it straight. Janice was cured, and
only walked w ith a limp during bad weather.
In 1979, Sanders announced that he wished
to make amends for hurting the witchcraft
com m unity in the past, and insisted that witches
should put aside their differences to unite and
becom e respected. Turning over a n ew leaf, he
partnered w ith psychic and trance medium
Derek Taylor, and developed the magical work
o f his Order, the Order Della Luna in
Constantinople. The pair reportedly worked with
spirits, celestial intelligences and the demiurge,
writing journals o f channelled notes, and even
caught a warning o f World War III. Away from
Taylor, Sanders also operated London-based group
the Order o f Deucalion, which focused on Atlantean
magical research.
Sanders died o f lung cancer in 1988, aged 61, but
his brand of witchcraft lived on. Alexandrian Wicca
has slowly becom e one o f the religion's most widely
recognised traditions, and is practiced in Canada,
Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Brazil, the United
States and South Africa, as well as in Britain.
m m im m m iim m im m m iii
...................................... ■
Farrars
--------------- O ---------------
Like Alex and Maxine Sanders, Stewart and
Janet Farrar were another influential couple
in the Wiccan w orld during the 20th century.
A fter being initiated into Alexandrian Wicca
separately by Alex and Maxine Sanders in 1970,
the pair met, married and becam e co-authors,
collaborating on books like A W itches’ Bible:
Volume I & II (1981), The W itches’ Way (1984)
and Spells And How They Work (1990), among
others. Stewart also w rote a number o f books
independently, including 1971’s pivotal What
W itches Do, one o f the first books to describe
the then-new religion.
Alexandrian Wicca’s name was actually
chosen w hen Stewart once asked Sanders what
w itches who were initiated into Wicca via their
covens should be called. A fter discussing the
matter, he came up with the term ’Alexandrian’.
Before that time, Alex and Maxine Sanders
were both happy being referred to as witches,
but the new name stuck. Stewart quickly rose
through the ranks to High Priest, and founded
a new coven in south London w ith Janet as his
High Priestess. From there, the coven grew and
multiplied.
The Farrars later became interested in
neopaganism, a m odern religious movem ent
influenced by historical pagan beliefs. Stewart
died in 2 0 0 0 , but Janet continued writing
and became a frequent guest lecturer on the
subjects o f Wicca and neopaganism. She is now
married to neopagan author Gavin Bone.
Stewart and
Janet Farrar
wrote a number
o f books about
Wicca, including
Stewart's W hat
W itches Do, one
o f the first books
to describe it
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DO
 M any call the Stregheria tradition La Vecchia Religione, or 'the Old
Religion'. Yet is this strand o f w itchcraft as ancient as m any believe?

he first to label Italian witchcraft as
a pagan religion w ere Leo Martello
and Lori Bruno, and the path saw
a resurgence in the 1980s w ith the
work o f Raven Grimassi, an Am erican
Wiccan priest and author, w h o died in March
2019. Grimassi, as the son o f an Italian mother,
claim ed that Stregheria was a hereditary tradition,
stemming from ancient Etruscan beliefs from the
Tuscany region. He faced enormous criticism for
these claims from his contemporaries, yet even his
critics have admitted that he never claimed to be
reproducing the rites and beliefs o f original Italian
settlers in North America, but that his practice
reworked elements into a n ew Italian-American
path, albeit incorporating certain principles o f
Wicca. M any practices align w ith contemporary
Neopaganism: the pentagram is used, rituals can
take place inside a circle, similar ritual tools are
used on the altar, and m any practitioners observe
the eight festivals o f the W h eel o f the Year, here
called ‘Treguendas’. Practitioners observe m onthly
full m oon rituals, and working sky-clad (naked)
is encouraged. Specific deities revered include

brother-sister consorts, Diana - a M oon goddess
associated w ith hunting and nature - the god
Dianus, and their child, Aradia. W h ile Leyland
stated that Diana was 'Queen o f Witches', and
worshipped b y witches in Tuscany, Grimassi
stipulated that she was, in fact, an historical witch
from 14th century Tuscany, Aradia di Toscano.
W h ile debate as to the religion's true origin
continues, m odern Wicca was popularised during
the 1940s and 50s, particularly in the writings
and teachings o f Gerald Gardner, a form er British
civil servant and adventurer w h o travelled
w id ely during his lifetim e. He was drawn to the
exploration o f pagan religions o f Asia and Africa
as w ell as the ways o f the druids and other
practitioners. W icca today includes followers w ho
gather in covens, generally o f up to 15 members,
who practise witchcraft and the worship o f
nature. T h ey revere a fem ale deity, or Goddess,
and other associated deities.
The main focus of the tradition is ancestor
worship o f the lares, once Roman guardian
deities. W hile some followers orientate their
The tradition is distinct from historical
Italian folk magic"
Stregheria
It was believed, as far back as
th e 13th century, that the tow n
o f Benevento was a m eeting
place for Italian w itches
Crotone, Italy, detailed
practice around the ancient Roman festivals, the
tradition is distinct from historical Italian folk
magic performed by the Christian population.
This folk magic was not an organised set of
practices - folk beliefs, customs and superstitions
in Italy varied widely, blending seamlessly with
local Catholicism. M any sources do exist detailing
folk beliefs, yet these practices were purposefully
never incorporated into Stregheria, which focuses
on the worship o f ancient deities, and the ancient
Mystery Schools o f the Mediterranean as a whole.
Many followers seek to prove continuity with
these ancient beliefs as a continuous tradition. A
clear distinction is made between Stregheria and
Stregoneria - the latter being an obscure Italian
word indicating malevolent folk magic with intent
to cause harm, not the Italian-American Pagan
tradition. It is said that this tradition was passed
within Italy through the female line, and included
knowledge o f healing, and making amulets and
protective talismans.
 W hile hedgewitchery conjures images o f the traditional
solitary witch stealing into the night to cut herbs under
the full moon, how true to life is this idyll?
Written by Dee Dee Chainey
edgewitchery, som etimes know n as
: green witchcraft, is a path o f solitary,
^ nature-based practice, and one o f the
: oldest images o f witchcraft around to
___ _ jEsthis day. The term conjures images
o f flower-filled gardens and cottages lined with
herb jars, ready for m ixin g into healing salves
and ointments. An d this im age is not far from
the truth. For many, the tw o m ain areas that
characterise hedgecraft are w ortcunning
and hedge-riding.
W hile w orking in remote cottages and country
lanes may be unfamiliar to m any modern
practitioners, plants and flowers take pride o f
place for even urban hedgewitches - this specialist
know ledge is know n as wortcunning. As skilled
herbalists, m any roam the city streets, foraging
for plants w ith specific properties and medicinal
herbs, and com bing coastal areas for magical
ingredients and w ild foods.
Hedge-riding, or 'flyin g the hedge’, is work on
the astral, or otherworldly, plane - which may
include astral projection, conducting spirit work
or setting up a workspace in the Otherworld
for meditation and perform ing spellwork.
Divination is also central to the practices o f many
hedgewitches, and can take the form o f tarot
reading, or the casting o f bones. In som e ways,
the tradition is similar to neo-shamanism, in that
it centres around lim inality and the crossing o f
boundaries. W hen hedge-riding, practitioners sit
Plants and flowers take pride o f place for
even urban hedgewitches"
or lie calmly, often surrounding themselves with
candles, burning herbs or incense to evoke the
required atmosphere and energies for their work,
and always ground themselves before beginning
astral travel. M any use sound as an aid, like a
drum or music, and focus on regulating their
breathing to help m ove them into an altered state.
W hile hedgewitches don't always cast magic
circles, they do use other forms
o f protection during their
journeying work to keep them
safe from otherworldly beings
- both positive and negative in
nature. M ost important is to m eet
w ith their otherworldly animal
guide, a type o f familiar spirit,
w hich w ill accompany them on
their journey in the spirit world.
M any use visualisation to create
a protective barrier, for example
by seeing a dom e o f light around
themselves. Others prefer to hold
objects that anchor them to the
normal, physical realm when
Crystals lik e hem atite or am ethyst are
hedge-riding, to always provide often used during hedge-riding, as they
are b elie v e d to offer psychic protection
a link to their bodies, and ensure
and w ard o ff negative energy
that they are able to return to
their normal state o f being as they
em erge from their trance. Such items can include
personal amulets and talismans, or crystals with
specific grounding properties.
Hedgewitchery focuses
som etim es called 'hedge-
 Firm ly grounded in nature, h edgew itch ery is a
.practice that in volves tapping in to the planet’s
natural resources, and livin g in lin e w ith th e 1
rhythm s o f th ejiatu ra l w orld I
Ecological issues like recyclin g and clim ate]
change are often very prom inent issues for |
Ih edgew itches today, m any o f w h om take
|an active role in green campaigns
 H istory o f Paganism

Druidry:
Myth, magic
and music
Followers o f druidry b elieve that their traditions are rooted
in ancient Celtic practices that w ere once found
throughout the British Isles and across Europe
Written by April Madden

lot o f assumptions have been made
J i Wl about druidry throughout history.
M l l j Yes, the ancient druids may have
J *V 1 \ performed human sacrifice. No, that
ML ML sort o f thing is definitely frowned
upon now. Yes, they do spend rather a lot o f time
at Stonehenge, given the chance. No, they aren't
all men, in the same w a y that witches aren't all
women. Yes, they're very fond o f trees. No, you
don't have to be Welsh, Irish or Cornish to be a
druid, but yes, you're right, they do tend to have
lovely singing voices.
Modern druidry can trace its roots to the
Celtic Revival, a renaissance of ancient to early
m edieval northwestern European culture and
aesthetics during the late Victorian and early
Edwardian eras. Followers o f the Celtic Revival,
which embraced epic poetry and the La Tene
motifs that influenced the Art Nouveau art style,
were typically bohemian, creative, and drawn to
the occult; a key figure in the Celtic Revival was
the Irish poet W B Yeats, famous for his affiliation
with the Hermetic Order o f the Golden Dawn.
Other Golden Dawn initiates with a fascination
for western Europe included ceremonial magician
Dion Fortune, w h o believed that the last vestiges
o f mythical Atlantis could be found in the legends
o f Arthurian Britain.
The adherents of the Celtic Revival were
casting around for an evocative ancestor culture
to replace the Anglo-Saxon one that they had
becom e increasingly disaffected with. The
traditional pagan poetic imagery o f Saxon
England was distinctly Norse-inflected and
Germanic, problematic when seen in the light of
Germany's increasingly martial attitude towards
Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
To fill the hole in what had become a folkloric
void, they settled on the culture of the ancient
Celts. The problem is, the Celts were never a
unified civilisation in the same way as, say, the
Romans were. In fact, the people that w e call
Celts were a loose diaspora o f tribes who had
similar social, cultural and religious practices.
Julius Caesar, writing about the people o f
northwestern Europe after his invasion of Gaul,
neatly packaged these diverse Indo-Europeans
into one barbaric whole that he set in opposition
Druidic practice focuses on
iden tifyin g and harm onising
w ith elem ents o f the natural
world, particularly the
energies o f the Sun and Earth
 to organised, civilised Rome, labelling them with have existed coloured their - and our - notions o f 'there' in a sacred site rather than inhabiting an
a name that had been used since the 6th century it. T he original druids were mystery-cultists and otherworldly 'heaven' (although druidry does
BCE to describe tribes living across vast tracts o f oral historians; the only empirical evidence that allow for the concept o f spiritual 'otherworlds').
the continent, from the shores o f Ireland all the w e have for what they believed and h ow they Druids are famous for worshipping at Stonehenge
w ay to modern-day Turkey. An d running their expressed it are the writings o f Caesar and a few and other prehistoric sites, notably on the summer
exotic, barbaric society from behind the scenes, other classical scholars, and a loose scattering o f and winter solstices, but in actual fact the majority
in the same w a y as the Zoroastrian M agi ran the archaeological artefacts. These are at best hard to o f their worship takes place in the natural world.
courts o f ancient Persia, Caesar placed the mystic, find in the crowded earth o f Britain, Ireland and Popular locations include quiet hilltops, meadows,
mysterious, wood-w ise priesthood o f the druids. northern France, packed as it is w ith the relics and especially w oodland - druids often refer to
In ancient tradition, druids w ere keepers o f a thousand and m ore years o f further both a small worship group and the place that
o f lore and law. They were teachers, history, and are at worst oblique, they most often worship in as a 'grove'- although
singers, musicians, storytellers, mute objects that w e shrug over even a back garden w ill do. The reason that many
politicians and healers. Their and label as 'ceremonial' for
Th e ancient
relationship to the natural lack o f a better explanation.
world was one o f harmony
druids left no Ancient druidry, therefore,
and harmonics. It's possible w ritten records o f is a largely blank slate
that Caesar was som ething o f their faith; the m odern that - as Morganwg and
a fan. T w o people w h o were form is a reconstruction Macpherson found - could
definitely huge fans b y the have innumerable ideas
based on m yth and
tim e the 18th century rolled projected onto it. Some of
historical data
around were Edward W illiams those ideas stuck.
and James Macpherson. W illiam s M odern druids, like most
was a W elshman w h o preferred the Pagans, are v ery focused on the
Cymric dignity o f his 'bardic name', Iolo natural world, which is seen as sacred
Morganwg; Macpherson - or as he would rather, and imbued w ith divin e spirit. Its deities (druids,
Seumas Mac a' Phearsain - was a Scot. Both w ere like m any other Pagans, tend to choose which
literary, scholarly gentlemen given to collecting goddesses and gods they feel m ost connected
ancient British folklore; they strongly identified to, often w ith an emphasis on Brythonic and
w ith the magical faith o f their forefathers and Celtic m yth) are seen as immanent, rather than
were ardent advocates o f its stirring, romantic, transcendent - that is, they are spiritually, palpably
chivalric tenets. Unfortunately, both o f them
were also forgers. Between them, they invented
significant tracts o f the W elsh Triads and an entire
Irish bard. Much o f what the Celtic Revivalists "T h e o rig in a l d ru id s w e r e m y s te ry -c u ltis ts
initially knew o f the druids came from their
work, and it's impossible to say h ow much their a n d o ra l h isto ria n s"
atavistic longings for a past that m ay or m ay not -------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------

94
 Druidry: M yth, magic and music
Not all druidic celebrations are large
and lavish. This is a perfect exam ple
o f a sacred grove and stone circle
Druids celebrate the w in ter solstice
-----------
Stonehenge. The site is a focal
point fo r druidic celebrations
larger ceremonies focus on prehistoric sites is o f flow, allowing them to attune themselves with
partially due to the druidic respect for ancestor this force. Awen can be both an abstract idea o f
spirits, and partially due to the alignment of flow ing energy or the personification of inspiration,
these sites with the Sun at certain times of the
like a Greek Muse. It's not a deity, but more akin to
year, allowing druids to connect with what they the elemental earth energies many druids believe
believe was their ancestors' deep understanding that they can sense and experience. It’s often
o f the rhythms of the universe. Many believe in symbolised by a design o f three sunrays. Awen
ley lines and earth energies, which they believe today is invoked gently and ritualistically, but a 12th
are concentrated more powerfully, sometimes in century text - the Description o f Wales by Giraldus
particular sacred shapes like spirals and pentacles, Cambrensis - describes it happening to people
at such sites. In rites, som e druids m ay favour unlooked-for, typically preceded by a bout
ceremonial robes, typically in white o f mania and a short sleep, in which
or earth colours; they m ay carry the inspired would often dream
w ooden staves (often made from that they had honey, milk,
Today's idea o f
a type of w ood that's spiritually or written words applied
'Earth mysteries'
relevant to the practitioner) to their mouth (one 17th
and wear crowns of leaves grew out o f som e o f the century letter describes
and flowers, or sometimes a research done b y Celtic the tale o f a shepherd who
hooded cloak. Some m ay be Revivalists into the dreamt that a hawk flew
just as happy in jeans and a tenets o f the ancient into his mouth; he then
t-shirt. Rites are generally held in became the country's pre­
druidic faith
daylight ("By the eye o f the sun"), eminent bard). The concept
and involve the casting o f a sacred is even mentioned in the Welsh
circle, an offering (generally o f bread national anthem.
or cake and wine, beer or mead) to the gods, Like witchcraft, druidry is practiced in
and a m ix of personal and public prayer, generally both graded, organised orders and as a personal
aimed towards peace, harmony and healing. Druids faith that participants may share with a few other
are highly focused on music, and this, whether likem inded individuals or keep entirely private.
vocal, instrumental, or both, is often a key - and Those who adhere to the more structured variant
very beautiful - part o f their ceremonies. m ay proceed through a system o f ranks known as
Something that really sets modern druids Bard, Ovate and Druid, gaining more knowledge
apart from other Pagan faiths is the concept of and responsibilities as they m ove upwards through
’awen’. Awen is best described as spiritual energy grades o f initiation. For many, however, druidry
particularly in relation to inspiration and creativity. is a deeply personal practice rooted in nature,
The word, or the similar-sounding 'A-I-Oj is often inspiration, music and story; the innate spirituality
chanted like a mantra at druidic ceremonies to help o f a magical realm connecting the Earth and the
shift the participants' consciousness into a state stars, and has no need for tests or for titles.
£ Culture and
esoterica
The former Archbishop o f Canterbury, Dr Rowan
Williams, caused consternation back in 2 0 0 2
when he was initiated as a druid by the Gorsedd
o f Bards. Anglicans questioned why the most
senior clergyman in the Church of England was
deliberately affiliating him self to a Pagan religion.
In fact there are tw o types of druid, both inspired
by the resurgence of interest in traditional British
cultures during the Celtic Revival.
'Cultural druids' are not always practicing
Pagans - in fact, like the Reverend Dr Williams,
many o f them are devout Christians. Cultural
druids are typically involved in Welsh or Cornish
folk traditions, particularly related to the bardic
arts like music and poetry, participating in events
called gorsedd - m eetings o f contem porary
bards - and Eisteddfodau (Welsh-language
festivals celebrating arts, perform ance and
literature). Attested since at least the 12th
century, the tradition was revived in the 18th
century by lolo Morganwg, proving that despite
his flagrant inventions, he was nonetheless
deeply com m itted to his goal of reviving ancient
Welsh tradition and tales. Pagan druids are
som etim es referred to as 'esoteric' or ’believing'
druids in order to differentiate the tw o kinds.
As a faith, Pagan druidry's theology is capable
o f encompassing syncretic elem ents from
religions as diverse as Christianity, Buddhism
and Judaism - there are even practitioners who
combine it with pop-culture elements inspired
by contem porary sci-fi. Yes, there are probably
Jedi druids.
Th e A w en sym bol
can represent both
esoteric druidry
and the secular,
cultural druids o f
the Gorsedd
Image source: MithrandirMage
 Modem heathens
draw on the deep
history of polytheistic
worship from
Northern Europe to
inspire their faiths

" V - ■. « = * - ' ' ‘ *h ~ 1

rnram /
r -
V . /-■ "I
' ' * ■' :■ ,

Pagan faiths have always existed but m odern groups are' leading a
resurgence in the worship o f ancestral gods

■ - 1*'-, .
|^he first people to be called 'pagans1' century Germany turned aw ay from the prder o f relationship w ith the gods and the. powers

f
were the polytheistic people in the.
Italian countryside in the 4th century
CE. Com ing from the Latin 'Paganus'
-* -=«■ m ean in g'rustic'or'ru ral', it was a .
term o f contempt used b y Christians to paint
those outside their faith as backwards; T o the
pagans-of the tim e they .w eft simply performing-
the religion o fth e ir ancestors.^nd felt no need to
label themselves. Today, however, there are m any
gr-dups that w ill proudly 'call themselves Pagans.
'Heathen! has a similar past as a term o f abuse.
Heathens, as the polytheists in the lands around
theJNlorth Sea w ere called, can n ow be found in
countries around the globe.
M odern heathenry is m ainly based around
historical religions p f the Norse and Germanic
.1
tribes. Rom anticism played a large.part in the
rebirth o f heathenry, as the romantics o f 19th
reason and looked to the wild.powers pf natufe . they represent. H ow they do this differs
for sacred-truths. A number o f ’volkisch’ religions, from'group to group, as there is no
those Claiming to represent the ancestral faith o f . - central religious authority. Sortie
f The German people, sprang up. They gained-some heathens worship.in ways that d erive .;
. popularity bu tb ecam e fatally associated w it h . from divine revelations th ey have j
•.
th e 'rise p f the Nazis and their, ideas- o f a. German personally experienced. Others
ethnostate. W h en rh e Reich collapsed m any chose dem and a more historically based i
-to bury their heathen faith in the rubble. ■m ethod and look to ancient sOurcdsl.’ m
The loosening o f Christianity's hold on religion . There, are. many poems, tales/ .
and morality, as w e ll as the .general acceptance o f , arid'pieces o f folklore that can . -
'N ew Age' faiths, saw-’a resurgence irf.interest in be rained for clues fn h ow u
heathen religion later ijr the 20th century. Across * the' Norse perform ed th eif *- * r iH
Northern Europe a n d in the Upited'States p?dple religious rites. The Sagas ' 9 *
' •
began to look-to Norse and Germanictraditiohs for " and,Edd(is from Iceland «, ^
spiritual inspiration. 'cue a penticula’ily lk h
the
Heathenry can be perceived-as a religion (jtf, - 'sdvjfce-^i^infoim jtion on- •
nature, w ith much o f the practice o f the faith - the Norse gods. Full o f .
taking place outside. Heathens attempt to build a tales o f Odin's_ wisdom,
.
 Heathenry toda\

Thor’s-might, and the great and'terrible fate's o f o f heathenry and Asatru; as heathenry is k now m **?"
.heroes, the stories preserved there"harlt back there, is Iceland's fastest grow ing faith.
/ 1- : y
to an age o f warrjajs and righteousness. It is in :Asatruarfelagi&(Asatru Fellowship) - belief
Iceland that heathenry has had its most - g in the Norse gods, or dssir - was
■ .s u c c e s s fu lre ^ th -T v 1 - ' Aj ^ |P» | officially fecogn ised as' a religion
Iceland caffie relatively in 1973. W hen m eeting with
to'Chii’stianity.'asjtfwas on ly . A- Th e Norse nam e ^ i the minister responsible
converted irijthe year 1000.. f for what is n ow L for acknowledging n e w "
^ v e h .th e r i there were.TiiQse. j
/: ic n o w n as heathenry \ re^ * ons’ thun^ er and
th at^rgedsa jrath Between’ 5 lightning left the m inistry
is Asatru', w h ic h derives
'Christiariityf and Norse 7- g building without.power.
Paganism. W e ate told of.
from 'AEsir', the Old Norse D Thor's seem ing intervention
H elgi the Half-Christian, w h o S w ord for-som eof the f may have prompted the
worshipped Jesus on land, but :V gods f. m inistertorecogniseAsat.ru
looked for Tutor’s protection at *® as a faith despite" the m isgivings
Image source: Getty

sea. A strong folk belief in elves and ® o f some.Christian bishops. Since

other powers also persisted in Iceland then they have had the right to
long after they-withered’in other places/This 1 officiate at ceremonies such as marriages.
has made Iceland a fertile land for the resowing The last tem ple to'-the Norse gods was built

"The last temple was built almost 1000 years
ago, but today in Iceland one is being erected"
almost a thousand years ago, hut today in Iceland
one is being erected. The hof, or hall, is being
constructed so that the dom e aligns with the
sky at certain times of the year and w ill be home
to statues o f the old Norse gods. It is due to be
completed by the end o f 2019 and w ill be open
to all w ho wish to com e and observe the rites o f
Asatru in action.
The practice of heathenry varies among
denominations but there are certain rituals and
events com mon to most believers. The outdoor
shrines o f heathens often feature godpoles. Carved
w ooden poles w ith the face o f a deity, these form
the focal point o f worship and are mentioned in
98
several old texts. Idols o f the gods m ay also be used
around a pile o f stones called a 'horgr' that acts as
an altar where offerings can be placed. Given the
general lack o f temples it is to godpoles and shrines
that most heathens go to perform their rituals.
Blot, from an old Norse word meaning sacrifice,
are held to celebrate the gods, spirits, and
ancestors. Today animals are not slaughtered,
but other offerings are made. In Asatru there are
four main Blot that are held at the summer and
winter solstice, the first day o f winter, and one in
spring. The ritual o f the Blot is not the same for all
heathens, but most take place outdoors. For m any
the offering used to invoke the gods is a bow l o f
mead, which a priest may sprinkle over the altar.
Chants and recitations from Norse texts are made
and the ceremony is often followed by a feast o f
fellowship for the worshippers.
The feast m ay consist o f a symbel or sumbl - a
holy drinking contest. Following accounts in poems
like Beowulf and the Sagas, the symbel consists of
a group raising toasts to the gods and spirits. Some
groups m ay share a communion by each drinking
mead from the same horn. The first round of
drinking is often to the gods, the second to spirits,
and the third to whatever the drinker desires.
Symbel can also be a time for admitting new
members to a group. Oaths o f loyalty to the others
in a kindred, as some groups call themselves,
can be made as symbels before a worshipper
is admitted to the hearth. Because heathenry
is relatively rare it is often the case that people
worship alone in solitary rites.
Seiftr is a type o f magic mentioned in Norse
m yth that involves the shaping of the future.
Modern heathens experience seibr as an altered
state o f consciousness that allows them to enter a
trance. In groups one person may be the focus o f
chanting and drum m ing that drives them into an
oracular state, while individual heathens may use
meditation or dm gs to achieve conversation with
the gods.
There are no set texts for heathens and no
instructions that every heathen must follow. This
has allowed for a heterogeneous faith with m any
 Image source: Gunnar Creut?

Casting
the runes
Magic has always been integral to Norse paganism.
The powers of the gods were shared by the
inherent power of the universe. Those who knew
interpretations and expressions
;sions o f belief. Some appropriated the entire religion as ‘proof’ o f their the secrets o f nature were able to tap into those
heathens are ecologically m
motivated
otivated and feel the im agined superiority. powers and use them for their own purposes. The
Viking Sagas tell o f magicians and seers, often
gods are aspects o f nature and to be respected. Certain Wodinists, or Odinists, have m ade the
wom en known as Volva, w ho even Odin him self
Others think that the gods>are examples o f right claim that they are the pure and authentic heirs to would consult.
action that should be emulated.
fated. Others still use the Norse religion. T h ey feel that their ancestors Today heathens may use trances to foretell
the fellowship they find in1their heathen groups were suppressed by Christians. This often leads to the future but they can also turn to the casting of
runes. Stones are carved with runes and placed
to explore their place in the with
le universe. But as w ith anti-Semitism, as they also blame Jewish people
into a vessel. Charms called g ald r are recited over
every faith there are those: w ho use it for less
who for the dow nfall o f Norse faith. They exclude the stones as a user shakes them. The person then
humane ends. people o f other races from their groups because asks the runes a question and pulls out the stones
as the gods guide them. Each rune has a meaning
If one has the misfortune
le to find oneself at they think that religion is som ehow a genetic trait,
that allows the future to be divined. Fehu means
a white nationalist rally one
le is likely to see a Those w h o have studied Norse faith closely
wealth while Isaz means the unknown. Depending
profusion o f Norse runes. _ ., find nothing in the texts to on the order in which they are drawn the user
Runic symbols w ith their support these arguments. constructs the message being sent to them.
Some rune-casters feel that the runes carry
sharp edges and spiky I •^ § £ ^ 8 Priests o f Asatru in
direct messages from the gods or are guided by
forms have found a home I f|jj Iceland have called the Wyrd, the fate that governs the universe. Others
w ith those w h o like violent
it " perversion o f their beliefs believe they are merely a psychological tool for the
im agery and hateful ideology.
agy. 't i p f by racist groups obscene. If a w orking out o f one’s own thoughts.

The German SS used tw o Sig runes as person wants to be racist they w ill
Runes represented not just phonetic sounds but
their symbol. J always find justification for their v ie w also symbolic ones that were used in constructing
It is not just the language
;e o f Norse % . |j*p| in any religion. The Asatru counter charms and secondary meanings

religion that has been claimed

med by
b y some
som e $ perception o f heathenry as

K HP, F ft z„c
M

(vXZP Nr,+
racist organisations. Some heathen inherently discriminatory by
groups cling to an idea jS k w elcom ing all and practising
o f racial purity. Just
g B B S E H f f i “ esstoa11- ; Mkh oZ z ? z ; 8‘gv hi : ! f h
as the first 'volkisch'
re-imaginings o f Norse
religion harked back iW
One of the most
popular symbols
of both ancient
Norse religions
l. + J ' C Y H T f c M N
''
ce
P “ ' J cub- ' pcora-p eolhx-x sigel. 5 H/tir
harvest yew tree ? ejry> „ T r ben: - b eh-e
• I
man - m
to an Aryan past in //f and modem V , , " S“" T,W? man

M £ F p |\ T A X
Germany, som e right- heathenry is
Mjollnir - Thor's
w in g groups have hammer T1- 1 datg-d ehel. „ ... 1 11 * ' I ' / \
j., % d v —
 104 The Horned God

108 Full Moon, esbats 110 The Wheel

and magic WM; o f the Year

The Great Goddess M

 116 Ostara

114 Imbolc
npajLUHJiK,

120 Litha
Beltane

124 Mabon

126 Samhain

122 Lughnasaclh
 Rituals and spellworking sound nefarious to the uninitiated, yet for
m any th ey are an everyday expression o f their spiritual beliefs
i agan rituals vary depending on
P
f the tradition o f practitioners, the
? tim e o f year or the occasion they
happen for - whether a sabbat, esbat
___ or private spellwork. Some rituals
are perform ed in groups, with a H igh Priestess
and H igh Priest to help lead them, others are
conducted alone. They can take place outside,
or indoors, w ith participants wearing whatever
feels comfortable.
A n altar is usually set up at the centre o f a
space, or at the m ost northern area o f a magic
circle. Various items are kept on the altar,
depending on personal beliefs: a statue o f the
deities worshipped, often the Goddess and
the H om ed God, along w ith a ritual blade - or
athame - to represent the phallic m ale energy,
a chalice - a vessel representing fem ale energy
Written by Dee Dee Chainey
- and a wand. Often items representing the
elements appear: a bow l o f salt for earth; incense
for air; a candle to represent fire, often white or
a colour that corresponds to the current season
or festival.
For most, a grounding m editation is
perform ed before the ritual begins, to make sure
everyone is prepared. This is usually also done at
the end o f the ritual, to prepare the practitioners
for their return to a normal state o f mind.
Most com m on for ritual work is the casting
o f a magic circle. These are used for protection
against negative energies and entities. W hile
the method o f casting varies, one practice is to
first call the four quarters - or cardinal points on
the compass - along w ith their corresponding
energies, b y lighting candles at each point. Often,
north is the direction o f the earth element,
represented b y a green candle; east is air, for
which a light coloured candle is used;
■
south is fire, so red is used; west is
water, for which blue is most common.
Practitioners w ill first g o to the north,
light the candle, and call upon the
spirits o f each elem ent to witness and
protect the rite, then call the other
uals usually involve giving praise and
inks to nature, or the chosen deities,
ditation, divination work or spell casting
quarters in the same way, using the relevant
element and symbolism for each. After this, the
wand, or athame, is usually used to draw around
the circle, and items representing the elements
can be carried round if practitioners wish to.
This is the point at which worship, praise and
dedications can be made, usually in the form o f
poems, chants, prayer, or offerings like food, wine
or flowers. Certain traditions require different
things to happen during the ritual. Wiccans often
use traditional texts like Drawing Down the
Moon, and The Charge o f the Goddess, to draw
the goddess energy into the circle, and help the
High Priestess to em body the Goddess for the
duration o f the ceremony. Meditation, divination
or spellwork usually follow. Sometimes tarot
or oracle cards are consulted. Candle magic is
commonplace in rituals.
W hat happens during the ritual is very
much personal choice, based on the beliefs
and practices on the individual or group. The
ceremony concludes w ith banishing the circle
by visiting the cardinal points in reverse,
extinguishing the candles, and bidding farewell
to the spirits that were initially called, to close
the sacred space.
 History o f Paganism

W ith his stags' antlers, the Horned God is animalistic

nature, depicting a raw, prim al sexual energy as he
leads the W ild Hunt through Britain's forests

he Horned God is a male deity
f worshipped as one o f the main
pantheon b y m any modern day Pagans.
He is linked to the w ild woods, fertility
and masculinity. T he Horned God is
the personification o f animal energy, and 0 ^
represents the primal animal w ithin
all o f us, showing h ow w e are Q S p f4 Th /Vild
Th e W ild
four types o f god in Wicca: vegetation god, solar
deity and sacrificed god, w ith the Horned God
being the most w idely revered. O f ten all o f the
variants are amalgamated into the figure o f the
Horned God, and he is som etimes conflated
w ith the Green Man, w h ile others see ms, the Celtic Homed God was
. these as different
beings entirely. ,n is one of the few in existence

connected, intrinsically, to the "wfP Hun 'an b

Hunt can bee For m any Pagans, the
natural world around. Mw -,i VJL god Cernunnos is the
com bined[w
w ith the
W icca is a dualistic tradition^ V// i \ M em Document o f the
that reveres the Horned God 'sleeping
sle e P in § 1hero'
ro mmoo tif
tif in
in f|M
H om ed God. W hile his
as the counterpart to the V I V the U K _- S som mee legends /f]F j name is on ly mentioned
Goddess, and the festivals 'W I have K in ir g Arthur or Jf f , once, on the Pillar o f the
o f the W h eel o f the Year e v e n F lc CiS Drake
x, e ven Francis Drake 1 JfvS- Boatmen in the 1st century
chart the ebb and flow o f their a s jj, eader CE, the im age o f him as a
i W , a s its leader
relationship. The god is believed . J j jT cross-legged figure w ith stag's
to be born at the Yule (the Winter - horns is widespread, w ith the
Solstice), impregnates the fertile Goddess Vsa most famous depiction appearing
at Beltane by perform ing ‘the Great Rite', and on the Gundestrup Cauldron. M any believe he
dies at either Lammas, Mabon (the Autumn was worshipped across much o f Europe in the
Equinox), or Samhain, depending on personal Gallo-Roman period, as a god o f fertility, animals
beliefs. The idea o f the cyclical birth and death and the underworld.
o f the God forms the foundation o f the W heel o f In England, many see the Horned God as
the Year, and gives the central ideas o f rebirth and Heme, a god o f the W ild Hunt. The earliest
renewal to the W iccan calendar. Some split the mention o f him is in Shakespeare; a spirit that
God into tw o aspects: the H olly and Oak Kings, haunts W indsor Forest, som e say in the form o f
representing the dark and light halves o f the year. a stag. Later it was said that he was the ghost o f
The Oak King conquers the Holly King at Yule, an Elizabethan forest keeper w h o hung himself. I
and reigns until Litha (the summer solstice), when Today, he is seen as a manifestation o f the
the Holly King defeats him in return. There are Horned God, and equated w ith Cernunnos. J

"In England, m any see the Horned God as

Herne, a god o f the W ild Hunt" A model of the Wiccan Horned God from
the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.
-------------------------- -------------- -------------------------------------------------- Boscastle, Cornwall, shows him as a ’
humanoid goat wearing a claret robe
• • *►. -I__ _

* ■

The Horned God is thought of as the

leader of the Wild Hunt, a spectral
band of hunters in European
folklore, often associated with old
gods and legendary kings
 History o f Paganism
W hether revered as a suprem e Earth m other or as a three-fold
goddess, the Great Goddess o f Neopaganism is the epitom e o f the
divin e fem inine, encom passing the w orld itself in her being
£ h e Goddess is believed to be the
f
p source o f all life, from humans to
plants and animals, and often the
Earth itself is seen to be her body,
___ similar to the Greek goddess Gaia, the
personification o f the Earth. Much iconography
shows the Goddess sleeping w ith in the land, as
the mountains and valleys form her head, hips
and breasts or shoulders.
W h ile m any m od em Pagans revere a pantheon,
w ith multiple goddesses, W icca is usually a
dualistic tradition, w ith m ost focusing on one
Great Goddess, and her consort, the God - both
com plem enting and com pleting each other, with
the developm ent o f their relationship form ing
the basis o f the W h eel o f the Year. In this form,
the Goddess is the main deity, w ith all other
goddesses - and their names and attributes -
becom ing aspects o f her, which can be called
upon and worshipped for the specific aspects o f
life they have dom inion over. For some Wiccans,
like those follow in g the Dianic tradition, the
Goddess is the sole focus o f their worship, while
other Wiccans choose to worship m any goddesses
as aspects o f the Great Goddess.
The Sacred Fem inine is an idea that developed
in the 1970s from Hindu beliefs, and was
popularised w ithin N e w Age movements. The
Goddess Movement, focusing solely on worship
o f the Goddess herself, becam e popular with
many, focusing on aspects o f wom ens' life that
Written by Dee Dee Chainey
were previously unmentionable: menstruation,
sexuality and the reality o f motherhood. Today
in Britain,much o f this worship is centred at
Glastonbury, particularly at the site o f the healing
Chalice Well, a site o f sacred pilgrimage, whose
red water is thought to symbolise menstruation,
or the life-givin g blood o f childbirth.
For many Neopagans, the Goddess is
intrinsically linked w ith the M oon and its
cycles. The Triple Goddess is the epitome o f this
symbolism. First introduced b y the infamous
Robert Graves, w ith questionable roots in
historical scholarship yet much poetic attraction,
the idea encompasses a tri-fold goddess that
reflects the supposed stages o f a woman's life: i
the em bodim ent o f the Sacred Feminine w ith in I
the archetypes o f the Maiden, M other and
Crone. The movem ents o f the M oon through l
the lunar cycle represent these stages: the
w axing crescent is for the Maiden, a w om an as
she is developing, full o f independence like the
fierce Artemis, and the potential o f n ew life.
The full m oon represents the M other stage,
when the Sacred Fem inine is at its peak, filled
with creative energy, with the swollen belly seen
in the fullness o f the Moon's form.
The crone phase o f life is epitom ised by
the w aning crescent, when the Goddess is the The Venus of Willendorf, believed to
be a statue o f a prehistoric mother
Cailleach, the w ise Hag o f Winter, ruling the dark
goddess by many, was carved
mysteries o f life and death, w ith control over around 30,000 years ago during the
Upper Paleolithic Period
destiny as the w ise midwife.
■ m
 The Great Goddess

Much iconography shows the Goddess

sleeping within the land”
 W h ile the idea o f 'Pagan rituals' conjures im ages o f w itches perform ing dark
m agic under the fu ll Moon, the reality is v e ry different...
g uch Paganism is grounded in the
M
j lunar cycle, and each phase has its
5? ow n specific energy. The period
: when the M oon diminishes from
______ 2=the full M oon to the dark M oon is
called the w aning Moon, and often linked with
banishing magic: a tim e o f cleansing, reflection
and the clearing out o f the old. In contrast, the
period w hen it grows from dark to full is called
the w axing Moon, associated w ith growth, new
possibilities and building intention. The full M oon
itself is one o f the m ost m agically potent times
o f the Pagan month. It is a tim e o f illumination,
when the M oon is at its full p ow er and things
w ill be brought into the light; the tim e w hen all
w axing M oon magic w ill com e to fruition and
manifest. M any Pagans see the m oon as a symbol
o f the Goddess.
Traditionally, full M oon 'esbats' are m onthly
gatherings where many Pagans m eet in groups
to celebrate their faith on or around the evening
o f the full Moon.
the waxing, full and waning Moon
Sometimes the groups w ill identify as a coven, divination, for example a tarot or oracle reading
particularly if they are W iccan group. W hile these for the m onth ahead. Meditations often take place
meetings often take place outdoors within nature, around seasonal themes, or surrounding the
city-based groups often also m eet in houses, local specific names for each full M oon - which vary,
spiritual centres, or even pub function rooms. In depending on a person's beliefs and tradition.
contrast, m any solitary Pagans w ill conduct their Full M oon esbats can include perform ing candle
ow n personal ceremonies outdoors or at home. magic or other forms o f spellwork, often w ith a
Druid groves do not celebrate esbats or hold full focus on cleansing, healing, or spiritual balance
M oon gatherings in the same way; som e prefer and progression.
to m eet at the dark or n ew Moon, yet
full M oon worship is still commonplace,
just holding different symbolism. Full
M oon celebrations are considered more
personal and less ceremonial than the
Sabbats, which honour the m ore formal
festivals o f the W h eel o f the Year. Many
Pagans find observing these additional
12 or 13 full M oon evenings a year a w ay
o f talcing regular tim e out to mark their
spirituality and celebrate their beliefs.
A circle is often cast to create a sacred,
protected space w ithin which to
conduct a full M oon ritual - often
1
calling on spirits or e le m e n ta l as
witness - and banished once work
is complete. M eaningful rituals
are performed, and
Lunar symbolism
depends on the Moon
phase throughout the
th an ks in
deities is gthe
iv e n to o f
form month. New Moons,
Lunar symbolism
,, . depends on the
dark Moons andMoon
eclipses
prayer, or
nature poetry, song
the chosen -----
come with symbolism,
or chanting. Some worship and magical
themes of their own
use this tim e for
 History o f Paganism
ii » m a ■
The W h eel o f the Year, m arking the cyclical progression o f the
seasons, is an im portant feature in the lives o f m any Pagans today
he idea o f the year as a wheel, cycling
? through the four seasons in a never-
ending journey from darkness to
light, features w ith varyin g degrees
o f prominence in the beliefs o f many
m od em Pagans. Although there are variations
betw een groups and locations, the W h eel o f the
Year generally marks eight (or in some cases four)
seasonal festivals that celebrate the cyclic nature
o f the world around us.
Linked to the annual journey o f the Sun and
the birth, death, and rebirth o f the gods, the
w heel is based on the natural solar divisions
o f the solstices and equinoxes, w ith four o f the
festivals - Ostara, Litha, Mabon and
v v
,V \ - A
Written by Willow Winsham
Yule - m arking these quarter days o f the year.
The tw o solstices mark the point when the Sun
reaches its highest point in the sky at each pole,
and thus the longest and shortest days o f the
year, the start o f summer and winter. By contrast,
as the name implies, the tw o equinoxes are the
points w hen the sun is directly above the equator,
with day and night being o f almost equal length
and heralding the start o f spring and autumn.
Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain, the
remaining four festivals, mark a seasonal midpoint
b etw een each, and are know n as cross quarter
days. Although attempts have been made to prove
a direct continuity from the past to the present,
Rituals and incantations, along
with feasting and celebration,
make up the modern observance of
the seasonal festivals o f the year
historically, evidence suggests that in practice, the
w heel o f eight festivals was not celebrated in its
current form until recent times. There were m any
variations in what was celebrated and when, and
the cycle that is n ow observed was not in place
for our ancestors. For instance, Celtic practice may
have focused on the cross quarter days, while
A n glo Saxons observed the quarter days for their
celebrations. Under the influence o f Robert Graves,
Gerald Gardner and others, b y the m id 20th
century, the W h eel o f the Year and the festivals
w ith in it, were familiar term inology w ithin Pagan
communities. The ways in which the festivals
are celebrated today however does have roots in
folklore practices and traditions. The focus now
as then were com m unity sabbats or celebrations,
com ing together to give thanks, w ith offerings
made to nature, the deities or spirits revered on a
collective or individual level. Solitary Pagans may
also choose to celebrate the Sabbats alone, in their
o w n way.
•------------------ -----------------------------•
"By the mid 20th
century the Wheel
of the Year and the
festivals within it, were
familiar terminology"
------------------ -----------------------------
• •
The Wheel o f the Year

Th e m ost com m on nam es and

those m ost fam iliar tod ay for the
celebrations marked b y the w h eel
are o f G ermanic o r Celtic origin
 ^ +to■. ~ J■£
r* Ay " . Fp r < , ‘ U \
*■ fc -A »
i | V r

' H I J

3 “ M ]
1 •
• i 1

Iff m
. f j
i f t _

This H olly K ing figure stands

in South Barrule in the UK's
Isle o f Man. He represents the
en ergy o f the dark h alf o f the
year, b etw een m idsum m er and
the w in ter festival Yule
 The longest, darkest night o f the year is the tim e
w hen solar deities are reborn, as the Sun returns
and the days begin to lengthen
W ritten b y W illo w W in sh a m
M istletoe is associated w ith Yule.
In Rom an tradition it sym bolises
protection w h ile travellin g through
underworld, as in the Aeneid he m idwinter festival
celebrated on 21 December
is most com m only known
today as Yule. O f pre-
Christian origin, w ith
connections that span back to the
Neolithic period and perhaps beyond,
Yule takes place at the midwinter
solstice, or the longest night, the day
when, in the northern hemisphere, the
north pole is tilted furthest away from
the Sun.
A time o f hope and rebirth, Yule
brings w ith it the promise o f gradually
lengthening days and the return o f the
Sun and the warm th it brings. The focus
o f the celebrations is the idea o f light
com ing forth out o f darkness, along with
the death o f the Sun and subsequent
rebirth. The H olly King w ho m les over
the dark h alf o f the year is
believed by m any to give way
W ith its distinctive red berries
and sharp leaves, at Yule holly to the Oak King, who brings
represents the shift from the dark w ith him the returning light.
h alf o f the year into the light
Yule has connections w ith
other m idwinter festivals
such as Saturnalia, the
ancient Roman festival
celebrated betw een 17 and
23 December. This precursor
V o f m any future midwinter
"The focus o f the celebrations is light
com ing forth out o f darkness"
I r
celebrations was held in the name o f Saturn,
and was a tim e o f great feasting and merriment.
Saturnalia is best known as a festival o f social
subversion, when slaves could speak their m ind
without repercussions, and were feasted b y their
masters. It also shares obvious similarities w ith
Christmas, w ith much o f the same im agery and
traditions adopted by the later Christian festival.
One o f the m ost popular traditions associated
w ith Yule is the Yule log. Am idst much revelry, the
selected branch or log was taken into the house
and set in the hearth, decorated, then doused with
spirits. Using a section from the previous Yule log,
kept for that purpose, the n ew log was lit, w ith
the idea that celebrations continue as long as it
burns. Nothing was wasted, w ith the ashes used to
protect fields and enhance the fertility o f the soil.
The use o f greenery is also prominent in Yule
celebrations, w ith evergreens used for decoration
and symbolism throughout. Holly, pine, iv y
and oak are common, often on windowsills or
doorways or fashioned into wreaths. These are
seen as signs o f life everlasting, immortality,
protection, healing, regeneration and rebirth.
M istletoe is also closely associated w ith Yule, both
as protection from e vil and as a sign o f fertility.
The familiar colours associated w ith Yule, red,
green and white, reflect the significance o f these
plants and trees. Beware though, they must be
rem oved b y T w elfth Night, in order to avoid bad
luck for the year to come.
 The stirrings o f spring, m arking the end o f the dark
h alf o f the year, Im bolc was celebrated w ith candles,
rushes, and the presence o f the goddess Brigid
W ritten by W illo w W in sh a m

£ h e festival o f Imbolc was, historically, objects in the hope Brigid would bless them when

T
? another o f the four seasonal
celebrations observed b y Gaelic
com munities during the year. Taking
___ place on 1 February, this festival
marked the start o f spring, w ith all the hope,
wonder and enthusiasm that tim e heralded.
Unlike som e celebrations o f more recent
she visited on Imbolc eve. Rushes or reeds also
played a big part; in Northern Ireland they were
carried as a symbolic Brigid circled the household,
som e were laid out on the floor, fashioned into
crosses, or used to make the saint a bed to sleep in.
Brideogs, representations o f Brigid made from
reeds and dressed in cloth and flowers,
:amiliar sights in both Ireland

K
origin, Imbolc appears to have held d Scotland. Processions took
an im portant place in the Irish gg r im b o lc ^ :hem from house to house,
calendar from at least the 10th f is som
^ etim es where gifts and further
century. Like m any such J . 'l f 1S SOn
referred to as decoration were bestowed
traditions, the exact origin ¥// I6 fe n upon them, before the
Candlemas, after the
o f the name is uncertain. X CcUldlem figure was feasted and laid
Christian festival o f
Suggestions include Oil i Christiai
derivation from the old Irish Vj| J m otherhood
, and light
, , , mothernc
word or cleansing, or, another Iv q held around the |
suggestion, the m eaning "in JIs fe .^ sam
^ e tim e
the belly" as a nod to the ewes
that were expectant at that time
o f year. ^
Brigid, originally as a pagan goddess and The purifying nature o f
then as a Christian saint, is an important Imbolc fire was significant, w ith
Flow ers such as the snow drop
figure. Although practices varied, the idea that andles marking a reminder are am ong the first to signal
Brigid ushered in the lighter days o f s p rin g, he promise o f the Sun the changing o f the seasons.

leading people from the dark half o f the year, was
central to her part in Imbolc traditions. Deeply
venerated, she was invited into households as an
honoured guest, where she was variously feasted,
entertained and invited to sleep in a specially
prepared bed. Households w ou ld leave small
ng as the year unfolded.
Today, Brigid is at the heart o f Pagan
Im bolc celebrations. Im bolc also has links to the
Gaelic winter hag, the Cailleach. As tradition
goes, it is at Imbolc that she collects w o o d for her
fire to see her through to the end o f the winter.
A sunny Imbolc enabled her to collect more,
and thus foretold a long winter. If the weather at

"The purifying Im
nature o f fire
bolc is bad, then winter w ill soon be over, as the
Cailleach would not have enough firew ood to last.
was significant"
Today, Imbolc is celebrated in a variety o f forms.
Image source: Redsimon

Brigid, either as goddess or saint, has featured

prom inently in Im bolc celebrations throughout
history, and is central to Pagan festivities as
goddess today
 ■ vfL\ \ i
j Aj^ b b’ l lb
•
^- - ' w
/I
lf a * 6 * 3 » > 7 J M L u/- XT
3 ^ k#V V 7dl ' J 2 |
*—k™ v ^ \ \¥ hH ,f c\ f i«
m

Ostara
M odern celebration, w orship o f an ancient goddess,
or the origin o f Easter; what do eggs, hares and
church fathers have to do w ith the spring equinox?
Written by Willow Wirisharn?/
k stara is a festival o f spring time. Usually
® celebrated b y m any at the tim e o f the
r spring equinox, falling betw een 19 and
11J 22 March each year, the overarching
theme o f this celebration, observed by
many Pagans today, is that o f n ew beginnings,
n ew life, fertility and renewal. One of the times o f
year when the nights and days are o f equal length,
Ostara heralds the shift towards longer, lighter days,
the beginning o f new cycles o f life amidst nature,
and the celebration o f the Spring Maiden, with her
promise of fertility and renewal. Flowers, eggs and
rabbits are all strongly associated w ith modern
Ostara and its celebrations.
Ostara, or Eostre is believed b y many to be the
goddess o f this festival, and holds significance
for many m odern Pagans in their celebrations at
this tim e o f year. Ideas about the goddess include
origins as an ancient goddess o f the dawn, or a
fertility goddess, though her biggest association is
with the bringing of spring.
But what were the origins o f this popular
goddess? The only historical reference to Eostre
comes from the writings o f church father, Bede.
He refers to the old name for April, Eosturmonata,
and his assumption it marked the celebration of a
of Jacob Grimm
Ostara
Germanic goddess o f that name. The writings of
19th century folklorist Jacob Grimm helped further
perpetuate and popularise the idea. His was the
first mention o f the Germanic Ostara, and it is
from his work that most 'ancient facts' regarding
the goddess actually stem from. Other fallacies
frequently repeated regarding Ostara and Eostre
include an assumed etymological link to the word
oestrogen, and links with the Assyrian goddess
Ishtar. Hares, eggs and bunnies were also absent
from the historical festival until amalgamated
into it by Jacob Grimm, but have, thanks to the
promulgation o f his work, becom e associated with
modern celebrations of Ostara.
Although debate exists today over whether Bede
outright invented Eostre for purposes that remain
unclear, this does little to diminish her popularity.
A tale with origins in the 19th century tells o f how
the goddess was late to bring the spring one year.
As a result, a small bird died, much to the grief o f
a little girl who found it. What did the goddess do?
She turned the poor creature into a snow hare,
the magical creature delighting the child by laying
rainbow coloured eggs. Each year, the goddess told
the girl, watch for the arrival o f the snow hare. For
then everyone would know that spring had arrived.
Hundreds gather at Stonehenge each
year to w atch the sun rise that marks
the daw n o f the spring equinox
 Beltane
A m idst fire and feasting, flow ers and rituals o f
protection, Beltane celebrations mark the long-awaited
start o f sum m er and the w arm m onths to follow
W ritten b y W illo w W in sh a m

For those w ho rise early there is m agic to

be fou nd in M ay Day dew: w ashing in it
tfe eltane is the cross quarter day o f god, there is little historical evidence for these w ill ensure a fresh, clear com plexion

f
Kp the year celebrated on 1 May, also
popularly know n as M ay Day.
B g jT h is seasonal festival marks the
B p beginning o f summer, and is one o f
the most important and w id ely celebrated
festivals o f the W h eel o f the Year.
Both historically and today, fire and Beltane
go hand in hand. Bonfires have been a
central part o f Beltane celebrations
deities being a part o f earlier celebrations. 'Bel'
might, in fact, refer to a small gap or passage,
while 'tane' or 'taine' is Old Irish for ‘fire'.
For Beltane, w indow s and doors were
decorated w ith May flowers. These were not
mere ornament however, for those points o f
entry were believed to need most protection in
^ a household. The hanging o f boughs
loorways was also believed

S
for centuries past, both in bring good m ilk production
* *
celebration and ritual. One For cows. It is also at Beltane t r . »
such ritual, recorded in Beltane
B u ta n e festivities that w e see such familiar
Irish sources from the 10th are often associated traditions as maypole
century, involves leading w ith lo v e spells and
love dancing, the decorating
cattle through or round lit yr v fertility
fertility trites as w ell o f m ay bushes, and the
bonfires amidst incantations, cleansi crowning o f the M ay Queen.
as cleansing fire and
in the b elief that this would The veil betw een the
i protection rituals { worlds is said to be thin at
bring protection for the P r 0 ^eC *'1
months to come. It has also Seltane. Due to this, there are
been considered lucky to walk ty superstitions and traditions
around or jum p over the bonfire. ^ with M ay Day and M ay Eve.
Bonfires feature prom inently in celebrations The first d ew o f Beltane is said to have
o f Beltane today, and it is still considered lucky to magical qualities, guaranteeing those w ho bathe
jum p over the Beltane bonfire. Another important in it a perfect complexion.
aspect o f Beltane celebration is feasting, w ith The popularity o f Beltane slowly declined, i/ jM
offerings m ade to the spirits or gods for a fertile however, and by the mid 20th century was no
and prosperous summer ahead. longer w idely celebrated. There has since been a
Although Belanus, ‘The Shining One', a Sun cultural revival in some areas, w ith old and n ew
god o f Celtic origin, is often said to be associated practices com ing together into modern celebrations
w ith Beltane, as is Bel, the protector and father o f Beltane as observed by Pagans today.

"Bonfires feature prominently in

I The 2019 Beltane celebrations in
celebrations o f Beltane today" Edinburgh addressed clim ate change,
w ith the M ay Queen show n in anger
f

at the current state o f the w orld ,W )I

 Fire, kn ow n for its
protective and cleansing
properties, is central to
celebrations o f Beltane,
both past and present
 The m idsum m er festival Litha celebrates the pow er
o f the Sun and the conquest o f night, yet hints at
the darkness to com e
Written by Ben Gazur

£ h e summer solstice has always been a his brother the H olly King at his lowest ebb. To

1
? traditional focal point o f the year. On 21
or 22 June, in the northern hemisphere,
the Sun reaches the end o f its seasonal
___ wanderings. No day is longer and no
night is shorter. For Pagans this day is marked by
the festival o f Litha and represents the triumph o f
celebrate the victory o f the Oak King, oak trees can
be decorated w ith colourful scraps o f cloth. W ith
all the riches o f the summer available Litha is a
tim e o f feasting on nature's delights like honey. It
is also a tim e o f purification when the dangers o f
the com ing months can be washed away in w ild
bodies o f water.
There are m any ways to observe Litha,
is m any consider it to be a day

S
light over darkness. 11o f magic, there are
Throughout northern Europe the many spells and
day has been traditionally marked M idsum m er incorporate
rituals that can
by huge bonfires whose blazes celebrates both the back the night even
be perform ed extend the victo ry o f the Sun
further dim inish the night. d l longest
l ,
day
o f the Sun then. In the
yeJ Midst
Those w h o leapt through the Jj I r
and the awareness that day the light o f
flames, w ithout mishap, were^- yf// C fd e b ra te
the days w ill n ow begin the Sun may be
considered to have been l°n gest haj used to gather
to shorten fi
blessed for the com ing year, v i V and the aw, herbs at their most
In the past midsummer was 1m the d a y s wi □tent. At night the
celebrated by setting fire to ^ gj^ that are set are
a w ood en w heel representing to ward away evil
the Sun and rolling it dow n a ... as w ell as darkness. Folklore gives
hill into a lake. This m ay reflect the ^ us m any rites to try around these fires.
dual nature o f the summer solstice, in Wishes can be 'given to a pebble' -
that while it is the longest day it also presages whisper a wish to a stone in your hand
the return o f winter, as from then on the days as you walk three tim es around the fire
w ill becom e ever shorter. Christians incorporated and then toss it in if you want your wish
m idsummer festivities into their calendar by to come true. Even the cold ashes o f a
joining them to the feast o f Saint John. Litha bonfire have p ow er if they are used
From the ancient veneration o f m idsum m er to create a magical talisman.
in the old religions, the celebration o f Litha has
developed in m odern Paganism. Traditionally the
s p fe lS ir
Oak K ing is thought to be at his strongest, w ith

"Many consider it to be a day

full o f m agic”
 m

Image source: Getty

 History o f Paganism

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 Lughnasadh

Th e first o f three harvest festivals, Lughnasadh or Lam m as focuses

on the first w heat o f the year, and the bread m ade from it

Written by Ben Gazur

T ft? ughnasadh, also know n as Lammas,
marks the m id-point betw een
■WpS summer and autumn and is the first
B jL ft o f three harvest festival in the Pagan
year. Falling around the beginning o f
August (or February in the southern hemisphere)
it coincides w ith the first fruits o f the harvest
being brought in. In agrarian societies the tim e
before the first harvest w ould have been one o f
dw indling supplies as they waited for the grain
to ripen. A fter the backbreaking work o f harvest,
a celebration o f the bounty was on ly natural.
Lughnasadh takes its name from the Irish
Year, bonfires are popular. Here they mirror the ----------------------------------------------
Sun that has made the plants grow and give
thanks, hopefully, for the good weather that
"Gerald Gardner used
accompanies the harvest. The baking o f a special
this day in 1940 to
loaf is often perform ed and it may be shaped
into the figure o f a god, or o f sheaves o f wheat. perform a ritual to
Ritually eating the god brings the pow er o f the
harvest w ithin the worshipper. The last stalks o f
stop the Nazis
wheat harvested are m ade into corn dollies.
invading Britain"
Other rites may prove m ore pow erful at
Lammas. Gerald Gardner and other witches -
used this day to perform a ritual in 1940 that
was supposed raise a ‘cone o f power' over [estival o f Lughnasadh

god Lugh, w h o is said to have instituted the Britain and stop the Nazis invading. Not all
festival in honour o f his foster-mother Tailtiu. gatherings have such lofty aims and many
Tailtiu spent her life, literally, clearing Ireland Pagans m eet at Lammas to dance, sing, and
to make it suitable for agriculture. At the end of feast to w elcom e back another successful and
her labours she dropped dead, so Lugh decided fertile year. ]
to celebrate her efforts when the first
harvest cam e each year. Lughnasadh I
shows h ow the cycle o f life, death, t
harvesting, and sowing are all bound !
together, with one year's crop being i,
the next year's seed. |
Lammas, m eaning L oaf Mass, was ,i
the time in England when the first f"
■ h ii| '
wheat was cut and turned into bread. I
The first loaf o f the year was a sacred I
item and consecrated. A n Anglo- I
Saxon ritual saw this bread torn into I
quarters and placed in the corners I
o f a barn to protect the rest o f the I
harvest. Christian tradition also
saw the importance o f the day, and I | !|jtr
loaves would be blessed b y priests fi
and marked w ith symbols. (,i
Today Lammas and Lughnasadh }!
are celebrated by Wiccans and other {
Pagans in m any ways. As w ith I
other Sabbats in the W h eel o f the I
Th e first harvest represents the
gifts o f M other Nature brought
forth b y the hard w ork o f hum anity J i source:
 A t the autum nal equinox the nights becom e longer
than the days, and people must prepare for the dark
tim es ahead
Written by Ben Gazur

h he autumnal equinox, when day and The ancient pagans o f Greece and Rome

T
night are o f equal length, is a turning associated the Autumnal Equinox with the tale of
point in the year. Mabon is the day that Demeter and Persephone (Ceres and Proserpina
begins the descent into winter as night to the Romans). Demeter was the fertility goddess
overtakes day. Yet it is also a celebration responsible for the natural world and Persephone
as the second harvest festival in the Pagan calendar was her daughter. W hen the god o f the dead stole
as nature continues to offer up its treasures. With Persephone away, Demeter in her grief stopped all
the main harvest com ing to an end, the living things from growing and winter
equinox was a tim e o f change. Farm set in. To save the Earth it was
labourers would be released from decreed that Persephone should
their contracts and new work spend half the year in Hades
sought. The whole year ahead T h e nam e 'Mabon' and half with her mother. 1he equinox occurs when
day and night
might depend on your luck at com es from the W hile Persephone is in the both last 12 hours and the
sun rises
exactly in the east and set<
this time. realm o f the living Demeter in the west
legend o f an Arthurian
The equinox was a key time is happy and summer
knight, w h o w as the
o f year for our ancestors, who prevails, but the autumnal
son o f a W elsh Earth
had to work b y daylight alone. equinox marked her passage
As the sun lessened there were
M other goddess
to the underworld.
fewer hours in the day in which To som e Pagans the equinox
to store away food for the hard is called Mabon and is a time
winter ahead. M any cultures marked to think on the delicate balance of
the autumnal equinox, with m any ancient sites life. Others see the ripening o f grapes as a
being built so as to align with the rising Sun on reason to celebrate the loosening powers of wine.
those days. Pagans today w ill often gather at such Those wishing to see the future m ay wish to cut
sites to worship. W hile nothing can be done to stop open an apple horizontally. The seeds inside form a
the seasonal disappearance o f the Sun, Pagans offer pentagram and in the whorls o f flesh around them
up praise for its abundance and calls for it to return can be read symbols o f your fortune. The Harvest
in spring. The rite acknowledges the seasonal Moon, the full M oon closest to the equinox, is
nature of sunlight, growth and the Earth. considered by som e to be especially powerful.

"The whole year ahead might depend on

your luck at this time"

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 M a bon

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the harvest and is a tim e to
• en joy the riches o f the field

LM J
te r r r

Long recognised in the ancient

w orld as a special day, the autumnal
equ inox is still celebrated b y Pagans
today at spiritually potent sites

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 H allow een m ay have largely replaced it, but
Sam hain is still one o f the m ost im portant festivals
in the Pagan year
Written by Ben G a zm ^ y
amhain, falling on 31 October, is the
. last o f the three harvest festivals
for Pagans. It also marks the true
beginning o f winter and was seen as
a day o f the dead. Several Neolithic
tombs w ere constructed in such a w ay that the
light o f sunrise on Samhain w ould illuminate the
interior. The Christian Ailhallow tide held on the
same day m ay preserve this association w ith the
dead, as its ringing o f church bells is thought to
provide com fort to the departed.
The early descriptions o f Samhain in Irish
literature show it as a tim e to end farming and
warfare and to gather families and tribes together
to survive the winter. In the cold nights there was
much drinking and tale-telling to pass the time.
Samhain itself was a tim e o f potential danger, as
the fairies w ould open their mounds and it was
possible for the dead to return from the spirit
realm. Samhain was the tim e when cattle and
other livestock w ere slaughtered and preserved
fo i winter and it may have been a tim e that was
associated w ith sacrifices.
On Samhain the fire in the hearth was allowed
to burn out w hile people worked in the fields.
That night bonfires w ere lit to ward o ff evil and
fire was taken from these to relight the hom e fires.
T h e smoke from the great fires was thought to
be protective. Sometimes tw o fires were lit and
villagers and livestock w ould pass betw een them.
Today bonfires are still lit at Samhain. Major
cities such as Edinburgh see large processions
o f people carrying flam in g torches alongside
drums and music. Traditionally the festivities o f
Samhain could be accompanied by dressing up
and disguise. Boys w ould som etim es go from
house to house to b eg w ood to be added to the
com m unal fire. To light the w a y revellers carved
lanterns from turnips and wurzels. It is easy to see
how Samhain influenced the later traditions o f
Halloween, w hich m any people celebrate today.
For m odern Pagans, Samhain is both a tim e
to remember the dead and to celebrate. Feasts
are often held as a w a y o f offering hospitality to
the deceased. You m ay want to bake a batch o f
soul cakes to offer to the poor. It is also a tim e to
introduce newborns to the community. Samhain
can be the proper m om ent to reflect on things that
have ended in the past year, as w ell as the hopes
for what m ay com e in the next.
Image source: Getty
Fire and m u m m ery has lon g been
a part o f celebrating Samhain: early
i
pagans dressed as anim als and spirits
* i!
 boundaries
b etw een the hum an
w orld and those o f the
fairies and the dead are
thought to grow thin
mj- and perm eable at | *
IW , Sam hain %Js
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