Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Show Your Work: Silence & Skepticism in Modern Witchcraft

Show Your Work: Silence & Skepticism in Modern Witchcraft

Last updated on: January 9, 2017 at 3:57 pm by Jason Mankey

Show Your Work: Silence & Skepticism in Modern Witchcraft 2017-01-09T15:57:04-07:00 Jason Mankey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There’s an individual who lives near me who loves to talk about his hidden knowledge of Witchcraft history. In his telling Wiccan-Witchcraft has a truly ancient lineage and can be traced back to ancient Hellenic Paganisms (not the modern day re-constructions, but the thing being done 2500 years ago). To say that I’m skeptical of such claims is an understatement. This individual and I have access to many of the same research materials, and while I certainly don’t know everyone in the Pagan world, I think that if there was any real evidence for such a thing someone else would have told me about it.

“Evening” by Claude Joseph Vernet. From WikiMedia.

People can believe whatever they want, but I find such proclamations problematic for a couple of reasons:

1. They marginalize our actual past. So what if Wicca is not 2000 years or old or a genuine ancient pagan survival? I think it’s history is still pretty grand, stretching far back into the Western Magical Tradition and into more contemporary sources like Co-Masonry and Rosicrucianism. Gardner’s “maybe it happened maybe it didn’t” alleged initiation in 1939 adds just enough mystery to the whole package to provide it with a suitable level of intrigue. (Most every religion has some level of intrigue, ours is just a little less supernatural than coming back from the dead!).

Cunning-Craft, Freemasonry, Grimoires, Theosophy, Romantic Poetry . . . . those are all pretty awesome things, I don’t see why they need to be embellished with anything else. If those aren’t fore-mothers and fore-fathers enough to be proud of you are one hard to satisfy cookie. Crazy lineages back to Plato imply that these building blocks just weren’t good enough.

2. They always rely on evidence that we are not allowed to see. If someone wants to make a grand proclamation that’s going to change the history of Modern-Witchcraft they’ve got to be able to back it up with something besides “I can’t show you.” I get it if something is oathbound or whatever, or is a priceless family heirloom. Maybe there’s a very legitimate reason for not showing a particular something. However talking about it tends to break an old adage found in Witchcraft . . . .

3. To keep silent. To keep silent is seriously a thing in many Witchcraft traditions, but it seems to be a concept a lot of people have trouble understanding today. “To keep silent” is about more than just not revealing the names of the people one practices with, it’s an instruction to keep quite about a whole host of things, including what you do in ritual, what’s in your Book of Shadows, and most certainly about any secret hidden history one has squirreled away. No scholar has ever won an argument by saying “I don’t have any evidence to show you, but trust me anyways.” That’s just not how it works.

My books are not very old.

If you own a 400 year old book detailing your family’s Witchcraft practice that goes all the way back to ancient Celtic society it most likely still survives because the people in your family over the centuries were able “to keep silent.” Talking about it in 2017 sort of violates that 400 years of trust that’s been handed down, doesn’t it? Besides, when someone can’t show you their work it just seems a little dubious. And a 400 year old Witch-book with information going back to a truly pagan antiquity would just about rewrite modern history! It’s something that would be in scholarly journals, on the evening news, and on the bestseller lists. It’s not the kind of thing you’d only read about on a Facebook group. (And if you are going to talk about it, why would you talk about it without showing it to anyone?)

The two examples I’ve written about thus far don’t necessarily mean that the people making those claims are liars. Occult history, especially Witchcraft history, is very subjective. While I don’t think the Witchcraft of Gerald Gardner reaches back to the Hellenic Period, there’s nothing to imply that it couldn’t have been inspired by something Greek. Gardner (and his initiators*) were intelligent, well-read people with varying interests. The problem with all those thousands of years of history has more to do with the “unbroken chain of Witchcraft” thing than the idea being there.

Instead of an idea being carried on through the generations perhaps someone in the modern age stumbled across an idea and then put it into the context of Witchcraft? I read history to be inspired by it, so why not let it inspire? And just because an idea was passed down for generations doesn’t mean that idea was always thought of in the context of Witchcraft. Ideas are often adaptable, and can fit into a vast array of world-views.

I went to Tintagel, so I just want to sneak these in when I can.

In addition someone could very well have a four hundred year old book with magickal spells in it. Such books certainly do exist, and are sometimes handed down among families. The problem is that no one 400 years ago keeping such a book would have thought of it as Witchcraft. And any spells in it would most likely reflect a Christian world-view since most everyone during that period in the English speaking world was a Christian (with a few exceptions). To us, such books very much look like Witchcraft, but that’s not what they were to the individuals who kept them.

And even if they did use the word “Witchcraft” to some small degree in those books, it’s not a type of Witchcraft many of us today would recognize. There would be no Goddess and no Horned God. Such ideas didn’t really take hold until the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Just because it’s Witchcraft to us doesn’t mean it’s fair to apply that level retroactively. (If anyone was seriously worshipping the Devi 400 years ago they would not have been stupid enough to write about it in a book either! It would mean a quick trip to the gallows.)

Our history is complex and if you’ve got a secret unicorn in your backyard it’s probably better not to talk about it unless you are prepared to let everyone else see it. On the other hand we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss everything out of hand. Magickal ideas are remarkably resilient, and while they may not be Witchcraft, they most certainly have value. Let’s just not turn them into something they aren’t.

*I believe Gardner was initiated into something, though that something was probably not centuries old.

Previous Post

December 28, 2016

The 2016 Hornie Awards

Next Post

January 13, 2017 Witchcraft Before Wicca: Three Important Magickal Books

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Editorializing Gateways to Paganism Guest Posts Holiday Histories Led Zeppelin News and Views Occult Pagan Pagan TV Club Paganism polytheism Ramble On Reviews Ritual Strange Days Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2026 March 2026 February 2026 November 2025 September 2025 August 2025 April 2025 August 2024 April 2024 February 2024 December 2023 October 2023 August 2023 June 2023 May 2023 January 2023 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Jeremiah use to symbolize Israel's relationship to God in Jeremiah 18?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A shepherd and sheep A tree and fruit A bride and bridegroom A potter and clay