Ronald Hutton is a professor of history at the University of Bristol and not a participant in modern Paganism or the Goddess Movement, and this book was published by an independent university press. It has stood since 1999 as the standard critical history of modern Pagan witchcraft, tracing the movement's actual nineteenth and twentieth century origins against the romantic prehistories many practitioners had accepted as literal history, including the theory of a suppressed, peaceful, goddess worshipping prehistoric culture central to much early Goddess Movement writing. Hutton's own sympathies lean toward the Pagan movements he studies, stated here rather than treating him as a hostile outside critic, and his findings are broadly accepted within academic history of religion even where unwelcome to practitioners invested in an older, literalist self history. This record has not traced scholarly rebuttal to his specific claims. Use it for the documented history of modern Pagan witchcraft and the Goddess Movement's own historical claims; it is not a source for the movement's devotional content.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Independent university press monograph by a historian with no membership in modern Paganism or the Goddess Movement. NotesThe standard scholarly history of the origins and development of modern Pagan Witchcraft (Wicca) in twentieth-century Britain, tracing its sources in earlier folklore, ceremonial magic and Romantic movements. Use for established historical facts about the origins and development of modern Wicca and Paganism; a critical academic history, not a practitioner's guide to practice.
Citation
AuthorRonald Hutton
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication Year1999
URLhttps://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-triumph-of-the-moon-9780198870371
Source Typeacademic monograph
Connections
Associated With
This source names Modern Paganism directly: "of Bristol and not a participant in modern Paganism or the Goddess Movement, and this book was published by an independent university press."
Source The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan WitchcraftRonald Hutton
Claims Backed By This Source (823 claims)
This source backs 823 claims across the atlas. As facts: 554 well-attested, 4 partially Attested, 10 scholarly debate, 3 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 138 holds, 3 connected, 1 critiqued Here, 2 held Differently. Plus 108 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Articles, 153 claims: 141 well-attested, 4 partially Attested, 1 holds, 2 connected, 5 general references.
- Deities, 69 claims: 48 well-attested, 5 scholarly debate, 11 holds, 5 general references.
- Rituals, 67 claims: 33 well-attested, 30 holds, 4 general references.
- Holidays & Festivals, 61 claims: 37 well-attested, 14 holds, 10 general references.
- Historical Figures, 47 claims: 29 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 2 popular myth - corrected, 5 holds, 10 general references.
- Religious Events, 46 claims: 23 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected, 14 holds, 7 general references.
- Doctrines, 43 claims: 27 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 10 holds, 5 general references.
- Magical Weapons, 39 claims: 30 well-attested, 2 holds, 2 held Differently, 5 general references.
- Denominations, 37 claims: 28 well-attested, 2 holds, 7 general references.
- Practices, 31 claims: 28 well-attested, 3 general references.
- Calendars, 24 claims: 13 well-attested, 10 holds, 1 general references.
- Religious Symbols, 22 claims: 13 well-attested, 7 holds, 2 general references.
- Beliefs & Restrictions, 21 claims: 16 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 4 general references.
- Esoteric Texts, 21 claims: 15 well-attested, 3 holds, 3 general references.
- Religions, 20 claims: 10 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 6 holds, 3 general references.
- Sacred Objects & Ritual Items, 18 claims: 14 well-attested, 1 holds, 3 general references.
- Myths & Sacred Narratives, 13 claims: 9 well-attested, 3 holds, 1 general references.
- Disciplines, 11 claims: 10 holds, 1 general references.
- Scriptures & Texts, 9 claims: 7 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 holds.
- Cities, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Colors, 7 claims: 3 well-attested, 4 general references.
- Open Questions, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 connected, 1 general references.
- Sacred Sites, 7 claims: 3 holds, 4 general references.
- Secular Organizations, 6 claims: 4 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Subcategories, 6 claims: 4 well-attested, 2 general references.
- Elements, 5 claims: 5 general references.
- Realms, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Tattvas, 5 claims: 5 general references.
- Studies, 3 claims: 1 holds, 1 critiqued Here, 1 general references.
- Literary Works, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Plants, 1 claims: 1 general references.
- Religious Roles & Titles, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Well-attested
554Articles
A Book Gives the New Coven Its TheologyA Book Written to Be Read Two WaysA Borrowed Word ReforgedA Consequence, Not A CommandA Creed for a Religion Without OneA Discredited Theory With a Living AfterlifeA Feminist PathA God Assembled From Older ImagesA Hereditary Claim That Does Not Survive a CalendarA Historian Told Wicca It Was New, and Wicca Mostly AgreedA Hungarian Emigre Founds an American CovenA Male and Female Polarity, One Half Further Split in ThreeA Manuscript Culture Inside the Age of PrintA Modern Festival Revived on a Hill Above EdinburghA Modern Festival with an Old NameA Modern Irish Pilgrimage That Folklorists Trace to This FestivalA Modern Name for the Autumn EquinoxA Ruin Shared by People Who Disagree About ItA Saxon-Themed WiccaA Self-Declared King of the WitchesA Spiritualist Invention That Wicca InheritedA Symbol Denied, Then a LawsuitA Tool Worn Rather Than HeldA Twentieth Century Book Behind An Old-Feeling SymbolA Twentieth Century Text Behind an Old ClaimAccepted, Debated, or Set AsideAccess Over LineageAn Aspect, Not an Ancient GoddessAn Ecstatic Mystery TraditionAn Egyptologist Rewrites the Witch TrialsAn Ethic of ResponsibilityAn Initiatory Mystery Religion, and How One Gets InAncient Triple Goddesses Are Not This TriadAssembling a Wheel from Two CalendarsBalance of the Masculine and FeminineBede's One Sentence, and Everything Hung on ItCandlemas, Imbolc and the First Stirrings of SpringCasting The Circle, And What The Blade Never DoesCircles of WomenConsequence Woven into the CosmosCords, Or The Cingulum, And What They MeasureDid All Saints Move to Suppress It?Eclectic Solitary PracticeEight Spokes of a Modern WheelEight Words And A Debated PoemEnding Two Centuries of a Different LawFrom Borrowed Words To A Coven's Own VoiceFrom Coven to BookshopGerald Gardner and the Book Nobody OwnsHalloween's Actual Ingredients Showing 1 to 50 of 203 entities carrying this claim.
Popular myth - corrected
3Holds
138Myths & Sacred Narratives
Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
Showing 1 to 50 of 57 entities carrying this claim.
General References
108Showing 1 to 50 of 107 entities carrying this claim.
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