Drawing Down the Moon (2 page)

While some of the early organizations that helped create the Neo-Pagan revival are not dominant organizations today, it is important to remember that they originated and developed key concepts that created a Neo-Pagan viewpoint—concepts like the difference between a tribal and a credal religion, between religions of immanence and transcendence, between a polytheistic and monotheistic outlook, between religions based on words and religions based on experience.

And one fascinating aspect of the rise of Paganism on the Internet has been that some of these early organizations—groups that seemed moribund fifteen years ago—are having a new life, today, on the Web.

Finally, although some scholars may argue this, no one converts to Paganism or Wicca. You will find no one handing you Pagan leaflets or shouting at you on a street corner. Many people came across this book, or one of hundreds of other books, in some isolated corner of America or the world. Often they found it in a small-town library, or in a used bookstore, or stashed away on a friend's bookshelf, or even in a prison. Upon opening its pages, they often experienced a homecoming. Perhaps they said, “I never knew there was anyone else in the world who felt what I feel or believed what I have always believed. I never knew my religion had a name.” To these people this book is dedicated.

Preface

“Paganism in America” ...This simple phrase stirs deep responses in many people.

A book on Paganism could be many things—since pagan has been defined as everything from decadence to sensuality, to return to the primitive, to a stance against religion. It might be yet another book on narcissism in our time, or a book on atheism or hedonism. No matter how precisely the word is defined—and it is defined precisely in the pages that follow—the word pagan, like anarchist or communist, calls forth complex and often negative expectations in readers.

At least several hundred thousand people in the United States call themselves Pagans or Neo-Pagans today, and they use the word pagan in a very different way. These people—the subject of this book—consider themselves part of a religious movement that antedates Christianity and monotheism. By pagan they usually mean the pre-Christian nature religions of the West, and their own attempts to revive them or to re-create them in new forms. The modern Pagan resurgence includes feminist Goddess-worshippers, modern Witches, new religions based on the visions of science-fiction writers, and attempts to revive ancient European religions—Norse, Greek, Roman, Druid, and Celtic, among others.

The Pagan movement does not include most Eastern religious groups. It includes neither Satanists nor Christians. And it stands in marked contrast to many other alternative religious movements that have received massive coverage in the press—from the Hare Krishnas to the Unification Church. The groups within this book are largely non-authoritarian. The Pagan view is one that says that neither doctrine nor dogma nor ascetisism nor rule by masters is necessary for the visionary experience, and that ecstasy and freedom are both possible. It fits well with our pluralistic society.

Part I gives some basic definitions and philosophy. Chapter I describes the broad outlines of this movement and defines troublesome words like pagan and witch. Chapter 2 describes my own entry into this world thirty-five years ago as an observer-participant, and discusses how entry into most of these groups differs from the conversion process so familiar in many religions. Chapter 3 is about the Pagan worldview: how the polytheistic perspective of many Pagan groups demands—at least in theory—a stance against authoritarianism.

Part II describes the Witchcraft revival, its history, its links with Britain and certain British folklorists, and its cur - rent practices, “beliefs,” and traditions. One chapter describes the role of magic and ritual in these groups; another discusses feminist Witchcraft covens and the broader intersection of feminism and Paganism.

Part III looks at other Neo-Pagan groups: the revivals and reconstruction of ancient European religions—Druids, Heathens, as well as ancient Greek and Egyptian revivals. There is also a section on Gay spirituality. There are also religions based on fantasy and private visions, as well as a potpourri of groups that originated as satire, from the Reform Druids of North America to the worshippers of Eris, goddess of chaos.

Part IV considers the relationship of all these things to the “real world.” It looks at Pagans' attitudes to the environment, politics, work, technology, and science. It also looks at the broad changes that have occurred in the movement over the last twenty-five years.

This book could not have been written without the help of hundreds of people. Many of their names appear within.

For the most recent edition, the Internet was a blessing. Thanks to: Andras and Dierdre Arthen, Z Budapest, Chas Clifton and the Nature Religions Scholars Network, Jennifer Culver, Selena Fox, Sally Miller Gearhart, Judy Harrow, Ronald Hutton, Willow La Monte, Michael Lloyd, Aidan Kelly, Morgan McFarland, Patricia Monaghan, Harold Moss, Jean Mountaingrove, Fritz Muntean, Sparky T. Rabbit, Oberon Zell -Ravenheart, Victoria Slind-Flor, Volkhvy, Ben Waggoner, Dale Wallace, Don Wildgrube, and hundreds of others who passed me from one person to another, e-mail to e-mail.

The original book would never have happened without the comments and critiques by friends, scholars, and a di - verse group Neo-Pagans, including Isaac Bonewits, Sharon Devlin, Aidan Kelly, Morgan McFarland, Penny Novack, Theodore Roszak, Jeffrey Burton Russell, and my husband, John Gliedman. Others, whose conversations or ideas helped inspire the book included Lindsay Ardwin, the late Bruce Kenyon, Zana Miller, Arnie Sacher, Kathleen Pullen, John Schaar, Ursula Le Guin, Ernest Becker, and Ernest Callenbach. All mistakes are my own.

Volunteers transcribed almost two hundred hours of taped interviews. Special thanks go to Patricia Holub and Elena La Pera. Also, Susan Advocate, Doug Berk, Arlene Coffee, Alice Elste, Mary Joiner, Melvin Jones, Jackie Kelly, Jean Kononowitz, Herb Penmen, and Maureen Scherer.

I traveled thousands of miles doing research for the first edition. I visited hundreds of people and attended rituals at groves and covens across the United States and in England. Often I was housed and fed by strangers, who quickly became friends. Special thanks to Doris and Vic Stuart, Morgan McFarland, Mark Roberts, the Zell-Ravenhearts, Athena and Dagna, Gwydion Pendderwen, and my dear friend, the late Alison Harlow.

The Neo-Pagan journal Green Egg published my long questionnaire and I received hundreds of pages in response.

The second edition in 1986 would not have been possible without the help of Larry Cornett, Selena Fox, Christa Heiden, and Bob Murphy. I also received advice or help from Judy Harrow, Oz, Starhawk, Isaac Bonewits, Ginny Brubaker, and Doreen Valiente.

I handed out four hundred questionnaires at three Pagan festivals in 1985, for the 1986 revision, at Rites of Spring, COG MerryMeet, and Pagan Spirit Gathering. I also interviewed people at The Festival of Women's Spirituality. The questionnaire was also published in the Pagan journal Panegyria. One hundred and ninety-five responses arrived by hand or in the mail. For this newest 2006 edition, I conducted interviews at Rites of Spring and Pagan Spirit Gathering, and talked and corresponded with representatives of more than three hundred different groups—on the Internet, by phone, and by mail.

As for libraries and institutions, thanks to the Institute for the Study of American Religion and J. Gordon Melton; the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City; the C. G. Jung Foundation in New York and its library; and the New York Public Library, especially the Frederick Lewis Allen Room at the Library—a wonderful room for writers—where all editions but this one were written.

A special thanks goes to the late Mary Card—who taught twelve-year-olds at The City and Country School—a whole year devoted to ancient Greece. Without that experience, this journey might not have been taken. Thanks also to professor Gilbert Rose, who pro - vided me with the rudiments of the ancient Greek language in college, allowing my thoughts to continue in unusual directions.

And thanks to the group of women who meet every weekday at Juliano's coffee house, for keeping me sane.

This book has had several different publishers and many different editors during its four editions. Thanks to Edwin Kennebec, Alida Becker, Joanne Wycoff, and my newest editor at Penguin, Rakia Clark. And deepest thanks to Jane Rotrosen and Donald Cleary of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Here is the true story. It was a chance encounter in a bar that is most responsible for Drawing Down the Moon. A friend introduced me to an agent, Jane Rotrosen, way back in 1974. Her eyes got wide as I started to talk about my experiences with Pagans and Witches. “Have you ever thought about writing a book,” she asked? “No,” I said. I hadn't, and I added, “Unlike radio, the written word is so eternal.” Thank you, Jane—thirty-one years after that first meeting, here's the latest edition.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to the following publishers for permission to reprint excerpts: From Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, by Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., © 1973 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. By permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. From Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions, by Mircea Eliade, © 1976 University of Chicago. By permission of the University of Chicago Press. “The Occult and the Modern World” originally appeared in Journal of the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis, Vol. 1, No. 3, September 1974. From Edward J. Moody, “Magical Therapy: An Anthropological Investigation of Contemporary Satanism”; Marcello Truzzi, “Towards a Sociology of the Occult: Notes on Modern Witchcraft”; and Harriet Whitehead, “Reasonably Fantastic: Some Perspectives on Scientology, Science Fiction, and Occultism,” in Religious Movements in Contemporary America, eds. Irving J. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone, © 1974 by Princeton University Press. By permission of Princeton University Press. From Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt, by Norman Cohn, © 1975 by Norman Cohn. By permission of Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York. From An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present and Natural Magic by Doreen Valiente, © respectively 1973 and 1975 by Doreen Valiente. By permission of St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York. From Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, by George E. Mylonas, © 1961 by Princeton University Press. By permission of Princeton University Press. From “The Religious Background of the Present Environmental Crisis,” by Arnold Toynbee, originally published in The International Journal of Environmental Studies, 1972, Vol. III, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers Ltd., 41/42 William IV Street, London WC2, England. By permission of the publishers and the Estate of Professor Toynbee. From “The Witch Archetype,” by Ann Bedford Ulanov, originally published in Quadrant, Vol. X, No. 1, 1977. By permission of the C. J. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc., New York, NY. From “Witchcraft: Classical, Gothic and Neopagan,” by Isaac Bonewits, © 1976 by Green Egg, St. Louis, Missouri. From The Druid Chronicles (Evolved), ed. Isaac Bonewits, Berkeley Drunemeton Press, Berkeley, California, 1976. From Real Magic, by P. E. I. Bonewits, Creative Arts Book Company, © 1979 by P. E. I. Bonewits. From Green Egg, © 1968–1976 by Green Egg, St. Louis, Missouri. From Gnostica, © 1973–1975 by Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minnesota. From “The Rebirth of Witchcraft,” unpublished manuscript by Aidan Kelly, © 1977 by Aidan Kelly. From “Why a Craft Ritual Works,” “Palengenesia,” and “She Touched Me . . .” in Essays Toward a Metatheology of the Goddess, by C. Taliesin Edwards (Aidan Kelly), © 1975 by C. Taliesin Edwards. From “I.D.,” poem by Barbara Starrett, © 1974 by Barbara Starrett. Frontispiece illustraxx ) Drawing Down the Moon

 

 

tion by permission of the Art and Architectural Division of the New York Pub lic Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation).

A Note on Names and Language

A number of those whose names appear within are using “Craft” or “Pagan” names instead of their given names. This may be for reasons of job security, because of the community in which they live, or because, for any one of a number of reasons, they do not wish to be “public” about their religion. Their wishes have been honored.

Throughout the book I do not use “man,” “mankind,” or “he” as generic terms. At the present time these terms mean “male” rather than being truly generic. Many of those I quote do use these terms and their quotes are left intact. There are also several quotations that contain words with intentionally unconventional spellings, such as “womin” and “thealogy.”

—PLATO,
Gorgias