"Wicca Magickal Beginnings" by Sorita d'Este and David Rankine

Avalonia Books 2208
ISBN 978-1-905297-15-3

This is an excellent book, set to become a classic that will be found on every Wiccan's bookshelf, alongside The Triumph of the Moon: a history of Modern Pagan Witchcraft and Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration. The authors work methodically through every major aspect of Wiccan liturgy, comparing all possible sources and showing where it all comes from. They state in the Preface that “our preconceptions were constantly challenged as we explored the origins of the practices and beliefs from different angles in order to find possible solutions to the question of when and where the tradition may have originated.” Nor did they shirk from exploring ideas that might be seen as uncomfortable in some quarters, such as the modern origins of some ideas and the ancient provenance of some others, and even the sources of ideas in the Christian tradition.

At times the book is unputdownable because it is like following a detective story. The authors leave no stone unturned in their quest for the origins and parallels of Wiccan practices. They also consider hypotheses put forward by previous authors about the origins of Wicca.

There is only one annoying thing about this book: the insistence on spelling magic with a 'k', even in quotes from people who didn't spell it that way. I know all the arguments for spelling it that way, but I can work out whether magic means conjuring or ceremonial from the context.

Another tiny quibble is with the statement about Margaret Murray that “some scholars have repudiated her work”; actually just about every anthropologist, historian, ethnographer and sociologist has repudiated her work, her methods, and the school of ethnography that she represented. However, it is certainly true that her ideas have spread well beyond their intended audience and had a huge influence on the growth of Wicca, and as such are interesting from the point of view of the history of culture.

In their final chapter, the authors point out that the evidence simply does not support Murray's hypothesis that the witch-cult was a survival from a tradition of European witchcraft with its roots in classical Greece and Rome.

I think by now that the vast majority of Wiccans have accepted that the initiatory lineage of Wicca started either with Gerald Gardner or his immediate predecessors; Ronald Hutton's classic work Triumph of the Moon showed the cultural and historical currents which led to the Pagan revival in general and Wicca in particular; Philip Heselton's excellent research in Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration traced the possible origins of Wicca as an initiatory lineage back to the 1920s at the earliest.

However, what has not been comprehensively explored until now is the sources of the liturgy of Wicca found in Gardner's Book(s) of Shadows. The authors go through each of the key texts and concepts of Wicca (calling the quarters, consecrating water and salt, The Charge of the Goddess, and its predecessor Lift up the veil, cakes and wine, Drawing Down the Moon, the Wheel of the Year, and so on) and examine their sources in liturgy, magic and literature, as well as parallel traditions in grimoire, ceremonial and folk magic. What I find particularly interesting is, that in spite of the vast array of sources from which the Wiccan liturgy was cobbled together, it still retains a stylistic coherence.

The bibliography is most impressive and the text is comprehensively referenced throughout, enabling interested readers to conduct further research into the many fascinating aspects of the sources of Wicca.

Did you know, for instance, that in the Mediterranean, a black-handled knife was used (together with the opening words of the Gospel of John) to quell storms by cutting them up into little bits? Or that Alex Sanders was particularly fascinated by the Archangel Michael?

At the end of the book the authors compare five possible hypotheses for the origins of Wicca, giving the arguments for and against each one, and drawing what is really the most sensible conclusion in the light of all the evidence. I shall not reveal which of the five they selected, as that would spoil the suspense of the detective story!

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, and I strongly recommend it to everyone with an interest in the real origins of Wicca.