When Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon hit bookstores in 1999 something changed in British Pagan culture. It was immediate. Someone known to be friendly and spiritually sympathetic had put us on the academic map, and shown Pagans we have a rightful place in Britain’s cultural history. The book was eloquent and magisterial, linking Pagan ideas to literature, social justice, liberalism and the broad cultural avenue of western esotericism. The book drew young Pagans who were intellectually gifted to want to study Pagan-related subjects at universities for Masters and doctorate degrees.
![Exeter University Lopes Hall [Photo Credit: Smalljim via Wikimedia]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Lopes_Hall_Exeter_University_2011-500x245.jpg)
Exeter University Lopes Hall [Photo Credit: Smalljim via Wikimedia]
Now there’s a quiet crisis going on. The Exeter programme closed down with the death of Goodrick-Clarke in 2012, and there has been no replacement programme of its calibre for those taking an historical approach. I spoke to several scholars who asked for anonymity on where they saw the future of the Pagan and esoteric scholarship in the UK. These insider sources report that senior academics, who care deeply about Western esotericism including its pagan heritage, have held private meetings with more than one institution to find a home for a programme to replace Exeter. So far nothing has come to fruit.
It is no secret that there are plenty of first-tier scholars of international standing who could (and would) teach on such a programme. It is also apparent to everyone that the students are there. In fact, there is something of a tidal wave, particularly art history and intellectual history. Esotericism conferences hosted by Cambridge graduate students Daniel Zamani and Imma Ramos in 2012 (Charming Intentions) and 2014 (Visions of Enchantment) were oversubscribed in excess of five times what they expected. Both had submissions from senior scholars around the world seeking to participate.
London is an obvious place to situate a scholarly hub, because it is the most accessible common point in Britain – all roads and trains lead to London. It is also handy for European centres of esoteric academic study like Amsterdam, Paris, Goteburg and Turin. Among my sources, the name of The Warburg Institute keeps coming up as the dream site. It is a place that is dear to the hearts of many who have never even been permitted inside its walls.
The Warburg is a research institute and library founded in 1944 by Aby Warburg, a Jewish scholar of intellectual esotericism. Based within the University of London, it was headed by Frances Yates, a scholar of occultism, for decades in the mid 20th century. She argued that ‘the occult’ was culturally significant in the Renaissance period. Subsequent leaders, however, distanced the place from the esoteric tradition, often using condemnation and even ridicule. But even so, it is still loved by British Pagans of an intellectual bent.
![The Warburg Institute [Stephen McKay via Wikimedia Commons]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Warburginst-500x375.jpg)
The Warburg Institute [Stephen McKay via Wikimedia Commons]
Of course all does not hang upon this, as other centres are holding strong. A history of astrology and astronomy Masters degree is offered at the University of Wales, and an MA in Cosmology of the Sacred is now at Kent. There are also individual scholars who are working solitary in departments of all disciplines from history to literature to anthropology. Within the British graduate school system, a student studies under a single professor and researches independently without attending courses. Therefore, a student simply needs to find a sympathetic professor with a compatible interest, and then work under their direction. Ronald Hutton supervises in this way, for example, in Bristol’s History department. Young scholars in this system can develop, even without ‘esoteric’ or ‘pagan’ programmes. But a university-based centre would make a difference for the academics of all ages and levels, as well as grad students. Centres are both a statement and a forum.
Intellectual Pagans in Britain are watching the situation closely. They have a sense that the time is so ripe that something has to happen soon. Since Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon, those who have an academic bent and have Pagan affinities have started taking their place, slowly but surely, in the world of letters, and it feels like the next chapter is about to unfold – everyone is curious about where, and when.
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After gaining my Bachelor’s degree in Mental Health and Human Services, I searched in vain to find similar programs here in the US. We would be fortunate to ever have this happen in the US. There is one place that I know of that provides this service and It has Professor Hutton’s support, but they are not recognized by the government as a scholarly institution. No surprise there. Therefore, unless they gain their proper recognition, I can not attend because I lack the financial resources.
Have a look at Cherry Hill Seminary if you’re in the states. I’m tempted to travel out for a year or two to complete one of their courses.
That is the school I was talking about. I have been following their development since 2007.
I wonder if qualifications obtained would be retrospectively given accredited status when it happens?
I know that they are recently allowing Pagan ministers as chaplains in the US military and one college in NY has a Pagan minister. Other than that I’m not sure. I’m sure there would be more developments opening if things went that way.
You might also want to check out some of Unitarian Universalist seminaries. I’m sure one prolific pagan blogger was awarded an MDiv through this route.
That is a good idea. I will look into that, thank you.
Some more info here – http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2014/08/pagan-priests-pagan-ministers.html
Good luck!
I read this article already and I am a required reporter. I am ordained and I have a degree that demands it. I just don’t have the MDiv title.
The last thing we need is any more scholars like Hutton or Goodrick-Clarke. Hutton made his mark by giving a scholarly veneer to the old Christian triumphalist claim that it is impossible for modern Pagans to claim any genuine religious continuity with ancient Paganism. Even worse was Goodrick-Clarke, who devoted his career to legitimizing the Big Lie that the “roots of Nazism” lie in Pagan and Occult ideas and traditions.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree. In order for Paganism to become a more “legitimate” religion, it needs to have scholars. I have never heard of the “Big Lie” before, but after reading and researching things related to the Nazi’s for over 25 years, there is truth to Goodrick-Clarke’s claim. That is the unfortunate part for those who follow Heathenism. Most Asatru practitioners obviously do not follow the Nazi ideas, but this was the foundation of the Nazi’s, especially the SS branch.
Neither Asatru nor any other form of Heathenry or Paganism had any influence whatsoever on the fundamental ideology of Nazism. And this is especially true when it comes to the racist and antisemitic ideas at the core of Nazi ideology. In the first place, the racism and antisemitism of the Nazis were “rooted” not in ancient Paganism (or Occultism) but in modern and mainstream ideas that were widely shared by tens of millions of people throughout Europe at the time. In the second place, the only religion that had any significant influence on Nazism, and the one and only religion that the Nazis ever promoted, was Christianity.
The need for the Christian West to pawn off complicity for the atrocities of the Nazis stems, in my mind, from their inability to own up to how destructive and murderous their own history has been from the moment they seized political power. ‘Eeeeeeeevil Paganism’ provides a convenient scapegoat that lets Christians think, “See, we never had anything to do with that! It was all just a resurgence of paganism.”
I mean, it’s really not hard to see how 1,500+ years of Christian hatred of Jews could have led to a Christian state attempting to commit genocide against them, especially once added with some modern ‘scientific’ racism to provide further justification.
Yes. And the application of industrial methodology to genocide.
And also the earliest glimmerings of computer technology. The Nazis used computer punch cards to keep track of the personal belongings (and even the gold from the teeth and hair and the skin) of those sent to the death camps.
IBM willing profited fro selling the Nazis that technology So did a variety of other American corporations. America also knew of the Nazi atrocities and did nothing to help the German Jews, even sending back a ship load of the them that fled Germany and came to America seeking Asylum. Becoming friends of the Jews only came after the war. I a sure the Israeli know better than the trust the United States.
Nicely put.
It is obvious from your response that you are certain of your ideas and that it was all because of the Christians. All I can say is that when we had direct conflicts with the Christians, we did things that were no better than them. For example, the Druid’s participated in cannibalization when they were under siege by the Romans. I know many Pagans believe they are better than the Christians and vis-a-versa. I am a ordained Pagan minister and practitioner for more than 25 years and I have never felt that I was any better than any other person in any other religious belief system.
I don’t think the issue is one of Christians being inherently evil and Pagans being above such things. The issue is that Christians who regularly link National Socialism with modern Pagan religions are grossly distorting historical fact. The antisemitism which became a core and driving principle of the Nazi movement was drawn from many centuries of Christian religious and cultural tradition in Europe. There is simply no factual way around that. The Holocaust didn’t happen because those same Christians just decided they wanted to exceed themselves in evil one day. It happened in the context of wounded German nationalism, catastrophic economic conditions, weak civic institutions and democracy and skilled opportunists who were prepared to exploit the situation to the hilt.
Neopagan symbolism was nothing more than a bit of window dressing for Nazi ideology. There was no revival of Heathenry or any other Paganism as an operative religion. The Nazi party strongly encouraged membership in Catholic or Protestant churches, and Hitler cast his beliefs in terms of “Positive Christianity.” The propagandists and academics of the movement glommed onto Pagan symbolism and a mostly fabricated historical narrative in order to try to construct a new mythology around Nazi ideals. It was especially valued by the SS as a way of forging group idenitity.
They did find support for theories of racial superiority and antisemitism within 19th and early 20th Century occultism such as Blavatsky’s nonsense about Atlantis, “root races” and the supposed spiritual and mental superiority of some branches of “Aryans” over others. Those ideas were not rooted in ancient European Pagan cultures. They were the conventional wisdom of modern anti-Semitism laid over modern occult thinking.
Thank you for your post. This is what I kept trying to get at but kept missing. I just didn’t want to do the long post such as you have.
I am not sure what kind of satisfaction you derive from claiming to be no better than those who aided, abetted and inspired the rise of the Third Reich. But I would encourage you to set your sights somewhat higher. Perhaps you are, right now, no better then them, but shouldn’t you strive to be become so? Don’t you believe that it is possible?
That the Nazis promoted Christianity is simply a historical fact. It is also a fact that Paganism was explicitly rejected in favor of Christianity by both Hitler himself in Mein Kampf and also Alfred Rosenberg, the chief “intellectual” architect of Nazi race theory.
I was not referring to the Third Reich specifically. I was just referring to any other religion in general.
Fascinating article. I hope the program finds a home soon.
Thanks for the fine post. I think the real breakthrough moments came with the two earlier conferences. ‘Paganism Today’, held in Newcastle in 1993, attracted academics and Pagans (and Pagan academics!) from across the UK, whereas ‘Nature Religions Today’, held in the Lake District in 1996, attracted academics and Pagans from further afield (pretty much everybody who was anybody!). Professor Hutton contributed to both, and his later book, ‘Triumph of the Moon’, built on the changing mood, and connected more widely with the particular Wiccan perspective.
The Exeter MA course was very good, and I enjoyed it greatly, but we should perhaps remember that overlaps between Western Esotericism and Paganism are strongest in Wicca, and taper out to nothing in other areas of Paganism. Indeed, this is somewhat tied up with how Heathenry and other polytheists in the Anglosphere are slowly beginning to edge out from under the Pagan umbrella. The pace of wider change is hard to predict, but I would have thought that there will be room for multiple perspectives.
No doubt London is the centre of the universe for all Londoners, and I love it dearly, but let’s consider there are many other accessible locations in England, to say nothing of the other nations of Britain. 🙂