A Witch's Bible

I view the woman pictured above as the true mother of the modern witchcraft movement. Her name is Margaret Murray, a British athropologist of the 20th century. It was her theories of a pan-European Witch-Cult that gave birth to the revival of witchcraft in England. She was the one who inspired people to form 20th century covens and attempt to reconstruct the theoretical witch religion. Although today her hypothesis has been disputed and discredited, it laid the foundations for Wicca as it developed from the 1930s onward.

Margaret was born in 1863 and gained prominence as an Egyptologist. She was also an ardent feminist, actively involved in the Suffragette movement. During a period in which she was unable to do field work in Egypt, she began to investigate the witch trials of early modern Europe. She published her thesis, Witch Cult in Western Europe, in 1921. In this she presented the ground breaking idea that the witch trials represented the persecution of a rival pagan religion. Based on the evidence aquired through torturing suspected witches into confession, she surmised that a secretive pagan religion, worshipping a Horned God, had been widespread throughout early modern Europe.

Although other historians dismissed her ideas, they were a source of inspiration among various occultists and mystics in Britain. Margaret's series of publications lay out the foundations upon which Wicca could be built. Gerald Gardner was one of the individuals in 1930s England who sought to bring the Witch Cult to life.

Now after more than 70 years of development, we are at a point where Wicca has evolved into a popular counter-culture religion of the Western world. With 70 years of research and study under our collective belts, or witch-garters, it is time to look Margaret Murray in the eye. Her hypothesis was exciting, but ultimately flawed. We cannot avoid examining the details and realising that what we once thought was a solid history is now simply a mythology.

We are in the same boat as Christian who look at their Old Testament and are forced to admit that the texts are not historically accurate. Modern Christians read the Old Testament as a series of metaphores, poetic fables that convey subtle meanings. Of course there are those close minded Christians who insist that their Bible in 100% historically accurate. There are also Wiccans who insist that Margaret's hypothesis was 100% accurate. But is admitting that the religion is based on fiction rather than fact really such a threat to its existence? Just as a Christian can have faith in their god without having a literal interpretation of the Bible, so can we have faith in our gods without accepting the Witch-Cult hypothesis as fact. There is no reason to turn our noses up at ruthless historical accuracy. We must admit to the mistakes of the past and move into further progression and understanding.

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