The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

Awens to All:

Got to pick up a copy of ‘The Triumph of the Moon’ from the Library this morning and started reading it.

It is 417 Pages with 20 Chapters with Very Small Print. So it is somewhat difficult to Read.

The Preface chronicles his Motivations for writing the Book and I found it has the similar Rhetoric that I have always found in similar such Books that I have read before such as Essential Guide to Druidism by Bonewits or Bobcat’s Living With Honour.

The Acknowledgements state that there are several Chapters that are actually written by several different Paganistic Scholars none of whom I have ever heard of before. So I am eager to read those Chapters to get their Insights & Views.

Chapter #1 is called ‘Find A Language with Chapters 1 to 5 chronicling the views of a Stave Wilson & Caroline Wise.

So Chapter #1 starts off by telling how an 18th Century Fiction Author by the name of R.M.Ballantyne and about his Book ‘The Coral Island’ in which the Protagonist finds himself stranded on a South Pacific Island with Heathenistic Cannibals who are constantly Threatening His Life.

It tells how the Story ends with a Hero Missionary showing up, converting the Heathenistic Cannibals to Christianity upon making Good Peaceful Christians out of the Heathens, succeeding in saving the Protagonist’s Life.

The way Hutton describes ‘The Coral Island’ it sounds that he does not have a very good Opinion of Coral Island, so I shant bother getting or reading this Book.

Hutton then points out how the Europeans, with their Advanced Innovations such as Metal Working, Guns and Big Ships, caused the Natives to think that it would be best to abandon their Cultures to appease the God of these Sophisticated Newcomers in order to get hold of these Neat New Innovations.

I found that Chapter #1 relates similar Nature Worshipping Philosophies of several Known Philosophers & Scholars in much the same way as Bobcat does in various Chapters of her Book ‘Living With Honour’.

But I have found nothing overly new or too Earth Shattering being revealed in Chapter #1.

Chapter #2 is called ‘Finding The Goddess’.

3X3

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

Chapter #2 is called ‘Finding The Goddess”.

Hutton goes into how the Earliest Worship of Deity was of the Divine Feminine and goes into how the Earliest Religious Artifacts were usually Feminine Shaped Statuettes. Hutton then describes various Pantheons of the Devine Feminine and those Deities such as the Maiden, the Mother & the Crone are well known to Modern Pagans.

Chapter #3 is called ‘Finding The God’ and the First Page chronicles the Roman Gods such as Jupiter, Neptune and Vulcan but then the rest of the Chapter is all about the Main God of the Celtic Anglo Saxons which is the Pan Goat God and how Pan was Venerated by our Celtic Ancient Ancestors. Pan is Well Known to Modern Pagans and is Highly Venerated. I am actually Amazed that there was No Mention of the Greenman God which is one of my Favorite Forms of the Masculine Deity.

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

Chapter #4 is called ‘Finding the Structure’ and is mainly about Secret Societies mainly about the Freemasons and their Paganistic Traditions.

Hutton writes that they have a Tradition of the Sacred Quarters but is somewhat different that what Modern Pagans hold for their Sacred Quarters. The Masonic East represents Wisdom, the West represents Strength and South represents Beauty. For some reason, the Masons take North as a Dark Forbidden Realm to be Shunned.

Chapter #4 points out that it is from the Ritualism of the Freemasons that various other Societies Function. There is the Function of some Societies such as the Order of the Shoemakers Union as they have similar Recruitment Methods, Initiations or Ordeals and then Oaths of Secrecy.

Hutton refers to a couple of such Organizations in this Chapter that operate with such Social Contracts but does not (for some reason) include mentioning Military Legion Service Clubs.

Chapter #5 is called ‘Finding The High Magic’ and it basically chronicles how Mind Control Magic was created and how it has spread through the Grimoires of various Paganistic Magi Scholars.

It goes on about how some Paganistic Leaders have good Mind Control Abilities and that reminded me of how there are nobody amongst Humanity who has better Mind Control Abilities than Despotic Dictators who are able to get People of their Country’s Governments to do what they want.

I did find that Hutton does go on about the Spiritual Significance of the Sacred Pentagram Symbol quite a bit in this particular Chapter.

Hutton states that the Date of Revival of Modern British Ritual Magic in about 1867 by a group of Freemasons who called themselves the Societa Roscrasians’. I had never heard of that and that does predate the Philosophies of The Aliester Crowley who I had thought was the Founder of such things.

Hutton also expounds on how the Famed mystic Madame Blavatsky had contributed to such Magical Philosophies. This Chapter also goes into the Histories of the Order of the Golden Dawn and a couple of Colleagues of Madame Blavatsky who I had never heard of called Samuel Liddell & Anna Kingsford.

Chapter #6 is called ‘Finding The Low Magic’ and it Chronicles the Historical Stories of a couple of dozen Wise & Powerful Paganistic Divinatory Artists and Healers and tells of their Books & Libraries.

Once again, I had never heard of any of these Pagan Practitioners and of their Sacred Magics & Crafts but it mainly goes over the Story of Dr. Owen Davies who travelled about England giving out Magical Exorcisms or Dispelling Evil Magic and how Owen Davies had chronicled the Stories of the various Paganistic Practitioners mentioned in this Chapter. Also mentioned in their Chapter is James Murrell of Essex.

So many Mystics and their Libraries are mentioned in this Chapter that I was not surprised to find Michel Nostradamus being mentioned as well as many others.

Chapter #6 also goes into Bewitching Healing Magic and that most Wiccan Pagans worked Solitarily but sometimes had met in Groups mainly on Midsummers Eve. Hutton does mention that the Term ‘Coven’ was created by Modern Pagans.

On Pages #101 & #102, Hutton does go on about how Christianity does have it’s own forms of Paganistic Style Magic.

Then Hutton tells of how some Paganistic Families had tried to hand down their Paganistic Traditions to their Children down through Family Trees only to Fail. That reminded me of how things Failed in the Family Tree of the Imperial Russian Romanov Family which Tragically Ended in 1917 thus explaining how such Monarchies usually end up Failing after being Founded by a Talented Ancestor Monarch.

Then Hutton writes of how certain Paganistic Witches would charge Fees for their Nature or Divinatory Magics siting certain Individuals and how much they would Charge for their Services.

This is followed by Hutton telling of the Legalities of the Paganism and of the Witchcraft Act of 1736 followed by several Stories of how certain Fraudsters who charged Fraudulent Fees where caught and put in Jail under the 1736 Act.

Book is now about 1/3rd Read through.

3X3

[DowrgiParticipant]

Once again, I had never heard of any of these Pagan Practitioners and of their Sacred Magics & Crafts

All over Britain and Ireland there were longstanding traditions of ‘cunningfolk’, ‘white witches’ (a more modern term), ‘toadmen’, the Society of Horsemen and so on. In Cornwall, the cunningfolk were known as ‘pellars’ (the etymology of which is debated). Their ‘magick’ was usually a blend of folk tradition, folk Christianity, and older underlying superstitions and beliefs, the origins of which are lost in the mists of time.

Re the Witchcraft Act of 1735, this is often misunderstood as a law against witchcraft per se. In actual fact, this act basically stated that there was no such thing as witchcraft and magic and anyone professing to practise it was a charlatan or fraudster. The last people to be charged under the act were accused in the 1940s. The act itself was repealed by the the Fraudulent Mediums Act (1951) – repealed in 2008 – with a number of prosecutions and convictions between the 1950s and 1990s.

Bennathow,
/|\

[DowrgiParticipant]

Main God of the Celtic Anglo Saxons which is the Pan Goat God and how Pan was Venerated by our Celtic Ancient Ancestors. Pan is Well Known to Modern Pagans and is Highly Venerated. I am actually Amazed that there was No Mention of the Greenman God which is one of my Favorite Forms of the Masculine Deity.

I’m not sure that’s accurate. The main deity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes, pre-Christianisation, was Woden/Wotan (Odin). The Celtic peoples didn’t have a ‘main god’ or pantheon that can readily be compared to those of Greece and Rome; however, the underlying theme in the traditions and later folklore of the Celtic peoples seem to centre on a divine father, divine mother, and divine child – repetitions of this theme being found in later literature.

As for the Green Man, loath as I am to be iconoclastic, the evidence for an ancient, European, and pagan origin of the Green Man – from an historical and empirical perspective – is scant. It seems more likely that the Green Man has roots in mediaeval Christian allegory, and the notion that the Green Man represents a pre-Christian pagan belief only dates from the work of Lady Raglan in the late 1930s. Ronald Hutton, in his Gresham College lectures (2023), posits an Indian origin for the Green Man, arriving, I presume, along the spice and silk routes into Europe during the Middle Ages.

Bennathow,
/|\

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Dowrgi.

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

For some reason, my next installment on Chapters 7, 8 & 9 brings on that annoying ‘Your reply cannot be created at this time’ Error Message.

But to Dowgi – One thing is for sure, Hutton does going on about the Pan Goat God quite a bit and does another few Pages on Pan in Chapter #9 over again.

Go Figure.

3X3

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

One thing I found in Chapter #9 is the Information about the ‘Order of the Woodcraft Chivalry’ which was created by a Pagan named ‘Seton’.

Started in 1900 and by 1906 had become quite Popular and he meetup with Lord Baden-Powell and they both put together the First Boy Scout Organization. But by WW1, Seton did not like the Pro-British Militarism of Baden-Powell’s Boy Scout Movement so split back off to carry on with his Pro Peace Youth Group.

And Hutton goes on about the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn so much that I had a look at their Website to find out more about them. And Hutton also makes a lot of reference to the Book ‘The Golden Bough’ by James George Fraser. Maybe I should see if that is available in my Library and check it out to have a read on that.

3X3

[DowrgiParticipant]

And Hutton goes on about the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn so much that I had a look at their Website to find out more about them.

The original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was dissolved in 1903. There have a been a number of ‘revivals’, although the ‘lineage’ had more or disappeared by the 1970s.

And Hutton also makes a lot of reference to the Book ‘The Golden Bough’ by James George Fraser.

The Golden Bough makes for an interesting read, and is certainly written in fine, grand, Victorian prose, but much of the theory and basic premise of the work have been challenged and, at best, are rather dated.

Bennathow,
/|\

[DowrgiParticipant]

Although Pan may have influenced mediaeval depictions of the Devil, his true cultural revival emerged in the 19th-20th centuries. As industrialisation advanced and urban life grew increasingly monotonous, Pan came to symbolise a Romantic longing for an Arcadian past in an idyllic world of nature and wildness. Writers such as Arthur Machen, E. M. Forster, Kenneth Grahame, and Saki all used Pan to explore themes of mystery, sensuality, and rebellion against the mechanised modern age. In their hands, Pan became a figure of both terror and liberation, embodying the tension between civilisation and the primal forces of nature.

Bennathow,
/|\

[DowrgiParticipant]

Interestingly, I believe that Pan was the only deity of Graeco-Roman tradition whose death was ‘announced’. According to Plutarch in De Defectu Oraculorum (On the Failure of Oracles), an Egyptian sailor named Thamus, while sailing near Paxos, heard a mysterious voice instructing him to proclaim: ‘The great god Pan is dead!’ Upon so doing, at Palodes, a chorus of unseen mourners erupted from the shore. Some have interpreted this as symbolic of the decline of paganism, and some early Christian writers even linked it to the birth of Christ. Yet other scholars have suggested that the sailor may have actually misheard a lament for the dying god Adonis – mistaking it for a divine message. Curious all the same.

Bennathow,
/|\

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

Since my Posts about my Readings of ‘Triumph of the Moon’ will not Post onto these Thread, I found a YouTube of Ronald Hutton doing a Lecture which is actually about much of what Hutton covers in ‘Triumph of the Moon’. So this YouTube is a Good Watch for getting some of what he covers in his Book:

3X3

[DowrgiParticipant]

I’m just replying to this to help Dave out – Dave, you may be able to reply once someone else has posted in the thread.

Bennathow,
/|\

[Dave TheDruid-3X3Participant]

Here is another YouTube that goes on about Pan which is the Main Subject of Chapter #3 ‘Finding The God’.

Here it is:

3X3

[Author]

Posts