I recently began reading The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. It’s been on my shelf for years, but I’ve only just picked it up in preparation for reviewing Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon.

Edited by Dave Evans and Dave Green, Ten Years is a collection of academic essays inspired by Hutton’s groundbreaking work. Hidden Publishing provided me with a copy for review, but of course this necessitates first reading Triumph. And so here we are.

I’m finding it a fascinating read, and certainly as important as the hype that surrounds it has suggested. At the moment I’m still in the pre-Pagan stages of its history, covering the Golden Dawn and high magick, and this particular quip from Hutton seems a rather accurate summation of how magick is often approached:

Traditional scholarly magic was at basis an elaborate way of ringing for room service.

The reference is in regards to the Holy Guardian Angel, commanding spirits and demons, and much of the ritual work that was reintroduced in the occult revival at the turn of the last century.

It struck me that work with the Goetia hasn’t change substantially since that time, and, for good or ill, certainly many people seem to treat their HGA experiences this way.

How relevant is this observation today? In seeking experiences with entities outside ourselves, are we only “ringing for room service”?

Back in August I posted about My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, a new musical I’d heard about that debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival earlier in the summer.

It had just been announced that Mirvish was going to host a production of it at the Panasonic Theatre in November, and that I simply must see it based on the name alone.

November came, and indeed I did go to see it. And I’m surprised to say it was genuinely awesome and I loved it.

MMLJWW is narrated by David Hein, the co-author along with his wife Irene Carl Sankoff, and is based on the true story of how Hein’s moms got together.

Hein’s mother Claire (played by Lisa Horner) was an atheist who came out to her son is as a lesbian after falling in love with Jane (Rosemary Doyle), a Wiccan. Claire later comes out a second time to her son, this time as a Jew. It’s funny and it’s clever, but it’s also sensitive and genuinely touching. Continue reading »

Hidden Publishing has just released a new book edited by Dr Dave Evans and Dave Green, Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon.

Can you believe it’s already been ten years since Ronald Hutton first published The Triumph of the Moon?

Ten Years is “a collection of researches inspired by, deriving from or just celebrating the immense impact of [Hutton's] seminal book”. From the website:

The topics cover many historical periods, many academic disciplines and it provides a wealth of information of use to academic scholar and interested freelance reader alike. Includes an extended essay by Ronald Hutton on the history of such scholarship, the state of it today and some of his thoughts for the future.

I haven’t been able to locate a contributor list, but it’s suggested that there are “big names” and “those newer to the field” who collectively bring “nearly two centuries of hands-on pagan research experience between them”. Which sounds kind of impressive.