Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld
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 The first edition cover of the book | |
| Author | Susan Greenwood |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Anthropology of religion Pagan studies |
| Publisher | Berg Publishers |
Publication date | 2000 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 235 |
| ISBN | 978-1-85973-445-2 |
Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology is an anthropological study of contemporary Pagan and ceremonial magic groups that practiced magic in London, England, during the 1990s. It was written by English anthropologist Susan Greenwood based upon her doctoral research undertaken at Goldsmiths' College, a part of the University of London, and first published in 2000 by Berg Publishers.
Greenwood became involved in the esoteric movement during the 1980s as a practitioner of a feminist form of Wicca. Devoting her doctorate to the subject, her research led her to join Kabbalistic orders and two Wiccan covens, during which she emphasised that she was both an "insider" (a practising occultist) and an "outsider" (an anthropological observer). Reacting against the work of Tanya Luhrmann, who had authored the primary anthropological study of the London occult scene, Persuasions of the Witch's Craft (1989), Greenwood argued against studying magical beliefs from a western rationalist perspective, instead adopting a theoretical approach informed by phenomenology and relativism. Greenwood's research focused on Pagan and magical conceptions of the "otherworld". The book's first chapter summarises the Pagan magical conception of the otherworld, and subsequent chapters detail Greenwood's experiences with Kabbalistic magic and Wicca. The work goes on to discuss issues of psychotherapy and healing, gender and sexuality, and morality and ethics within London's esoteric community, and the manner in which the community's members' views on these issues are influenced by their beliefs regarding an otherworld.
Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld was reviewed by various figures involved in both academia and the Pagan community including Douglas Ezzy and Phil Hine. Greenwood herself would go on to author several other books on the relationship between magic and anthropology.
Anthropological fieldwork into Paganism
Prior to Greenwood's work, several academic researchers working in the field of Pagan studies had published investigations of the Pagan community in the United States and the United Kingdom. First among these was the practicing Wiccan, journalist and political activist Margot Adler in her Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, published by Viking Press in 1979.[1] A second study was produced by anthropologist Tanya M. Luhrmann in Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (1989), in which she focused on a Wiccan coven and several ceremonial magic orders based in London.[2] Sociologist Allen Scarboro, psychologist Nancy Campbell and Wiccan literary critic Shirley Stave undertook fieldwork in the Ravenwood coven of Atlanta, Georgia, over several months across 1990 and 1991 as the basis for Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven, published by Praeger in 1994,[3] while anthropologist and Wiccan Loretta Orion investigated the Pagan movement in the East Coast and Midwest of the U.S. for Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited, published by Waveland Press in 1995.[4] 1997 saw the publication of Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia, authored by anthropologist Lynne Hume.[5]
Greenwood and her research
"This is a study of certain ideas, philosophies, practices and groups within the Western esoteric tradition in the last decade of the twentieth century. I explore, through issues concerning magical identity, gender, and morality, aspects of what magicians term the 'otherworld'."
As a child, Greenwood had found a greater spiritual connection with the natural world than with organised religion.[6] During the late 1970s, she embraced second-wave feminism and came across feminist forms of Pagan Witchcraft through Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark (1982).[6] Attracted to this new religious movement, she undertook an undergraduate degree in anthropology and sociology at Goldsmiths' College, where her final year research project focused on women's spirituality. Exploring the topic in further depth, she devoted a PhD to the subject, thereby conducting the research underpinning Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld.[6]
Although initially planning to gather data through formal taped interviews with participants, she rejected this method, believing it solidified her "outsider" status among the subculture she was studying. Instead, her data was collected through informal conversations with practitioners, during which she tried to make clear that she was an anthropologist and would use their comments in her work.[7] Over the course of her research, Greenwood gained many friends within the city's Pagan community, and became sexually and emotionally attached to one magician.[7] Greenwood's research was funded using grants from the University of London Central Research Fund and from the Economic and Social Research Council.[8] She devoted the published work to her children, Adrian and Lauren.[8]
Synopsis
Chapter one describes contemporary Paganism and defines "the otherworld". It discusses London's magical and Pagan subculture in the 1990s, and Greenwood's relationship with it. Admitting to being an "insider", she explores her mixed feelings at being both a practicing Pagan and an anthropological observer.[9] The second chapter examines the community's conceptions of the otherworld, explaining how they approach it through acts of visualisation and altered states of consciousness and their understandings of it as a realm of spiritual energy connected to dreams and the imagination. Discussing the relationship between anthropology and magic, Greenwood argues that it is impossible for anthropologists to truly understand beliefs regarding magic and the otherworld if they only view it through a western rationalist lens, instead arguing for a phenomenological or relativist perspective that accepts alternative views of the world.[10]
In her third chapter, Greenwood examines her experiences among London's ceremonial magicians, focusing on her training in the Hermetic Qabalah, a "magical language" for exploring the otherworld. Adopting Luhrmann's concept of "interpretative drift", she relates how she shifted her understanding of events to make sense of her magical experiences. However, in contrast to Luhrmann's emphasis on how practitioners overcame their initial scepticism, Greenwood focuses on how these practitioners learn "the language of another mode of reality" through their experiences.[11] Chapter four details Greenwood's early involvement in Wicca, through three separate covens. Offering her thoughts on Wiccan invocations, she then discusses the faith's approach to sexual polarity, pointing to the sexual underpinnings of the Great Rite and the Gnostic Mass as evidence. The chapter is rounded off with an explanation of how Wicca understands the natural world and a comparison between the religion and ceremonial magic.[12]
Chapter five examines the attraction of magic for its practitioners, and its uses for psychotherapy and healing. Greenwood explores the ways in which occultists use magic as a rebellion against Christianity, and their construction of a "magical identity", believing this to be "organized around a deep internal exploration of the self through an interaction with the otherworld". She also looks at magic and the acquisition of power, and the sense of empowerment discovered by magicians who were former abuse victims.[13] The sixth chapter focuses on notions of gender and sexuality, highlighting the widespread belief that sexual energy provides the power behind magic and discussing the contrasting views of Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley on this issue; the former emphasised harmony and balance between "masculine" and "feminine" magical forces, while the latter advocated "magical anarchy" or spiritual autonomy for each individual, irrespective of gender. Greenwood looks at contrasting views on these issues in High Magic (ceremonial magic), Wicca and Feminist Witchcraft. Drawing upon the typologies advocated by sociologist of religion Susan J. Palmer, she argues that High Magic emphasises "sex polarity", a situation in which men and women are seen as unequal and different, whereas Wicca holds to a position of "sex complementarity", in which men and women are seen as different yet equal, and Feminist Witchcraft advocates "sex unity", in which there is a tolerance of sexual ambiguity.[14]
Chapter seven deals with conceptions of morality and ethics, arguing that whereas High Magic typically envisions a dualistic world view of good versus evil, Wicca adheres to a monistic worldview in which malevolence and benevolence are seen as intrinsic parts of the whole. Disagreeing with Luhrmann's view that morality's place in the occult is to hide the pseudo-scientific nature of magic, Greenwood discusses how magic and witchcraft developed in Europe as a part of moral discourse. She looks at the internal source of morality in High Magic, explaining concepts such as that of the qlippoth, before examining the internal source of morality in Wicca and Feminist Witchcraft.[15]
