Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
A genre of magic books created in the 20th century, and invented by Gerald Gardner, a former civil servant, folklorist, Freemason and occultist, who was the founder of Wicca.
Your final book puts us very firmly in the modern day. This is the Book of Shadows which you see as more of a genre than a particular book.
The Book of Shadows was essentially invented by Gerald Gardner, who is the founder of Wicca. He was a civil servant before the Second World War, very interested in the occult and in the writings of the Golden Dawn. In the 1940s he invented the modern religion of Wicca. He claimed that he had discovered a secret tradition of ancient fertility magic which had been maintained over the centuries by witches who had been persecuted by the authorities. So much so, that by the 20th century there was maybe only one coven left, and he said he got hold of their secret from a coven in the New Forest.
And this book or genre has proved immensely successful in today’s popular culture.
Yes, with programmes like Charmed, the three sisters actually have the Book of Shadows and, of course, it’s there in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So there are all these attractive young women who have their own grimoires. There was this sudden boom of interest among teenagers. And I think that’s because as teenagers there is always a fascination with the idea that you can have some sort of control over your life or others.
They are on the brink of adulthood and frustrated that they don’t have enough power.
Yes and you’re exploring possibilities and belief systems. The interesting thing is that the authorities have always tried to suppress all the books I’ve been talking about, but here we are in the third millennium and they are still thriving. TV companies are producing programmes in which magic is presented as a reality in modern settings. It’s still a vibrant tradition.
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Owen Davies is professor of social history at the University of Hertfordshire. He has written widely on the history of witchcraft, magic, ghosts and folk medicine. He argues that despite persecution, magic has been with us since the first recorded written word and it’s still very much part of popular culture today.
