David Waldron and the Forthcoming Book "The Sign of the Witch"

I recently had the opportunity to review a pre-publication manuscript for The Sign of the Witch: Modernity and the Pagan Revival (Carolina Academic Press, Forthcoming 2008) by Dr. David Waldron. David is a lecturer at the University of Ballarat, and in our recent exchanges he gave me an opportunity to ask him some questions about his new book.

Morehead's Musings: David, thank you for the opportunity to review your book manuscript for The Sign of the Witch. I know this was an adaptation of your doctoral dissertation. What was it that attracted you to the subject matter and the manner in which you approached it?

David Waldron: Well at the time I had just completed my Honours dissertation on the history of Free Market economics as applied in the so-called Third World and I had delved somewhat into post-colonial discourse regarding indigenous peoples and the noble savage mythos that tends to dominate western perceptions of cultures perceived as “less advanced”. I was then grappling with the issue of indigenous representations of their own identity and the impact of tourism and western expectations. Linked to this was the folklorist tradition, beginning with Tylor and Frazer, of “primitive” cultures being cultural fossils, as it were, giving insight into our past. This also tied in with the romantic reconstruction of indigenous people as intrinsically possessing a spiritual or sublime harmonious quality in tune with nature that we feel we lack today in the industrial world. I was also looking at issues raised by Edward Said’s work in “Orientalism” and more specifically “Culture and Imperialism” and the kinds of discursive structures that dominate western representations of the east and the indigenous other.

At the time I was working on this I was having a lot to do socially with people involved in various strands of neo-paganism and I found a lot of parallels with the representations of Pagan Celtic and Gothic Europe and the Witch trials with that of indigenous peoples. Many of the same issues raised regarding questions of empirical detail vs. romantic representation, the way the past is continually reconstituted as a vehicle for dealing with social anxieties of the present and a rather ambivalent relationship to empirical history were closely related. I also found that the history of the Pagan revival was closely linked to the kinds of issues that were galvanized behind representations of indigenous peoples and the colonial experience.

Morehead's Musings: I note that your volume is pat of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series with Carolina Academic Press. What does your study bring to the consideration of contemporary ritual in religion and spirituality?

David Waldron: I think the quintessential issue, with regards to ritual in my work, is the centrality of historicity and authenticity in the legitimation and expression of ritual practice. Not just in terms of empirical accuracy and tradition but also in terms of generating a feeling of pastness through symbolism. The centrality of this sense of spiritual communion in the past as a means of creating a sense of place and identity with all the cultural significations that brings is fundamental to neo-Pagan ritual practice, indeed all religious ritual. I discuss at one point, for example, the way in which a ritual such as Beltane (or for that matter Communion or Passover) create a sense of a direct spiritual link between the present and perceived foundational moments in the movement’s past. This sense of shared tradition, culture, place and identity are fundamentally integral to the means by which people form a sense of community and shared heritage which binds these movements together. This kind of focus also brings to light the complexities and ambivalence of empirical history and the need to re-present this symbolically. These are then embedded through ritual forms that culturally generate a feeling of connectedness with the past, needed to give it its emotive and spiritual significance, whilst still remaining relevant to the very contemporary social and cultural issues that lie behind the ritual’s meaning in a present context. I think neo-Paganism, with its very explicit cultural themes of reviving long buried rituals, ideals and values of a perceived primordial past is a particularly pertinent vehicle for exploring these issues which are endemic to all religious forms.

Morehead's Musings: In the Introduction you state that the "purpose of this book is to examine the construction of Witchcraft images, histories and identities within the neo-Pagan movement." Can you share a little about your discussion in the book on this topic?

David Waldron: Well to call oneself a “Witch” or a “Pagan” or to identify with a particular stream of pre-Christian religion such Norse Paganism inherently requires a sense of an image, a symbol and a network of values as the basis for what you mean by this identity. These structures are also socially constituted in that they have a significance which is enacted symbolically with others within and exterior to your community. Further to this, these constellations of meaning are both creative and socially constituted, that is to say they organically emerge from a network of meanings which have a history and evolution all of their own.

A case in point is the image or sign of the witch. The term has a multiplicity of meanings for different sectors of society and within different religious and ideological points of view and has evolved dramatically over time. What the term, and more specifically, the symbol behind the term means today is dramatically different to its meaning during the East Anglican witch trials for example. However, while today’s structure of meanings is markedly different to its original historical interpretations it is still related and has a history we can trace through philosophical, social and cultural developments. These developments shape the way the image is utilized and appropriated as a vehicle of signification. Similarly, while today the term “Witch” means quite different things to a fundamentalist Christian to a feminist Pagan they are related and have a shared sense of meaning despite their contrasts.

Overall I came to the conclusion there are 4 categories of neo-Paganism tied to alternate means of coming to terms with historicity and legitimacy. There are eco-feminist neo-Pagans tied to a romanticist historical ideology of a repressed femininity emerging to challenge patriarchal forms of social and cultural control. There are reconstructionists who base legitimacy in notions of ethnicity, heritage and empirical reconstructions of history and folklore as well as Pagans who tie legitimacy to a specific lineage such as Gardnerian Wiccans. There are neo-Pagans who utilize a psychologised model of symbolism, such as that of C.G. Jung, to argue for the universal timeless truth of archetypal significance and, finally, there are neo-Pagans who take an eclectic approach who appropriate images from pop culture and reconstruct historicity as a text based on emotive impact.

Morehead's Musings: You also state that the "primary purpose of this book is to trace the historical and cultural patterns by which representations of Witchcraft and Paganism have been formed since the end of the witch trials of the early modern period." Can you summarize some of the ways in which Pagans have represented themselves, and by contrast, how they have been represented by others, such as Christianity?

David Waldron: This relates to a practical application of the more dense theoretical issues I was discussing in the previous question. Today, for both fundamentalist Christians and many neo-Pagans the witch is a symbol of disobedient powerful and disruptive femininity, it is manifested as a symbolic opposition to Christian values and is linked to sexual freedoms and against traditional Christo-centric patriarchal hierarchy. However while these symbolic patterns are shared between many Christians and neo-Pagans what is meant by this and its import in terms of values and ideals and potential benefit/threat is radically different. For neo-Pagans the Witch is a persecuted victim (drawing on enlightenment and romantic representations of the early modern witch trials) of an intolerant, dogmatic vicious religious hierarchy bent on solidifying control of society and the human (particularly the feminine) body. The Church, in this view is also viciously hypocritical suppressing sexuality overtly and issues like sex abuse by clergy, etc. is highlighted as an example of this sort of hypocrisy, etc.

Conversely, from a fundamentalist Christian perspective the Witch is seen as inimical to Christian values which are constituted as values positive to society such as “love thy neighbour”, family values socially appropriate sexuality between married heterosexual couples etc. Subsequently, the Witch becomes an image of depravity, family break down, ritual abuse, etc. and evil associated with the requisite demiurge of Satan. In this sense the Witch becomes an icon of contemporary political conflict within, especially, the United States but also in Western society in general between progressives and conservatives. The two meanings are essentially mirror images of each other with a contextual meaning linked to how you come to terms with broader society. There are also alternate interpretations but this particular confrontation based in contemporary social, political and cultural structures gives insight into the multiplicity of meanings given to this term.

That being said you will find a wide spectrum of interpretations particularly amongst liberal Christians and reconstructionist neo-Pagans that would range widely from this view. The key point is that the symbol or sign of the witch is a symbol associated with a system of values and representations which have multiple interpretations yet which are grounded historically and have evolved in patterns that we can trace historically.

Morehead's Musings: One of your chapters that had most appeal for me is chapter 6, "New Age Witches?: Neo-Paganism and the Sixties Counter Culture." This time period is of great interest to me not only for what it brought out in the culture and society in the 1960s themselves, but also for its continuing influences and legacy into the present in America and the Western world. What was the impact of the counter-culture on the neo-Pagan movement?

David Waldron: Well the Sixties counter culture was a wellspring and a watershed in evolution of the neo-Pagan movement. A vast array of romantic ideals linked to Paganism both within the United States and in the United Kingdom coalesced together in a multiplicity of new constructions of what Paganism meant. New ideological formulations such as the rise of feminism and leftist politics to the ideological and cultural mainstream, the impact of post-colonial discourse and the influence of idealized representations of indigenous peoples played a majour role in shaping the new directions taken by various strands of neo-Paganism. Into this mix, of course was the sexual liberation movement which integrated well with themes of sexual freedom, ritualized sexuality and the liberation of the sacred feminine that were already prominent in the occult and neo-Pagan communities. Gerald Gardner’s version of Wicca as taken up by Doreen Valiente is particularly pertinent here. Overall the cumulative effect of this change was to shift the foundation of the Pagan revival from a predominantly English movement practiced by the cultural elite and linked to ideals of a revived English Nationalism and traditional nobility/hierarchy rooted in folklore to a leftist movement aligned with indigenous peoples, environmentalism, leftist politics and feminism. That being said the traditionalist forms continued through emerging into today’s reconstructionist neo-Paganisms such as Asatru.

Morehead's Musings: You also devote a chapter to a consideration of eco-feminist neo-Paganism. How has this segment of the Pagan movement been influential not only in neo-Paganism, but also in broader streams of "the new spirituality"?

David Waldron: I think the eco-feminist branch of neo-Paganism came out of Romantic discourse which postulated the ideal of a feminine linked to nature and emotion in contrast to a patriarchal hierarchy associated with reason, order and industry. While it is a problematic (or at least a very difficult to substantiate) position when taken cross culturally or when faced with the enormous ambiguities of what it means to be male or female in a given society, it makes a great deal of common sense when taken into context with the overt sexism of much Christo-centric and enlightenment discourse of femininity in western culture and the correlate implications of this socio-politically.

Eco-feminism came, during the 1980’s and early 1990’s to predominate discussions of what it meant to be a neo-Pagan, or more specifically a Witch. As an icon of disorderly femininity set against the cultural conservatism of patriarchal Christianity combined with the powerful imagery of the Witch trials configured as a holocaust against women (another overwhelmingly powerful image), eco-feminist neo-Paganism has had a great deal of symbolic impact. This is particularly important when combined with the very overt practical needs and injustices faced by women worldwide. The New Religious Movements emerging from the well spring of the Sixties counter culture were all grappling with this issue of patriarchal conservatism and were grasping for models and symbols to evoke the kinds of values and emotions they were dealing with at that time. Eco-feminism, particularly in its neo-Pagan incarnations as sponsored by Starhawk and Szuzanna Budapest amongst others fell into this niche and played a massive role in shaping what it meant to be a “Witch” and helped create a neo-Pagan politics as it were.

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the influence of eco-feminist neo-Paganism has fallen considerably due to new historical interpretations of central events such as the Witch trials and more circumspect anthropological interpretations of civilizations perceived to be matri-focal. This has been exacerbated by the changing nature of contemporary society and the experience of women in general. However it has had an enormous contribution to both neo-Paganism and New Religious Movements in general. This has, of course, had a great deal of follow on influence in broader social issues associated with feminism, leftist politics and environmentalism amongst other areas.

Morehead's Musings: What do you see as the greatest strengths and challenges to "the Old Religion" in the post-modern or late modern age?

David Waldron: I think the greatest strength and weakness of neo-Paganism lies in its flexibility and anthropological basis in wide ranging but fragmented network of small groups and communities. The flexibility of neo-Paganism means that there is a wide-ranging network of approaches to society, culture and religiosity yet which share a “family resemblance” in ideology and symbolism (to borrow Wittgenstein) that allow for a deeply enriching exchange of ideas and representations. That being said this very diversity and the fundamental question of who speaks for neo-Pagans is also the source of a great deal of conflict and division. This is a phenomenon described as “Witch Wars” in Dr. Sian Reid’s wide-ranging study of conflicts in Canadian neo-Pagan communities. Similarly, the basis of neo-Paganism, anthropologically speaking, in widely disseminated small groups leads both to close knit very supportive communities and extra-ordinarily fierce social conflicts under the weight of interpersonal politics or group implosion.

Underlying both these structural issues is the impact of commodification where, as neo-Paganism becomes more mainstream and popularly represented in the media and in pop culture, ideological and cultural forms within neo-Pagan communities can become subverted by mass marketing and pop culture. Furthermore, Pagan gatherings can become inundated by people wishing to engage in the sub-culture but with little sense of community, responsibility or engagement with the broader social issues or with a sense of historical authenticity.

This is a problem faced with great difficulty and soul searching during the sixties counter culture, articulated with great insight by Jerry Rubin, for example. Relating to this experience is conflict within the movement between feminist neo-Pagans who have concerns about the ideological project becoming subverted by pop culture, traditionalist and reconstructionist neo-Pagans who fear the loss of genuine historicity to commercial nostalgia and fluffies (a slang derogatory term used to describe pop culture affiliated neo-Pagans) who are believed to be along for the pop culture ride rather than serious religious exploration of social issues or heritage. I would argue that coming to terms with the issues raised by commodification and mass marketing will be the litmus test of the longevity of the Pagan revival as it has shifted from an underground of disconnected small groups to a more mainstream religious network of movements.

Morehead Musings: David, thanks again for making me aware of your book, and for discussing it here. I think it will make a good contribution to the growing body of academic literature on Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism.