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<\/a>This year marks the 60th Anniversary of Public Paganism. Back in 1954 Gerald Gardner released the first book documenting a living, breathing, and long-lasting Witch tradition. Gifted with an introduction by Dr. Margaret Murray Witchcraft Today<\/em> launched a now world-wide religious movement. I\u2019m sure that Witches and other Pagans existed and practiced before Gardner, but Gardner made his (and by extension our<\/em>) presence known in a big way. Modern Paganism would most likely have existed without Gardner but perhaps in a very different and\/or diminished form.<\/p>\nIn celebration of sixty years and seven decades of Public Paganism I\u2019ll be breaking down the essentials of Paganism decade by decade. I\u2019ll take a look a the books, the music, and movies that have driven (and continue to drive) Modern Paganism. The items contained in many of our early Pagan Time Capsules will be a bit Witchcraft-Centric, but that will change as the decades move along. In each time capsule I\u2019ll be placing five to six books, one movie, a few songs, and one bonus item. It should be quite a journey, so let\u2019s get started. <\/p>\n
Other editions of Pagan Time Capsule: The Fabulous Fifties<\/a>, the Swinging Sixties<\/a>, Shagging Seventies<\/a>, Ecstatic Eighties<\/a>, and The Nifty Nineties<\/a>. The entire series is also summed up here in Pagan History on the Margins<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n BOOKS<\/strong><\/p>\n The first of those books, Witchcraft Today<\/strong><\/em>, was published in 1954 and inferred that the Witchcraft written about in Margaret Murray\u2019s 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe<\/strong><\/em> had lasted into the present day. (It didn\u2019t hurt that Dr. Murray herself blessed Gardner\u2019s first book with an introduction.) There are great moments in both of Gardner\u2019s Witch-books (the second being 1959\u2019s The Meaning of Witchcraft<\/strong><\/em>) but there\u2019s a lot of bad history and chapters that basically go nowhere. For all their faults Gardner\u2019s books launched a new religious and spiritual movement, how many authors can claim that?<\/p>\n Also in our time capsule are some of the books which influenced Gardner and several other early Modern Witches. One of those was the already mentioned Witch-Cult in Western Europe<\/em> by Margaret Murray, a book that made Witchcraft fashionable and a somewhat acceptable alternative to Christianity. My friend John Halstead believes that the author with the biggest impact on Modern Paganism<\/a> was Robert Graves, and while I don\u2019t fully agree, there\u2019s no doubting Graves\u2019s influence. Published in 1948 The White Goddess<\/strong><\/em> fundamentally altered how many people interpret mythology. The result was a wide range of archetypes that were lated adopted into Modern Paganism. Maiden, Mother, Crone, Oak King, Holly King . . . . . the popularity of those ideas is due in large part to Graves. Our final book in the time capsule is The Mysteries and Secrets of Magic<\/strong><\/em> by C.J.S. Thompson, published in 1927. I\u2019m including it here because it\u2019s one of the first books I\u2019ve come across that looks<\/em> like a Modern Pagan book. It\u2019s got ceremonial knives, a picture of The Sorcerer<\/em> from Trois-Fr\u00e8res in France and Gardner\u2019s visual reference for the rite of Drawing Down the Moon<\/em>. This is a pretty amazing but often overlooked book. <\/p>\n MOVIE<\/strong><\/a>The 1950\u2019s weren\u2019t a great decade for books about Witchcraft and Paganism, but their very existence at the time was a minor victory in its self. There were only two books published in the 1950\u2019s of note, but several others were especially popular (and influential) during the decade, and still are to this day. The two most important \u201cPagan books\u201d published during the 1950\u2019s were both by Gerald Gardner, and while they haven\u2019t held up especially well, they were game-changers sixty years ago.<\/p>\n
\nPaganism and the cinema weren\u2019t all that close in the 1950\u2019s but at least it didn\u2019t always portray witches as bad. My choice for the time capsule is 1958\u2019s Bell Book & Candle<\/strong><\/em>. I might be choosing BB&C<\/em> because I\u2019ve always dreamed of a way to shoe-horn Jimmy Stewart onto Raise the Horns<\/em>, but it\u2019s mostly on here for a positive portrayal of witches. It\u2019s got spells, a feline familiar, and a witch that likes to walk around barefoot, that works for me. It was also incredibly influential, later inspiring the TV show Bewitched<\/em>. <\/p>\n