From Antinous to Traditional Witchcraft: My 2018 Roundup

Following on from my roundup of 2017 publications, I thought it time to take stock of the past year and provide a brief overview of my scholarly output over the past twelve months. With such a profusion of academic journals existing and new monographs and edited volumes appearing all the time, it can be difficult to keep up with the specific topics of one’s interest, let alone research in one’s broader field. It is certainly the case that my recent research will not be of interest to everyone, but I hope that this quick round-up might alert interested persons to certain publications of mine which might otherwise pass them by.

Two of the articles that I have had published this year have explored the boundaries between the modern Pagan milieu on the one hand and the modern Satanic and Luciferian milieu on the other. Too often these are seen as completely separate phenomena, often by practitioners with vested interests in policing their taxonomic boundaries in certain ways. In “Between the Devil and the Old Gods: Exploring the Intersection between the Pagan and Satanic Milieus,” published in the Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, I tried to tackle this issue head on, providing three case studies that illustrate how modern religious groups can mix and match elements and strategies from both milieus. This argument will not, of course, surprise many specialists in these fields, but I thought it important to provide a specific and focused examination of this issue given that nobody had done so before.

The second article is a more refined exploration of a particular sector of the contemporary occult scene: “Traditional Witchcraft”. This is a term that has become increasingly popular among Pagans and Luciferians since the early 1990s, and has attracted commentary both from many occultists and from scholars observing the subject, among them Ronald Hutton, Helen Cornish, and myself. In “The Creation of “Traditional Witchcraft”: Pagans, Luciferians, and the Quest for Esoteric Legitimacy,” published in Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, I provide the first full-length academic discussion of this increasingly popular term and why it has proliferated in recent decades.

My work on the modern Pagan veneration of the god Antinous – the deified boyfriend of the Roman Emperor Hadrian – has continued with a new article discussing several issues raised by the movement’s use of archaeological and historical material: “Archaeology, Historicity, and Homosexuality in the New Cultus of Antinous: Perceptions of the Past in a Contemporary Pagan Religion.” Modern Paganism brings to the fore interesting questions regarding present-day people and their relationship with the past and I hope that this article encourages others to begin thinking more about these issues as well as contributing to greater dialogues between those who study modern Paganism, reception studies, ancient history, and archaeology.  The article stems from work done for the 2014 ‘New Antiquities’ conference held at the Free University of Berlin and has appeared in a special issue of the International Journal for the Study of New Religions. It is also appearing in an edited volume arising from the conference, New Antiquities: Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond, that Equinox are bringing out imminently.

Those looking for an introduction to the modern Antinous movement might be interested in the article of mine which appeared in Nova Religio back in 2016 (here), or the entry on the topic which I was asked to write for The World Religions and Spirituality Project (here). This useful website has been set up to provide overviews of a wide range of religious groups and individuals, and unlike most academic publications, access is entirely free. This year I also wrote the project’s entry on a related form of ‘Queer Paganism’, a Wiccan tradition known as The Minoan Brotherhood (here). Formulated for gay and bisexual men, the Brotherhood were founded in the 1970s and draw much of their imagery from the archaeological evidence from Bronze Age Crete.

I’ve also remained active as a book reviewer for Nova Religio, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, and the Reading Religion website, on whose editorial board I presently sit. Published by the American Academy of Religion, Reading Religion is a fantastic free resource that anyone could (and should) read. Over the past year I’ve reviewed books on neoshamanism, early modern witchcraft, Spiritualism, and the Crossbones ritualists for the site. I’ve also dipped into reviewing exhibitions again, in this instance the British Library’s exhibit on magic for the Material Religion journal.

2019 looks set to be a big year for me. I have several new publications scheduled to appear, including a co-edited volume, and will also be rounding off my PhD research into popular religious practices in Anglo-Saxon England. What happens then… who knows what the Fates have in store!

Two Calls for Papers for special editions of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies

Those with a keen interest in the academic study of modern Paganism should be very familiar with The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, the foremost (and indeed, only) peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to the field. Always on the lookout for new submissions, The Pomegranate has recently issued a number of CfPs for special themed issues, each edited by a particular editor:

 The Impact of Traditionalism on Contemporary Magical Communities

Traditionalism is a philosophical school which has significantly impacted religious communities and political movements in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, yet it remains virtually unknown among scholars and the general public.  Yet when Steve Bannon cited Réne Guénon and Julius Evola as key influences in formulating his political positions, this inspired new interest in the history and ideas informing the growing Alt Right. However, both Guénon and Evola have been known within Pagan and occult communities for decades as esoteric theorists. Overall, the tenets of Traditionalism, which include Perennialism, the cultivation of an initiated elite, the notion of cyclical time, a past golden age and anti-modern sentiments, have increasingly impacted Pagan and occult communities, as some of these ideas are complementary to Pagan and occult aesthetics, values and practices.

This special volume of The Pomegranate would feature articles examining the ways in which Traditionalism has influenced Pagan and occult subcultures.  Topics could include:

·       Traditionalism and Pagan or esoteric publishing.

·       The intersection of Traditionalist ideas with Pagan values and ethics.

·       Neofolk music. 

·       Traditionalism and Polytheism, Reconstructionism and Heathenry.

·       Pagan and occult themes in Traditionalist theory.

·       The impact of Traditionalist debates in various orders, such as the O.T.O.

·       The impact of Traditionalism on historic individuals relevant to Paganism, for example W.B. Yeats or Kathleen Raine.

Please note that while papers may reflect the impact of Traditionalism on the Alt Right or New Right in relationship to these topics, that we would like to ensure that we focus on relevant philosophies and frameworks explicitly inspired by Traditionalism.

 If you would like to contribute to this issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies edited by Amy Hale, please submit an abstract of 300-500 words to amyhale93@gmail.com by April 1, 2019.  Final Submissions of 5000-8000 words will be due August 1, 2019.

 Digital Pagan and Occult Practice

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to Pagan and/or Occult intersections with mobile technologies, game design, programming, hacking, social bots, trolls, sock puppets; spellcasting in OSNs (on-line social networks); on-line covens; software as spell crafting; virtual familiars, fetches, and spirit homes; blogging and Craft community ; digital spaces and virtual collectives of marginalized witches; young Millennial and GenZ Pagans in on-line spaces; Pagan generational gaps and the ‘digital divide’; digital chaos magick, both historic and contemporary; ritual magick in virtual spaces or with digital tools; challenges in the ‘Nature vs. Technology’ binary.

What is the current interplay between digital technologies and Pagan and Occult practice? Many deliberately distance their Craft from new media technologies, seeing screen-based mediation as antithetical to a nature-based practice.  Yet many Millennial and GenZ Pagans and Occultists embrace these new tools. While earlier generations of Pagans used sites like Witchvox.com to find fellow practitioners, the rapid development of commerical on-line social networks, such as Facebook, present new avenues for Pagans and Occultists to pursue community.

 Digital spaces have created myriad new tools and opportunities for magickal practice, from Phantasmaphile’s WitchEmojis to the mass binding spell on President Donald Trump. Online magickal practices, tools, and actions leverage the power of vast social networks, making normally hidden and secretive acts highly public — sometimes as a side-effect, sometimes deliberately. Millennial and GenZ Pagans appear to use sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter for their practice in a radically different way from older users. But is this actually the case? And if it is, are Millennial and GenZ beliefs and practices also different? Indeed, numerous blog posts on Patheos - Pagan have consider this question, with discussions ranging from ‘validity’ to a consideration of how digital natives adopt new technologies for magical practices. But are these new trends in on-line magical practice also new religions? Do Millennial and GenZ Pagans and Occultists have a different relationship to the gods and spirits and, if so, is this because of digital technology? Is there really an on-line schism between GenZ magical practitioners and older generations, or does it just appear that way on Instagram?

But these publicly available and searchable Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr feeds are only the most forward facing manifestations of Digital Paganism. What of ‘back end’ digital magick? On-line social networks are rich with (or polluted by, depending on your perspective) social bots, trolls, and sock puppets, which are software and account behaviors used to skew the appearance of popularity and therefore algorithmic rankings. Chaos magicians used software code in their operations from the 1990s onwards, yet there has been little written about this practice since the explosion of social media technologies in the last decade. MySpace, which is arguably the first widely adopted social media platform, come out in 2006; the first iPhone in 2007; the incredibly rapid development and adoption of these information technologies is astounding. It seems obvious that Pagan programmers would adopt these new technologies towards their practices, but where are they? What are they doing, and why has this become so hidden, even as so-called “aesthetic witchcraft” has become so popular? There are certainly Pagans and Occultists building divination and astrology apps, but are they also discrete apps as spells? Or are their spells entirely backend? How do digital technologies (including OSNs, video games, mobile apps, AR, and VR, and other forms) present new ways for Pagans and Occultists to Know, to Will, to Dare, and to Be Silent? What are the roles of gender, race, age, class, and global location in the adoption and manipulation of digital media technologies for the pursuit of Hidden Knowledge?

And if there is a generational schism growing between GenZ and older generations of magickal practitioners, what might this mean for the future of Paganism in an increasingly networked and connected global society?

If you are interested in contributing to this special issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies Please, email an abstract (200 – 400 words) to Heather D. Freeman (heatherfreeman@uncc.edu). Heather D. Freeman is Professor of Art – Digital Media at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Director/Producer of the feature documentary Familiar Shapes: The Story of Social Bots, Early Modern Witches, and How Information Technologies Reveal Them.