It was a thrill for me to discover some years ago after working with Aborigines that a similar pagan spirituality was not dead in Europe. It seemingly had found new life after many rumours among academics that it had died out centuries earlier. Margaret Murray a noted Egyptologist, wrote in the 1930s a book entitled "The God of the Witches" that depicted a male dominated Craft that she said had died out under persecution in the sixteenth century. Over 100 years earlier Jacobs Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie (Gottingen 1835) had argued that witch beliefs were lingering relics of a systematic pre-Christian Teutonic religion. Then in 1991 Ron Hutton wrote "The Pagan Religions of the British Isles" in which he maintained that Pagan religions died out still earlier back in the 1100s.

He did however throw in a caveat. Although he maintained pagan religions had died out, he said that practices that were "trivialities such as [at] the occasional [sacred] well or tree" had survived to modern times as folk or magical practices and rituals. Having made this distinction he declined to define 'religion', saying this was a work for theologians and philosophers. The Oxford Dictionary definition of "religion" is "a system of belief and worship". It gives no requirement that a religion includes a hierarchy or authority structure. Those practices that he dismissed as trivialities could be signs that a nature religion continued even if some of its adherents also followed a form of Christianity. His attack on Margaret Murray did not prove that a individualistic nature religion had not survived - all it showed was that there was little or no documentary evidence for a surviving coven based religion.

Later, in 1999, Ron Hutton wrote a further work, "The Triumph of the Moon: A history of Pagan Modern Witchcraft"", to answer, he said, some of the questions he had left open in the above work. In this he finally attempted to define the word "religion", by adopting the definition proposed by a relatively obscure writer, Sir Edward Taylor whom in 1871 defined "religion" as having essentially two elements; the belief in the existence of spiritual beings and the need of humans to form relationships with them p3.

Hutton then moved on to define the word "pagan". He first cast doubt on whether its modern meaning of a religion of nature had a firm foundation in antiquity by citing a couple of "authorities". The first had it mean a civilian outside the Christian army - a meaning that it could only have had in a Christian period. Hutton then said he would rather go with a later writer who had it mean "the rooted or old religion" of a "pagus" or locality. I have no great dispute with the latter. If one combined Hutton's adopted definitions, "pagan religion" could be said to be the rooted or old belief in local spiritual beings with whom humans attempted to form relationships. But this definition remained poor. Pagans have also developed relationships with universal spiritual beings or deities. Aborigines might call these in translation as 'All Father" or "All Mother". Paganism for me honours local spirits but is essentially a religion centred on the sacredness of nature. The sacred is not confined to another heavenly realm, or to consecrated localities but is a property of the whole of nature.

Why did Hutton, despite making the above definitions and despite his research findings that local beliefs in sacred places and nature spirits survived in Europe a into modern times, still maintain that a pagan religion did not survive in Western Europe beyond the 12th Century?

Perhaps his difficulty lay in a felt need to separate "Christian" from "Pagan" practices? If a vicar in a Derbyshire parish blesses a sacred well, keeping up a very ancient custom of honouring such places, is he being pagan or Christian? Perhaps the answer is that he is being both - that his system of belief is not strictly what came from Israel but now incorporates local Pagan elements ? If we look at the evidence of what happened when Christianity arrived in different cultures, it seems that religious veils of different shades can be put over pagan belief systems that arise from reverence for Nature and from instincts. Certainly the Protestant reformers of the Reformation thought this was so. They accused the Catholic Church of having incorporated too many pagan aspects. Likewise shamanism, while it has its most intense forms in certain ancient pagan societies, can coexist, according to Eliade, with other forms of magic and religion. p5

If no pagan religion or religious practices survived in Britain or Ireland for so many centuries, this would mean for me that in the British Isles nature ceased being venerated, that the old wells and paths died, that the inhabitants of these islands ceased to know their land, that this race ceased to do the work for which it had been created - and all my instincts shout and protest that this could never have been so. My instinct is that some among my ancestors never ceased to venerate this land and put their love and energy back into her. I feel this is what the land itself tells me.

For me it suffices that local healers, farmers, mystics, dreamers, spell-workers and others believed in the sacredness of nature and honoured her. My own research indicates that such a practice has never died - and by definition this comprised a religion. My own instincts would put this even stronger, that this is a religion that is innate in us as humans, that it is part of the very reason for our existence.

Dorleen Valiente, who died in 1999, maintained that the Craft originated from ancient shamanism. She was a noted writer on witchcraft and a practitioner who worked in the 1950s with Gerald Gardner in developing the rituals of the modern Craft or Wicca. In her works she gives many examples of how witches worked with animals as familiars - perhaps a practice not that far distant from the use of "power animals" and totems among other ancient indigenous societies? She believed that the stories of witches "flying" are closely paralleled by the Sami accounts of Shamans "flying" to the spirit realm. In both cases this could be an experience produced by mediation practices or even by the use of drugs such as the significantly named "magic mushroom."

Margaret Murray/s 1921 work entitled 'The Witch Cult in Western Europe" quoted witch-trial evidence to support her thesis that a horned God coven centred cult survived in Europe until the 17th Century. Her work has been much criticised by Ronald Hutton. He said she while she "ignored or misquoted evidence which indicated that the actions attributed to alleged witches were physically impossible. Or she rationalised it by suggesting, for example, that an illusion of flying was created by drugs". He maintained this "cast doubt on the truth of anything else claimed in these confessions." Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick in "A history of Pagan Europe" said she omitted from accounts of witch-trial testimony such "fantastic details such as shape shifting, flying through the air, making rideable horses out of straw and so on," Hutton further took to task other leading Pagan authors, such as Dorleen Valiente and Vivienne Crowley, for not investigating these criticisms of Murray in their works - while he himself did little more than baldly allege that other writers had demolished the Murray thesis.

I do not know if Murray distorted her account of a horned God cult. I have not read the witch-trial evidence that she quoted. But the basis of the above attack on her, which has much damaged her reputation, is not that she ignored contrary evidence but that the phrases she omitted from her quoted testimony were so fantastic that it would have discredited her witnesses if she had included it. These attacks on her relied principally on research by Norman Cohen whom went back to the original testimony and quoted it in a fuller form in his book: "Europe's Inner Demons".

The following are phrases he said she omitted:

"they (went) through at a little hole like bees and took the substance of the ale". These words could have inspired by authentic old European pagan beliefs. Cohen quoted elsewhere in the same book an ancient pagan belief that the followers of the Goddess sometimes flew through the air with her to bless the earth and would enter houses through cracks and keyholes and bless good families. He pointed out as a possible modern derivative of this the modern myth of Father Christmas coming down chimneys to bless good children.

Cohen also mentioned the following: "The Devil was with them in the shape of a great horse and they decided on the sinking of a shipŠ The devil would be like a heifer, a bull, a deer , a roe or a dogŠ and he would hold up his tail while we kissed his arse". Such elements are very common in witch-trial testimonies. They seem to relate to a surviving animism in which powerful spirits were seen as inhabiting the bodies of different creatures - and to the magistrate's belief in the power of the devil. It is hard to imagine that "kissing his arse" was not a response made with a very wry humour to a question about worshipping the devil.

He also quoted; "All the coven did fly like cats, jackdaws, hares and rooks Š rode on a horse that we would make of a straw or a beanstalk. " - one that one of the witches turned herself into a horse to carry members of the group. Again this can relate to an authentic and Europe- wide folk-belief in the possibility of flying - both to do evil magic and to do good magic. This may be based on experiences when in trance or using drugs. Likewise shape-shifting into various animal or bird forms has a long and illustrious history in Celtic folklore.

He also quoted one quite terrible testimony. It was that one of the accused dug up the corpse of a baby to eat some of its flesh. This was done, it was said, to make it certain that the group would have to keep its existence secret. None could betray the others, for all were equally guilty. This testimony is feasible - although it should be remembered that accusations of cannibalism have been falsely levelled at many persecuted groups including the early Christians and the Jews.

Finally, he quoted the following as omitted by Murray. "I was in the Downie-hills and got meat from the Queen of Fairie, more than I could eat. The Queen of Fairie is bravely clothed in white linen." This again is a well established and very old folk belief. "Downie Hills" or "fairy mounds" were said to be the homes of the "Little Folk". They were lead by Queens or Goddesses. At least one Goddess was said to be clad in White - Bride or Bridget. In her memory "Brides" wear white to this day.

Another critic of Margaret Murray was Keith Thomas in "Religion and the Decline of Magic." He quoted Murray as saying: "the only explanation of the numbers of witches who were legally tried and put to death in Western Europe is that we are dealing with a religion which was spread over the whole continent." He dismissed this by saying: "the absence of any organisation, co-operation, continuity or common ritual among witches makes it impossible to speak with Margaret Murray of a "witchcraft" let alone of the "old religion." (p515-525). However, he demanded here a higher degree of organisation than is necessary for a religion. He also focussed on the evidence for a continuing Coven centred religion rather than for a continuing nature religion. He also maintained; "accused witches had no demonstrable links with a pagan past."

However Thomas' world view was very different from that held at the time of the witch-trials. I quote here Normal Cohen. "the early church already regarded all magical practices as manifestions of paganism Š" Thus for the Church authorities it did not matter if the magic were beneficial. The Ancya Synod as long ago as 314CE imposed a penalty for curing sickness by occult means. Such decisions became part of western canon law.

It perhaps is a shame that Margaret Murray did not quote more in full. It need not have weakened the case for the survival of pagan beliefs. But she was no expert in the old Shamanic practices nor on all relevant folk traditions. However Carlo Ginsburg, in "Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath", (A historian Hutton described as "brilliant"), has since linked the stories of witches' sabbat or gatherings back to ancient shamanic traditions.

Further light is cast by a recent study of a medieval Grimore in "Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the 15th Century" (Richard Kieckhefer Pen, State Univ. 1999). This book contains directions for creating such illusions as "flying horses" - perhaps like the flying straw horses mentioned above. Kieckhefer commented that these illusion spells done for entertainment sadly "become sources of Boschian nightmares of the witch-trials."

This grimoire is typical of many others that have survived from this period. The other kinds of spells mentioned in the grimoire are psychological - intended to have an impact on the thoughts or imaginations of others - and divinatory using a mirror, crystal or a polished finger-nail! Spirits were asked for information but they were not commanded to do any task. It detailed several ways to set up magical circles to protect and to focus energy. Exorcisms were also of interest - as they were to the church at that time.

Perhaps the material Murray is said to have omitted was further evidence for the survival of a nature centred religion? In some cases it might point to a link between the Craft and old shamanic practices. Dorleen Valiente, a noted writer on witchcraft and a practitioner since at least the 1950s when she co-authored many of today's witchcraft rituals with Gerald Gardner, stated at the 1998 Pagan Federation conference in London that she believed the modern Craft was spiritually based on the continuing shamanic tradition of the British Isles. She extensively quoted sources telling of how witches worked with animals as familiars - perhaps a practice not that far distant from the use of "power animals" and totems among ancient indigenous societies. She believed that the "flying" is closely paralleled by the Sami accounts of Shamans "flying" to the spirit realm. She said this could be an experience produced by mediation practices or even by the use of certain drugs such as the significantly named "magic mushroom."

The practices that survived in the countryside influenced the "spellcraft" of the modern Craft, for people such as Dorleen Valiente and Gerald Gardner were assiduous students of "natural magic" practices and wrote much about them - as have other modern witches such as Raymond Buckland with his books on "Gypsy Magic". For them it was an essential study for a Craft that both venerated and worked with nature. This is not to say that Christians did not also study spellcraft. The Churches' official recognition of miracles, holy objects and of "prayer-power" was also in effect a recognition of the spiritual energy that partly inspired pagan magic - and of course there were and are many Christians who continued to honour nature.

There are many records of a surviving pagan religiosity in Europe throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times. As mentioned, Hans Kung held that the witchtrials gave witness to surviving pagan beliefs. In 1589 the effigy of a pagan god with its priest was brought to London from Wales where many pilgrims had honoured it. Both were burnt at the stake. On hundred years later, in 1677, the French Catholic Church found it had to forbid the honouring of pagan gods and the holding of lunar festivals - a ritual particularly associated with women and with witchcraft. (p103-4) The church authorities condemned: "those believing that because women worship the moon, they can draw the hearts of men towards the Pagans." In "Capitularia Regum Francorum, published in Paris in 1677 listed woodland huts serving as pagan sanctuaries and water springs serving as "sites of sacrifice." (Q in. p 102) In Brittany in the 17th century shrines were kept by senior women who taught "the rites of Venus" to young women. This included instruction in shamanistic practices.

In Scotland some pagan religious practices survived at least until recent times. In 1656 the Dingwall Presbytery denounced the local "heathenish" practice of sacrificing bulls to Mourie. (P105) and of pouring milk on certain hills. In 1860 Sir A. Mitchell reported that people were still spoke of the god Mourie. Nearby, on the island of Maelrubha in Lock Maree, a sacred oak, festooned with gifts of ribbons and buckles stood was next to a healing well that was seemingly under the care of a pagan priesthood when, in 1774, Thomas Pennant witnessed its rites. Some ceremonies have continued until today - such as pouring milk as a libation in a holy hollowed stone known as the Leac na Gruagach - Gruagach being a Goddess symbolising anciently the sacred cow that looks after humans - and cows.

Despite the theories of academics that all pagan religions died out in the UK, there are also recent accounts of a surviving pagan religiosity or religion in parts of the British countryside. The beliefs of some in the Pennine valleys are recorded in Twilight of the Celtic Gods -David Clarke with Andy Roberts, It quoted a local, Blandford, as claiming: 'I come from a very old tradition if the learning passed down through the families is to be believed, my maternal grandmother was responsible for passing on the teachings ...I was slowly eased into the fundamental belief of our tradition, that the land is sacred. And to that end we thought of ourselves as stewards, guardians of the areas where our family dwelt., Many ordinary countryfolk knew of our knowledge of plants and animals and certain members of our family would help them... this just seemed to be accepted and expected' "... we revere, and stand in awe of, the powers that create and sustain us and the world ...To us being alive and part of the body of the mother was worship for us.. The powers that we held in awe were locked inside the landscape, inherent in the power of the weather and manifest in the changing of the seasons and in the end they in turn ran through us. It was nothing complicated, nothing supernatural, and to me at least, the way people are supposed to live... The fells were seen as places of the goddess and the high moors, rocky scars and peaks such as the Beacon were the places of the male power. The core of the old faith was the constant coming together of these two, whether it be in the creation of human or animal life"

Blandford did not call himself a witch. He thought the word meant something quite different to his own practice. He wrote: "I've never met a witch and from what I've heard about them I am not sure I want to. I know some old books on the Dales refer to some local characters as being witches... but they were not witches; if anything the label 'wise woman' or 'wise man' was more strictly true." But members of the Craft that I have come to know and love could have written what he described above. Names such as witch, wise woman and saint may describe the same person seen through the eyes of different people.

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