This book studies the only religion England has ever given the world, that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. The book examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Village cunning folk and Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons and members of rural secret societies, all appear in the pages of this book. Also included are some of the leading figu ... More

This book studies the only religion England has ever given the world, that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. The book examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Village cunning folk and Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons and members of rural secret societies, all appear in the pages of this book. Also included are some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the world since 1950.