---
product_id: 6943063
title: "The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft"
brand: "ronald hutton"
price: "€ 52.36"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.fr/products/6943063-the-triumph-of-the-moon-a-history-of-modern-pagan
store_origin: FR
region: France
---

# The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft

**Brand:** ronald hutton
**Price:** € 52.36
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by ronald hutton
- **How much does it cost?** € 52.36 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fr](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/6943063-the-triumph-of-the-moon-a-history-of-modern-pagan)

## Best For

- ronald hutton enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted ronald hutton brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/618D44Ho3QL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good interesting book, but not the last word.
  

*by T***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 14, 2003*

The Triumph of the Moon, by Hutton,Hutton is a British historian who has spent 10 years or so researching pagan history.  He recent book deals with the social and cultural forces that led to the emergence of Wicca in the middle of the 20th century.  He then chronicles the major trends in Wicca in the last half of the 20th century.  In one chapter he discusses the Starhawk/Budapest feminist California liberal misandrist turn that paganism took in the 1980s.  Hutton describes how their badly misandrist and overly emotional writing lacked any scholarly credibility, but nevertheless had a major impact of Wicca and paganism in general for two decades.  With publication of Hutton's book and others we are finally beginning to see some signs of returning to a more balanced pagan literature.His history is incomplete however, and he makes some of the same mistakes and assertions that he criticizes others for making.  For example in the first half of the book Hutton extensively details literary references to witches and claims about historic roots. Many pages are each devoted to Margaret Murray and others.  Then toward the end he waives off all of that in a page or two by simply asserting that it has been disproved.  He provides nothing close to supporting data to demonstrate that claim.  A few years ago I attended a workshop by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowikci (21 books and other publications listed on Amazon) where she described in detail her study of an actual pagan village that kept itself hidden since the Norman invasion, and which had written records of village life since that time. According to Nowicki the village was finally over run by urban sprawl in 1990 but most of the residents have relocated to a new hidden village that still follows pre-christian pagan traditions.  Nowicki says that her mother was born in the pagan village.  Either Nowicki was lying to everyone who has attended her workshops describing the pagan village, or Hutton's scholarship that "disproved" the survival of actual pagan villages is sadly lacking.  I have also researched or become aware of several other pieces of information that leads me to believe 1) that some of the historical witch trials and hangings were in fact people whom modern pagans would recognize as pagan witches, and 2) that some family tradition witches were actually surviving pagan witches.  Hutton asserts that all claims to any pagan survival have been disproved, and in fact are not possible, but he offers no proof and provides no data.  A widely published author, Initiate Wiccan HPS, and leader of a Ceremonial Magick society in the UK such as Ashcroft-Nowicki cannot be waived off by assertion without some evidence that her claims are false.  My own family admitted to being witches at the Salem trials, but their stories have been deleted from current histories rather than researched and discounted.  You won't find their names on lists of witch trial victims published in the last half century.  Today's historians would rather claim that all the witch trial victims were really Christians.  That's not scholorship, that's just avoiding the disagreable facts.On the positive side Hutton does provide a lot of information about Gardner and subsequent Wiccan history.  His observations about the state of Wicca today are interesting.  I was especially fascinated by the discussion trying to fit Wicca into anyone's scholarly classification system for religions and religious branches.  Wicca, it seems, doesn't fit any classification system and religious scholars don't know what even to call it.  I would recommend the book to all Wiccans and interested parties, but keep in mind that it's not the last word on a lack of pagan roots.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Question Of Survival
  

*by T***C on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 14, 2002*

Ronald Hutton's 'Triumph Of The Moon' is an excellent historical study and exploratory overview of Wicca. Since its history is an extremely volatile and complex subject, in his preface Hutton is wisely modest about the present limits of the information available to scholars and the scope of his abilities and intentions--no promises to absolute knowledge are made.Hutton clearly realizes that his subject is a matter of belief and faith to Wicca's adherents, and therefore his careful conclusions are largely relative and theoretical. His writing style is plain-spoken and academic, his approach studiously matter-of-fact throughout.Since he is a historian and not a psychologist, Hutton steers away from any investigation of the archetypal witch image as a apparent constant of the human psyche and condition, focusing instead on whatever traceable elements of a genuine `witch tradition' and survival existed and exist in fact.Considering that witches appear both everywhere and nowhere throughout history, Hutton pulls off a remarkable piece of speculative detective work. He  remains uncommonly fair and open-minded throughout, considering all claims equally and going so far as to express that he does not deny the possibility that the gods and goddesses of Wicca--including Pan--exist objectively. If this is a simple placating measure, Hutton handles it with aplomb.The author states that the most important argument of his book is that Wicca is the result of a combination of cultural forces and undertones that have developed in England since 1800, including the Murray thesis as a erroneous theory and modern myth rather than as a hypothesis having any basis in fact.But it's not difficult to believe--by any means--that some remnant of pre-Christian religions existed in dynamic form during the Middle Ages, continued to be practiced and came to be identified as witchcraft by the dominant Christian establishment.This proposed pagan religion--presumably involving some form of 'nature worship'--may have not been a focused, formalized religion in fact, but something more akin to Ireland's 'fairy faith'--a powerful belief system that took a wide variety of forms in diverse parts of Europe.Since veneration of different aspects of nature as a means of insuring a bountiful harvest seems to be a fairly common and probably spontaneous phenomena among man when in the early stages of development, why should some trace of this not have continued into the Middle Ages among agrarian people?Murray may have been all wrong in her both carefully and carelessly accrued specifics, but at least partially correct generally.Though Carlo Ginzburg was apparently unclear about how his discovery of the "benandanti" in the Fruili region linked, if at all, to Murray's thesis, the example Hutton gives of the century-old witch community  on the Welsh island of Mon is fairly impressive, especially since he is able to identify at least three other 'pagan witch traditions' older than and apparently independent of Gardnerian Wicca.Among those who helped produce 'the pool of ideas and  impulses' which led or may have contributed to the formation of Wicca are key figures James Frazer, James Michelet, Margaret Murray, Charles Godfrey Leland, Samuel Liddell Mathers, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, and Dion Fortune, each of whose work Hutton carefully considers.Hutton clearly loves his subject; the reader senses that no one would secretly enjoy discovering solid proof of a pagan survival of this kind more than he.His sympathy, however, never compromises his rigorous scholarly  standards. This is a cautious, well-considered and erudite book that should educate most and offend few.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Hutton's Moonshine
  

*by J***S on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 22, 2021*

Hutton's Triumph of the Moon is spellbinding and absorbing until the very last page, but his pseudo academic lunacy is unconvincing. He charts Wiccan's origins, from ancient atavistic agrarian ritual, through to its capture by post-modern radical feminist Marxists. His thesis, that Wicca is a UK made new religion never holds any water and his notion that few pagans were ever really persecuted, and those that were, were victims of peasant bigotry and not elite oppression is  just silly; as though the Cathars were never annihilated, Hypatia was never murdered by the Christian mob, Joan of Arc was never burnt at the stake, dark age folk were never bullied into forsaking the old gods in favour of Judeo-Christianity...need I go on? What he could have legitimately argued  (if he were not part of the deception) is that a native spiritual tradition, with archaic Proto-Indo-European roots, was hijacked in 1970's America by Jew materialists (ie Starhawk) into leftist psycho-babel until any authentic spiritual element had been eradicated. Interestingly enough this kind of deception and deliberate perversion, is exactly how black magic is executed.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.fr/products/6943063-the-triumph-of-the-moon-a-history-of-modern-pagan](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/6943063-the-triumph-of-the-moon-a-history-of-modern-pagan)

---

*Product available on Desertcart France*
*Store origin: FR*
*Last updated: 2026-01-26*