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Revision as of 11:15, 6 June 2004 by Machenphile (talk | contribs) (→Murrays Witchcraft theories: revision)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963) was an early British twentieth century Egyptologist of considerable international reputation. Her contributions to Egyptology and promoting the study of folklore have stood the test of time, but it is her theories of the idea of a pan-European, Pre-Christian pagan religion for which she is now best known. Through these popular ideas she was partially responsible for the creation of Wicca and neopaganism. However at her reputation in academic circles as a witchcraft historian is extremely low because of her proven tendency to ommit sections from quotations and distort evidence in pursuit of her theory.
Brief Biography
Nothing is more impressive about Murray than her successful pursuit of an academic career at a time when such careers for women were seen as questionable. She was a student of linguistics and anthropology at the University College of London and a pioneer campaigner for women’s rights. She then managed to go on many archaeological excavations in Egypt, and Palestine working with Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the famous Egyptologist in the 1890s. This enabled to find work at the college and go on lecturing tours. She was named Assistant Professor of Egyptology in 1924 at University College of London, a post she held until her retirement in 1935. In 1926 she became a fellow of Britain's Royal Anthropological Institute. In 1953-1955 at the age of ninety, Margaret was made President of the Folklore Society, another distinguished honour. In 1963 at the age of 100, she published her autobiography, Centenary and The Genesis of Religion.
Murrays Witchcraft theories
Murray’s Witch Cult in Western Europe, written during a period she was unable to do field work in Egypt, laid out the essential elements of her thesis that there had existed a standardised underground pagan resistance to the Christian Church across Europe organized in covens of thirteen worshipers, dedicated to a male god. They had maintained a pagan religion dating from the neolithic through the medieval period in secret practising human sacrifice, till exposed by the witchunt craze starting c. 1450. Murray’s ideas were heavily influenced by the ideas of the then respected anthropologist Sir James Frazer, in The Golden Bough to detail a worldwide belief of a sacred king who was sacrificed. Frazer’s ideas like Murray’s have not stood the test of time, and no modern anthropologist accepts his conclusions.
Murray’s ideas were from the first exposed to critiques by historians of witchcraft like Ewers, but their reviews were in obscure journals. It is usually agreed now that her vision was greatly overstated, and virtually all modern historians dismiss it completely. The concept of covens of thirteen arose in from one Scottish reference out of the thousands of Witchcraft trials, and in searching for that number in other cases she excluded accused people or added them till 13 was reached. She also abstracted sources to suit her own ends. Her quotes of accused testimony emphasised the prosaic detail of descriptions to back up her idea these events actually occurred. Her quotes omitted lines where the supposed witches said they flew to the meetings, or turned into animals or the devil disappeared and reappeared suddenly. In England the European obsession of the sabbat hardly featured in witchcraft trials according to Kitteridge, yet Murray claimed it was universal.
The existence of an effective underground resistance movement to the medieval Church seems unlikely as its political hegemony was so profound, ie the Church worldview was so established as to leave virtually no room for another set of ideas, so its principles were completely taken for granted as 'reality.' Evidence from the medieval period shows the smallest heretical sects were found and crushed, so Murray's secret cult seems very unlikely.
Perhaps most damningly Murray decided that the evidence given in witchhunt trials by the accused, evidence often given under torture or threat was actually accurate, because its consistency seemed to her evidence of the coherent belief system she believed in. In fact inquisitors asked leading questions until they got the answers they wanted so they could execute or condemn the accused, who were invariably innocent. The coherent system she found was partially that of the Satanic witchcraft defined in books like Malleus Malficorum, which insisted that witches conducted human sacrifice and sexual orgies, accusations that Murray actually partially went along with. The classic critical view of her theories, prioritising examples of her selective quoting of texts to support her thesis, can be found in Norman Cohn's book, Europe's Inner Demons. No academic historian has ever challenged Cohn’s conclusions.
Murray’s later books were written for a more popular audience and in a style which was far more imaginative and entertaining than standard academic works. ‘’The God of the Witches’’ expanded on her claims that the witch cult had worshiped a Horned god whose origins went back to prehistory. Murray decided that the witches admissions in trial that they worshiped Satan proved they actually did worship such a god. Thus according to Murray reports of Satan actually represented pagan gatherings with their priest wearing a horned helmet to represent their Horned God. It is not surprising then that Murray’s supposed Witch Cult did not focus much on a Goddess unlike modern Wicca.
Murray became more and more emotional in her defence of her ideas claiming that anyone who opposed her did so out of religious prejudice. In ‘’The Divine King in England’’ – published in 1954 she claimed there was a secret conspiracy of pagans amongst the English nobility, the same English nobility who provided the leading members of the Church. The suspicious death of William Rufus, King of England, was a ritual sacrificial killing of a sacred king carried out by Henry I, a man so pious he later founded one of the biggest Abbeys in England. This secret conspiracy according to her had killed many early English sovereigns, through to James I in the early 17th century. Saint Joan of Arc whose Christian piety, may have been unorthodox, but seems to have been genuine and who was executed as a witch, by the English for political reasons, was a pagan martyr according to Murray. Her portrait of messianic (self) sacrifices of these figures make for entertaining speculation but have not been taken seriously as history even by her staunchest supporters.
The influence of Murray’s thesis on modern academic thinking
In a more sympathetic reading, a considerable patchwork of Pagan survivals can be seen throughout European history, and Murray's work did much to alert attention to this previously concealed history of European religion. Isolated individuals or groups certainly did practice Pagan customs and rituals that were not part of ordinary Christian dogma, as signs of such beliefs can be seen in Church architecture and local legends. However such practitioners typically saw themselves as Christian, though radical. There have been some academics who while admitting Murray exaggerated, and falsified evidence have been influenced by her ideas. Most important of these was Carlo Ginzburg, who discovered in Inquisition records hereditary groups of magicans, called benandanti in early modern Italy, which had strong fertility elements. These groups actually saw themselves as the enemies of witches. For Ginzburg these were folkloric memories of Indo-European shamanism. However the most important elements of Murray’s thesis remains rejected. There was no universal pagan cult throughout Christian Europe, instead there are possible survivals in local elements of pagan traditions within medieval life. Pagan deities became revered as saints or revered as fairies.
The legacy of her thinking
Much like modern popular books on conspiracy theories Murray’s sensational works were to become popular best sellers from the forties onwards and they were generally believed to be true, indeed their influence is still massive in popular thought. Jaqualine Simpson blames contemporary historians for doing little to refute her ideas at the time. It has been claimed that in the thirties her books led to the founding of Murrayite covens (small circles of witches) one of which probably taught Gerald Gardner in the 1940s. Gardner went on from this introduction to become one of the founders of Wicca, an influential stem for contemporary neopaganism. The affectionate term by Pagans "the Old Religion" for an ancestral Pagan religion derives from Murrayite theory, although many increasingly recognise that "the Old Religions" (plural) would be more accurate. Her ideas also inspired other writers, varying from horror authors like H. P. Lovecraft to Robert Graves.
Despite the historical inaccuracy of her ideas then Murray’s legacy is impressive. There may not have been a secret underground pagan cult in the middle ages, but there is an open neopagan cult in the modern world, which is a tribute to her inspirational and imaginative writing.
- "Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?" by Jacqueline Simpson. Folklore #105 (1994), pp. 89-96.
- Ronald Hutton, Triumph of the Moon a history of modern pagan witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999.
External links
Her two most influential books were:
So how old is Witchcraft really? – The role of Murray examined