Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism
by Liz Williams Reaktion, 352 pages, £15.95
Liz Williams’ friendly and authoritative history of paganism gets quickly to the point: paganism is defined on the first page of the introduction as a religion that is outside the mainstream of recognised “world religions” and sometimes focuses on a broadly defined “nature worship”. We could argue about that all day, but that is where Williams starts her journey. However, her book also attempts to deal with the wider field of magic. This is defined as a debatable power of influencing events by using mysterious forces – even more controversy lies down that path!
A book of only 350 pages that engages with both paganism and magic is setting itself a hugely ambitious task. But Williams does a good job, largely because she adopts a get-on-with-it approach. She acknowledges areas in which there are important controversies, but refuses to get bogged down in them. She openly points out gaps in historical knowledge, but doesn’t allow them to distract her from giving a clear and accessible account of what is known and why. And she faces squarely the myths that have grown up around particular paganisms of the past and present: the ‘burning’ of British witches (most were not burned but hanged), the idea of an easily identified and universal ‘horned god’, and various other dubious claims about hidden masters of wisdom and universal ancient goddesses are all dealt with fairly and trenchantly.
The book is deeply indebted to Ronald Hutton’s magisterial histories of ancient British paganism, Druidry and witchcraft, and Williams points readers to his books frequently, rightly recognising that Hutton has already exploded some of the myths that interest her. But she brings her own lively curiosity and frame of reference to the work – one of the book’s strengths is that it is so inviting. Readers who are interested to know more about Wicca or Druidry will find lots to think about, and because Williams practises paganism herself there is nothing awkward about her account of it. The book also isn’t sniffy about popular culture and instead goes straight to the kind of sources that all sorts of readers will know: TV shows, novels and websites. These are woven into a very wellinformed and pacy history that is structured century by century but also has recurring themes and ideas that pull the reader along. Chapters deal with ancient origins, ‘Saxons and Vikings’, the Middle Ages and early modern witchcraft trials, Renaissance ceremonial magic, Georgian and Victorian reinventions and contemporary paganism.
In an appendix, Williams gives the reader the opportunity to practise some basic pagan activities. Although some readers won’t want this, others will find it exciting. This is accompanied by a second sharp and useful appendix that incorporates some good advice (don’t rip off other people’s cultural heritage, don’t imagine magic can fix everything). It’s an unusual end to a volume of history, and although it won’t be a good fit for every reader, it means the book reaches a wider audience and answers the sort of questions that many readers will genuinely have, which is surely a good thing. History should engage with readers intelligently, accurately and respectfully. This is an inventive, authoritative and lively history of paganism and magic, with a practical twist. It deserves a wide readership.