Following on from my roundup of 2017 publications, I thought it time to take stock of the past year and provide a
brief overview of my scholarly output over the past twelve months. With such a
profusion of academic journals existing and new monographs and edited volumes
appearing all the time, it can be difficult to keep up with the specific topics
of one’s interest, let alone research in one’s broader field. It is certainly
the case that my recent research will not be of interest to everyone, but I
hope that this quick round-up might alert interested persons to certain
publications of mine which might otherwise pass them by.
Two of the articles that I have had published
this year have explored the boundaries between the modern Pagan milieu on the
one hand and the modern Satanic and Luciferian milieu on the other. Too often
these are seen as completely separate phenomena, often by practitioners with
vested interests in policing their taxonomic boundaries in certain ways.
In “Between the Devil and the Old Gods: Exploring the Intersection between the Pagan and Satanic Milieus,” published in the Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, I tried to tackle
this issue head on, providing three case studies that illustrate how modern
religious groups can mix and match elements and strategies from both milieus.
This argument will not, of course, surprise many specialists in these fields,
but I thought it important to provide a specific and focused examination of
this issue given that nobody had done so before.
The second article is a more refined
exploration of a particular sector of the contemporary occult scene: “Traditional
Witchcraft”. This is a term that has become increasingly popular among Pagans
and Luciferians since the early 1990s, and has attracted commentary both from
many occultists and from scholars observing the subject, among them Ronald
Hutton, Helen Cornish, and myself. In “The Creation of “Traditional Witchcraft”: Pagans, Luciferians, and the Quest for Esoteric Legitimacy,” published in Aries: Journal for the Study
of Western Esotericism, I provide the first full-length academic discussion
of this increasingly popular term and why it has proliferated in recent decades.
My work on the modern Pagan veneration of the
god Antinous – the deified boyfriend of the Roman Emperor Hadrian – has continued
with a new article discussing several issues raised by the movement’s use of
archaeological and historical material: “Archaeology, Historicity, and Homosexuality in the New Cultus of Antinous: Perceptions of the Past in a Contemporary Pagan Religion.” Modern Paganism brings to the fore interesting questions
regarding present-day people and their relationship with the past and I hope
that this article encourages others to begin thinking more about these issues
as well as contributing to greater dialogues between those who study modern
Paganism, reception studies, ancient history, and archaeology. The article stems from work done for the 2014 ‘New Antiquities’ conference held at the Free University of Berlin and has appeared
in a special issue of the International
Journal for the Study of New Religions. It is also appearing in an edited volume arising from the conference, New
Antiquities: Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond,
that Equinox are bringing out imminently.
Those looking for an introduction to the modern
Antinous movement might be interested in the article of mine which appeared in Nova Religio back in 2016 (here), or the
entry on the topic which I was asked to write for The World Religions and Spirituality Project (here). This useful website has been set up to provide overviews
of a wide range of religious groups and individuals, and unlike most academic publications,
access is entirely free. This year I also wrote the project’s entry on a
related form of ‘Queer Paganism’, a Wiccan tradition known as The Minoan Brotherhood
(here). Formulated for gay and bisexual men, the Brotherhood were founded in
the 1970s and draw much of their imagery from the archaeological evidence from Bronze
Age Crete.
I’ve also remained active as a book reviewer for
Nova Religio, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture,
and the Reading Religion website, on
whose editorial board I presently sit. Published by the American Academy of
Religion, Reading Religion is a fantastic free resource that anyone could (and
should) read. Over the past year I’ve reviewed books on neoshamanism, early modern witchcraft, Spiritualism, and the Crossbones ritualists for the site. I’ve
also dipped into reviewing exhibitions again, in this instance the British Library’s exhibit on magic for the Material
Religion journal.
2019 looks set to be a big year for me. I have
several new publications scheduled to appear, including a co-edited volume, and
will also be rounding off my PhD research into popular religious practices in
Anglo-Saxon England. What happens then… who knows what the Fates have in store!
