We examine the critical exchange between Ben Whitmore’s Trials of the Moon and Ronald Hutton’s responses to it, using the debate as a lens through which to explore contemporary tensions in the historiography of witchcraft and Pagan origins. Whitmore, writing from within the Pagan community, accuses Hutton of adopting an overly sceptical methodology and of applying uneven evidentiary standards that, in his view, systematically downplay the possibility of ritual continuities in European folk culture. Hutton’s rejoinders foreground the demands of historical method, emphasising the importance of verifiable documentation over conjectural survivalism and defending the historian’s obligation to distinguish cultural revival from demonstrable lineage. We will assess which of Whitmore’s critiques raise legitimate questions about interpretive frameworks and where his reasoning departs from accepted scholarly practice. It also considers how this debate reflects wider issues around authority, tradition, and the negotiation of identity within modern Paganism, and how different communities assign meaning to the fragmentary traces of the past.
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REFERENCES
Ginzburg, C. (1989). Storia notturna: una decifrazione del sabba. G. Einaudi.
Hutton, R. (1999). The triumph of the moon: A history of modern Pagan witchcraft. Oxford University Press.
Hutton, R. (2010). Writing the history of witchcraft: A personal view. The Pomegranate, 12(2), 239-262. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v12i2.239
Leland, C. G. (1899). Aradia, or the gospel of the witches. David Nutt.
Whitmore, B. (2010). Trials of the moon: Reopening the case for historical witchcraft. Briar Books.
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00:00 Introduction: Did Ronald Hutton Really “Erase” Wicca’s History?
09:47 Hutton’s Aims and His Relationship with British Pagan Communities
11:12 The Rehabilitation Project
12:42 Hutton’s Collaborative Research and British Reception
14:24 The Geographic Pattern
16:54 Hutton’s Historical Method: The Four Lines of Continuity
18:55 Definitions and Distinctions
22:17 Whitmore’s Critique: Structure and Fallacies
23:12 Straw Man Fallacy
23:55 Cherry Picking and Confirmation Bias
24:52 Possibility Treated as Probability
25:50 Category Confusion Between Morphology and Lineage
27:13 Lack of Definitional Clarity
27:48 No Alternative Historical Model
28:42 Hutton’s Rebuttals: The Goddess and Pan
30:11 Cunning Folk
31:13 Leland and Aradia
34:07 The Lindow Man Victory
35:14 The Sociology of the Controversy
39:10 Conclusion
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Published on January 18, 2026
