Chapter 9
From Classical Greece to Modern Wicca?
In: Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of ImaginationSearch for other papers by Ethan Doyle White in
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Involving the invocation of the Goddess to enter the body of the high priestess, ‘Drawing Down the Moon’ is one of the core rituals in Gardnerian Wicca. Its name deliberately alludes to the notion, present from the late Classical period onward, that the witches of Thessaly had the power to literally pull the moon down to earth. However, the Gardnerian rite was never intended to simply recreate this ancient ritual, and instead drew on other lunar and goddess-oriented rituals present in Western learned magic for its central premise. This chapter examines the development of this modern Pagan ritual, tracing possible influences in the work of Aleister Crowley, Arthur Edward Waite, and Dion Fortune, and also exploring why Gerald Gardner and the early Gardnerians gave it the name that they did. It subsequently discusses how the terminology of ‘Drawing Down the Moon’ and its associated rite has been used more broadly within the Wiccan community, for instance to bolster (probably misleading) claims for a substantial pre-Gardnerian origin to this new religious movement. Finally, it considers the ways in which the term has filtered into popular culture, often as a means of alluding to modern Paganism. In doing so, this chapter provides an interesting case study regarding the varied ways through which Classical material, including fictional narratives and tropes, have informed contemporary esotericism.