Since the Enlightenment...very few ideas have proven themselves to be as enduring in western social theory as the continuous struggles between 'the powers of tradition' and 'the forces of modernity'. Like the theme of organic nature confronting artificial culture, the binary opposition of tradition and modernity in the work of many social theorists remains fixed as a primary identity-creating and meaning-generating story. (Luke, 1996, p109)

One of the ironies of recent contemporary sociological theory is that whilst theoreticians seek to incorporate micro and the macro perspectives, and bridge the gap between the psychological and the social, one important concept which does both of these eminently has been discarded. I am speaking here of ‘tradition’. Ironically, theorists of late modernity such as Giddens (1990, 1991, 1994) and Beck (1992) have demonstrated that tradition is an important locus of symbolic, psychological, and social orientation only for then to make the concept redundant with their heralding of a new epoch - post-traditional society (Giddens, 1994). For them, it is the absence of traditional structures, practices and beliefs in modernity which has provoked contemporary existential and ontological crises. This lack simultaneously reinforces and radicalises processes of modernisation – in opposition to postmodernisation – as individual narratives, rather than traditional customs, take centre stage in identity construction. All too often sociology presents the demise of tradition as a fait accompli, with rationalisation, bureaucracy, and contingency replacing the magic, kinship, and fatalism of premodernity. Given this, moderns tend to orientalise traditional societies, in the process applying epithets such as ‘primitive’, ‘superstitious’, and ‘static’.

The final irony, however, is that the certainty and triumphalism of such post-traditionalism, in an otherwise uncertain world, has prompted other theorists to question the morbidity of tradition in contemporary society. In particular, two polar view-points have developed. One idea, allied to Giddens, which Heelas (1996, pp3-7) terms the 'radical thesis', also known as radical detraditionalization, 'entails the decline of the belief in pre-given or natural orders of things' (ibid., p2) and 'a shift of authority: from 'without' to 'within'' (ibid.). On the other hand, there are theorists who argue against this ''triumphalist' version of detraditionalization' (ibid.), instead viewing processes of detraditionalization as co-existing alongside existing traditions and, indeed, processes of retraditionalization - the rejuvenation of past traditions in forms acceptable to contemporary culture. As Heelas (1996, p3) states, this 'coexistence thesis' rather than envisaging detraditionalization 'as leading to across-the-board eradication of all traditions, it is seen as competing, interpenetrating or interplaying with processes to do with tradition-maintenance, rejuvenation and tradition construction' (ibid).

Heelas (ibid.) argues that proponents of the radical thesis tend to see the social in terms of binary oppositions with the openness of detraditionalization replacing the closed fixity of tradition. In other words, tradition tends toward ascribed and hierarchically differentiated ways of life, whereas post-traditional society concerns a reflexive existentialism which is catalyzed by global processes of fragmentation (Luhmann, 1990, 1996; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1996).

There are, however, numerous criticisms of this radical position. Heelas (1996, p 6-7) himself argues that in some ways the radical thesis, when linked to theories of reflexive modernization, appears to undermine the modern credentials of the reflexive theory (Berger et al, 1974; Jameson, 1991). Bauman picks up this theme when he sees detraditionalization as the dissolution of foundational morality to be replaced by a contingent postmodern ethic sourced from the 'moral capacity of the self' (Bauman, 1996, p. 58; also see Luckmann, 1996). Given this, Heelas (1996) argues that the
 

best way to criticize the (radical) loss-of-tradition thesis is to argue that 'the traditional' (serving to guage what has been lost) is not as tradition dominated as might be supposed, that the 'modern/post-modern' is not as detraditionalized as might be claimed, and that detraditionalizing processes do not occur in isolation from other processes, namely those to do with tradition-maintenance and the construction - or reconstruction - of traditional forms of life. (Heelas, 1996, p7)

Interestingly, although Giddens posits a thoroughly detraditionalized modernity, a milieu where tradition and detraditionalizing processes co-exist would contain many of the existential struggles of which Giddens writes. Rather than, however, not only having to choose between a plurality of detraditionalized lifestyles, one would also have to choose between a plurality of traditional and detraditionalized sources of authority. In addition to pointing to the continued existence of the traditional in contemporary milieux, supporters of the coexistence thesis question the characterization of traditions as depicted by proponents of the radical detraditionalization thesis (Gross, 1992, pp4-5). Importantly, traditions are not static and monolithic, they are human constructions which can be transformed through human agency. Indeed, many traditions do not have the historic pedigree with which they are normally and nominally associated. Hobsbawm (1983, p1) famously argues that ''Traditions' which appear to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented.' (also see Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983). These 'invented traditions' imply a continuity with the past that they do not in actually possess. That is, tradition becomes a receptacle of phantasy and imagination. Indeed, such invented traditions are often linked to the development of nationalism and contemporary citizenship, often implying a continuity and solidarity with a nation's heroic or romantic past. Following from this Gross (1992) argues that for such inventions to be regarded as traditions they must meet three criteria. Tradition:

* at the very minimum a tradition must link at least three generations;

* must carry moral and spiritual prestige from past to present;

* convey a sense of continuity between past and present. It must  convey an impression that it has been sequentially passed down  through time. (Gross, 1992, p10)

This idea of the transmission of tradition is crucial. Shils (1981, p13), for example, argues that traditions are re-interpreted by their successive recipients. This implies that processes of tradition maintenance, like processes of modernization, are reflexive (Mellor, 1993; Adam, 1996; Mellor and Shilling, 1997; Walliss, 2002). Indeed, whilst tradition has been shaped by mediation, modernization and globalization, modernity itself has become paradoxically traditional as it seeks to cling to its Enlightenment heritage in the face of contemporary uncertainty (Gross, 1992, pp34-61). Given this, many theorists criticise the clear-cut dichotomy often made between traditional and modern society. Adam (1996), for example, echoes Beck (1992) in invoking the reflexive, multiple nature of modernity and in doing so makes a case for the reflexive, multiple impact of tradition on modernity (note Eisenstadt, 2000). According to Gross (1992, pp62-76) this tradition/modern dichotomy produces two main reactions: On one hand, the Giddensian view that a lack of tradition allows for the potential for a freer, unchained self; and, on the other, that the lack of tradition is the lack of a meaningful context in which to function. The first premise is based on the false assumptions that there is limitless agency for the detraditionalized selves of reflexive modernity, and that 'traditional society' was structured only through the collective conscience of communities (Macfarlane, 1978; Benton, 1982; Campbell, 1996; Poster, 1996; Rose, 1996). The second, that there is a lack of traditional authority in modern society. Rather than being lost to the past, traditional sources of authority have fragmented, become plural, and often oppositional (Bell, 1976; Taylor, 1989; Fiske, 1993; Hunter, 1994; Maffesoli, 1996). Importantly, despite such diffusion, they still underpin modern trajectories and institutions.
 

Secularisation as detraditionalization

One of the most interesting test cases of detraditionalization concerns contemporary religiosity. Theses concerning secularisation - 'the process whereby religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance' (Wilson, 1966, p14) – have dominated the sociology of religion for the last 40 years. Significantly secularisation - particularly this dominant Wilsonian thesis - can be viewed as a subset of wider processes of detraditionalization:

Wilson (1975) examines the fate of charisma in contemporary society. Following Weber he views both traditional and charismatic types of authority as quintessentially premodern. He argues that power is anthropomorphised in premodernity and so it makes sense to invest power in a particular ruler or messiah. However, in modernity charisma is little more than a romantic throw-back which can be mobilized, for Wilson (1976), only in 'small social movements operating at the periphery of society and with no capacity to change anything of significance except perhaps the lives of a few followers' (Aldridge, 2000, p73). Charisma does not even constitute a counterculture for Wilson, only diffuse 'random anti-cultural assertions' (Wilson, 1976, p110). These religious activists, even when they achieve publicity, rarely achieve their goals. Thus, for Wilson, religion is part of an affective culture of Gemeinschaft (Robertson, 1993, p2). This has been replaced by an urbanised, detraditionalized, secular Gesellschaft dominated by expert systems and ties based not on affect (and affection) but on social obligation (Wilson, 1982, p154).
 

Paganisms and tradition

For practitioners, the post-war rise of new religious movements in the West as party of a counter-cultural search for identity, moral certainty, and community, however, would seem to constitute more than ‘random anti-cultural assertions’. Whilst they are in no sense able to represent the sort of ‘total religious institution’ represented by the premodern Christian church, they do nevertheless present a staunch critique of secularisation, and by extension, of the radical detraditionalization thesis. One of the most significant and interesting challenges has been presented by that loose constellation of earth religions known as Paganism. Indeed, Paganisms self-consciously use the term ‘traditions’ to describe their particular spiritual paths; for example, the Wiccan, druidic, heathen, and shamanic traditions. In turn, these separate traditions are loosely bound by a set of spiritual contours - beliefs in cosmic interconnectedness; panentheism; animism; polytheism; a belief in the efficacy of magic; and a belief in the reciprocal link between seasonal cycles and of the behaviours of animals – human and non-human alike (Carpenter, 1996).

Rather like the wider New Age movement, Paganism is a complex bricolage, not only of differing magico-religious traditions, but of philosophical and social epistemes. In particular one can see the Pagan weltanschauung as being composed of ‘three stages of thought' (Harms, 1999, p 9):
 

1) the pre-modern or traditional, characterized by reference to tradition, authority (especially of a biblical nature), and lineages;

2) the modern, which emphasizes science, freedom of information, and grand attempts at systematization and the creation of metanarratives;

and,

3) the postmodern, which manifests in an emphasis on local and personal knowledges, collage, humor and fluctuating belief.

        (Harms, 1999, p9)

The flexibility of this epistemic bricolage functions as a legitimation strategy enabling Paganisms to adapt to, and colonise, societal change: Paganisms are primarily modern forms of spirituality, born of the post-War period, and as such reflect contemporary identity politics, with emphases on environmentalism and feminism, often within a pro-gay and lesbian spiritual idiom. In this sense they are rooted in Enlightenment anti-elitism, and libertarianism. They also share other Enlightenment sentiments; for example, the commitment to the interiorization of the other in their adoption and valorisation of the anti-types of ‘witch’, druid’ and ‘shaman’ (Eilberg-Schwartz, 1989); the insistence of the compatibility of scientific and magical discourse (Green, 2001); the systematisation of divergent premodern occult philosophies – for example, the Cabala, alchemy, and astrology - into modernist magical practices; and a commitment to the idea of human perfectibility, with magic increasingly viewed as a psychotherapeutic avenue of achieving spiritual enlightenment. Modern magic, however, has also accommodated contemporary societal changes with the inclusion a number of postmodern features, particularly its commitments to humour, play, and a Lyotardian scepticism towards metanarrative (Lyotard, 1984). Importantly, for the purposes of the arguments here, Pagans have made a central appeal to tradition and the resurrection of premodern practices:

Pre-modern philosophical currents are still very much part of contemporary Paganism and magic. Whilst Drury (2000, pp4-36) outlines a number of specific premodern occult currents which influenced Renaissance magic and the occult revival, and still influence contemporary magic – Gnosticism, the Cabala, the Hermetic Tradition, alchemy, and masonic traditions (Yates, 1964, 1987; Burckhardt, 1971; Barnstone, 1984; Andrews, 1998) – in a more general way Pagans draw inspiration from a pantheistic, pre-modern past. The Northern Traditions of Heathenism, or Odinism, for example, look to the pre-modern eddas and sagas of the Nordic and Teutonic mythos in order to create a contemporary spirituality which is grounded in the symbolism and glacial or monumental continuity of local landscapes (Blain, 2002; also Lash and Urry, 1994; Macnaghten and Urry, 1998, p236). Ralph Harrison, a prominent Odinist, for example, has discussed with me how his ritual sacrifices to the Gods, usually of mead or honey-flavoured wine, creates a spiritual link with the ritual tradition of the Northern European peoples simultaneously reproducing the reciprocal link between man and the gods and the religion in the past and present. Likewise, we see retraditionalization of pre-modern thought and practices in, for example, earth mysteries; in technoshamanic practices, matriarchal Goddess worship, the Celticization of many magical practices, and the Pagan penchant for deep ecology, all of which often hark back to a pre-modern utopia where humanity is seen as co-existing in harmony with nature; and, in the glacial cyclicity of the Pagan ritual calendar (Harvey, 1997, pp1-16).
 

Bricolage, morality and tradition

Given these differing epistemic currents, a number of commentators have stressed the syncretic, even globalized, nature of Paganism and magic-use (Simes, 1995; Beyer, 1998; Pike, 2001, Hetherington, 1996). Thus, Paganisms have been characterised as an eclectic spiritual bricolage of seemingly incongruous elements (Pike, 2001). The nature of this eclecticism, however, needs to be understood. That is, whilst eclectic, Pagan traditions are also contemporaneously cohesive:

Many commentators have labelled Paganisms as postmodern (Orion, 1995; Carpenter, 1996; Blain, 2002). Such a labelling is premature, however, as it ignores the aforementioned centrality of Enlightenment thought within Paganisms. Given the fundamentally modern nature of Paganisms, therefore, bricolage can be understood as a product of late modern processes of global disembedding and cultural syncretism, rather than of postmodern forms of de- and reconstruction. In such globalized and individualized late modern milieux, Pagans are free to appropriate disembedded elements and incorporate them into their own idiosyncratic forms of spiritual practice.

Unsurprisingly, notions of detraditionalization – particularly, the postulated shift in moral development from the moral foundationalism of traditional authority to the late modern self - has meant that morality has once again become an important source of sociological inquiry. One can see such late modern disembedding at work one looks at the role that morality within Paganisms. At first glance, morality within Paganisms seems confused – it is a ‘mixed spectrum’(Greenwood, 2000, pp179-208) – but only so because it is idiosyncratically constructed by each practitioner. The Wiccan Rede – ‘an it harm none, do as you will’ (Greenwood, 2000, pp 203-6) - and Crowleyan antinomianism – ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ - both embody detraditionalized selves. Otherwordly guidance does not dictate moral conduct, but acts as a Giddensian form of expertise in providing a loose moral framework for individual Pagans. Importantly, however, this ‘moral’ free will tends to be simultaneously re-embedded into the framework of that practitioner’s chosen tradition. This affords ontological security sans a strong moral determinism. That is, contra-Giddens, detraditionalized selves and forms of moral authority are perversely situated within processes of retraditionalization. As this Wiccan argues:
 

The Otherworld and my patron deities…they do give me guidance, yes…but I am free to do my will. I do tend take their advice and live by their moral…what do you…precepts. My experiences tell me to do that. However I am free to pick and choose, of course…There are so many choices. Being a Wiccan is important too. Being part of a greater whole and knowing that my choices make sense in that way.

Similarly, Paganisms are cohesive despite the accommodation of seemingly disparate elements, as bricolage consciously and deliberately tends to build around and embed within a central meta-tradition. That is, a process of retraditionalization. Thus, in the case of Eclectic Wicca – an avowedly progressive and syncretic form of witchcraft (Hutton, 2001, pp398-9) - other spiritual elements are built around Wiccan spirituality, with Wicca providing the focus of the other elements. As this respondent, a progressive Wiccan, confides:

My eclecticism is selective. At the bottom of it all, I’m still a Witch.

Similarly, the shaman, mentioned above, used UFOlogy as a focus for his shamanic practices, with extra-terrestrials being equated with spirits and other dimensions qua spirit world(s).

Bricolage, perhaps counter-intuitively in a late modern context, is therefore made cohesive through the strategic – the tactical (de Certeau, 1984) - use of tradition. Olav Hammer (2001) argues that New Agers use tradition as a legitimation strategy in order to give their practices and discourses an archaic authenticity and legitimacy. Pagans adopt a similar strategy, only, in the Pagan case, the use of tradition is more complex and interesting:

Firstly, many Pagan ‘traditions’, for example, Gardnerian Wicca, are based upon fictitious – or fictive – histories and fictional influences which are not rooted in spiritual traditions, but rather fictional histories and literary genres. This strategy is deliberate and it does not appear to matter to practitioners whether the tradition possesses historical authenticity. Practitioners often believe that they are tapping into ancient magical powers which predate Gardner’s post-war formulation of Wicca. As these Wiccans observe:
 

[Magical] power doesn’t belong just to Wicca. It’s as old as the hills…In fact it’s as old as the World. We borrow it for a while and then pass it on.

Gerald didn’t invent magic. We know now that Wicca is only fifty years old, but there were witches before that, our ancestors, whom we look to for inspiration.

In this case, Wicca becomes a tool for accessing these powers rather than a tradition with an authentic historical pedigree.

Secondly, the pagan use of tradition is not only a legitimation strategy it is an existential modality. Furthermore, it is a form of existential anchor, or canopy, contra-late modern uncertainty, which, in turn, facilitates existential and spiritual experimentation and transformation (note, Berger, 1967). As this ceremonial magician confides:
 

I suppose you could call me a Hermetic magician, though I mix this freely with Wicca and other sources…At heart though my magic is Hermetic…Thinking about it aligning my magical work with a long standing tradition makes me feel safe. It makes me think of the great magicians who have also used these same methods. It also helps me push back my boundaries…Without this feeling I couldn’t experiment in the same way…I’ve not put this into words before. It’s strange really this feeling of…feeling secure is important in making me more…transforming me spiritually. It grounds the energy.

That is, traditions, however invented, act as stable orientation points for magicians which then allows them - in the language of late modern social theory - to take magical risks. This use of tradition is akin to the esoteric praxis of concordance wherein a gloss of historical authenticity, however consciously created, is important for magical efficacy; but, from this foundation, the use of tradition counter-intuitively catalyses processes of bricolage, spirtual transformation, and imagination. These uses of tradition within Paganisms will now be explored in greater depth:
 

The Fictive and Tradition: Imaginative histories

Giddens’ conception of tradition implies that it constituted a monolithic world-view which dominated zeitgeist, phantasy, and imagination. On the contrary, reflexive traditions are vehicles of imagination (and imagineering) within late modernity. Certainly the renaissance esoteric philosophy which informs much West magical practice emphasise the role of the imagination in uncovering spiritual revelation. These ideas are akin to a Castoriadian take on the imaginary as reflexively constituting self and society:

Cornelius Castoriadis (1987) - in a psycho-social reformulation of Freud, via the Lacanian imaginary - argues that human imagination is creation ex nihilo; as such the creation of contemporary social structure is intrinsically linked to the individual radical imaginary, and phantasy, and imaginary representations at the societal level. An implication of this is that the imagination is the source of existential, social and philosophical innovation. It provides new ways of thinking about the world and reconstitutes the world through that thought and the creativity of the imaginary. Certainly, traditions within late modernity - particularly pagan traditions - are ways of imaginative revisioning and remaking of the world. Imaginative, that is fictive, historical revisionism is a prime example within magical traditions:

Aleister Crowley still exerts an extraordinary influence over contemporary magicians despite the difficulties of separating biographical fact from fiction both in his own life and in the legends that surround the founding of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a ritual magic organisation central to the European occult revival in the late nineteenth century. Indeed, many other of the ‘founding fathers’ of Pagan magical traditions have apparently fabricated the spiritual heritages of their practices. Carlos Castaneda, for example, a seminal influence on Western neo-shamanisms, has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt to have fabricated many of the events he reportedly experienced as apprentice sorcerer to the Yaqui brujo, Don Juan Matus (Castaneda, 1970; Noel, 1997). Another infamous example is the founding of Wicca by Gerald Gardner:

The previously received wisdom that Gerald Gardner founded contemporary Wicca after being initiated into a witchcraft coven which claimed an unbroken continuity with premodern witchcraft has recently been questioned by academics (for example, Kelly, 1991; Hutton, 1999, 2001) - and indeed, by Wiccans themselves. As this Wiccan states:
 

It must have come as quite a shock back then, but I think everyone now accepts that Wicca is a creation of The ‘Fifties – maybe the late ‘Forties at a pinch … It’s no coincidence that The Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951 and, suddenly, Gerald comes out of his closet.

If Gardner’s account of the historical continuity of Wicca with ancient Paganism is suspect, where did his information about and images of Wicca originate? A major source is Egyptologist Margaret Murray’s two influential books, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology (1921), and The God of the Witches (1933). Murray’s thesis is based on an extremely selective interpretation of the historical facts and contends that the witches persecuted by the European witch-craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not diabolists or the victims of a paranoiac moral panic, but, rather, were Pagans who worshipped the Horned God and practised magic (Simpson, 1994; Hutton, 2001, p362; Wood, 2001). Murray’s thesis continues by arguing that the witch-cult derived their practices from an unbroken spiritual connection with an ancient, pre-Christian Paganism, developing ideas first postulated by Michelet (1862) and Leland (1974). According to Murray, this ‘old religion’ co-existed alongside Christianity quite happily until the time of the witch trials, actively aided and abetted by friends in high places; for example, William Rufus.

The story of how Gerald Gardner founded Pagan witchcraft is now the stuff of magical legend: Gardner, after a life in the colonies, returned home and immediately became interested in Murray's ideas. He settled in Hampshire in 1938 and joined an organisation called the Rosicrucian Fellowship of Crotona which staged plays at its own theatre in Christchurch. According to Hutton (1999, p43), the Fellowship 'represented a mystical branch of the movement of Co-Masonry, itself an outgrowth of Freemasonry which admitted women'. Gardner made friends within the group a number of whom revealed to him that they were members of an old coven of witches in the New Forest. This coven was presented to him as a survival of Murray's witch cult and he, himself, became initiated in 1940 by the high priestess, Dorothy Clutterbuck. Although Hutton (1999, pp45-8) does not doubt the veracity of Gardner's induction into a coven, what he does doubt is, firstly, that this was a survival of the Dianic Cult of Murray, and, secondly, that Dorothy was the priestess (Kelly, 1991, pp137-9).

Despite the ambiguous, highly probably fictitious, beginnings of Pagan witchcraft Gardner went on to publish its first texts in the shape of High Magic's Aid and Witchcraft Today. Aiden Kelly (1991) has traced the first written Wiccan rituals to Gardner's use of a Renaissance text called 'Ye Bok of ye Art Magical' rather than any transmitted knowledge from a pre-existing coven. Hutton (1999, p49) notes that the Aid 'commenced as a repository for notes which Gardner took from various systems, such as Cabala and Tarot, and then became the repository for the first known Wiccan rituals, initiation rites for the three progressive degrees'. Eventually these were more formally written as the first Book of Shadows - which began the tradition of every Wicca coven possessing its own individual book of shadows within which are written the basic outlines for that coven's ritual practice.

In sum, it is beyond reasonable doubt that the founding of Wicca is based upon a fictional event – Gardener’s supposed initiation by the New Forest Coven – and upon a fictional spiritual tradition – Murray’s thesis of an ancient Pagan witch-cult. Rather, Gardnerian Wicca is an amalgam of folk religious practices, obscure magical lore, and naturism galvanised by Gardner’s active imagination. Yet to dismiss Wicca as a fiction, even when the authenticity of religious traditions in the wider world is held as sacrosanct, is overly simplistic. Despite its basis in a fictitious event, history and thesis, Wicca has proved to be an increasingly popular spirituality which has undoubtedly spiritually transformed the lives of its practitioners. Wiccans appear unfazed by the reinvented status of their spiritual tradition, and indeed, are keen to be part of creating a new religious movement which is also said to tap into ancient avenues of empowerment. As this Wiccan states:

 
No-one…no Witch…takes the old Gerald and Dorothy story seriously. But what we tap into goes far further back than the 1950s. That’s not to talk about the Burning Times…What we are tapping into is a far older power…Gerald knew that. I now that this power has transformed my life in untold ways.

Given this spiritual power, the term fictive is more appropriate than fictional (Noel, 1997). Whereas the fictional implies an artificial textual foundation, the fictive transcends this arguing that the fictitious can spawn imaginative milieux which can have far-reaching existential and ontological effects. The fictive influences also require one to rethink one’s notion of tradition. Rather than a passive remnant of premodernity, tradition becomes dynamic, innovative and modern:
 

Tradition can thus be understood, contrary to sociological consensus, as the matrix of innovation and the dynamic process of forward transmission…and innovation as well as tradition can be trusted as expressive and authentic within communities. Continuity can thus be changed whilst change is mediated. (Pearson, 1999, pp233-4)

Traditions, therefore, are pro-active rather than retrogressive. They constitute practice, but are actively constituted by the imaginary, phantasy and through imagination. As this shaman states:
 

We tend to think of traditions as being rooted in the past. Of course they are, but…they…they are timeless. Being without time they are of the present and the future too. They exist as long as we can dream.

As this Druid adds:
 

It’s important to hand spiritual wisdom…and traditions down to other generations … Thinking about it … mmm … just as we pass the environment on to our children … well, traditions are forward looking in that way … They bend with the wind too, or at least with our ideas.

Thus, in contra-distinction to the late modernity of Giddens, traditions still appear to proliferate in contemporary Western culture, providing stable existential orientation points whilst simultaneously pro-actively adapting to change, particularly by tactical uses of bricolage (Magliocco, 1996). That is, traditions do not disappear in late modernity, rather they become reflexive (Mellor, 1993; Mellor and Shilling, 1997; Walliss, 2002). Understood in this way, traditions become forward looking within magical communities - the catalyst for existential change as well as ontological security. Such a view acts to critique both the radical detraditionalization thesis and Giddens’ (1994) notion of a post-traditional society. This dual nature of fictive magical traditions is demonstrated by a closer examination at the relationship between fiction and magic.

Traditions and fiction

Interestingly, such personal invention of fictional selves is not the only influence on contemporary magical practice. One sees the dynamism of tradition in the magical uses of works of fiction. As Phil Hine (1999) states:
 

For the last three decades or so, there has been a growing interest amongst contemporary magicians towards developing magical perspectives from non-historical sources or mythic worlds which are not rooted in a particular culture, but which have arisen from literature, science fiction, or modern, urban myths (Hine, 1999, p220).

Lovecraftian magic

The roots of Lovecraftian magic is a bricolage encompassing the thelemite Kenneth Grant and his extra-terrestrial (transplutonic) channellings, Satanic ritual, but particularly chaos magic (La Vey, 1972; Grant, 1992; Hine, 1999, pp220-38). These strands were galvanized in the mid-1980s by a group of chaoists known as The Esoteric Order of Dagon (EOD). The anthropologist of magic Justin Woodman (2001) describes his initial contact with Lovecraftian magic through EOD thus:
 

During the course of research into contemporary occult subcultures in London, I became aware - both through the personal narratives of practitioners and the literature that they made recourse to in the construction of belief and practice - of a small but significant movement of “Lovecraftian magicians” dedicated to an occult exegesis of the fictional worlds of American science-fiction and horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937). (Woodman, 2001, p1)

Lovecraft’s literary achievement was the creation of a fictional framework popularly known as the Cthulhu mythos named after Lovecraft’s submarine misanthropic extra-terrestrial Cthulhu (see Davis, 1995, p 1). As Woodman (2001) explains, Lovecraft’s works encompass ‘a series of stories making common reference to a nebulous mythology concerning monstrous, non-anthropomorphic extraterrestrial entities known as the Great Old Ones or Old Ones’ (Woodman, 2001, p 1), described by one contemporary magician as
 

a group of trans-dimensional entities.who, “when the stars are right”, can enter into our world via psychic or physical gateways. The Great Old Ones represent an ‘Elder Lore’ which antedates human civilisation and, to human perception, are both immensely powerful and alien. In the tales of the Cthulhu mythos, there is a worldwide network (or conspiracy) of cults who worship the Great old Ones and seek to speed their return to the Earth. (Zebulon, n.d., p1).

It is inferred by Lovecraft that humanity itself may have been an experiment, perhaps accidental, by one of these alien races. Hence, as Woodman (2001) rightly asserts:
 

Lovecraft used his fictional Great Old Ones as metaphors for a rather Nietzschean worldview, presenting the universe as blind and impersonal - an ethos which cast humanity’s eventual destruction as an incidental side-effect of the Old Ones’ inscrutable goals, not as a result of their antipathy towards the human race. Thus, the central themes of Lovecraft’s fiction are rather bleak and nihilistic - a Copernican decentring of human meaning within an indeterministic, incomprehensible, and intrinsically hostile cosmos. (Woodman, 2001, p.2)

Thus, the Lovecraftian cosmos is suffused with uncertainty, paralleling the uncertainties of globalized late modernity. Lovecraftian magic is significant because it both reflects and uses this uncertain zeitgeist. That is, magical identities have not merely contracted into a Giddensian cocoon of ontological security under the pressures of these existential uncertainties. On the contrary, they have expanded, becoming multiplied with many alter-egos, with ‘the fictive Old Ones as metaphors for exploring multiple dimensions of selfhood’ in an increasingly ‘complexified and uncertain socio-cultural context’ (Woodman, 2001, p3). Thus, the Old Ones are ‘masks of self’ which, when encountered can ‘register as a particular experience which expands the sense of self, enabling us to change ourselves and things around us, bringing us that much closer to reality’ (Sennitt 1997, p12). For Woodman, this essentially ‘reframes the apocalyptic return of the Great Old Ones as a transformation of human consciousness towards trans- or post-human and extraterrestrial modes of being, which retain little or no reference to prior forms of human sociality and morality’ (Woodman, 2001, p6). The Lovecraftian magician Stephen Grasso suggests that the Old Ones represent
 

our evolutionary heritage. They are memories of dinosaurs, the silence of space, and the primordial chaos of the big bang. In order for the human species to evolve beyond its current status of clever talking chimp, we must somehow find a way to awaken these long forgotten elements that shaped the development of our consciousness. Literally waking up the Great Old Ones that lie sleeping...the primeval consciousness of the universe which has been lying dormant in humanity but is now slowly waking up...[that] Lovecraftian magic was all about becoming the monsters ourselves. (undated personal communication to Woodman)

In sum, the literary conventions and traditions present within the Cthulhu mythos create an ontologically secure space which gives magicians the necessary license for magical risk and experimentation. In the case of Lovecraftian magic, this experimentation is an imaginative engagement with other or alien forms of selfhood. Thus, the security afforded by magical traditions, also perversely makes them imaginative avenues of liberation. This dual nature of tradition – as simultaneously secure and risky – is a particular feature of ritual traditions.
 

Tradition, creativity and ritual

The ludic existential experimentation of Lovecraftian magic is galvanized through the use of ritual. In particular, magicians take it in turns to become possessed by a particular Lovecraftian entity, all of which exhibit different characteristics – for example, Cthulhu’s monstrous misanthropy and Nyarlathotep’s animal cunning – in order to understand and transform that part of the psyche. Thus, Lovecraftian ritual is both magico-religious psycho-drama and personal exorcism. Such ritual practices are excellent examples of the ways in which magical traditions are both dynamic yet provide a measure of ontological security:

Wiccan rituals, for example, are constructed around Nietzsche’s notions of the Apollonian and the Dionysian in The Birth of Tragedy (Nietzsche, 1993). For Nietzsche, Greek tragedy gained its power from its successful blending of structure – represented by the Hellenic sun god Apollo – and creativity – represented by Dionysus, the god of chaos of ecstasy. Similarly, Pagan traditions and rituals are hybrids of order and innovation. Rituals, particularly Wiccan sabbats – celebrations linked to seasonal cycles - are embedded in a particular glacial chronology and ritual style, yet are simultaneously ludic and open to change. That is, rituals are fixed in particular spiritual traditions, tending to be performed at particular times, in particular ways in order to obtain particular effects, but above and beyond this, the wording, intent, paraphernalia, and personnel of a ritual is open to diachronic change. Thus, rituals, like traditions, appear to possess this dual nature of both promoting feelings of ontological security and facilitating personal change. In this way, Pagan ritualism possesses a strong late modern character.

Conclusions

Ironically, the late modern theoretical marginalisation of tradition has merely bolstered its position as important psycho-social concept. In contra-distinction to Giddens, the reflexive reinvention of tradition is an important feature of late modernity. As John B. Thompson (1996) states ‘Tradition is not necessarily abandoned in the quest for ‘bread and enlightenment’ but is, on the contrary, reshaped, transformed, and perhaps even strengthened through the encounter’ (Thompson, 1996, p95). A theoretical reclamation of tradition as both constituting and being constituted by the imagination and phantasy, would restore its seemingly perverse position as a dynamic mode of modern invention and re-invention. Certainly, Paganisms provide important insight into the ways in which traditions both unmake and remake our contemporary world, affording simultaneous security and transformation. Late modern theorists - so perceptive when it comes to the psycho-social composition of risk, uncertainty and identity in contemporary societies - clearly need to re-imagine ‘tradition’ within this context.

Copyright - The Author
 

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Address for Correspondence

E-mail: david2.green@uwe.ac.uk