Editing Margaret Murray (section)

==Legacy==
===In academia===
Hutton noted that Murray was one of the earliest women to "make a serious impact upon the world of professional scholarship",{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=194}} and the archaeologist Niall Finneran described her as "one of the greatest characters of post-war British archaeology".{{sfn|Finneran|2003|p=108}} Upon her death, Daniel referred to her as "the Grand Old Woman of Egyptology",{{sfn|Daniel|1964|p=2}} with Hutton noting that Egyptology represented "the core of her academic career".{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=194}} In 2014, Thornton referred to her as "one of Britain's most famous Egyptologists".{{sfn|Thornton|2014|p=1}} 

However, according to the archaeologist Ruth Whitehouse, Murray's contributions to archaeology and Egyptology were often overlooked as her work was overshadowed by that of Petrie, to the extent that she was often thought of primarily as one of Petrie's assistants rather than as a scholar in her own right. By her retirement she had come to be highly regarded within the discipline, although, according to Whitehouse, Murray's reputation declined following her death, something that Whitehouse attributed to the rejection of her witch-cult theory and the general erasure of women archaeologists from the discipline's male-dominated history.{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|pp=120, 125}}

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|quote = No British folklorist can remember Dr Margaret Murray without embarrassment and a sense of paradox. She is one of the few folklorists whose name became widely known to the public, but among scholars, her reputation is deservedly low; her theory that witches were members of a huge secret society preserving a prehistoric fertility cult through the centuries is now seen to be based on deeply flawed
methods and illogical arguments. The fact that, in her old age and after three increasingly eccentric books, she was made President of the Folklore Society, must certainly have harmed the reputation of the Society and possibly the status of folkloristics in this country; it helps to explain the mistrust some historians still feel towards our discipline.
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|source = Jacqueline Simpson, 1994.{{sfn|Simpson|1994|p=89}}
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In his obituary for Murray in ''Folklore'', James noted that her death was "an event of unusual interest and importance in the annals of the Folk-Lore Society in particular as well as in the wider sphere in which her influence was felt in so many directions and
disciplines".{{sfn|James|1963|p=568}} However, later academic folklorists, such as Simpson and Wood, have cited Murray and her witch-cult theory as an embarrassment to their field,{{sfnm|1a1=Simpson|1y=1994|1p=89|2a1=Wood|2y=2001|2p=45}} and to the Folklore Society specifically.{{sfnm|1a1=Simpson|1y=1994|1p=89|2a1=Oates|2a2=Wood|2y=1998|2p=8}} Simpson suggested that Murray's position as President of the Society was a causal factor in the mistrustful attitude that many historians held toward folkloristics as an academic discipline, as they erroneously came to believe that all folklorists endorsed Murray's ideas.{{sfn|Simpson|1994|p=89}} Similarly, Catherine Noble stated that "Murray caused considerable damage to the study of witchcraft".{{sfn|Noble|2005|p=24}}

In 1935, UCL introduced the Margaret Murray Prize, awarded to the student who is deemed to have produced the best dissertation in Egyptology; it continued to be presented annually into the 21st century.{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|p=125}} In 1969, UCL named one of their common rooms in her honour, but it was converted into an office in 1989.{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|p=125}} 

In June 1983, [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother]] visited the room and there was gifted a copy of Murray's ''My First Hundred Years''.{{sfn|Janssen|1992|p=88}} UCL also hold two busts of Murray, one kept in the [[Petrie Museum]] and the other in the library of the UCL Institute of Archaeology.{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|p=125}} This sculpture was commissioned by one of her students, [[Violet MacDermot]], and produced by the artist [[Stephen Rickard]].{{sfn|Janssen|1992|p=79}} UCL also possess a watercolour painting of Murray by [[Winifred Brunton]]; formerly exhibited in the Petrie Gallery, it was later placed into the Art Collection stores.{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|p=125}}
In 2013, on the 150th anniversary of Murray's birth and the 50th of her death, the UCL Institute of Archaeology's Ruth Whitehouse described Murray as "a remarkable woman" whose life was "well worth celebrating, both in the archaeological world at large and especially in UCL".{{sfn|Whitehouse|2013|p=120}}

The historian of archaeology Rosalind M. Janssen titled her study of Egyptology at UCL ''The First Hundred Years'' "as a tribute" to Murray.{{sfn|Janssen|1992|p=xiii}} Murray's friend [[Margaret Stefana Drower]] authored a short biography of her, which was included as a chapter in the 2004 edited volume on ''Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists''.{{sfn|Drower|2004}} In 2013, [[Lexington Books]] published ''The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman's Work in Archaeology'', a biography of Murray authored by Kathleen L. Sheppard, then an assistant professor at [[Missouri University of Science and Technology]]; the book was based upon Sheppard's doctoral dissertation produced at the [[University of Oklahoma]].{{sfnm|1a1=Sheppard|1y=2013|1p=vii|2a1=Doyle White|2y=2016b|1pp=154–155}} Although characterising it as being "written in a clear and engaging manner", one reviewer noted that Sheppard's book focuses on Murray the "scientist" and as such neglects to discuss Murray's involvement in magical practices and her relationship with Wicca.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016b|pp=155–156}}

===In Wicca===
[[File:Horned God.JPG|thumb|upright|A sculpture of the Horned God of Wicca found in the [[Museum of Witchcraft and Magic]] in [[Boscastle]], Cornwall]]
Murray's witch-cult theories provided the blueprint for the [[Paganism (contemporary)|contemporary Pagan]] religion of [[Wicca]],{{sfnm|1a1=Simpson|1y=1994|1p=89|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2p=176}} with Murray being referred to as the "Grandmother of Wicca".{{sfn|Doyle White|2016b|p=156}} The [[Pagan studies]] scholar Ethan Doyle White stated that it was the theory which "formed the historical narrative around which Wicca built itself",{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=16–17}} for on its emergence in England during the 1940s and 1950s, Wicca claimed to be the survival of this witch-cult.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=77}} Wicca's theological structure, revolving around a Horned God and Mother Goddess, was adopted from Murray's ideas about the ancient witch-cult,{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=87}} and Wiccan groups were named ''covens'' and their meetings termed ''esbats'', both words that Murray had popularised.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=97–98}} As with Murray's witch-cult, Wicca's practitioners entered via an initiation ceremony;{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=101}} Murray's claims that witches wrote down their spells in a book may have been an influence on Wicca's [[Book of Shadows]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=120}} Wicca's early [[Wheel of the Year|system of seasonal festivities]] were also based on Murray's framework.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=132}}

Noting that there is no evidence of Wicca existing before the publication of Murray's books, Merrifield commented that for those in 20th century Britain who wished to form their own witches' covens, "Murray may have seemed the ideal fairy godmother, and her theory became the pumpkin coach that could transport them into the realm of fantasy for which they longed".{{sfn|Merrifield|1993|p=10}} The historian [[Philip Heselton]] suggested that the [[New Forest coven]] – the oldest alleged Wiccan group – was founded ''circa'' 1935 by esotericists aware of Murray's theory and who may have believed themselves to be reincarnated witch-cult members.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=28}} It was [[Gerald Gardner]], who claimed to be an initiate of the New Forest coven, who established the tradition of [[Gardnerian Wicca]] and popularised the religion; according to Simpson, Gardner was the only member of the Folklore Society to "wholeheartedly" accept Murray's witch-cult hypothesis.{{sfnm|1a1=Simpson|1y=1994|1p=89|2a1=Sheppard|2y=2013|2p=177}} The duo knew each other, with Murray writing the foreword to Gardner's 1954 book ''[[Witchcraft Today]]'', although in that foreword she did not explicitly specify whether she believed Gardner's claim that he had discovered a survival of her witch-cult.{{sfnm|1a1=Oates|1a2=Wood|1y=1998|1p=14|2a1=Doyle White|2y=2016|2p=186}} In 2005, Noble suggested that "Murray's name might be all but forgotten today if it were not for Gerald Gardner".{{sfn|Noble|2005|p=17}}

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|quote = As the religion [of Wicca] emerged, many practitioners saw those who suffered in the [witch trials of the Early Modern] as their forebears, thus adopting the Murrayite witch-cult hypothesis which provided Wicca with a history stretching back far into the reaches of the ancient past. As historians challenged and demolished this theory in the 1960s and 1970s, many Wiccans were shocked. Some accepted that the theory was not actually legitimate, instead portraying the Murrayite story as a mythical history for the Craft and seeking to emphasise the religion's other historical antecessors. Other practitioners however vehemently defended Murray's hypothesis against academic critique, viewing it as a significant article of faith.
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|source = Ethan Doyle White, 2016.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=77}}
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Murray's witch-cult theories were likely also a core influence on the non-Gardnerian Wiccan traditions that were established in Britain and Australia between 1930 and 1970 by the likes of [[Bob Clay-Egerton]], [[Robert Cochrane (witch)|Robert Cochrane]], [[Charles Cardell]], and [[Rosaleen Norton]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=34}}
The prominent Wiccan [[Doreen Valiente]] eagerly searched for what she believed were other surviving remnants of the Murrayite witch-cult around Britain.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=38}} Valiente remained committed to a belief in Murray's witch-cult after its academic rejection,{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=188}} and she described Murray as "a remarkable woman".{{sfn|Valiente|1989|p=24}} 

In [[San Francisco]] during the late 1960s, Murray's writings were among the sources used by [[Aidan A. Kelly]] in the creation of his Wiccan tradition, the [[New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=55}} In [[Los Angeles]] during the early 1970s, they were used by [[Zsuzsanna Budapest]] when she was establishing her feminist-oriented tradition of [[Dianic Wicca]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=59}} The Murrayite witch-cult theory also provided the basis for the ideas espoused in ''Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture'', a 1978 book written by the American [[gay liberation]] activist [[Arthur Evans (author)|Arthur Evans]].{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=63}}

Members of the Wiccan community gradually became aware of academia's rejection of the witch-cult theory. Accordingly, belief in its literal truth declined during the 1980s and 1990s, with many Wiccans instead coming to view it as a myth that conveyed metaphorical or symbolic truths.{{sfnm|1a1=Simpson|1y=1994|1p=95|2a1=Doyle White|2y=2016|2pp=17, 81}} Others insisted that the historical origins of the religion did not matter and that instead Wicca was legitimated by the spiritual experiences it gave to its participants. In response, Hutton authored ''[[The Triumph of the Moon]]'', a historical study exploring Wicca's early development; on publication in 1999 the book exerted a strong impact on the British Pagan community, further eroding belief in the Murrayite theory among Wiccans.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=81–83}} Conversely, other practitioners clung on to the theory, treating it as an important [[article of faith]] and rejecting post-Murrayite scholarship on European witchcraft.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=77, 82}} Several prominent practitioners continued to insist that Wicca was a religion with origins stretching back to the Palaeolithic, but others rejected the validity of historical scholarship and emphasised intuition and emotion as the arbiter of truth.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|p=82}} A few "counter-revisionist" Wiccans – among them [[Donald H. Frew]], Jani Farrell-Roberts, and Ben Whitmore – published critiques in which they attacked post-Murrayite scholarship on matters of detail, but none defended Murray's original hypothesis completely.{{sfn|Doyle White|2016|pp=82–83}}

===In literature===
Simpson noted that the publication of the Murray thesis in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' made it accessible to "journalists, film-makers popular novelists and thriller writers", who adopted it "enthusiastically".{{sfn|Simpson|1994|p=89}} It influenced the work of [[Aldous Huxley]] and [[Robert Graves]].{{sfn|Simpson|1994|p=89}} Murray's ideas shaped the depiction of paganism in the work of historical novelist [[Rosemary Sutcliff]].{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=294}} Murray's ideas about religion can also be discerned in the fictions of another British historical novelist, [[Henry Treece]].{{sfn|Gibson|2013|p=144}} It was also an influence on the American horror author [[H. P. Lovecraft]], who cited ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' in his writings about the fictional cult of [[Cthulhu]].{{sfn|Winick|2015|p=570}} Another horror writer, [[Dennis Wheatley]], incorporated Murray's ideas about witchcraft into his novel ''[[The Devil Rides Out]]'' and cited Murray's work in his non-fiction book on the occult, ''The Devil and all his Works''.{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=263}} 

The author [[Sylvia Townsend Warner]] cited Murray's work on the witch-cult as an influence on her 1926 novel ''[[Lolly Willowes]]'', and sent a copy of her book to Murray in appreciation, with the two meeting for lunch shortly after.{{sfnm|1a1=Faxneld|1y=2014|1pp=642, 644|2a1=Winick|2y=2015|2p=565}} There was nevertheless some difference in their depictions of the witch-cult; whereas Murray had depicted an organised pre-Christian cult, Warner depicted a vague family tradition that was explicitly Satanic.{{sfn|Winick|2015|pp=576–577}}
In 1927, Warner lectured on the subject of witchcraft, exhibiting a strong influence from Murray's work.{{sfn|Faxneld|2014|p=645}} Analysing the relationship between Murray and Warner, the English literature scholar Mimi Winick characterised both as being "engaged in imagining new possibilities for women in modernity".{{sfn|Winick|2015|p=565}}

The fantasy novel [[Lammas Night]] is based on the same idea of the role of the royal family.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fantasyliterature.com/reviews/lammas-night/|access-date=25 June 2023|first=Kelly|last=Lasiter|title=Lammas Night: Magical smack down on the Führer|date=16 July 2010|publisher=Fantasy Literature|archive-date=25 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625171529/https://fantasyliterature.com/reviews/lammas-night/|url-status=live}}</ref>