Editing Margaret Murray (section)

===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}}