Leo Ruickbie

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Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of Witchcraft Out of the Shadows[1], a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a Master's degree in Sociology and Religion at the University of Lancaster. He then studied at King's College London and was a awarded a PhD for his thesis entitled The Re-Enchanters: Theorising Re-Enchantment and Testing for its Presence in Modern Witchcraft[2]. In 1999 he established the Witchcraft Information Centre and Archive which runs a website (see External Links below) and offers courses in witchcraft studies as well as acting 'as a research consultancy and education provider specialising in the areas of Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Magic (Magick) and the Occult'[3]. On Samhain 2007 he launched Open Source Wicca, a project inspired by the Open Source software movement aimed at making the founding texts of Wicca more readily available by releasing them under a Creative Commons licence.[4]

Contents

[edit] Written Works

[edit] Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004)

Witchcraft Out of the Shadows begins with a survey of historical influences from classical times, northern European paganism, and medieval and early modern Europe. It then describes the roots of modern neopagan witchcraft in groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and individuals such as Aleister Crowley and Doreen Valiente. Particularly important is the critical analysis of the claims made by Gerald Gardner about Wicca, as well as a detailed discussion of the liturgical content of Gardner's Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical and its sources.

The final part of the book is an overview of modern neo-pagan witchcraft belief and practice, drawing principally on Ruickbie's own doctoral research. Using both original research and secondary analysis of a broad range of anthropological and sociological findings, Ruickbie gives estimates for the numbers of people involved in neo-pagan witchcraft in the UK, their age, gender and income distribution. He also asked participants in his own research about the nature of their religious experience, their relationship with the gods, their practice of magic and their beliefs about its effects.


[edit] The Re-Enchanters (2005)

The Re-Enchanters: Theorising Re-Enchantment and Testing for its Presence in Modern Witchcraft is a sociological analysis of modern witchcraft (including Wicca) that builds a theory of re-enchantment using Max Weber's famous disenchantment hypothesis and then tests this using a sample group drawn primarily from practitioners of modern witchcraft and other forms of contemporary paganism.[5]

[edit] Open Source Wicca: The Gardnerian Tradition (2007)

Original ritual texts of the Wiccan Gardnerian Tradition from 1949 to 1961, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence similar to that which is used in the Open Source software community.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ruickbie, Leo. Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004) London: Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-7567-7
  2. ^ Personal biographical information on WICA website, accessed 27 May 2007.
  3. ^ Research page, WICA website. Accessed 27 May 2007.
  4. ^ Open Source Wicca project page, accessed 04 November 2007.
  5. ^ Ruickbie, Leo, 'Weber and the Witches: Sociological Theory and Modern Witchcraft'. JASANAS, 2 (February, 2006)
  6. ^ Ruickbie, Leo, (ed.), Open Source Wicca: The Gardnerian Tradition. 2007.

[edit] External links

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