From Egypt to Witchcraft: The Story of Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray (1863–1963) was a pioneering British Egyptologist, anthropologist, and folklorist who left an indelible mark on both the academic world and popular culture. While best known today for her controversial theories about witchcraft, Murray’s contributions spanned a wide array of subjects, from Egyptology to anthropology and folklore studies.
Her research influenced early 20th-century views of European witchcraft and gave rise to ideas that persist in modern witchcraft practices and popular interpretations of ancient paganism.
This article explores the life and works of Margaret Murray, analysing her impact on archaeology, anthropology, and modern pagan movements.
Early Life and Education
Born in Calcutta, India, on July 13, 1863, Margaret Murray was raised in a cosmopolitan environment, part of a prominent British colonial family. When she was seven years old, Murray and her family relocated to England, where she would spend most of her life. Unlike many women of her era, Murray was fortunate to have access to higher education. She enrolled in University College London (UCL) in 1894 at the age of 30, a time when academic opportunities for women were scarce.
Murray initially focused on linguistics, studying under the eminent Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie. Her early training in hieroglyphics and ancient Egyptian culture laid the foundation for her later archaeological work. Through Petrie’s influence, she became heavily involved in the study of ancient civilizations, eventually emerging as one of the first women to make a significant impact in the male-dominated field of Egyptology.
Margaret Murray: Career as an Egyptologist
Most often remember Margaret Murray for her work in Egyptology, particularly her role in major excavations in Egypt and Palestine. Between 1902 and 1903, she worked as an assistant to Flinders Petrie at Abydos, an ancient city in Upper Egypt.
The Abydos dig would prove to be a critical moment in Murray’s career, as she played a crucial role in uncovering the Osireion, a temple complex associated with the god Osiris. Her findings from this site helped to deepen scholarly understanding of ancient Egyptian funerary practices and religious beliefs.
In 1908, Murray published Saqqara Mastabas I, a seminal work that catalogued the tombs and burial sites from Saqqara, an important Egyptian necropolis. Her precise documentation of these sites contributed significantly to Egyptology’s growing body of knowledge. However, World War I interrupted Murray’s work in Egypt, and after the war, she found herself pivoting toward a different but equally fascinating field: European folklore and the study of witchcraft.
The Witch-Cult Hypothesis
While Murray made significant contributions to Egyptology, her most controversial and influential work came in the field of folklore and anthropology. In 1921, she published The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, which proposed the bold hypothesis that witchcraft in medieval Europe was not merely a collection of isolated superstitions or a series of satanic rituals as the church claimed.
Instead, Murray argued that it represented the remnants of a pre-Christian pagan fertility religion that had been practised in secret for centuries.
This so-called “Witch-Cult Hypothesis” posited that the individuals accused of witchcraft during the European witch hunts were not devil-worshippers, but members of an underground religious sect dedicated to worshipping a horned god, a deity possibly related to earlier pagan deities such as the Celtic Cernunnos or the Greek god Pan.
Murray believed that the infamous witches’ sabbats were actually religious ceremonies and that the accused witches were participants in a nature-worshipping fertility cult.
Her theories were largely based on court records, confessions from witch trials, and European folklore, but many critics pointed out that these sources were often unreliable due to the coercion of confessions through torture.
Murray’s work was highly speculative, and many historians of witchcraft and medieval history criticized it for its lack of rigour and overreliance on questionable sources. Nevertheless, her ideas had a profound impact on both scholarly discourse and popular culture, influencing later interpretations of witchcraft and paganism.
Popular Influence and Impact on Modern Witchcraft
Though criticized by academics, Murray’s theories gained a substantial following in popular culture and helped shape the modern witchcraft and neopagan movements. In particular, Murray’s work had a significant influence on Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca.
Gardner’s conception of Wicca drew heavily on Murray’s idea of a secret, ancient witch cult that survived through the centuries, practising fertility rites in secret. Murray even wrote an introduction to Gardner’s 1954 book Witchcraft Today, lending an air of academic credibility to his claims.
Murray’s work also helped to frame the public’s perception of witchcraft. Before her writings, witches were primarily viewed through the lens of Christian demonology and persecution. After The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and her subsequent works, people began to see witches as misunderstood practitioners of an ancient religion, persecuted by the church and state for their beliefs.
This shift in perception laid the groundwork for the romanticization of witches in literature, film, and popular culture, as seen in works ranging from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to modern witch-centric media like The Witch and American Horror Story.
Margaret Murray: Controversy and Criticism
Despite the popular appeal of her theories, Margaret Murray’s scholarship has been subject to intense criticism, both during her lifetime and after her death. Many historians and scholars have disputed the accuracy of her conclusions, arguing that Murray misinterpreted or misrepresented her sources. They point out that she obtained many of the confessions under duress, making them unreliable.
Additionally, many of the alleged rituals and practices she described as part of the “witch cult” had no clear connection to any known pre-Christian religion.
Murray’s greatest detractors argue that her work suffered from confirmation bias—she selectively used evidence that supported her theories and ignored or dismissed anything that contradicted her conclusions.
Scholars such as Norman Cohn, who wrote Europe’s Inner Demons, have argued that there is little to no evidence supporting the existence of an organized pagan cult in medieval Europe. While it is clear that some pre-Christian practices persisted in rural areas, the notion of a widespread, secret fertility cult is now widely discredited.
Legacy and Later Life
Despite the academic controversies surrounding her work, Margaret Murray’s legacy endures. In addition to her contributions to Egyptology and folklore studies, we remember her as a trailblazer for women in archaeology and academia.
She remained active well into her old age, publishing books and articles, teaching, and participating in academic debates. In 1963, she became the first female president of the Folklore Society, a testament to her long-standing contributions to the field.
Murray passed away at the age of 100, having lived through a century of tremendous social and academic change. Her work continues to inspire and provoke debate, particularly within the communities of modern pagans and witches who see her theories as foundational to their belief systems.
Margaret Murray: In Conclusion
Margaret Murray’s life and career exemplify the complexities of academic scholarship and its relationship with popular culture. Though modern historians discredit her witch-cult hypothesis, her work nevertheless had a profound impact on the way we view witchcraft, both in academia and by the general public.
Moreover, her pioneering role as a woman in archaeology and folklore laid the groundwork for future generations of female scholars. While her theories on witchcraft remain controversial, there is no denying that Margaret Murray’s work left a lasting impression on the study of European history, folklore, and the modern occult revival.
In retrospect, Margaret Murray was a multifaceted scholar whose work bridged the gap between archaeology, anthropology, and popular interpretations of witchcraft. Her ideas, although contested, played a crucial role in shaping modern understandings of witchcraft, and her legacy lives on in the academic fields she helped pioneer and the spiritual traditions she indirectly influenced.
