By Phil Hine
What is it about Pagans and The Golden Bough? It seems like every time I open a book written by a Pagan or Magician, there it is, casting an inescapable shadow over the text, like the monolith in 2001. Recently, in exploring a quotation that paraphrased some of Frazer’s “data”, and delving into some of his secondary sources, I found myself reflecting (and not for the first time) on why Frazer’s work, which contemporary anthropologists, Folklorists and Mythographers have been at great pains to distance themselves from, still remains popular in Pagan & occult texts. In a way its not surprising, given the influence that Frazer’s mammoth work has exerted on the twentieth century. Indeed, Robert Brockway, in Myth from the Ice Age to Mickey Mouse professes that:
“…it is no exaggeration to say that everyone interested in myth from the turn of the century to World War II was initially inspired or strongly influenced by reading The Golden Bough.” Robert Brockway, Myth from the Ice Age to Mickey Mouse (157)
While reading any one of the abridged editions of this work is fine, and quite entertaining as long as one ignores Frazer’s “conclusions,” I have set out to accumulate copies of the entire original 13-volume original work, for a better and more complete view of what he was drawing those conclusions of, and more complete tellings of those myths and customs, etc., as well.