Chas S. Clifton (born 1951) is an American academic, author and historian who specialises in the fields of

English studies English studies (usually called simply English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries; it is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which ...

and

Pagan studies Pagan studies is the multidisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of modern paganism, a broad assortment of modern religious movements, which are typically influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of premodern ...

. Clifton currently holds a teaching position in English at

Colorado State University-Pueblo Colorado State University Pueblo (CSU Pueblo) is a public university in Pueblo, Colorado. It is a member of the Colorado State University System (CSU System) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). History 1933 to 1959 The idea for startin ...

, prior to which he taught at

Pueblo Community College Pueblo Community College (PCC) is a public community college in Pueblo, Colorado. History ''Pueblo Community College'' (PCC) traces its history to the founding of Southern Colorado Junior College (SCJC) in 1933. In 1937 SCJC became part of the ...

. A practicing

Pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

since the early 1970s, Clifton has written widely on the subject, in both a practical and an academic capacity, with a particular emphasis on the Pagan religion of

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...

. He has become a prominent figure in the field of Pagan studies, editing both the

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

The Pomegranate ''The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of Pagan studies including historical, sociological, and anthropological studies dealing with contemporary Paganism and other ...

'', and the Pagan Studies Series of academic books published by

AltaMira Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

. He also serves as co-chair of the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profes ...

's Pagan Studies Group.

Biography

Early life: 1951–1991

Clifton was born in 1951, and raised in the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

denomination of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. Undertaking his undergraduate studies in English at

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, during a summer vacation in 1972 he aided a teacher in the construction of an

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

house near

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. Here, he read a copy of

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

' ''

The White Goddess ''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'' is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, the book is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazi ...

''; believing that it represented a "religion for poets", it sparked his interest in Paganism. Clifton and Doyle White 2012. Returning to Reed for his final year, he read more of Graves' work, producing his thesis – a book of poems entitled ''Queen Famine'' – under his influence. He self-initiated himself into Paganism through a rite found in

Hans Holzer Hans Holzer (26 January 1920 – 26 April 2009) was an Austrian-American author and parapsychologist. He wrote more than 120 books on supernatural and occult subjects for the popular market as well as several plays, musicals, films, and doc ...

's book ''The New Pagans'' before moving to

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and joining a group of

ceremonial magic Ceremonial magic (ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an ex ...

ians influenced by the Pagan religion of

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word '' ...

. The following year he joined a Witches' coven with "loose ties" to the 1734 Tradition alongside his partner Mary, and several years later they underwent a Pagan marriage ceremony. Starting his own magazine, ''Iron Mountain: A Journal of Magical Religion'' in the mid-1980s, he also started a graduate degree in religious studies at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

, moving from

Manitou Springs Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

. Circa 1986, he became contributing editor for ''Gnosis: The Journal of Western Inner Traditions'', through which he began corresponding with Evan John Jones and

Felicitas Goodman Felicitas D. Goodman (January 30, 1914 in Budapest, Hungary – March 30, 2005 in Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, USA) was an American linguistics, linguist and anthropologist. She was a highly regarded expert in linguistics and anthropology an ...

, and began writing a syndicated column titled "Letter from Hardscrabble Creek".

Academic career: 1992–2012

Clifton began teaching in the English department at the

University of Southern Colorado Colorado State University Pueblo (CSU Pueblo) is a public university in Pueblo, Colorado. It is a member of the Colorado State University System (CSU System) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). History 1933 to 1959 The idea for startin ...

in 1992. Clifton and TWPT 1999. With Jones, he co-wrote a book titled ''Sacred Mask, Sacred Dance'' (1997), after which they had planned a sequel, ''The Castle and the Cave: Further Steps in Traditional Witchcraft'', but it never saw completion. A member of the

(AAR), he was involved in a 1997 meeting to discuss the possibility of setting up a specific AAR group to discuss Paganism; the AAR governing committee turned them down, believing that their work could be fitted into the New Religious Movements discussion group, but they successfully reapplied in 2004. Clifton and Jone Salomonsen became co-chairs. In 2001, Clifton became editor of ''The Pomegranate'', a scholarly journal devoted to Pagan studies then based in North America. Taking over the position from Fritz Muntean, who had co-founded the journal in 1996, together they searched for a new publisher, that year signing an agreement with Janet Joyce of the London-based company Equinox Publishing. Clifton proceeded to oversee a series of changes to the journal, transforming its subtitle from ''A New Journal of Neopagan Thought'' to ''The International Journal of Pagan Studies'' and implementing a

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

system for judging the papers submitted to it for publication. Clifton 2004. pp. 5–6. In 2004, he published '' Her Hidden Children'', making use of the mass of materials he had assembled over the years. It appeared as the first in the "Pagan Studies Series" published by

; first devised by an editor in the late 1990s, the series came to fruition under the co-editorship of Clifton and Wendy Griffin. Clifton took an early retirement when his departmental head left, believing that the future would not be conducive to his research.

Bibliography

*'The Significance of Aradia.' In ''Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches: A New Translation'', edited by Mario Pazzaglini and Dina Pazzaglini, 59-80. Phoenix Publishing, 1998. .
'Smokey and the Sacred: Nature Religion, Civil Religion, and American Paganism,'
''Ecotheology: The Journal of Religion, Nature and the Environment'', 8(1) (August 2003): 50-60.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * Profile in Morganna Davies and Aradia Lynch, ''Keepers of the Flame,'' (2001) Olympian Press * Sean McCloud
Book review of ''Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America''
''H-Net American Studies'', September 2006. * W. Michael Ashcraft

''Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft'', 2 (1) (Summer 2007): 82-84. * W. Michael Ashcraft
Book review of ''The Paganism Reader.''
''Nova Religio'' 11(1) (August 2007): 133-135. * Jon P. Bloch
Book review of ''Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.''
''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'', 47 (1) (March 2008):171–173 * Murph Pizza
book review of ''Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.''
''The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies'' 9(2) (2007): 200-201. * Cliff Landis
Book review of ''Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.''
''Cliff Landis Net'', 10 January 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Chas S. Living people Colorado State University faculty American occult writers Pagan studies scholars 1951 births People from Manitou Springs, Colorado Colorado State University Pueblo faculty American Wiccans Former Anglicans