Joscelyn Godwin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joscelyn Godwin 16 January 1945 Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Professor, author, translator |
| Known for | Ancient music, Paganism, Occult |
Joscelyn Godwin (born 16 January 1945) is a historian of the occult and esotericism. [1] [2] He is also a musicologist and translator known for his work on ancient music, early music, paganism, and music in the occult, a harpsichordist, and an occasional composer.
Godwin was born on 16 January 1945 at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England. [3] He was the younger son of the artists Edward and Stephanie Scott-Godwin, the first permanent residents to occupy Kelmscott Manor after the family of William Morris. [4]
He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969). [5] [6] Moving to the US in 1966 he studied musicology at Cornell University, [7] taught at Cleveland State University for two years, and then joined the Colgate University Music Department in 1971. [8] He retired from Colgate in 2016 as Professor of Music Emeritus.
He has written, edited or translated many books on occultism and pagan music, including: Harmonies of Heaven and Earth (on the spiritual dimensions of music); Music and the Occult (a study of occult philosophy and its expression in music); a biography of English physician and mystical philosopher Robert Fludd; Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World (a biography of Kircher, the Jesuit, linguist, archaeologist and scholar); Arktos: the Polar Myth (an exploration of the mythology surrounding the Earth's polar regions); and Atlantis and the Cycles of Time. [6]
