Joscelyn Godwin

Joscelyn Godwin (born 16 January 1945) is a historian of the occult and esotericism. He is also a musicologist and translator known for his work on ancient music, early music, paganism, and music in the occult and spiritualism; a harpsichordist; and an occasional composer.

Biography Godwin was born on 16 January 1945 at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England. He is 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.

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). Moving to the US in 1966 he studied musicology at Cornell University, taught at Cleveland State University for two years, and then joined the Colgate University Music Department in 1971. He retired from Colgate in 2016 as Professor Emeritus of Music.

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 Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit, linguist, archaeologist and scholar); Arktos (an exploration of the mythology surrounding the Earth's polar regions); and Atlantis and the Cycles of Time.