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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
These Hellfire clubs were essentially a parody used in satirical sense toward religion... and the only reason the term pagan was associated with the motif is the green man and dragon are known from those times.
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Good note - I would also add to it the 18th C. French origins of the Black Mass, itself a parody of the Catholic Mass. Long before the rise of 19th C. Hermeticism (largely credited with haven given rise to the modern occult movement), there was a long-existing anti-religious backlash practiced by members of the aristocracy, and it would not take a great leap to see how pre-Christian, paleopagan symbolism could serve a parodic purpose in line with these sentiments.
However, I find the explicit representation of the Green Man to be too specific to dismiss any connection to paleopagan beliefs, even if such a representation of such beliefs wasn't meant to embody pagan ritual as much as it might have been meant to serve a purpose in line with the satirical anti-Catholic rituals that existed at the time. Thus, while not an athame per say, I don't think some type of ritualistic function can be completely ruled out, even if said function was rooted in parody as opposed to belief...
ETA: While not an athame per say, given the nature of neopagan / Wiccan rituals and the function an athame serves in those rituals (which in all but the rarest of occasions is purely symbolic), I do not see how the form of the dagger would preclude its use as such, and still maintain the symbology could make this a
very attractive acquisition for a well-to-do Wiccan, thus contributing to the realized price.
