"It takes more than drumming!" - (2017-2018)

Whether it is Gandalf, the druidic wizard of “Lord of the Rings”, “Sabrina – The Teenage Witch”, or, more recently, folkloric handfasting ceremonies in the TV-series “Game of Thrones”, adoptions of Pagan beliefs and practices have become increasingly visible, fashionable even in the past years (Moreton 2009). While for some, these are merely a source of entertainment in the form of a “Primetime Paganism” (Saunders 2015), for others – including myself – they represent a way of life.

 

Today, it is estimated that at least 200,000 people identify as Pagan in the UK, although the national Pagan Federation has even claimed a number of 360,000 believers in 2009 (Moreton 2009). Thus, far from being a literary or cinematic invention, Paganism is an umbrella term for a rapidly growing, diverse set of earth-based beliefs in the West. As such, it is characterized by an emphasis on the sacrality of nature and a reverence for “life force and its cycles of life, death and regeneration” (Rountree 2006: 96). Furthermore, this “life force” is also referred to as “Goddess”[1], “the Feminine” (Rountree 1999: 156) and “cosmic dance of existence” (Spretnak 1982: xvii), whose veneration forms the very basis of Pagan practices. 

 

However, although – as often depicted in “Primetime Paganism” – ritual celebrations of the seasons, moon phases and diverse rites of passage indeed constitute important elements in these practices, honoring Goddess isn’t limited to “standing in a ceremonial circle”, as Glastonbury Pagan Bear would say; as a “religion at home on Earth”, Paganism does not denigrate “the ordinary, mundane, everyday facts of life. It celebrates these things and, in doing so, intersects with many of the most vital interests of the contemporary world” (Harvey 1997: vii).

 

For instance, as followers of a “[n]ature religion” (Rountree 2006: 96), Pagans usually not only express concerns about ecology but also feel responsible to act on them, both in the form of activism and in their daily lives (Rountree 2006: 96; Letcher 2003; Ezzy 2006). This leads to the question: is there a connection between everyday acts of Goddess worship and environmental practices? Do they overlap or even embrace one another?

 

In my Master research (2017-2018), based on three months of fieldwork in Glastonbury, the UK, I have sought to explore the links between Pagan Goddess worship, environmental practices and everyday life. In my thesis, through people’s stories, I have illustrated how worship forms a larger assemblage that entangles religiosity and environment and that shapes their daily lives in multiple ways.

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In my forthcoming publications as well as in the description of my current book project "For the Goddess' Sake - Pagan Practices & Ecological Citizenship in Glastonbury, UK" you can find out more about my research's findings and central arguments.

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Literature cited

EZZY, D. (2006). “Popular witchcraft and environmentalism.” The Pomegranate 8 (1): 29-53.

 

HARVEY, G. (1997). Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism. London: Hurst.

 

LETCHER, A. (2003). “'Gaia Told Me to Do It': Resistance and the Idea of Nature within contemporary British Eco-Paganism.” Ecotheology 8(1), 61-84.

 

MORETON, C. (2009). “Everyone's a pagan now.” June 22 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/22/paganism-stonehenge-environmentalism-witchcraft (retrieved December 2, 2017; 3:39 p.m.).

 

ROUNTREE, K. (1999). “The Politics of the Goddess: Feminist Spirituality and the Essentialism Debate.” Social Analysis: 138-165.

 

ROUNTREE, K. (2006). “Performing the Divine: Neo-Pagan Pilgrimages and Embodiment at Sacred Sites.” Body & Society 12(4): 95–115.

 

SAUNDERS, R. A. (2015). “Primetime Paganism: Popular-Culture Representations of Europhilic Polytheism in Game of Thrones and Vikings.” http://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/primetime-paganism-popular-culture-representations-of-europhilic-polytheism-in-game-of-thrones-and-vikings/  (retrieved December 2, 2017; 3:21 p.m.).

 

SPRETNAK, C. (1981). The Politics of Women’s Spirituality: Essays by Founding Mothers of the Movement. New York: Anchor Press.

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