eBook - PDF
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves
Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community
- 314 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
Recent decades have seen a revival of paganism, and every summer people gather across the United States to celebrate this increasingly popular religion. Sarah Pike's engrossing ethnography is the outcome of five years attending neo-pagan festivals, interviewing participants, and sometimes taking part in their ceremonies. Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves incorporates her personal experience and insightful scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative. The result is a compelling portrait of this frequently misunderstood religious movement.
Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960s. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources—among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft."
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.
Neo-paganism began emerging as a new religious movement in the late 1960s. In addition to bringing together followers for self-exploration and participation in group rituals, festivals might offer workshops on subjects such as astrology, tarot, mythology, herbal lore, and African drumming. But while they provide a sense of community for followers, Neo-Pagan festivals often provoke criticism from a variety of sources—among them conservative Christians, Native Americans, New Age spokespersons, and media representatives covering stories of rumored "Satanism" or "witchcraft."
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves explores larger issues in the United States regarding the postmodern self, utopian communities, cultural improvisation, and contemporary spirituality. Pike's accessible writing style and her nonsensationalistic approach do much to demystify neo-paganism and its followers.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves by Sarah M. Pike in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Comparative Religion. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: We Cast Our Circles Where the Earth Mother Meets the Sky Father
- 1. Driving into Fairie: Place Myths and Neopagan Festivals
- 2. Shrines of Flame and Silence: Mapping the Festival Site
- 3. The Great Evil That Is in Your Backyard: Festival Neighbors and Satanism Rumors
- 4. Blood That Matters: Neopagan Borrowing
- 5. Children of the Devil or Gifted in Magic? The Work of Memory in Neopagan Narrative
- 6. Serious Playing with the Self: Gender and Eroticism at the Festival Fire
- Conclusion: The Circle Is Open but Never Broken
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index