The Literature of Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Femininsts, and Free Spirits
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Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Faculty Scholarship March 1999 The Literature of Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Femininsts, and Free Spirits Marilyn R. Pukkila Colby College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Library and Information Science Commons, Other Education Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Pukkila, Marilyn R., "The Literature of Contemporary Witchcraft: Formalists, Femininsts, and Free Spirits" (1999). Faculty Scholarship. 59. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/faculty_scholarship/59 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. The Literature of Contemporary Wicca: Formalists, Feminists, and Free Spirits SvMARTLYNR- Prn<rrr-a Christi.al religions, r'hile srill others and October 3I. Moreover, Wicc:ns freelv conitss their ov'n creativity and find deity in nature; Goddess and God origin'eliw in inventing tradition. Many are manifest in t}le seasons, the creatures, hen spiritual fem- point to the revir-al of Wicca begun in the plants, and in humans. It is a inists fust began to the 1930s b,v Gerald Gardner as the religion of divine immanence, witi no critique religion, source tbr their religious practice; others distinctions of sacred and secular, spirit they focused on practice in the forms developed by and matter. All is sacred, because dl sexism in current various dis.jples of Gardner- Traditions reflects Goddess, and Goddess is in all lVestern religions. Among the problems mav be highly structured, rvith set things; She lr the earth, the moon, the feminist scholars identified were rhe use of liturgies ald rirual practices, or fluid, waters, the plants, the creatures, '*'hile exclusively male God-language, the wirh inspiration the onlv guide from God is the one who dances through rhe damage done by dualistic modes of gathering ro gathering. i\Iost Wiccans se asons and cycles of life. This thinking, and the absence of women's see this dir-ersin as a sigrr of health rather perspective leads many Wiccans to experience in contemporary religious than anarchv and acknon-ledge that interests in ecoiogy, gardening, and expressions, paniculariy in its tieologies certxin bcliefr and practices are common sustainable development; recycling and liturgies. In extending the to all traditions of this multifaceted becomes not simply a cil'ic duty but a discussion beyond existing religions to religion. religious conviction. seek alternatives or to create nerv forms of expression, *rev discovered a religious \\'icca-os evens-here recognize the tccans mav practice their practice that had been acrive, if largely image of Goddess as essenrial to their fai th alone or in small hidden and overlooked, for generations. religion. llost also recognize some form groups known as covens- lViccal, called by many "Wirchcrafr," of Gol as x-ell, though some groups do They also celebrate at large gatherings, the "Craft of the Wise ," or simply "The not. \lorcover, these imrges are not festivals, or conventions, in which rituats Craft," was for some a r,velcome . static; Goddess is actuallv a Triple may be practiced by hundreds of alternative to parriarchal religions, while Goddess-.\laiden, Woman, and celebrants. Every Wiccan is acknorr.- for others it was a source and inspiration Crone-so that ail aspects of a n'oman's ledged as a priestess or priest; autonomv for change within traditional religions. life are honored and sacred. God may and authority are encouraged in all its also be imaged as \-oung a-u.d old, Oak practitioners, though elders are often Among the many varieties or King and Hollv King, for change is seen sought out for teaching, advice, or uaditions of Wicca today, none is in any as central to all life, and rherefore to the mediation. All Wiccans generally practice lvay related to Satanism, ritual abuse, or dil'ine as s-ell. Er-en death is sacred, part some form of what manv call "magick," various traditional practices (such as of the cvcle of birrh, life, death, and to distinguish it from stage magic. The Voundon, Santeria, or the religions of rebinh; m'anv lYiccans believe in some generally accepted definition of magict various American Indian nations) despite form of reincarnation, x-hich affirms coined by Dione Fortune, is "the art of popular confusion to the contrary. Some death as a p'art of the o,'cie rarier than as changing consciousness at will." Magick lViccan traditions claim origins going ssrnsrhing to be dreaded and overcome. is usually directed at self or at back several centuries, with practices circumstances rather than at other passed down in families for generations. \Yicca is an earth-based religious people, since most Wiccans believe that Others claim inspiration from pre- practice. h derives its ritual cycles from whatever they send out, magickally or the seasons of the 1'ear-from the otherwise, will return to the m solstices, equinoxes, and nen'and full multiplied; hence few lViccans wou-ld Morily R. Pukkils is o Reference Librarion at moons-as *-ell as from the cross-quarter want to engage in any harmful actions- Colby College, rltere slte teaches c0ttries on da,vs, n-hich have become fixed or Magick may be as simple as a c7ntemp|t'ery Wicea anrl oqt w|4nen in w\th and on lighting fairy tale. around Februarv 2, .NIar. l, August l, candle and meditating or as complex as a i\{arch 1999 CHOICE tzl5 TLe Literature of Contemporar;z Wicca coven ritual, in which a circle is cast to one srudv esrimates contain that by the early Murray, notably energy; deities are invoked; 1990s the number |fargaret Tbe Witch- energy had grown to Cub in Western Europe is raised through chanting, ant-n'here g3,000 (Ig2l) from to 332,0002. of the Wirches ^"d";; dancing, or dmmming and then sent ( I93l ). frl".r"..'i ;; When compared to groups such as the |od its intended goal; excess thesis has been rejected b.r* the ,.n","l,i energy is Quakers (40,000) or the Unitarian grounded through eating community, and fex- Wi..rrm and drindng; Universalisrs (180,000), is tod"'l and deities it clear that accept it, but it was an aftractive are then thanked aJ follo*-ers of The Craft are more than a to Gardner, who "";;; 'devokedro and the circle is open. wanted to .rt"Uti.h-til milor secr. tr{uch of the growth that authenticiry Candles, incense, herbs, and various of rhe religiop tre clain edlJ iools occurred during rhe l9g0s can be ffaced are all used to help have rediscovered as ir *.as practitioners focus to the rridngs of feminists their who saw in vanish.3 Whether or nor the "b.;;;; will and achieve their purpose. this religion Old Forcsi a means of redressing the coven was a survival Celebration of life, of Goddess and^God, of ancient practiccs imhalances ofpadarchal religion. But the will probably of tie seasons, and of each never be a.t."mn.a, but other are a.lso literature of conremporary Wicca ii key components started provided the inspirarion for Gardner to the rituals of this some 30 vears before the to religion. entrv of craft a religion; Iack L. Bracelin,s feminism into religious studies. #ith biography Gerald. Gardner: Wbch (1960) college courses now being offered in As may be seen gives one account of these evenB. Wicca by the descripdon of \44cca, and anthropologists, a coven ritual, sociologists, as_Gardner shaped it rr-as strongly Wicca is a religion of the and scholars of religion senses, beginnirlg to influenced by ceremoni"I of embodiment. Since there is no scru.'nize p.".ri.., ,,ich it, libraries must address the task as the Order of distinction between sacred and secular, the Golden Dawn and of collecrion derelopment. This essay will the Freemasons. Although the inclusion describc the major *rirings on contem_ of the Goddess and the importance poran- of lficca by its practitioners, as well as the High Priestess set Gardnerian Wicca Wicca is a religion some of t}re scholarlv smdies and the of the few apan from other contemporary religions, reference works currently available. senses, of embodiment. it could hardly be said to be feminist. Despite the fact that all Wiccans arc priests or priestesses, The Ear\r Formalists Gardnerian tradition had a hierarchv of degrees of initiation, was fairly heterosexist in its n 1954, a rerired matter and British civil pracdces, and placed great emphasis spirit, all acts become servanr published on potentially a book that ceremony and prescribed ritual_hencc sacred. For this reason, sex is *'ou-ld har-e a profound effect on 'The Formalists.' viewed as a sacred activity, and while the religious landscapes of both the UK some traditions view the bieros gamos and the US. Witchcraft Tod.oy (1954) (sacred marriage Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner's of male and femal"e) as a was Gerald Gardner's central reiigious attempt to high priestesses) was instrumental image, most Wiccans are introduce in the religion of Wicca io the crafting many accepting toward all genders and of the te-rrts and rituals sexual world at iarge in order to stave off its orientations, and many Gardner claimed were given him by thc use rituals and demise, n'hich he bel,ieved myths that was imminent. coven he discovered in the Old Forest affirm gays, lesbians, had previouslv published bisexuals, cross-dressers, f{e High when he was practicing ceremonial transgendqreds, Magic's Aid (1949), a novel that magick but seeking something .