Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Imagining Albion: Fantasy, Enchantment and Belonging in Contemporary British Paganism Thesis How to cite: Purcell, Helen Maria (2015). Imagining Albion: Fantasy, Enchantment and Belonging in Contemporary British Paganism. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2015 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000efad Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Imagining Albion: Fantasy, Enchantment and Belonging in Contemporary British Paganism Helen Purcell BA (hons) MA A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Religious Studies at The Open University / 30 March 2015 ProQuest Number: 13834821 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13834821 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Acknowledgments I have enjoyed the research and the thinking involved in producing this thesis. My warm thanks to Prof Graham Harvey for sticking with me and never failing to encourage, and to Dr Marion Bowman for many well-chosen suggestions for further research. Both have made this a genuinely pleasing voyage of exploration for me. Also my love must go to those who have lived through it - Kat, Tom, Andy, and to my beloved Dad and Mum who were not able to see it completed. Abstract Contemporary Pagans in Britain often describe their experience as new practitioners of this emerging religion as that of ‘coming home’. This thesis examines cultural influences contributing to this sense of recognition, utilising the kinds of fantasy reading cited by Pagans as a lens, in order to focus upon key elements within Paganism that may offer explanation as to what that ‘home’ may be. These influences include the use of myth, fantasy literature, magic and connections with place and ancestry to produce individual and communal representations of belonging. Analysis of the research conducted results in the argument that the impetus connecting disparate enchanted arenas for Pagans is the imagining of community identities that can establish a sense of connection to an idealised multi-dimensional landscape often named as Albion. This place connects together both the primary and the secondary realms and all the persons that belong to it. Place is the integrating factor for Pagans within their enchanted worldview. Usage of Celtic and Norse mythologies is significant, as these stories enable the development of communities that root participants into this particular place. Fantasy literature, utilising myth, reinforces community while also inviting individual exploration of society, space and time. Myth and fantasy connect together past, present and future, to establish a sense of identity. Paganism in Britain represents desire for enchanted identity of place sourced in feelings of indigeneity and the imagining o f ‘coming home’. Table of Contents Page Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of Contents 1 Chapter One: Introduction 8 Chapter Two: Literature review 17 Situating the argument 17 Disenchantment and enchantment 19 Modernity 23 Postmodemity 27 Secularisation 28 Believing without belonging 31 Occulture 33 The significance of being ‘lily white’ 35 Everyday religion 36 The work of the imagination 38 Nation-ness and enchantment 40 Developing identity 42 1 Chapter Three: Methodology 44 Whythis research 44 Choosing a research group 45 My presence in the research 49 Dialogic interaction 50 Utterance and heteroglossia 52 Outline of the fieldwork 52 Flexing positions 54 Geertz - Thick Description 56 Some issues considered 57 Practicalities 60 Conclusions 64 Chapter Four: Contemporary Pagans ‘coming 65 home’ Contemporary Pagans 67 Contemporary Pagans and belief 71 Contemporary Pagan activity 76 Everyday activities 81 Mantle of the ancestors 82 Care 82 Independence and informality 83 Being fully human 85 Symbiosis 86 Desire for the non-rational 86 2 Self development within a community 87 Transformation o f counter-cultural ideas88 Social significance 89 The Pagan Federation 90 Hospital visiting 90 Prison visiting 91 Paganism and the police 92 Interfaith dialogue 93 Identity and utopia 94 Conclusions 95 Chapter Five: Imagination, fantasy and Garner 97 Multi-dimensional Albion 98 Invention, imagination and authenticity 100 The breadth of fantasy 102 The uncanny and the marvellous 104 Spirituality of Place - the work of Alan Gamer 104 Alan Gamer 106 The Weirdstone o f Brisingamen 107 The Moon o f Gomrath 108 Elidor 110 The Owl Service 112 Red Shift 115 The fantastic milieu and indigenous fantasy 118 3 The Voice That Thunders 120 Pagan Themes in Gamer’s works 122 Landscape and owning 122 Place 124 Cultural inheritance 125 Connections across time in a particular 126 landscape Literature of the non-rational 128 Gamer and the creation of identity 129 Conclusions 131 Chapter Six: Books to make spirituality in the 132 world ‘Books that make the spirituality I’d like in the 132 world’ (KB) Romantic or Subversive 134 Fantasy and postmodernism 137 Fantasy and modernism 138 Pagan utilisation of fantasy texts 139 Arthurian fantasy 139 Fantasy and Pagan shamanism 141 Incorporation into practice 144 Calibrating separate realities 144 Fantasy texts as religious texts 145 Contemporary myth-making 146 Fantasy creating enchantment 147 4 Liminality 148 Stories to unriddle the world 149 The arena of fantasy 150 Conclusions 151 Chapter Seven: Myth and community 153 Using the word ‘myth’ 154 Myth and metaphor 155 Myth as a significant story 157 Stories in Pagan communities 158 History of Druidry 158 Celticism 160 Inspiration 162 Poetry and song 162 Ritual 163 Heathenry 164 Witchcraft 166 The Old Religion 167 Female sacrality 168 Priesthood 170 The Glastonbury Goddess 171 Myth in the process of building a community 172 Gods as metaphors 174 The shamanic tradition of Britain 175 5 The personal myth of the Pagan 177 Conclusions 179 Chapter Eight: Magic and enchantment 181 Really realness and magical consciousness 181 Re-enchantment and enchantment 184 Uses of magic within the various communities 186 Magic and Witchcraft 187 Power o f the mind 188 Magic and Heathenry 189 Magic and Druidry 191 Awen 191 An enchanted worldview 193 Story and enchantment 195 Enchantment and secondary worlds 197 Conclusions 201 Chapter Nine: Personhood and healing the 203 divide Quietist responses to nature 204 Stone and story 205 The ‘cult of ruins’ 206 Enjoying the modem 209 New animism and enchantment 210 Relations with ancestors 211 6 Developing an imagined indigenous religion 216 Conclusions 217 Chapter Ten: Imagining a sacred Landscape: 218 Developing identity of belonging and the enchantment of place Between place and placelessness 219 Nationalism 221 Posterity 224 Golden ages 225 Nation-ness and indigeneity 226 Developing identity 228 Communities of comradeship 230 Conclusions 232 Chapter Eleven: Conclusions 234 Final thoughts 237 Bibliography 239 Webography 253 Appendix A 255 7 Chapter One: Introduction This thesis emerged from research undertaken to try to establish why contemporary Pagan practitioners in Britain often describe the feeling that they get upon first meeting other Pagans and being introduced to a religion they have not previously encountered, as a sense of ‘coming home’. The research stemmed from simple beginnings: a recognition that author Alan Gamer had influenced my own personal spiritual development before I recognised that I was a Pagan. My initial intention was to examine the novels of Gamer and other fantasy writers in order to establish the themes in these works that might have contributed to, or paralleled, the spiritual development of Pagans. This focus enabled the distillation of themes that are integral to the religious understanding and practice of Pagans. The research then developed into further examination of some of the themes that emerged, particularly around the importance of establishing a connection with the Spirit of Place, which was revealed to be a key integrating theme both in certain kinds of fantasy novels and in Pagan intent, and also an examination of the importance of imagining in the creation of this religion. Imagining a multi-dimensional space that lies both in the primary dimension and in others simultaneously, enables the development of a sense of community and belonging that provokes feelings of enchantment for Pagans. My research with contemporary Pagans shows that they favour a certain type of fantasy literature, in particular that which utilises Celtic and Norse mythologies, shows an engagement with place, with ancestry, with magical practice and with the fluidity of time. It indicates that Paganism is a religion that seems largely to appeal to people who are white professionals. I set out to look at the potential links, or parallels, between fantasy texts and Paganism in order to contribute to the debate as to whether, as Weber (1991a) suggested, the West has become disenchanted during the twentieth century due to conditions arising from modernity. I argue within this thesis that the themes in Gamer’s novels, in which he ties his own self-identity into his home landscape of Cheshire and into the history of his forbears, run in parallel with core themes in Paganism.