Druids in Quebec: Ethnographic Fieldwork Among Druids in Montreal
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Druids in Quebec: Ethnographic Fieldwork among Druids in Montreal Anna Luisa Daigneault Groupe de recherche diversité urbaine Centre d études ethniques des universités montréalaises Université de Montréal Document de travail / Working Paper 2014 Groupe de recherche diversité urbaine (GRDU) Centre d études ethniques des universités Adresse physique : montréalaises Département d anthropologie, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville Pavillon Lionel-Groulx Montréal (Québec) H3C 3J7 3150, rue Jean-Brillant, bureau C-3072 Téléphone : 514 343-7522 Montréal (Québec) H3T 1N8 Télécopieur : 514 343-2494 Courriel : [email protected] http://www.grdu.umontreal.ca/ Dépôt légal : 2014 ISBN : 978-2-921631-64-8 ISBN : 978-2-921631-65-5 (numérique) Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Diversité religieuse au Québec Les documents de travail de la série « Diversité religieuse au Québec » sont des rapports réalisés dans le cadre du projet de recherche « Groupes religieux, pluralisme et ressources symboliques », mené par des membres du Groupe de recherche diversité urbaine (GRDU) et d’autres collègues depuis septembre 2006. Ce projet s'intéresse aux groupes religieux établis au Québec depuis les années 1960, qu’ils représentent de nouvelles religions, des religions déjà implantées ailleurs et importées au Québec par des immigrants, voyageurs québécois ou autres, ou encore de nouveaux courants de religions qui se sont établies dans la province. Le projet a bénéficié d’une subvention FQRSC « Soutien aux équipes de recherche » (Fonds québécois de recherche pour la société et la culture) et d’une subvention de recherche du CRSH (Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines du Canada). Deirdre Meintel dirige ce projet auquel collaborent ou ont collaboré de nombreux chercheurs : Josiane Le Gall (Université de Montréal), Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc (Université du Québec à Montréal), François Gauthier (Université du Québec à Montréal), Khadiyatoulah Fall (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal), Sylvie Fortin (Université de Montréal), John Leavitt (Université de Montréal), ainsi que Claude Gélinas et Fernand Ouellet (tous deux de l’Université de Sherbrooke). Le projet est coordonné par Véronique Jourdain (Université de Montréal). - III - Chacun des documents de recherche de cette série présente l'étude spécifique d'un groupe religieux ayant fait l’objet d’une étude ethnographique approfondie. Exception faite de ceux de Deirdre Meintel et de Géraldine Mossière, ces documents constituent des versions abrégées et condensées des rapports exhaustifs rédigés par chacun des assistants, à la suite de leur travail de terrain. Les chercheurs et les assistants du projet souhaitent que les résultats de leurs recherches contribuent à une meilleure connaissance de la diversité religieuse actuelle du Québec. À cette fin, les documents de cette série ont été adaptés à un public assez large, soit non seulement aux étudiants, enseignants, chercheurs et intervenants sociaux et en santé, mais aussi à tous ceux qui s’intéressent au pluralisme religieux québécois. - IV - Table des matières INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 1. REFLECTIONS ON FIELDWORK AMONG DRUIDS..........................................................2 2. ADF DRUIDRY AND THE REVIVAL OF EARTH WORSHIP..............................................3 2.1. Neopaganism................................................................................................................4 2.2. What is ADF?................................................................................................................5 2.3. ADF Druids in the Montreal Area ..................................................................................7 3. DRUID BELIEFS AND PRACTICES..................................................................................10 3.1. The Wheel of the Year ................................................................................................10 3.2. What is a Druid Ritual like?.........................................................................................11 3.3. Druid Initiation .............................................................................................................15 4. OUT OF THE PAGAN BROOM CLOSET..........................................................................17 4.1. Being Pagan Today: Exploring Ethnic Ancestry .........................................................19 4.2. ADF Druids and Gender Issues ..................................................................................20 4.3. Spiritual Trajectories ...................................................................................................21 5. THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN DRUID NETWORKS....................................................23 6. LANGUAGE IN DRUID RITUALS: A MIRROR OF THE PAST AND PRESENT..............25 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................32 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................34 MEDIA REFERENCES...........................................................................................................34 BIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................34 NOTES ...................................................................................................................................35 - V - - VI - Introduction Between September 2007 and April 2009, I carried out ethnographic fieldwork in two different Druid networks in Quebec. They are both a part of the broader Montreal Pagan Community, which includes many practitioners of different Pagan faiths. The majority of my participatory observation work took place in 2007 and 2008 among the English-speaking Druids who are members of the Ar nDraiocht Féin Druid Fellowship (ADF), and I continued to participate in some of their rituals and social gatherings in 2009. The goal of the fieldwork was to collect data for a study group on religious pluralism in Quebec. During the same period, I also attended five rituals within a primarily francophone network of Druids informally known as La communauté celtique (The Celtic Community) and also as Les druides du Québec (The Druids of Quebec). Celebrating rituals within a second network allowed me to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding the revival of Druidry in Quebec. The contents of this report mostly reflect the practices of the first group, the English- speaking ADF Druids, but in the last section I will also examine some aspects of the practices observed in the francophone Druid network. I will begin by providing some reflections about my fieldwork among modern-day Druids, and mentioning some methodological challenges that came up. I will then discuss the revival of Druidry (also known as Druidism) within the context of Daigneault, A.-L. , document de travail, GRDU - 1 - Neopagan earth worship, and provide an overview of ADF Druid beliefs and practices, including their ritual structure. I will also describe what it is like to be a contemporary Pagan along with the phenomenon of coming out of the Pagan broom closet. The last two sections discuss the role of social media in modern Druid networks, and present thoughts on linguistic performativity as well as speech community affiliation within the two Druid networks. 1. Reflections on Fieldwork Among Druids During the course of my fieldwork, I was presented with a number of ideological challenges that I will briefly mention here. In my quest to understand and respectfully portray the Druidic philosophy, I felt that I had to crack open my Judeo- Christian shell in order to gain access to Pagan spirituality, and allow myself to experience it. This had to be done carefully, because many of my family members are devoutly Christian, and to them, Paganism is synonymous with satanic worship. Adler (2006) also observed the demonization of Paganism by mainstream society in her analysis of the history of Paganism in North America. To my atheist academic colleagues, Paganism is perceived as New Age cult nonsense, and therefore not worthy of intellectual discussion, and thus rejected as a valid academic topic. When I expressed my research interests to those around me who were not part of the study group, I was often met with disapproval, worry about my salvation, or ridicule. This led to some methodological challenges such as having to conceal or downplay my activities among Pagan groups to avoid - 2- Daigneault, A.-L., document de travail, GRDU backlash from my peers and family. The experience led me to conclude that modern-day Pagans indeed have legitimate reasons to keep their beliefs and practices in the shadows, or “in the broom closet”, as they sometimes joke, in order to avoid subtle as well as overt discrimination. Furthermore, the task of describing Pagan spirituality led me to encounter what many practitioners refer to as magic (sometimes written as "magick"), the use of personal spiritual energy to produce intentional transformations in the material world. As a neophyte researcher, conveying this concept to an outside audience with terms that are scientifically acceptable seemed difficult to me at first. I was at a loss for how to adequately describe certain key elements of Druid ceremonies,