“Don’t eat the incense”: Children’s Participation in Contemporary Pagan Practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v11i2.181Keywords:
Paganism, children, ritualAbstract
Based on ethnographic fieldwork with Pagan families around the United States, this article examines the changing spiritual needs of Pagan parents and children as evidenced in the development of child-friendly and child-centered rituals. Pagan parents’ ritual adaptations and innovations provide ways for children to participate in ritual and offer instances of the religious creativity of Pagan families. Examples of child-oriented ritual adaptations are drawn from a private family ritual as well as a large community ritual performed by a SpiralScouts circle. In addition to these adaptations of “traditional” ritual elements and tools, this paper suggests that understandings of “ritual” be expanded—especially when children are involved—to include seemingly mundane everyday activities within the family as well as larger, group ceremonial practices. The emphasis within Pagan families on the performance of ritual activities and spiritual practices in everyday life reflects the importance of considering ritual as only one of the many venues for religious expression among adults and children.References
Apollo, Rev. Morninghawk (Dawn Blacksun). “Children Attending Pagan Rituals.” Witchvox, 2004 http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ussd&c=words &id=8453.
Bado-Fralick, Nikki. Coming to the Edge of the Circle: A Wiccan Initiation Ritual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Bell, Catherine. “Performance.” In Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edited by Mark C. Taylor, 205-24. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
———. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press,
———. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Berger, Helen A. “Witches: The Next Generation.” In Children in New Religions, edited by Susan J. Palmer and Charlotte Hardman, 11-28. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Farrell, Andria. “The First Church of Wicca Celebrates with the Spirits.” Wicked Local Duxbury, http://www.wickedlocal.com/duxbury/homepage/x1375672905.
Greenwood, Susan. The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness. Oxford: Berg, 2005.
Griffin, Wendy. “The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity.” Sociology of Religion 56, no. 1 (1995): 35-48.
Luhrmann, T. M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Orsi, Robert A. Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Salomonsen, Jone. Enchanted Feminism: Ritual, Gender and Divinity among the Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London/New York: Routledge, 2002.
———. “The Ethno-Methodology of Ritual Invention in Contemporary Culture: Two Pagan and Christian Cases.” Journal of Ritual Studies 17, no. 2 (2003): 15-24.
Scarboro, Allen, Nancy Campbell, and Shirley A. Stave. Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994.
Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Wise, Constance. “Power in the Sacred Circle: A Metaphysics for Feminist Wicca Based on Process Thought.” Ph.D. diss., The Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver, 2004.
Bado-Fralick, Nikki. Coming to the Edge of the Circle: A Wiccan Initiation Ritual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Bell, Catherine. “Performance.” In Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edited by Mark C. Taylor, 205-24. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
———. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press,
———. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Berger, Helen A. “Witches: The Next Generation.” In Children in New Religions, edited by Susan J. Palmer and Charlotte Hardman, 11-28. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Farrell, Andria. “The First Church of Wicca Celebrates with the Spirits.” Wicked Local Duxbury, http://www.wickedlocal.com/duxbury/homepage/x1375672905.
Greenwood, Susan. The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness. Oxford: Berg, 2005.
Griffin, Wendy. “The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity.” Sociology of Religion 56, no. 1 (1995): 35-48.
Luhrmann, T. M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Orsi, Robert A. Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Salomonsen, Jone. Enchanted Feminism: Ritual, Gender and Divinity among the Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London/New York: Routledge, 2002.
———. “The Ethno-Methodology of Ritual Invention in Contemporary Culture: Two Pagan and Christian Cases.” Journal of Ritual Studies 17, no. 2 (2003): 15-24.
Scarboro, Allen, Nancy Campbell, and Shirley A. Stave. Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994.
Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Wise, Constance. “Power in the Sacred Circle: A Metaphysics for Feminist Wicca Based on Process Thought.” Ph.D. diss., The Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver, 2004.
Published
2010-03-25
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Kermani, Z. (2010). “Don’t eat the incense”: Children’s Participation in Contemporary Pagan Practice. Pomegranate, 11(2), 181-196. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v11i2.181
