Description
Book SynopsisTaking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness.
Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmo
Trade Review
"Magliocco impressively corrals the diverse writings and experiences of U.S. neo-pagans into this highly readable and deeply researched ethnographic study. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Ethnography of Magic and the Magic of Ethnography
PART I. ROOTS AND BRANCHES
Chapter 1. The Study of Folklore and the Reclamation of Paganism
Chapter 2. Boundaries and Borders: Imagining Community
PART II. RELIGIONS OF EXPERIENCE
Chapter 3. Making Magic: Training the Imagination
Chapter 4. Ritual: Between the Worlds
Chapter 5. "The Juice of Ritual": Pathways to Ecstasy
PART III. BEYOND EXPERIENCE: RELIGION AND IDENTITY
Chapter 6. The Romance of Subdominance: Creating Oppositional Culture
Chapter 7. "The Heart Is the Only Nation": Neo-Paganism, Ethnic Identity and the Construction of Authenticity
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
