Witchcraft and Magic: Contemporary North America 9780812201253

Citation preview

Witchcraft and Magic

This page intentionally left blank

Witchcraft and Magic Contemporary North America E d ~ t e dby HELEN A. B E R G E R

PENN

University of Pen~lsylva~lia Press Philadelphia

The iildexiilg of this book \\.as under\\.ritten by the deails of the College of Arts and Scieiices at West Chester Uiiirersity through the College of Arts arld Scierlces Support aiid Derelopillerlt A~vards. Copyright

C 2005 Urlirersity of Peiirlsylraiiia Press

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

011

acid-kee paper

Published by Uiiirersity of Perliisylrarlia Press Philadelphia. Pennsylvania 19104-40 1 1 Library of Coiigress Catalogiiig-ill-Publicatiorl Data Witchcraft aiid illagic : corlteillporaly North Ainerica / edited by Heleii A. Berger. p. C l l l . Iilcludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8 122-3877-X (alk. paper) 1. Witchcraft-North America. 2. Magic-North Ainerica. 3. NeopagaiiisillNorth America. I. Berger. Helen A,. 1949-

This page intentionally left blank

Contents

1. New Age and Magic L\4ir!iml Mu k

3. Webs of Women: Fe~lil~list Sp~ritu'illtles It'eizdy Gr!ffiiz

5. Lucumi: The Second Di'ispora Yzarrirrr

Florc.3-Pcvia

6. Satanic Cults, Ritual Abuse, and Moral Panic: Deconstructilig a Modern Witch-Hunt Stttart A. Wrlqlqf

7. The Conl~liodihc'itio~l of Witchcraft Trlr~irc G. Foltz

List o f Co~itl.il~tttofi

This page intentionally left blank

Introduction Helen A. Berger

Magic, always part of the occult u~idergroundin North America, has experieliced a resurgence since the 1960s. Religions such as Witchcraft, Neopaganism, Goddess Worship, the New Age, and Yoruba (also k n o ~ v nas Santeria), which illcorporate ~nagicor mystical beliefi, have gained adherents, particularly aIllong well-educated middle-class individuals.' S o ~ n eof these religions, such as Witchcraft a i d Neopaganism, openly e~llbrace magic. Others, 11lost notably Yoruba, do not define their practices as magical, although outsiders have viewed the religio11 as i~lcorporati~lg a i d using magic. For exa~nple,liealiilg n~ithinthe Yoruba tradition iilvolves both herbal re~nediesa i d divi~latio~l to deter~lli~le and address the underlying spiritual cause of the illness. Magic and religion have traditionally been conceptualized as two separate entities (Malinoxvski 1951; Durkheinl 1963). Religion is viewed as more colllplex than magic, i~ivolvingthe worship of and prayer to the divine, who call choose either to anslver or deny those prayers. Magic, to the contrary, has been perceived as a series of techniclues to control or ~lla~lipulate the spirit world. The distiilctioil is flawed, as magic neither in traditional societies nor in contemporal-y magical religions is solely a matter Sha~llailsin traditioilal societies have always practiced of manipulatio~~. their techliiques within a larger spiritual framework. Similarly, contempor a y ~nagicalreligions define their practices n~itliina religious or spiritual cosmology, not separate from it. There are some exceptiolis to this. Most Sha~nailsand some bra~lcliesof the notably, some non-Native A~nerica~l New Age believe their techliiclues can be separated from a larger spiritual cosmology. For these groups, ~nagicaltechiliques for111 an alternative technology that relies on tapping into natural sources that have been overlooked by science. The distiilctioil betwee11 11lagic and religio11 is further blurred by the fact that maililine religions often have magical compo~lents-such as the belief in ~lliraclesor angels. For 11lagical religions, the ilite~lrreavingof magic and religion is stronger than it is in more l~lainlilie religio~ls.Most of the religions discussed in this volu~lleopenly e~llbrace magic as an important elelllent of their spiritual path that empolvers the

ilidividual and puts him or her in touch with the forces of nature and/or the divine. The terms iizil,yii and c~iiriltare often used interchangeably by contemporan. practitioners of ~llagicalreligions. Magic has traditionally been seen as distinct from the occult, which literally nleans "hidden knowledge." The occult defines a series ofbeliefs and practices that are outside standard scientific reasoning. The purpose of occult practices, like magic, is to influence the normal course of events through nonordinar). means. Occultists, hoxvever, view their practice as either the foreru~lllersof new scientific paraor dig~llsor as co~lsistelltwith present scientific theory but ~nisu~lderstood overlooked by traditional scientists. Books such as Thc Eo of Pl?ysia (Capra 1984) help to justify the v i e ~ vthat today's occult or nlagical practices can ultimately be explained by the new physics. Contemporary magical religions, which developed and grew in the second half of the tn~entietlicentury, initially see~lledto be an ellig~naas they came 011 the heels of a period in n~liicliscience appeared to be replacing contemporary magreligion, at least anlong the educated. In 111ost i~lsta~lces ical religions have come from abroad, but they have found fertile groulid in which to develop in North America. Witchcraft traveled to the United States from the Uliited Kingdom in the 1960s and attracted Inen and n70men who lvere illfluellced by the cou~lterculture.Once on A~nericall soil, the antiauthoritarianism, ellviro~l~lle~ltalism, and f e ~ l l i ~ l i sthat ~ n were part of the social nlovenlellts of that era trallsfor~nedthe religion, which spread cluickly across the United States and into Canada. As there is no central authority in Witchcraft that determines orthodox?. or even membership, a ~ l u ~ n b eofr sects have developed directly or indirectly from Witchcraft that 110n7fall under the u~nbrellaof Neopaga~lism.So~lleof differ only subtly from Witchcraft. Others, these for~nsof Neopaga~lis~n such as Odiliislll and Druidism, are distinct fo1111s that have their own history. Possibly the lllost inlportant sect is feminist Witchcraft-or womenonly groups that venerate the goddess or goddesses to the exclusioli of gods (Eller 199.3). The emphasis on the Goddess in her three aspects-maid, ~notlier,and Witchcraft has crone-as a symbol of \vome~l'senlpon7ermentin fe~lli~list subsequently influenced the larger Witchcraft and Neopagan m o v e ~ ~ ~ e ~ i t to, 011 the whole, become more openly feminist. Witchcraft, because of the veneration of the Goddess, as well as the god force was always attractive to n70men.Fe~nillistWitchcraft, however, radicalized this image and 11lade groups that are illclusive of \vomen and Illen think about i~lliere~lt sexis111 and heterosexis~nin their practices and rituals. Fe~nillistWitchcrafi has also illflueliced the larger \vomen's spirituality movement, which is a diverse group incorporating those who explore goddess images as the main part of the spiritual quest and those who incorporate it into more lllainlilie reli-

gions. In sollle instances, the \vomen's spirituality moveme~ithas fought for and \van Illore inclusive God language, female images of the divine, and greater inclusion of \vomen in leadership roles in ~ l ~ a i n l i churches ~ie and synagogues. At other ti~nes,divisions have developed in religious orga~lizatio~ls because of n~omen'squest for the i~lclusio~l of goddess imagery and laliguage in nt~lalsand liturgy. Although ~ l ~ o v e m e n tins their o\vn right. New Age spirituality and "urban" shamans-that is, non-Native Americans who define thelllselves as Shamans-are iilflueilced by the Witchcraft InoveIllent as well as by Native A~nericailspirituality. Interest in Native A~nericailspiritual traditions has blosso~lledin the past thirty years and has resulted in the growth of a pan-American concept of Native American spirituality, which focuses on the similarities and ignores the differences alllong Native All~ericanpeoples. A division has developed alllong Native Americans bet~veenthose who teach their religious and ~llagical\visdo111 to outsiders and those \vho view the practice as a for111 of cultural i~nperialism.While the debates continue anloilg Native Americans and those who are sympathetic to their cause, religious synchrony remailis unabated (Rose 1992). The New Age telids to be a catchall for those people who practice a series of techliiques taken from Native Americans, Eastern philosophies, and the Western occult tradition that are aimed at e~lhailciilgthe i~ldividual's co~~sciousiless. Many of the same tecli~~iques that are practiced by nlen1bers of the New Age, such as astral projection, meditatio~~, sending healiilg energy, are also practiced by Witches, Neopagans, and Shamans. Although there are importalit overlaps, there are, nonetheless, differences alllong these groups. The 11lost i~nportailtdifference lies in how each group defines its activities. For 11lost Neopagans and Witches, the focus of their practices is on the celebration of nature. Magic is viewed as part of that celebration and as a form of self-empo\ve~il~ent. Non-Native American Shamalis are more co~icernedwith techliiques of power and control, and less with the larger spiritual system from which these techniques are taken. The New Age is in sonle ways the 111ost diverse group. S o ~ n e11le1nbersare mi~li~nally involved; others view their practices as part of a larger spiritual path and lifestyle. The New Age, Witchcraft, Neopaganism, non-Native American Shamanism, and \vomen's spirituality have mostly attracted white middle-class individuals. Afro-Caribbean religions, such as Yoruba, Palo, Curanderismo, l t s the Caribbean and and Voodoo, have primarily attracted i ~ n ~ n i g r a ~from Afiican Americans. Yoruba in particular is appealing to African A~nerica~ls in search of a spiritual expression that has its roots in Africa. Yoruba canle to North Alllerica from the Caribbean. The religion, which was developed by slaves, colllbilies elelllents of West African spiritual traditions and Catholicism. Tensions have developed in the United States between African

American and Latino/Latina practitioners, each of 1vho111 focuses on a different aspect of the religion's histor).-emphasizing respectively the religion's African or Hispanic background. All ~nagicalreligions that have come to North A~nericahave beell modified-sometimes in subtle, but so~neti~lles in Illore dra~llaticways-by their emigration. This is true as well for Afro-Caribbean religion. These reli,'01011s in some ilistalices have greater interactioli with one another in North America than they did in their co~llltriesof origin. Practitioliers of many different for~llsof Afro-Caribbean religion, as well as Witches, Neopagans, ~lon-Native A ~ n e r i c a S ~ l i a ~ ~ l aoften ~ ~ s ,shop at tlie same bot(i~iicasfor herbs, candles, and other ritual materials, resulting in individuals learniilg about and at tillle ilicorporatilig eleme~itsof others' religious practice. Neopagans have attenlpted to engage in a dialogue and ilitegration with Afro-Caribbean religions. Sollle Neopagalis have studied with Afro-Caribbean spintual teachers, and 11le1nbersof Afro-Caribbean religions have been invited to participate on Neopagan panels and in Neopagail study groups. However, tlie two traditions c o ~ l t i ~ l utoe be largely separate.

SATANISM A N D NEO-NAZIS

Tlie terms tr/ifc/icr~!fi,rrr;qic, and occt~ltare loaded words that for Inally conjure a set of i~nagesderived largely fro111 popular culture. Witchcraft has traditionally been associated with evil. Co11tempora1-y Witches and practitioners of the New Age, Yoruba, and Voodoo have all been accused at some point of being Satailists or in league with the devil. All of these groups note that they are not Satanists. Tlie Church of Satan in California, lio\vever, does take the label Sat(a~iist.Me~nbersof this group participate in magical acts and curses, but not in the worship of the devil, 1vho111 they see as within, not without. Their practices are largely an inversioli of Christianity and a celebratioli of self-interest. For example, they celebrate the seven deadly sills as virtues and extol an extrenle for111 of individualism. Although the group has received attelltioil for its open avonpal of Sata~lism,it does not advocate or participate in ritual ~nurders,stealing, or any other illegal acts. The group is mostly of interest because it accepts the label of Sntaiziz.t, a label rejected by most other groups (Moody 1974). The belief in a satanic underground that participates in stealing babies, raping children, and ~nurderiilgiil~loce~lt people beca~newidespread in the 1980s in the United States, Canada, and tlie United Ki~lgdom.Although no longer taken as seriously, there co~lti~lues to be outbreaks of communient ties worried about an organized satanic underground. The m o v e ~ ~ ~has been fueled by the religious right and one wing of radical feminism. The Federal Bureau of Ilivestigatioli has concluded, after a thorough search for

evidence of a satanic underground, that nolie exists. Nonetheless, the religious right, n~liiclibelieves that Lucifer's i~lflueilcecan be seen in daily life, co~lti~lues to argue that poweriul satanic groups exist natioim~ideand are ilivolved in illlllloral and illegal acts. The satanic scare is also fueled by some radical fe~lli~lists lvho have beell iilflueilced by the recovered-memo1-y ~ ~ l o v e m e in n t psychology. This ~lloveme~it colitelids that all so-called recovered ~ n e ~ n o r i eofs childhood sexual and physical abuse are literally true. Some women, with the help of specialists in recovered memory, have clai~nedthat tlieir parents, their parents' friends, and promi~lent11le1nbers of tlieir commu~lityraped the111 in their childhood and ~llurderedi~lfiintsas part of satanic nt~lals.To date, no such case has been confi~il~ed by evibabies or corpses in the areas lvhere these dence, such as records of ~nissi~lg women claim the n t ~ ~ awere ls pe~formed.Some recovered-111emo1-y specialists have such a high proportion of clients n7ho develop recovered nlen1ones that other psychologists have raised the concern that vulnerable ilidividuals are being ~~lanipulated into creating memories. Nonetheless, throughout the United States and Canada, local police coiltiilue to receive reports of satanic groups (Victor 1993). Although there is 110 evidence for a satanic undergrou~ld,and those who do claim to be Sataliists embrace only self-centeredness and not evil, another group-Neo-Nazi Pagans-is more proble~natic,as they have incorporated Nazi racis~ninto tlieir religious practice. Neo-Nazi Neopagans are distinct from other Neopagan groups, which emphasize the celebration of diversity in nature and anloilg people and which tend to be politically liberal (Berger et al. 2003). White male prisoliers and other disenfranchised Inen populate Neo-Nazi Neopagan groups. Presently, although there are very few of these groups in North America (Kaplan 1996), they have gained the attentioli of the FBI which included the111 in tlieir Megiddo report about potentially dangerous doo~nsday groups as the new millennium was arriving. The very existence of these groups raises questions for the Neopagan Illovenlent, which has traditionally avoided setting clear boundaries of who is and is not a member of the group. If Neo-Nazi Neopagans grolv either in ilu~llberor in notoriety, they may ultimately force the larger Neopagan ~lloveme~it to rethink their o ~ v n openness as these r i g h t - ~ i n ggroups may tarnish the image of the larger movement. This xvould be particularly irksome to those groups and individuals who have beell lvorking to have Witchcraft and Neopaganism recognized as a legitilllate religion by participating in the Parliame~ltof World Religions and other intelfaith cou~lcils. COMMERCIALIZATION AND GROWTH

Although it is al~llostimpossible to prove, there is a sense anlong researchers that all forms of magical religion are becoming more popular. The lack of

bureaucratic structure of Illany of these religions makes it impossible to knoxv the liulllber of participants they each have today and whether or not there were fewer in the past. Nonetheless, both participalits and those researching these groups have noted an increasing interest in them. There is a gron~ingllu~llberof books, movies, television slio\vs, and news stories about Witchcraft and other magical religions. These are indications of both increased interest in these religions and a growing collllllercialization. The collllllercialization is lllost clearly seen in Salem, Massachusetts. Co1lte111pora1-y Sale111 has developed a tourist industl-y \vliicli capitalizes on the trials that occurred there in tlie seventeenth century. Sale111 calls itself "Witch City," and the local high school's football team is 11a1lledthe Sale111 Witches. There are shops selling T-shirts, witch dolls, and magical potions. This commercializatioli is symbolic of the larger process of selling the mystique of witchcraft and magic that may be seen in popular lllovies and television shows, which have increased interest in tlie occult anlong some segnlents of the population. For example, tarot cards are available at Barnes and Noble and other ~naillstrea~n bookstores, as are books 011 horoscopes, love magic, and reading runes. There is an increasing belief in paranormal events in the general population (Berger et al. 2003). But there has also been a backlash. The lllost recent example of this is the response of the religious right to the H(arry Poftcr books. 111some communities, particularly in the more religiously collselvative areas of the United States, there has been an attempt to ban these popular children's books fro111 school and public libraries because they are viewed as preselitilig too positive a view of magic and witchcraft-even though the books do not aclvocate contemporary Witchcraft, Sata1lis111, or evil. Magical religions, commercializatio11ilizalizatio11itio~1 of magic, and a fear of ~nagicalreligions have all been growing since the 1960s in North A~nerica.

CONTEMPORARY MAGICAL RELIGIONS

The growing interest in ~llagicalreligions and the occult in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first ce~lturieshas Inany SoLirces. The social lllovemelits of the late 1960s and 1970s resulted in the cluestioning of all a ~ ~ t h o n tincludilig y, that of science and traditional religions. Changes in employment have resulted in individuals repeateclly transforming themselves to fit into new7 commu~lities,new jobs, and nelv careers. Magical religions, which tend to focus 011 self-tra~lsformatim,provide rituals and a n~orldvien~ for their adhere~ltsthat 11lake this process central. Further~nore, these new religions speak to the social and political concerns of the currelit generation (Beckford 1981, 1992). Religions that have collie most immediately from the Caribbean but have African roots appeal to African Amen-

cans interested in reclaillling their African heritage. For \vomen, all fo~ills of goddess worship potentially provide a femiliist form of spirituality, which creates empo\vering metaphors and images. All of these religions call for a re~legotiatio~l of our relatioilship with nature, in which people conle to view nature as sacred. Co1lte111poral-y ~llagicalreligions, are bringing into questioli Weber's prediction that rationalization and bureaucratizatioli \vould result in the dise~icha~itme~it of the world. For practitioners of magical religions the world is enchanted, the earth is alive, and magic is real. These ~llagicalreligio~lslook to the past for inspiration, but their practices and beliefs are clearly shaped by contemporary concerns and n7orldvien.s. There are variations aIllong co~ltemporal-y~nagicalreligions. Those of Afi-o-Caribbean ongill differentiate themselves to the greatest degree fi-om the other religions that are discussed in this volume. Like the other religions, Afro-Caribbean religions viexv the \vorld as elichalited and venerate multiple deities. The use of herbal healing and rituals to invoke power and to change the world are used by Afro-Caribbean religions, Neopagans, New Age practitioners, urban Slia~lla~ls, and Goddess Worshipers alike. Within Afro-Caribbean religions, neophytes lllust be trained by elders in the community. Other fo~illsof magical religions can be practiced alone or with others. A gro\ving industry that supplies books and spiritual paraphernalia has developed that helps to create and ~ l l a i ~ l t athese i ~ l solitary practitioners. The ~ l o i Afro-Caribbean l ~nagicalreligio~lse~nphasizeindividual religious expression. The \vay in \vliicli ~nagicis practiced, the spirits n70rshiped, or nature celebrated is vie\ved as a matter of ilidividual choice. Nonetheless, for all these religions, a community of practitioners exists that i~lflue~lces their practice and to n~liiclieven solitary practitioners belong. This community may no longer be a face-to-face community but one that is realized on the Interilet, through reading the same books, and by occasionally interactilig at open nt~lalsand other gatherings. Although these religions share some similarities with earlier movements, such as Theosophy and Spiritualism, they provide a religious f o ~ i that l is co~isistentwith the social and cultural trends at the end of the tn~entietliand begiilili~lgof the t\venty-first centuries.

New Age and Magic Michael York

The New Age Illovenlent e~ilergedin the West during the closing decades of the twentieth century as a popular and alternate form or fo1111s of spiritual practice. Hoxvever, in Rothstein (2001:59), Masimo Ilitrovigne already raises the issue of the demise of New Age spirituality-at least " 'classic' New Age [as] a nlovelilellt dating back to the 1960s in the English-speaking world [and] based on the utopic, ~nille~iaria~i expectation of a goldell age." Predictio~isof the failure of New Age are, of course, ~ i o t h i ~lien7 i g and have occurred regularly since at least Basil 1988 in which X ~ ~ I - ~ O Lscholars IS saw the New Age ~ ~ ~ o v e mase fatally ~ i t halidicapped with its ilicorporatioli of false, scientistic principles. Gordon Melton (Basil 1988:51), in particular, foresaw the i~il~ilillellt self-destructio~iof the New Age Illovelilellt through the pse~idoscientizatio11tioi characteristic of ~ i l u c hof its ~iletaphysics.Ten years later, Melton (Barker and Warberg 1998) presented empirical evidence of the New Age crisis in reference to the bankruptcy of New Age bookstores, publishers, and journals. The commercialism of New Age was also cited as a destructive coullterforce ~illder~lli~ii~ig fro111 ~ v i t h i ~the i Illovelilellt as a whole. Introvigne, however, takes the New Age crisis even further and clai~llsthat " [ n ~ ] h e ~ a i~llille~illial group aliliotllices a golden age, and fails to deliver, crisis is to be expected" (Rothstein 2001:60). In other words, it is co~i~jectured that the movement's peliding coliclusioli follo\vs the established trajecto1-y of any optilllistic or progressive for111 of millennialislll (Wessinger 1997, 2000). With no goldell age occurring, this theory suggests, the Iilovenlelit invariably collapses-as Illtroviglle feels has already happelled with the New Age. The Introvigne-Melton evaluatioli and analysis, however, raise a series of questions. Foremost, while Meltoli (1986) originally understood New Age as a visioli of radical mystical tralisformatioli for both the individual and the liu~ilallcollective-heralding the birth of a new ~llillelllli~i~ll and e~iteri~ig the Western li~iguafra~icathrough the celebratory affir~nationof the 1960s rock ~ilusicalHl7ir; ~ia~ilely, "This is the da\v~iingof the Age of A ~ L I ~ ~ Lwhat I s , " exactly is the lllilleliliial ~7isioliof New Age, and how soon is it expected to occur? This cluestioli alone necessitates gaining some understandilig of what New Age spirituality is for its adherents-not only

how it is sociologically structured, but, Illore important, how does it relate to the paranormal? Additional cluestions concern how new or inliovative is the New Age, how different is it from its recogliized predecessors, where does it fit withi11 the distribution of the world's theological thought, and how 11luch is it essentially a North A~nerica~l p h e ~ l o ~ n e ~ and l o i l export? All these questions relate to New Age's understandi~igof magic and its role in the humali endeavor. As the Rothstein (2001) volume makes clear through its focus, New Age religion is intimately co~l~lected with the enlergeilce of "g1obalizatio11"particularly as a tra~lsilatio~lal and trailsocietal collective network of meaning. For globalization itself, Rothstein (2001:135) sees it as "a process of c o ~ ~ l ~ ~ l u ~ i i cof a t public ion representations." Melton (Rothstein 200 1:75), likewise, comprehe~idsglobalization pn~llanlyas the c o ~ ~ l ~ ~ l u n i c aadtion vances that, as far as ilinovative religious commu~iitiesare concerned, grant the111iilstailt n~orldn~ide audiences. Co~lseque~ltly, the essential distinguishthroughout ing feature of globalizatioll is the rapidity of co~n~lluilicatio~l scale and one by \vliicli the global arena-a rapidity on an u~lprecede~lted is fostered "the creation of a new global culture, one that increasingly becomes the broader social context of all particular cultures of the world" (Frisk in Rothsteili 2001:38). The various presenters to the Research Network of New Religions' 1999 Copellhagell co~lfere~lce on New Age religion and globalizatio~~ basi" cally agree that "the New Age is illdeed a globalized p h e n o m e ~ ~ o n(Introvigne in Rothstein 2001 :66). While " [tlhe lllajority of New Age books seen1 to be produced in USA, . . . All~ericanNew Age books may not be velT different fro111 British, Danish, or Norwegian counterparts" (Mikaelssoil in Rothsteiil 2001:97). Such countries as those of Sca~ldiilaviaare rich, 1lloder11societies oriented toward the materialism, i~ldividualis~n and privatization that are themselx7es characteristic of the Uliited States. But if Gilhus (Rothstein 200 1: 111) can assert that a "significant part of the European experience with new religions is the c o ~ i s u ~ ~ l ~ ~of l a Alllerican tion New Age books," this is even Illore the case with regard to Canada. Apart fro111 the Fra~lcopho~le areas ~ l o r t hof the U.S. border, North America has historically f ~ i ~ l c t i o ~as l e da single cultural pool-represented by two political states and with the Canadiali voice lllanifesting essentially the more Illoderate and less chauviliistic of the two. While globalizatioll itself dissolves and disrespects b o ~ l ~ ~ d a r iite sis, balanced in the process of glocalizatio~~, that is-the customizatio~~ of products or services iilteilded for the global ~narketto suit the local culture. Indeed, n~itliinCanada, these glocalized aspects of New Age have allowed more localized expression. Nevertheless, by and large Canadiali and American versions of New Age represent if not a single spiritual community at least a single congeries of overlapping spiritual traditions that can be identified as New Age. The

border between the two coulitries has not precluded the l~lovel~lent of spiritual ideas and practices freely across it. For instance, in the second half of the 1960s, Fritz Perls, the Jewish-Ge~il~an expatriate who had established group gestalt theory at the Esaleil Center ofBig Sur, California, and thereby helped to lauilch the Hu1lla11Potential Move~llent,left tlie United States and foulided his oxvn dissemi~iati~ig center in Victoria, British Columbia. In general, there appears little to distinguish Ca~iadianNew Age from its American version. Since a detectable imbalalice is to be witnessed in the direction of flow of New Age books and leaders fro111 the U~litedStatesleading Wouter Hailegraaff ( R o t h s t e i ~2001:16) ~ to clai~nthat "tlie globalization of New Age spirituality is more appropriately seen as an aspect of global Americanization," a case can eclually be made that the Canadian New Age spiritual scene simply represents a most successf~~l instance of U.S. All~ericancultural imperialism.

Apart from the chiefly astrologically inspired nletaphor of a new age-in other words, the Age of A ~ L I ~ ~the L Icontemporar). S, New Age moveme~it represents essentially a f~isioilof the A~nerica~l New Thought and AngloAmerican Theosophical movements. Theosophy, as recognized by Melt011 (1986:87), is itself an off5hoot develop~neiltof A~nerica~l Spiritualis111. All three together, along with such groups as the Arcane School ofAlice Bailey, Earlyne Chaney's Astara Foundation, Ma17 Baker Eddy's Christian Scias ence, and Edgar Cayce's Associatioil for Research and E~llighte~l~lle~lt well as the Spiritual Frontiers Fello\vsliip that coalesced arouild the seminars of Arthur Ford co~lstitutewhat J. Stillso11Judah (1967) identified as the Alllerican metaphysical movement-with its original illlpetus sprillgillg from the New Eliglalid Tra~isce~identalism of Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Fuller et al. Co111111o1i to lllost if not all Americali metaphysical thought is the uilderstaildi~lgthat evil and negativity are illusio~lsof the mi~ld.Jesus Christ, rather tha11 the Supre~neRedeenler of a fallen huma~lity,fu~lctioils here as the 11lost achieved exe~llplarof one lvho discovered and realized the divine iliner self. Thanks to the oscillating shelianigans of the Fox sisters in 1848, the skance-centered Spiritualist craze quickly swept North Alllerican salolis as a popular and iil~lovativefor111 of spirituality-exteildi~~g to Great Britain and the Europea11 coilti~le~lt as 1vell.l In Illany respects, the receptive embrace of Spiritualis111had already beell prepared by the n~riti~lgs and teachings of the Swedish visionar). Emanuel S ~ e d e n b o r g(1688-1772) and the Pans-based A L I S ~ I -physician ~~II Antoli Mesmer (1734-1 8 15), who promoted the liotion of animal magnetism. Spiritualism teaches that contact

with transcende~italbeings and powers is possible for anyone. Mediulllistic possessioli became, accordingly, an early llleans by which to challenge established a~lthonty.In this questioliing and even rejecting of authoritative fiat, Spiritualis111 launched the de~llocratizatioil of religion in North America. Allegedly through our departed loved ones and deceased fiimily members who have preceded us to the next \vorl-ld of Summerla~idand have gained consequently a new perspective 011 the divine, the godhead can speak to all of us-either mediumistically or directly from xvithin our i~ldividualbeing. This more direct access to the spiritual counters institutio~lalizatio~ls that have traditio~lallyenshri~ledhierarchical legitimacy. This "openi~~g" to greater spiritual-vernacular equality is the Spiritualist legacy that has emerged in the late t\ventieth/early txventy-first centuries and of which the New Age m o v e ~ ~ ~ise namolig t several heirs. But while the missio~iof Spiritualislll was primarily "to prove" demonstrable for~llsof the para~lormal,the theosophical creation of Heleila Petron~naBlavatsky (18.31-91) "elevated" itself illto a more iilteilse transce~lde~ltalnode.? Theosophists are less interested in establishing their u~iderstandi~ig to the scientific community and more desirous of gainilig the reputed \visdom of discarnate beings. In a sense, Theosophy is the augmentation of Spiritualist ideas with Dharmic theology and metaphysics. Through theosophical thought, such Hindu and Buddhist ilotioils as karma, reincar~lation,bodhisattvas or ascended masters, a divine hierarchy, a divine plan for the world, akashic records, auras, cl?akrc7s, and astral projection entered the All~erican or Western metaphysical tradition (York 1995b:33). But with such Eastern understa~idingsof the illusory nature of the phenome~lalworld and the divine spark of each i~ldividualthat seeks reu~lioiln~itliGod, Theosophy is to be seen as a recurrence of a~lcie~lt G~~osticism, an early rival to Orthodox Christianity in its for~nativestages. This is, however, a Gnosticism that stresses the uni@ing essence of Eastern and Western religion and employs the symbolism and te~il~inology of both spiritualities. But Theosophy's gliostic denial or devaluing of the tangible world has provided one of the chief strea~nsof thought that illfuses its New Age descende~lt-at least implicitly if not occasionally explicitly as well. Fro111 the New Age perspective, this g~lostic-hermetic-tlieosophical contiliuulll fo~illsa tillleless "Ancient Wisdom TraditionH-one that includes the Hermetic tradition of the magical, alchemical, and occult sciences attributed to He~inesTrismegistus (the ancielit Egyptian god Thoth). But n~liatbeco~nesnew7 and different with New Age is its iilsisteilce that esoteric knowledge is no longer the possessio~~ of a spiritual elite or the labor of prolonged and austere i~litiatioilbut ~ l o \ vbelongs in the public domain. The literary critic Harold Bloom (1996:221) argues for the recognitioli of a Gnostic Americali religion that focuses on angelology, the near-death experience and the approach of the millennium.' It is this religion, an

American form of Christianity that focuses more on the resurrected Jesus than on the crucified Christ, that Bloolll (1996:2) argues is being exported worldxvide. It seeks the divine as solllething within and contrasts with the European God of biblical history and doctrine. But its Illore popular, debased, and co~ll~llercialized for~nsB l o o ~ nrecognizes as the panoply of New Age. Replacing out~vardbelief with an "inrvard knoxvledge," Bloom's American Gnosticism and its crass New Age extension stress direct kno1vledge of God to be foulid within the self. At the core of both, there is an i~lcessailtpredisposition "to focus on self, to see tlie hu1lla11being as spiritual, and to interpret tlie processio~laland nlaterial side of the hu1lla11condition more like an outer covering or a shell, not to be 1nistake11for the real person" (Gilhus in Rothsteili 2001: 118). The real link between Bloom's gliostic New Age and its predecessor in Theosophy is the presuppositioli of an ilitermediate realm existing between tlie sensolT and i~ltellectualn~orlds-the di~neilsioilof angels and ascended masters. Whether considered dcvas, extraterrestrials, ~nahat~nas, discarnates, or angelic beings, this panoply of the extrahu~lla~l or superhu~lla~l beco~nes a central locus for the magical in New Age thought. It is akin to the animislll of pagaliislll and s h a ~ ~ ~ a n but i s mbecollles more focused on the evolution of colisciousliess per se-whether in assulllilig the form of nature spirits, enlbodied in dolphins, solidified as crystals or tra~lsce~ldeiltalized as seraphim. The New Age always uilderstailds this ~llagicalcoilscious di1ne11sioil as comp1eme11tal-y to hu1lla11 co~lsciousness-especially as a property of an emerging collective self. It becollles the source of spiritual assistalice that leads to increased awareness. In New Age, life itself is equated to consciousness. It is coilsidered iilliere~ltin everything and constitutes, accordingly, New Age's neosacral, ~leotra~lsce~ldeiltal vision (York 1993b:l64). ofethe ~~t Vitality as co~lsciousilessallows a mystical-magical ( r e - ) e ~ ~ c h a ~ l t m world but, in the New Age case, not a world that simply brims with life but one that is ever poised for the liberation that comes through asceliding enlightenment. It is cosmic world forever on the move. But if the New Age may be seen as a legacy of the g~losticand theosophof New Thought spirit~iality.~ This ical traditions, it is 110 less a cul~lli~latioil last may be traced essentially through a lineage that begins with Ailto11 Mesmer and continues through Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy, and Elllma Curtis Hopkins. But once again, in drawing as well from the school of New England's Tra~isce~identalism emphasizilig i~ituitionand idealism, New Thought evolves a metaphysics that in all essentials is Eastern and Gnostic. While Mesmer's original ilotio~lof a ~ l i ~ n~llagiletis~n al beca~ne steadily drained of any ta~~gilde etheric ele~lle~lt by his A~nerica~l disciples, it was Christian Science founder, Eddy, who first clearly articulated the formulatio~ithat matter is a lllental illusion. But whereas Eddy t i ~ i l ~ anly chored her transcende~italreality on a relatively ca~ionicalu~iderstandi~ig of

the Christ of Christianity, Curtis and her studelits developed a less Christocentric fo1-11 of belief in a \vorldvie\v comprising the mental-spiritual as the sole reality. N e n ~Thought stresses that evil is an aberrational product of the milid alone. This fictional negativity ilicludes illness and poverty as well. The underlying reality is affirmed as one of pure goodness and light. O u r failure to knoxv this stems from enculturated and incorrect thinking that has lost an original ullderstalldillg of the i1lusol-y nature of the physical n~orld.111 short, though the termi~lologyis different, this is the Hilldu concept of maya. Once again, n~itliits Western ma~lifestatio~~, n7eare dealing n ~ i t han expression of Gnosticism. As Peter Berger (1953:179), in his finds, in gnostic moveme~lts,"there is typology of sectarian move~~lents, aln~aysilldifference to the n7orld"-at one level or a~lotlier. Bryan Wilson (1939:6) likewise delineates a gnostic or ~lla~lipulatio~list response as a sectarian type and, for what is fully expressive of the New Thought-New Age continuum, is one for which "conr7entional Christian eschatology is replaced by a more optilllistic and esoteric eschatology; Christ is a xvaysho~ver,an exenlplar of truth, rather than a savior." In an uliderstandilig of sin and evil as illusions, there is no need for the salvatio~ial redeemer of the Crucifixion. If Berger's perception of indifferelice to the world may be ilidicative of an underlying and largely unarticulated tenor of New Age spirituality-as it certainly is of Bloom's A~llericallGnosticism, Wilson captures the do~lli~lallt and prevailing e~llpliasisof the Western metaphysical tradition centered on an esoteric teaching or n~ishfulmysticis111 that, all things being considered, appears to emphasize attaill~lle~lt rather than rejection of tlie \vorldly goals of success, health, wealth, happiness, and self-realization (York 1993b:30). At the heart of N e n ~Thought and, co~~sequently, N e n ~Age is the afti~illationof positive reality. The many different Human Potential techliiclues that grow out of this affirmation and its ~veldingof both psycholIS means for putting ogy and/or physical therapy represent X ~ ~ I - ~ O Ltechnical this affirmation to effect (Dru1-y 1989). Whether reiki, Silva Mind Control, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Psychosynthesis or any of countless additional techniclues, all are variations of the principle of "positive thinking" and psychotherapeutic practices that seek to hone the lllelital faculties into this self-discipli~lary construct and n7ay of vie\ving reality. Conseque~ltly,each " N e n ~Age" u~ldertakingsearches for its on711 means, its particular expression or lineage, in providing the alchemist's golden key or o~~. philosopher's stone that call foster tlie sought-after t r a ~ l s f o r ~ n a t iWhile Theosophy, coupled with various contemporal-y psycliopliysiological developments, provides 11luch of the outer tools of New Age expression, it is the New Thought i~lsistellceon the pon7er and reality of 11lilld alone that constitutes the core of New Age spirituality qria spirituality.

THE ASTROLOGICAL CONTEXT OF N E W AGE MILLENNIALISM

The new age of New Age itself is a metaphor taken from the astrological register that iilfor~ns11luch if not 11lost of the North American ~netaphysical commu~lity.Astrology itself has since the begi~lili~lgs of hu1lla11civilizatio~~ been a mealis for humanity to divine its place in the coslllic scheme and its navigation through the vagaries of terrestrial existence. Colidel~lnedby Christianity, it has nevertheless remailied central to an atavistic core of humanity's fasciilatioil and dialogue n~itlithe cosmos. Its pereilnial persistence has also not beell ulti~natelythreatelled by the rise of Western ratio11alis1n and scientific methodology. Begiil~liilgwith the enlergeilce of popular horoscope c o l u ~ ~in ~ ~newspapers is from the late 1930s, astrology has steadily entered the vernacular idiom. In the co~~nterculture of the 1960s, it formed the general lingua franca of subcultural exchange. Consequently, follon~i~lg the astro~lo~nical principle k11ow11 as tlie precession of the equinoxes, tlie New Age is recognized as the co~niilgAge of Aq~iari~is-a new7era that follon~sthe present age of Pisces lasting roughly two millennia. Much of this imagery follows a recasting of twelfth-cent~11-y Joachinl de Fiore's "Three Ages of History" theory, namely, the patriarchal age of God the Father, the present age of Jesus the Savior, and the collling age of the Holy Spirit (Melton et al. 1990:30). The first of these, the age of Aries, is uilderstood as that which lasted up to the birth of Christ. It represents the period of the Old Testament. The present age has been the New different from its predecessor as its succesTestamelit "Age of the Son"-as sor is to be from it. D e Fiore uliderstood the Age of Pisces as elllbodied in the R o ~ n a i lCatholic Church. And according to New Age astrological i~lterpretatio~~, the future age will be a time of great and ~llilleililialchanges. 111the uilderstaildi~lgof New Age's Church Universal and Triumphant, as Jesus Christ has been the pivotal figure of the 1101~co~icludingPiscean age, the equivalent for the new era will be the Ascelided Master, Colllte de Saint-Germain, a 1egendal-y eighteenth- cent^ occultist and lllagician (York 1993a:72). Fro111 this perspective, Saint-Ger~llainis an exemplar of spiritual asce~~dancy who selves as the chief 11lodel for hu1lla11endeavor in the Age of Aquarius. But any expectatioli of a future golden age in the Western context almost by default lllust navigate the doomsday prophecies of the Book of Revelation. The New Age scenarios vary significantly and tend to co~iform according to the particular emphasis of New Age practice: occult, spiritual, or social (York 1993b:36f). While scholars frequently insist on the "demise" of New Age coilco~llitailtn~itlithe nature of progressive 1nille1laria11ism (for example, Introvigne in Rothsteili 2001), such predictiolis may in fact be jumping the gun." True enough, at the tillle the comi~igof the new Age of A C ~ L I ~was ~ L Ifirst S heralded in the musical Hrii,; it was often

couched in terms of a11 i m m i ~ i e ~clualitulll it leap of collective conscio~~sness. Increasingly since the late 1990s, however, there has been less emphasis on this "imminence." While catastrophic m i l l e n n i a ~ i i sas~ ~outlilied ~ by Wessinger (2000) has a Illore built-in safety valve in that it can always coilsider upheaval events (such as the Septe~nber11 World Trade Center attack) as signs" of what is to come, progressive ~ ~ ~ i l l e ~ i ~ i iisa lpresullled ism to be halidicapped when its supporters proclaim a golden age but fail to clelix7er. Nevertheless, and despite Introvigne's assessme~itthat ultimately "the New Age tr/oif the same lvay as Illany other for~nsof progressive ~nille~l~liailis~ll before it" (Rothstein 2001 :60),' the coilteilded crisis for New Age is not as clear-cut as it ~niglitseeI11. For one, there are competi~lgexpectations of the fo1-111 of the Aquaria11 age and even how it will arrive. But even more important, work by British astrologer Nicholas Calllpioli has uncovered the wide discrepancy that exists even alllolig the astrological predictions of the Age of Aquarius. 111 the precession of the equinoxes, the zodiacal coilstellatio~lsshift in relation to the fixed point of the vernal equinox. While this spri~lgtimeevent of the equal day-equal ~liglitoccurs against the astrological sign of the fish, we are said to be in the Age of Pisces. A colllplete rotation occurs approximately ever). 26,000 years, and this llleans that the suli shifts one degree ever). 72 years relative to the fixed stars of the zodiac. To co~npletea full zodiacal sign, it requires 2,160 years. The coilfusioil arises, however, due not only to co~npetiilgsystems of astrology (for exa~nple,the tropical Western zodiac defined by the equinoxes and solstices, the Ilidian sidereal system in which the astrological signs correspond to the actual co~istellationsrather than simply to 30 degrees of the sky) but, more i~nportant,over coilfusio~ln ~ h e nan age supposedly begins. C a ~ n p i ohas ~ l beell able to collect 93 published dates fro111 astrological literature. The span between the various dates range fro111 1137 to 3399 c . ~ . (Campion 200O:lO-16). Consequently, any illlpeliding start of the Age of Acl~ixi~is is not necessarily supported by astrological considerations. The New Age may yet be so~lletimeoff, though-as a spirituality-it seeks to prepare the way for \vlienever the golden age is to come. "

'

DIFFERENT U N D E R S T A N D I N G S O F N E W AGE E X P E C T A T I O N

But if N e n Age 1s concern n l t h prepdnng for the m ~ l l e n n ~ u m there , are dlffereilt uilderstaildl~lgsof how t11'1t " ~ L I ' I I I ~ L I Ileap" ~~ 1s to occur Apart fro111 the dlverse range of tools and products 'issociated 1~1thNew Age, some of the sharpest differences betwee11 the move~nent'svarious co~npoI I olily lielits are to be foulid precisely on this point. The I I I ~ ~ ~ ~ I I I ~ I L1sI Inot differently conceived, but ~t is also expected differently. The more Chnstlali n1ng of N e n Age can often elitertdin a belief that

the New Age will be preceded by apoc:ilyptic earth changes and upheavals. For those of this persuasion, the New Age is to be a literal, historical passage of time rather than simply a metaphor for mystical change. Adopting a premillennial for111 of Christian millenarialism, the period of terrestrial ca\\,it11 the Secoild C o ~ l l i ~ lof g Christ, tastrophes is expected to cul~lli~late who will iliaugurate the New Age millennium. Apocalyptic m i l l e ~ i n i a n i s ~ ~ ~ clearly takes this semi~ialinspiratio11 from the biblical Revelation to John. Among its chief expressions xvithin New Age literature are the works of Edgar Cayce and R u t h Mo1ltgo111el-y. But whether the New Age is to be preceded by physical and social upheaval or not, catastrophic mille1laria11is111 is part of a broader view that recognizes the ne\v epoch as somehon~ triggered by superliatural intellrention. The o ~ i u sof change lies beyond hullla11 control. In contrast to this more magical arrival of the new era of peace, harll~ony, and collective co~~sciousiless, tlie more prevailing New Age position is "postmille~~~~ial." Whether there is to be a literal "Second Comi~lg"at the years" of righteous~lessor not, the New Age is co~lclusioilof a "tliousa~~d to be essentially the product of hulllan effort rather than solllething engineered through a deus ex machina principle. But again there are contrasting views on the fo1-11 hullla11 effort is to take. Social New Agers argue for refor~n,cailceliilg world debt for undevelcollective and e~lviroil~neiltal oped nations, redistribution of the \vorld7s n~ealthon a more equitable basis: in short, it is to be brought about literally through n ~ o r l d yactivismmuch if not lllost of it begililiing at grassroots levels. Spiritual New Agers, by contrast, stress personal, i~idividualdeveloplllent through, chiefly, meditation and yogic discipline. The argunleilt clai~nsthat n~liena critical Illass of elllightelled people is reached, the N e n ~Age will come about through spiritual catalysis. The fore~llostperson for the social position is Marilyn Ferguson, editor of the B,uiiz/,\.lit~d B~.tl/ctit~ and Lcndiilg E& B~illetiiland author of Tl~eAq~tarint~ Cotlspirrir)~(1987). The spiritual argument, on the other hand, has been most clearly articulated by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but others \\,hose position essentially supports this approach range fro111Baba R a m Dass to Deepak Chopra. Much of tlie spiritual expectation of the N e n ~Age coincides with the Hu1lla11Pote~ltialMove~nent.111addition to this last's foundi~igtechniclue of meditation, the Human Potential spiritual arsenal ilicludes yoga, ritual dance, chanting, visualization, gestalt, encounter, analysis, body cleansing, bodywork, rolting, reflexology, reiki, and shiatsu aIllong a host of others. In preparing for the nen7 millennium, spiritual N e n ~Agers seek self-improvement and inner personal har~nony. A~lloilgthe Illany practitioners n7ecan associate \\,it11 this spiritual approach to the New Age, we consider Louise Hay, Shakti Gawain, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew Fox, Meher Baba, Bhaga~vanRajneesh/Osho, Adidam, and John-Roger Hinkins. The underlying theme behilid the medita-

tive and self-help techniclues is expected to be exponential-culminati~ig in what Thonlas Kuhli refers to as "paradigm shift" (Ferguson 1987:28). The Maharishi identities the threshold for achieving collective consciousness as iilvolviilg the square root of 1 percent of the population. When a sufficieilt 11~111lber of people achieve a "higher state of being," they serve as the catalyst for the "spiritual leap" of their community and, ultimately, of the world at large. We find a silllilar understanding in the Triangle meditations of Alice Bailey's World Goodwill, Lucis Trust, and Arcane School practices.(, This sanle concept is held by the social refor~llersas well. Fergusoil speaks of the g r o n ~ i ~ l"Aquaria11 g co~lspiracy" as part of the process of breaking the established "cultural trance" of the status clue. Following in the spiritual-meditative tradition of Neem Karoli Baba, both R a m Dass and Ma Jaya Bhagavati additionally stress the central liotion of w r J a (service), and this brings the111 no less illto the social approach as well. For Matthew Fox (1999: 127, 136), tlie purpose of "creatio~~ spirituality" is, through education and celebration, to develop co~llpassioiland the values of heart a i d soul. While much of the purely spiritual focus on self appears to be narcissistic and egoistic, for those of the refornlist persuasion, the self and society are inseparable. Consequently, and in line with Bryan Wilson's expectation for111 tends "tonpards the establisli~lle~lt that utopia~lismin its ~nille~l~lialist of a Illore rational order" as people couilt less on the super~laturaland Illore upon themselves in the co~lstructio~l of a nelv social order (1973:393), both the spiritual and social approaches to the new age of New Age are postmillennial, nonapocalyptic and metaphorically visionary. While the magical is still present-especially in 11luch of tlie se~niilalideology of the gnostictheosophical/Ne\v Thought-New Age conti~luum,it beco~llesincreasingly less apparent iilas~lluchas the New Age conies to iilvolve pragnlatic and sustainable efforts for institutio~ialchange.

CRITICISMS OF THE NEW AGE

But as laudable as sonle of the New Age ainls are, the IlloveIlleilt as a whole-disparate and at best a loosely coordinated confederation of contrasting beliefs, techniques, and practices-is frecluently lalllpooned as selfindulgent, superficial, nai've, and childish. At its worst, New Age is considered not only insipid but directly dangerous-\vlietlier psychologically a i d regressively (Faber 1996) or socially and fiiscistically (Sjoo 1989). Less sn~eepi~lg than these extre~nistopi~lions,the New Age is nevertheless generally condem~iedfor its introspective indulge~iceas well as elitis111 and irrationality. Charges of liarcissislll (as a "me religion") have been leveled against the l~lovel~lent fro111 the start. Couplilig ralllpant self-interest with

the c o n s ~ ~ ~ l ~ ethat r i s mhas become characteristic of late moderrl-postmodern society in the West, New Age colisulllptioli often appears as shallow and ephemeral-the complai~itof Harold Bloom (1996:74) who wishes instead for a literary gilosticis~llbased on the kabbalah, hermeticism, Cliristia~~ Gilosticis~lland Shiite Sufism "that call serve as a spiritual sta~dardof measurement." Aldous Huxley's "perennial philosophy" has, in New Age hands, been tra~isformedinto solllething that often seems to be little more than a license to contempora~-yreligious commercialism. It is precisely this pastiche ele~lle~lt of New Age that is attacked by traditio~lalistsas appalling eclecticism. With no coordiilatiilg authority, New Age adopts 011 an ad hoc and willy-nilly basis. Whatever works to provide a spokesperson a disselllinating stage and ready-made audience appears to become the latest New Age incorporation. Supe~ficialconsumptionbased 011 "what works for me no~v"-tends to render New Age in the eyes of 111aily,let alone its critics, a worst-case scenario of spiritual iaddis~n.The bricolage that co~lti~lues to augnleilt the New Age repertoire call seen1 like an ever-growi~lgbag of gi1111llicks and clever tricks. The adoption of ready-made spirituality is increasingly the kind of religious cons~lme~-ism that is itself identified as New Age. While the "Wisdom Tradition" might be considered by Bloom as the esoteric and hermetic tradition of ailcieilt G1losticis111, New Age spirituality co~ltends-eve11 insists-that the formerly exclusive and private areas of occult knowledge are 11o1v part of the public domai11. This co~npletede~llocratizatioilof reli,'crlo~l that New Age espouses challeliges any and all private o~vnershipof spirituality. New Age identities itself as the Age of Information-one that is increasingly accelerated by electronic and tech~lical i~lve~ltioil(Davis 1998:2.39). The rapid exchailge of i~lfor~llatioil that has beco~llethe hall11lark of the trailsitio~linto the twellty-first century is by the New Age ilisistelice ulirestricted by the fo~illerboundaries d e ~ ~ ~ a r c a tprivate ing possession. New Age claims its rightful use of any and all the world's religious and spiritual traditions (York 1997:114). But ho\v this collective ownership of all spirituality translates for those who do not share the same open access views of New Age is a different matter. Many c o ~ l d e ~ nas i l cultural appropriation n~liatNew Agers see as freedom. While all religions have and do appropriate selected eleme~its from each other, New Age has pursued this process with ~~nbridled abandon. For those people whose cultural identity is particularly under threatIlldial1 or Australia11 Aborigine, New Age people such as the A~nerica~l appropriation of their traditions, practices, and iilstitutioils is perceived as an appropriatio~~ of their velT existence. While the Native American co111munity of North America divides on this issue of shanllg spiritual teachings with Euro-Americans, the Lakota have spearheaded the move~llentthat seeks to reclaim what has been taken by "New Agers and Neopaganists."

Attempts to draft a "Declaration of War" on this issue of appropriation by the American Ilidian community durilig the Chicago Parliamelit of World Religions in 1993 failed, but the Lakota have proceeded subsequently to ratify the declaratioil on their own (York 1991). The issue of spiritual rights and cultural o\vnership is one that a world u~idergoinga process of steady globalizatioli lllust confront. It is, however, an issue that calls forth no clear answer. From the New Age perspective, everything is available. There are no forbidden frontiers. But from the perspective of those u~lrvilli~lg victi~nsor recipients of New Age acquisition, New Age appropriation represents simply the latest stage of Western imperialism. Whatever else they may also be, the September 11 attacks in New York and Washiligton spring from the same animosity that arises in a world of unequal exchange. Whether the global pool of spiritual truth belongs to no one but to everyone or not, it is perhaps the key issue that New Agers 11lust the~llselvescoilfroilt if illdeed theirs is a religiosity that does illdeed respect the integrity of all peoples. The question relates to whether the New Age is simply a~lotlierIlaIlle for Wester~lizatio~~ if not America~lization-one that reduces all to the same-rather than an augme~itatio~i of a truly pluralistic world of diversity.

N E W AGE THEOLOGY

Willialll Sillls Bailibridge (1997:386) sees that the "forms of religious m o v e ~ ~ ~most e ~ i tclosely associated with the New Age are occult, Neopagall, and Asia11," and he is joined by Inally other scholars n7ho argue the same: Paul Heelas (1996), M. D. Faber (1996), Lon~ellStreiker (1990), Peter Spiilk (1996), even Harold B l o o ~ n(1992, 1996). Nevertheless, it is importalit to recognize the Theosophical and New Thought ongills of the predolllinant and essential thrust of New Age. While contemporal-y Western Pagaliislll has likewise been strongly influe~icedby similar Freemaso~iic and perhaps Rosicrucia~llodges it harkells 11luch Illore toward the a~lcie~lt paganisms that preceded Christianity. It is true that the overt practices often fou~ldwithi11 present-day Pagallis111 that are co~lceriledwith cere~nonial, or "high," magic owe llluch to the h e ~ i ~ ~ e t i c ithat s m developed from the likes of Orphism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism. Nevertheless, these last must be uliderstood as nominally but not generically pagan. The decisive factor is theological, and the decisive point here is that to understand New Age theology, it 11lust be uilderstood in contrast to the theology of its e~nergiilgrival-namely, contemporary Western paga~lism.' It is, of course, not to be denied that New Age and Neopagaliislll are liatural allies vis-a-vis canonical, l~lainstreal~l forms of religion. Both place exegetical stress on the individual him- or herself Both represent democra-

tizations of religion. Both are fro111 the traditional perspective outsider heresies. Both also strongly fuse the religious and the psychological. And both draw their adherents chiefly from the broader religious consumer market. But it is not this ~narketthat itself is New Age. The ~narketis the array of choice within what Colin Ca~llpbell(1972) identifies as the "cultic milieu." But within that range of choice exists two radically different theologies: paganism and gnosticism. As to be seen in its largely Theosophical and New Thought heritage, New Age is in its fuller develop~nenta contemporary for111of Gnosticis111perhaps not the esoteric and iiltellectual expression of Bloom's A~nericail Gnosticism, but a tra~lsce~ldeiltal positing no~~etheless. With no overall or coordinating a~lthoritythat can speak for the lllovement as a whole, the dialogue bet\veen its New Age enlphasis and any residual pagan elelllents remailis to date largely unarticulated. But in the increasing divergence between the New Age and Neopagan movenlents, the theological divide beco~nesever clearer. For pqga~~ism, the physical world is coilsidered sacred in and of itself. Divinity is recognized as il~ll~lanent in the tangible reality of existence-not as solllething f~indamentallytra~isce~idental or "\vholly other." Unlike the gnostic orielitatioli that either denies the reality of the corporeal or at least any intrinsic value to it, paga~lis~n celebrates the ~llaterialas noth her or at least as the sacred prirrrtts i~itcrparus.There is no desire to "escape" from the tangible or be free fro111it. Consequently, the trajectories or goals of paganism and New Age are different. In New Age, the purpose of existence is to reuliite with the primordial source-often represented metaphorically as recli~llbi~lg the ladder of being. The physical represents the further~noste~nailatioilfrom the O n e or Good. The liu~~lail body is a to11lb (sorrra scrria) fro111 \vliicli the gnostic wishes to escape. There is a cluest to return to the beginning. Paganism, by contrast, celebrates the body and the physical. Evolutioli is not devolution, a furthering from the divine, but its perpetual and openended e x p a ~ l s i o ~Co~lseque~ltly, ~. there is 110 perma~lent return to the source, but a coilstailt developme~ltfrom it. While the chief Pagan metaphor is that of the circle, tlie cyclic beco~nesan uildersta~ldiilgof renen~al: birth, growth, culmination, decline, death, rebirth. There is 110 ladder of unidirectional ascent but, instead, and at best, a spiraling evolution-as suggested, for instance, in the title of ecoactivist Starhawk's best-seller, Tl~c Spirc7l Da/icc (1979).With gnostic-centered New Age, by contrast, the cycle is not co~lti~luous but a one-time tur~ling-co~~lpletii~g n~lienthe divine spark that is tlie heart and soul of the iildividual remerges n~itlithat fro111 which it came. New Age ultimately seeks a cessatioli of individuality rather than the elidless exploratioli that is countena~icedby the Pagan. In this light, while both spiritualities generally elitertain the notioli of

reincarnation, the cycle ofbirth-death-rebirth is radically different for each. Following in the u~idersta~iding of Pythagoras and Plotinus as well as the Dha~inictraditions of Hi~iduismand Buddhism, rebirth in New Age presents the opportunity to obtain gilosis or to clear one's register of kar~nic debt. Life is, in a sense, a punish~~lent-a separation. Its final purpose is to merge with the One, the Good, Brahmali and obtain xri~izadhi, ~ ~ l c ~ k s l l a , liberation, and release. Iliasllluch as New Age primarily follo~vsin the footsteps of these traditions, the New Ager's illlplicit goal is ultimately the trailsceilde~lceof life. For the pagan, on the other lia~ld,rebirth, or reincarnatio11, provides the opportunity for a return to life, its pleasures, and the occasion for further acquisitio~lof understandi~~g. While it is true that not all New Age is wedded to the idea of obtailiing either a final state of Ascended Masterhood or extinction-such as James Jacob Hurtak considers in his Keyx c!f E~lc~rh (1987:909; see also York 1995a:80) where sa~llndlliis presented as the false belief that no further evolutio~lis required, New Age is al~llostinvariably centered on a state or di~neilsioilthat is "superior" or "beyoild" the here-and-non. of telluric liu~~lail existence. The transcelldelice of earth, whether through cessatioli of repeated rebirths or absorption into "higher" realms of extraterrestrial beings (angels, space brethren, bodhisattvas, et cetera) is illlplicit in New Age theology. Nature is an illuson. veil that the spiritual adept wishes to penetrate and pass beyond. 111its broadest sense, New Age is the present-day coiltiiluatio~lof historic Western esotericis111.Wouter Hanegraaff (1996) recognizes five ele~ne~lts as fulidalllelital to the movement: (1) this-~vorldlinessin a weak form, (2) holism, (3) evolutionism, (4) religion that is secularized while psychology itself is increasingly desecularized, and (3) the persistent expectation of the New Age as a return of emotio~lality,sensitivity, a i d spontaneity in Western society. In its own trailsceilde~ltalbias, New Age spirituality champions the divine individual's inalieliable sovereignty-one that virtually pushes through the solipsistic threshold in the creation of the individual's oxvn universe. Consecluently, at the heart of New Age theology is its epistemological foundatio~~s. Unlike the prevailing Western empirical assu~nptioil that posits a "\vorld-out-there" independe~ltof our k~lowledgeof it (episte~nologicalrealis~n),New Age tends to assuIlle a metaphysical idealis111 that is less one that uliderstalids the world-out-there simply as ilidependelit but of the same nature of the milid and more one that holds that the only knoxvable world and range of reality are one's oxvn ideas. This f o ~ i of l epistemological me1ltalis111, or sul2jective idealism, whe11 followed to its logical conclusion, holds that ~ l o t h i ~ lexists g other t1ia11 "111yself and my ideas." A classic statenleilt of this position is made by Shirley MacLaiile following a New Age New Year's Eve ceremony. She realized that "I Itus the c~izlypcil\'c~izn l i iiz ~ ~I I I ) ~L I I I ~ V C I T C. . . . [HLIIII~II] beings feeling pain, terror, depression, panic, and so forth . . . were all characters in my reality, . . . only

reflectiolis of myself."MacLaine is elideavoring to legitimize changing the world by changing herself, but she is articulatilig metaphysical and epistemological assulllptiolis latelit in the New Thought origins and core of the New Age moveme~lt.

N E W AGE MAGIC

When it comes to magic, the New Age position is to be sharply contrasted fro111that of co~ltemporal-yWestern Paganism-in particular its cere~no~lial ~llagicialland Wiccall expressions-that tends to adopt Dion Fortune's understaliding of magic as "the chaligilig of colisciousliess at will." As Adler (1986:151) finds, "most Witches and Neo-Pagans do not link 'magic' with the 'supernatural.' " C r o ~ l e y(1996:39) sees "magic as a system of spiritual developme~lt,"and Starhawk (1979:112) recognizes it as a device for developing "pon~er-from-\vithiI1." Withill modern-day Paganism, nlagic is essentially the practice of techniques that ail11 to alter conscious~less. For New Agers, 011 the other hand, magic as a concept or tool is not sonlething that is emphasized. As Tanya L u h ~ i l ~ a n(in n York 1993b:136) explains, lllost New Agers "would not use the word 'magic' to describe their doings." Recognizing that "n~liile1lluc11 of Occult teaching has a direct bearing on New Age philosophy," Jane Alexander (1989:20) feels it's fair to say that the over\vlielming ~najorityof New Agers n~ouldconsider themselves neither magicians or witches." Nevertheless, hermetic affinities exist within both the New Age and Neopagali movements, and a New Age spokesperson such as Shirley MacLaille (1987 :233) call affirm that tlie "loss of nlagic is the denial of ullli~llitedpossibility." 111 general, Wiccall nlagic may be ullderstood as si~llilaralbeit not idelltical to New Age visualizatioli (York 1993b: 157). But though magic may be nominally absent from lllost of New Age, it is lievertheless an operative notion throughout llluch of the movement. Magic itself, whe11 recognized as a legiti~llateprinciple or force, represents a violation of the natural law of equal excha~lge."What reputedly occurs in tlie ~llagicalact is the substitution of so~lletliillgfor so~lletliillgelse of greater worth or desirability. In this sense, it is akin to prayer as an attempted shortcut to the rewards sought. In traditional magic of the quid pro quo, an offering or act of limited, symbolic, or token value is presumably exchanged for an increased advantage or quality of greater n~ortli-\vlietlier a magic word for a 11lagical result or a ta~lgibleoffering for health, wealth, success, or happi~less.Much of tlie Hu~llallPotential M o v e ~ n e ~isl t constructed on this principle of violation, and the effort to exchange the lesser for the greater becomes the decisive factor in such techniques as homeopathy, aroma therapy, flower therapy, Q i gong, sweat lodge ceremony, crystal 6"

therapy, and acupuncture-acupressure. Magic as teilltle or the "art of craft" (Davis 1998:17) is the operative whether in mantra chalitilig or in the aim for health or pain relief through the acupressurist's stilllulating a ihi, or energy node, in tlie body. 111the more vernacular, traditionally religious and scientific u~lderstandilig of magic, it is uliderstood largely as a t~-ick-an act of deception or beguiling. Believers in magic, of course, will usually deny its dissilllulating nature and argue that magic is real although not subject to the usual observations of empirical demonstration. Tlie parallor~nalaspects of New Age begin with Spiritualism and are elevated into a more intense trallscellde~ltal 11lode with Theosophy and tlie resurgence of Gnosticism. Fro111 this direction, the "art" or "science" of channeling is to be seen as an extension of the aliilllistic world of pagaliislll to one of supersentient beings. In a sense, this is reelichalitmelit with a message. The de~/as,bodhisattvas, and/or ascellded masters are products of New Age's illsiste~lceon a cos~llosof greater possibility than the li~nitedopportunities u~lderstoodas our more ordinary three-dime~lsio~lal world of time and space. Whether tlie otherness of magical beings is tralislated into extraterrestrials and UFOs from outer space or into angels, fairies, elementals, and coilicidental synchronicities inhabiting elichalited realnls of inner space, it appears to spring from a New Age desire l l e of co~ll~llo~lplace reality. Tlie parallor~llal to extend the ~ l l ~ i ~ l d aworld and lvliatever actuality it may or 111ay not represent beco~neassisting nlealls to expand the ordinary into a trallscellde~ltaland preferred d i ~ n e n s i oThis ~~. expansion rests on the denial of an exclusively rationalistic xvorlcl-the same denial that has allowed the persistence of astrological belief as well as the more esoteric arts or "scie~lces."While a co~lfir~ned empirical neth hodologist such as Carl Sagan would deplore and reject the hu1lla11propensity for cognitive dissonance, a~lthropologistPascal Boyer can at least recognize the liatural tendency for people to consider what he terms "counter-intuitive" or "counter-ontological" information.'" In that lllost religious concepts include counterintuitive perceptions, New Age ideas of magic are in this sense co~lfor~lli~lg to a ulliversal faculty e~llbeddedwithi11 huma~lity's consciousness. e~llotio~lal But in addition to both the H u ~ n a l lPote~ltialviolation of tlie law of equal exchange and the perception of a reality that supersedes the increasingly disenchanted lllulidalie one, New Age magic tilids its fullest expression through New Thought's doggedliess on the denial of negativity. Once again lve are in tlie real111 of Hu~llallPotential (\vlietlier Neuro-Linguistic Progra1111ning,reiki, shiatsu, iridology, or creative visualizatio~~). Seeing tlie negative only as an opportunity and occasion to grow is not a ~llagicof sonlething for nothing but a magic of denial. In this respect, it comes closer to high magic and Pagan understandiligs of magic as the chaligilig of consciousness at will. At the same time, it can be viewed as a magic of decep-

tion. The denial of illness, poverty, even the physical may perhaps be achieved as a "trick of the mind." But once again we are seeing New Age ~llagicexpressed by Fortu~le'schanging co~lscious~less through will. New Thought magic seeks to make the world c o n f o ~ i to l how it wills it to be. It constitutes an act or series of acts of volitiolial solipsism. If the world exists only within the mind, then it can be changed by changing the mind through deter~ni~led belief-perhaps bolstered by training in various 11le1ltal disciplines (yoga, Neuro-Linguistic Progra1111ning, reiki, self-help, eurused to develop collce~ltratio~l and t l i y ~ ~and ~ y ,trallsfor~llatio~lal tech~~iques) perhaps bolstered further through physiotherapies and body e ~ ~ l i a ~ ~ c e ~ l l e ~ ~ (for example, rolfing, shiatsu, Feldenkrais method, massage, reflexology) to di~nillisliphysical distr.1c-t'1011. The major collsequellce of New Thought-New Age 11lagic is that authenticity ceases to be the issue. This also allows the drive to appropriate and reproduce the exotic and esoteric. Even if the magical trick is one of fakery or deception, all that matters is the effect. New Age is, of course, often condemlied for this inauthentication, even commoditication, but this is a direct colisequelice of its New Thought heritage in which the seemingly real and authentic are devalued. If what the lllilid believes is real, then in New Age thought this is all that matters. Coupled n~itlithis solipsistic i~lsistellceas a for111 of magic, at its 11lost saccharine, New Age also espouses a for111 of love magic. This is, however, more usually a travesty in not being focused on a beloved but on either the self or an abstract reification of evelTone. Perhaps the underlying impulse behind the declaration of love as a ~nagicaldog~lladerives fro111 a Mahayana Buddhist ullderstalldi~lgof co~llpassiollfor all se~ltie~lt beings, but in the prevailing superficiality that characterizes New Age in general there appears little of the substantiation-let alone altruistic demonstration-that the New Age declaration of uliiversal love is little Illore than a nt~lallllantra in search of a real conviction to reinforce it with the power of effective magic. In general, New Age oscillates between being a new religiosity looking for its own footing, understanding, and articulation, on the one hand, and of its times, a spirituality that is simply characteristic of the colis~~lllerislll on the other. But like all religions, its essential effort is to provide a framework for approaching and evaluating the world and one's relation to it and n~itliinit. In a word, religions are attempts to superi~nposea her~lle~~eutical sclie~llefro111 n~ithout.The astrological ~netaphorof the Aquaria11 Age provides New Age with its particular framen~ork.The idea of the quantunl leap may be ullderstood as a successf~ilact of ~llagicalstructuri~lg.Not only does it reenchant the world for its holders, but it also represents a violatio11trallsfor~natiollof the law of equal exclia~lge-na~~lely,the belief and insistence that sonlething become Illore than simply the SLIIII of its parts. c

CONCLUSION

As a sectarian response, the New Age movement, much like contemporal-y Western paganism, ranges bet\veen Wilson's u~ldersta~ldi~lg of the ma~lipulationist and tliau~~laturgical sects. The latter differs little fro111 tlie for~ner but for a Illore persolial and less u~iiversalisticresponse to the world. The ~ I - ~ I I Icharacteristic ~IT for those of a thaumaturgical predisposition is to seek a persolial experience of the supernatural. Rather than seeking gliosis in and of itself, one's interest is in co~ll~ll~iilicati~lg with spiritual powers and the dead for predictive and ~lliraculouspurposes (Wilson 1969:367; York 1995b:269). In its more gnostic or ~~lanipulationist te~ldencies,on the other hand, New Age is psychocosmologically or mystically orielired and centered on an essentially optilllistic and esoteric eschatology. At the same time, and putting the New Age in many respects into a Illore dissolialit footing vis-a-vis traditional G1losticis111,it coilfor~nsto Roy Wallis's understallding of tlie world-affirmi~lgInoveIllent and, as such, "is a 11loderilversion of the al~nostubiquitous p h e n o m e ~ ~ oof n magic; the invocation, or manipulation, of occult forces or powers for persolial ends" (Wallis 1984:122). As Wallis recognizes, the purposes of magic have changed from preoccupatioli with fertility and protectioli from witchcraft to "psychological well-being, eillia~lced self-confide~lce a11d freedom fro111 socially ingrained i~lhibitions, but tlic oitcrprisc is cssc~iti~allyflqc sarric" (Wallis 1981:122).11This personalization n~itliinthe lvorld-affirming coiltext may suggest the ultilllate tra~isformatio~i of New Age into the "Next Age" of Introvigne. Nevertheless, as a sectarian response, New Age is also similar to Wilso~l'sadveiltist or revolutioilist sect in its expectation of tlie \vorld7s (i~~lminent) alteration. New Age, like 11luch of Neopaga~lism,is a development of the Western esoteric-occult tradition of theosophy, theurgy, astrology, and alchemy o~-iginatingwith the late Rollla11 Empire's schools of Neo-Platonism, NeoPythagoreanism, Alexa~idrianHe~il~eticism, alid Stoicism. In the Renaissance, tlie metaphysical current ~nailifested in the kabbalah, alche~nya11d - . the works of Paracelsus. Subseque~ltly,in tlie seventeenth century, Joailnes Andreae fostered Rosicrucianis~l~, n~liiclimay be recognized as part of tlie broader tradition of Freemason~-y.The eighteenth cent~11-ysaw the rise of Illuminism, which cullllinated in the visiolis alid works of S\vedenborg. Consequently, the thaumaturgical undercurrent has always been a part of Western culture since at least tlie days of tlie Hellenistic and R o ~ n a i civilil zations. The New Age Illovenleilt is its coiltiiluatio~lin today's late moden-postmoder~~ n.orld-~lo\v uildergirded by a prevailing capitalist ethos that insists on the delllocratizatioli and commercial availability of all esoterica and magic. But in its concern with magic, New Age must share the contempora~-y

stage with Neopaganisnl and the schools of ritual magic. These lllovemelits express interest, for instance, in the kabbalah, the esoteric tradition of Hebrew culture. For conte111pora1-y Westmi paganism, this pursuit occurs mostly anlong cere~no~lial ~llagicians.111New Age, cabalis111is apt to appear at any point withi11 its collsunler ~narket.Overall, however, the presentday occult tradition increasingly appears to polarize between not just New Age and paganis111 but between New Age, Neopaganism, and high nlagical expressions-with all three but especially the first two increasingly involved with psychological i~lterpretationsof magic. Pagallis111 in general in the West seeks its ~lletaphorsand u~ldersta~ldillgs n~itliinilldige~lous European and other traditions-whether Celtic, Greek, Roma11, Norse, Egyptian, and so forth-and questions whether the kabbalah is the true root of the Western tradition. While Neopaganism-partic~11:irly Wicca and Witchcraft-employs the cerelllonial circle as a means to protect its worshipers from external intrusio~lor disturbance-especially fro111 the mu~ldane,the ritual circle is used by the ~llagiciallas the nlealls to collhlle the de1no11or magical entity he or she invokes. As a protective device, the magician and the pagan employ the lllagical circle differently. But in New Age, the whole notion of the circle is absent for, as Willialll Bloom explains, New Age denies the reality of the negative and, hence, has no need in their respective for ~llagicalbarriers (York 1993b:167). Co~lseque~ltly, a11d pagans tend to attitudes tolvard the super~latural,cere~nollial~nagicia~ls distillguisli betwee11 either the good and the bad or the sacred and the ordinary. New Age magic, on the other hand, denies evil or negativity and, ultimately, the apparent world itself. Judging fro111 the 1991 census of Canada alone, and excluding the Aboriginal A~nerica~l indial1 and Inuit commu~lities,the re~llai~lillg paranormal-religious groups may be seen roughly to divide betwee11 pagan and broad New Age identities.12 We can guess that approximately one-third of either pagalis or New Agers live in the province of British Columbia. Similar to what we knoxv of the American West Coast, Bibby (1993: 173) finds there to be a "u~liqueaversion to organized religion in British Colu~nbia." The greater success of nelv religious nlovenlellts along the Pacific coasts of both the United States and Canada has been attributed by Bainbridge (1997:413) to the weakness of co1ir7entio1ialdenomiliatiolis due to the generally high degree of geographic mobility throughout these regions. At the same time, accordingly, this factor also prevents the new religions from beco~lli~lg substalltial move~~lents. Nevertheless, Bainbridge may in fact be mis-seeing in the same way Western gover~l~ne~ltal leaders for many years could not coulltellance the existence of the Palestine Liberation Organization. As Luther Gerlach and Virginia Hine (see York 1995b:321-27) indicate, an apparently leaderless segmented network is a long-standing means for lionilistitutiolial su1~7ivalin a hostile environment. In other words, a

multicelled, grassroots iionconfori~~ist movemelit that avoids the higher profile of institutioiial bureaucracy and detectable leadership is an orgaiiizatioiial meaiis to avoid recogiiition aiid reduce vulnerability aiid possible eli~lliilatioilby tlie eilforce~lleiltauthorities of tlie state. With its incorporation of a ~llagicaltheology and practices that are opposed by both traditional canoiiical religion aiid the scientific establishmelit of the mainstream, the loose confederation of spiritual iiiiiovatioii that characterizes the New Age movei~~eiit throughout the Uiiited States and Caiiada may prove to be a spiritual iililovatioil that will have a greater durability tliail its detractors contend.

Witchcvaft and Neopaganism Helen A. Berger

Co1lte111pora1-y Witchcraft, along with the larger Neopagan IlloveIllent in which it is embedded, has grolvn and become better kno\vn since its arrival in North Anlerica from Englalid in the 1960s. Contemporar). Witches-or Wiccans, as many of its adherents prefer to call themselves-are not devil worshipers. Instead they are 1ne11lbersof what they define as an earth-based religio~~, in \vhich the goddess or goddesses and the god force or gods are venerated, ~lature'syearly cycle of seasons is celebrated, and 11lagic is practiced. Wicca, which is the largest sect of Neopaganism, has provided the template for magical practices and yearly celebrations for many of the other forms of Neopaganism, or what are called by adherents traditions or spintual paths (Berger 1999; Jorge~lseiland Russell 1999; Berger et al. 200.3). Neopaganism has no set dognla or central leadership; this permits innovation and the possibility of each iildividual having her or his own for111 of the religion. Although there tends to be a great deal of similarity among groups and individuals, some fo1111s of Neopaganism, such as Dialiics (\vomen-o~~ly groups) and those that \vorship the deities of a particular historic region (for exanlple, Odi~listsor Druids) do disti~lguishthe~llselves fro111 other Neopagans. Sonle differences exist bet\veen the spiritual practices of All~ericallsand Ca~iadiansand amolig regions in both nations; hoxvever, there is also a great deal of consistency, as Neopagans on both sides of the border read the same books, attend many of the same festivals, and interact 011 the Internet. The rellgloil is p'irtic~larly appe'illilg to white, middle-class, well-educared l~ldiv~duals Approxi~llately65 percent to 66 percent of partlcip'ints are female (Berger et al. 2003.27, R e d 2001.63-65). Wornell tend to be overrepresented 111 all religions, but this disparity is shghtly higher \\ithi11 Neopagdnlsm because of the appeal of a fel~linlliedivine for some \\omen. 111 the Uilited Estl~ll'itesrange betwee11 130,000 and 300,000 Neopag'i~~s States (Berger 1999; Jorge~lseiland Russell 1999) The category Pay11\vas offered 'is 'i posslble rehg~ousaffill'itlo~l111 the1991 Cail'id~i~l ceilsus, n ~ l t h the result that 5,530 people out of p o p ~ i l a t ~ oof~ 36,991,045 i stated they ere P,iga~ls.~ This TT. o ~ i l dsuggest a llluch lo\\ er proportloll of Neopagdns 111 Caliddd than 111 the United States. Calladid11 scholars of Neopagd~lis~ll,

however, contend that the proportioli of Neopagans in both coulltries is approximately the same. Sian Reid (2001) explains the discrepancy between researchers' ethnographic sense of the liulllber of Canadian Neopagalls and the 11u1nber reported in the census by arguing that many Neopagans avoided using the terms P(ar~~lation. Matte1 71))s released Secret Spells Barbie "chaml" dolls (Barbie. K a ~ l aand , C:hristie) ill late fall 2003. They come conlplete ~ i t ~llagic h potiorls. a nlagic ~llixiiig pot. and a nlagic pet. A\-erage price on E-bay as ofJuile 2001 is about S16 plus $7 shipping and halldliilg per doll. DuFresrle reported that she located over 200 ite~llsfeaturiiig tlle Paleolithic Goddess tigurirle. iiicludiiig "jewelry. caiidles. altar tools. t-shirts. book corers. diriiiatioil tools, corporate and NGC> logos. trademarks, political banners. bu~llper stickers. tattoos (both penllaiierlt arld te~llporary).sterlcils for wall pairltirlg. quilts. tlle Gillette Veiius razor. garderl statuary. larldscapiiig. etc." n-ithirl a week's time (DuFresne 2002b). A good exanlple of this duality is U.S. presiderlt George W. Bush. n.110 publicly proclainls that he r i e m the ~ o r l d ' rlatioiis s arld people irl black aiid ~ h i t e as . good or evil. He fi-eely adlllits to callillg L I ~ O I I his conservative Christian reli,'"1011 to guide his political decisioiis. See. for exanlple. Fr~~iirliiie. "The Jesus Factor" April 29. 2001.

W o ~ k Cited s

Aberle, David F. 1966. T h c Pcyofc Rcl(qio~iariio/i'q fl?c A\-(a~~(al?o. New York: We~lner-GlenFou~ldatioilfor Ailthropological Research. Dotr/~itlic AJ1OO/i: !4'itcIics, Drttids, GoddcssAdler, Margot. 1979. Dr.(a~ili/its 3 1-33. 41 ; as legitim,lte religion. 5; m,lgic 71 World Courlcil of Churches. 76 m d , 33-36, 54: iiature celebrated in, 3: Neol7~'1iiisiliarid, 2, 28-54: as P1g111isii1, World Goodn-ill, 17 137; resources for. 37-40; '1s Wicca. 137. I1 hrxt I1 'itc-11.149 174111. Sre (11x0 Co~ltenlporar?Witchcwh Yoruba: eleiiierlts oi, 3-4: liealirlg ~~itlii11. 1; ITCri-111-I@iiiid tlic 1Ti.h: TTi.iiiiilq P ~ I I TkidiII Lucuilii relatirlg to. 103-5, 115; Satarlisiii tioii.< Oiiliiic (NiglitMare), 133 Witchcraft. commoditic,ltiol~of. 165-(68: and. 4