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Faunalia is a controversial Pagan festival with a reputation for being wild and emotionally intense. It lasts five days, eighty people attend, and the two main rituals run most of the night. In the tantalisingly erotic Baphomet rite, participants encounter a hermaphroditic deity, enter a state of trance and dance naked around a bonfire. In the Underworld rite participants role play their own death, confronting grief and suffering. These rituals are understood as "shadow work."--a Jungian term that refers to practices that creatively engage repressed or hidden aspects of the self. Sex, Death and Witchcraft is a powerful application of relational theory to the study of religion and contemporary culture. It analyses Faunalia's rituals in terms of recent innovations in the sociology of religion and religious studies that focus on relational etiquette, lived religion, embodiment and performance. The sensuous and emotionally intense ritual performances at Faunalia transform both moral orientations and self-understandings. Participants develop an ethical practice that is individualistic, but also relational, and aesthetically mediated. Extensive extracts from interviews describe the rituals in participants' own words. The book combines rich and evocative description of the rituals with careful analysis of the social processes that shape people's experiences at this controversial Pagan festival.
This book investigates the controversial Pagan festival Faunalia, exploring its intense rituals and their impact on participants' self-understanding and ethical frameworks. Douglas Ezzy, an established scholar in the sociology of religion, analyzes Faunalia's five-day event, which attracts eighty attendees and features lengthy, emotionally charged rituals. The book focuses on the Baphomet rite, involving a hermaphroditic deity and trance-dancing, and the Underworld rite, a role-played death experience, both understood as
The book is presented as a powerful application of relational theory to the study of religion and contemporary culture, analyzing the transformative effects of Faunalia's rituals on participants' ethical practices and self-perceptions. The inclusion of participants' own words through extensive interview extracts suggests a rich, grounded ethnographic approach. The analysis is framed by recent developments in the sociology of religion, focusing on lived religion, embodiment, and performance, indicating a scholarly yet evocative exploration of this controversial Pagan festival.
Page Count:
216
Publication Date:
2014-01-01
ISBN-10:
147252246X
ISBN-13:
9781472522467
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