Cultivating the Sacred : Ritual Creativity and Practice among Women in Contemporary Europe

Abstract: Ritual creativity may seem like a contradiction in terms, yet the religious landscape in contemporary Euro-America is permeate with experimentation of ritual forms, different modalities of action, imagination and play as routes to authenticity. The present study examines different settings in Europe involved in such ritual creativity, which would commonly be classified as postmodern spirituality, new age or Paganism. However, rather than striving for classification and synthesis, it is argued that the amorphous character of much contemporary spirituality, can provide analytical benefits when theorising lived religious practice. The study provides a critical remark to the text-driven approaches prevalent in previous research, and advocates that contemporary spirituality should be localised in the realm of practice, drawing theories of embodiment. Consequently, rather than a fully-fledged worldview outside of individuals and groups, the sacred is continuously cultivated by a series of practices, most notably ritualised practice. The settings presented are conceptualised as interrelated ritual fields. They are also sites where the body is trained and spiritual dispositions are formed that alter the participants' mode of being in the world. We are hence concerned with a conscious habituation achieved through disciplining practice, somatic modes of attention as well as framing and reflection. The study examines features in this process, including use of history, negotiations of power, ritualisation, and global intersections. Moreover, each field highlights different aspects of contemporary ritualising, such as the performance of gender, the sensuous aspects of music and dance, the movements and relationship to the landscape and the divine. The study is grounded in fieldwork, informed by dialogical and participatory modes of research that acknowledges the entangled nature of the scholar and other participants in the field. It is also an example of so-called multi-sited fieldwork, which is increasingly requested to capture the de-territorialised aspects of much of contemporary religious life.