A microcosm of the larger gender crisis exists within Paganism which allows rhetorical appeals for balance to actually threaten feminine and feminist progression. The ... historical focus on goddess primacy breeds a sense of imbalance, and a concomitant masculine crisis within modern Paganism, creating greater impetus to reinvigorate the masculine.[1]
However, despite Smith’s fears, evidence suggests that numbers of Pagan men are turning away from androcentric mythopoetic figures such as the Green Man and the Horned God towards female spiritual archetypes.[2] This shift is an interesting and important development for Pagan scholars. On the one hand, such practices are not rooted in traditional or mythopoetic constructions of masculinity. They are moving away from the essentialism of mythopoetic masculinity to forms of spiritual practice where masculinity and femininity are held in various creative tensions, forming part of what might be termed a spiritual and psychic gestalt.[3] On the other hand, they appear to be innovative and novel forms of spirituality which are currently un-researched and, as such, deserve academic attention.
Men and the Goddess: A Pilot Cyber-Ethnography
Following my meeting with John, I conducted a pilot online open-ended questionnaire which was designed to capture a broader snapshot of Goddess-centred male spirituality. Picking up on some of the obvious themes from my discussions with John, the questionnaire was built around a number of relevant issues.
Firstly, there was an introductory section concerning age, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, and educational background. Research indicates that
Pagans are predominantly educated, middle-class Caucasians with
European heritages and I was curious if the profile of these practitioners
was different.[4]
Secondly, there were a number of questions posed to the
participants about the meaning of goddesses both in their spiritual
practices and in their quotidian lives. For example, Is/are there any particular Goddess/goddesses that is/are important in your spiritual practices? Could you name them? How and in what context did you FIRST
- ↑ Smith, ‘The Wild/Green Man: Exploring the Mythopoetic Legacy within Modern Paganism’s Constructions of Gender’, 15.
- ↑ This shift is also noted by Mirsky, ‘Men and the Promise of Goddess Spirituality’.
- ↑ This discursive and liturgical shift has been noted within other spiritual traditions as well; note Krondorfer (ed.), Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism.
- ↑ For example, Carpenter, ‘Practitioners of Paganism and Wiccan Spirituality’.
