becomes the dominant arena were new forms of masculinity are rehearsed and performed. Indeed, rituals act as loci of liminality where norms are inverted, and where opposites meet and are psychically interiorized.[1] Gender polarities are common within mainstream Pagan ritual practices, but, as we have seen, such polarities are built upon mythopoetic essentialisms. The MGM is a significant exception to this.
One final point concerns the future of men and masculinities.
Research participants saw the ritual interiorization of the female other as a
crucial way of breaking down patriarchal structures which stifled the
emotional lives of men and culturally marginalized women. The crisis in
masculinity was often viewed as the first important expression of such a
breakdown and, counter-intuitively, was greeted positively by respondents.
The MGM was often perceived by respondents as a vanguard in a new
social order based, like Eisler’s matriarchy,[2] upon co-operation rather than
gendered domination. As John observed:
Society cannot go on as it has been ... We have to think of ourselves as people these days rather than men as opposed to women. So much that is ... wrong in society is as a result of ... inequality. The planet is threatened because of men. People are poor because of men ... People are dying in wars because of men. The one thing that we can do is change and building ... recognizing the female within ... That female spirit within. Of cultivating that, is a giant step forward.
Conclusions
Since my survey of 2005 my ongoing researches within the Pagan community reveal an uneasy co-existence between the MGM and mainstream Paganisms. The equation of Pagan men with mythopoetic masculinity still persists in essentialist mainstream discourses,[3] although, anecdotally, the MGM appears to be growing slowly around the fringes of this mainstream, attracting gay and bisexual men especially. This growth is attested to by an emerging acceptance of male practitioners within Goddess Spirituality as evidenced by many Goddess temples, such as the
Glastonbury Goddess Temple in the south-west of England, opening up
- ↑ See Green, ‘Opposites Attract’; also Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1969.
- ↑ See Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade.
- ↑ An interesting grassroots example is provided by Silverspear, ‘Men and The Goddess’, available at http://www.paganpathwayssheffield.co.uk/?Talk_and_Discussion_Write_Ups:Men_and_the_Goddess. Accessed 16 March 2011.
