some or all of their rituals, activities and training to men. Furthermore, I have come across many anecdotal examples of polytheistic male Pagans incorporating goddesses into their personal pantheons of belief and practice.[1]
Whatever the longer-term future of the MGM, it is clear that it
marks a ‘second wave’ of male Pagan practice. Indeed, it is founded upon a
rejection of those essentialist constructions of mythopoetic masculinity
within the first wave of the Pagan Men’s Movement. [2] Demographically
the MGM might conform closely to the broader Pagan movement, but it
presents a radicalized version of mainstream dynamics, particularly in the
arena of ritual practice. As stated, mainstream Paganisms are often
constructed around essentialized polarities of gender. Wiccan ritual
practice, for example, is empowered by the magical dynamic between
masculinity and femininity (as exemplified by Drawing Down The Moon).
This symbiosis of gender – the encounter between essentialized notions of
masculinity and femininity − lies at the heart of Wiccan notions of mystery
and the overt sexualization of much of its ritual practice. By contrast, the
MGM retains this sexualization, but its dynamic is built around a different
sexual antitype – the channelling of female deity by male Pagans.
Contextualizing this within the work of Eilberg-Schwartz, the interiorization
of the other is a product of the Enlightenment. Thus, the MGM is
philosophically modern, but simultaneously possesses gender
identifications which critique normative modern masculinities. Paganisms
are often simplistically theorized as postmodern forms of spiritual reenchantment.[3] The rise of the MGM complicates this, meaning that more
research is needed to unpick its epistemic roots. Its simultaneous embrace
and rejection of the modern demonstrates that more nuanced sociological
understandings are required of both second wave male practitioners and
the Pagan movement as a whole. The MGM reveals that a perspective is
required which goes beyond procrustean categories such as ‘modern’ and
‘postmodern’ and which seeks to understand the interaction between
Paganisms and these sociological antitypes.
- ↑ See, for example, Pagan Perspective, ‘Should a male Pagan worship the Goddess?’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5GbALahIIA. Accessed 19 June 2012.
- ↑ Therefore to understand the roles and practices of men within Paganisms researchers need to open up to polysemic meanings of masculinity and its relationship to religion; note Krondorfer (ed.), Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism; also Stephen B. Boyd, W. Merle Longwood and Mark W. Muesse (eds.), Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press 1996.
- ↑ For example, Orion, Never Again the Burning Times; Carpenter, ‘Emergent Nature Spirituality’.
