patriarchy, they are also seeking innovative, non-instrumental ways of being with nature.[1] Thus, traditional correspondences of women with nature and sexuality still remain at the heart of Goddess feminism. The Goddess, for example, is still identified with the primordial mother nature figure, the triple Goddess (of maiden, mother and crone), female sexuality, and the sacred landscape.[2] Importantly, however, these mythopoetic ecofeminist notions of womanhood have been subject to attack by feminist theorists for their essentialized view of females as sacralized nature.[3] Despite such critiques, they have been influential in the creation of mythopoetic constructions of masculinity by some Pagan men.
Pagan Men
The rise of this feminine – and indeed eco-feminist – spiritual idiom within Contemporary Paganisms clearly has implications for Pagan men. They see the feminization of Pagan spiritualities as mirroring broader societal dynamics which have been seen to marginalize certain constituencies of men, particularly masculinities traditionally associated with the working classes. This crisis of masculinity is driven both by the rise of second-wave feminism and the restructuring of work in the West, now rooted in a service-based knowledge economy rather than in traditional heavy industry.[4] Just as Pagan women have sought to build thealogy upon feminist-friendly mythopoetic foundations, so some Pagan men, against the background of gender crises, have attempted to re-ground their spiritualities in eco-friendly archetypes of ‘wild masculinity’: a mythopoetic vision of man as wilderness which is congruent with the eco-feminist construction of women as sacred nature. These new androcentric spiritual dynamics are often termed Men’s Mysteries.[5] As Gabriella Smith argues:
- ↑ Long, ‘The Goddess Movement in Britain Today’, 37.
- ↑ For example, Starhawk, The Spiral Dance.
- ↑ See Salomonsen, Enchanted Feminism; also, Cecile Jackson, ‘Women/Nature or Gender/History? A Critique of Ecofeminist ‘Development’’ in Journal of Peasant Studies 20:3 (1993), 389-418; Huey-Li Li, ‘A Cross-Cultural Critique of Ecofeminism’ in G. Gaard (ed.), Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press 1993, 272-94; Karen Rountree, Embracing the Witch and the Goddess: Feminist Ritual Makers in New Zealand, London: Routledge 2003.
- ↑ See Smith, ‘The Wild/Green Man: Exploring the Mythopoetic Legacy within Modern Paganism’s Constructions of Gender’; also, Leanne Payne, Crisis in Masculinity, Ada, MI: Baker Books 1995; Anthony W. Clare, On Men. Masculinity in Crisis, London: Chatto and Windus 2000.
- ↑ Harvey, Listening People, Speaking Earth.
