This study is an attempt to understand the factors involved in constructing a Pagan identity in South Africa in light of these challenges. In the light of these limitations and to build a clear demarcation of the field of investigation of this study, the following explanations are made. This decision was made in light of the orientation(s) towards Nature that can be observed more in the Pagan community of South Africa.
This is an identity study that seeks an understanding of the factors involved in the construction of Pagan identity in South Africa. It is a move that must be seen in the context of the global trend towards more inclusive perspectives. To overcome some of the problems involved in the questionnaire, a series of interviews were conducted with members of the Pagan community.
A third reading of the data confirmed the selected codes and hypotheses were formed about the discourses used in the text. What was important was my note, if possible, of the context in which the text was created. 7The leader of this group, however, made a valuable contribution in the final stages of the study.
2004 addressing the challenges in the role of the researcher in the field of pagan studies.
SECTION ONE
A BACKGROUND TO THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT
The visible rise of the Pagan movement in South Africa precedes the establishment of the PFSA. Finally, Adams listed the religions of the non-literate peoples (the 'barbarians' of America, the South Seas and Africa) (ibid: 6). I have yet to make any reference to the emergence of the New Age Movement in South Africa in the 1980s, the importance of this emergence to Paganism, or to the frequent merging of their identities in South Africa today.
This is interesting as Steyn claims that Smuts is one, of only two, individual forerunners of the New Age Movement in South Africa. The background of the New Age Movement in South Africa for so many years was different from their almost immediate development in the West. The first academic study of the New Age Movement in South Africa was undertaken by Chrissie Steyn and published in 1994.
Before reviewing my own research into the relationship between paganism and the New Age movement in South Africa, it is pertinent to discuss some pertinent issues. Some scholars of the New Age Movement, such as Steyn (1994), stop short of actual inclusion but nevertheless suggest areas of mutual interest and concern. The consequence of this was that the New Age movement was already part of the landscape in which the emerging pagan movement had to position itself;
The legacy of the Western esoteric tradition is evidenced in diverse forms in the two movements in South Africa. Additional clarification of the role of magic in the Pagan/New Age debate is important, as the inherently magical worldview held by most Pagans is one that is only. The strong Christian tendencies in the New Age movement in South Africa, I believe, also influence the avoidance of the word 'magic' by many circles of the movement.
South African Pagans also continue to reject any view of the material world as something to be 'transcended' or overcome and do not participate in the universalizing tendencies found in the New Age Movement. Such fairs were a common feature in South Africa and predate the appearance of the pagan movement. It is with the former that a blurring of the lines between pagan and new age interests can be found.
1 Vivianne Crowley places paganism in the New Age by relating it to the astrological change from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius and takes it to represent a change in. The fourth level is the level where the New Age Movement can be seen as an embodiment of the sacred.
SECTION TWO
PERSONAL, SELF-DEFINED IDENTITIES
Contrary to adoption or conversion to another mainstream religion, Pagans are aware of misconceptions and. The importance of self as the key to this process is illustrated in the quote from pagan practitioner and psychologist Vivienne Crowley where she says,. Such dedications are usually understood to be taken for life and are an important step in the process of.
Adding 'dark' to the word wolf is quite strange as I have always been very afraid of the dark. Acknowledgment of the Pagan meaning attributions to the symbol must therefore be read together with the oppositional stance taken when wearing the pentagram. This pagan recognition of the immanence of the divine in the material is one of the few defining characteristics of contemporary paganism14.
Pagans encounter divinity in all aspects of the everyday, material world; not least in natural life cycles, and in the material body. As a personal Pagan identity is explored, developed and adapted, it is usually accompanied by the external manifestation of these stages on the body and in the personal environment of the practitioner. The two most important of these, and the subject of the next chapter, are through ritual and mythology.
In this way, pagan narratives tend to conflate past and present with visions of the future. Theological concern with the problem of the Devil had been increasing from the middle of the twelfth century onwards, mainly in response to the introduction of Catharism in the 1140s. In the previous chapter, mention was made of the pagan penchant for marking their personal space with artifacts of religio-spiritual significance.
This aspect of religion places it in the category of new religious movements where the immanence of the divine is a prominent feature. Both narrative and identity grow exponentially with the breadth of the context in which they develop (Gover 1998: 7). Pagans see the waxing and waning cycles of the moon as a mirror for the cycles of human life.
Based on her first book, Murray obtained an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica in which she asserted her thesis of the Old Religion. 14Beltaine is an ancient fire festival and is one of the cross quarter days on the calendar.
SECTION THREE
COLLECTIVE, SHARED IDENTITIES
A related and important debate in local paganism is the question of whether practitioners of African religion can be included as part of the pagan community. The virtuality of online experiences has raised questions and anticipated investigations of traditional understandings of identity, culture and community (McLuhan 1967, McLuhan and Powers 1989; Giddens 1991; Rheingold 1994). The development and expansion of the Intem has had a profound effect on the Pagan movement worldwide.
Discussing the ways in which the use of the Internet is particularly relevant to Paganism, Cowan applies the history of the open source movement on the Internet to the contemporary Pagan movement by analogy. The open source nature of Paganism has been further elevated by the characteristics of the Internet environment that encourage the ability to add and modify any and all information and ideas. It is an identity that actively seeks possibility and potential in convergence: the convergence of the “natural” and the “technological”—even the spiritual (nd: 1).
Scholars such as Lovheim (2004), Dawson and Cowan (2004) and Cowan (2005) have all noted the implication for identity construction in the disembodied virtual world of the internet that supports the ability to construct and maintain multiple identities; a factor that makes the question of authority and authenticity more problematic. Because of the possible deceptions on the Internet, those who want to start an online group but do not have an offline status face a problem in claiming the authority to do so. Another form of identity fraud afforded by the nature of the Internet is the ability to support a number of aliases.
The separation and presentation of multiple selves is unique to the Internet environment and expands the possibilities in Giddens' proposal that "a name is one of the most important social markers of an individual identity." A predominant form of authority exercised online is that of the pagan teacher, or what Cowan calls "pedagogical authority." Before the advent of the Internet, the above events were held at fixed locations throughout the country.
The potential of the Internet to not only obtain information but also to distribute it has made it possible to extend these services to individuals beyond fixed geographic locations. With no standardization of the material covered in online and offline courses, authority is often usurped by assuming the role of teacher. The disembodied nature of the Internet promotes the ease with which claims to authority can be made online, which may not always be supported offline.
