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- Convenors:
-
Hynek Becka
(Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Helena Dyndová (Charles University)
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- Formats:
- Panel
Short Abstract
Moving beyond simple reading alternative spirituality as either gender-essentialist or (eco)feminist, this panel examines how gender identities are constructed within the alternative spirituality milieus, with particular interest in contestations over different notions of gender relations.
Long Abstract
The alternative spirituality, sometimes called holistic or New Age–derived, often frames gender as two distinct poles: male and female. These are frequently understood in cosmological terms, as complementary forces (such as the “divine masculine” and “divine feminine” ). Harmonizing these poles is considered central to human well-being and happiness.
The academic discussions about gender within this context were partly shaped by similar polarization: some have highlighted empowering aspects of alternative spirituality and various overlaps with (eco)feminist thought (especially in the USA and Western Europe), while others have taken a critical stance to gender-essentialist (and thus assumed to be conservative) notions of gender within the milieu. Recently, some scholars have begun to employ a more nuanced perspective, for example by suggesting that even deeply gender-essentialist worldviews might be tied to empowerment (Sointu and Woodhead 2008), or by showing how female-dominated spaces, both offline and online, are increasingly becoming more and more integral for politics informed by conspiratorial narratives (Bloom and Moskalenko 2021).
This panel invites papers that move beyond simple categorization of “progressive” and “conservative,” and explore how different gender relations and identities are constructed within the alternative and holistic milieus. While women have been a major focus on research concerned with gender in this context, we would also appreciate contribution focused on queer bodies and identities, as well as on (re)articulation of masculinities. We are particularly interested in tensions that emerge around these different articulations of gender, especially given the contemporary contestations and mobilizations for, and against, the multiplicity of gender identities and relations.
Accepted papers
Session 1Paper short abstract
The project explores masculinity and priesthood in Italian Neopaganism through an ethnographic study of male priests devoted to the Divine Feminine. It examines motivations, gender positioning, marginalization, vulnerability, and the relationship between spirituality, identity, and activism.
Paper long abstract
The project investigates the relationships between masculinity, priesthood, and Neopagan spirituality in Italy through an ethnographic study that includes a diverse sample of men (heterosexual, cisgender, queer, and transgender) who serve as priests within various traditions and movements of Contemporary Paganism, such as Wicca, Witchcraft, Goddess Spirituality, and Druidry. Grounded in a critical and non-monolithic definition of masculinity, and recognizing that “male” is not synonymous with heterosexual manhood, the research explores what motivates these men to dedicate themselves to the worship of the Divine Feminine and how this choice impacts their personal and social identities. It pays particular attention to conditions of marginalization, invisibility, and vulnerability often experienced by male Neopagan priests. Through semi-structured interviews, the project documents the motivations, roles, practices, and lived representations of priests of the Goddess, analyzing their gender positioning and their relationships with priestesses and their respective communities. Additionally, it addresses dynamics of media representation and the relationship between activism and spirituality, highlighting how men serving the Sacred Feminine uphold values of equality and inclusion. Through the narratives and life stories of the interviewees, the research amplifies the experiences of men within the context of the Divine Feminine, exploring the challenges and transformations faced by the Sons of the Goddess in their journeys. It investigates whether, in their priestly roles, gender positioning is decisive or secondary, thereby fostering open dialogue on gender, spirituality, and media, while promoting a deeper understanding of the intersections between masculine and feminine in all their manifestations.
Paper short abstract
One branch of Wicca as a magical-religious tradition, namely eclectic Wicca, offers a new avenue for the gendered expression of practitioner's identities in rituals and everyday life in the Quebec context.
Paper long abstract
In recent years, we have seen a resurgence of interest in witchcraft within Western societies. Television series, films, and newspaper articles are all redefining the representation of witches in a new historical context. However, very few people are aware of the fluid reality of gender identities within pagan and neo-pagan communities, which are often associated exclusively with women. Wicca is a magical-religious tradition with a unique cosmology in which the relationships between practitioners' gender identities and their ritual and magical practices are deeply rooted. From an anthropological perspective, this research explores the construction and expression of a gendered Wiccan identity in Quebec City through public rituals and everyday life. According to the results of this study, which is part of a master's degree in anthropology, I found that the definition of gender in Wicca is constantly changing depending on the socio-historical context. Today, within a specific Wiccan tradition known as eclectic Wicca, gender identity is characterized as the combination of masculine and feminine energies present in each practitioner. Practitioners choose to express masculine or feminine energy depending on a given situation in everyday life. This choice depends on the preferences and characteristics associated with masculinity or femininity according to each practitioner, which constitutes a high degree of subjective fluidity regarding gender identity.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines how the imagined Slavic past shapes gender roles in Rodzimowierstwo (Native Faith), showing how contemporary religious practices both reinforce binary divisions and open spaces for their negotiation and transformation.
Paper long abstract
This article analyzes how the imagined past of pre-Christian Slavs shapes the distribution and legitimization of gender roles within the ritual practices of Rodzimowiercy (Native Faith) in Poland. The religious practices of Rodzimowiercy are largely organized around principles of gender essentialism, expressed through a binary division into male and female roles. These include, for example, gender-based divisions in making offerings to Slavic gods and goddesses, as well as the organization of ritual labor among participants. At the same time, this division is not entirely fixed, and various gender-related issues are actively debated within the community, such as women’s ritual authority and the boundaries of acceptable practice.
Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2024 and 2026 in Kraków, the article argues that gender roles are actively negotiated among Rodzimowiercy through efforts to repeat and continue what are perceived as early Slavic beliefs, as well as through reinterpretations of the past. The ways in which contemporary religious practices challenge an essentialist order also foster new understandings of the past, in which historical imagination and personal values mutually shape one another. Thus, images of the past, understood as a space of dialogue within the community, become a significant arena in which binary gender divisions coexist with ambiguity and contestation.
Paper short abstract
The presentation focuses on women's spiritual circles in Slovakia as spaces of empowerment where authenticity as a moral value and as a path to the "true self" is constructed through emotional intensity, self-disclosure, and shared narratives, enabling transformation and female self-determination.
Paper long abstract
This presentation analyses contemporary alternative spirituality in Slovakia, emphasising the gender aspect and authenticity as mechanisms of women's empowerment. Authenticity is a key concept with dual significance in women's circles. Firstly, it functions as a moral value and a quality of genuine experience. At the same time, it represents an end goal: the search for the 'true self' (Jenkins et al., 2020), which is a key aspect of inner transformation and is closely linked to contemporary individualism.
The presentation focuses on specific mechanisms that construct and support authenticity in women's circles, such as intensely experienced emotions, symbolic and physical self-disclosure, and narrative scripts highlighting transformation through archetypal experiences. I argue that these mechanisms serve as costly signals that build a sense of safety and trust in informal settings, creating spaces where participants can share similar life philosophies within less rigid norms than those of traditional churches.
These collective spiritual activities function as a form of collective therapy for coping with life situations. Spiritual transformation usually occurs when women confront discrepancies that require new meaning systems (Paloutzian, 2005: 334). This is reflected in self-perception, identity, values and behaviour, including the systematic reinterpretation of events (Luhrmann, 1989).
By combining classical ritual theories (Durkheim and Malinowski) with psychological and cognitive approaches, the analysis emphasises how female-only spaces can empower individuals through authentic self-disclosure, collective support and identity transformation. Women's circles therefore represent spiritual exploration as well as female self-determination and empowerment in a society characterised by patriarchal religious structures.
Paper short abstract
With a majority of women, the temazcal reproduces established gender hierarchies while simultaneously functioning as a core part of the interviewed women’s self-care strategy. In this way, it operates as a tool for coping with the burden of care and surviving within an unequal gender system.
Paper long abstract
Following the conclusions of Sointu and Woodhead (2008), the temazcal, and new spiritualities as a whole, would be positioned as a tool that, while reproducing gender stereotypes and power relations, also forms part of the Basque women’s self-care strategy. Being a ritual with a majority of women, during my master’s thesis I discovered how the temazcal was a place where autonomy over one's own health, intensification of the relationship with the elements of nature, and an affirmation of the identity of the interlocutors converged.
The temazcal, also known as a sweat lodge, is an ancient ritual that belongs to the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and North America and came to the Basque Country through a movement known as “El Camino Rojo” (The Red Road). This organization emerged in the 1980s as a fusion of the rituals of the two peoples and aims to spread the temazcal and several other rituals, such as the Sun Dance and the Vision Quest, throughout the American and European continents. In its original format, the Camino Rojo temazcal has a very marked gender hierarchy and reproduces very strict gender stereotypes and gender-based power relations, as one of my interlocutors stated. She also had to fight to gain more parity for women within that fixed structure and gain a respected place in the hierarchy.
Paper short abstract
Women and queer individuals disproportionately engage with astrology, especially online. Using ethnographic and netnographic research, this paper explores how gender identities and relations are negotiated in astrological content, revealing plural rationalities in the alternative spiritual milieu.
Paper long abstract
Astrology is ubiquitous in “Western” popular culture and occupies a central position in contemporary alternative spiritual milieus, especially in digitally mediated spaces where it circulates simultaneously as self-help, identity language, and political commentary. Notably, astrology is disproportionately engaged by women and queer people, with Pew’s 2025 data indicating that queer adults consult astrology at nearly double the rate of the general U.S. population. This is paradoxical given astrology’s foundational gender polarity – planets and zodiac signs are gendered. This paper examines how gender identities and relations are constructed, contested, and negotiated through contemporary astrology, moving beyond simple categorizations of the practice as either gender-essentialist or progressive.
Drawing on ethnographic and netnographic research in English-speaking astrological communities, I analyze how binary cosmological idioms are challenged, queered, and strategically redeployed across apps, social media, and activist-oriented astrology. Engaging Alexa Winstanley-Smith’s work on queer political astrology and Christopher Joseph Lee’s analysis of queer astrology’s entanglements with capitalism, I show how astrology functions simultaneously as a resource for empowerment and a site of ongoing tension.
Situating astrology within Descola’s framework of analogism, I argue that astrological practice reflects epistemic and ontological pluralism, wherein multiple rationalities coexist. Gender thus emerges as a contested symbolic terrain shaped by neoliberal consumer culture, digital mediation, political anxiety, and contemporary spiritual transformations. Through case studies of queer and feminist astrologers alongside purportedly “neutral” commentary, this paper demonstrates how astrology operates as a gendered technology of meaning-making – mediating identity, authority, and belonging in a moment of heightened cultural polarization.