Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork-data on Neopagan witches in Berlin, the paper explores the ways the protagonists of a still marginal form of religiosity dwell in the city and creatively (re)interpret the rather secularized urban landscape as a manifestation of “home” of their beliefs and self-understandings.

Paper long abstract:

Based on ethnographic material on Neopagan witches in Berlin, the paper explores the ways the protagonists of a still marginal form of religiosity dwell in the city and creatively (re)interpret the rather secularized urban landscape as a manifestation of "home" of their religious belief and self-understanding, with sites where they most intimately can communicate with their deities and ancestors. By "Reclaiming" the divine in the urban habitat witches hope not least to experience a form of "wholeness" in their everyday structure of life - an experience that witches so dearly feel missing in the modern era. Analyzing the ways witches "reclaim" the divine in the urban context as a form of creating "home" and thereby a feeling of "wholeness", the paper draws close to the places of rituals and divine encounters in the city: the domestic spaces as well as public places, i.e. parks, and communal grave yards. How are these sites aesthetically designed and constructed via ritual practice? What kind of religious material culture and thereby imaginations come into play and get transferred into witches` ´ordinary` life routine? How again, does the protean (symbolic/physical) landscape of the city of Berlin seem to insist with intensity on itself, so witches have to adapt their religious ideas and performances to it. As the analysis should make clear: Neopagan witches might be part of a global movement, however, by negotiating between their worldviews and the immediate urban environment, they create a specific "Berlin" way and everyday structure of witchcraft and thus find home in Germany`s capital.