Paper short abstract:

This is an exploratory paper in which a brief analysis of ritual practices taking place in Northwest France is used to delve into the somatic and physical knowing, in which the participants' experiences rely.

Paper long abstract:

This paper on embodied spiritual experiences in the new age practices held in Brittany's megaliths explores the "felt-sense" that participants turn to in order to engage in a meaningful relationship with some aspects of the megalithic landscape. Special consideration will be given to the different processes of connection operating in the rituals, and helping establish an embodied conversation between the participants and the organic and non-organic environment.

The notion of "embodiment" invites us to consider the body not as an object to be studied in relation to culture, but as the existential ground of culture. As several scholars have suggested, the individual interactions taking place in new age ritual contexts can derive from an embodied-situated-cognition, which depends on an affective and sensual mode of being-in-the-world. Furthermore, the embodied knowing, as the "intuition" or the "gut feelings", has priority over intellectual approaches for participants who search to communicate with a landscape. Essentially, what emerges is an embodied perception of nature, fundamental if we are to establish a meaningful engagement with the place, the flora, the fauna and the nature's spirits.

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork among the members of a group who hold regular meetings in Carnac's megaliths. These individuals visit Carnac every year in order to develop their spiritual and physical welfare; executed rituals blend science, indigenous beliefs and local folklore. Brittany, the region where Carnac is settled, has a strong Celtic heritage and maintains a fierce local identity.