Sociology of Religion Commons^™

The Practitioner, The Priest, And The Professor: Perspectives On Self-Initiation In The American Neopagan Community, Marty Laubach, Louis Martinie’, Roselinda Clemons

Marty Laubach

Initiation is a religious practice that is generally understood as involving socialization and acceptance into a religious community, but American Neopaganism, with its emphasis on individualism and autonomy, has evolved a meaning that challenges that simple understanding. American Neopagan communities are marketplaces of ideas that are comprised of groups and solo practitioners, all in interaction in which they might conduct main holidays together, but not necessarily work together in what they would consider more “serious” practices in which they receive the spirit communications with which they develop the ideas. Among groups, these practices include initiations through which candidates are trained …