New Age and Neopagan Religions in America
Sarah M Pike
ISBN 0231124023 (hbk) 0231124031 (pbk)
New York, Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2004 – 220pp
Sarah Pike’s New Age and Neopagan Religions in America is written to
address what the author identifies as several setbacks facing students of
alternative spirituality in America.
Firstly, from the perspective of a university teacher of new religions, Pike
observes a general dearth in the availability of “engaging books on New Age
and Neopagan cultures that introduce readers to the main concerns and daily
lives of participants … the work that is available leaves many gaps in our
knowledge about these religious cultures, and no books provide accessible
overviews of the subject” (p xi). Secondly, Pike states that with a view to
explorations of both historical and contemporary practice, little is available
by way of introductory literature specifically on the American alternative
religious scene as much of the extant research is either too detailed to be used
effectively as an introduction or else has been done by British scholars who
“did not situate [the New Age movement] in American cultural and religious
history” (p x). Thirdly, Pike perceives a general over-emphasis on
theoretical scholarly debate and theology/belief and a concurrent lack of
attention to religious practice, “everyday rituals and belief systems” (p x) and
the “religious cultures” (p xi) of New Age and Neopagan spirituality. While
Pike welcomes “more ethnographic and focused work” such as Brown’s
Channeling Zone (1997) or Sutcliffe’s Children of the New Age (2003), she
again highlights the lack of an overview perspective (p xf).
Sarah Pike’s study succeeds in fulfilling the aims the author sets for herself.
Engagingly written, it develops a rich portrait of New Age and Neopagan
cultures and concerns and conveys an accessible overview picture well
grounded in detailed illustrations of practical and ritual activities. The lively
opening chapter, for example, based on participant observation, takes the
reader on a tour of Pantheacon, the “yearly Bay area New Age and Neopagan
convention” (p3), conjuring up an eclectic mix of teachings, rituals,
workshops and performances. A description of a Neopagan ritual “focused
on clearing psychological obstacles such as fear that [keep] us from knowing
and acting to realize our full potential” (p6) forms the centrepiece of this
chapter. Pike describes the imagery and rituals used in this ceremony along
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with the purpose it is meant to fulfil. An outline of the history of the
tradition with which the ceremonial leader associates herself – Victor
Anderson’s1 Feri Witchcraft – provides Pike with an opportunity to highlight
the processes through which materials of various provenances were
creatively adopted and adapted by contemporary practitioners. In the
process, this opening chapter defines the agenda for the book in more than
one way. Not only does its fluent narrative style set the tone for the
remainder of the text; the chapter also reflects in a nutshell the main angles
and lines of enquiry through which Pike accesses her subject matter –
popular practices and activities, current concerns and issues, and historical
origins. The concluding sentence sums up the issues the book sets out to
explore: “These religions are eclectic at heart, blending old and new, the
visionary and the concrete, dance and music, foreign and indigenous
practices to meet the needs of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century
people” (p12).
Reflecting this approach, the book is structured in two parts which attend to
historical context and contemporary issues respectively. Part I introduces the
key features of New Age and Neopaganism and goes on to explore their
historical emergence from the “spiritual hothouse” of nineteenth century
religious innovation to the growth of “identifiable New Age and Neopagan
groups out of the 1960s counter-culture” (p xii). Part II is a more thematic
exploration of “central concerns that these religions share” (p xii): healing
practices, gender roles and sexuality, and the belief in an emerging “new
era”. The book focuses on New Age and Neopaganism in the United States
(though curiously, the jacket illustration is a picture of Stonehenge in
England).
The fact that the book is intended chiefly as an introductory textbook for
students and general readers is also reflected in the sections appended to the
main text. The endnotes include references to both scholarly and primary
literature. In addition, apart from a carefully compiled and helpful index,
there is a chronology of key dates and events and a glossary of specialist
terms and key movements. Finally, a section entitled “Resources” contains
an annotated select bibliography and lists journals and websites. These
resources include both emic and etic material and, in line with the aims of the
book, are drawn specifically from the United States context.
One of the strengths of this book lies undoubtedly in the wealth of material
with which the author illustrates the various aspects of New Age and
Neopaganism. This helps the reader to gain a picture, not only of the
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motivations and concerns of those involved, but also of how these are lived
out and addressed through a diversity of practices. Comparatively little, on
the other hand, is offered in the way of research methodology beyond a few
very brief remarks to the effect that the phenomena in view “have been
difficult to study ... because they do not have founding texts or leaders but
rather are highly decentralized, antiauthoritarian, and personalized” (p ix). In
this regard, Pike’s book (though to some extent exemplifying an interdisciplinary approach) differs from other introductory texts such as Daren
Kemp’s New Age: A Guide (2004), which spells out in detail how different
disciplines can help to access different aspects of the multi-facetted
phenomenon of New Age.
The particular aims of Pike’s – to provide an engaging exposition of popular
religious practice – explain the de-prioritising of theory. However, the
peculiar nature of New Age and Neopaganism makes methodological
questions particularly pertinent. One of the perennial issues in this regard is
the way the phenomena in view are conceptualised. The label ‘New Age’
itself, for example, has been a long-standing bone of contention (cf, for
example, Lewis 1992). Pike does mention that New Age and Neopaganism
are “umbrella terms” (p22). She also touches on certain auto-perceptions
such as the fact that both “Neopagans and New Agers reject stereotypes,
which are shallow and often inaccurate representations of the depth and
diversity within these religions” (p22) and that “because their spirituality or
religious identity is highly personalized, they do not believe that labels
capture its richness and complexity” (p22). Pike also points out that
“[t]erminology is an issue in the Neopagan community, and many members
do not like the label scholars have given them” (p21). Yet the point is
construed more with a view to certain tensions between New Agers and
Neopagans.
Its significance for scholarly conceptualisations of the
phenomena – the fact that, as Heelas put it, even if those labelled New Age
reject it we are entitled “to employ the term to characterise what those
concerned have in common, essentially questing within to effect change”,
(Heelas 1996:17) – remains unexplored.
So how are New Age and Neopaganism defined in this study? Pike outlines
some basic contrasts, suggesting that New Age is concerned with the
transformation of the self and of individual consciousness (p22), whereas
Neopaganism focuses more on the relationship between humans and nature
(p18); that New Age involves angels, miracles, psychic phenomena, Human
Potential techniques and ideas, eastern religions, holistic healing and therapy,
while Neopaganism concentrates on the revival of ancient pre-Christian
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nature religions (p19); and that New Age involves specialist-client
relationships while Neopaganism’s focus on ritual gives it a more communal
character (p23). Furthermore, New Agers often charge for healing services
in client-provider settings whereas Neopagans do not, unless they make their
living as healers (p98). Their common features are described as the
privileging of “internal over external authority and experience over belief”,
and a “focus on self-exploration as the best route to truth and knowledge”
(p22) as well as a general spiritual eclecticism (p26ff). Pike’s pragmatic
characterisation is well illustrated with examples and case studies and
usefully employed in her study to allow effective access to New Age and
Neopaganism.
However, readers will note that in line with the introductory, overview
character of the book, Pike prioritises description of the variety of ideas and
practices over engagement with more ambiguous issues that have been
problematised in the research literature. The different ways in which New
Age has been defined by scholars, for example, are not discussed at any
length. The point is also exemplified by the surprising prominence given to
the belief in the arrival of a new era as characterising both New Age and
Neopaganism (ch 7). Pike explores contrasting interpretations of this belief,
on the one hand in terms of a global apocalypse, and on the other hand in
psychological terms as individual renewal and a call to social activism.
This contrast has also been discussed by Steven Sutcliffe (2003, ch 5). As
far as the Scottish Findhorn community is concerned, Sutcliffe has linked
this hermeneutical change especially with the time of David Spangler’s
residence there, and for the American context, too, Pike attributes a
significant role to Spangler in shaping the psychological construal of the
transition into a new era. Yet overall, the discussion leaves the reader with
the impression that this expectation is a necessary criterion of New Age and
Neopaganism. This narrow definition is rather at odds with the declining
importance of the belief in post-1975 New Age which, for example,
Hanegraaff sought to capture in his distinction between New Age sensu
stricto and New Age sensu lato (Hanegraaff, 1996).
Pike’s overall approach could have profitably been extended to relate the
categories of New Age and Neopaganism to the phenomenon of seekership
which has been emphasised in the research literature in recent years.
Basically, Pike portrays New Age and Neopaganism as straightforward New
Religious Movements (p69). The implications of this point for defining and
conceptualising New Age as an object of scholarly investigation are,
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however, subordinate to Pike’s principle aim of familiarising the reader with
the concerns and practices of alternative religiosity.
As far as the historical sections of her book are concerned, Pike offers an
engaging, clearly structured survey of the history of alternative spirituality in
the United States in order to embed contemporary phenomena in a historical
context. As in the whole of the book, this contextualisation is of a wide
scope but never loses its focus. Illustrating that Christian culture has never
been as pure and monolithic as common wisdom might assume, Pike’s
overview of “early varieties of alternative spirituality in American history”
sets the scene by briefly describing how early modern occult traditions
intermingled and sometimes clashed with Christian culture during the
colonial period. During the eighteenth century, such beliefs and practices
disappeared from public view, but they did not die out and re-emerged in the
nineteenth century. The ‘spiritual hothouse’ of nineteenth century America –
with its atmosphere of religious creativity and social experimentation –
provides Pike’s main focus for identifying more specifically the precursors of
contemporary religious phenomena in the Second Great Awakening (18001830), Mormonism, Evangelical Protestantism, Harmonial Religion,
Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, the New England Transcendentalists,
Spiritualism, New Thought, Theosophy and the influence of Asian religions.
Her narrative also considers the social and economic context of the time,
touching on issues such as industrialisation, urbanisation and mobility as well
as the uneasiness about the disappearance of old patterns.
In the twentieth century, Pike’s narrative takes account of new elements like
UFO sightings, the interest in Atlantis and Lemuria, and the work of Edgar
Cayce and Alice Bailey. Going on to discuss the social upheavals, spiritual
boom and religious experimentation of the 1960s, she locates the roots of
New Age and Neopaganism proper in the personalisation of religion, that is,
the emerging focus on the self and rejection of external authority.
The chapters on “Healing and Techniques of the Self” and “Sex, Gender, and
the Sacred” further exemplify the strengths of this study in that a variety of
specific issues are identified and richly illustrated. Further noteworthy topics
covered include controversies with Christians and the medical profession,
and the role played by the internet in disseminating information, maintaining
networks of relationships and even co-ordinating ritual and healing activity.
The motivations and concerns of participants are sympathetically depicted
and the philosophies, sources of authority and main beliefs that structure
emic discourse sensitively explored and supplemented with case studies.
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The comprehensive and well-rounded character of this study derives from the
fact that Pike’s exposition is wide-ranging and skilfully conveys an
impression of the vibrant diversity of New Age and Neopagan culture and
the enthusiasm of participants, focussing on the United States. Her approach
successfully balances an overview perspective with detailed examples and
case studies. Sarah Pike’s study succeeds in fulfilling the aims the author
sets for herself and offers a useful and engaging overview of New Age and
Neopagan religious cultures, along with an introduction to the key issues at
stake in this field of study.
Jochen Scherer, © 2007
References
Brown, Michael, 1997, The Channeling Zone. American Spirituality in an Anxious
Age, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J., 1996, New Age Religion and Western Culture. Esotericism in
the Mirror of Secular Thought, Leiden, New York & Köln: Brill.
Heelas, Paul, 1996, The New Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self and the
Sacralization of Modernity, Oxford & Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Kemp, Daren, 2004, New Age: A Guide – Alternative Spiritualities from Aquarian
Conspiracy to Next Age, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Lewis, J. R., 1992, ‘Approaches to the Study of the New Age Movement’, in: Lewis,
J.R./ Melton, J.G. (eds), Perspectives on the New Age, New York: State University
of New York Press, 1-12.
Sutcliffe, Steven, 2003, Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices,
London & New York: Routledge.
Notes
1
d 2001; not the author of the critique of Carrette & King (2005) also included in
this volume. DJK
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