Cleanliness is Next to Godliness, But Oaths are for Horses: Antecedents and Consequences of the Institutionalization of Secrecy in Initiatory Wicca
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v14i2.233Keywords:
Contemporary Paganism, Initiation, Ritual, Secrecy, WiccaAbstract
Drawing on a theoretical sample from my on-going fieldwork on religious creativity, I offer a psychological perspective on the issue of secrecy in contemporary initiatory Wicca. Secrecy is understood here to exist in those relationships where a supposed inequality of knowledge is actively maintained by managing access to the surplus of that knowledge. First, a descriptive account of the various etic narratives of secrecy is given, successively relating the topic to mythistory, oath keeping, magical practice, and mysteries. Second, moving from the manifest level to the latent level of these narratives, I will then offer an explanation and interpretation of the functions secrecy in terms of the maintenance of ownership, appeal, and association. The latter is explained as ritual hygiene and shown to be the functional opposite of secrecy. In the concluding part two implications of the institutionalization of secrecy are discussed: misrepresentation of knowledge and stalled religious development are shown to be detrimental side-effects of upholding secrecy in contemporary Paganism.References
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Urban, Hugh B. “Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006): 356–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfj084
——. “The Torment of Secrecy: Ethical and Epistemological Problems in the Study of Esoteric Traditions.” History of Religions 37 (1998): 209–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463503
Van Gulik, Léon A. “On the Pagan Parallax: A Sociocultural Exploration of the Tension between Eclecticism and Traditionalism as Observed among Dutch Wiccans.” Pomegranate 12 (2010): 49–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/pome.v12i1.49
——. “The Scholar Versus the Pagan on Greencraft Tree Walks,” Traditiones 41–1 (2012): 47–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2012410105
Barkun, Michael. “Religion and Secrecy After September 11.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006): 275–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfj058
Bok, Sissela. Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation. New York: Vintage, 1989.
De Zutter, Jan. Eko Eko: Een halve eeuw Wicca. Antwerp: Houtekiet, 2003.
Duncan, Ann Williams.“Religion and Secrecy: A Bibliographic Essay.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006), 469–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfj087
Faivre, Antoine. Access to Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York, 1994.
Greer, John Michael. Inside a Magical Lodge: Group Ritual in the Western Tradition. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1998.
Hutton, Ronald. Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.001.0001
Johnson, Paul. Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/0195150589.001.0001
Kelly, Aidan A. Inventing Witchcraft: A Case Study in the Creation of a New Religion. Loughborough: Thoth, 2007.
Lankester, Joke, and Ko Lankester, Heksen komen van de Maan. Baarn: De Kern, 2005.
Luhrmann, Tanya. “The Magic of Secrecy.” Ethos 17 (1989), 131–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/eth.1989.17.2.02a00010
Marx, Gary T., and Glenn W. Muschert, “Simmel on Secrecy: A Legacy and Inheritance for the Sociology of Information.” In Soziologie als Möglichkeit: 100 Jahre Georg Simmels Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung [The possibility of sociology: 100 years of Georg Simmel’s investigations into the forms of social organization],edited by C. Rol and C. Papilloud, 217–33. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-91437-4_13
Simmel, Georg. “The Secret and the Secret Society.” In The Sociology of Georg Simmel, edited by K. H. Wolff, 303–76. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1950.
Smaling, Adri, and Ilja Maso, “Objectiviteit in kwalitatief onderzoek: Een overzicht.” In Objectiviteit in Kwalitatief Onderzoek, edited by Ilja Maso and Adri Smaling, 13–29. Meppel: Boom, 1990.
Toynbee, Jason. “Creativity and Intellectual Property Rights.” In Cultural Expression, Creativity & Innovation, edited by Helmut Anheier and Yudhishthir Raj Isar, 86–98. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446251010.n8
Urban, Hugh B. “Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006): 356–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfj084
——. “The Torment of Secrecy: Ethical and Epistemological Problems in the Study of Esoteric Traditions.” History of Religions 37 (1998): 209–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463503
Van Gulik, Léon A. “On the Pagan Parallax: A Sociocultural Exploration of the Tension between Eclecticism and Traditionalism as Observed among Dutch Wiccans.” Pomegranate 12 (2010): 49–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/pome.v12i1.49
——. “The Scholar Versus the Pagan on Greencraft Tree Walks,” Traditiones 41–1 (2012): 47–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2012410105
Published
2014-01-13
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
van Gulik, L. A. (2014). Cleanliness is Next to Godliness, But Oaths are for Horses: Antecedents and Consequences of the Institutionalization of Secrecy in Initiatory Wicca. Pomegranate, 14(2), 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v14i2.233
