Re-membering the witch and the goddess: feminist ritual-makers in New Zealand

Abstract

In the mythologies of Western societies, the witch and the goddess constitute polarized images of female power, power which is both beyond the domain of male control and designated illegitimate (in the case of the goddess) or undesirable (in the case of the witch) for ordinary women. This thesis is a product of research amongst women in New Zealand who, by claiming that the witch is a diabolized version of one aspect of the goddess, challenge the dichotomization of these two images. The women belong to a movement called alternatively “feminist witchcraft” or “Goddess spirituality” which was begun by feminist activists in the United States during the late 1960s, grew and spread in the twenty five or so years since, and today forms a sub-group within feminism in a number of Western countries. The women with whom I worked self-identify both as “witch” and “goddess”. In their everyday lives, and especially through their ritual practices, they aim to discover, embody and explore the power which the symbols “witch” and “goddess” represent. I argue that women’s self-identification in these ways is aimed at collapsing the dualistic symbolic system which polarizes the witch and the goddess as images of womanhood. I see such self-identification as a symbolic act of self-empowerment through which women begin to see and experience themselves as strong and autonomous. By re-membering the witch and the goddess, women re-member parts of themselves to which they have been denied legitimate access under patriarchy. The thesis is based on three years’ anthropological fieldwork amongst feminist witches in Auckland, where the movement is strongest, and Hamilton, where I lived over the period. I also had some limited contact with witches in Christchurch. As background to the ethnography, I trace the movement’s origins, development and connections in the United States and New Zealand. I compare expressions of the movement in New Zealand, the United States and England, focussing on the special character of the movement in New Zealand. The ethnography is primarily an examination of the attraction of witchcraft for the women with whom I worked, their world views, and their ritual practices. I emphasize the subjective meanings which witches give to their beliefs, values and practices. I conclude that the movement is a phenomenon constructed deliberately out of a variety of ancient and contemporary elements by women determined to bring a spiritual dimension to feminism. I see feminist witchcraft/Goddess spirituality as one expression of a much broader contemporary movement, what witches call a “new consciousness”, which emerged out of the 1960s counter-culture. This broader movement, whose various expressions include, along with feminism, the ecology movement, civil rights and gay rights movements, the anti-nuclear movement and holistic healing movements, challenges social and political institutions founded on dominance and oppression: the emphasis is on partnership in social relations, care for the planet, and a holistic world view. For witches, the symbol of holism, balance and connection is the Goddess.