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Angela Coco
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland
'Authority and Legitimation in a Feminist Wiccan Spirituality Group'
Geraldine Finn in a 1992 article in Shadow of Spirit: Postmodernism and Religion (Berry 1992) argues that contemporary struggles within and about feminism and modernity tend to assume the terms and relevancies of, for example, self/other identity/difference etc, drawn from the politics they purport to reject. She suggests that the challenge and possibilities arising from the destabilising influences of postmodernism lie in the space that is opened up between these categories. In this space, a new 'ethical relations' might be negotiated. The identities permitted by dualisms do not challenge the politics and practices of self-representation that are characteristic of modernist regimes.
I was a member of 'Shades' a wiccan group that operated in Brisbane for seven years. Wicca may be understood as a postmodern form of religious expression for women. As is characteristic of such groups, it employed consensus decision-making and shared leadership in respect to group processes. However, many women from Shades reported in interviews that they perceived authority in the group to be located in the texts that informed some of the group's ideology and in those persons who were believed to have a greater knowledge of those texts. This was contrary to my observations, that women consistently used their life experiences as bases for the major proportion of the group's ritual activities. Women did not perceive their experiential input also and at the same time as attracting authoritative status equivalent to ideas that some members gleaned from texts. While at the overt level 'consensus' decision making was felt to be 'successful', at another level many women reported that some women's self-representations mirrored traditional hierarchical ways of group relating.
On reflecting on my role in the group and the behaviours of some members, I recalled lobbying, initiated by the originators of the group, which was carried on outside the planned group gatherings. I suggest that this lobbying, which usually took the form of evaluative discussions over coffee following rituals, formed an affective clique, or collective consciousness slightly different from that of the rest of the group. During whole group discussions participants perceived these people as forming an in-group with similar interests. Therefore when 'consensus' decision-making was taking place, they 'agreed' with ideas these people preferred rather than argued for their own input. The experiences of women in Shades provided empirical evidence of a tension between text and context, between authorising personal experience and their ability to voice their concerns about group dynamics to other members. I suggest this tension was related to women's motivations for initiating or participating in the group and reflects their perceived roles as leaders or followers.
Bio: Angela Coco is a social researcher in technology, cultural change and learning, with a special emphasis on changing spiritual practices and organisation in contemporary society. She lectured in sociology and women's studies in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland for several years and recently completed a two-year research fellowship exploring the social effects of technology in disadvantaged communities. She is currently conducting an ethnographic study of the ways information and communication technologies shape the pagan community in Brisbane.
<angela.coco@uqconnect.net>