{"id":10197,"date":"2019-02-04T18:18:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T01:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10197"},"modified":"2019-02-04T18:47:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T01:47:21","slug":"solitary-pagans-a-new-academic-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10197","title":{"rendered":"“Solitary Pagans,” a New Academic Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Back in the mid-1990s, Nancy Mostad, then the acquisitions editor at Llewellyn, told me that they estimated that 70 percent of purchasers of books on Paganism were solitaries.Hence the immense success — by their standards — of Scott Cunningham’s Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, sociologist of religion Helen Berger has been studying American Pagans for decades herself. Her earlier works are A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States <\/em><\/a>and (as co-author) Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States<\/em><\/a> and Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and the Search for the Self<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her new book, Solitary Pagans: Contemporary Witches, Wiccans, and Others Who Practice Alone<\/span><\/em><\/a> is available for pre-order. It will be released at Lammas. Since I probably will not read it until next fall, here is what the publisher (U. of South Carolina Press) is saying<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Solitary Pagans<\/em> is the first book to explore the growing phenomenon of contemporary Pagans who practice alone. Although the majority of Pagans in the United States have abandoned the tradition of practicing in groups, little is known about these individuals or their way of practice. Helen A. Berger fills that gap by building on a massive survey of contemporary practitioners. By examining the data, Berger describes solitary practitioners demographically and explores their spiritual practices, level of social engagement, and political activities. Contrasting the solitary Pagans with those who practice in groups and more generally with other non-Pagan Americans, she also compares contemporary U.S. Pagans with those in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.<\/p>\n

Berger brings to light the new face of contemporary paganism by analyzing those who learn about the religion from books or the Internet and conduct rituals alone in their gardens, the woods, or their homes. Some observers believe this social isolation and political withdrawal has resulted in an increase in narcissism and a decline in morality, while others argue to the contrary that it has produced a new form of social integration and political activity. Berger posits the implications of her findings to reveal a better understanding of other metaphysical religions and those who shun traditional religious organizations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the mid-1990s, Nancy Mostad, then the acquisitions editor at Llewellyn, told me that they estimated that 70 percent of purchasers of books on Paganism were solitaries.Hence the immense success — by their standards — of Scott Cunningham’s Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. Meanwhile, sociologist of religion Helen Berger has been studying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,275,5,7,4,6],"class_list":["post-10197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-new-religious-movements","tag-paganism","tag-publishing","tag-scholarship","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2Et","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10799,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10799","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":0},"title":"A New Study of Solitary Pagans","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Solitary Pagans: Contemporary Witches, Wiccans, and Others Who Practice Alone is a new study from Helen A. Berger, a sociologist of religion who has been studying contemporary Paganism for decades. Her body of work is large enough now that future scholars will be returning to it again and again for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/solitary-pagans.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=538","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":1},"title":"Writing on Paganism helps journalist\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing on Paganism helps journalist earn awardFreelance writer and religion journalist Kimberly Winston won this year's American Academy of Religion journalism award in the category of \"news outlets with more than 100,000 circulation or on the Web.\"Her work has included writing on Wicca and Paganism, including a piece that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1231,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1231","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":2},"title":"It’s That Time of Year!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you ready for the cameras and notepads? It's the time of year when journalists notice the Pagans! ReligionLink is on the job with story ideas. At least they admit that they are recycling their resource list from 2004. (No, that's not my telephone number anymore, sorry.)\"Oh, my\" indeed.","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9750,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9750","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":3},"title":"Central American Pagans, Wicca and #MeToo, and Good Writing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Costa Rica now has a Pagan presence: Asatru, Witches, and Druids: Think paganism [sic], and you probably don\u2019t think of a conservative, Catholic-majority country in Central America. But Costa Rica, with its beautiful beaches and tropical charm, is emerging as an unlikely base for a growing pagan movement battling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asatru\"","block_context":{"text":"Asatru","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=asatru"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10035,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10035","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":4},"title":"Season of the Witch(crap), Part 3","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Season of the Witch(crap), Part 1\" \"Season of the Witch(crap), Part 2\" \"Witchcrap\": superficial journalistic treatments of Wicca, Witchcraft, and related Pagan paths. \u2022 In The Atlantic,\"Young black women are leaving Christianity and embracing African witchcraft in digital covens.\" Except the article discusses a convention and gets to the digital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/mercator.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/mercator.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/mercator.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1317,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1317","url_meta":{"origin":10197,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry with Chariots","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Icelandic Pagans curse the nation's economic rivals. See what happens when you mix polytheism and international banking? (Via Pagan Newswire Collective.)\u2022 I do like what Iceland may do for freedom of the (online) press.\u2022 We are the Empire, and we have the chariot-racing to prove it. Video no. 2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Iceland\"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=iceland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10197"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10204,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10197\/revisions\/10204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}