{"id":1515,"date":"2010-04-15T09:29:43","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2010-04-15T09:30:54","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T15:30:54","slug":"survey-on-pagan-coming-of-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1515","title":{"rendered":"Survey on Pagan Coming-of-Age Rituals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sociologist Gina Oboler <\/a>has done good research in the Pagan community before\u2014I used some of her work on Pagans and environmentalism in Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now she is looking at coming-of-age rituals, and if you can offer some experience-based responses, please fill out her questionnaire, below, and send her your responses via email.<\/p>\n

Hi, everyone!<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m working on a research project in which I’m interviewing people in the Pagan community about coming-of-age rituals for adolescents, trying to learn if there is any consensus about the importance of such rituals, who does them, what forms they take, what they are meant to accomplish, etc. I’d like to get beyond my own personal network and the connecting networks, so I would be very grateful if folks could circulate my questions and my e-mail address, and encourage people with some knowledge of the topic to respond to me in writing.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Gina <\/em><\/p>\n

roboler [at] ursinus [dot] edu
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

QUESTIONS ON COMING-OF-AGE RITUALS, PAGAN COMMUNITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\t What experience of coming-of-age rituals have you had?<\/p>\n

2.\t Do you think it is important to have puberty rituals? Why or why not?<\/p>\n

3.\tAt what age should such a ritual take place? Is a single ritual event sufficient, if done well, or should there be a sequence of education and ritual occasions?<\/p>\n

4.\tWhat do you think they accomplish for the young person(s) involved?<\/p>\n

5.\tDescribe rituals you yourself have conducted\/designed\/helped design\/attended. (Or rituals you have heard about from others.)<\/p>\n

6.\tWhat do you consider key elements that need to be included in the rituals?<\/p>\n

7.\tFollowing is a list of goals that various commentators have suggested coming-of-age rituals aim to accomplish. Please comment on some or all, including how important you think each is, and why. Which are the most important goals?
\na.\t Formalizing an individual’s changed status in a community.
\nb.\tTesting\/proving the individual worthy of the new status.
\nc.\tSubjecting the individual to rigors that encourage him\/her to value the status.
\nd.\tPsychologically transforming the individual.
\ne.\tClarifying the individual’s life-goals.
\nf.\tEncouraging the individual to accept greater responsibility (along with privilege).
\ng.\tStrengthening the individual’s commitment to a particular group or tradition.
\nh.\tCreating group solidarity among those who go through the ritual together.
\ni.\tOthers?<\/p>\n

8.\tHow do these elements relate specifically to a Wiccan\/Pagan belief system – or could they be similar in any tradition?<\/p>\n

9.\tAre different kinds of rites important for boys and girls? If so, different in what ways? Why?<\/p>\n

10.\tWhat marked your own personal transition from childhood to adolescence or adulthood? Do you think you would have benefitted from a formal ritual? How, and what would you have liked it to be like?<\/p>\n

11.\tAre there other important issues surrounding this topic that you think should be discussed that we haven’t touched on yet?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sociologist Gina Oboler has done good research in the Pagan community before\u2014I used some of her work on Pagans and environmentalism in Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Now she is looking at coming-of-age rituals, and if you can offer some experience-based responses, please fill out her questionnaire, below, and […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-or","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10725,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10725","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":0},"title":"Caroline Tully on Pagan Art and Fashion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Caroline Tully is an Australian scholar of Classics, archaeology, and esotericism with a background in fine arts: I am an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Monash University, Graduate and Postgraduate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9776,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9776","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":1},"title":"Rodnoverie: A Quick History of Russian Pagan Revival","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Kaarina Aitamurto, a Finnish scholar who has studied the Russian Pagan revival extensively, has written a short history of the Rodnoverie movement(s) and their founders and exponents for the World Religions and Spirituality website. (Think of it as an online scholarly encyclopedia.) In the 2000s, the Rodnoverie movement grew rapidly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrldrels.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Rodnoverie5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2813,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2813","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":2},"title":"Pagan Family Website Seeks Writers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Sarah Whedon at Pagan Families: Pagan Families seeks carefully written contributions on all aspects of Pagan pregnancy and childbirth. Examples of the kind of writing we are seeking include: scripts for conception rituals; theological essays on the ethics of reproduction; prayers to mother goddesses; Pagan sensitivity guides for birth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"childhood\"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=childhood"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4996,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4996","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":3},"title":"Russian Seasonal Dream Rituals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I missed Orthodox Christmas by\u00a0 a day, but here is an article on Russian Pagan dream practice. \u00a0Here I'll try to give the \"taste\" of the authentic Russian tradition of dream work that has very deep roots in pre-Christian culture.\u00a0 Mainly the Russian tradition tells about highly practical dream incubation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dreaming\"","block_context":{"text":"dreaming","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dreaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3104,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3104","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":4},"title":"Despite CUUPs, Unitarians Still Aesthetically Deprived","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Victoria Weinstein, a blogging Unitarian minister (also known for her clerical-fashion advice blog) critiques her fellow UUs for neglecting the aesthetic side of worship: I wonder how much of our beauty-avoidance is a hangover from our iconoclastic, Puritan origins in America. If so, it\u2019s time we got over it and\u2026","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":9877,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9877","url_meta":{"origin":1515,"position":5},"title":"“The Importance of Rituals to the Hunt”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I have written a little about the intersection of hunting and ritual, but today I would ask you to read Jeremy Climer's blog post \"The Importance of Rituals to the Hunt.\" Before we go any further, we should define both \u201ctradition\u201d and \u201critual\u201d because people often use them interchangeably.\u00a0\u00a0Although traditions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animals\"","block_context":{"text":"animals","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/bull-8-16-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/bull-8-16-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/bull-8-16-2015.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/bull-8-16-2015.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","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=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}