"I am Mother to my Plants": Trees, Plants and Private Gardens in the Practice of Modern Witches and Pagans
The tree stands as a sacred symbol in many faith traditions. Unsurprisingly, nature-based new religious movements are no exception. This article considers the manifestation of sacred trees in a number of religious traditions, including Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spirituality, A...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2018]
|
| In: |
Fieldwork in religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 13, Issue: 2, Pages: 169-182 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Interfaith dialogue
/ Sacred tree
/ Wicca
/ Paganism
/ Plants
/ Garden
|
| IxTheo Classification: | AF Geography of religion AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements |
| Further subjects: | B
Fieldwork
B Nature B Wicca B Paganism B Religion B tree B garden |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The tree stands as a sacred symbol in many faith traditions. Unsurprisingly, nature-based new religious movements are no exception. This article considers the manifestation of sacred trees in a number of religious traditions, including Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander spirituality, Abrahamic traditions, Ancient Egyptian religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Norse mythology, the Shinto faith, and nature-based new religious movements. After this initial section, I present the findings of a fieldwork project undertaken in 2016. Using the survey as a tool, this project enquired into the use of trees, plants, and private gardens among practitioners from nature-based new religious movements. This survey makes use of both quantitative and qualitative survey methods, having been distributed to various nature-based new religious movements in New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Despite extensive tree lore, these survey results present the tree as a peripheral plant in the practitioners' everyday practice, with the garden as a whole being more critical than any single variety of vegetation. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1743-0623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Fieldwork in religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/firn.36021 |