Discusiones en torno a la agencia

feel it necessary here to comment on an apparent contradiction or

misperception surrounding the presence of religion and spirituality at Brecon. My interest here is to specifically map the explicit expressions relating to religion and spirituality within environmental communities by analysing what community members stated in their interviews.77 _{I will employ the concept of} realms (inner, personal, social and public) to identify the presence of religion and spirituality. These realms have been defined to elaborate on this

particular context and I make no wider associations to other contexts or concepts beyond the study. Focussing on the apparent discrepancies and mapping the place (geographical and social) of community members’ religious and spiritual expressions will assist me in identifying any implicit social paradigms.

Within the rural context I outlined the degree of ambiguity surrounding the knowledge about other community members’ spiritual practices. There was however no doubt that some spiritual beliefs existed in most of the members’ world-view even if they were not clearly or explicitly understood by the other members. Within the urban context there seemed to be, for some community members, a belief or perception that there were not any religious or spiritual beliefs (Int 29 117:05). As the interviews progressed it became apparent that this belief or perception could not be taken as accurate as some

community members described clear spiritual practices and beliefs. What is interesting to note from this contradiction or misperception is that it would appear, at the community level, such spiritual beliefs (different from religious beliefs which are fair game for criticism) are not openly discussed (Int 30 49:40) or are discussed in a mildly critical way. The result being that

77 _{This particular approach to studying religion has been advocated by Kim} Knott in ‘The Location of Religion’ (2005, p. 233).

community member’s with spiritual beliefs and practices keep it to

themselves within the ‘inner realm’, a term I will elaborate on below. Tess here is reflecting on the role of spirituality within Brecon and concludes that there is none but then goes on to state.

Tess: “There are certain people here who I just won’t talk to about

spirituality because it would make them angry and it’s private, it’s personal. There are some people here that I do talk to cos I know that they are on a similar mission within themselves, but they also have really negative opinions of religion, that bothers me.” Int 32 1:08:02

I would suspect that such members in a less critical community environment would be more expressive about their spiritual tradition(s), thereby

encompassing both the ‘inner realm’ and the ‘personal realm’. What do I mean when I use the term ‘inner realm’ and ‘personal realm’? I define the inner realm as a person's inner thoughts and emotional life, this includes both the conscious and subconscious and is inextricably connected with body sensations. This may also be termed their core being or inner-life, which is often related to spirituality in particular (P. Heelas, 2007, p. 2). Physically it can be perceived as below the skin of the body, within the mind and emotions of an individual person. Within this realm, thoughts, beliefs and emotions can be withheld, shared with no other person. Such thoughts beliefs and emotions if significant will inevitably be expressed in a physical form and in the context of spirituality it would seem obvious to talk of rituals. Such rituals although external and observable to others may in fact be kept from the sight of others, indeed such secret rituals were discussed at both Raven Hill, Yosemite and Brecon (Int 32 1:20:04). When an individual is directly asked about spiritual beliefs the person has the option of closing down and not expressing their inner thoughts and beliefs in an explicit way, appearing vague. The quote above from Tess is one example of such closing down in a social setting. The personal realm I define as the

immediate geographical environment controlled by the individual or family grouping within the community. In the rural context this relates to the individual bender structures (Chapter 5.3.1) and surrounding space or bedroom space as at Brecon. The individual has greater autonomy over the space in comparison to the shared communal areas. In such a space the individual is free to arrange objects and conduct social relationships with some privacy. Consequently the personal realm can be partly social, that is when the individual(s) influence the norms for social interaction. Given the

individual autonomy of the personal realm it is an obvious environment to express and mirror the inner realm of the individual.

To complete the picture then I need to explain what I mean when I use the term ‘social realm’ and ‘public realm’. The social realm relates to everyday interactions, face-to-face meeting, it would equate quite closely to the Gemeinschaft categorisation outlined by Ferdinand Tönnies (1957) which I commented on in Chapter 3. Geographically the social realm can be

perceived as those spaces in which these face to face social interactions take place, such encounters indeed transform these spaces radically.78 _In this context they are the communal spaces and buildings within the

community, however they may also be located in public spaces such as the street. The ‘public realm’ then relates to society at large, beyond the

immediate social community, individuals and groups depending on their persuasion may interact with this public realm which would include national bodies, state, government etc. An important distinction here for many community members is that personal one-to-one relationships within this realm are simply not possible. Some community members therefore actively seek to reduce the influence of the public realm whether it be the wider norms of society or the direct intervention within their lives by the state. Again this realm can be related to the categorisation of Ferdinand Tönnies, his Gesellschaft form of society (1957). The terms political, institutional, civic and municipal are also often referred to when describing this realm. These realms that I have defined should not necessarily be considered hard and fast categories separate from one another, substantial overlap and dynamic interaction exists between them, in this sense they should be considered approximate indicators. Indeed such interaction allows for a degree of

ambiguity, this being referred to regularly within the interviews. Influence and interaction between the inner, personal and social realms are prevalent within communal life as a greater interaction is possible when compared to separate households in mainstream culture. It is therefore more likely that a community member’s inner beliefs and practices might influence others and lead to collaboration and communion. This form of collaboration therefore would exert an influence within the social sphere which could in many ways be considered a vernacular form of religion. This is a phenomenon which I

78 _{Lefebvre has identified the constant interaction between the social and} material aspects of space (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 405).

will elaborate on further in Chapter 8 when I explain some of the substantive differences between the spiritual traditions in the rural context.

This distinction then between the inner, personal, social and public realms which I have just distinguished is crucial in distinguishing the differences between urban and rural contexts in connection to religion and spirituality. In the rural context both religion and spirituality comfortably reside in the inner, personal and social realms, however within the urban context there appears to be factors in play that restrict the overt reference to religion and

spirituality, confining it to the inner realm. I posit these factors partly relate to strategic tendencies, which will form the basis for Chapter 7. In any case the point I want to press here is that this activist, ‘spiky’ tendency in the urban context is dominant within the social realm to the extent of pushing spiritual beliefs and practices out of the social realm (possibly personal realm) for most community members. Furthermore this tendency (which predominantly remains implicit and covert) is actually challenging the general pluralistic ethic which has conversely an explicit place within the personal and social realms. It could therefore be said that the apparent contradictions here are held in dynamic tension, if the implicit ‘spiky’ tendency were to exert too much influence it would surely become obvious and be perceived as counter to the explicit pluralistic ethnic and conversely if spirituality were to increase in the personal realm it would surely begin to exert an influence within the social realm, which for some community members is unthinkable (Int 36 1:30), perhaps appearing too like institutional religion or dogma.

Finally I would point out that such discrepancies between the inner, personal and social realms have implications on social research and its overall

conclusions. Depending on the social research methods employed there could be seemingly contradictory conclusions. In both urban and rural contexts it would seem unfeasible to pick up these subtle discrepancies, where spirituality seems to be present within a community that according to some members does not do spirituality (Int 29 117:29), without using the in-depth interview technique and assured anonymity. The greater degree of detail and complexity gained in this instance by adopting these methods can only be beneficial to overall academic understanding.

6.3.2 Ceremony, Rituals and Shrines

Given the level of spirituality manifested within the urban context I did not expect to encounter spiritual group ceremonies such as those that take

place at Yosemite. But what group ceremonies were taking place of a less overt spiritual nature? The most commonly mentioned ceremony related to solstice celebrations and in a similar manner to the rural context such

solstice gatherings were part party and part ceremony to mark the changing seasons.

Wilma: “But I tell you what though I do like celebrating solstice, that's

a little bit spiritual and I do like that.”

Interviewer: “But not the Equinox? Not the Celtic fire festivals?” Wilma: “Not quite as much, but I appreciate, I like to appreciate the

changing of the seasons, and the things that the Earth gives us and that I would get involved in, something like that, like our little

[significant community celebration] planting a tree, and I like that.”

Int 34 34:45

Although most community members were happy to join in with solstice celebrations a cautiousness was kept in relation to any formal ceremony, especially ones that involved the use of robes commonly associated with some forms of contemporary paganism.

Toby: “I am quite suspicious of, of really organised [pause] spirituality

really. Any kind of spirituality that I have felt has been intensely personal, hard to articulate, so I don't, it's not something I have really in common with other people. So I mean in terms of like you know, yearly Beltane and solstice and things like that [long pause].”

Interviewer: “You're comfortable with joining in?”

Toby: “Yeaaa [beginning of yes?] Well I am comfortable with the idea

of it and,er, yeah, yeah.”

Interviewer: “In the sense of the jury is out in terms of whether that

what they are doing in those ceremonies is…”

Toby: “Yeah I mean it depends if they are all wearing funny robes

and kept reciting poems out, I feel quite uncomfortable, yeah but I am in favour of the idea of it, I think that's you know a way of

reconnecting with, er, [pause] with, er, the natural world, natural living.” Int 33 57:45 [brackets mine]

It is interesting how Toby here defines a distinct purpose for himself within the ceremony, namely nature-connection, re-connection between himself and nature via the marking of earth cycles. However he is seemingly suspicious and uncomfortable with the formal explicit aspects of ceremony

usually associated with contemporary paganism. This preference for an informal approach to such ceremonies resembles Eco-Paganism as

discussed in Chapters 4 & 5. In my interview with Tess I discovered that she had attended stone circle ceremonies at an ancient site which was under threat from local mining operations. A large protest site had been

established to protect the adjacent forest and stone circle. To my

astonishment Tess said she did not meet anyone from the protest site whilst taking part in the ceremonies with her contemporary pagan group, this despite many invitations being offered to the protest camp to join in, ‘they just didn't come up’ (Int 32 1:20:20). I personally knew many people from the protest site and they would comfortably fit into the Eco-Pagan category as outlined earlier. The decision not to attend may have been due to

discordant personal relationships or alternatively may be an example of the resistance of Eco-Pagans towards the formal contemporary pagan

ceremony as discussed in Chapter 4.79

Other instances of group ceremony seem to be connected with trees, tree planting activities and wassailing of apple trees in the autumn. Although these ceremonies were perceived as significant within the community it was made clear that such ceremonies were more focused on the social aspects rather than the spiritual or religious connotations. Ben here is asked what spiritual ceremonies take place within the community.

Ben: “I think there's very little of I mean there’s stuff that, erm,

wassailing which I believe is a pagan thing that I have no knowledge whatsoever but I just know from chitchat round and about that there has been wassailing here in the past and other Co-ops but I think that's more [pause] about doing social things often with other Co-ops and it's a social event tied to often the solstice or, you know, seasonal er, point of seasonal importance, I think it's more to do with the social side of it rather than any ritual connection to the, to it’s kind of

religious origins, I might be completely wrong about that [laughs].”

Int 30 45:17

Nevertheless I did push him on the matter of the ceremonial part and what it might mean for each of those present.

79 _{Adrian Harris also notes a similar resistance at Lyminge forest protest site} where activists shouted out "We don't need your rituals. We live it every day." (Harris, 2008, p. 28).

Ben: “I guess its openness for yeah it's, it marks whatever the

occasion might be and some people may, er, invest in that ceremony more spiritually than others but it's a kind of open way of doing things isn’t it, which yeah I think is good, pluralistic and allows for people's own view of things.” Int 30 47:37

Ben's quote here exposes the explicit pluralistic ethic and celebrates the inclusive nature of the ceremony where people can invest lots or a little, this being a particular feature of solstice celebrations that I discussed in Chapter 5. The quote above from Wilma also mentioned a communal ceremony at Brecon to mark a significant anniversary. A tree was planted in the

permaculture garden with most of the community members and a smattering of friends present. A riddle from Chinese philosophy was recited in turn by five or six of those present. Some community members mentioned a level of tension between the formality of the ceremony, with some members

weeping, and the informality of laughing and joking (Int 32 117:12), this being the usual status quo around the Brecon community.

I observed no shrines or religious symbols at Brecon and throughout the interviews there was no reference to any shrines in the personal sphere, this being a clear contrast to Raven Hill and Yosemite. Tess was the only

community member to mention personal ceremony and this was in the context of a larger spring equinox ceremony, she removed herself from the main grouping to perform a ceremony to let go of something in her past (Int 32 1: 20:56).

6.3.3 Changing Spiritual Practice and Solstice Celebrations