(Auto)cuidado, cura e sustentabilidade entre bruxas e bruxos contemporâneos em São Paulo

Abstract

Ethnography as a method was fundamental to the choice of the thesis topic, development and objective. Considering the combination of fieldwork, carried out with witches in São Paulo, especially those who attended the "Santuário da Grande Mãe", a Wicca temple located in the neighborhood of Vila Mariana, with the interdisciplinary bibliography used, the research can be characterized as transdisciplinary. The north of the research is the relation between contemporary female and male witches in São Paulo and sustainability. Linked to this might be (self-)care and healing, significantly present issues in the speeches, meetings and public rituals. The research objective and contribution is to show that there are, beyond those socially recognized as such, different forms of expression of the sustainability idea, based on speeches and ritual practices of people whose religiosity and spirituality are, in theory, intrinsically linked to nature, and that in their way they appropriate and identify themselves with the witch figure, still present and even in evidence in society. Contemporary witchcraft and its practitioners, both conceptualized here, are inserted in a (self-)care and healing culture, which is taken more seriously by those who assume the role of priest/priestess. Care and healing refer to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects at the individual, collective and planetary levels, interconnected in a holistic perspective. The sustainability notion has to do with the type of relationship that human beings establish with nature so that human and other life on Earth are preservnjed. To be healthy, this relationship must be conducted with caution and responsibility. Among witches, references to traditional and ancient peoples who in theory had a respectful relationship with nature, its cycles and women, seen as sacred, are common. When they come into contact with the myths of these peoples in rituals, they seem to believe that they are rescuing teachings to deal with themselves, others and nature in a more integrated and balanced way. Some speeches pointed out that practicing witchcraft is insufficient if there is no activism, especially in the environmental sphere. Certain practitioners see sustainability as a specific area in which some of them study, work and/or as an idea incorporated in their daily lives, speeches and meetings through certain practices socially recognized as sustainable. Getting closer to members of a religious and/or spiritual path connected to nature made it possible to broaden the view on sustainability, bringing in this research different ways of expressing the referred notion.