Goddess Pilgrims as Tourists: Inscribing the Body through Sacred Travel

Energy and transformation in alternative pilgrimages to Catholic shrines: deconstructing the tourist/pilgrim divide

“…In the 1980s, as organized trips to 'sacred places' and centers also developed, travelers to such places often defined themselves as 'pilgrims' and their trips as 'sacred journeys' or 'pilgrimages.' In recent years social and cultural scientists have described such travelers using terms such as 'ecospiritual pilgrims' (Ivakhiv, 2001, p.49) or 'Goddess pilgrims' (Rountree, 2002(Rountree, , 2006a(Rountree, , 2006b, thereby assimilating them with certain cultural / religious movements such as the 'New Age' and the Goddess movement. Bearing in mind all these terms, I refer here to such spiritual journey-makers as 'energy pilgrims'-an umbrella term I use to refer to those on the Mary Magdalene tours and the pilgrimages to the Marian shrines that I studied, but also to those whose sacred journeys have been analyzed by social scientists, including the aforementioned (e.g.…”

“…Bearing in mind all these terms, I refer here to such spiritual journey-makers as 'energy pilgrims'-an umbrella term I use to refer to those on the Mary Magdalene tours and the pilgrimages to the Marian shrines that I studied, but also to those whose sacred journeys have been analyzed by social scientists, including the aforementioned (e.g. Bowman, 1993;Ivakhiv, 2001;Rountree, 2002). I have chosen 'energy' as a key concept because it relates to one of the main things these travelers have in common, that is, an avid interest in contacting and / or receiving the 'energy' of the places they visit.…”

“…I have chosen 'energy' as a key concept because it relates to one of the main things these travelers have in common, that is, an avid interest in contacting and / or receiving the 'energy' of the places they visit. That the concept is central is supported by the fact that pilgrims use energy language (Fedele 2009) not only to describe their worldview and spiritual practices but also to make sense of their journeys as a whole (Weibel, 2001;Ivakhiv, 2001;Rountree, 2002).…”

“…Women from the transnational Goddess movement are now reclaiming these sites and performing creative 'pagan' rituals thought to derive at least partially from ancient pre-Christian traditions. Ivakhiv (2001, p.231) and Rountree (2002Rountree ( , 2006b) have underlined the difficulty of differentiating this kind of pilgrim from tourists in general. Particularly in the case of pilgrims traveling in organized groups such as those described by Rountree, similarities to tourist groups visiting the same sites are striking, including traveling in air-conditioned coaches, eating in good restaurants and visiting archaeological and historical museums.…”

Spiritual Life

“…Rountree (2002Rountree ( , 2006 has studied the pagan Goddess movement and more specifi cally practices of pilgrimage to Neolithic sites in Malta. The sacralization of these sites emerges through an awareness of the divine in space and through a felt temporal connection to pagan Goddess worshipping societies in the past (which are valorized for their freedom from patriarchal injustice and a more balanced relation to the natural world).…”