Gender variance in spirituality: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
imported>Sekhet No edit summary |
imported>Sekhet No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{featured article}} | {{featured article}} | ||
{{content warning|cases of religious teachings being used as justification to oppress, abuse, or kill gender variant people and other minorities | {{Work in progress|Sekhet}} | ||
{{content warning|nudity in art; cases of religious teachings being used as justification to oppress, abuse, or kill gender variant people and other minorities; religious stories that contain sex, rape, self-harm, suicide, and violence}} | |||
[[Gender variance in spirituality]] is about the views that spiritual traditions have toward people who are gender variant. It is also about gender variant figures within those spiritual traditions. Gender variance [[History of nonbinary gender|has always existed]]. Spirituality has often been part of how individuals and [[ethnicity and culture|cultures]] have expressed or regulated that variance. | [[Gender variance in spirituality]] is about the views that spiritual traditions have toward people who are gender variant. It is also about gender variant figures within those spiritual traditions. Gender variance [[History of nonbinary gender|has always existed]]. Spirituality has often been part of how individuals and [[ethnicity and culture|cultures]] have expressed or regulated that variance. | ||
| Line 415: | Line 416: | ||
Wiccan traditions hold a wide range of differing beliefs about [[sexual orientation]] and [[gender identity]]. However, Wicca is regarded by many practitioners as a fertility religion. Starhawk wrote in her 1982 book ''Dreaming the Dark,'' "Sexuality was a sacrament in the Old Religion; it was (and is) viewed as a powerful force through which the healing, fructifying love of the immanent Goddess was directly known, and could be drawn down to nourish the world, <u>to quicken fertility</u> in human beings and in nature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dreaming the dark : magic, sex, & politics|last=Starhawk.|date=1982|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=0807010006|location=Boston|oclc=8281427}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.spiralnature.com/spirituality/god-goddess-other/|title=God, Goddess, and Other: Fertility faiths and queer identities|last=Xenia|date=2014-11-26|website=Spiral Nature Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203111149/http://www.spiralnature.com/spirituality/god-goddess-other/|archive-date=3 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> | Wiccan traditions hold a wide range of differing beliefs about [[sexual orientation]] and [[gender identity]]. However, Wicca is regarded by many practitioners as a fertility religion. Starhawk wrote in her 1982 book ''Dreaming the Dark,'' "Sexuality was a sacrament in the Old Religion; it was (and is) viewed as a powerful force through which the healing, fructifying love of the immanent Goddess was directly known, and could be drawn down to nourish the world, <u>to quicken fertility</u> in human beings and in nature".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dreaming the dark : magic, sex, & politics|last=Starhawk.|date=1982|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=0807010006|location=Boston|oclc=8281427}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.spiralnature.com/spirituality/god-goddess-other/|title=God, Goddess, and Other: Fertility faiths and queer identities|last=Xenia|date=2014-11-26|website=Spiral Nature Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203111149/http://www.spiralnature.com/spirituality/god-goddess-other/|archive-date=3 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
Most Wiccans worship the Goddess and God.{{r|group=|KraemerGS|page1=392|q1=Both rituals seek union between the divine masculine and the divine feminine as represented by a priest and priestess, but Gardner emphasized that the purpose of the Great Rite was physical and spiritual fertility...|page2=|q2=|3=}}<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Farrar1989">{{cite book|title=The Witches' God: Lord of the Dance|author=Farrar, Janet|author2=Farrar, Stewart|publisher=Hale|year=1989|isbn=0-7090-3319-2|location=London|pages=170–171|oclc=59693966}}</ref> | Most Wiccans worship two deities, the Goddess and God, representing a male-female polarity that Wiccans believe is in all things.{{r|group=|KraemerGS|page1=392|q1=Both rituals seek union between the divine masculine and the divine feminine as represented by a priest and priestess, but Gardner emphasized that the purpose of the Great Rite was physical and spiritual fertility...|page2=|q2=|3=}}<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Farrar1989">{{cite book|title=The Witches' God: Lord of the Dance|author=Farrar, Janet|author2=Farrar, Stewart|publisher=Hale|year=1989|isbn=0-7090-3319-2|location=London|pages=170–171|oclc=59693966}}</ref> This is a "predominantly heterosexual model".<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of psychology and religion|others=Leeming, David Adams, 1937-|isbn=978-1-4614-6086-2|edition=2nd|location=New York|pages=1638–1641|oclc=865090158|lay-url=https://www.academia.edu/25192164/Sexuality_and_Wicca|lay-source=Academia.edu - Harrington, Melissa|lay-date=2016}}</ref> A central part of Wiccan liturgy involves the Great Rite,{{r|ObolerGE}}<ref name=":4" /><ref>Farrar, Stewart. ''What Witches Do: A Modern Coven Revealed'' (1973) London: Sphere Books. pp85-94.</ref> an act of actual or symbolic ritual sexual intercourse between the two deities, carried out by a priest and priestess who have had the deities invoked upon them.{{r|ObolerGE}}<ref name=":4" /><ref>Crowley, Vivianne. ''Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Age'' (1989) London: The Aquarian Press. {{ISBN|0-85030-737-6}} p.234</ref> | ||
Gardnerian and Alexandrian groups typically form their covens from male-female pairs exclusively.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wicca.com/wicca/wicca-forms.html|title=Various Forms of Wicca and Wiccan Traditions|website=wicca.com|access-date=2020-06-25|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627042208/https://wicca.com/wicca/wicca-forms.html|archive-date=27 June 2020}}</ref> Kraemer writes, "The British Traditional Wicca of the 1950s and 1960s saw masculine and feminine energies as wholly distinct from each other, yet complementary. Although masculinity and femininity were to be valued equally, priestesses and priests were cast into rigidly gendered, heteronormative roles."{{r|KraemerGS}} | Gardnerian and Alexandrian groups typically form their covens from male-female pairs exclusively.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wicca.com/wicca/wicca-forms.html|title=Various Forms of Wicca and Wiccan Traditions|website=wicca.com|access-date=2020-06-25|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627042208/https://wicca.com/wicca/wicca-forms.html|archive-date=27 June 2020}}</ref> Kraemer writes, "The British Traditional Wicca of the 1950s and 1960s saw masculine and feminine energies as wholly distinct from each other, yet complementary. Although masculinity and femininity were to be valued equally, priestesses and priests were cast into rigidly gendered, heteronormative roles."{{r|KraemerGS}} | ||
Newer Wiccan traditions often avoid or disregard the historical aversion to [[LGBT]] individuals.{{r|FWQC|KraemerGS|ObolerGE}}<ref name="Gallagher2005">{{cite book|last=Gallagher|first=Ann-Marie|title=The Wicca Bible: the Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft|publisher=Sterling Publishing|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4027-3008-5|location=[[New York City|New York]]|oclc=61680143}}</ref> Oboler notes the change in neopagan culture thus, "Although the symbolic bedrock of Wicca and modern Paganism is strongly gender-essentialist, the Pagan community, like the culture as a whole, has been moving away from that position."{{r|ObolerGE}} These traditions sometimes cite the Wiccan '' | Newer Wiccan traditions often avoid or disregard the historical aversion to [[LGBT]] individuals.{{r|FWQC|KraemerGS|ObolerGE}}<ref name="Gallagher2005">{{cite book|last=Gallagher|first=Ann-Marie|title=The Wicca Bible: the Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft|publisher=Sterling Publishing|year=2005|isbn=978-1-4027-3008-5|location=[[New York City|New York]]|oclc=61680143}}</ref> Oboler notes the change in neopagan culture thus, "Although the symbolic bedrock of Wicca and modern Paganism is strongly gender-essentialist, the Pagan community, like the culture as a whole, has been moving away from that position."{{r|ObolerGE}} These traditions sometimes cite the Wiccan ''Charge of the Goddess'' which says "All acts of Love and Pleasure are My rituals".<ref name=":7" /><ref name="Gardner 2004 p.70">Gardner, Gerald. ''Witchcraft and the Book of Shadows'' (2004) Edited by A.R.Naylor. Thame, Oxfordshire: [[I-H-O Books]], p.70. {{ISBN|1-872189-52-0}}</ref> Professor Melissa Harrington wrote that despite traditional Wicca showing [[heterosexism]] "as Wicca has grown and attracted gay practitioners they have begun to work out ways in which Wiccan rites can become more meaningful to them".<ref name=":4" /> | ||
According to professor and Wicca author [[Ann-Marie Gallagher]], "There is a moralistic doctrine or dogma other than the advice offered in the [[Wiccan Rede]]... The only 'law' here is love... It matters that we are gay, straight, bisexual or transgender– the physical world is sacred, and [we are] celebrating our physicality, sexuality, human nature and celebrating the Goddess, Giver of ALL life and soul of ALL nature."<ref name="Gallagher2005" /> | According to professor and Wicca author [[Ann-Marie Gallagher]], "There is a moralistic doctrine or dogma other than the advice offered in the [[Wiccan Rede]]... The only 'law' here is love... It matters that we are gay, straight, bisexual or transgender– the physical world is sacred, and [we are] celebrating our physicality, sexuality, human nature and celebrating the Goddess, Giver of ALL life and soul of ALL nature."<ref name="Gallagher2005" /> | ||
| Line 440: | Line 435: | ||
=====Alexandrian===== | =====Alexandrian===== | ||
Alex Sanders, the co-founder of Gardnerian offshoot Alexandrian Wicca, came out as [[bisexual]] later in life and created new rituals in which sexual orientation was irrelevant. However, a significant portion of Alexandrian belief is regarding heterosexual reproduction, best expressed by his wife and co-founder Maxine Sanders who is well known to emphasize the concept of male-female polarity and the fact that Alexandrian Wicca is a fertility religion. She also expressed concern about a proper functionality of transgender people (referred to as "transvestites") within coven practices, saying it best to look at other traditions that suit them more. "These people", as she is noted to have said, "they're not happy people."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZrmRkpRTiw On the Blackchair Podcast, Special Edition Series #3 - Tea With Maxine - On Initiation]</ref> | Alex Sanders, the co-founder of Gardnerian offshoot Alexandrian Wicca, came out as [[bisexual]] later in life and created new rituals in which sexual orientation was irrelevant. However, a significant portion of Alexandrian belief is regarding heterosexual reproduction, best expressed by his wife and co-founder Maxine Sanders who is well known to emphasize the concept of male-female polarity and the fact that Alexandrian Wicca is a fertility religion. She also expressed concern about a proper functionality of transgender people (referred to as "transvestites") within coven practices, saying it best to look at other traditions that suit them more. "These people", as she is noted to have said, "they're not happy people."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZrmRkpRTiw On the Blackchair Podcast, Special Edition Series #3 - Tea With Maxine - On Initiation]</ref> | ||
=====Dianic===== | =====Dianic===== | ||
Dianic Wicca has become notable for the female-focus and anti-transgender stances of its founder, Zsuzsanna Budapest, and many members. This female-only, radical feminist variant of Wicca allows [[cisgender]] [[lesbian]]s but not [[transgender women]] in Dianic covens. This is due to Dianic belief in [[gender essentialism]], specifically "you have to have sometimes [sic] in your life a womb, and ovaries and | [[File:Triple-Goddess-Pentagram.svg|thumb|194x194px|The symbol of Dianic Wicca — a circumscribed pentacle combined with the Triple Goddess symbol.|alt=A green pentagram circumscribed in black in center with a waxing crescent moon on the left and waning crescent moon on the right.]] | ||
Dianic Wicca has become notable for the female-focus and anti-transgender stances of its founder, Zsuzsanna Budapest, and many members. This female-only, radical feminist variant of Wicca allows [[cisgender]] [[lesbian]]s but not [[transgender women]] in Dianic covens. This is due to Dianic belief in [[gender essentialism]], specifically, "you have to have sometimes [sic] in your life a womb, and ovaries and moon bleed [menstruate] and not die," according to Budapest. This belief and the way it is expressed is often denounced as [[transphobia]] and [[TERF|transgender-exclusionary radical feminism]]. Budapest was vocal in her opposition to trans women.{{r|ObolerGE}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2011/03/transgender-issues-in-pagan-religions/|title=Transgender Issues in Pagan Religions|last=PANTHEON|date=2011-03-01|work=PANTHEON|access-date=2018-05-01|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525163404/https://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2011/03/transgender-issues-in-pagan-religions/|archive-date=25 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-dianic-wicca-2562908|title=What is the Dianic Wiccan Tradition?|work=ThoughtCo|access-date=2018-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415020853/https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-dianic-wicca-2562908|archive-date=15 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/08/pagans-trans-women-religions|title=Why won't pagans accept trans women? {{!}} Roz Kaveney|last=Kaveney|first=Roz|date=2011-03-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-06-15|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212114306/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/08/pagans-trans-women-religions|archive-date=12 February 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Some Dianic practitioners, such as lesbian priestess Jan Van Cleve, see this discrimination as a reactionary impulse that will someday subside. Van Cleve writes:<blockquote>"The relationship of the Feminist Movement to Dianic Wicca has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it liberated Wiccan women from patriarchal notions of paganism, which claimed that all energy comes from the male/female polarity. The early neo-Pagan leaders were all men and sex between sexes occupied a large part of their attention and sometimes even their rituals. This was rejected by feminists who sought a spirituality they could call exclusively their own. However, as feminism was a reaction to oppression, it carried with it a mindset colored by it. Feminists rebelled against the oppression of men but very soon began to oppress lesbians in their own ranks. The early years of the National Organization of Women, for example, were rife with bitter struggles between straight and lesbian feminists.<br><br>Oppression inevitably breeds oppression. The oppressed inevitably become the oppressors. It's the old story of man beats wife, wife yells at child, and child kicks dog. The same thing happened in Dianic Wiccan circles between straight and lesbian Witches. Lesbians, in turn, oppressed Bisexual women, and today some feminists and lesbians are opposed to transgendered women in circle. These are normal growing pains of any movement and as straight and lesbian women have by now largely overcome their orientation differences, they will no doubt soon overcome their fears of their transgendered sisters as well."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12083|title=Dianic Wicca|last=Van Cleve|first=Jan|date=11 February 2008|website=WitchVox|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124021931/http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12083|archive-date=24 January 2020|access-date=11 September 2019}}{{Self-published source|date=June 2020}}</ref></blockquote> | Some Dianic practitioners, such as lesbian priestess Jan Van Cleve, see this discrimination as a reactionary impulse that will someday subside. Van Cleve writes:<blockquote>"The relationship of the Feminist Movement to Dianic Wicca has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it liberated Wiccan women from patriarchal notions of paganism, which claimed that all energy comes from the male/female polarity. The early neo-Pagan leaders were all men and sex between sexes occupied a large part of their attention and sometimes even their rituals. This was rejected by feminists who sought a spirituality they could call exclusively their own. However, as feminism was a reaction to oppression, it carried with it a mindset colored by it. Feminists rebelled against the oppression of men but very soon began to oppress lesbians in their own ranks. The early years of the National Organization of Women, for example, were rife with bitter struggles between straight and lesbian feminists.<br><br>Oppression inevitably breeds oppression. The oppressed inevitably become the oppressors. It's the old story of man beats wife, wife yells at child, and child kicks dog. The same thing happened in Dianic Wiccan circles between straight and lesbian Witches. Lesbians, in turn, oppressed Bisexual women, and today some feminists and lesbians are opposed to transgendered women in circle. These are normal growing pains of any movement and as straight and lesbian women have by now largely overcome their orientation differences, they will no doubt soon overcome their fears of their transgendered sisters as well."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12083|title=Dianic Wicca|last=Van Cleve|first=Jan|date=11 February 2008|website=WitchVox|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124021931/http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?id=12083|archive-date=24 January 2020|access-date=11 September 2019}}{{Self-published source|date=June 2020}}</ref></blockquote> | ||