From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 2, Number 2
Easter 1997
Spirituality
Other Spiritualities: A
Travelogue
Manifestations of the supernatural outside the realm
of typical Christian experience have piqued my curiosity for a long time. My
interest began during missionary service in Liberia, West Africa, as I gradually
became aware that African life was permeated with spiritual realities in ways
that we Western missionaries could barely comprehend. A few years ago, I looked
for resources to aid ELCA missionaries in understanding such things as sorcery,
witchcraft, exorcism, good and bad spirits, and the living-dead, and edited a
collection called Readings on the Spirit World.
Recently
I have done some poking around to see what’s out there in terms of alternative
spiritualities in the US, particularly in the Chicago area. My observations
reflect the level of expertise of a tourist.
Almost a
year ago I met a former witch who has been a Christian for twenty years. During
the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, she had taken classes in witchcraft and occult
practices in Berkeley, California. Then, after years of intense involvement,
she became a Christian. We talked about spiritual hungers which are not
satisfied by an intellectual, “from the neck up,” approach to Christianity. We
brainstormed about ways to reclaim the use of ritual involving physical
elements and our body-selves, to enrich Christian experience and satisfy our
longings to be whole persons in whole communities of faith.
When I
embarked on an exploration of New Age “stuff” in the Chicago area, I quickly
discovered that bookstores are a major source of information: publications,
services, classes, networking, and so on. Some are specialized bookstores, such
as Prairie Moon in Arlington Heights (“Feminist Books & Woman Friendly
Space”), Planet Earth in Evanston (“An Oasis of New Age and Metaphysical Stuff
from All Around the Planet”) and Sanctuary Crystals in Alsip (“Rock Shop, Mega
Metaphysical Book Store & Spiritual Learning Center”). However, standard
bookstores also have huge sections of books on New Age and other religious
topics. For example, Borders Bookstore has as many books on Paganism, Wicca,
and witchcraft as does the specialty shop, Turtle Island Books on the north
side of Chicago. I was fascinated by a book written by a Pagan mother on how to
practice Pagan religion as a family. It included such practical things as
helping one’s children explain to their friends why they don’t celebrate
Christmas.
The best
single source of information about Chicago area New Age practitioners and
programs is a free publication, The Monthly Aspectarian. It is widely
available in many bookstores, restaurants, and health food stores. The January
1997 issue includes an article about the GaiaMind Project, calling for
simultaneous global meditation and prayer during the January 23rd, 1997
Astrological Alignment. Another feature article is a first-person account of
empowerment by the Wolf Spirit. The calendar of events announces Chicago area
workshops on basic shamanism, Sufi-style spiritual dancing, healing touch,
divine love meditation chanting, reiki, astrology, hypnotherapy, yoga, and many
more. Advertisers offer expertise in all of the above, plus past life
regression, Feng Shui (The Chinese Art of Placement), Astro-Weather, and all
manner of healing. “Bishop David Robinson” advertises himself as “A Prophet
Healer and Spiritualist Reader of the Ancient Order of Melchesidec [sic].”
Advertisements
for psychic fairs caught my attention. I checked out one held at Amelio’s Italian
Restaurant in Palatine. The “admission fee” was the purchase of a meal at the
restaurant, which has great food at modest prices. The psychic fair consisted
of half a dozen psychics, mostly women, seated at tables in a side room of the
restaurant. One, Marlena Rocklady, served as hostess and cashier and sold
semi-precious stones said to have special powers. New customers were invited to
scan literature about the psychics or just look around and see to whom they
felt drawn. The psychics used various methods (palm reading, face reading,
Tarot cards) and each claimed to give guidance toward spiritual fulfillment.
The price for “readings” was $1.00 per minute plus $5.00; thus a 15-minute
reading was $20. I tried to eavesdrop on some of the conversations as I sat
around, hoping I looked like a paying customer awaiting her turn. Though I did
not purchase a reading for myself, my impression was that it was a relatively
inexpensive way to get something similar to pastoral counseling without
religious requirements. Marlena Rocklady told me she thought psychics practice
the Biblical gifts of the spirit (e.g. word of wisdom, word of knowledge) but
at a more advanced level.
I was in
Eugene, Oregon at the time of the Winter Solstice in 1996 while visiting my
daughter and her family for Christmas. Eugene is a great place for people who
want to explore organic foods, nontraditional approaches to healing, feminist
bookstores, and alternative religions. Ecological issues are very high on the
public agenda.
There were numerous celebrations of the Solstice in
Eugene; the one I attended was a gathering of a local group of Wiccans, or
witches. As I prepared to go on a dark, rainy evening, my daughter reminded me
that my Christmas sweatshirt wouldn’t exactly be appropriate at a Pagan
ceremony!
The
meeting was in a former church building which had been converted to an art
gallery. We gathered in the former sanctuary. It still looked like a church to
me even though the furniture and symbols had been removed. I was dressed casually
in slacks and Birkenstocks and at least half of the twenty or so women were
middle-aged and looked much like me. Only the leader, Norma Joyce, and a few
others wore distinctive dress. (I later came across a book, The Goddess
Celebrates: An Anthology of Women’s Rituals, in which the same Norma Joyce
had written the chapter titled “Ritual Creating and Planning.”)
The
women stood in a circle. The group participated in “energy raising” with songs
and chants, and rituals using lots of candles, as well as incense, water, and
salt. Some of the strongest themes were extreme feminism, the Goddess, and the
four directions linked with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water.
The tone was quite relaxed and friendly with a good dose of irony and humor. The
purpose, in addition to celebrating a major event in nature, seemed to be to
strengthen women to meet life’s challenges with the aid of spiritual power in
community. Many of the women had found Christian churches disappointing, if not
a source of oppression and great pain. In their view, using a former church for
a Wiccan ceremony was a triumph of true spirituality. Although they named
themselves as witches, there was almost no evidence of stereotypical
witchcraft. My overall impression in
these few explorations is that there was a lot less “weirdo stuff” than I
expected. The people participating were rather ordinary folk, with the same
spectrum of dress and manner as one sees in a grocery store. I saw a lot of
similarities to familiar religious practice, especially in its more extreme
feminist and/or creation-oriented expressions. We churchy types need to ask why
people are seeking to satisfy their spiritual hungers in such diverse ways, and
what there is in our own traditions which needs to be re-introduced,
strengthened, or modified.
Bishop
H. George Anderson observed, in his column in The Lutheran (January
1997, page 52), “The good news is that we are living through the biggest religious
revival our country has seen in 40 years. The bad news is that it is happening
mainly outside the Christian church... People are looking for something, and
they are hunting around the edges of traditional religion to find it.”
In the
spirit of this publication’s title, let’s talk. What resources do we have in
the Christian tradition that address these spiritual desires and quests?
Joyce M. Bowers
Associate in Ministry
Associate Director for
International Personnel
ELCA Division for Global
Mission
Member, Grace, Mount
Prospect