More Complex Adaptations

During the late 1990s and subsequently, Pagan practice became more idiosyncratic and localized. This reflects the development of a mature cosmopolitanism in which diversity of practice is respected and encouraged. Various Australian Witchcraft texts have advocated a complex negotiation of tradition and local sensitivity. These adaptations moved in two directions. First, they became more localized, attuned to the seasons and “nature” of where practitioners lived. The second trend was toward a greater sensitivity to the European folklore and traditions that nurtured Pagan practice. Roxanne Bodsworth articulates the first of these trends:

Following the Wheel cannot be a static way of life. It cannot be dogmatic or unchanging. It is motion, a journey through stars and seasons, through other worlds, through our conscious awareness and our inherent wisdom. It is following the cycles of life, growth, death, and rebirth until no longer is there any separation between following the Wheel and being part of it; no longer any separation between Earth and her children. (Bodsworth 1999: 10)

Bodsworth is here emphasizing the “nature”-oriented aspect of contemporary Paganism (Harvey 1997). Similarly, Frances Billinghurst (2012) begins her book on Pagan seasonal celebrations noting that as she prepares for a winter solstice seasonal celebration, she has spring flowers in her garden, including irises and daffodils. This is quite common in Australia. What is required, Billinghurst (2012: 2) suggests, is more than simply “moving the seasonal sabbat dates around six months.”

Both Bodsworth and Billinghurst adapt and develop localized practices that are attuned to the complexities and nuances of the Australian seasonal cycle. For example, most Australian native plants are evergreen and do not lose their leaves in winter. In many places, Australian winters are less harsh than European winters. For the winter solstice, Bodsworth suggests that: “Decorating the house with plants that survive winter symbolizes the survival of the green and can teach children (and adults) about the difference between deciduous and perennial and the place of these plants in the Australian climate” (Bodsworth 1999: 15).

By 2006, the author “Link” was advising readers of Pagan Times to study their journals for patterns in their experience of spring. He lists various spring festivals including Pagan, secular and Christian (Easter in the northern hemisphere) celebrations, suggesting: “While you can mark these formal holidays, you can also mark a few informal celebrations of spring,” going on to note events such as school holidays and sports seasons commencing that might be used as personal celebrations (Link 2006: 14).

The more closely Australian Pagans observe the seasons and ecology of Australia, the more problematic even an inverted northern hemisphere Wheel of the Year becomes. For example, Julie Brett (2015: 1) observes that: “There are quite clearly two times of death and rebirth” in the Australian seasonal cycle in South Eastern Australia where the majority of Australians live. In the standard Wheel of the Year, winter is a time of death and summer a time of life and abundance. However, in Australia, while mid-winter is a time of death, so is mid-summer, with the hot, dry heat and destructive fires. For Brett, the height of summer is a time to celebrate “rebirth and renewal, cleansing and waymaking” (2015: 1). Brett has spent considerable time and energy to develop a cycle of festivals that are deeply sensitized to the Australian seasonal cycles.

However, Brett (2015) is also sensitive to the significance of northern hemisphere mythology. For example, she provides some thoughtful reflections on the Pagan use of decorated pine trees at Christmas time. While Brett has worked hard to localize her practice, resisting being “forced” into simplistic importation of northern hemisphere rituals, she makes a cosmopolitan move, recognizing that there are different influences operating. These influences include:

the ancestors of “blood, mud and wisdom” as Emma Restall-Orr has called them. They are the ancestors of our bloodlines who have given us our physi- cality, the ancestors of the land that we live in who provide us with a sense of place and being, and the ancestors of our inspiration and learning who have made us who we are in personality and mind, and create our culture too. (Brett 2015: 1)

In this context, the decorated pine tree becomes a way of honoring her Pagan cultural ancestors, and of connecting with Pagans in other parts of the world. She does this alongside her more localized practice.

Other Pagans also retain a relationship with the northern hemisphere mythology that informs and nurtures their practice. Hiraeth argues that the direction of the elements in circle casting is not simply a matter of flipping the northern hemisphere associations of north and south: “What we eventually get back to though, is the notion of a folkloric ‘mythic’ context which informs the directions and our thoughts on the Elements” (Phillips and Hiraeth 2002: 42). Hiraeth notes that many of these mythological traditions remain influential on Pagans practicing in Australia. While many do “flip the attributions ... there are others who have grown up with the European mythic background without the direct physical context, and in those cases the broader mythic connections associated with the North often prevail” (Phillips and Hiraeth 2002: 42). In this context, the physical environment of the ritualists is less significant. Rather, “mythic connections and meanings are paramount, and ... we key in to mythic/astral/ magical truths.” For Hiraeth, it makes a great deal of sense of invoke fire in the south and earth in the north, as much of the mythological literature has these associations which resonate deeply for the practitioner.

Hiraeth concludes his discussion by stressing: “There isn’t necessarily one right way to look at things” (Phillips and Hiraeth 2002: 42). This statement is indicative of a broader cosmopolitan openness to diversity that is now quite common. Pagans in Australia have moved away from asserting that there is one right way of doing things, whether that be following the practices of the northern hemisphere, or flipping them. Rather, as Paganisms in Australia matured, practitioners became more confident to choose a set of practices that resonated with their repertoires, mythologies and local geography.

Hiraeth’s discussion is particularly interesting, as it highlights precisely the tensions that Pagan cosmopolitan religious cultures experience. It also points toward the adaptive practices of Australian Pagans and etiquette of respect that frames them. Much of Pagan cultural heritage resonates with European myth and associations. However, the physical environment contains a quite different set of associations. Which one prevails depends heavily on the individual’s experience and history. The importance of the European mythological tradition was reaffirmed as Australian Witches increasingly developed strong networks with their European counterparts as international communication became more common with the growing importance of the Internet: “The choice to remain traditionalist, back to origins and in some cases back to the Northern Hemisphere, is intermingled with the impressions of the information super-highway” (Kettle

1995: 37). Some practitioners take this to great lengths, ignoring completely the “nature” aspect of Paganism, focusing instead on the magical or occult aspects. Tully (2015) notes this tendency, whilst railing against it:

Some Australians even insist on sticking completely to the Northern Hemisphere method, Compass attributes, Deosil and Widdershins AND even the Sabbats! Their justification is that rituals occur on the Astral Plane and so it does not really matter what direction you use or on what date the Seasons fall in the real world. (Tully 2015)

When Paganism first came to Australia, most Pagans were Witches, following the distinctive set of practices and festivals established by the early Wiccans in Britain (Hutton 1999). However, as Paganism became established in Australia, more and more practitioners began to follow other traditions, including Druidry, Heathenry, Shamanism and various forms of High Magic (Hume 1997). The diversity in contemporary Pagan ritual practices is a reflection of this increasing diversity in Paganism more generally. Some traditions, particularly those influenced by High Magic and esoteric occultism, are much more oriented to otherworldly and metaphysical myths, symbols and events. For practitioners of these traditions, the local seasonal environment is of less significance.

Adaptive Pagan cosmopolitanism moves in complex ways as it negotiates relationships with multiple repertoires, practices and discursive traditions. Moving beyond the simplistic importation of European practices, or mirroring them, contemporary cosmopolitan Pagans engage with their European mythological heritage, while also adapting and transforming it for an Australian context. Some continue to maintain that their particular practice is the only correct one. However, Pagans are much more likely to subscribe to an etiquette of respectful diversity: “There isn’t necessarily one right way to look at things” (Phillips and Hiraeth 2002: 42).