Preface and Acknowledgments
ONE: DEPARTURES
One. Power and Desire in Earth's Tangled Web
Two. Reimagining Earth
Three. Orchestrating Sacred Space
TWO: GLASTONBURY
Four. Stage, Props, and Players of Avalon
Five. Many Glastonburys: Place-Myths and Contested Spaces
THREE: SEDONA
Six. Red Rocks to Real Estate
Seven. Vortexes and Crossed Currents: Sedona's Multichannel
Wilderness
FOUR. ARRIVALS
Eight. Practices of Place: Nature, Heterotopia, and the Postmodern
Sacred
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A study of people and politics at two New Age spiritual sites
Adrian Ivakhiv teaches in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.
The Scots have a phrase to describe those swept up by
transcendental themes: they are off with the faeries. But Ivakhiv
(Univ. of Wisconsin—Oshkosh) packed his sociology of religion
template with him on his journey and the results are fascinating.
Focusing on Glastonbury, England, and Sedona, Arizona—two
internationally famous New Age power places—he analyzes the
myth/history and contemporary politics at each locale. Glastonbury
is noted as the burial spot of King Arthur, the locus of the Holy
Grail, and the site of a terraced Tor that reflects Earth Energy.
Local farmers, long—term Avalonians, and a new, rag—tag band of
itinerant seekers jostle one another for social control. In Sedona,
Hollywood filmmakers, retirees, and upscale realtors mingle with
spiritual pilgrims amidst towering red rocks. In somewhat dense yet
sympathetic prose, the author suggests that many visitors to these
sacred sites may encounter the nonhuman Other, but that the message
received is always personal and cloaked with puzzle and mystery.
Increasing interest in these sites reflects an alternative
rationalism that Ivakhiv believes sets forth a serious challenge to
modern technological society and the reign of global capitalism.
Superb analysis. General readers; lower—division undergraduates
through faculty and researchers.
*Choice*
. . . Ivakhiv packed his 'sociology of religion' template with him
on his journey and the results are fascinating. . . . Superb
analysis.March 2002
*Choice*
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