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Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona
Claiming Sacred Ground
Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona
Adrian J. Ivakhiv
A study of people and politics at two New Age spiritual sites.
In this richly textured account, Adrian Ivakhiv focuses on the activities of pilgrim-migrants to Glastonbury, England and Sedona, Arizona. He discusses their efforts to encounter and experience the spirit or energy of the land and to mark out its significance by investing it with sacred meanings. Their endeavors are presented against a broad canvas of cultural and environmental struggles associated with the incorporation of such geographically marginal places into an expanding global cultural economy.
Ivakhiv sees these contested and "heterotopic" landscapes as the nexus of a complex web of interestes and from millennial anxieties and nostalgic re-imaginings of history and prehistory; to real-estate power grabs; contending religious visions; and the free play of ideas from science, pseudo-science, and popular culture. Looming over all this is the nonhuman life of these landscapes, an"otherness" that alternately reveals and conceals itself behind a pagenant of beliefs, images, and place-myths.
A significant contribution to scholarship on alternative spirituality, sacred space, and the politics of natural landscapes, Claiming Sacred Ground will interest scholars and students of environmental and cultural studies, and the sociology of religious movements and pilgrimage. Non-specialist readers will be stimulated by the cultural, ecological, and spiritual dimensions of extraordinary natural landscapes.
Adrian Ivakhiv teaches in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, and is President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada.
April 2001
384 pages, 24 b&w photos, 2 figs., 9 maps, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, index, append.
cloth 0-253-33899-9$37.40 s / £28.50
Contents
IDEPARTURES
1Power and Desire in Earth's
Tangled Web
2Reimagining Earth
3Orchestrating Sacred Space
IIGlastonbury
4Stage, Props, and Players of Avalon
5Many Place-Myths
and Contested Spaces
IIISEDONA
6Red Rocks to Real Estate
7New Agers, Vortexes, and the
Sacred Landscape
IVARRIVALS
8Practices of Nature and
Heterotopia Beyond the New Age
Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona
Adrian J. Ivakhiv
A study of people and politics at two New Age spiritual sites.
In this richly textured account, Adrian Ivakhiv focuses on the activities of pilgrim-migrants to Glastonbury, England and Sedona, Arizona. He discusses their efforts to encounter and experience the spirit or energy of the land and to mark out its significance by investing it with sacred meanings. Their endeavors are presented against a broad canvas of cultural and environmental struggles associated with the incorporation of such geographically marginal places into an expanding global cultural economy.
Ivakhiv sees these contested and "heterotopic" landscapes as the nexus of a complex web of interestes and from millennial anxieties and nostalgic re-imaginings of history and prehistory; to real-estate power grabs; contending religious visions; and the free play of ideas from science, pseudo-science, and popular culture. Looming over all this is the nonhuman life of these landscapes, an"otherness" that alternately reveals and conceals itself behind a pagenant of beliefs, images, and place-myths.
A significant contribution to scholarship on alternative spirituality, sacred space, and the politics of natural landscapes, Claiming Sacred Ground will interest scholars and students of environmental and cultural studies, and the sociology of religious movements and pilgrimage. Non-specialist readers will be stimulated by the cultural, ecological, and spiritual dimensions of extraordinary natural landscapes.
Adrian Ivakhiv teaches in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, and is President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada.
April 2001
384 pages, 24 b&w photos, 2 figs., 9 maps, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, index, append.
cloth 0-253-33899-9$37.40 s / £28.50
Contents
IDEPARTURES
1Power and Desire in Earth's
Tangled Web
2Reimagining Earth
3Orchestrating Sacred Space
IIGlastonbury
4Stage, Props, and Players of Avalon
5Many Place-Myths
and Contested Spaces
IIISEDONA
6Red Rocks to Real Estate
7New Agers, Vortexes, and the
Sacred Landscape
IVARRIVALS
8Practices of Nature and
Heterotopia Beyond the New Age
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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February 12, 2018
Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona by Adrian J. Ivakhiv. Hardcover. ©2001. 326 pages. Largely a scholarly volume depicting the people and politics at both Glastonbury, Somerset, England and Sedona, Arizona. Interesting and articulate, the author deals with tourism, its strain on residents, interpretations and perceptions of holy sites, etc, in a thorough manner.
March 16, 2026
AN OVERVIEW OF HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, POLITICS, AND SPIRITUALITY AT THESE LOCATIONS
Adrian Kvakhiv teaches Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Thought and Culture at the University of Vermont.
He wrote in the Preface and Acknowledgments of this 2001 book, “there is no commonly accepted and generally credible grand narrative about who we are and what our purpose is on this Earth. So a bewildering array of competing tales are emerging to fill the gap. Among the more powerfully imposed are … those of transnational capitalism and technoscience… that humans are wage laborers… industrialists, and cheerful consumers… or that we are complex biocomputers driven forward by selfish genes, destined to advance evolution, through our technological proficiency…
“But these are only two of the competing tales in the much contested arena of global culture. This book is about one of their less visible but rapidly spreading alternatives… an alternative narrative, according to which humans and our planet are in the midst of an epochal shift to a more enlightened and ecologically harmonious era. With this alluring tale, specific sites on the Earth’s surface are credited with extraordinary power, energy, sacredness… and are thought to play a catalytic role in this hoped-for global transformation. This book is about the spread, in the last thirty years or so, of these ideas about the Earth’s ‘power places’ and about the people who have felt drawn to such places. It is about… the wider social and natural contexts and effects of their activities.” (Pg. ix-x)
“To environmental theorists and activists, this book provides an examination and assessment of a set of ideas by which nature and the Earth are becoming conceived, discussed, represented, and defended… As resource-extraction industries have declined, many such communities have turned to tourism---ecotourism and especially spiritual tourism, in the cases I examine---to carry them into the global economy. But this solution is fraught with risks and challenges, many of which I will identify and explore.” (Pg. x-xi)
He explains, “In the early 1970s, biochemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis advanced the ‘Gaia hypothesis’---the notion that the bio-geo-chemical components on the Earth behave as if they constituted a single, dynamically self-regulating organism… Lovelock named the hypothesis after an ancient Greek goddess. Since then, the speed at which the idea has been taken up outside the academy has been astonishing… the IDEA of Gaia seems to respond to a widespread desire for a life-affirming, mythic, or symbolic connection to the Earth… Parallel sources for the Gaia idea can be traced to the neopagan and Goddess spirituality movements.” (Pg. 19-20)
He reports, “The ‘power places’ idea fermented for two decades within the hippie and New Age counterculture, but it finally launched itself into popular consciousness with the Harmonic Convergence of August 1987. Projected to be the largest simultaneously coordinated act of prayer, meditation, and ceremony ever to take place at sacred sites throughout the world, the Harmonic Convergence was an overt manifestation of the New Age movement’s millenarianism… Convergers, including celebrities like Shirley MacLaine, John Denver, and Timothy Leary gathered at places as varied as Sedona, California’s Mount Shasta… Glastonbury and Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid in Egypt, and Mount Olympus in Greece, to celebrate the event…” (Pg. 48)
He explains, “The small [English] town of Glastonbury is, on the surface, an unspectacular… market town. But on closer inspection, it reveals itself to be a bustling and colorful enclave of unusual activities, a haven for New Agers, counterculturalists (or, as some locals still call them, hippies) and spiritually inclined pilgrims of various stripes, attracted to Glastonbury for its … undefinable ‘energy’ and mystique.” (Pg. 65) He continues, “the courtyard had been open to the street until the early 1990s, and was the site of frequent summertime congregations of visiting ‘travelers,’ homeless young hippies… but the protests of townspeople led to its enclosure behind a wrought-iron fence.” (Pg. 67) He notes, “Among the claims [a] visitor is likely to hear, sooner or later, about the Well are that it ‘was a center of Druid ritual; Joseph of Arimathea lived near it; the Grail is or was at the bottom...” (Pg. 70)
He continues, “For many Britons, Glastonbury is synonymous with the largest and more prestigious rock and popular music festival in the country today… Since 1981 the festival has been a benefit for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and… for Greenpeace and Oxfam… Since the early 1980s, the festival has included an area devoted to environmental ideas and exhibits.” (Pg. 85-86)
A resident described the difference between Stonehenge and Glastonbury: “From the point of view of people who went to Stonehenge... Glastonbury… was commercial, middle class, a venue for people who weren’t just old hippies but old weekend hippies… from the point of view of people who went to Glastonbury… Stonehenge was a mess, beer cans and bikers, with no direction or purpose…” (Pg. 119-120)
He points out, “the relationship between travelers and local rural ‘green’ movements can be rather ambiguous… The county and district officials have frequently found themselves caught between angry residents calling for eviction and removal of traveler sites and the longer-term need to address the issue effectively... voices sympathetic to travelers found themselves… drowned out… [A letter to the local newspaper said] ‘It is no wonder that Glastonbury… is becoming the biggest toilet in the South West.’” (Pg. 125)
He reports, “While the alternative community has been establishing itself as a permanent presence in the town, a recognition has grown among a minority of local Christians that Glastonbury can become an important center of religious renewal. This especially the case among a growing contingent of Charismatic worshippers, followers of the Pentecostal-style Charismatic prayer movement which appeared fairly suddenly in the Anglican Church in the mid-1990s.” (Pg. 140)
Moving on to Sedona, he states, “Sedona rivals the Grand Canyon as Arizona’s most popular tourist attraction, luring visitors for its combination of spectacular scenery, moderate climate, and increasing reputation as a spiritual ‘power spot.’ This mix of tourism, natural grandeur, and a peculiarly postmodern spiritual magnetism has led to its being called a ‘cross between Lourdes and the Grand Canyon.’” (Pg. 147)
He reports, “A key role in the tug-of-war between conservationists and developers is played by the U.S. Forest Service, which holds 50% of lands within Sedona city limits and 90% of lands in the Greater Red Rock Area.” (Pg. 163)
He notes, “the top of the hill provides one of the best views on the surrounding landscape, facing two broad vistas, the southeast and to the northwest, framed by the surrounding hills… A dialectic seems to occur here between sky and earth, with the earth opening up to the sky above, and the mesas, buttes, and mountains in the distance both looking up and looking over … the smattering of homes which appear like dots on the landscape.” (Pg. 183-184)
He summarizes, “Much of my focus thus far has been on the similarities between these two communities… both are located in regions that are thought to be more magical, more natural… than much of the rest of their respective countries…. The idea that Glastonbury is the wet, fertile ‘heart chakra’ of the Earth… and Glastonbury’s image as a wet, green, mist-enshrouded landscape resonates well within this perception. New Age perceptions of the Sedona landscape, on the other hand, draw on its aridity to represent it as energized, powerful, and... very much a part of the mythical West Americans have desired and colonized but, perhaps, never tamed.” (Pg. 221)
This book will interest those who are interested in these two ‘power places.’
Adrian Kvakhiv teaches Humanities at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Thought and Culture at the University of Vermont.
He wrote in the Preface and Acknowledgments of this 2001 book, “there is no commonly accepted and generally credible grand narrative about who we are and what our purpose is on this Earth. So a bewildering array of competing tales are emerging to fill the gap. Among the more powerfully imposed are … those of transnational capitalism and technoscience… that humans are wage laborers… industrialists, and cheerful consumers… or that we are complex biocomputers driven forward by selfish genes, destined to advance evolution, through our technological proficiency…
“But these are only two of the competing tales in the much contested arena of global culture. This book is about one of their less visible but rapidly spreading alternatives… an alternative narrative, according to which humans and our planet are in the midst of an epochal shift to a more enlightened and ecologically harmonious era. With this alluring tale, specific sites on the Earth’s surface are credited with extraordinary power, energy, sacredness… and are thought to play a catalytic role in this hoped-for global transformation. This book is about the spread, in the last thirty years or so, of these ideas about the Earth’s ‘power places’ and about the people who have felt drawn to such places. It is about… the wider social and natural contexts and effects of their activities.” (Pg. ix-x)
“To environmental theorists and activists, this book provides an examination and assessment of a set of ideas by which nature and the Earth are becoming conceived, discussed, represented, and defended… As resource-extraction industries have declined, many such communities have turned to tourism---ecotourism and especially spiritual tourism, in the cases I examine---to carry them into the global economy. But this solution is fraught with risks and challenges, many of which I will identify and explore.” (Pg. x-xi)
He explains, “In the early 1970s, biochemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis advanced the ‘Gaia hypothesis’---the notion that the bio-geo-chemical components on the Earth behave as if they constituted a single, dynamically self-regulating organism… Lovelock named the hypothesis after an ancient Greek goddess. Since then, the speed at which the idea has been taken up outside the academy has been astonishing… the IDEA of Gaia seems to respond to a widespread desire for a life-affirming, mythic, or symbolic connection to the Earth… Parallel sources for the Gaia idea can be traced to the neopagan and Goddess spirituality movements.” (Pg. 19-20)
He reports, “The ‘power places’ idea fermented for two decades within the hippie and New Age counterculture, but it finally launched itself into popular consciousness with the Harmonic Convergence of August 1987. Projected to be the largest simultaneously coordinated act of prayer, meditation, and ceremony ever to take place at sacred sites throughout the world, the Harmonic Convergence was an overt manifestation of the New Age movement’s millenarianism… Convergers, including celebrities like Shirley MacLaine, John Denver, and Timothy Leary gathered at places as varied as Sedona, California’s Mount Shasta… Glastonbury and Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid in Egypt, and Mount Olympus in Greece, to celebrate the event…” (Pg. 48)
He explains, “The small [English] town of Glastonbury is, on the surface, an unspectacular… market town. But on closer inspection, it reveals itself to be a bustling and colorful enclave of unusual activities, a haven for New Agers, counterculturalists (or, as some locals still call them, hippies) and spiritually inclined pilgrims of various stripes, attracted to Glastonbury for its … undefinable ‘energy’ and mystique.” (Pg. 65) He continues, “the courtyard had been open to the street until the early 1990s, and was the site of frequent summertime congregations of visiting ‘travelers,’ homeless young hippies… but the protests of townspeople led to its enclosure behind a wrought-iron fence.” (Pg. 67) He notes, “Among the claims [a] visitor is likely to hear, sooner or later, about the Well are that it ‘was a center of Druid ritual; Joseph of Arimathea lived near it; the Grail is or was at the bottom...” (Pg. 70)
He continues, “For many Britons, Glastonbury is synonymous with the largest and more prestigious rock and popular music festival in the country today… Since 1981 the festival has been a benefit for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and… for Greenpeace and Oxfam… Since the early 1980s, the festival has included an area devoted to environmental ideas and exhibits.” (Pg. 85-86)
A resident described the difference between Stonehenge and Glastonbury: “From the point of view of people who went to Stonehenge... Glastonbury… was commercial, middle class, a venue for people who weren’t just old hippies but old weekend hippies… from the point of view of people who went to Glastonbury… Stonehenge was a mess, beer cans and bikers, with no direction or purpose…” (Pg. 119-120)
He points out, “the relationship between travelers and local rural ‘green’ movements can be rather ambiguous… The county and district officials have frequently found themselves caught between angry residents calling for eviction and removal of traveler sites and the longer-term need to address the issue effectively... voices sympathetic to travelers found themselves… drowned out… [A letter to the local newspaper said] ‘It is no wonder that Glastonbury… is becoming the biggest toilet in the South West.’” (Pg. 125)
He reports, “While the alternative community has been establishing itself as a permanent presence in the town, a recognition has grown among a minority of local Christians that Glastonbury can become an important center of religious renewal. This especially the case among a growing contingent of Charismatic worshippers, followers of the Pentecostal-style Charismatic prayer movement which appeared fairly suddenly in the Anglican Church in the mid-1990s.” (Pg. 140)
Moving on to Sedona, he states, “Sedona rivals the Grand Canyon as Arizona’s most popular tourist attraction, luring visitors for its combination of spectacular scenery, moderate climate, and increasing reputation as a spiritual ‘power spot.’ This mix of tourism, natural grandeur, and a peculiarly postmodern spiritual magnetism has led to its being called a ‘cross between Lourdes and the Grand Canyon.’” (Pg. 147)
He reports, “A key role in the tug-of-war between conservationists and developers is played by the U.S. Forest Service, which holds 50% of lands within Sedona city limits and 90% of lands in the Greater Red Rock Area.” (Pg. 163)
He notes, “the top of the hill provides one of the best views on the surrounding landscape, facing two broad vistas, the southeast and to the northwest, framed by the surrounding hills… A dialectic seems to occur here between sky and earth, with the earth opening up to the sky above, and the mesas, buttes, and mountains in the distance both looking up and looking over … the smattering of homes which appear like dots on the landscape.” (Pg. 183-184)
He summarizes, “Much of my focus thus far has been on the similarities between these two communities… both are located in regions that are thought to be more magical, more natural… than much of the rest of their respective countries…. The idea that Glastonbury is the wet, fertile ‘heart chakra’ of the Earth… and Glastonbury’s image as a wet, green, mist-enshrouded landscape resonates well within this perception. New Age perceptions of the Sedona landscape, on the other hand, draw on its aridity to represent it as energized, powerful, and... very much a part of the mythical West Americans have desired and colonized but, perhaps, never tamed.” (Pg. 221)
This book will interest those who are interested in these two ‘power places.’
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews