Numerous contemporary Pagan groups conduct their ritual ceremonies outside, communing with nature. This essay describes research conducted in a small, eclectic group following the Wiccan wheel of the year in Warsaw, Poland. It focuses on the places used by the group, applying Edward Casey’s phenomenological approach to understand an encountered place, and examines what constitutes a good ritual place according to the group members. The initial supposition was that technical aspects would prevail: privacy, accessibility, and proximity of the four elements. However, the participant observation and semi-structured interviews proved that choosing the right place was primarily based on the experience and interpretation of the feeling evoked by the place: namely, whether the atmosphere was right and the entities dwelling there were seen as welcoming or not.
University of California Press