Between the Worlds

Many religions have clearly defined sacred spaces, but feminist Wicca identifies no such places. Sacred space in feminist Wicca is constructed anew during each ritual, so ritual can be performed in any location, and sacred spaces of feminist witches are not physical places. Feminist witches believe that the space they inhabit during the ritual is "between the worlds" of the earthly world and the world of the divine. Theories of sacred space do not seem adequate to explain such a construction; a clearer distinction between sacred place and sacred space could be helpful in understanding both feminist Wiccan rituals and also more mainstream religious rituals. This book first reviews literature on sacred space and then discusses feminist Wicca and demonstrates the inadequacy of the recent literature on sacred space in understanding the experience of feminist Wiccan ritual. The book then discusses the second-wave feminist background of feminist witches as an important influence on the nature of their ritual construction and concludes with a move toward a new way of understanding sacred space that distinguishes between physical location and ritually-constructed sacred space.