1st Edition
Alternative Spirituality, Counterculture, and European Rainbow Gatherings Pachamama, I’m Coming Home
This book explores the phenomenon of Rainbow Gatherings in Europe. These countercultural events form radically alternative temporary societies in the peripheries of modern states and manage themselves without centralized power, market economy or institutionalized forms of religion. The volume offers a vivid description of life in the Gatherings, analyses the main ideological tenets and places the meetings in historical and cultural context. It considers how the Rainbow Gathering tradition is rooted in networks of alternative spirituality and environmental counterculture but also reflects broader shifts in religion and religiosity.
1 Welcome Home!
2 The Hipstory of Rainbow Gatherings
3 Rainbow Rising Over Europe
4 Tall Trees, Warm Fire: The Rainbow Camp
5 Let the Circle Be Open, but Unbroken: Communal Practices
6 Deep Inside My Heart I Got This Everlasting Love: Rainbow Folklore
7 Our Magic Is the Give-Away, Our Magic Is the Song: Rainbow as Counterculture
8 Mother Earth Gives Us Birth: Rainbow as Vernacular Religion
9 This Is Celebration, This Is Sacred: Rainbow and the Transcendent
10 See You in Five Minutes!
Index
Biography
Katri Ratia is a Researcher in the Science of Religion unit of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Her research interests include vernacular and alternative forms of religion, material culture, and ritual studies.
