DISKUS Volume 6 (2000)
http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb03/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus 

SOBER WITCHES AND GODDESS PRACTITIONERS: WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY AND SOBRIETY <1>

Tanice G. Foltz
Associate Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Indiana University Northwest
Gary, INDIANA, USA

Email: tfoltz@iun.edu

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ABSTRACT
This paper examines feminist Witchcraft and Goddess spirituality as a therapeutic alternative or complement to Alcoholics Anonymous for women recovering from alcoholism. The research indicates that women with feminist beliefs and non-patriarchal and non-monotheistic religious or spiritual perspectives find Alcoholics Anonymous to be ideologically and structurally problematic. Goddess spirituality serves as a gendered and healing spirituality that encourages women to develop a strong sense of self worth, personal power, trust, and spiritual community. The gender identity and bonding accomplished within these groups contributes to women's ability to get and stay sober.
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INTRODUCTION

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has provided a powerful resource for drug and alcohol treatment since it was introduced in 1939. Its creators, two married middle class white men who belonged to an Evangelical Christian group, based the twelve steps on their own experiences as well as those of 100 men and one woman. Although the program is well intentioned and has benefited thousands, AA has been criticized for addressing men's needs over women's, mainstream population needs over those of oppressed groups, and Christians' needs over those who practice non-mainstream spiritualities (Kasl, 1992). Efforts have been made to correct some of these problems with the establishment of AA meetings for women, gays and lesbians, and other minorities (Covington, 1994; Kasl, 1992; Kirkpatrick, 1986). More recently, Fox (1995) has called for Pagan AA groups to deal with increasing spiritual diversity.

My paper examines feminist Witchcraft and Goddess spirituality as therapeutic recovery alternatives for women. This topic emerged out of earlier research, wherein a majority of the women interviewed turned out to be recovering alcoholics who had first attended AA, then discovered Witchcraft or Goddess spirituality, and subsequently stopped attending AA altogether or significantly reduced their attendance (Foltz, 1994). This finding piqued my interest.

METHODS

To learn more about the linkage between alcoholism, AA, and women's spirituality, I conducted an exploratory study in Spring 1995. I was able to secure interviews with three of my previous contacts, conducted five interviews with women at a large Midwestern Pagan festival, and interviewed two women who had responded to an advertisement I placed in a Pagan newsletter. All interviews were semi-structured, aided by a topical guide, and audio-taped with the women's permission. The ten women interviewed ranged in age from 26-51; eight were from the Midwest, and two from the East Coast. The women were employed in a variety of occupations including bank courier, printer, accountant, insurance broker, home health aide, bodyworker, blackjack dealer, bookkeeper and public relations person. Individual incomes ranged from $6,000-$70,000 annually, with half earning less than $20,000 per year. All had attended some college, and half had a Bachelor's Degree or more. All of the women identified themselves as Witches, Pagans or practitioners of Goddess spirituality.

GODDESS SPIRITUALITY: A GENDERED HEALING SPIRITUALITY

I am using the term 'Goddess spirituality' to encompass the spirituality shared by feminist Witches, Pagans and Gaians <2> who engage in women-only rituals that celebrate the Goddess, a female divinity thought to be immanent in all of life. Although these groups differ in some ways, they believe that everything in the cosmos is interconnected and interrelated, and therefore is sacred. The Goddess is also a metaphor for life's natural phases (birth, life, death, rebirth) and the seasons of nature; and most importantly for women, she symbolically affirms the female body and its natural cycles. Feminist thealogian <3> Christ (1982) contends that 'women need the Goddess' to gain respect and reverence for their bodies, to know and act on their own will, to understand their history, and to create bonds with women. Dianic Witchcraft is one Craft tradition among many that is part of the women's spirituality movement. Dianics are feminist, and they challenge the patriarchal attitudes of mainstream society. They use their separatist spiritual space to re-envision and transform themselves, their social relations and the planet. For Dianics the spiritual is political.

McGuire (1994) sees women's spirituality as 'gendered' because it 'serves to express, produce, or transform the individual's gender identity itself... toward some alternative ideal.' Goddess spirituality is intended to heal the self, in the sense of Eller's (1993:10) definition: 'Healing is a metaphor for any form of self-transformation, whether emotional, physical or mental. It is the name given to the overall effort to gain self knowledge and marshal personal power.' 

My research finds that Goddess spirituality provides women with a stronger, more positive image of what they can be through ritual and the social support of their spirituality circles. This feminist gendered nature of Goddess spirituality stands in contrast to the male-oriented gendered spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: A PATRIARCHAL RELIGIOUS APPROACH

Although AA claims to be 'secular' rather than religious, social scientists have studied it as a religious organization. For instance, Bufe (1991) has examined its 'cult-like' resemblances and dissimilarities, while Jones (1970) has likened AA to a sect and Greil and Rudy (1983) have analyzed AA as a quasi-religion, focusing on the conversion/commitment process required therein (see also, Rudy and Greil, 1987, 1988). Many scholars contend that the Twelve Steps parallel fundamentalist Protestant Christianity (See Bean, 1975; Bufe, 1991; Fox 1995, 4; Kasl, 1992). Selena Fox, in her study of 'Pagans in Recovery,' contends that AA views alcoholics as having 'wronged' others, having 'defects of character' and 'shortcomings' which must be reformed. Further, 'Salvation / reformation / sobriety for the alcoholic can be achieved through a conversion-like process that includes repentance, confession, surrender to God, and annihilation of self-will' (Fox, 1995: 4). It has been suggested that women drink to compensate for feelings of failure and powerlessness, stemming at least in part from their gender-role socialization (Bean, 1975; Kruzicki, 1987). In addition, women alcoholics tend to be more harshly stigmatized by society than are men. In response to these issues, Quaker psychologist Kasl (1992) suggests that AA's Twelve Steps are inadequate for women since they focus on shortcomings and reinforce faults, and all of this in a setting where traditional gender norms are the rule.

This is not to say that AA did not help the women in my study. In fact, all but one woman claimed that the Twelve Steps had saved their lives. As newcomers they found a longed-for source of support and fellowship, but after getting through the initial battle with alcohol they began questioning some of AA's approaches. These women identified several overlapping problematic issues: (1) AA's hierarchical Judeo-Christian orientation and concomitant sexist language; (2) its demand for conformity; and (3) dependency on AA meetings.

SEXIST LANGUAGE AND HIERARCHICAL JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ORIENTATION

Of the multi-faceted problems that the women voiced about AA, two overlapping concerns immediately surfaced: AA's Judeo-Christian orientation and the use of sexist language. AA claims to be non-sectarian and non-denominational, and yet the third step says: 'Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.' This exclusive language in the Twelve Steps is a very real issue for those practicing Goddess spirituality. To call God a Him connotes something that is first and foremost male, as well as something that is transcendent and outside oneself, both problematic issues for spiritual feminists. Because this God-language is highly 'charged' the women devise subversive strategies to neutralize their effects, similar to pagans in Fox's (1995) study who 're-named and re-framed' AA's language and concepts to fit their needs..

Brigit, who has been attending AA meetings for 15 years, says 'I never thought too much of that [God concept] to begin with...' Her friend suggested that she 'think of it like electricity' so she 'translated' it in her head. This is easier than questioning the notion of God; and by changing the concept she is able to work the steps without bringing attention to herself. Other women stated that they went through the Big Book and simply changed every He to She: in this way they successfully 'get along' with others while remaining true to their own beliefs.

THE ISSUE OF POWERLESSNESS 

The first of the Twelve Steps says 'Admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.' This is a step that almost every woman in the study reacted to negatively. Although a few conceded they were indeed powerless over alcohol, the majority, not surprisingly, responded with righteous indignation. This step distinctively contrasts with a prime goal of Goddess spirituality, which is to know and develop one's own power, and to effect change through one's will (Christ, 1982). As Kasl (1992) contends, the Twelve Steps are aimed at humbling alcoholics, which may be a good approach for men who have strong egos to begin with, but for women, the language of powerlessness can be oppressive. 

Kate is one woman who was court-ordered to go to AA for her cocaine and alcohol problems. A 42- year old mother, wife and Witch, she disagrees entirely with AA's premises. Here her counselor had told her she would have to go about her recovery process the AA way, and she replies:

'Well, no I can't because your ethics believe that you have to give up power to this higher source that's gonna fix you. And I said, if I give up my power bud, that's all I've got. And I've got very little of it holding me together right now, so I'm not giving up any more. So I would fight with him, you know, disagree with it.'

Courage, a 42 year old divorced mother, also had a great deal of trouble dealing with the
hierarchal aspects of AA including that of 'higher power.' She says:

For me the concept of higher power, it ties into morality and authority outside of one's self. And I think that authority outside of one's self doesn't work for me. . . I work with inner power. And that inner contact for me helps for connection and community and that's where I get my direction--not from outside people telling me what to do or saying the way things should be. 

THE LORD'S PRAYER

Because the Lord's Prayer is generally used as a closing for AA meetings, the women in this study were very aware of AA's Judeo-Christian religious orientation. Brigit, 51, who is a wife and mother, relates the strategy she and some women friends developed to deal with the inevitable Lord's Prayer:

'I don't like saying the Lord's Prayer at the end...that's real patriarchal to me.. And so there's three people I know that go to my Woman Spirit and are very into women's spirituality and Wicca, and we, to ourselves, we sing 'We are a Circle' and we stand up and hold hands while everybody else is saying the Lord's Prayer.' ('We are a Circle' is a Goddess chant. It goes, 'We are a circle, within a circle, with no beginning and never ending.'). 

Again, her coping strategy was subversive and nonthreatening. However, not everyone is content to remain silent. Nenoc, aged 27, recovering drug addict and Pagan, had attended a large young people's AA group for about five years, and 'was really turned off by the Lord's Prayer.' When she introduced it as a topic for discussion, a controversy erupted which lasted over six months when the meetings simply collapsed. Her meeting's ending highlights AA's rigidity and limited tolerance for 'alternative' spiritualities.

RIGIDITY AND CONFORMITY

AA's ideology and 'dogmatic aspects' presented another difficulty for spiritually oriented women. Vicki, a 30 year old lesbian who liked the community in AA, encountered problems with what she terms 'the old boys' network':

'I just mean that there were several old white men sitting around the table preaching kind of a hard line towards AA about 'take the cotton out of your ears and stuff it in your mouth' and 'put the plug in the jug.' And just meetings, meetings, meetings.'

Other women discussed the doctrinaire quality of the program illuminated through AA slogans, such as 'utilize, don't analyze,' and 'your best thinking got you here,' which imply that participants shouldn't challenge AA or think too much. Courage discusses this dilemma:

'And if I said anything at all that questioned the steps, I got, 'It's not broken don't fix it,' 'it saved my life' in a very doctrinal way. I was concerned about that because I think that structures that don't have give and take in them can get brittle and dogmatic and I feel that it needs to address new issues as things come up. And it doesn't.'

Several women who dared to share their identities as witches or lesbians were either ousted from AA meetings or shunned, which is theoretically not supposed to happen. Georgia, 36, mother and recovering drug addict and alcoholic, provides a case in point. She had been attending AA meetings for over a year when her picture appeared in Time Magazine with a Pagan group for 'Earth Day.' At her next AA meeting, she was told to leave and not to come back 'until she quit that crazy religion.' Although she complained to the main AA office, she felt so humiliated and rejected that she left AA altogether, relying on her Goddess spirituality to keep herself sober.

DEPENDENCY ON AA MEETINGS

Because the success of AA depends on people becoming committed to the Twelve Steps, and attending meetings, it instills the notion that without AA meetings the alcoholic will 'never make it.' Daphne thoroughly internalized the Twelve Steps to the point that years later, 'I had to do a cleansing of what I internalized there...and that was the message that 'you'll never make it outside of here sober' you know, 'You'll never make it if you don't go to meetings, and if you don't do this, then you'll get drunk.' In retrospect, she feels these messages created a 'big fear about not being there.' That fear became a dependency based on intimidation.
Many women mentioned the fact that AA can become another addiction, another dependency that takes the place of alcohol. Laughing Womyn, 36, a Priestess within the women's spirituality community relates:

'And I was bound and determined that if I was giving up my addictions, I was giving up my addictions--all of them--and growing past the need to be addicted to anything. And that's one of the things that really took me away from AA too, is that I saw a lot of old timers being addicted to the meetings. And I didn't want to trade one addiction for another.'

Some women simply do not want to join an AA group. Kate complained:

'Well, if you don't join groups you're fucked where AA is concerned. Because they not only do the group thing, they want you to do the group thing often and they want you to have your little buddy and that whole nine yards. Well I didn't want to buddy and I didn't want a group. I needed access to information. I needed to know how to access my own power. I needed empowerment. Not slogan, not chance, not a buddy.'

GODDESS SPIRITUALITY: A FEMINIST RECOVERY ALTERNATIVE

Of the ten women who participated in this project, only four are still attending AA meetings, while all are still practicing their Goddess spirituality. With this in mind, I wanted to know what Goddess spirituality provides for these women that AA does not. Three overlapping themes emerged: (A) Goddess spirituality is concerned with the 'whole self,' (B) it provides a safe place where women's 'core issues' can be addressed and deep healing can occur; and (C) it celebrates women and their sobriety.

A. Addressing the Whole Self versus the Alcoholic Self

A major criticism of AA focused on the lack of understanding about social-psychological factors that may have influenced the women's alcoholism. Specifically, AA told them that alcoholics are physically 'allergic' to alcohol, which is why they cannot handle it and become addicted forever. And, they are instructed not to question AA's philosophy. This explanation leaves little if any room for the role of social factors. Daphne, a young lesbian Witch, brought up the fact that issues such as incest, molestation, rape, homophobia and sexism often affect women's sobriety. But these things cannot be discussed in AA. She continues:

'Well no, you come in and talk about your sobriety, you talk about alcohol...and you didn't talk about this other stuff. 'No this isn't therapy, you know, you come here to stay sober, get sober and stay sober.' And we were saying 'Hey look, we can't stay sober unless we talk about this stuff!''

Several women had been told not to bring up issues for discussion that 'weren't relevant' to their alcoholism. This was difficult for those who felt that their childhood abuse had most definitely influenced their addictive behaviors. As a child Kate was physically and emotionally abused by her father, and sexually abused by her brother from age 12 until she left home to get married. When her own children reached puberty, she began drinking heavily and injecting cocaine. Kate discusses her use of alcohol in relation to the abuse:

'What I believe is that I had a self destructive problem going on here as a result of not being able to process the pain I had as a child. And that I used alcohol to numb and deaden my feelings, and that progressed to a point where I was actively trying to kill myself. . . . Once I understood the underlying cause of my pain . . . I wanted to find out how to function healthy [sic]. So from there on out my premise with all of these people was that 'You're treating the symptom, you're not treating the disease, the problem.''

B. A Safe Place to Address Core Issues and Effect Deep Healing

The second major difference between AA and Goddess spirituality is that the latter addresses women's core issues and encourages a special kind of trust and bonding to develop within a women-focused spiritual community. Courage's spirituality center is the outgrowth of her experience with AA. Courage says she always disliked the basic dogma of AA, especially what she calls the 'power over' concepts. She started an alternative recovery group that would address women's issues ' ... to get more a sense of community ... around the really whole life.' The group is not just for recovering alcoholics but for 'every sort of trauma' and, in contrast to AA where people try to outdo each other with their sad stories, she says 'there's no issue about whose addiction is worse or anything like that.' Courage continues:

'It's much more about just affirming who each of us is ... I found a healing that's happening ... it's a very profound healing, the trust is very very strong, and women say that they can say anything and not feel constrained ... And they've often commented that they've spent years at AA groups and other recovery groups, and they've never felt the kind of safety or comfort that they feel in this space.'

One young lesbian Witch, Suzanne, who described her role in childhood as her 'father's concubine' said she literally found her voice within the Goddess spirituality group. She and others described that their Goddess groups gave them the safety to speak their piece, and to break though the silence they had held for so many years about sexual abuse, incest, molestation, or rape. Through her continuing participation in the women's rituals, Suzanne began to be comfortable with her body, to the point where she 'did not dissociate' as she had most of her life. She was truly 'heard into speech and loved into healing' by her spirituality circle (Kidd, 1996:173). Others who shared similar backgrounds discovered that Goddess spirituality inspired them to respect and to enjoy their bodies without guilt or shame. This feeling of safety and comfort is essential to women who are dealing with traumatic issues related to male violence, and is invaluable in the process of beginning to rebuild self esteem, confidence and strength

C. Celebration of Women

Among the multiple levels of healing inherent in the practice of Goddess spirituality, the third quality not offered by AA is the affirmation, honoring, and celebration of women. Through Goddess rituals women's concerns are validated, their bodies viewed as sacred and their woman-hood is celebrated. Here Suzanne describes how her women's spirituality circle affected her:

'I was able to tune into the spiritual side of myself with the help of women who were . . . more adept at it and had. . . more practice, and... different ways of getting in touch with spirituality, especially as it concerned women, and more specifically, lesbians... So I'd say especially Dianic Wicca has been a really transformative power in my life... its much different in the women's spirituality circle, in that, whatever I had to say was not only welcomed, but sometimes celebrated, and I was honored just specifically because I was a woman'.

Other women report that Goddess spirituality gives them a religion in which they can play important roles. Brigit, for instance, talks about helping to plan the rituals and being a 'celebrant, the person who's doing the celebrating, the high priestess or whatever.' And since she's always wanted to be a 'real part of her religion' this is new and exciting. She explains:

'My life wasn't worth living and then this wonderful stuff comes into my life, and now I'm happy, and I'm sober... I really attribute it to my women's spirituality and to my sobriety because I've gotten past the dogma of what my sobriety used to mean and now it's just this beautiful way of life. Like with the full moon I can renew my gratitude in a ritualistic way. I can remind myself on a monthly basis about how happy I am that I'm a recovering woman... there's so much to feed my spirit and to feed my emotions and to help heal me.'

CONCLUSION

As more women are introduced to Goddess spirituality, they too may find the structure and language of AA to be discouraging and inhibiting. Of the ten women in this study, all continue to participate in Goddess spirituality, while only four still attend AA. These four feel their Goddess groups not only support AA but also add a special spiritual dimension to their recovery process. The six women who left AA continue to practice Dianic Witchcraft and Goddess spirituality. As revealed in this study, Goddess spirituality is a gendered healing spirituality that encourages women to develop a strong sense of self worth, personal power, trust, and spiritual community. The gender identity accomplished within these groups contributes to women's ability to get and stay sober. 

Although potentially hundreds of women alcoholics are participating in feminist spirituality alternatives to heal themselves, they have been largely invisible. My exploratory research has brought to light women who are voicing a need for and creating women's spirituality recovery alternatives. Because this study was limited to ten recovering women, I have since expanded the research to include survey data. A preliminary discussion of this data can be found in my article 'Thriving, Not Simply Surviving' (Foltz, 1999). In it I address the following questions: Are other recovering women alcoholics using Goddess spirituality in their recovery process? If so, are they using it as a complement to AA or a substitute? Are women who have histories of abuse likely to be attracted to Goddess spirituality as a therapeutic alternative to AA? Can Goddess spirituality be successful with other types of addictive behaviors? 

Goddess spirituality is part of a burgeoning spirituality movement in America, Britain and Australia, and as social scientists it is our responsibility to study its potential, especially its healing potential for women. Given the nature of Goddess spirituality, described as bestowing 'a sense of empowerment and agency that is therapeutic' (McGuire, 1994:280) it is imperative that we seriously examine it as an alternative resource in helping women to heal from addictions.


NOTES
<1> Thanks to Wendy Griffin for the phrase 'sober witches.' Please note that I am using the terms 'Goddess spirituality' and 'women's spirituality' interchangeably in this paper.
<2> Griffin (1999:58) introduced this term to cover the totality of people who practice Goddess spirituality, regardless of their particular self-identifications.
<3> The term 'thealogian' is used to distinguish the study of the Goddess and the feminine Divine from studying God. This term was introduced by Starhawk in 1979.

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