Ritually Framing Enchantment: Momentary religion and everyday realities

Authors

• Terhi Utriainen University of Helsinki

Abstract

This article explores the idea that the ritual frame can create enchantment and that the dynamic of framing can also help in sustaining credibility of that enchantment in everyday secular life. The ethnographic case on which this exploration is based reflects currently popular engagements with angel practices. Mixing Christian and esoteric spirituality, these range from clearly bounded rituals to much more ambiguous, vague and often only momentary micro-ritualization, though all are involved in enriching and supporting quotidian life. A description of angel practices and rituals is followed by discussion of the notions of enchantment and the ritual frame. It is argued, first, that learning to frame the desired enchantment appropriately makes it possible and potentially powerful, even if it actualizes merely as ‘momentary religion’. It is further suggested that dynamic ritual framing, which often takes place in women-dominated courses and workshops, also enables the practitioners to meet some of the critical responses offered by secular society to their enchantments. Specifically, by learning to key the ritual frame in and out it may become possible to keep separate while sensitively juxtaposing ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ realities simultaneously, and to navigate between often heterogeneous and complex social contexts.