Challenging the binary principles : LGBTQ+ Wiccan practice in the Berkano Wicca tradition in Hungary

Abstract

Wicca is one of the fast-growing New Religious Movements (NRM) of the 21st century, although its roots can be traced back to the early 20th century. This article focuses on the analysis of Hungarian LGBTQ+ Wicca practitioners' practices in the Berkano Tradition, with a special interest in the representative aspects, such as altars and home altars. This element of the material dimension will illustrate how LGBTQ+ practitioners challenge the binary aspects of Wicca and how they utilize the liminal aspects of gender. With guided interviews, this article illustrates and provides a deeper understanding of how the traditional Wicca binarity of a God and Goddess is changed according to the given individuals' sexual orientations and how these individuals innovate their altars and reinterpret the traditional Wicca worldview and religious practice to create a closer, more personal religious attachment. With respect to gender and the spectrum of sexuality, the Berkano Tradition and their Wicca beliefs accommodate their identity very well; most of them skew and modify the rituals and praxis in their own way, so that they can be the most comfortable and at ease with their religious belief. My original interpretation that LGBTQ+ Wiccans use the adjective of Wicca because it is a belief system that is universalistic yet so individualistic is correct because they use Wicca as a tool of self-expression regardless of their sex, gender, and or sexual identity. They use different kinds of objects for their ritual to accommodate their needs; they also reinvent and reinterpret their Wiccan beliefs for their own good, so that they can be the best version of themselves. This article then closes with a positive statement that Berkano Tradition's Wicca is a religion that can be modified accordingly to fit within the framework of the given individuals/members.