ABSTRACT
This chapter includes evaluations of author's politicized location as a bothsider (an academic writer and Reiki practitioner), the multivalent discourses of power within healing circles themselves and examinations of how gendered identities are substantively constructed within specific healing contexts. It argues that emerging gender issues are the epitome of contemporary gender concerns. Sociological analysis of gendered spirituality may shed light on new patterns of individual-to-society relationships, the changing nature of identity and autonomy in modern contexts, and how religion (in both traditional and new forms) shapes and reflects these changes. The chapter also argues that there are multiple spaces for women to work as active healing agents within New Age circles, and that fluidity of practice—and the centrality of one's own religious experience—is liberating for women. Cultural myths from around the world describe a time when only women knew the secrets of life and death, and they alone could practice the magical art of healing.
