ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the kinds of corrections such pilgrims want to make to the Christian pantheon in particular, their suggestions for alternative meanings in relation to gender by examining their approach to the cave of La Sainte-Baume. La Sainte-Baume is a mountain ridge partly covered by a thick wood, which attracts Catholic as well as alternative pilgrims but also tourists and local wanderers. Rituals performed inside the cave also reveal different ideas about female corporeality and sexuality that the pilgrims acquire or proclaim throughout the course of their journey. For the pilgrims shrines such as La Sainte-Baume are power places that belonged to pre-Christian and matriarchal European ancestors well before the sites became Christianized. The feelings of attraction and repulsion the pilgrims feel towards Christian figures, rituals and places are thus critically related to issues of gender and sexuality.
