Neopagan barefooting

- The Never-Told Story - 

A recurring topic of conversation among barefooting practitioners is the peculiar perception of world and life that it provides them, because in addition to comfort, freshness, reduction of stress and other obvious physical health benefits, also helps to clarify their minds by dismantling the complex of emotions deriving from clothing and footwear, which can be quite oppressive: a kind of detoxification therapy of culturally acquired fears, especially during early upbringing. (In a small and interesting book from the late '60s about drugs, British journalist Peter Laurie mentions the addictive effect of garments such as pants and shoes.)

This not only happens on an individual scale but also on a group and community level, when occasionally interacting barefoot fosters a collective state of relaxation and lucidity similar to a well-known technique of Psychology and disciplines such as Yoga, Meditation, and Superlearning - now in disuse -, which basically doesn't contradict the dominant moral ideology, since they are private activities, carried out far from the eyes of strangers.

Another thing is when all this becomes PUBLIC, as in the Neopagan movements that seek to return to direct contact with Nature through total or partial nakedness and associated symbolic behaviors.

A most interesting historical case was that of the writer Rupert Brooke and his friends, who in the heart of Cambridge and when England had just emerged from the infamous Victorian Era, became in a way the forerunners of the hippies, with the eloquent additional element that they considered themselves ... NEOPAGANS!

But not only declared and consciously countercultural movements but also spring-, summer-, and else-breaks, in which young and young adult people of middle class and with "normal" jobs, detoxify themselves for some days of the inevitable effects of a routine work, choosing the most appropriate cultural background to fulfill their inner needs: Celtic, pre-Hispanic, African, etc. festivals in which there’s no lack of barefootness. "It was like a Disneyland for the barefoot band," a friend told me about one he'd just attended.

(About two weeks ago, in the prospective phase of this article, I searched the Internet under the heading "barefoot neopagans," finding a good assortment of information about it, both historical and ethnographic. But just two days ago, in doing the same in Spanish, I was surprised to find that the vast majority of sites available, rather than informing, are dedicated to revile neopaganism, barefoot or not, in a frankly upset attitude of fundamentalism not found even in the best times of "el Caudillo"(Francisco Franco), which led me to think about who manage the searching service in this language.)

As in the more formal neopaganisms, inspired by ancestral traditions, in which bare feet play a fundamental role in making physical contact with Mother Earth or the Goddess, being present in many rituals of the most varied cultural currents. (In the "technical" speech of current barefooters, this is known as EARTHING.)

So that barefooting, more than a fad or even a temporary manifestation of resistance, is a historical CONTINUUM, because humans of all eras, ages and conditions have resorted to it, perhaps following an internal call, a vocation ... something NATURAL in its deepest sense.

Fernando Acosta Reyes (@ferstarey) is founder of the Investigative Society of  the Strange (SIDLE), professional musician and student of social behavior.

Image: pulso-digital.com