Conversion, deconversion, transgression: the ``Satanic Adventure'' and other stories from the life of the Archdruid Isaac Bonewits (1949-2010) (2022)
Phillp Emmons Isaac Bonewits (1949-2010) was a highly-published American author on the subject of magic, the occult, Paganism, Wicca and Druidry. Within the Neo-Pagan community he was known mostly as a founder and leader (Archdruid) of the largest Druidic organisations in the U.S., Ar nDraiocht Fein. Presented article deals with chosen aspects of his biography, concentrating on his ``Satanic Adventure'', as he describes a period of his life when he was an activ meinber of the Church of Satan. It is an interesting tale from historical point of view, as he was involved in the organisation's activities at the first years of its existence and he knew its leader, Anton Lavey personally. Bonewits' story forms a curious example of an occultist and a Neo-Pagan becoming an ardent adversary of Satanism in any given form alter a personal involvement in the movement. In order to analyse Bonewits's deconversion narrative, contemporary theories applied in the psychology of religion are used. Heinz Streib's typology of deconversion narratives form a framework for interpreting autobiographical histories of the deconvert in question. Also Józef Kozielecki's transgressional psychology eoncepts are presented as an interesting optics for analysing religious change. In that respect the distinction hetween adaptiw and transgressive character of deconversion is taken into consideration as a possible method to ohserve motifs for one's deconversion experience The analysis points at complexity of deconversion processes, especially when they are seen from a long term perspective and when they are applied to an individual with a rich ``religious curricula or, to use Henri Gooren's nomemclature, a complicated ''conversion career``. Motifs delineated by Streib, basing on his empirical research on deconverts however ohservable in this case study, do mix resulting with a multi-threaded image. Therefore this case study leads to the conclusion that examining stories and experiences of esoteric groups' followers (but also leaders) may be a promising research area to pursue in studying deconversion from the psychological perspective.
Keywords: psychologia