*5.1. Creating Sacred Places and Rituals: Institutions and Entrepreneurs*

The case studies illustrate the role played by institutions and entrepreneurs in establishing the sacrality of particular places and inventing the rituals at these places. The emerging cult at Lourdes was developed by the Roman Catholic Church, whose religious leaders drew on a rich heritage of meaning-making through ritual. The grotto where Bernadette experienced her visions, was sacralised by the ceremonies held there, the erection of an altar and a massive candle tree, and the channelling of the spring. The long-established tradition of processing and blessing worshippers was utilised to create the Blessing of the Sick ceremony performed in a new sacred space—the Esplanade—flanked by altars and overlooked by statues of renowned saints.

As for the Avebury pilgrimage the rituals were invented by members of a very different institution and referred to a very different past. The British Pilgrimage Trust was a recent network of young entrepreneurs who took a highly eclectic approach towards pilgrimage and the past, drew on the interest in walking to devise a variety of walks and revive historic routes, and sought to take advantage of virtual communication through the internet and mobile phones. The practices devised by the three leaders for the February walk were influenced by 'New Age' beliefs and were designed to celebrate the sacrality of a pre-Christian social and material world. Although the day began and drew to a close at two village churches, the focus was on the sacred sites of a Neolithic landscape and pre-Christian heritage.

The invention of ritual and the creation of sacred space raise the issue of authority. At Lourdes, Bernadette explained her visions to a sceptical parish priest, and it was only after a detailed investigation by the local bishop that the full weight of the institutional church swung behind the emerging cult. The ceremonies introduced at the sanctuary were devised and controlled by the clergy, even if their performance was assisted by the lay volunteers who worked for the confraternities. In other words, authority was primarily vested in the ascribed status of Church officials. Members of the Hospitality could achieve authority and wield limited power over others through long service and progress to the higher reaches of the confraternity's hierarchical structure, but overall authority within the sanctuary was exercised by representatives of the Church Universal.

Similar to members of the Lourdes Hospitality, those leading the Avebury pilgrimage relied on their achieved status within the British Pilgrimage Trust as experts on heritage and folklore and as performers. Guy, for example, drew not only on his wide range of reading about pilgrimage but also on his choral training and experience of performing musical comedy. The BPT was a loose coalition of different interests and people that depended on a variety of events and worked with more permanent institutions, particularly the Church of England and English Heritage. Its development relied heavily on the enthusiasm of a few dedicated members, who survived financially through their entrepreneurial skills and connections.

In both cases, the rituals and the creation of sacred spaces is dependent of the ritual experts who have a certain authority. However, the participants (the pilgrims) also have agency. The Lourdes case showed that ritual change occurs under influence of cultural and social changes through which people, the *malades*, are considered to have agency and authority of their processes regarding their illness and their physical and mental condition. In the period between the 1970s and 2013, they have changed from mere objects of the ritual to active participants. In the Avebury case, there seemed to be more interaction between the ritual experts and the participants. Ritual performances were proposed and stimulated, but it depended on the willingness of the participants whether the rituals were actually performed. The rituals during the Avebury walk were inspired by 'New Age' or alternative spiritual beliefs and practices. These were most evident during Chris's blessing of the stones at the Sanctuary, the rituals performed by Guy and Charlotte at the spring, the references to the energy of the landscape's ley lines, to the goddess Brighid, and the festival of Imbolc. Yet, although the leaders acted as guides to the route and the sacred places, initiating kinetic rituals and referring to the magnetic power of the landscape and imparted specific knowledge about heritage and pre-Christian beliefs and practices, many participants appeared to draw on their own stocks of knowledge and performed their own rituals (see Mesaritou et al. 2020). In both cases, we see the increasing agency of the ritual participants, who brought their own knowledges, questions, and consumer items to record their experiences (i.e., cameras, smart phones, and iPads).
