Recently in Pagan Spirituality Category

One of the nicest things about Pagans is that in general we do not get into hot arguments about theology.  What unites our smaller communities are common practices, not common beliefs.  We are little worried if others are not Wiccans or Heathens or Celtic Reconstructionists or devotees to Orishas or whatever, because we do not believe our own tradition is necessary for salvation.  Indeed, we do not believe in the need for salvation at all.

 

Some interesting comments about my "Drawing Down the Moon" piece in "12 Things..." have prompted me to offer a longer discussion, based mostly on my personal experience. 

Pagans are among the newest and oldest of religions. The earliest Pagans were among the hunting and gathering peoples at the dawn of history, while today's NeoPagans arose within the modern world and work within cutting edge businesses and sciences. If what you think you know about Pagans stems from Hollywood, sermons, or fragmentary news reports, most of what you know is probably wrong. With that in mind, here are twelve things most people don't know about Pagans.

Most Pagans' Beliefs About God Will Surprise You
Pagans do not believe is in some single personality that created and controls the world, communicating through a series of prophets or other source of divine commandments. We view such an entity as one deity among others, and not as all powerful. However once they started writing down their thoughts, historically most Pagans believed there is one source from which everything, including the Gods, emanates.

Some Wiccans call this Source the Dryghton. Our view closely resembles descriptions of the Godhead as reported by many mystics. While many Pagan traditions honor it, all focus mostly on "intermediate" spiritual powers, the Gods, elements, spirits of place, and ancestors, most closely involved with this world wherein we live.

Most Pagans are Not Witches
"Pagan" is an all embracing term, like "monotheist." Just as monotheists include Jews, Christians, and Muslims, so the term "Pagan" includes both Traditional and NeoPagans, (who differ from Pagans in the broader sense in that we have arisen within the context of the modern world, in societies where the traditional Pagan religions have been outlawed for nearly 1500 years). Hindus are also often included as Pagans. We NeoPagans reflect this modern heritage in ways Pagans with more unbroken roots to Pagan times do not.

Think of Wiccans, Witches, Druids, Celtic Reconstructionists, and others as one complex NeoPagan subspecies, and contemporary Pagans with relatively unbroken roots such as Traditional Native Americans, Shinto, and the African Diasporic traditions as another. Both fit into a larger Pagan category that includes the religions of Classical Greece and Rome, ancient Egypt, Tibetan Bon, Chinese Naxi, hunting and gathering religions and many others. So all Witches are Pagans, but not all Pagans are Witches.

Pagans Are Not Out to Convert You
Most Pagans do not want to convert you. Almost all Neopagans do not. Neopagans do not believe any particular religion is necessary for someone's well-being, let alone their salvation. Therefore we feel no urge to make the rest of the world Pagan. Today, when we are not threatened with death or violence, we like to make information available to those who are interested, and often open our Sabbats to interested people, but the initiative must always be theirs.

We have no missionaries. Future Neopagans must ask to join us, and even then there is no guarantee the group asked will agree to admit or even to teach every seeker. Some groups are even closed to new members. Period.

Most NeoPagans Do Not Sacrifice Animals
Sacrifice is a long spiritual tradition in both Pagan and monotheistic traditions. Ancient Jews sacrificed animals to their God before the Romans destroyed their temple in Jerusalem, and ancient Pagans performed similar sacrifices. In both cases sacrificial animals were usually eaten, as they normally continue to be where sacrifice persists. Modern Jews do not sacrifice animals, and most NeoPagans do not either.

In over twenty five years of practice, I have never heard of animal sacrifice among NeoPagans. Pagan traditions with stronger roots to earlier times usually continue animal sacrifice, such as Santeria and practitioners of Voudon. But exceptions exist, such as a Voudon Priestess who is a vegetarian and so does not conduct sacrifice. The Gods come anyway.

Wiccans Are Witches, But Not Like You Think
Wiccan is often used as a synonym for Witch. The original Wiccans are followers of the Pagan traditions that Gerald Gardner made public after England abolished its anti-Witchcraft laws in 1951, and in some cases of those who taught Gardner.

Wiccans have always called themselves Witches, but as the number of NeoPagans has increased and become more accepted publicly, even earlier practices have become public and many other NeoPagans have started their own traditions. In both cases they also call usually call themselves Witches and Wiccans. Despite these differences, these varied groups generally respect one another as fellow Witches and NeoPagans.

Sabbats Are Sacred Days that Celebrate the "Wheel of the Year"
Wiccans and many other Pagans celebrate the "Wheel of the Year" which progresses through the seasons as life progresses from birth, through youth, adulthood, and finally death. We think of this cycle as a wheel because it continually repeats itself in nature and, many of us believe, for people.

Among NeoPagans there are usually eight Sabbats honored, though some celebrate fewer. Samhain, Oct 31- Nov 1, marks the beginning of the Wiccan year, and is followed by Yule, Imbolc or Brigit, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnasadh or Lammas, Mabon, and back around to Samhain. Some groups might begin with Yule, the Winter Solstice. All these sacred days are called Sabbats. In this way we honor the sacredness of all necessary aspects of physical existence, from birth to death. Among many NeoPagans, especially Wiccans, a similar cycle is honored through

"Esbats" which are keyed to the phases of the moon, which undergoes a similar cycle of waxing, fullness, waning, and darkness. Most Esbats are celebrated on the Full Moon, or close to it. Groups that gather for these celebrations are usually smaller, often a coven or equivalent group.

A Coven Is Like a Congregation
A coven is the Wiccan and many other Witches' equivalent of a congregation. It is the traditional group that meets together on a regular basis to honor the Gods and to work magick together. Most other Pagan groups have equivalent groups. For example, Druids have Groves. On the other hand, many Pagans do not work in and through covens, and may gather together only for Sabbats and festivals. These Pagans are often called "solitaries."

"Drawing Down the Moon" Is a Powerful Ritual
'Drawing Down the Moon' is a ritual central to Wiccans and has equivalents in a great many other Pagan and NeoPagan traditions. Through it we encounter our Gods directly, without either scripture or sermon. The Goddess is invoked into the High Priestess.

When She comes, the Priestess enters into trance, and the Goddess gives teachings, advice, and blessings to coven members through her. Then She departs. Less often the Wiccan God enters into the High Priest. The opportunity to experience such close communion with our deities is perhaps the greatest blessing in Wiccan and similar Pagan practice.

Pagans Do Not Hate Jesus
In fact, most respect him and regard him as an important spiritual teacher. This was true for Pagan oracles in Classical times and remains true today. Pagans do not interpret his teachings in the way that Christian do, however. We do not believe he was the only begotten son of God, nor that believing in him is necessary for the remission of sins, nor do we believe in sins in the ways many Christians think of the term.

To us, it makes no more sense to say that this respectful lack of involvement is "hate" than to say that because I am not interested in becoming involved with someone, that means I "hate" them. No, I wish them well on their life journey, but theirs is not my journey. A far more interesting question is to why so many Christians persist in hating Pagans.

There's Not a 'Pagan Bible' But There are Important Books
Witches often have a "Book of Shadows" or similar text, but we do not regard these as inerrant, and most of their contents are of rituals and other practices that have worked for us or others in the past. A Book of Shadows is more like a cookbook of recipes combined with a collection of inherited teachings than a source for sacred dogma. Pagans find their main teachings in the Sacred as it manifests in this world, because we focus on Spirit is immanent rather than transcendent.

We find wisdom in the cycles of our lives and in the seasons, and in the many other ways that Spirit manifests in this world. Because our world is so varied, different Pagan practices focus on the Sacred through different aspects of our world, but all regard spiritual experiences of and in our world, as well as through our Gods, as our chief source of spiritual knowledge.

Pagans Don't Worship Satan. They Don't Even Believe Satan Exists.
Pagans do not believe in Satan, let alone worship such a being. Pagans believe our world is a manifestation of the Sacred, and is not fallen. As a consequence, its spiritual powers are worthy of veneration and honor. While because in human beings freedom and ignorance exist together bad things inevitably happen, Pagans do not think there is any need to posit an ultimate source of evil, or even that such an idea makes much sense.

Magick Is Not What You See in Vegas
Many modern Pagans spell magick with a 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic. Pagans use magick primarily for healing work, but it is also used to provide protection for people and places, helping someone get a job or place to live, and even for finding parking places. The skeptic will say magick is simply a fancy name given to coincidences. This leads to my personal favorite description of how magick works: the non-coincidental accumulation of meaningful 'coincidences.'

Gus diZerega blogs for Beliefnet at A Pagan's Blog. He is a political scientist/theorist with a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Pagans and Christians: The Personal Spiritual Experience, (Llewellyn, 2001) and (with Philip Johnson), Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue (Lion Hudson, 2008) While living and working as an artist and craftsperson to finance his degree, he met and later studied with teachers in NeoPaganism, the earth religions more generally, and shamanic healing.

I have just returned from a wonderful road trip to Utah's canyon and natural arch country in and near Arches National Park  and the Anasazi ruins in and near Mesa Verde National Park.    A wonderful trip it was, though my blogging was a little bit hit and miss.  Getting away from day to day concerns, and immersing myself in one of the most energetically powerful places I have ever experienced. Here is a land of living rock and an ever present Presence of the land, and immersing myself in it was a much needed blessing and cleansing.  Visits to Bow Tie Arch , Tower Arch, and  Mill Creek Canyon near Moab, Mug House Ruin in Mesa Verde and Sand Canyon in Hovenweep National Monument, and many other wonders enriched my hikes.

At Samhain we confront that mystery, and honor it.  In contrast to most earlier Pagan traditions, most NeoPagans do not spend much time honoring their ancestors.  Samhain is our most fitting opportunity to do so.  Usually we have pictures on our altars of those close to us who have died the previous year.  Certainly that will be true for me.  But as I grow older I appreciate ever more deeply that all of us are simply the growing tip of the adventure of life.  We are individuals, but we are also the sum total of everything previous that has gone into making us what we are.  And that meditation opens up a vast vista, one I think should also be explicitly honored.

I very much like the approach of those hunting and gathering peoples who treated eating as a kind of give away, life gives of itself that life can continue, and asks primarily for respect and consideration from those who are the consumers for the moment. To me it is the lack of any respect whatsoever for the beings who are raised and killed that marks the true horrors of industrial agriculture.  This extends to the meals, which rarely have any thanks given - especially to the spirit of what we consume.  Including plants.

I know many people think plants have no awareness.  I also know they are wrong. I will never forget the experience of what I guess would be a dryad that  I had in New Mexico.  It was quite unexpected, and I have never looked at plants the same way since.

These are somewhat disjointed thoughts on the road as I take a breakfast break while returning from wonderful hikes and explorations in southern Utah and the Anasazi ruins of southwestern Colorado.  

More later.

 

Sabbat. Maybe because I was born in early November. Maybe because I have always loved Fall over all other seasons. Even that quiet waiting period I learned to love in upstate New York, between when the leaves have fallen and...

There has been a lot of  good stuff written about the Goddess, Goddesses, and the Divine Feminine,.  The Wiccan Goddess is first among equals in traditional Wiccan circles., and in my view, should be.  Certainly She has been the most...

UPDATE on sweat lodge sacrilege. The words of a survivor.Among us Pagans, a popular joke is "what is the difference between a New Age and a Pagan workshop?" "Two decimal places." When I read of the deaths of two people...

Magick? This brings me to Pitch's second point, that in many ways really underlies his first.  Wild species are more magickally powerful than tame.  When you have a message from Spirit that your work should focus on native species, as...

When I posted on Mabon,  I suggested we need to get in better touch with the energies and denizens of the places where we live.  Only then could we really honor the spirits of the earth.  I mentioned salmon, grapes,...

Last night we discussed the meaning of the Wiccan Rede: An It Harm None, Do as Ye Will.  Its tone and message is very different from much monotheistic teaching, such as the Ten Commandments.     Superficially read the Rede simply says,...

We had our first Wicca 101 class last night, on Mabon, the Equinox.  Along with the Priestess who is co-teaching, we had five students: two with previous experience, the others without.  A sixth, also a newbie, will join us at...

Our Mabon and Samhain discussions have prompted this post.  Wicca's roots are in northwestern Europe, a land of strong seasons like those in much of the US.  It was easy to integrate the agricultural cycle in the British Isles, and...

The Fall Equinox has arrived, and with it the final Wiccan Sabbat celebrating the harvest, the reaping of the riches produced throughout the year.  Like the Spring Equinox, Mabon is a time of balance, but balance with a different flavor. ...

The political posts that have often filled this blog have led me bit by bit into wondering how a Pagan perspective, taken seriously, changes the way we think about politics and society.  The more I delved into this, the more...

Pagan cultures have always made use of two sources of knowledge about the world, which Karen Armstrong defined in her book The Battle for God as mythos and logos.  Modern societies, including most modern religion, limits itself to one, logos. ...

The argument I am making about modernity's intimate connection to nihilism and irrationality is in many respects a classic conservative argument.  Yet conservatism is as infected with the virus of nihilism as the strains of modernity it perceptively criticizes.  (This...

Here is the projected course of instruction for my Wicca 101 class, starting this in September.  Each numbered section will be at least one week long, sometimes longer.  It is biased towards a broadly British Traditionalist approach, and also is...

Friday a friend and I are getting together to plan our Wicca 101 class this fall.  Some time ago I discussed how Pagans nationally lack teachers who have had experience in what they teach.  I had thought about starting up...

I've been thinking about what lineages mean and don't mean in Wicca.  In a world where the Sacred can be approached from almost any direction, what does being Faery or Gardnerian or Alexandrian or Reclaiming mean compared to being self-initiated?...

I have long been intrigued by the fact that so many religious traditions have believers who, like me, are a part of that tradition because of powerful personal spiritual encounters.  Mine was a close encounter with a Goddess at a...

Our Lammas ritual was the best I have attended in years.  Among its many charms was a song we sang: The Harvest, by Rick Hamouris.  It really captures the spirit of the time for me, and I pass it along....

David E. Oliver asked whether Wiccans would cast a curse to " stop someone who is going to committ murder?  Sometimes doing harm is only way to fight evil. Do pagans believe in evil?"  I promised him a thread, and...

Lammas, or Lughnasad, has always been one of my favorite Sabbats. It is celebrated from July 31 to August 2, generally, and we are fortunate this year that all the dates are on the weekend. Lammas is the first and...

Normal 0 0 1 379 2164 18 4 2657 11.1282 0 0 0 "Ex-Pagan" managed to get a lot of confusions and errors into a short snark in the ancestor thread, but by doing so raised an interesting issue....

  Normal 0 0 1 47 273 2 1 335 11.1282 0 0 0 Caroline Kenner has a guest blog over at Wild Hunt, and has provided a fascinating post on the ancestors .   Kenner raises an issue that I...

Frances Kissling over at Salon has a good discussion of fallacies in the views held by kinder gentler "pro-life" proponents who loudly oppose abortion but support Obama.  They are people who have expanded their moral and spiritual compass to be...

This is the last of a three part post where I am trying to suggest how we as a community can contribute the most to our wider society.  Along with the Sacred Feminine and role of women, the other religious...

Beginning in the '60s there has been a marked change in the way many people view women and the feminine, and this shift quickly influenced American religion.  After a lull, feminism began to regain its moral energy in the 1960s. ...

New Age Cowboy sparked some additional thoughts through his comments in my previous post, thoughts that I think merit a post all their own.  Or rather a series of three.  This one as foundational, another will follow on the Sacred...

When I read these two articles about how we are emptying our oceans  and exterminating sharks not even on purpose, but as thoughtless "bycatch" while we exterminate other things,  I was led into musing about the kind of world we...

The forgiveness thread Cheryl started is a wonderful one, and I want to give it special placement.  Forgiveness is a fascinating topic.  I have a remarkable story that offers an inspiring perspective on that issue....

This weekend marks Midsummer, the Summer Solstice celebration.  Pagans of many different types will be celebrating Summer Solstice 2009 in small and large groups across our country.  Because we focus on the Sacred as immanent in our world, everything that...

We now have quite strong statistical evidence that conservative Republicans are way out of step with the rest of the country with regard to how they see empathy as a virtue.  Daily Kos commissioned two polls, with fascinating findings, here ...

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield over at Windows & Doors has a good post from a Jewish perspective on Newt Gingrich's latest idiocies regarding Pagans. He makes the very astute observation thatit seems to me that many of what we might rush...

Pagans are famous (infamous?) for taking seemingly mundane occurrences and finding something deep and meaningful in them. We can take just about any occasion and turn it into a sacred, festive celebration. Whether it's an ancient seasonal festival, the feast...

Hello, this is T. Thorn Coyle, stepping in for Gus today.   One of the things I do in life is act as a spiritual director. Recently, one of my clients was talking about a struggle with the fact that...

The first open thread is wonderful.  I will try and stay out of these open threads, but occasionally 'mine' some themes for my own purposes.  This is one of them.I want to reverse one of the arguments given by a...

Meical ab Awen and then some others as well ask a legitimate question over my recent posts dealing with Christianity - why have I recently focused on the crimes and shortcomings of some Christians?  Would I be better off and...

The recent plethora of books by militant atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is beginning to generate a good deal of return fire from people writing within the Christian tradition, either as sophisticated adherents or writers...

Last Saturday we raised a Maypole in drizzling rain on a hill top in Sonoma County.  The day was soggy, still, a  heavy mist turning often to light drizzle putting the dampers on some traditional revelry.  But our setting was...

Joyce and River Higgenbotham have written a new book, ChristoPaganism,  that I think will interest any Pagan concerned with the broader boundaries of our community, or any Christian interested in the long-term compatibility of Pagan and Christian spirituality....

Tonight is Beltane, and tomorrow is May Day.  Two good discussions of this time are by Circle Sanctuary and Witchvox.  Beltane and tomorrow is May Day.  Beltane and May Day comprise one of our two most important Sabbats, the other...

When I offered my post on seeing 'energy,' one reader told me she would like me to write about how to feel it.   This is my answer to her request...

When I was reading Starhawk's argument  for why the Pope should apologize, for past crimes by the Catholic Church, I was bothered by a key paragraph  that raised other issues.  When I wrote my piece in response  to David Gibson's...

Trying to integrate spirituality and politics as this blog attempts gets frustrating.  Real frustrating.  Politics is a little context compared to spirit, but it can so easily come to dominate our attention.It's sort of like when I hit my thumb...

Hecate reports on how the war on drugs in Mexico has spilled over into indiscriminate attacks on shrines to Santa Muerte "Saint Death," whose shrines are popular among those who live in violent neighborhoods, including some drug dealers.  Because of...

When I blogged on Rowan's suggestion, I was not sure what would happen.  I am delighted.  I've learned a lot.  (Thanks, Rowan!)  I was struck in particular with one comment made in a response to my last post, a comment...

Referring back to an earlier post, some people have suggested that Pagan 'theology' was through myths.  In a sense this is true, but in a sense that I think is deeper, it is not.  Perhaps this is because of how...

Troy Camplin's quip "I've always told people there are in fact 6 billion religions on earth" in a recent blog comment inspires this post. When I first became a Witch I was bothered by the existence of 'traditions' considerably younger...

I got up this morning, well before dawn but too late to drive down and join friends in Berkeley for their coven's Sabbat.  So I walked out into the Laguna de Santa Rosa area,  just east of town.  It turned...

Mark Kleiman over at the Reality-Based Community has a hopeful story  about a recent legal victory by a Santo Daime branch in Oregon which uses ayahuasca as a sacrament.  If you, like me, believe that psychedelics have a valuable role...

Ostara, the Spring Equinox, is always especially beautiful here in Sonoma County, California.  This year seems especially nice.  Winter's rains have been lighter than we would like, but they have been gentle and well timed.  My farmer friends with whom...

I wonder whether many people's interest in having a Pagan clergy is because we have yet to really separate church from state adequately in this country.  Other than legal issues caused by not adequately separating church and state, can any...

This is my second reason for being very skeptical about the interest on so many pagans' part in our having a "clergy."Words have enormous power.  We do not even need to go into a discussion of magick to see that...

A fracas is brewing  in Good Hope, Alabama over the issue of God and sex.  Seems some Christians are upset with the effort by other Christians to publicly discuss God and Great sex.   I'm glad I am a bystander...

This is my first post on the issue of why I am very skeptical of having a Pagan clergy.  I will come at it on an angle.To have an official 'clergy' is to have some organizational structure with authority to...

USA Today reports  the American Religious Identification Survey reports the number of people reporting they have no religion continues to increase in the United States. Fifteen percent of those replying said they had no religion.  In 2001 the number was...

I spent yesterday flying back to California.  It's weird to take off from Paris at 10 am, and arrive in San Francisco at 1 PM.  My body also thought it was weird and is still catching up.  One of my...

From earliest recorded times many people have sought to understand as best they could the foundations for spiritual reality. Throughout the early ancient world from at least India to Greece, 'monism' appears to have been the most favored model.  It...

I just discovered a good account  Gobekli Tepe on Stephen Schwarz's  often fascinating site.  Not only does it give a good account of the place and its discovery along with great pictures, it also discusses in greater detail than I...

Dave Banack over at Mormon Inquiry   is wondering what the deeper spiritual meaning might be for the growing toleration of Wiccans and other NeoPagans in America today.  On the one hand, we demonstrably aren't particularly dangerous to anyone, but on...

I will return to Pantheacon   issues shortly, but Holly Liebowitz Rossi over at Fresh Living   wonders whether I am using the word 'spiritual' appropriately in my blog on shopping locally.  This gives me an opportunity to explore this interesting question...

The abortion and the Bible thread has high lighted two issues where I think we Pagans have valuable insights for the spiritual community as a whole.  These are how we determine spiritual authority, and the issue of death.  This post...

I've been spending the weekend at a conference on spontaneous orders, also known as complex adaptive, emergent, or self-organizing systems.  In the human world what those terms, and some equivalent ones, point to is how certain kinds of order can...

This morning a friend of mine in Denmark wrote asking me what I thought of an article titled 'Wicca Infiltrates the Churches,' by Catherine Edwards.  Its author is quite alarmed at what she sees as unchristian influences seeking to undermine...

We are having a fearfully dry winter here in northern California.  Summers are all but rainless, with only the coastal fog keeping this region from total desiccation in the summer.  You can tell where the fog gets when you visit...

This weekend many Pagans will celebrate Imbolc, or Brigid.  Imbolc is one of the less  emphasized Sabbats in our Wheel of the Year.  We are emerging from the regular frantic holiday season, combining Yule with Christmas, Hanukkah,  and Kwanza and...