So far in my series of posts I have written mostly about holistic health. This blog is self-creating, relating to my personal beliefs on health, spirituality, paganism, and hopefully many more esoteric topics. By allowing this blog to create itself, I find myself unsure of which direction my writing will take. Yet nonetheless, I plan to continue writing into this process wherever it may go. One topic I figured that would be great to write on to give some roots to this blog is Paganism--at least just the basics. The more I have read, studied, practiced, and taught about Paganism--the more perplexed and curious I have become. I find myself increasingly amazed and impressed with how many different ways Paganims can be practiced and how many diverse perspectives are taken. With this in mind I hope to bring some sort of cohesion to the vastness of this complex topic, attempting to hold space for all its polarities.
I have lead a multi-disciplinary coven group for 3 years. The Occult Student Alliance was a space where I could teach workshops on a multitude of magic practices and esoteric/occult cultures. In this group I lead Paganism 101, where I researched many different definitions on Paganism, using perspectives from practitioners and archeologists. I had many inspirations for this post and I want to give them credit upfront and I intend to cite my references below.
Some amazing Pagan scholarly inspirations: Arith Harger, Dr. Mathias Nordvig, Daniel Ferrand, Dr. Jackson Crawford, Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, Kim Krans, Starhawk
I wish this list was even longer, yet the general Pagan culture is small and growing--hopefully this list will be even longer one day.
Some Pagan jargon that will be used in this post is: Paganism, Pantheon, Polytheistic, Monotheistic, World-Accepting and World-Denying points of view, Cultural Syncratism, Animism, Vital Force
To start at the beginning of where the term 'Pagan' came from.
It is important to think about the historical contexts surrounding the words form, because the term pagan was originally was non-offensive. Paganism did not originally mean something derogatory, it was originally a reference for peoples location during Roman invasion. The 2nd-3rd ce term Panganus/Pāgus/Pagani is a Latin based term used by Greco-Roman folk, which was used to describe people outside (Pars Sinistra) of the new settling Roman urban centers (Pars Destra). These Pagans lived away from development, not necessarily doing anything specifically 'pagan' as we might think of today, they were simply the local inhabitants following their natural cultural traditions. The Pagans that were outside of the urban center were not following the dominant Roman culture that was on the inside of the Roman settlements. The change from Pagans not practicing their original cultural ways and instead following Christianity, was a slow process that began on the inside of the new urban centers and slowly expanded towards the outskirts of the cities.
In 5ce when the term 'Pagan' was translated into English, the term translated into 'Rural Dweller' and more significantly 'Peasant.' Through English translation, this is where Roman settlers took advantage of this terminology and used it to against Pagans to acculturate into Christianity. Christianity in this context was a way to control the people from their heathen like ways, bring them into a properly cultured society, which would have economic influence and hold more power than the lands original inhabitants. As planned and smiting this may sound--the acculturation process was not quick nor was it complexly planned. Around 10-17thce, Pagans were not typically resisting the religious authorities changes--definitely violence and oppression took place under the new Christian ruling, to people who did not align with the Roman Christian order. Historically, there is more evidence that the Romans acculturated (different from assimilation) Paganism into Christianity. Pagan practitioners did not oppose these changes necessarily. This was because Christians saying that Pagans had instead a new all-mighty god name Jesus to work with--Pagans did not mind this--instead it was good news! The Pagan pantheon was expanding--the more the merrier! Most of the aggressive assimilation or violence relating to Pagan religious oppression were within the city walls of the Pars Sinistra, where many Roman guards held control. These local riots against the Roman powerful and authoritative control would die out fairly quickly. Many Pagan folks did not have the weaponry or training to defend themselves when in disagreement with Roman authrotity, therefore their ways of living slowly pairished. Pagans sadly did not even have a concrete religion or identity that they could stand for in opposition to Romans at that time (Celtic is a good example in their early history).
Meanwhile, Pagans who were in the Pars Destra (outside) were in the far distance to a lot of these social havoc's. Slowly but surely, the Roman Christian authority took over via land, food, and social power. It is important to remember this was slow moving process through power and silencing anyone against the authoritative system. We know there was slow acculturation and genocides of Pagan peoples, where Pagan societies lost their power through imperialism (Heathenry vs Paganism, 28:00).
With this in mind, modern practitioners use Pagan to describe the former, with an effort to reclaim the more negative uses of the term Pagan. Using Pagan as a spiritual identity now describes to others that: we pagans are the ones typically outside of the Christian dominant culture and invest in our old ways or ancestral practices and beliefs.
With this history in mind, here is my best effort of defining what Paganism is:
Paganism
is a world-view, practice, way of being, and spirituality. Paganism is
not of any specific culture and there are many kinds, including Kemetic Reconstructionism (Egyptian), Druidism (Celtic), and Hellenism
(Greek). All these different paganisms have different gods,
perspectives, practices, mythologies, life ways, cultures, and land
relations. As all these paganisms are different in their belief
systems, paganism at its core is very diverse. Yet, Paganisms have a few
things in common showing its cultural syncretism. Paganisms are polytheistic in nature, having multiple Gods/Goddess's differing in their set pantheons, which are their deity sets that pagans typically worship, follow or ritualize.
Moving forward from the base of what Paganism is, lets go even deeper.
Pagan perspectives can differ from other world views by having world-accepting points of view and world-denying points of view. A world accepting point of view means that this pagan would be accepting of the world. They are inherently related and connected to entities, spirits, and energies around them--all being connected through some cosmic vital force (the relationship to force being animism). This connection creates life ways, rituals, practices, and traditions seen in history where these types of pagans historically had an active living relationship with the world around them. The world-accepting point of view creates perspectives of vital connections, that must be maintained through practices. Christian religions typically struggle with this, by their nature of being hierarchical and magic (co-creating with spirit) opposing. Typically in Christian perspectives, a Priest has a closer connection to God. They're the ones who directly communicate with God, such as cleansing a Christians sins in the ritual of Reconciliation (Catholicism). Priests are also the ones at the ritual of Communion who hand Christians their bread--the very sacred body of Christ--over to the receiver. This hierachal sacredness over bread can extend to the point in which, the priest will literally put the bread into the Christians mouth--the body of Christ is too holy for the worshiper to touch. This creates a hierarchical bridge between the Christian devotee to their God. In a world-accepting perspective paganism--this would not do. This would create a divide of class between the practitioner and the vital force in their ritual. Thus, one can contrive that Paganism based rituals are inherently co-creative, highly interactive, and relational in nature. Furthermore, the world-accepting point of view implies that pagans accept the world around them as deeply connected and relational (positively or negatively) in nature. Being so relational and accepting there is no after life, life only continues to go on, being naturally cyclical. Once a person dies, they return into the natural process of spirit, transforming and returning into the spiritual panorama all around us, and even biochemically returning to source to continue the cycle. Oppositionally, a world-denying point of view (i.e Christianity) would believe in an after-life, as they do not live in interactive connection to spirits around them (Heathenry vs Paganism, 6:08).
Catholicism and Islam both have world-denying points of view. I will discuss Catholicism a lot on this blog becuase I used to be a devoted Catholic for many years. Eventually that practice did not give me what I needed and I became Pagan (to be discussed at another time.) Catholicism is monotheistic (believing in one god), has an after life, considers co-creative rituals as acts of disrespect or disbelief of god, and promotes mostly devotion while having deep faith in gods plan. By trusting gods plan, there is no relation to the cosmic energies around you--interacting with those entities/forces would be taboo. Gods plan states that the Christians have an afterlife in heaven--there is no reincarnation into the process of vital force. Instead, there is a distinct separation between the active spirits living in relation to all around you (which don't exist to the Christian) and devoting to a single god, who reigns outside of this world on another plain--like a distant yet intimate Father. The only interactions that a Christians would have to vital force or God would be in conversation through prayer, rituals, or experiential religious experiences, outside of ritualistic practices. These Christian rituals through a Priest are in no doubt deeply spiritual. The difference in world-views is not about spiritual depth--instead this can juxtaposition can be seen as how we as practitioners or devotees choose to access that vital force or God in our lives, which are both undoubtedly deep meaningful work. To conclude, world-denying views generally follow hierarchical systems, afterlife, which deny the energies within the world one actively lives in.
It is important to remember how much these perspectives influence our lives and how we treat one another. In my opinion, there is no reason that these opposing world views should have conflict or argument about each others beliefs. In my eyes, both Paganism and Catholicism worship something very similar, something that they both love and adore. Some people find it offensive to believe that Pagans and Christians are worshiping the same thing--purely by how we choose name and interact with it. Yet, culture is something that is alive and drastically controls our perception of the world and the universe. Whether you choose to interact with the spirit within multiple things all around you actively or do so in privacy, with one being and/or through a Priest--both are interacting with some cosmic force that they believe is extremely sacred. Moving on!
Paganisms are diverse, yet share some similarities. Cultural Syncretism is when cultural values are shared in perspectives, not necessarily in perfect parallel, but where two or more cultures share similar attributes. Animism is great example of a cultural perspective that is shared between religions/spiritualities/cultures. Animism is the belief that there is an active relationship between person and entities, spirits, beings, energies and forces all around you. This relationship is dynamic and alive--where people who follow this perspective can tell, notice, and intuitively interact with a vital force with the universe and/or it's beings/inhabitants. This interaction connects the person to an object which shows a vital force, spirit or energy. Animists (people who hold an animistic perspective) typically interact with this vital force through practice, craft, worship, prayer, traditional folk magic, ritual, ceremonies, or dances. These practices are done because they keep these relationship well, alive, and active. It is important for a pagan person to interact with these living forces because these forces interact and connect with their whole world. These relationships keep life functioning properly and well, both for the person and vital forces. These relationships are reverend as sacred, which are to be maintained, to maintain the whole living system within the world that holds us--continuing the living and active cycle of creation, for generations to come and to continually repeat (Animism: Vital Force, Witchcraft, Soul & Spirit, 2021).
A basic perspective of animism is "we all have a living relationship with all beings in the universe" and step further in the animistic perspective is "we take care of and maintain relationships with the energies around us, through rituals, because those relationships take care of us."
What other religions or spiritualities pop up in your head when you think of animism? If another culture, spirituality, or religion reminds you of this perspective, your brain is working--because Animism is not culturally exclusive. This is why Animism is an example of cultural syncretism.
Many paganisms share stories and perspectives via cultural syncretism. This is from generations of historical interactions between cultures through war, trade, and travel. Some cultures that are similar in origin share stories or if two cultures are far away in origin, some stories can be carried through word of mouth over generations! One example of cultural syncretism through close origins would be the similar stories within Celtic cultures. There are many similarities between the Celtic-Irish goddess Bridged and the Celtic-Welsh goddess Ffaid (or Braint). Both goddess's share land-place names in Ireland and Wales, places in which the land is known to represent similar attributes of the goddess--spring, agriculture, and femininity. Both goddess's names in Gaelic and Welsh have similar name pronunciations, story backgrounds, and attributes--both of these goddess are the same. Culture through history has made them become to separate beings, yet most people agree they're the same goddess (Celtic & Germanic Annual Celebration, Rituals and Animistic Relationships, 2021)
The Celtic goddess Bridged is also technically the Catholic Saint Bridged. Saint Bridged is an assimilated/acculturated version of the Celtic goddess Bridged, being different from our ladder example. Catholic missionaries wanted to Christianize Ireland and did this through Christianizing the Irish Pagan Gods/Goddess's. There are many examples of Christianizing the Celtic Pagan culture into the Celtic Christian culture (Irish Catholic Church is the best example), whether the people are Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. With this in mind, Christianizing an ancient pagan god is technically a form of cultural syncretism, as the Goddess Bridged/Ffaid and Saint Bridged are technically all the same archetype of goddess. Yet, when looking at cultural syncretism in a pagan context, I am more so referencing cultural syncretism about shared gods through similar cultural origins or generations of story or trade. I see the Christian Saints more through a lens of colonization, imperialism and/or acculturation of the pagan cultures, through the Christianization of pagan gods--taking away pagans freedom to religious/spiritual sovereignty. I do not invalid the Christians relationship to Saint prayer or even the Christian Witches (yes they exist!) relationship to saints, I am just observing their history and where they have came from.
Does the change from Bridged to Saint Bridged change who Bridged is to the worshiper? Or are both Pagans and Christians worshiping the same deity? Does the Saint version of Bridged invalidate her original Celtic form through acculturation? All great questions that theologian Pagans discuss often--but I will not answer!
Another example of cultural syncretism in Paganism is in solar or lunar calendars/holidays. Paganisms, usually being quite animistic in their perspectives are also described as nature-based philosophies or religions. If Pagans are animistic, being connected to the energies alive around them, they're definitely closely connected to natures natural cycles. This being so, many Pagans share similarities in following seasonal changes, times or days of the year, and calendar systems. Norse traditions follow a Lunar calendar (check out the Nordic Animism Calendar by Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen) similar to the Celtic Lunar Calendar the Coligny Calendar (I have not seen this be recreated as a modern calendar--this calendar is so archaic it is also hard to follow). Both Celtic and Norse traditions follow a lunar calendar, having specific times of the year that hold significance, sacredness, and even superstition. I won't go too much into the synchronicities here because I intended this article to be a basic understanding of what paganism is (oops!) Being a Celtic/Norse practitioner, I would love to soon write an article that goes into more depth about the cultural syncretisms about both paganisms.
Now that we got a lot of some of the basic jargon and terminology out of the door, what does generally Paganism look like? What does a Pagan person do and what do their practice look like? The answer here is--no answer. As I have described, all paganisms are diverse and differentiate per culture, with some core similarities in their perspectives. Most people have big differences in what they do in their personal practices and how they see the world through the vast perspectives in Paganism.
With the question above, I thought it would be helpful to provide some deeper understanding. To give some reference of what Paganism may look like, I will describe a Pagan animistic interaction with the world from my own experience as a Celtic/Norse Pagan:
'I am at work shoveling horse dung at the barn and all of a sudden a raven drops off an apple outside the stall. The raven and I make eye contact and they hang out for while. I stand there and watch the raven, looking deeply into who and what they are. Is this just a Raven? I ask myself, who is this? How do they relate to me? Suddenly in my mind I hear the name 'Odin.' Oh, well of course that makes sense, Odin the Norse Pagan god of Wisdom, War, Sacrifice, Life, Magic, and Rebirth. Being most relevant, in the Prose Edda, Odin is 'Hrafmagoð,' meaning raven-god. Odin has two ravens named 'Huginn' and 'Muninn' who are his messengers and allies--these ravens are magical beings who can even speak. I walk closer to the raven on the ground with the apple outside the stall and I see a second raven on a tall telephone pole. I walk closer to pick up the red shiny apple and the ground raven flys up to the other raven. They both hang out and watch me. We all make strong eye contact for a long while. In this moment, I feel a magnetic, growing and vital force within me. These two ravens feel significant, they're telling me something and I don't know what. I pick up the apple perplexed thinking "Does Odin want me to have a snack? No--definitely not, but something feels significant right now. Something feels unique in the air--Odin is trying to tell me something." I take pieces of the apple apart and throw it to the ravens--giving an offering back to the messengers of Odin (this is a great way to say thank you and continue this local living relationship.) I get back to work and the ravens are gone soon enough. For the rest of the day I was reminded that the raven gods and the raven beings, Huginn and Muninn, are there for me when I am in need. I still await more of this overall message but as of now, I derive some mean from that interaction. Lately, I have been very exhausted and even sad, working and studying a lot towards my goals--forgetting to take space for relaxation. I think that's why the gods spoke to me that day, that's why Odin sent his ravens. Odin sees me and reminded me to take space to stop, there is nothing you need to achieve outside of yourself. Source is all around you and in all things, so interact with them, interact with what is there, and of course have a snack break!'
