Showing posts with label Pagan Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pagan Life. Show all posts
5/30/2011
What Does Pagan Mean?
Nearly every book on the subject, nearly ever person asked, has a different idea of what defines "Pagan." Of course the word is derivative of "pāgānus," old Latin for "Country Dweller" and Church Latin for non-Christian. We need, though, an agreed upon definition that is suited to the modern nomenclature, to the current cultural phenomenon and to the family of faiths that have been gaining momentum in the Western world for more than a half century.
Through the decades, a number of individuals and organizations have, in mission statements, in charters, in workshops and in craft publications offered a myriad of definitions of the word "Pagan." Though I confess these explanations are so prolific that I cannot have read them all, most that I have read seem inelegant or incomplete. Many are phrased in opaque language, full of empty signifiers. Many are addressed to those already familiar with the Pagan community, family of faiths and way of thinking. Many are lists of grievances against more populous religions. Many are constructed expressly to separate one Pagan sect from another rather than to define the community as a whole.
While I understand that we are a spiritually amorphous lot, often seeming to defy definition entirely, and that not every single practitioner's beliefs will fall perfectly within, I propose the following.
A Pagan faith will generally have four characteristics:
1. Polytheism.
There must be a plurality of deity or spirit. This can take many forms, as a literal cadre of Gods, as multiple but distinct aspects to a single being, as an ephemeral essence that manifests in many ways.
2. Pantheism &/or Animism
Those plural deities must be deities of something. Again, this can take many forms, literal Gods of fire, war and harvest, in deification of the life cycle, spirits that dwell within object and creatures.
3. Attention to the Earth or to a natural cycle.
We are embedded in the world, part of it, made of it, rather than masters of it. Again, this belief has many incarnations but the moral and philosophical ramifications of this truth are never far from mind.
4. Self-Identification
I understand that this final tenet is debatable, but it seems important that a faith define itself as Pagan in order to be thus. This is first because we cherish self-determination and second because it delineates us from some other world faiths that would generally not be regarded as Pagan in this sense, Hinduism and Shinto as examples.
I confess that I have some issues with the language. Abrahamian monotheism is so ingrained in Western culture that it can be difficult to talk about modern Paganism without resorting to oppositional terminology, without explaining ourselves based on what we are not rather than what we are. I ask my fellow Pagans to help me make the verbiage more precise.
While I would never suggest any sort of canonicity, the above is, to my mind, the simplest definition that addresses the largest segment of the community while being easily explainable to non-Pagans.
I invite criticism, suggestion and discussion.
3/17/2010
Everyone's Irish Today, Except Those of us that Aren't
Granted, I'll take just about any excuse to raise a pint and perhaps a bit of hell along with it, but I'm not much a fan of St. Patrick's day.
Though it's not a holiday of any spiritual significance, for Pagans, this might be the least auspicious day in the year.
Apparently, a number of people think that St. Paddy's is Irish Independence day, akin to our 4th of July, England's Guy Fawkes' Day or Mexico's Cinco de Mayo (which isn't Mexican independence day either but that's another post entirely). Those people are idiots. It's nothing of the sort.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig, the seventeenth of march, is the anniversary of the death of an English-born, French-educated* former slave turned Catholic zealot that led a campaign of Xian conversion throughout Ireland in the late fifth century. Bishop Patricius' notable intellectual achievement being the use of the shamrock as a visual aid to teach the Xian concept of holy trinity.
His famous miracle of "driving the snakes out of Ireland," the very act that ultimately canonized him as the patron saint of that country, is a euphemism for his systematic conversion of the nobility of the island, ending the influence of the Druidic orders and disenfranchising the Animist peasants from their governors.
So, drink up to the memory of this culturally genocidal theocrat, and give a nod to your Pagan friends with the knowledge that, while we're raising one as well, we're all drinking to forget.
Oh, and if you pinch me, I'll fucking stab you.
* To be precise, neither England, nor France, as we understood them today, existed at this point in history. Patricius was born an Angle or a Briton and studied for the priesthood in Gaul.
Though it's not a holiday of any spiritual significance, for Pagans, this might be the least auspicious day in the year.
Apparently, a number of people think that St. Paddy's is Irish Independence day, akin to our 4th of July, England's Guy Fawkes' Day or Mexico's Cinco de Mayo (which isn't Mexican independence day either but that's another post entirely). Those people are idiots. It's nothing of the sort.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig, the seventeenth of march, is the anniversary of the death of an English-born, French-educated* former slave turned Catholic zealot that led a campaign of Xian conversion throughout Ireland in the late fifth century. Bishop Patricius' notable intellectual achievement being the use of the shamrock as a visual aid to teach the Xian concept of holy trinity.
His famous miracle of "driving the snakes out of Ireland," the very act that ultimately canonized him as the patron saint of that country, is a euphemism for his systematic conversion of the nobility of the island, ending the influence of the Druidic orders and disenfranchising the Animist peasants from their governors.
So, drink up to the memory of this culturally genocidal theocrat, and give a nod to your Pagan friends with the knowledge that, while we're raising one as well, we're all drinking to forget.
Oh, and if you pinch me, I'll fucking stab you.
* To be precise, neither England, nor France, as we understood them today, existed at this point in history. Patricius was born an Angle or a Briton and studied for the priesthood in Gaul.
12/13/2009
Handin' Tickets out for God
"You'll grow up eventually," he said, my old boss from that summer job I had more than a decade ago, "You'll see how silly that is when you get older." He sneered, chuckled and strode into the back. His sentiment was hardly unique. I hear it, in some form or another, to this day.
It seems that a vast segment of America feels Paganism is somehow not real, that it's a joke, live-in performance art or misguided role play. They seem skeptical that people like me actually believe these things.
When I deign to mention my faith in mixed company, which I do with less and less frequency, I get statements like those above. I get furrowed brows, one sided grins and assertions that I'm just being contrary and will come to my senses eventually, that is if I'm not dismissed as a freak or foreigner too difficult to bother understanding. I'm told that it's natural to sample naturalistic, pantheistic, individualistic, tree-hugging bullshit when one is young and that my feelings on faith will eventually gravitate to something more reasonable and self-evident. I'm told that, barring anything else, I'll make a death bed conversion on the implicit knowledge that Jesus is the light and I've been knowingly fooling myself since I was fifteen.
These people must all have had a free spirited sibling that tried on a half dozen religions in their twenties only to come back to the church when they were told they'd be cut out of the will.
I have news for such people; I'm thirty years old. I'm not going to outgrow my religion. This is not a phase, not for me and not for the estimated three million other Pagans in North America. Faith is not a dalliance; it is a way of informing one's interaction with a vast and often hostile world. It is a method of understanding one's self, of building community and of framing the challenges of life, itself. I don't need scripture. I don't need teleological justification. I don't need salvation.
Do Jews experience this? Muslims? Who else's faith is dismissed as a temporary aberration of opinion that will one day correct itself, like we somehow feel that Pascal might go all in and force us to fold because the hand of our faith has been a bluff all along.
Enlightenment is at the end of many roads.
It seems that a vast segment of America feels Paganism is somehow not real, that it's a joke, live-in performance art or misguided role play. They seem skeptical that people like me actually believe these things.
When I deign to mention my faith in mixed company, which I do with less and less frequency, I get statements like those above. I get furrowed brows, one sided grins and assertions that I'm just being contrary and will come to my senses eventually, that is if I'm not dismissed as a freak or foreigner too difficult to bother understanding. I'm told that it's natural to sample naturalistic, pantheistic, individualistic, tree-hugging bullshit when one is young and that my feelings on faith will eventually gravitate to something more reasonable and self-evident. I'm told that, barring anything else, I'll make a death bed conversion on the implicit knowledge that Jesus is the light and I've been knowingly fooling myself since I was fifteen.
These people must all have had a free spirited sibling that tried on a half dozen religions in their twenties only to come back to the church when they were told they'd be cut out of the will.
I have news for such people; I'm thirty years old. I'm not going to outgrow my religion. This is not a phase, not for me and not for the estimated three million other Pagans in North America. Faith is not a dalliance; it is a way of informing one's interaction with a vast and often hostile world. It is a method of understanding one's self, of building community and of framing the challenges of life, itself. I don't need scripture. I don't need teleological justification. I don't need salvation.
Do Jews experience this? Muslims? Who else's faith is dismissed as a temporary aberration of opinion that will one day correct itself, like we somehow feel that Pascal might go all in and force us to fold because the hand of our faith has been a bluff all along.
Enlightenment is at the end of many roads.
1/05/2009
Stasis of Spirit
I've given up on Pagan blogs almost entirely. There was a time that I read two dozen or more each week but now I restrict my reading to only two or three that tend to deal with political issues or news stories of interest to the community like Wren's Nest and Pagan Prattle. Most of the rest of what I've read is pretty useless.
This is symptomatic of a greater anti-curiousness that I've noticed growing in the community over the last few years. At festivals the theological discussion circles, lectures by authors and talks by political awareness organizations have been largely replaced by discussions of the importance of candle color, classes on dowsing, feng shui, and pointer sessions on how to have a good Pagan marriage, usually conducted by three-time divorcees who don't seem to like each other.
How did the vibrant spiritual, intellectual and political community that I so love devolve into a glorified sewing circle?
Can I even get someone to discuss the greater moral questions behind the Wiccan Rede? Is anyone willing to talk about how we should order our community as more and more sects proliferate and establish independent identities? Does anyone even care that our population, by some estimates as much as five million people nation wide, is probably enough to influence the national conversation, perhaps even sway elections?
No, everyone, both on blogs and at real world events seems much more concerned with decorating their ritual robes, making altar pieces and agreeing with each other about nothing of importance. No one argues theology. No one talks politics, or if they do they certainly don't talk about action or self-determination. No one seems particularly interested in the community, itself.
I want someone to tell me that I'm wrong, that there are better festivals to attend or better blogs to read that have somehow passed me by. If that's the case, please, please tell me what I'm missing and where it is. I want the community to be smart, daring, engaged and vibrant but that's just not what I'm seeing.
Maybe this is just a cultural winter in the ever turning wheel of our people. Maybe we wore ourselves out and we're collectively taking a rest before a yet greater push. Presently, I pray this is the case.
This is symptomatic of a greater anti-curiousness that I've noticed growing in the community over the last few years. At festivals the theological discussion circles, lectures by authors and talks by political awareness organizations have been largely replaced by discussions of the importance of candle color, classes on dowsing, feng shui, and pointer sessions on how to have a good Pagan marriage, usually conducted by three-time divorcees who don't seem to like each other.
How did the vibrant spiritual, intellectual and political community that I so love devolve into a glorified sewing circle?
Can I even get someone to discuss the greater moral questions behind the Wiccan Rede? Is anyone willing to talk about how we should order our community as more and more sects proliferate and establish independent identities? Does anyone even care that our population, by some estimates as much as five million people nation wide, is probably enough to influence the national conversation, perhaps even sway elections?
No, everyone, both on blogs and at real world events seems much more concerned with decorating their ritual robes, making altar pieces and agreeing with each other about nothing of importance. No one argues theology. No one talks politics, or if they do they certainly don't talk about action or self-determination. No one seems particularly interested in the community, itself.
I want someone to tell me that I'm wrong, that there are better festivals to attend or better blogs to read that have somehow passed me by. If that's the case, please, please tell me what I'm missing and where it is. I want the community to be smart, daring, engaged and vibrant but that's just not what I'm seeing.
Maybe this is just a cultural winter in the ever turning wheel of our people. Maybe we wore ourselves out and we're collectively taking a rest before a yet greater push. Presently, I pray this is the case.
12/21/2008
Yule Blessings
I sat at the Junction last night, as I often do on idle weekend evenings. Weatherman was in rare form, testing new material and keeping his audience cheering in a way that only really happens at Irish pubs.
Most of the way through "Rare ol' Mountain Dew" he stopped short.
"Throw away your pills
It'll cure all ills
Be you Pagan, a Christian, a Jew -- "
He took his hands off the guitar and rubbed his brow, "Y'know, I don't know how many times I've done this song but this is the first time that I've sung that line and looked out," he gestured to my table, full up with friends and regulars and indicated me, Old Scot and New York Friend, each in succession "and seen a Pagan, a Christian and a Jew."
Everyone smiled and the song went on.
May your fire burn bright through the longest night of the year;
May you weather all the storms of winter;
and May fortune smile upon you with the lengthening of days.
Brightest Blessings
Most of the way through "Rare ol' Mountain Dew" he stopped short.
"Throw away your pills
It'll cure all ills
Be you Pagan, a Christian, a Jew -- "
He took his hands off the guitar and rubbed his brow, "Y'know, I don't know how many times I've done this song but this is the first time that I've sung that line and looked out," he gestured to my table, full up with friends and regulars and indicated me, Old Scot and New York Friend, each in succession "and seen a Pagan, a Christian and a Jew."
Everyone smiled and the song went on.
May your fire burn bright through the longest night of the year;
May you weather all the storms of winter;
and May fortune smile upon you with the lengthening of days.
Brightest Blessings
6/15/2008
Some Pagan Beliefs Make No Sense to Me.
Dear Fellow Pagans,
Please stop believing in stupid shit. Rather, please stop making a show of believing rediculous, foolish, demonstrably false things that have nothing to do with religious faith.
By example, there is no planet Nibiru orbiting the the sun in a three thousand year period and it will not collide with the Earth in 2012. If there were, we would be able to detect the effects of it's gravity on other bodies and we do not.
Also, vaccinations do not cause autism. A number of rigorous, peer reviewed, double blind studies have failed to establish a connection between the two.
Additionally, the pyramids were not built by aliens. Look it up.
While we're at it, lycanthropes, blood sucking vampires and baby stealing sprites aren't real. No verifiable specimen of any such species has ever been observed.
Finally, you, no matter how much you like to think that you do, do not have supernatural abilities. You just don't. Trust me on this one.
Every time I find myself in a group of Pagans beyond a certain size, I find a preponderance of people that believe pseudoscientific, conspiratorial, anticritical garbage and that do so with a zeal and a certainty that is diametrically opposed to existing evidence on the subjects.
We practice a collection of beautiful and powerful religions, faiths that explore and reveal some of the most profound philosophical truths of the human condition. Our set of beliefs challenge, inform and demand of us in profound and unique ways. Our mythologies and practices also put us profoundly at odds with the dominant culture and this divide strengthens us and, above all else, informs and defines our culture.
While the importance of our belief in the unorthodox cannot be understated, quackery does us no good. It taints the legitimate teachings of our faiths, impedes rational inquiry and makes us look like a bunch of nut jobs to the culture at large, a culture already entertaining enough misconceptions and a fair amount of hostility about our community as it is.
So, my fellows, I say in all seriousness, let's believe in our faith; let's believe in each other and in the power of our community; let's believe in magic but let's please quit the douchebaggery and ground ourselves a bit in reality?
Deepest Respects and Merry Parting,
Thomas
Please stop believing in stupid shit. Rather, please stop making a show of believing rediculous, foolish, demonstrably false things that have nothing to do with religious faith.
By example, there is no planet Nibiru orbiting the the sun in a three thousand year period and it will not collide with the Earth in 2012. If there were, we would be able to detect the effects of it's gravity on other bodies and we do not.
Also, vaccinations do not cause autism. A number of rigorous, peer reviewed, double blind studies have failed to establish a connection between the two.
Additionally, the pyramids were not built by aliens. Look it up.
While we're at it, lycanthropes, blood sucking vampires and baby stealing sprites aren't real. No verifiable specimen of any such species has ever been observed.
Finally, you, no matter how much you like to think that you do, do not have supernatural abilities. You just don't. Trust me on this one.
Every time I find myself in a group of Pagans beyond a certain size, I find a preponderance of people that believe pseudoscientific, conspiratorial, anticritical garbage and that do so with a zeal and a certainty that is diametrically opposed to existing evidence on the subjects.
We practice a collection of beautiful and powerful religions, faiths that explore and reveal some of the most profound philosophical truths of the human condition. Our set of beliefs challenge, inform and demand of us in profound and unique ways. Our mythologies and practices also put us profoundly at odds with the dominant culture and this divide strengthens us and, above all else, informs and defines our culture.
While the importance of our belief in the unorthodox cannot be understated, quackery does us no good. It taints the legitimate teachings of our faiths, impedes rational inquiry and makes us look like a bunch of nut jobs to the culture at large, a culture already entertaining enough misconceptions and a fair amount of hostility about our community as it is.
So, my fellows, I say in all seriousness, let's believe in our faith; let's believe in each other and in the power of our community; let's believe in magic but let's please quit the douchebaggery and ground ourselves a bit in reality?
Deepest Respects and Merry Parting,
Thomas
12/24/2007
What is Christmas to You?
She asked it with a snide tone, an accusatory tone. It wasn't a polite question. It wasn't some feel good, love the season, tinsel, candy cane, bows on baby's brows, family dinner and wassail kind of question. It was a sharp tongued, you're not Christian, what do you know, how dare you cross my path whilst shopping, heathens ruin Jesus' America, thank you for corrupting our second-most-holiest of days, kind of question. Like I said, with a snide tone.
No, I'm not Christian, but Christmas is, nonetheless, a holy day.
Christmas, to me, has nothing to do with miracle births, overbooked inns or trekking wise men. It's not about shopping, eating, giving or receiving. Sure, these things happen but they're not what it's about. It's not about snowmen. It's not about company parties. It's not about knicknacks on trees or mistletoe. It's not about any of those things but still, the day is holy, holy indeed.
Why? Why is Christmas holy to a Pagan like me? Because Christmas isn't just Christmas. Christmas is simply the modern, Christian, western dominated incarnation of a global phenomenon. Whether the customs are the same, whether the theological justification is the same, whether the cultural significance is the same, or not, this event is recognized by virtually all people on Earth. The solstice, the apex of the planet's orbit, the shortest day of the year, is observed, in one form or another by all peoples.
To Pagans like me Yule is a literal holiday; we celebrate the end of the sun's waning and the brightening of the new year. In much of the Muslim middle east the day of Shabe Yaldā is celebrated with feasting and family. In China, Tāngyuán dumplings are shared to symbolize family unity during the festival of Dōngzhì. Jews, of course, have Hanukkah commemorating the miraculous dedication of the Second Temple. Though, in the Talmudic tradition, the the solstice day is properly called Teḳufat Ṭebet, commemorating the day when Judge Jephtha of Gilead sacrificed his daughter to the tetragrammaton god. And, to the followers of the Nazarene, it is the day that the King of Kings was humbly born. Two billion people, a third the world's population call this day Christmas but the other four billion still have names for this day, or a day shortly adjacent. This holiday may be one of the only cultural universals, one of the only things that everyone, everywhere can understand and agree upon.
That's what Christmas it to me. It's the one day when everyone is of the same mind. It's an annual reminder that, despite the strife and pain in the world, beneath the tragedy of the human-invented condition, beyond the distrust and the misdeeds each group of people seem so intent on heaping upon all others, there will always be some stripe of similarity. For all of our hard work dwelling on colors, nationalities, ethnicities and, yes, faiths, this day has significance to all people, regardless. If that does not spark reverence, awe; if that does not lead one to say, "today is holy," then I don't know what will.
Christmas is the single best reminder that we are all so much more alike than we will ever be different. That's Christmas to me.
Brightest blessings.
Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.
No, I'm not Christian, but Christmas is, nonetheless, a holy day.
Christmas, to me, has nothing to do with miracle births, overbooked inns or trekking wise men. It's not about shopping, eating, giving or receiving. Sure, these things happen but they're not what it's about. It's not about snowmen. It's not about company parties. It's not about knicknacks on trees or mistletoe. It's not about any of those things but still, the day is holy, holy indeed.
Why? Why is Christmas holy to a Pagan like me? Because Christmas isn't just Christmas. Christmas is simply the modern, Christian, western dominated incarnation of a global phenomenon. Whether the customs are the same, whether the theological justification is the same, whether the cultural significance is the same, or not, this event is recognized by virtually all people on Earth. The solstice, the apex of the planet's orbit, the shortest day of the year, is observed, in one form or another by all peoples.
To Pagans like me Yule is a literal holiday; we celebrate the end of the sun's waning and the brightening of the new year. In much of the Muslim middle east the day of Shabe Yaldā is celebrated with feasting and family. In China, Tāngyuán dumplings are shared to symbolize family unity during the festival of Dōngzhì. Jews, of course, have Hanukkah commemorating the miraculous dedication of the Second Temple. Though, in the Talmudic tradition, the the solstice day is properly called Teḳufat Ṭebet, commemorating the day when Judge Jephtha of Gilead sacrificed his daughter to the tetragrammaton god. And, to the followers of the Nazarene, it is the day that the King of Kings was humbly born. Two billion people, a third the world's population call this day Christmas but the other four billion still have names for this day, or a day shortly adjacent. This holiday may be one of the only cultural universals, one of the only things that everyone, everywhere can understand and agree upon.
That's what Christmas it to me. It's the one day when everyone is of the same mind. It's an annual reminder that, despite the strife and pain in the world, beneath the tragedy of the human-invented condition, beyond the distrust and the misdeeds each group of people seem so intent on heaping upon all others, there will always be some stripe of similarity. For all of our hard work dwelling on colors, nationalities, ethnicities and, yes, faiths, this day has significance to all people, regardless. If that does not spark reverence, awe; if that does not lead one to say, "today is holy," then I don't know what will.
Christmas is the single best reminder that we are all so much more alike than we will ever be different. That's Christmas to me.
Brightest blessings.
Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.
12/03/2007
The Golden Compass and a Big WTF?
Rife with anti-Christian propaganda, full over with animated characters and fantastic tableaux while subtly undermining biblical axioms, The Golden Compass threatens the teachings and fellowship of Christ in the minds of those most vulnerable to wickedness' influence. It must be stopped and a message must be sent to Hollywood that Christian America will no longer stand to have our most cherished beliefs mocked and attacked.
Oh, fucking please. Where do people get this crap?
CNN.com quoted Adam Holz of Focus on the Family as calling Pullman's books and the subsequent film a "deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
Seriously, what is wrong with you people?
Is your faith is so weak, your religious principles so tenuous and your teachings to your children so easily undermined as to face a serious ideological threat from James Bond Blonde, Tom Cruise's ex-wive and two hours of CGI? If it is perhaps you should rethink how you spend your Sunday mornings.
I love movies and I have dedicated my life to making them. Movies are a supremely important cultural force but these people are really over-estimating the theological influence that a single, mass market, fiction film can have. Considering that The Passion of the Christ converted precisely zero people to Christianity I don't really anticipate The Golden Compass turning many people away from it.
Then again, we can hope, can't we?
Oh, fucking please. Where do people get this crap?
CNN.com quoted Adam Holz of Focus on the Family as calling Pullman's books and the subsequent film a "deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
Seriously, what is wrong with you people?
Is your faith is so weak, your religious principles so tenuous and your teachings to your children so easily undermined as to face a serious ideological threat from James Bond Blonde, Tom Cruise's ex-wive and two hours of CGI? If it is perhaps you should rethink how you spend your Sunday mornings.
I love movies and I have dedicated my life to making them. Movies are a supremely important cultural force but these people are really over-estimating the theological influence that a single, mass market, fiction film can have. Considering that The Passion of the Christ converted precisely zero people to Christianity I don't really anticipate The Golden Compass turning many people away from it.
Then again, we can hope, can't we?
10/12/2007
Howling at the Moon & Such
I'm going to a Pagan festival this weekend. I'll be back on Tuesday if anyone needs to reach me.
9/26/2007
Heresy and Fart Jokes
A few years ago I found myself standing in the middle of a melange de faith, one Xian, one Jew, one Muslim, one Buddhist, one atheist, one Satanist and little ol' Pagan me. This was a bunch of amicable types who, upon realizing the religious plurality set about making light of it.
"My God's older than your God."
"My God's more merciful than your God."
"My God's more powerful than your God."
"My God's more personal than your god."
This went back and forth for several minutes in jolly fashion before I piped up with.
"My God outnumbers your God."
And that pretty much put an end to that.
"My God's older than your God."
"My God's more merciful than your God."
"My God's more powerful than your God."
"My God's more personal than your god."
This went back and forth for several minutes in jolly fashion before I piped up with.
"My God outnumbers your God."
And that pretty much put an end to that.
4/25/2007
Be Careful What You Wish for.
By now, everyone who cares to know has heard the Good News. For the first time the Pentacle has been endorsed by the Veteran's Administration for use on military headstones.
This is, of course, an important milestone for the modern Pagan community.
It does have me thinking, though. Do we really want mainstream acceptance? I'm not sure we do.
Do we want to be recognized as having, without question, the same rights as any other religion, yes. Do we want to be able to gather and worship without fear of interference or reprisal, absolutely. Do we want ours to be understood as a legitimate system of faith with its own traditions, icons and philosophies, you bet your ass we do. But, do we want to be accepted in the minds of others as just another stripe in the fabric of America, no different than anyone else save for our profession of faith? I'm not so sure.
Even as we work to be recognized as having the same rights and privileges as mainstream monotheists, we must remember that we aren't. We shouldn't want to be. Too much of our identity is bound up in the fact that we are outside the mainstream, that we believe fundamentally different things than the vast majority of our fellow Americans. Our tolerance for diversity, our desire and activism for social justice, our suspicion of authority, our respect for privacy and our understanding of civil liberty are all supported and defined by our position as a family of minority faiths.
Our very community is, in no small measure, the result of our position outside the American mainstream. Any two Children of Abraham, whether Xian, Muslim or Jew are much more similar in terms of belief than any two Pagans of divergent paths. We greet and welcome each other as family, despite radical differences of theology while, in their meager differences, the monotheists jostle for supremacy, laying waste to swaths of the world in the doing of it. They cultivate the venom that only religious strife can, while we, Wiccan, Asatru, Kemetic, Druid, and a myriad of others, gather, celebrate and worship together. This will cease to be the case if we come to exist in large numbers or become a fully integrated part of mainstream America because it it our position as a vast ideological and theological minority that forces us to bind together, concentrating on our similarities rather than our differences. It is this very minority status that galvanizes the Pagan community as we understand it.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that we shouldn't celebrate this victory for military Pagans and their families. Nor am I saying that we should not continue to fight for absolute equality under the law. I am saying that we must, as a community, understand and appreciate our position on the periphery of American culture as it is this defining factor in our collective identity that lends us many of our greatest strengths.
This is, of course, an important milestone for the modern Pagan community.
It does have me thinking, though. Do we really want mainstream acceptance? I'm not sure we do.
Do we want to be recognized as having, without question, the same rights as any other religion, yes. Do we want to be able to gather and worship without fear of interference or reprisal, absolutely. Do we want ours to be understood as a legitimate system of faith with its own traditions, icons and philosophies, you bet your ass we do. But, do we want to be accepted in the minds of others as just another stripe in the fabric of America, no different than anyone else save for our profession of faith? I'm not so sure.
Even as we work to be recognized as having the same rights and privileges as mainstream monotheists, we must remember that we aren't. We shouldn't want to be. Too much of our identity is bound up in the fact that we are outside the mainstream, that we believe fundamentally different things than the vast majority of our fellow Americans. Our tolerance for diversity, our desire and activism for social justice, our suspicion of authority, our respect for privacy and our understanding of civil liberty are all supported and defined by our position as a family of minority faiths.
Our very community is, in no small measure, the result of our position outside the American mainstream. Any two Children of Abraham, whether Xian, Muslim or Jew are much more similar in terms of belief than any two Pagans of divergent paths. We greet and welcome each other as family, despite radical differences of theology while, in their meager differences, the monotheists jostle for supremacy, laying waste to swaths of the world in the doing of it. They cultivate the venom that only religious strife can, while we, Wiccan, Asatru, Kemetic, Druid, and a myriad of others, gather, celebrate and worship together. This will cease to be the case if we come to exist in large numbers or become a fully integrated part of mainstream America because it it our position as a vast ideological and theological minority that forces us to bind together, concentrating on our similarities rather than our differences. It is this very minority status that galvanizes the Pagan community as we understand it.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that we shouldn't celebrate this victory for military Pagans and their families. Nor am I saying that we should not continue to fight for absolute equality under the law. I am saying that we must, as a community, understand and appreciate our position on the periphery of American culture as it is this defining factor in our collective identity that lends us many of our greatest strengths.
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