Naturalistic Paganism

A Pedagogy of Gaia, by Bart Everson: “Spring in the Subtropics, Spring in the Self”

  Posted on by NaturalisticPaganism

  4 Comments

What can we learn, and how can we teach, from the cycles of the Earth — both the cycles within us, and the cycles in which we find ourselves?

Members of the Mondo Kayo Social and Marching Club parade down St. Charles Avenue on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans, March 4, 2014. Reuters/Jonathan Bachman

Given the winter we’ve just been through in North America, people are bound to be enthusiastic about the so-called “first day of spring,” the vernal equinox — myself included.

Location, Location, Location

For much of my life I lived in the Midwestern United States, an area where people recognize four distinct seasons. Winter can be long and hard, drab and dull. The natural world seems desolate, almost dead. But in fact, natural processes are wound up tight, coiled and hidden, waiting for the increase of sunlight. When it comes, life seems to burst forth from everywhere. Plants “spring up” from the soil, which is where the season of spring gets its name. One can get the sense that the whole planet is athrob with new life.

Of course, that’s not really true. It’s a big planet, and things are not the same all over. It’s been my privilege to have lived at several different latitudes, from subarctic to subtropical. Up by the arctic circle, winter is harder and spring comes later, but it’s even more intense and dramatic than in the temperate regions. The ice thaws, the snow melts, greenery erupts, the world seems to come back to life.

Here in New Orleans, where I now live, the contrast is not so great. We experience a winter, but frost is a rarity and a hard freeze is even less common. We rarely see snow, and ice is something people use to keep their whiskey cold. (This unusually harsh winter just past was an exception; we saw sleet twice, inducing the city to a virtual shutdown.) Many plants never lose their leaves, so there’s plenty of green foliage throughout the winter months. Our plentiful live oak trees shed leaves in spring, as new leaves emerge, which is confusingly similar to fall up north. They also shed plenty of pollen. I know it’s spring when my porch is covered with a thick layer of green dust.

Row of Southern Live Oaks

A Lively Quickening

Say you lived in the city of Pontianak, in Indonesia, right on the equator. You would likely recognize two seasons only: wet and dry. You wouldn’t notice a change in daylight hours, because it’s less than one second from day to day, with day and night roughly equal throughout the year.

Pontianak Equator Monument

You could still detect the first day of astronomical spring, however, through careful observation of the sun’s maximum altitude. On the day of the equinox, it’s going to be as high in the sky as it ever gets, as high as it ever can get anywhere on Earth: straight up 90º — directly overhead. This is, in fact, a defining characteristic of the equinox.

Even if you don’t measure the height of the sun, it’s hard to miss the fact that the days are getting longer, for those of us outside of the tropics. Technically the days have been getting longer since the solstice, but back in late December the change was barely noticeable. As winter progresses, the rate of change from day to day gets greater and greater, reaching a peak around the time of the vernal equinox. Thus, even in the subtropics, we experience a sense of lively quickening. From this point on, day will be longer than night. After the equinox, days continue to get longer, but the rate of change from day to day recedes until the summer solstice.

At my latitude, the days in the month of March get longer by almost two minutes per day. Moving northward, in Indianapolis or Madrid, the daily gain is almost a minute more. Way up in Stockholm, the pace is a breathtaking five minutes and 19 seconds per day.

The seasons are reversed in opposite hemispheres, so the vernal equinox in one hemisphere is the autumnal equinox in the other. The solstices are also reversed. But whereas the solstices mark opposite extremes of daytime and nighttime hours, the equinoxes designate days when dark and light are (roughly) equal. In this sense, the equinoxes are the same no matter where you are on the planet. Thus, though the solstices invite celebration as global holidays, the equinoxes are even more truly global.

Perhaps this is why the Consultative Assembly of the Peoples Congress declared the March equinox as “World Citizens Day / World Unity Day.” It’s also observed as “World Storytelling Day” with celebrations around the world.

Balancing Act

Given the poetics of the equinoctial moment, it’s a natural time to reflect on the idea of balance. Ancient cultures esteemed balance as a value of paramount importance. Above the temple of Apollo in Delphi, these words were inscribed: ΜΗΔΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ (mēdèn ágan) — “Nothing in excess.”

Delphi, Greece

Our modern sensibilities might tempt us to poke at this aphorism. We might confuse excess and excellence. We might think a balanced approach to life is at odds with greatness. But in fact, moderation in the pursuit of excellence is no contradiction.

The recent Winter Games in Sochi provided an excellent reminder of this fact. Great athletes know the pursuit of excellence is a balancing act. In a paper on the philosophy of sport, Heather L. Reid writes:

Winning would be simple if it was just a matter of training volume, the runner who trained the most hours would automatically win. We know it doesn’t work that way, though, and indeed it is a delicate art for athletes to find ways of maximizing improvement without exceeding mental, physical, and emotional limits…. A winning athlete’s ability to push the envelope of achievement without bursting it open is integral to his or her success.

In the same way, ordinary mortals can pursue the excellent life through the “delicate art” of “maximizing improvement” while knowing our limits. (There’s a clear link here to another maxim carved into the stone of the temple at Delphi: ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ (gnōthi seautón) — “Know thyself.”) This isn’t a call for some sloppy, half-assed approach to life, or to a stodgy conservatism. Moderation should not be confused with mediocrity or neutrality.

Out of Balance

Nor should balance be confused with stasis. If I say that the current American political situation is “out of balance,” some might object. They might say it’s perfectly balanced: two sides in conflict with equal power, neither able to make headway. They might say balance is the problem. But that’s not balance; it’s gridlock.

There’s an aphorism flying around the internet these days: “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” (It’s usually attributed to Isaac Asimov, but I can’t find an authoritative citation.) In fact, it’s much worse than that. While science gathers knowledge, society seems to be actively losing wisdom. This is a key example of how modern, Western, American life is out of balance. We have an abundance of cheap food, but we lack the wisdom to moderate our intake, and so obesity is a major health concern. We have an unprecedented ability to access the Earth’s resources and exploit them, but we lack the wisdom to conserve, resulting in colossal imbalances such as climate change.

We can find other imbalances if we look. We might consider the balance between male and female, youth and maturity, rich and poor. These social tensions often permeate our own psychologies, so that if we look within we may find similar unbalanced attitudes. As without, so within.

Frankly, most popular American holidays seem to celebrate excess in one aspect or another. We all enjoy a break from the routine, a chance to cut loose, a holiday when some form of excess is permitted. We need some moderation in our moderation, so to speak. There’s no denying that.

Yet it is good to have a holiday which enshrines the idea of balance.

It’s even better to have two such holidays.

Purification

Furthermore, the equinoxes represent the idea that balance is not static but flowing, especially when considered as a pair. The primary difference between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes is their valence, their charge, their spin. As the sun passes through the equatorial plane in March, the Northern Hemisphere moves into the light half of the year, while the Southern Hemisphere moves into the dark half. The equinoxes are not static dead-ends but transitional moments, tipping points.

As such, the equinoxes provide an opportunity for making changes in one’s life. Glenys Livingstone characterizes both equinoxes as a moment for “Stepping into Power.” This resonates with me on an intuitive level. From a place of balance, we act. I find I often set long term projects (half-year or full-year) for myself from equinox to equinox.

The vernal equinox in particular, associated with notions of tender new life emerging, lends itself to rites of purification and cleansing. My body and my being are the fertile soil from which I hope to cultivate the fruits of creativity. I don’t want to sterilize that soil, but I do want it to be healthy, free from toxins, conducive to growth.

Paradoxically, the best way to foster my own noetic fertility, to encourage my own intellectual fecundity, is through subtraction. Perhaps that is simply because I live in a land of abundance and relative affluence, or perhaps it’s inherent to the human condition. Whatever the case, it feels right to me to give up something during this season. There’s a parallel to Lent here, to be sure, and in this Catholic city, that’s nothing to sneeze at. (Believe me, with the pollen filtering down from our live oak trees, there’s a whole bunch of sneezing going on here in the springtime.) But to me, it’s not a matter of penance, suffering, mortification or redemption. Rather, it’s a matter of feeling good, staying strong, promoting vitality, improving focus, and nurturing inspiration.

The Body as the Ultimate Localization

Coming off the excesses of our Carnival season, it feels natural to lay off the booze awhile. Over the years, I found myself enjoying sobriety more than I’d enjoyed drinking. Imbibing had become habitual, an ingrained part of my daily life, and breaking that habit felt wonderfully liberating. Sobriety was, in fact, intoxicating. Last year, my change of habit took on a semi-permanent aspect. I’ve been more or less sober ever since.

(To clarify: I’m not totally a teetotaler, but I’ve indulged on less than a dozen occasions over the past year. I aimed to break a years-long habit of daily drinking, and I’m proud to have accomplished that.)

Alcohol isn’t the only thing I’ve been known to give up. A couple years ago I also found myself eating less as the equinox approached, cultivating my sense of hunger. That also led to more permanent changes of habit, and eventually I lost a bunch of weight. Since then I’ve made a conscious effort to eat healthier and exercise more often.

dandelion goddess

I generally do go off coffee as the weather gets warmer, and I’ve found dandelion root tea makes a delightful coffee substitute, especially combined with chicory root. Dandelion has the added benefit of detoxifying the liver, or so the herb lore says.

These are all means of cultivating a “spring in the self,” a season of renewal and rebirth within. I’ve talked about how spring and the equinox are experienced differently at different places. The body is, of course, the ultimate localization. All our dreams start here. Let’s aim to change the world, starting with ourselves. And what better time than now?

For Conversation

In the comments below, talk about how you cultivate balance in your own life.

References

Equinox : World Citizens Day – World Unity Day

World Storytelling Day: A global celebration of storytelling

Gus diZerega on balance as a spiritual value

PaGaian Cosmology by Glenys Livingstone

Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory by Heather L. Reid

The Author

Bart Everson

In addition to writing the A Pedagogy of Gaia column here at HumanisticPaganism, Bart Everson is a writer, a photographer, a baker of bread, a husband and a father. An award-winning videographer, he is co-creator of ROX, the first TV show on the internet. As a media artist and an advocate for faculty development in higher education, he is interested in current and emerging trends in social media, blogging, podcasting, et cetera, as well as contemplative pedagogy and integrative learning. He is a founding member of the Green Party of Louisiana, past president of Friends of Lafitte Corridor, sometime contributor to Rising Tide, and a participant in New Orleans Lamplight Circle.

See A Pedagogy of Gaia posts.

See Bart Everson’s other posts.

 Category: A Pedagogy of Gaia, Bart Everson      Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Musings of a Pagan Mythicist, by Maggie Jay Lee: “Circle Around: Individuality, Community and Creating Religion”

  Posted on by NaturalisticPaganism

  4 Comments

Why are so many Naturalistic Pagans “circling alone”?

I still consider myself a pantheist because Nature is for me equivalent to God. Nature, or more precisely our relationship with Nature, is at the center of my religious life. But what separates me from many other naturalistic pantheists is my belief in the central importance of a shared liturgical calendar of holy days for which the community comes together to celebrate with some type of ceremonial observation. To me this is what makes a shared belief and value system into a religion.

Like a lot of secular folks, many naturalistic pantheists just don’t see the point in religious ceremony. At best religious ritual is seen as a discretionary recreational activity and at worst a slippery slope to magical thinking and group coercion. I think the disinterest and sometimes disdain for ritual among many pantheists is a symptom of something much larger, a cultural bias toward individualism that ends up devaluing social connectedness.

According to Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone, there has been a drastic decline in social connectedness in the U.S. since the 1950’s. People spend less face-to-face time with friends and family and participate far less in all kinds of social and civic organizations than they did 40 years ago. Social connectedness has declined in all segments of American society, but is largest among non-church attending secular Americans.

Some may argue that with Facebook, blogs, Twitter and texting that we are now becoming more not less connected, but there is a big difference between interacting through screens and interacting in person. The mind is engaged, but the body is alone. According to Barbara Fredrickson in Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection, when two people connect there is a literal syncing up of the brain waves and chemistry, and these micro-moments of “positive resonance”, as she calls it, can have a profound impact on our health and happiness, like a vitamin for the soul.

If more people are connecting virtually or not at all, it will be hard for developing a new religion centered on communal religious observations. One reason I am so keen on ritual is because of the way I think about religion. If you think about religion like William James, who defined religion as “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine”(1),  then group ritual is superfluous. For James, religion is really about individual psychology, which I call “spirituality”. But if you look at religion more from the perspective of Emile Durkheim, as I do, then religion is all about community. Durkheim defines religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”(2)

According to Durkheim: “The very act of congregating is an exceptionally powerful stimulant. Once the individuals are gathered together, a sort of electricity is generated from their closeness and quickly launches them to an extraordinary height of exaltation.”(3) He believed that the collective emotions generated by group ritual could pull humans up for a time from the realm of the profane, with its self-centered concerns, to the realm of the sacred, where the self disappears and collective interests predominate. In other words ritual, has the potential to create “positive resonance” on a communal scale.

From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, religion is in our genes, and it is there because our more religious ancestors had an advantage over our less religious kin. Religion helped our ancestors suppress selfishness and bond together into cohesive and cooperative teams. Even in modern times, religion still provides powerful and measurable benefits. According to Robert Putnam and David Campbell in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, religiosity in the U.S. is positively correlated with greater health, happiness, and generosity, including giving a greater portion of time and money to secular organizations compared to secular people. These positive attributes were not correlated with religious belief, but religious belonging, the social connectedness of religious people. Religious social connecting was a stronger predictor of these benefits than secular connecting. Putnam and Campbell describe religious relationships as being supercharged. There really is something special about religious community.

According to Jonathan Haidt in The Happiness Hypothesis, happiness cannot be grasped directly, but comes from “between”; it emerges like a blossom when we get our relationships with self, others, and that something larger-than-self right. I think the other benefits of religion are like this to. Most religious people don’t set out to create cohesive groups; they don’t go to church as a means to health and happiness. Rather, they seek to connect with and get right with that something higher-than-self within a tradition of collective worship, and from this the benefits of religion naturally flow.

I think part of the success of modern Paganism comes from its tradition of collective ritual. Pagans are very individualistic, maybe even more so than most people in our highly individualistic western culture, and there is often a lot of tensions between sticking together and splintering off. There is in fact a lot of splintering going on, and this I believe keeps Paganism at a low level on the order and structure hierarchy, inhibiting it from evolving into a multi-generational established religion. But still the desire to do rituals with others is strong in the Pagan movement and this brings people together. Pagans who leave one tradition are likely to seek or create new associations with people with whom they can do group rituals. In comparison, amongst pantheists, the most common religious practice is to take a solitary walk in nature. Despite the efforts of groups like the World Pantheist Movement, explicitly pantheist community remains almost exclusively an internet affair.

To me, collective religious ceremony and shared devotional practice is not something peripheral, but is the very center of religion. It is the core that holds everything together. I believe without such shared practices, religious community will fall apart, but there are still enormous challenges to developing religion centered on communal ceremony. As Haidt says: “You can’t just invent a good ritual through reasoning about symbolism. You need a tradition within which the symbols are embedded, and you need to invoke bodily feelings that have some appropriate associations. Then you need a community to endorse and practice it over time.”(4) This all takes time and attention. But I think it is more than necessary; it’s worth it.

For Conversation

In the comments below, say whether you would like to have more in person contact with other Naturalistic Pagans.  Why or why not?  What kind of in person interaction you would like to have?  Would you like to do ritual together?

Notes

(1) The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, as quoted in The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, note 11 from page 350.
(2) Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim, as quoted in The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, page 248.
(3) Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim, as as quoted in The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, page 226.
(4) The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, page 229.

The Author

M. J. Lee

In addition to writing the Musings of a Pagan Mythicist column here at HumanisticPaganism, Maggie Jay Lee is interested in growing a new religious culture grounded in the everyday shared world and the public revelations of science, that celebrates our relationship with Cosmos, Earth and each other, and strives to bring us into right relationship with the Nature inside and outside of us.  She draws inspiration from modern cosmology, evolutionary psychology, and the myths and wisdom traditions of ancient Hellas.  M. Jay is a member of the Universal Pantheists Society  and the Spiritual Naturalist Society, and she has studied with Glenys Livingston author of PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. She celebrates the creative unfolding of Gaia in west Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, two dogs and cat.

See all of Musings of a Pagan Mythicist posts.

See Maggie Jay Lee’s other posts.

 Category: community, Maggie Jay Lee, Musings of a Pagan Mythicist      Tags: , , , , , ,

Mid-Month Meditation for March: O sweet spontaneous earth

  Posted on by NaturalisticPaganism

  1 Comment

Editor’s note: We encourage our readers to take these mid-month meditations as an opportunity to take a short break from everything else.  Rather than treating these posts the way you would any other post, set aside 10 minutes someplace quiet and semi-private to have an experience.  Take a minute to relax first.  After reading the post, take a few minutes to let the experience sink in.  If it feels right, leave a comment.

O sweet spontaneous

earth how often have
the
doting

fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
, has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty, how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest

them only with

spring)

“O sweet spontaneous”, by e.e. cummings (1894-1962), originally published in The Dial Volume LXVIII, Number 5 (May 1920).

 Category: Monthly Meditation    

“A Naturalistic Credo” by Jon Cleland Host

  Posted on by NaturalisticPaganism

  2 Comments

We are assemblages of ancient atoms forged in stars – atoms organized by history to the point of consciousness, now able to contemplate this sacred Universe of which we are a tiny, but wondrous, part.

I’m Jon, and my Credo is just six and a half words long: “I’m conscious, and the universe exists”.  That’s it.  That’s all I believe without evidence.  Everything else is my best guess.  In every topic I’ve examined, I’ve come to general agreement with the tentative positions of mainstream science – so if you care about my factual guesses, just look it up.  If you care about what spiritual meaning I’ve built on that foundation of facts – then keep listening.  I think that beliefs based on revealed scripture are inherently divisive, because a private revelation can’t be tested or repeated, so the only way to resolve the inevitable questions is through fighting, which starts the cycle of revenge.  If there is ever to be religious peace on earth, spirituality must be based on, not just tolerant of, openly testable evidence – and therefore cannot be absolutely certain.

Science deepens my reverence for our universe.  The evidence shows that we are made of atoms forged in the awesome furnaces of ancient stars, and that we’ve evolved from simple molecules to cells to threadlike cell colonies to aquatic worms to eels to fish clambering onto land, and so on, to us.  Evolution also explains much of daily life, showing why dieting is hard, why teenagers are rebellious, why the minds of men and women are different, why human nature contains both good and evil, and even why my dog likes getting petted.  Evolutionary psychology is the owner’s manual to our brains, exposing the hotbuttons which are manipulated every day to sell cars based on sex, to elect politicians, to support fundamentalism, and to inflame hatred.  Understanding evolution transformed my world from a pointless, bewildering struggle into an invigorating challenge.  I fulfill my evolved need for ritual and spirituality using the Pagan/Native American Wheel of the Year — the celebration of the Solstices, Equinoxes, and their thermal equivalents as an expression of the sacred cycles of life around and within us.  Others may use other metaphors to provide structure to their spirituality — as a Unitarian Universalist, I welcome any spirituality that isn’t harmful in the long run.  I affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person – but not of every idea.

Evolution gives my life incredible meaning and purpose.  I marvel at my family tree, which goes back though innumerable life forms, through amazing stories of survival, hope, courage, and parental love.  It includes the tiny mammal, surviving through the freezing, yearlong darkness after the asteroid impact by eating, and likely hiding in, a frozen dinosaur carcass.  It includes the first mother to produce milk, and the first blurry view through a newly evolved eye.  If a depressed child suddenly discovered that she was descended from a long line of Nobel prizewinners, think of how her outlook and actions would instantly change!  In the same way, I’ve grown from a long line of survivors — noble creatures of every sort, who conquered deadly challenges billions of times over.  What other origin could possibly give my life more meaning?

Evolution has shown me that all life on earth is my family, bonded to me through billions of parental links of love.  Realizing this gives the deep forest the same warmth and comfort as the family reunion which it is.  I could go on and on about the awe and wonder I feel through being part of nature, and my tiny place within the vast stretches of space and time.

Through fits and starts, evolution has crafted the universe in ever more wonderful ways and it will probably lead to a just and sustainable world.  It could happen after centuries of environmental disasters, bloody wars, and untold suffering, or it could happen sooner, through our efforts to build a loving, rational culture focused on this world.  It’s up to us to choose when we’ll get there.  We stand at the dawn of a new age, the first time we know of when the universe became able to reason and plan.  My family, your family, including all life on earth, will live with the consequences tomorrow of the decisions we make today.  Seeing my kids, or any kids, reminds me of that.  What could be a greater purpose, and a greater reason to take control of one’s life?  What could possibly be a stronger moral basis for ethical behavior, a clearer reason to love my neighbor as myself?

Understanding deep time and evolution makes my ancestors and our future world sources of meaning and purpose.  This view has grown in me over the past 20 years, and has also sprung up elsewhere.  I’ve been honored to be involved (in small ways) with the creation of a book about it -– Thank God for Evolution, by Michael Dowd.  Though I don’t share the Christian reframing used throughout the book, I enthusiastically support both that form of Christianity as well as the book’s core message.  My life is a precious, limited, improbable, priceless gift from our Universe.  I’m overjoyed with each minute of it, overjoyed to savor the love of family, overjoyed to celebrate the seasons of our earth and of life as my Pagan and my Native American ancestors have done for thousands of years, and overjoyed to join all of you in creating the world of tomorrow for our children.  That’s heaven – right here, right now.  Thank you.

This essay was originally published on the Naturalistic Paganism Yahoo discussion group.

The Author

Jon Cleland Host

In addition to writing the Starstuff, Contemplating column here at HumanisticPaganism, Dr. Jon Cleland Host is a scientist who earned his PhD in materials science at Northwestern University & has conducted research at Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning since 1997. He holds eight patents and has authored over three dozen internal scientific papers and eleven papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the journal Nature. He has taught classes on biology, math, chemistry, physics and general science at Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University. Jon grew up near Pontiac, and has been building a reality-based spirituality for over 30 years, first as a Catholic and now as a Unitarian Universalist, including collaborating with Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow to spread the awe and wonder of the Great Story of our Universe (seewww.thegreatstory.org, and the blog at evolutionarytimes.org). Jon and his wife have four sons, whom they embrace within a Universe-centered, Pagan, family spirituality. He currently moderates the yahoo group Naturalistic Paganism.

See other Starstuff, Contemplating posts.

See Dr. Jon Cleland Host’s other posts.

 Category: Jon Cleland Host, Order and Structure, Starstuff, Contemplating    

Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology, by Glen Gordon: “Why I Am Not Pagan”

  Posted on by NaturalisticPaganism

  12 Comments

Glen Gordon lets go of the Pagan umbrella

When John asked me to revise my old blog post from PostPagan about why I do not identify as being Neopagan, I was intimidated by the idea. Fifteen years ago, I identified as a Neopagan and began to share a naturalist critique of it. (This is when there was no discourse about naturalism and Neopaganism.) I will admit this hostility is one reason I disassociated with the term, but not the single reason. Over the years, I’ve shared these evolving views. The last incarnation was my personal blog, PostPagan, and is the reason I began writing for HP. Because I am a bit of a hermit, both in person and online, I rarely post comments, but do regularly read the articles of my fellow writes both here and at No Unsacred Places. I also read the Neopagan columns and blogs at Patheos. I enjoy finding what naturalist-inclined Neopagans are discussing. Being a religious naturalist and religious humanist, I find I share some common ground with this exciting emerging form of Neopaganism; however, for a long time, I’ve no longer self-identified as “Pagan”.

Instead of sharing my critique of Neopaganism, which I have done extensively on a blog that only search bots seemed to read, I felt it more helpful to share the specific differences I find between myself and Neopaganism. Self-identification as Pagan is a recent phenomen beginning in the mid 1960’s1. Before I begin, I would like to state that I consider any modern religious or spiritual practice that identifies with paganism to be Neopagan. This is because the prefix neo- is specific to meaning modern or contemporary. I insist that Neopaganism is the most descriptive and succinct way to distinguish the modern phenomenon from ancient paganism.

From my observations, Neopagnism is a broad categorical term covering many specific religions nested within another grouping of religions which share common sources but are diverse in practice and thought, akin to terms like Abrahamic religion or Oriental religion. I find three distinct religious movements underneath the large umbrella of Neopaganism which are diverging further apart and deserve academic and cultural attention on their own. They are as follows:

Wiccinate spirituality: this is the most prevalent form of Neopaganism influenced by Gerald Gardner’s tradition, but includes adaptations by Alex Sanders, and variations of Robert Cochrane and Joseph Wilson’s visions of modern witchcraft2. This category also includes Neo-Wicca, an individualistic (often solitary) synchronism of Wiccan themes with the New-Age, Goddess worship, and Feminism, beginning with the once controversial writings of Scott Cunningham3.

Neo-Druidry: While Wiccinate spirituality became formalized in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Neo-Druidry’s originates with the 18th century writers exploring themes of the druids found within classical literature4. As an attempt to reclaim a Welsh national identity, Iolo Morganwg’s founded the Gorsedd of Bards in 1792, along with the writing the Barddas which he claimed he translated from older texts, but were in fact his own inventions5. Both events are pivotal in the emergence of Neo-Druidry. During the 1960’s, the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) was founded and influenced by Morganwg’s Gorsedd and Barddas6. Meanwile, independent of OBOD, the Reform Druids of North America was formed by students at Carleton College in protest to the school’s requirement of church participation on Sundays7. In 1983, Isaac Bonewits founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), translated from Gaelic as “Our Own Druidry”8. Over time, these organizations have been influenced by each other, yet maintain strong distinctions between each other. And even though they have had some influence on Wiccinate spirituality, Neo-Druidry maintains its own philosophy and liturgy apart from other forms of Neopaganism.

Reconstructional polytheism: One some level, this movement owes a lot to Isaac Bonewits and ADF, as early examples of attempts in recreating pre-Christian religions from historic and archaeological evidence9. Where ADF casts a wide net around Indo-European religion, Reconstructional polytheism focuses upon specific historical cultures such as pre-Christian Celts, Romans, Hellenic, and Germanic tribes. Reconstructional Polytheism is experiencing substantial growth during the current decade with its emphasis on research and cultural context, and includes Celtic reconstructionism, the many traditions of Germanic Heathenism, Baltic Romuva, Greek Hellenism, and Latin Religio Romana to name a few.

This is not to say there isn’t overlap between the three. I mention the above distinctions because it is important to understand the variety and diversity within Neopaganism. In the 21st century, both naturalism and animism have become emerging forces within all three movements. In particular, Neo-Druidy has been quick to incorporate these views into its faith. If there where to be a minimal definition which ties these movements together it is that they each incorporate themes of pre-Christian religions of Europe and Mediterranean cultures, but diverge in religious philosophy and liturgy.

However, regardless of my education and training in all three movements, and despite their verity and diversity, I hold fundamental positions which have me feeling out of place during Neopagan ceremonies, and gatherings like PantheaCon. For many years, I no longer incorporate themes from ancient paganism. Furthermore, there are key points of my religious philosophy, spirituality, and practice which, to my knowledge, fall outside of expressions of Neopaganism:

  • My polytheism does not engage with deities from ancient cultural narratives from Europe and the Mediterranean. My deities are not engendered nor anthropmorphized. Instead, I blend process theology, transpersonal psychology, and deism into what I have called naturalistic polytheism, and now label process polydeism. This perspective doesn’t conform to the devotional, metaphorical, and pantheist forms of polytheism debated within Neopaganism10 11.
  • I have strict ethics about cultural appropriation that would make Reconstructional polytheists uncomfortable. These ethics extend beyond cultural context to ecological, geographic and temporal context.
  • I do not practice any form of the occult, including tarot, astrology, and magick. I acknowledge the occult is not prominent in every form of Neopaganism, but its influence is so widespread and noticeable that I felt it important to include in this list.
  • The structure of my practice is land-centered and directly influenced by the local ecology of the place I live. This results in ceremonies and costumes which are foreign to any Neopagan I have shared them with.

If there is a term which I feel can include these differences it is Bioregional Animism, which I have written about in length on my previous blog. However, Bioregional Animism is not as much a religious term as a broad world-view which can be applied equally to Neopaganism as it can to Christianity, Buddhism, Atheism, et cetera. The other term I have used in the past is PostPagan, which was the title of my blog, a term that was intended to be more humorous then anything else. Through many years, my personal practice and reflection evolved into something meaningful to me, regardless what name I or anyone else give it.

  1. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America by Margot Adler (1979) 
  2. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton (1999) 
  3. Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism by Graham Harvey (1997) 
  4. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain by Ronald Hutton (2009) 
  5. The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis (1995) 
  6. The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols (1975) 
  7. Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America by Chas S. Clifton (2006) 
  8. The Origins of Ár nDraíocht Féin by Issac Bonewits (1983) 
  9. Bonewits’s Essential Guide to Druidism by Issac Bonewits (2006) 
  10. I See Gods Everywhere by Glen Gordon (2013) 
  11. Naturalism and the Gods by Glen Gordon (2012) 

Explain your answer in the comments below.

The Author

Glen Gordon was introduced to Paganism by friends while living overseas in Europe during the late 90′s. He underwent both Wiccan and Neodruidic training during his formative years, but had not self-identified as a Pagan when his path diverged into land-centered spiritual naturalism ten years ago. His focus has been on cultivating beneficial relationships with the natural living world surrounding him wherever he lives. During this time, he discovered Unitarian Universalism and has been active in his local congregations for many years. Since 2007, he has worked on varied projects regarding BioRegional Animism, including this 5 minute video, the words of which came from a short UU sermon he gave. He has spoken on the topic of ecology and the land on a few occasions for his local congregation and facilitated a now-disbanded group of UU Pagans and spiritual naturalists. In the past, he maintained the blog, Postpagan, and is excited to share some of that material at HumanisticPaganism. Currently, you can find Glen writing occasionally for No Unsacred Places and helping achieve Green sanctuary status for his beloved UU community, where he helps create and lead ecological aware earth- and land- focused ceremonies for the solstices and equinoxes.

See other Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology posts.

See Glen Gordon’s other posts.

 Category: Glen Gordon, Order and Structure, Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology      Tags: , , , , , , ,

Buy Godless Paganism (paperback)
Buy Godless Paganism (ebook)
Follow Naturalistic Paganism on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 4,444 other subscribers
Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by individual authors do not necessarily reflect those of the staff. Not all contributors necessarily identify as Naturalistic or Humanistic Pagans or share the views expressed elsewhere on this site.

Harrassment and Discrimination Policy
This site is for constructive expression and debate. Comments of a harassing or insulting nature will be deleted. Racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory comments will be deleted.
Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd