Naturalistic Paganism
Science vs. religion: Mythology is poetry, not prose, by Heather Wiech
Wisdom is the marriage of science and religion.
image enhanced from Education by Louis Comfort Tiffany
How do you keep myth from becoming dogma? Heather Wiech suggests it takes both science and religion. – B. T. Newberg
Joseph Campbell said that religion is supposed to give meaning to the science of the time. What has happened, though, is that religions of the text have placed all the emphasis on literal truth over the metaphorical value of the mythology. This has led religious people to fight against modern science to absurdity. Hence, we are currently looking back at religion as something archaic and foolish.
The poetry of myth
In tribal cultures, mythology is alive. It changes with the tribe. As knowledge/geography/needs change, the mythology changes to reflect these. In the modern era, mythology has stagnated. The mythology that was meant to meet the needs of nomadic peoples of the Fertile Crescent no longer speaks to people in the age of technology.
Myth, according to Campbell, should provide guidance through the cycles of life and help to face uncertainty and adversity within a sort of “wisdom of the ages.” It also shows us a hero (Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, Hercules, Superman, Neo, et cetera) who is a mirror of the hero in our own story: ourselves.
Myth speaks of our psychology. Gods are not external beings but rather symbols of pieces of our human psychology. What would a god need with jealousy, avarice, hubris? If it’s truly a higher being, nothing. It’s far more likely that it is a mirror of our folly in a symbolic language.
Mythology is poetry, not prose.
The meaning of ritual
Ritual is the physical acting out of a myth to attain a new level of consciousness or state of being. Today’s rituals, according to Campbell, are all watered-down compared to the mystery rituals of Demeter or the tribal manhood rituals. We’ve lost the meaning and purpose of ritual. People sitting in pews and drifting off to sleep while the priest drones on about scripture is not a ritual.
In tribal societies, manhood is something earned, not just grown into. A boy is ripped from the arms of his mother and thrown out into the wilderness to kill a beast alone. Once he has faced his trial, he is often marked with the experience on his body (tattoos, piercings, scarification, etc). Then he returns to the tribe as a man with all the rights and responsibilities associated.
What’s the equivalent today? A boy getting laid for the first time?
It’s no wonder adolescence continues far into adulthood.
No dogma
Myth and ritual are vital to human nature, and it is important to know what the two are and how they function for us, so as not to get stuck. We need to be very careful in how we implement them. It needs to remain a philosophical process if it is not to become dogma.
I think black-and-white “religion vs. science” is a false dichotomy. We need not throw out the baby with the bathwater. There is wisdom on both sides, and we don’t concede we are wrong by making use of what is good and valid. Science and mythology should work together rather than oppose each other, for wisdom is the marriage of the two.
The author
Heather Wiech
Heather Wiech is an international relations scholar, philosopher, human rights activist, blogger, tutor, culinary artist, photographer, techie nerd, mythology enthusiast, and spiritual naturalist. http://heatherwiech.com
Upcoming work
This Sunday
Appearing October 2nd on Humanistic Paganism.
Thing on Thursday
Join us for the next council on matters vital to our future. This week, we’ll re-evaluate the basics by asking:
What are the core elements of a Humanistic Pagan path?
The conversation continues this Thursday, October 6th, on Humanistic Paganism.
Next Sunday
Is there a place for divination and omenry in a naturalistic spirituality? B. T. Newberg shares a story of a strange sighting on the morning of his wedding day.
Symbols in the sky, by B. T. Newberg
Appearing Sunday, October 8th, on Humanistic Paganism.
Recent Work
Bicycle meditation, by Thomas Schenk
The archetypes are gods: Re-godding the archetypes, by John H. Halstead
Ten years after 9/11: World politics is an existential condition, by B. T. Newberg
What kind of community shall we be?
Thing on Thursday #1
Today we begin the conversation with a big idea: What kind of community is Humanistic Paganism?
- Are we a spiritual orientation, a kind of viewpoint shared by individuals of various religious traditions, aiming to keep naturalistic interpretations alive?
- Or are we a new tradition in the bud, looking forward to developing our own unique rituals, meditations, calendars, and so forth?
What kind of a community do we want to be?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
About Thing on Thursday
Althing in Session, by W.G. Collingwood
This post is the first in a series of councils on matters vital to the future. The name represents both the generic term for, you know, a thingie, as well as the Old Norse term for a council of elders: a Thing.
Each week until the Winter Solstice, Thing on Thursday will explore a new controversy. Participation is open to all – the more minds that come together, the better. Those who have been vocal in the comments are as welcome as those quiet-but-devoted readers who have yet to venture a word. We value all constructive opinions.
There are only a few rules:
- be constructive – this is a council, so treat it as such
- be respectful – no rants or flames
Comments will be taken into consideration as we determine the new direction of Humanistic Paganism. This will also greatly shape the vision that unfolds in our upcoming ebook Our Ancient Future: Visions of Humanistic Paganism.
So please make your voice heard in the comments!
Bicycle meditation, by Thomas Schenk
photo by Alex Robinson
I love to wake early on a Sunday morning and go for a bike ride. Unlike the many people who pass me as I plod along, I do not ride for exercise or any other discernible purpose. I have no particular destination, and no timetable. I ride just to explore and look at the world, for though I have been exploring and looking for nearly five decades, I still find the world incredibly interesting and beautiful.
In the flow
I live in a city, and sometimes I ride through industrial areas or train yards, sometimes I ride through residential areas, and sometime I ride in parks or out to the countryside. The distinction between natural and man-made is not of much use to me as I ride along; what’s there is there, and what’s there is what I am interested in seeing.
On some of these days, I become unaware of time and unconcerned with distance as I ride. Hours and miles pass by, and I am absorbed in the sheer joy of exploring the world. But inevitably, at some point this changes, and I start to desire to get home (this usually happens after I start back and hit the inevitable hill, for I live in a high part of town). The moment I want to be home, the entire quality of the experience changes.
In that duration when I am unaware of time and unconcerned with distance, I am exactly where I want to be. The moment that I want to be somewhere else, I become acutely aware of time and distance. Up to that moment the miles passed effortlessly; after it the miles become an obstacle, and I am keenly aware of the amount of effort required to overcome them. Whereas I had been completely content with where I was, suddenly I’m no longer content.
Between cycling and eternity
The 6th Century Zen poet Seng-ts’an wrote:
“Do not like, do not dislike, all will then be clear. Make a hair’s-breadth difference, and heaven and earth are set apart.”
The gulf between nirvana and samsara, I suggest, is precisely the gulf between these two experiences of bike riding. To be absolutely fulfilled in what you are doing, so that there is not a hair’s-breadth of desire to be anywhere else or doing anything else – that is nirvana. To have that hair’s-breadth of desire, or an ocean’s width of desire – that is samsara.
The mystics through the ages have spoken of a place beyond the concerns of time and space, and what they are talking about is nothing more than a Sunday morning bike ride. They have spoken of a place of suffering, and what they are talking about is nothing more than the itch to get further on down the road. People through the ages have misunderstood them. They thought this place beyond the concerns of time and space, which they call eternity, must be altogether outside this world.
But instead, it is to be fully and completely in this world.
What better place to ride a bike than here and now?
The author
Thomas Schenk: “If asked, I’d call myself a Space-age Taoist, Black Sheep Catholic, Perennial Philosophy Pantheist, Dharma Bum. In other words I am a kind of spiritual and philosophical mutt. I’m not out to change the world, for I believe the world has a much better sense of what it is supposed to be than I ever could. But I do try to promote the value of the contemplative life in these most un-contemplative of times. I don’t know if the piece presented here has any value, but I feel blessed that I can spend my time thinking about such things. My version of the American dream is that here, as the child of a line of farmers and peasants going back through the ages, I have the privilege to live with my head in such clouds.”
Check out Thomas’ other articles:
Upcoming work
This Sunday
Thomas Schenk strikes again! This time he shares with us the magic in the mundane, the numen in the normal, with an insightful piece on the experience of cycling.
Bicycle meditation, by Thomas Schenk
Appearing September 25th on Humanistic Paganism.
Thing on Thursday
This coming week inaugurates a new feature: Thing on Thursday, a council on matters vital to our future.
Each Thursday until the Winter Solstice will explore a controversy. Any and all are invited to participate – the more the better. Based on these conversations, the direction of Humanistic Paganism will be determined.
Don’t miss your chance to shape our future. Make your voice heard!
What controversy will we debate in our opening council? Find out on Thursday!
The conversation begins this Thursday, September 29th, on Humanistic Paganism.
Next Sunday
New author Heather Wiech asserts that myth is a symbolic language, and to avoid dogma we must keep inquiry alive.Science vs. religion: Mythology is poetry, not prose, by Heather Wiech
Appearing October 2nd on Humanistic Paganism.
Recent Work
The archetypes are gods: Re-godding the archetypes, by John H. Halstead
Ten years after 9/11: World politics is an existential condition, by B. T. Newberg
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