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Vocabulary is a privilege. Because those in the Pagan sphere have such diversified sets of language, we get the privilege of using language that suits our needs and the needs of our work when we need to. There aren’t many faith traditions that get to interchange the language they used to describe themselves. In fact, the Christian clergy I know often lament the lack of freedom they have in describing their faith denominations. This is often mandated by their overarching church.
Since Pagans, Polytheists, etc don’t have a centralized governing body, its no surprise that schism around descriptive language is increasing. This doesn’t have to be a bag thing of course. In referring to the story of Drew Jacobs of Temple of the River, its clear to see that evaluating his faith description has helped his organization gain a new substance and sense of growth that would have probably come much closer otherwise. Perhaps breaking away from umbrella terms is good for us? It could very well be one of those instances of “growing up” that our communities do throughout the years.
Still, umbrella terms like Paganism remain a privilege that I use so often in my work. In my interfaith work, it is often more reasonable to describe myself as Pagan rather than a “nondual Goddess-centric polytheist”. If I did that, my entire conversation would be wrapped up in trying to explain what that mains to me and why I chose to use that term to describe myself. Rather, when I say I’m Pagan I normally get an “oh ok” and then we can move on into whatever interfaith work we’re engaging in. Some may call this bartering with the integrity of language. I call it building bridges for work I consider more important than etymology and theological classification.
I can foresee a time when many of us will choose to not identify with the word “Pagan” in favor of something more custom-fit to the practitioner. I believe this will form slowly as our numbers grow. If “Paganism” is indeed on an upward swing still, then it will be interesting to see how we sort ourselves out.
Until then, I will remain with myself as a “nondual Goddess-centric polytheist”. To the world, I will remain a Pagan.
Language, and language dominance always favors the one with the resources. As time goes on, those who have acquired and mastered the needed resources for continuity and continuation of their faith practices, will have established the inner vocabulary of their group. That battle for resources is happening right now in the Pagan community, and it is a conflict which will intensify, by many magnitudes, over the next several months and years. After all, a lot of people believe in leadership can ride the Pagan coattails (and the longer Wiccan ones) and then separate into their small self-identified world.
Language, and language dominance always favors the one with the resources. As time goes on, those who have acquired and mastered the needed resources for continuity and continuation of their faith practices, will have established the inner vocabulary of their group. That battle for resources is happening right now in the Pagan community, and it is a conflict which will intensify, by many magnitudes, over the next several months and years. After all, a lot of people believe in leadership can ride the Pagan coattails (and the longer Wiccan ones) and then separate into their small self-identified world.
I do find that when doing interfaith work, “Pagan” as my go-to descriptor does smooth things out a little, but not much. This allows me to represent a wider number of people in my community but as part of the “What is a Pagan” conversation, I do try to help
others to understand that this is *such* a broad term and is inclusive
of a wide range of faiths. In this area, I do still get “what does that mean?” more than “oh, okay,” but that is more than likely a feature of living in the South. We’re fifteen to twenty years behind some of our Pagan, Polytheist, and Heathen brethren as far as the process of becoming mainstream goes, but we’re getting there.
Once we begin a conversation with “I’m Pagan” and we see that the other person knows what this means, then we can move to “I’m Hellenic Polytheist” (or whatever other distinction you may use). It’s going to take time for these other terms to enter the general lexicon, but the fact that the general public more often has a vague idea of what “Pagan” means is progress in a positive direction. This is the foot in the door, so to speak, that we can use to introduce these other terms.
I do find that when doing interfaith work, “Pagan” as my go-to descriptor does smooth things out a little, but not much. This allows me to represent a wider number of people in my community but as part of the “What is a Pagan” conversation, I do try to help
others to understand that this is *such* a broad term and is inclusive
of a wide range of faiths. In this area, I do still get “what does that mean?” more than “oh, okay,” but that is more than likely a feature of living in the South. We’re fifteen to twenty years behind some of our Pagan, Polytheist, and Heathen brethren as far as the process of becoming mainstream goes, but we’re getting there.
Once we begin a conversation with “I’m Pagan” and we see that the other person knows what this means, then we can move to “I’m Hellenic Polytheist” (or whatever other distinction you may use). It’s going to take time for these other terms to enter the general lexicon, but the fact that the general public more often has a vague idea of what “Pagan” means is progress in a positive direction. This is the foot in the door, so to speak, that we can use to introduce these other terms.
Great thoughts, David! It really resonated with me when you made a comment about how there is this push to get “LGBT” as the label for the movement, instead of “GLBT” and others, because this label that is used is a term of solidarity. There has been a discussion in the DC Pagan community about what language to use to describe our Open Hearth Foundation community center when it opens. Some insisted that we needed to use the word Pagan, but others thought they would feel more open and safe if we did not. But, Pagan is that banner that we fly under. Katrina Messenger said that it was also term of solidarity. Pagans can’t be a force if we’re not willing to be associated as a single community.
Great thoughts, David! It really resonated with me when you made a comment about how there is this push to get “LGBT” as the label for the movement, instead of “GLBT” and others, because this label that is used is a term of solidarity. There has been a discussion in the DC Pagan community about what language to use to describe our Open Hearth Foundation community center when it opens. Some insisted that we needed to use the word Pagan, but others thought they would feel more open and safe if we did not. But, Pagan is that banner that we fly under. Katrina Messenger said that it was also term of solidarity. Pagans can’t be a force if we’re not willing to be associated as a single community.