“In the presence of a moment divine, As the shadows gather at the shrine, We retreat and advance, In the spell of the dance, Familiars all, Tonight” - “Sovereign” by Faith and the Muse
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending a concert featuring Faith and the Muse, a seminal darkwave band who’ve long enjoyed an ardent Pagan following for their songs that explore mythology, nature, and the sacred experience. I wasn’t planning on doing a formal write-up of the show, but what I experienced was so liminal, so ritualistic, and in the sense that I understand it, “pagan”, that I felt I would be remiss in not sharing my impressions so that others might not miss the opportunity to experience it for themselves as the tour stretches across America.
Let me begin by saying that I came in expecting a great show. I’ve heard some amazing things about Faith and the Muse live, and the pre-show DJing by Chicago/German promoter Scary Lady Sarah (who’s touring with the band), as well as the short set by recently formed opening local band Splendor and the Resistance, who show a lot of potential, had made me optimistic about the main event. But what I ended up experiencing wasn’t so much a great “rock show”, but a 3-hour musical ritual that invoked the powers of nature. This became clear as the second opening act, Soriah, who’s opening for all of Faith and the Muse’s Pacific Northwest dates, came onto the stage.
It wasn’t so much a concert set, but a full-blown shamanistic ritual art experience. Melding Tuvan throat-singing, smoke, incense, incantations, and ornate costume with guitar/keyboard soundscapes crafted by Trance to the Sun veteran Ashkelon Sain. It not only affirmed that I made the right decision in making Soriah and Sain’s album “Atlan” one of my top picks for 2009, but also put the audience on notice that this was now a holy venture, and that we were standing on holy ground.
That theme, the ritual if you will, was carried to the next stage by a short butoh performance introduction by the fusion bellydance duet of Serpentine, who describe themselves as “temple dancers of the serpent mythos”, and who are an integrated part of Faith and the Muse’s live experience for their “Ankoku Butoh” tour. Then the band came on stage and converted all doubters and hangers-on to the unique power of William Faith and Monica Richard’s musical and artistic vision.
In addition to Serpentine, who performed alongside, and in once instance, walked the perimeters of the venue with smoking cauldrons of incense, the band featured a taiko drummer, a string section, and two guitar players. Effortlessly moving between old and new songs, between Eastern and Western conceptions of the sacred, of songs that sang of ruin and hopeful rebirth, of solidarity and being true to who you are. By the end of the show, the entire crowd, whether they had come to see Faith and the Muse or not, were pounding their feet clamoring for an encore. It was an event, that like any true otherworld experience, no Youtube video or photo can properly capture.
From time to time there is talk as to what a modern “Pagan music” would sound like, and we are often ready to throw laurels at the feet of any singer-songwriter or band willing to cater to our tastes and attend our festivals. However, I have long felt that the vibrant sacred music of today, the creative force that speaks to the Pagan soul, isn’t necessarily seeking our attention, or longing to attend our conventions. They are instead sending their message, and sharing their sacred works, with those who go to the trouble of seeking them out. They are in the underground, playing at clubs, rented halls, or even massive multi-band European festivals, but ignored by most critics and media outlets. They are singing and performing for those willing to step outside of the boundaries and labels so craved by those hoping to capitalize on a “scene” or “subculture”.
The modern Pagan music, the music of sacred nature, old gods, myth, reverence, and rebirth is out there, and some of us lucky searchers have found it. Though the artists I describe would most likely never label it “Pagan” for our easy consumption, nor fit into our own narrow ideas of what form the sacred musics should take, they are indeed speaking to us if we will listen. I hope you will listen too.
For more of my own explorations of underground music that speaks to the Pagan soul, please check out my radio show/podcast A Darker Shade of Pagan. You may also want to check out my top 10 albums for 2009.
Saudi Arabia’s Internal War Against Other Faiths: A few quick notes for you on this Saturday, starting with another story out of Saudi Arabia of a foreign national being held on dubious charges. This time a Hindu Indian woman and her newborn child are being kept in solitary confinement after being accused of poisoning her husband for converting to Islam.
“An Indian doctor in Saudi Arabia has been in solitary confinement with her infant child for nearly 18 days pending investigations into her husband’s suspected murder, after he allegedly converted to Islam. Her husband, also a doctor in Najran, died on January 31. Suspicion that he was poisoned was raised a month later despite certification by a legal medical specialist under the health ministry that cause of death was “myocardial infarction” (heart attack). The spanner came while the family was preparing to leave for India with the body following clearance by the Indian Consulate General in Jeddah … On March 1, the doctor was summoned to a local police station and told that her husband had embraced Islam before his death and for that reason she could not carry the body to India. A fortnight later, she was again made to report to the police and put in solitary confinement with her infant son, born to her on February 18.”
Despite there being no proof of the husband’s conversion, no proof that his wife poisoned him, and no documentation of the supposed “new evidence” being provided to the Indian Consul, she’s been held now for nearly three months, with local authorities engaging in the now-familiar strong-arm tactics.
“The doctor told her mother on being allowed a meeting that investigators had asked her who else was involved with her in the alleged crime.”
No doubt she’s been asked to write a “confession” as well, just like Lebanese citizen Ali Sibat, currently on death row for being a television psychic, and making the mistake of traveling through Saudi Arabia. However, unlike Lebanon, India is a rising economic and nuclear power, and it remains to be seen if Saudi Arabian government will allow this to become an international incident. It’s one thing for a government to oppress its people, this is fairly commonplace, even today. It’s quite another thing for a government to start randomly seizing foreign nationals on trumped-up charges, especially when it seems those being seized are adherents to faiths or beliefs that place them outside the semi-protected “people of the book”. Eventually the crazed religious police and heretic hunters will seize the wrong man or woman, and they’ll find themselves unprotected by the realpolitik that keep the voices crying out about their human rights abuses muffled.
“I don’t believe in objectivity, but I do believe deeply in fairness, and what that means to me is that when I interview any person, no matter what their politics or views, I try to stand in their shoes. Because I’m very aware of what I believe, I bend absolutely backwards when I talk to (someone I don’t agree with) … I am very excited by some of the new media stuff, I’m very excited by the potential of blogs and I’m excited by some of the independent radio stuff that’s happening. I think that communities talking to each other are really important.”
What to say other than I agree with Margot Adler? I too think that fairness is more important than a false objectivity, especially today, and that new media options are empowering communities to inform themselves.
“Though dispersed throughout UK, sizeable number of Hindus are concentrated in certain areas like the suburbs of London and the south east, Leicester, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. In some of these areas, Hindu vote may have a significant impact on who represents them and addresses their concerns in Parliamen … The Forum is implementing a campaign to encourage the community to engage with their prospective parliamentary candidates and to air their views before making an informed decision as to which party to vote for. As part of the campaign, the Forum will be organizing local hustings, distributing information through temples, community centres and other mediums to raise awareness on the importance of voting.”
What’s interesting about this campaign is that it isn’t centered around a blanket endorsement of Labour or the Tories, but is instead asking individuals to evaluate local candidates and to vote for the one most responsive to Hindu issues and concerns. With many predicting a “hung Parliament” due to the race being so close, they may be able to press this situation to gain attention and concessions they never have before. I think religious minorities, especially Pagans, should pay close attention to this campaign, and see if a similar non-partisan issues-focused strategy could benefit us.
“A self-described Wiccan had a man’s phone number programmed in her cell phone under the word “sacrifice” before she stabbed him to death, then claimed he had tried to rape her, authorities said Thursday. Angela Sanford, 30, is accused of killing 52-year-old Joel Leyba last month with a dagger after inviting him to join her in a Wiccan celebration of spring near a popular hiking trail east of Albuquerque. “It makes us absolutely confident there was something more here than her claims of self-defense,” said Patrick Davis, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County district attorney’s office.”
This is a pretty damning revelation, and one that would erase any claims of self-defense or even a temporary trauma-related psychotic break. There has been no comment from Sanford’s court-appointed defense team.
The important thing right now is to let the legal process move forward, assist law enforcement when they ask for information, and not rise to the temptation of engaging in any public speculation to the press as to why this murder was committed. We don’t know Sanford’s mental state, we aren’t sure what she actually believes, if she believes in anything at all, and we have no idea what actually transpired on the day of the killing.
What we can do if the press comes calling is to state that no modern Pagan faith teaches or condones premeditated or ritual murder, that we have no information as to what Sanford’s belief system was, and we aren’t willing to offer conjecture as to why she felt the need, if true, to “sacrifice” Joel Leyva. Anything else will simply muddy the waters and provide ammunition for those wanting to turn this into a “Wiccan killing”.
You can read all my previous coverage of this story, here.
Top Story: The BBC reports that Athanassios Lerounis, a Greek national who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Pakistan several months ago, has been freed. Lerounis’ kidnapping was thought to be a consequence of the Taliban increasingly targeting the Kalash in Pakistan, Indo-European pagans believed by some to be descended from a commingling of Alexander the Great’s army and local peoples, who have survived in predominantly Muslim areas thanks to living in remote valleys.
“His captors demanded the release of militants held by Pakistan in exchange for his freedom but officials say no militant exchange was made. “He has been released by the successful efforts of Pakistani security agencies,” Rahmatullah Wazir, the top administrative official in Chitral, told the BBC. The curator was living in the Kalash valley to pursue his interest in an ancient “lost tribe” when he was kidnapped by armed men on 7 September 2009.”
“HB173 would prohibit a number of plants from being blended and smoked or inhaled. The plants in question include mugwort, honeyweed, sacred lotus and dwarf skullcap. Many of these plants are listed as ingredients in herbal incense products.”
Lawmakers will no doubt seek to prohibit spinning around really, really fast, masturbating, or any other activity that might alter a young person’s consciousness. One wonders if the St. John’s Wort-popping natural health community will rush to oppose the passage of this new law, or if they’ll lay low because it’s targeting head shops instead of Whole Foods. Not to engage in too much slippery-slope prognostication, but if we allow the government to ban the mixing and selling of some herbs, what’s to stop them from expanding further?
“A teenage couple set to wed this weekend in an ancient pagan ceremony have signed a deal with Channel 9’s A Current Affair program … Under the contract signed by Alex Stewart-Pole, 19, and Jenni Birch, 16, A Current Affair have exclusive rights to cover the handfasting ceremony. Mum Sue Birch, a pagan high priestess, will perform the ceremony, and said on Tuesday that any media coverage of the wedding would have to be discussed with A Current Affair. She said the family would not receive payment under the contract. However, Mr Stewart-Pole said Nine had promised to give the couple ‘a wedding present’.”
A Current Affair tackles hard-hitting issues like diet pizza, bargain shopping, and kids who stab dogs, so this deal could really go either way for the couple. I’m hoping for sweet and innocuous, but you never know what will happen when mainstream media decides to cover Pagans. It’s part of the reason why I counsel against Pagans appearing on reality television, exploitative talk-shows, and man-bites-dog sensationalist “news magazines”. Always remember to read the fine print on any contract, and study the show you’re going on before hand.
“I want to emphasize that Hindus are among the most peace-loving people in the world. The actions of these people are by no means representative. What is representative, however, is their belief that worship largely consists in appeasing the deity. In order to obtain favor, the worshipper must offer the proper sacrifice. Get it wrong and your prayers aren’t answered. Or worse. This worldview is very similar to that of the ancient world into which Jesus became incarnate. The pagan gods were a fickle and demanding lot who demanded blood and abasement from their worshipers-and even then “answered” prayers only on a whim. This is why so many classical philosophers, like many of their Indian counterparts throughout history, were put off by popular religious practices. So they substituted an “unknown” god and an unknowable god … How ironic that we in the post-Christian West are exchanging belief in the “personal, benevolent God” of Christianity for a sanitized paganism. Whether it’s “new age” mumbo jumbo or Wicca for Dummies, we have forgotten the dread these beliefs caused our ancestors and the awful things it made them do.”
I’ll leave it to my ever-astute readers to bother with dismantling his anti-pagan arguments. Though no longer in favor at The White House now that Bush is out of office, Colson’s been busy in his ongoing hate-a-palooza by supporting anti-same-sex marriage initiatives and signing on to the Manhattan Declaration.
“Work is to start on a giant sculpture of a naked woman which is to be carved into the Northumberland landscape. The “Goddess of the North” will be made from 1.5 million tonnes of earth from the Shotton mine, near Cramlington. It will stand 34 metres – 10 metres higher than the Angel of the North – and will be 400 metres long … designed by artist Charles Jencks, who is best known in the North East for his sculpture outside the Centre for Life in Newcastle. Mark Dowdall, environment and communities director of The Banks Group, said it was hoped the sculpture would attract an additional 200,000 visitors a year to Northumberland.”
Though I don’t like to repeat myself, I wonder if this new addition to Britain’s landscape will, in a few hundred years, be considered an “ancient” pre-Christian survival by the locals. It will also be interesting to see if the site will become a pilgrimage place for modern Pagans and Goddess-worshipers.
Today is the release date of “Daughters of the Witching Hill”, a new historical novel by author Mary Sharratt. Sharratt, an American transplant to England, has written a deeply affecting novel based on the true story of the Pendle witches, one of the most (in)famous witch-trial cases in Britain’s history. My family and I were so impressed with our advance copy of “Daughters” that I felt a simple review was insufficient, and instead decided to interview Sharratt about the book, the history behind it, and how her Pagan faith informed the process.
As an American who has relocated to England, specifically the Pendle region of Lancashire, the location of your current novel, what drove you to write about this historical tragedy? Do you feel you might have a different perspective of the history than someone native-born to the area?
When I first moved to this region I knew next to nothing about the Pendle Witches, but I was very intrigued by the images of witches everywhere I went—on private houses, pub signs, bumper stickers, even an entire fleet of buses. When an American friend visited me, these omnipresent witches really freaked her out. Maybe she thought she’d stumbled into some weird enclave with a Wicker Man-like cult. But I told her not to worry—it was just folklore. Like many newcomers, I made the mistake of thinking that the Pendle Witches belonged to the realm of legend.
Fortunately my ignorance was short-lived. When I read the actual history, it was very sobering to learn that these witches were real people.
Could you give my readers a brief summary of the 1612 Pendle witch trials? They are somewhat different that some the more famous witch-persecution narratives.
In 1612, in one of the most meticulously documented witch trials in English history, seven women and two men from Pendle Forest in Lancashire were executed, condemned on “evidence” provided by a nine-year-old girl and her brother, who appeared to suffer from learning difficulties. Previously, witch trials had been relatively rare in England, compared to Scotland and Continental Europe. The Pendle Witch Trial might never have happened had it not been for King James I’s obsession with the occult. His book Daemonologie—required reading for local magistrates—warned of a vast conspiracy of satanic witches threatening to undermine the nation.
Considering the somewhat biased opinions of the legal system concerning “witches” at that time, how did you decide which elements from the trial transcripts and research would be part of the “true” story of these Catholic folk-magicians? What do you personally believe about the condemned? Were they all “cunning folk”? If so, how did you construct their practice for the novel?
All the major characters and events in the novel are drawn from the primary source, court clerk Thomas Potts’s A Wonderfull Discoverie of Witchcraft in the Countie of Lancaster, the official trial transcripts. Since torturing witchcraft suspects was illegal in England, this document supposedly contains the accused witches’ voluntary confessions. But it is a biased text, written to flatter the prosecution and to impress King James that his magistrates were taking this witch-hunting business seriously.
Even so, the accused witches stand out as remarkably strong characters. I was particularly moved by how Potts goes to great length to describe what a dangerous witch Mother Demdike, my heroine, was, even though she died in prison and did not live to stand trial. She was a cunning woman of long standing repute, as was her rival, Chattox. The trial records state that local families called on Demdike to heal both their cattle and their children. Demdike and Chattox’s charms, which incorporate Catholic prayers outlawed by the Reformation, are quoted in their entirety by the prosecution.
Beyond Demdike and Chattox and their immediate families, the other accused individuals did not seem to have any previous reputation as cunning folk—I believe that people like Alice Nutter and John and Jane Bulcock were merely unfortunate friends and neighbours caught up in the hysteria.
To reconstruct the magic, I researched cunning folk and popular magic in this period. The belief in familiar spirits was the cornerstone of traditional English folk magic. No cunning woman could work her charms without the aid of her familiar. So for Demdike, telling the magistrate that yes, of course, she had a familiar spirit who had been her constant companion for decades made absolute sense. A cunning woman without a familiar would be a fraud. Likewise Chattox confessed how she and her daughter, Anne Redfearn, made clay figures to bind her landlord’s son after he threatened to rape Anne. What other recourse did these impoverished women have? Demdike and Chattox’s testimonies have their own internal logic and realism. Their stories seem to present an actual history of these women’s experience.
But Demdike’s grandson James Device’s confessions seem far-fetched and irrational. He talks of hares boxing his ears and of his family’s plot to blow up Lancaster Castle with gunpowder—a highly unlikely scenario but one that fed into James I’s paranoia following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In The Trials of the Lancashire Witches, authors Edgar Peel and Pat Southern came to the conclusion that James Device was probably either very ill at the time of his interview, or possibly had learning difficulties, and that those interrogating him asked leading questions and manipulated his statements. Potts himself states that when James came to trial after four months’ imprisonment, he was so weak that he could neither speak nor hear nor see and had to be carried by two prison guards.
I don’t know if this is common knowledge to your readers, but you’ve been quite open about the fact that you’re a Pagan. Would you like to briefly discuss your personal religious beliefs, and how they impacted your decision to write this story? Did you think your beliefs changed the way you approached issues like magic and familiars in the story?
I don’t belong to any specific group or trad. My spirituality draws on myth and folklore, and on the land. I’m particularly inspired by how the true stories of our ancestors haunt the living landscape. I also believe that storytelling is a sacred calling and that it can serve ancestral memory.
History is a fluid thing that, together with folklore and myth, continually shapes the present. Myths are timeless, undying stories and their function is to tell the truth. As contemporary British storyteller Hugh Lupton has said, if you go deep enough into the old tales and can present them in an evocative and meaningful way to a modern audience, you become the living voice in an ancient tradition. This is my highest aspiration for my own work.
As a contemporary Pagan, strongly influenced by Ronald Hutton’s debunking of previous histories of witchcraft that proved inaccurate, I wanted to write a novel about historical cunning folk that drew on enough solid history to make it as “true” as a work of fiction can be. Yet genuine authenticity also involved evoking the worldview of this period, in which ordinary people of all levels of society sincerely believed that magic was real. My heroine, Demdike, was a cunning woman because she believed in these powers, as did the local families who hired her for her services. The spirit world and its enchantments belonged to her day to day reality. The original working title of my book was A Light Far-Shining, and I envision that as the light of the Otherworld illuminating this world.
What character in “Daughters of the Witching Hill” do you most identify with? Why? Were you tempted to give some of them a happier ending than what history had handed them?
I fell in love with Mother Demdike as soon as I read Potts’s description of her:
She was a very old woman, about the age of Foure-score years, and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. She dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast place, fitte for her profession: What she committed in her time, no man knowes . . . . no man escaped her or her Furies.
I was amazed at how her strength of character comes across so well in a document written to vilify her. She was so frightening to her foes because she was a woman who embraced her powers whole-heartedly.
In contrast, her young granddaughter Alizon seemed to view her own powers with a mixture of bewilderment and terror, and I felt a great deal of compassion for Alizon’s plight and how her refusal of her true calling triggered the downfall of her entire family. Alizon’s final recorded words before she was hanged were a passionate vindication of her grandmother’s legacy as a healer.
Since I was duty-bound to stay true to historical facts, I couldn’t save Alizon from the gallows. But death was not the end of the Pendle Witches. I envisioned Demdike’s spirit guiding her beloved ones to transcendence and to a light that death cannot extinguish.
Unlike other novels relating to the witch-trials you don’t portray the accused as deluded, mentally unfit, or mere innocent victims. These are women who are proud of their magical abilities, and have meaningful relationships with their faerie-world familiars. In a certain sense, within the reality of your novel, they are “guilty” of the crimes they are accused of, and die martyrs deaths for an older faith, perhaps even older than the folk-Catholicism they practice in life. Could you perhaps speak to your decision to take the perspective you did?
Demdike and Chattox’s pride in their profession and their powers came across loud and clear to me when reading their testimonies. In no way did they sound deluded or mentally unfit. Only at the very end, after Demdike died from the horrible prison conditions, did Chattox begin to break down. Her final confession, wrenched from her by the notoriously sadistic prison master, Thomas Covell, sounded over fanciful but at the same time filled with yearning for Demdike, her dead friend and rival. Chattox described how the two women once had a secret feast at Malkin Tower, Demdike’s home, and how they ate all manner of rich foods served to them by their familiar spirits, and how they needed no candle or fire since a host of spirits lit up the place. Even here, she didn’t sound deluded as much as poignant—an old woman kept in utterly degrading, inhuman conditions who was struggling to keep alive the memory of her lost friend and the joys they once shared.
Anachronism is the bane of historical fiction and it would be a gross anachronism to impose a 21st century sense of skepticism and disbelief on these denizens of Jacobean rural England. Demdike and Chattox’s sincere belief in magic and spirits coloured every aspect of their life.
So much has been written about the Pendle Witches, and historical witches in general, both nuanced and lurid. But it was important for me to turn the tables around and retell the story from the cunning woman’s point of view. I longed to give these women what their own world denied them—their own voice.
What lessons do the Pendle witch-trials have for us today? What wisdom would Bess Southerns/Mother Demdike want us to hold on to?
Mother Demdike practiced her craft for decades before anyone dared to interfere or stand in her way. But the tide can turn so suddenly, especially when shifting political currents encourage those who monger any kind of witch hunt. All it took was one unfortuitous mishap—Alizon Device getting in a verbal argument with a pedlar who then suffered a stroke—for a conniving magistrate to seize his chance and begin the arrests and accusations that would see nine people hanged.
What wisdom would Mother Demdike pass on? Seize your power while you can. Treasure it. Learn to use it wisely. There’s much blessing to be found there. Don’t turn away or deny it or flee from it as Alizon tried to do. The refusal of the call only leads to tragedy. Embrace your power and be true to yourself.
“I’ll sit down and talk to embedded by Embedded Video Download Video
, but I’m not inclined to run … I haven’t ruled it out, but Gary Ackerman has tremendous financial and political resources. My big picture right now is the state of the city and that our district gets its fair share of money.”
“City Council Member Dan Halloran, a Republican elected last year, said that he is now strongly considering challenging Rep. Gary Ackerman for Congress after Ackerman’s vote for the health care package passed last month and Ackerman’s behavior at the bill’s signing ceremony.”
“NY-05: Dan Halloran, a Republican who won a Dem-held seat on the NYC City Council last year, is weighing a challenge to Rep. Gary Ackerman. Halloran, a practicing Theodist, thinks he can make Ackerman pay a price for voting in favor of healthcare reform. Ackerman, for his part, has $1.1 million on hand and the support of the Queens Independence Party. This district also went 63-36 for Obama (but notably, that’s the same percentage that Kerry got, suggesting there was something of a “conservative white ethnic New Yorkers for McCain” effect here).”
To make this a close contest, two things would have to change, the Queens Independence Party (which backed Halloran for City Council) would have to switch support from Ackerman to Halloran, and he’d have to pick up a lot more money so he could run in a far larger geographic area. He would also have to pick up a lot of support outside of Tea Party and local conservative parties. Recent polling analysis shows that despite the Tea Party’s momentum and enthusiasm, they are predominately a conservative movement, and it’s fair to say they might do little to sway non-conservative-leaning independent voters.
“Although the Tea Party gets pretty decent numbers among independents, support is smaller among self-proclaimed moderates; only about 15 percent of moderates support the tea-party (Gallup) and about 10 percent consider themselves a part of it (Wilson). Liberals, who support the tea-party in the high single digits, are actually pretty close to the moderates.”
Naturally anything can change in politics, but a swing and miss here could harm Halloran’s long-term political future. Especially if local Queens residents start seeing him as someone more interested in higher office than in serving out the term he was just elected for. Ackerman, meanwhile, seems pretty confident that the health-care vote won’t harm his standing with local constituents.
“Ackerman said the health care bill was a “very easy vote” for him and that the bill was overwhelmingly popular in his district. Ackerman added that he was “not overly concerned” with a potential Halloran challenge, noting that the Council member represents only about 20 percent of Ackerman’s constituents, while Ackerman has represented all of Halloran’s constituents for decades.”
I’m guessing that Halloran will remains a “maybe” unless something happens, a bad poll, evidence of softening support for Ackerman, or a scandal, that would make him believe he has a real chance at the brass ring. How long he can do the “maybe I will, maybe I won’t” dance without frustrating his Tea Party supporters remains to be seen.
“…nearly every aspect of the western world worth saving is a product of Christianity, not Paganism. Even the distinctly non-Christian things are Christian in origin. While Christianity absorbed most of the worthwhile aspects of pagan society and made them its own, Christianity has left its fingerprints on every aspect of the West. A rejection of Christianity in favor of a false pagan faith would be antithetical to the defense of the West.”
I didn’t give that preamble last time I mentioned Alternative Right, since I didn’t, at first, notice that it was a radical traditionalist-based site. Ford’s anti-pagan and pro-Christian attitudes on the site especially threw me off of the scent, since the radical traditionalist crowd are usually pretty down with (some) forms of modern Paganism, or at least a certain sort of philosophical polytheism. Which brings me to the reason for today’s post. After the debate and controversy of Ford’s editorial, the site has posted a series of pro-Pagan rebuttals, including one from Stephen McNallen, leader of the Asatru Folk Assembly.
“‘Pagan,’ as I use the term, does not mean lacking a moral code. It does not mean rituals mixing Isis, Thor, and American Indian beliefs, with a little lesbian-feminist philosophy thrown in for good (or bad) measure. It is not a hobby, a pastime, or an affectation … Generally, I avoid using the word “pagan” because of the nonsense done by some people under that name. (The primitive and puerile are, unfortunately, out there.) Usually, I call my practice “a native European religion.” I’m only using “pagan” in this essay because most of you will be familiar with the word in the context of the Alternative Right and Radical Traditionalism … There are only two kinds of religions in the world. One kind, like Christianity, Islam, or Scientology, lacks any roots in blood or soil … The other category includes the ones we call pagan, or native, or indigenous religions. They are innately tied to a specific people and cannot be transferred to another group without losing their truth, power, and integrity. Such religions are the distilled experience of a specific biological and cultural group from its very beginning.”
“Obviously, such a folk-based religion has strong advantages for any group trying to preserve its physical and cultural existence. Continuation of the people in question becomes a religious imperative. It creates a strong in-group, encourages healthy families, elevates a heroic ethic, and teaches the hard virtues of loyalty, courage, and honor. I don’t think anyone reading these words is likely to have a problem with that.”
That’s pretty boilerplate stuff from groups like the AFA that try to walk the “folkish” line while rejecting the idea of racial supremacy. So instead of getting into the mire that is the folkish/racist debate, I wanted to focus more on his opening comments, where he strives to distance himself from the larger modern Pagan community. That too is nothing new, many Asatru refuse to use the term “Pagan”, preferring to call themselves “Heathens” instead, and are often quite dismissive of other Pagan groups, with their greatest ire saved for the dreaded “Wicca-tru”, that is, Wiccans who worship Germanic gods/incorporate Asatru elements into their practices. Which again, is fine. We don’t all have to hold hands and sing “kumbaya” with each other. What I’m wondering is if Stephen McNallen wants to be part of the larger Pagan rights coalition or not.
He certainly seems to want to join forces with the larger modern Pagan community when it suits his interests, but then pretty much says he doesn’t even consider whole swathes of modern Pagandom to be Pagan. So does he simply bite his tongue when he shakes hands with Selena Fox, or what? I point this out because it seems he’s telling the radical traditionalists he’ll have nothing to do with “those Pagans”, the ones who include a little “lesbian-feminist philosophy” in the mix (which would place Feri and Reclaiming outside of McNallen’s “Pagan” zone), but “those Pagans” are often on the front lines of legal battles that directly benefit all Pagan religions. They are often the activists, organizers, and structure-builders, and like them or not, are an integral part of the larger modern Pagan movement.
In the end it comes down to this. I don’t have to like all Pagans, I certainly don’t have to practice with all Pagans, and I’m long over the notion of any sort of real “Pagan Unity” ever being feasible, but a broader idea of solidarity is important if we are to capitalize and build on the legal, political, and social gains we have made. When we trash each other to impress other groups or individuals, we don’t damage the integrity or utility of those other religions and traditions, but we do harm the vital solidarity necessary to get the things we all want. This doesn’t mean you can’t draw distinctions or even civilly criticize paths different from your own, but when folks start implying that you shouldn’t be in the larger movement, that’s counter-productive and drains enthusiasm from the activists working for the rights of all Pagans.
