To what degree is it reasonable to describe Paganism as ‘a religion’?
Can Druidry be reasonably called a religion, or is it more like a group of beliefs arguing under the same umbrella?
What is the relationship between religion and spirituality?
These are big questions, by anyone’s standards. When you start out along a Pagan path, these questions may be visible to you and troubling. Equally they may be invisible, which can make the questing a good deal harder. The very nature of Paganism makes tidy answers difficult to find.
The relationship between religion and spirituality fascinates me. On one side we have all the things that look like religions – books, buildings, titles, special days, financial arrangements… and on the other side there’s personal, private experience. Religion is easy to point at and easy to look like you are a part of. Personal experience is not so easy to pin down or explain.
Most Pagans do not come along seeking to look like they belong to a religion. Most are fleeing the conformity and surface of religion in the hopes of finding something deeper. How do we do that? Religions teach us how to conform to religions, the one thing they don’t teach us is how to have personal, spiritual experiences. Where do we go from there?
These are the questions I set myself when writing Spirituality without Structure. If you would like to read the first chapter for free, it’s now up on my publisher’s website. There’s no obligation to buy. Obviously if you do feel moved to pick up a copy, that would be lovely. People buying books makes it possible for writers to keep writing them (I have a cheese habit to support!). It is worth noting that this is a small book, and therefore not a bad screen-read, and that the ebook version is very, very cheap.
Druid Thoughts is published on occasional Wednesdays on Agora. Follow it via RSS or e-mail!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In