For Beginning Witches and Pagans Who Want More

March 8, 2020 By John Beckett

I follow #witchesofinstagram. The pictures are interesting, in a darkly beautiful way. They often have comments about crystals, healing, and how the Universe wants the best for you. They’re clearly meaningful to the people who post them. But most of them aren’t what I have in mind when I think “witchcraft.”

#pagansofinstagram is much the same, only it has far less activity.

(I’m “utaodruid” on Instagram. Unlike Twitter and MeWe where I mostly promote blog posts, on Instagram I post original pictures several times a week. Follow me if you like. Or not.)

I’m of two minds about Instagram witches and Pagans.

On one hand, if it works for you, then that’s a good thing. Life is beautiful but our contemporary society is not. It commodifies everything and tells you your worth is determined by the size of your bank account. It’s run by governments more interested in pandering to the rich and powerful than in supporting ordinary people. If adopting the aesthetic of witchcraft and charging crystals under the full moon help you get through it, great.

So if you’re happy where you are, I respect that.

On the other hand, witchcraft and Paganism can be so much more.

Yes, crystals can be powerful (they also have ethical issues surrounding them, though to be fair so does much of what we buy and consume). But herbs, salt, and even water can be powerful too. So can items we make and consecrate ourselves. And the most powerful magic comes not from the things we obtain but from the things we do.

There is power is claiming an identity and dressing as a witch. I’m not a witch, but if I’m scheduled for a difficult meeting at work you’re likely to find me in black. I feel stronger in black, and it sends a subtle message to those dressed in stereotypical corporate wear that I can do things they can’t.

But there is greater power in an identity built on relationships with Gods, spirits, and ancestors, and with the land itself. There is power in knowing you’re a part of something greater than yourself, something that was here long before you arrived in this world and that will continue long after you’re gone on to whatever comes next.

It’s not my job to tell the witches and Pagans of Instagram that they’re wrong (they aren’t) or that they’re shorting themselves (that’s for them to decide). My job is to be here as an entry point for those who want something more.

And the good part is that you don’t have to sign the Book of the Beast or join a church… of Night or of anything else. This isn’t an all-or-nothing thing. You can take the next step toward a deeper practice any time. If you decide that crystals and dressing in black are what you’re all about, you can stay where you are.

And if you like what you find you can keep going. Here are four steps for beginning witches and Pagans who want more.

Read Six Ways by Aidan Wachter

Forget the shiny new books written by authors who don’t exist. Get this small book of short essays of hands-on experiential magic: Six Ways: Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic by Aidan Wachter. You’ll have to order it – you’re not going to find it on the shelves of a mainstream bookstore.

Wachter teaches magic the way I learned it: a combination of energy work, spirit work, and sympathetic magic. You don’t have to spend years learning a whole new magical system. See something that looks useful, read enough to understand how to do it (and what might go wrong) and give it a try.

It’s a very practical approach. Wachter says “what works, works. That which does not work, or whose costs outweigh their benefits, should be discarded or modified until the balance skews more favorably.”

What works rarely makes for good Instagram material – that’s one of the reasons many of my Instagram photos are landscape and wildlife shots. If you want to be a photographer, be a photographer. If you want to be a witch, work magic. Nothing says you can’t do both (I’m trying to do both) just understand which is which.

Draw and charge sigils

Chaos magic is a 20^th century development that attempts to strip all the bells and whistles – and all the religion – out of magic, leaving just the “magical tech.” And the main tech it found is sigil magic. It’s an incredibly simple and incredibly powerful process.

Write your goal in a positive, plain-English (or plain whatever-your-language-of-choice is) statement. Cross out all the vowels and duplicated letters. Take the remaining letters and smush them together to form a sigil – a magical symbol. Some people’s sigils look like they came out of a medieval grimoire. Mine tend to look like elvish script, or an electrical wiring diagram.

Does it look like magic to you? Then it’s good. If not, keep moving things around till it does.

Now draw the sigil on a card or piece of paper – make it pretty. Or at least, clean and clear. Charge it by staring at it till it starts to fade. Now put it away and forget about it.

Gordon White’s book The Chaos Protocols is an excellent guide to sigil magic, and to life in these difficult times. But his blog post Sigils Reboot: How To Get Big Magic From Little Squiggles tells you everything you need to know to get started.

This is my go-to magical system. When something needs a magical push, I draw sigils.

Set up an ancestor altar

Honoring our ancestors is one of the most universal religious impulses. Walk into your friends’ houses and whether they’re Christians, Pagans, atheists, or anything else you’ll see pictures of parents, grandparents, and many-great grandparents. We owe a debt of gratitude to our ancestors, for without them we literally would not be.

But more than that, our ancestors are our most accessible spiritual allies. Gods are often busy, and their help sometimes comes with strings attached – strings I’ve been OK with, but some people aren’t. Other spirits have their own agendas and aren’t always trustworthy.

Your ancestors are usually available, and they have a personal interest in seeing you do well. However else they may exist, they live on in you.

Set up pictures and other mementos. Talk to them and let them know how you’re doing – don’t just ask for stuff. Make regular offerings: food and drink are most common, especially foods and drinks they enjoyed in this life. My ancestors were not well-to-do – they think pouring good wine on the ground is a waste (even though some of my Gods expect it). I leave it on their altar for a half hour or so, then sip it while speaking to them, letting them taste it through me.

Life can be hard – we need all the allies we can get. Ancestors are ready allies.

Read The Path of Paganism

Pushing my own book? Damn right I am. They say if you need a book and it doesn’t exist, it’s your job to write it. I needed a book to introduce people to Paganism as I practice it, so I wrote The Path of Paganism – An Experience-Based Guide to Modern Pagan Practice.

I was thrilled to become a Pagan. But then I floundered for eight years. The beliefs and practices I was trying to begin were at odds with the unstated assumptions I had learned from the mainstream society. It was only when I finally began to examine those assumptions – when I became aware of the water in which I was swimming – that I was able to start building a meaningful Pagan practice. This book is how I did that.

The Path of Paganism describes how Paganism is a contemporary response to a universal human religious impulse. It covers the Four Centers of Paganism: Nature, the Gods, the Self, and Community. It talks about spiritual practice – the things we do on a regular basis that keep us connected to our highest values. And it moves beyond the 101 level and covers intermediate practice.

There are other good books for advanced beginners and early intermediate practitioners. This is what I did, and so it’s what I write about and teach.

The first steps are easy – the later ones are not

As much as I’d like to see all the witches and Pagans of Instagram move beyond talking about “the Universe” as though it’s an omniscient individual, I realize many of them are happy where they are and they have no reason to change. That’s fine – my way isn’t the only way.

And as much as I like to say “come on in, the water’s fine!” honesty compels me say that sometimes the water gets deep, and sometimes it has sharks in it.

You can read these books, start these practices, and if you don’t like them you can stop. You can move on and try Buddhism, or mystical Christianity, or reverent Naturalism, or whatever sounds good to you.

At first.

Go far enough, though, and you pass a point of no return. Make promises to deities and you will be held to them. Make deals with the Fair Folk and, well… don’t go making deals with the Fair Folk – it almost never ends well.

Using magic brings its own complications. I see no evidence the Threefold Law works as described, but when you drop a stone into a pond you have no idea what all the ripples will impact… or what the stone will strike when it hits bottom.

Still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

So do your thing, whatever it may be. Do it joyously, and do it well. If that’s taking selfies for Instagram, so be it… and I do enjoy many of the posts.

But if you feel called to something deeper, to something more, just remember: it’s out there, waiting.

An Authentic Foundation For Modern Paganism

December 5, 2019 By John Beckett

Lately I’m seeing a lot of people complaining that Paganism is inauthentic. These complaints aren’t coming from fundamentalist Christians or atheists. Rather, they’re coming from Pagans. Or from former Pagans or from people who can best be described as “Pagan adjacent.” They complain that Paganism is built on bad history, or it’s appropriative of other cultures, or various leaders did bad things, or that we’re all just playing dress-up.

Some of these complaints have merit, some are a stretch, and some are blown far out of proportion. I’m not going to link to any of them, because I don’t want to get bogged down in a line-by-line rebuttal. This post isn’t about what’s wrong with Paganism… though there are things that are wrong that we need to address.

Rather, this post is about how we can build a real, authentic foundation for our Paganism that will stand up throughout our lives.

What do you mean by Paganism anyway?

If you’re new to all this, go read The Four Centers of Paganism from 2014, which discusses how Paganism is a movement, and as such is very difficult to define. However, it can be described by the “centers” where people who call themselves Pagans find the Divine.

Last year I wrote What Makes Paganism Pagan? where I talked about the origins of the term and how it came to be used in our contemporary movement. I identified four “currents” that have brought the term “Pagan” to us. Most importantly,

It’s the organic religions arising from the lived experiences of people in the industrial and post-industrial West. It’s a reverence for Nature and it’s seeing the Divine in all genders. It’s the magic of the learned scholars and the magic of the ordinary folk. It calls us to remember that good religion is a living thing, growing and changing to adapt timeless principles to where we are here and now.

I’m not looking to build One True Paganism. Rather, there are things we can do to make our own Paganisms more authentic, however we express them.

Religion doesn’t have to be old to be real

This is my biggest annoyance both with those who are doing it wrong and with those who are complaining about others doing it wrong.

It’s a human tendency to value and even revere things that are very old. Truly old human things (as opposed to, say, mountains and stars) are rare. We’re especially fond of Golden Age myths, which say there was a time when – unlike now – all was right in the world.

But a religion doesn’t have to be old to be a real religion. What make a religion real is if people follow it.

Jediism didn’t exist before George Lucas and the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Today thousands of people follow it, not as a fandom but as a religion. Now, if you claim you’re a Jedi because you have a high midichlorian count, you’re making a materialist statement that is at best unsubstantiated and is almost certainly false. On other hand, if you order your life around the values and principles demonstrated by the Jedi in the films, you’re doing something people have been doing pretty much forever.

Mormonism is less than 200 years old and Joseph Smith’s story of the golden plates is almost certainly ahistorical. But Mormonism has 15 million followers worldwide – to say it’s not a “real” religion is ridiculous. Is Christianity not a “real” religion because it’s centuries newer than Judaism or Buddhism, and maybe millennia newer than Hinduism?

Religions aren’t real because they’re old. Religions are real because they bring meaning and comfort to their followers in the face of difficulties and a certain death.

Now, how do we make our Paganism work for us, without grounding it in false or inauthentic narratives? The simple answer is to ground it in our own first-hand experiences.

Begin with the land where you are

Science tells us that life began in the oceans, then 500 million years ago moved onto the land. We are creatures of the Earth, creatures of the land. When we say the Earth is our mother we are telling a true story. We belong to the land.

And if we belong to the land we can form respectful reciprocal relationships with the land.

This can take many forms, from learning the birds, trees, and herbs in your area to gardening and permaculture to pouring offerings to the spirits of a place. It begins with going outside and listening. Let the persons who share the land with you tell you who and what they are, whether you’re interacting with this-world persons or Otherworldly persons.

Or both. I like both.

Whatever else you may be, you’re also an animal. You have to live on the land, use the land, and eat other living beings that share the land with you, whether they’re plants or animals or both. Don’t just take from the land – be a part of the land.

Honor your ancestors

None of us got here on our own. We all have parents and grandparents and foster parents who literally brought us into this world and cared for us when we could not care for ourselves. We all have spiritual ancestors who inform and inspire us. Without them we would not be, or we would be much less than we are. It is good and right that we honor them on a regular basis.

Hang their pictures on the wall. Recite their names, tell their stories. When you run out of names – and the genealogy runs out for all of us, sooner or later – call them by place and time, or simply call to your “ancestors whose names I know not.”

Be wary of creating or assuming an identity based on DNA tests. Religion and culture are transmitted by human interaction, not by genetics. Instead, let your identity – or at least, a part of it – be a person who honors their ancestors.

Worship the Gods

Whatever else They may be, the many Gods are the mightiest of spirits who embody the greatest of virtues. To worship Them is not self-debasement and chanting sycophantic praises, but rather declaring that They are worthy of our honor and respect.

Sometimes a God chooses us. Other times we choose a God. Sometimes our worship becomes an ecstatic experience. Other times it’s as ordinary as saying good morning to your family. Sometimes the relationship is bound by oaths and divine orders. Other times it’s bound simply by our commitment do the right things regardless of the outcome.

A calling from a God doesn’t make you special and it certainly doesn’t give you any authority over others. Mainly it gives you more work to do. A fully-formed religion has room for both dedicated religious specialists and for those who simply want to honor the Gods and live ordinary lives.

But to make your Paganism authentic, simply worship the Gods.

Develop a magical practice

To be clear: not all Pagans practice magic. But I do.

Magic can accomplish what mundane effort alone cannot. It’s a tool, and a tool that many people use – including those whose ethics and goals are very different from my own. If they’re going to put it to use for their purposes, I’m going to use it for mine.

Magical techniques and systems are often tied up in specific cultures, which raises the issue of cultural appropriation. Just remember: tech is transferrable – culture is not. For example, burning sage is not cultural appropriation – people have used astringent smoke for cleansing and purifying in many cultures and lands throughout history. Burning sage in a Native American ceremony when you’re not a member of a Native American tribe is cultural appropriation and therefore inauthentic for non-Natives.

Learn the magic of the plants that grow where you live. Learn the magic of the sun and moon and stars. Learn the universal (or very nearly so) principles of association (“like controls like”) and contagion. Learn sigil magic, whether of the chaos magic variety (which is my favorite) or the more artistic variety taught by Laura Tempest Zakroff and others.

Ground your magic in your relationships with the land, your ancestors, and your Gods – not the other way around. Find what works for you – what brings results. Credit your sources, and don’t pretend to be something you aren’t. You’ll be fine.

Gather with others doing the same things

Religion is ultimately about relationships. Some of these relationships are with the land, some are with various spiritual persons, and some are with virtues and values. But other relationships are with our fellow humans. Whatever your authentic religion looks like, how does it inspire you to live in harmony with others?

It’s hard to follow any religion devoutly in our materialist, consumer culture. Our Christian friends have a church on every corner and a calendar set up by and for themselves. It’s much harder for everyone else. Having someone to celebrate with makes it much easier – and more enjoyable.

It’s also good to have someone to be accountable to – someone who knows you’ve made commitments to the land, your ancestors, and your Gods. Someone who will ask you how things are going… and who you can lean on when things aren’t going so well.

There is no way my Paganism would be as deep, as strong, and as meaningful without my fellow local Pagans, and without my co-religionists around the world.

Leave the world a better place than you found it

I could go on and on about worldview, theology, divination, oracular practice, and all the things that make my Paganism what it is. I’ve written posts on these topics in the past and I’ll write more in the future.

At the end of the day, whether your religion is authentic – whether it’s real or not – comes down to one thing: does it work? But authentic doesn’t necessarily mean good.

What is good is a topic that more properly belongs to philosophy, not religion. But I feel confident in saying this much: your religion is good if it inspires and equips you to leave the world a better place than you found it.

Not the whole world – that’s beyond the control of any human. But your little piece of it: your home, your community, your family. Your religious tradition. Your Paganism.

Some of the complaints about Paganism being inauthentic have merit and others do not. Arguing about them is of far less value than making sure our own Paganism is as authentic as it can be.

Ground your practice in the land where you are, in your ancestors, and in the worship of the Gods who call to you or who you choose to call to. Develop a magical practice that works for you. Gather with those who are doing the same things in the same way. And leave the world a better place than you found it.

Your Paganism will be authentic enough.

6 Roles For Solitary Practitioners in the Pagan Future

June 16, 2019 By John Beckett

I’ve been writing a lot lately about Paganism as an institution, about the things I believe and the things I believe we should build. I’ve never hidden my goals: I want to build a religion. Or more precisely, I want to build a family of Pagan and polytheist religions.

I respect the right of every person to choose their own path, and I have no desire to compel anyone to do anything. But at the end of the day I want to see my particular flavor of Paganism with temples, priesthoods, seminaries, and charitable orders. I want it to become a full featured religion.

And that bothers some of you.

Some of you want nothing to do with organized religion. You fear orthodoxy and hierarchy – and not without reason. I think that if we look to our ancestral religions, to Buddhism, and to Judaism for guidance instead of to Christianity – and if we focus on what we need as Pagans instead of on what we see from our Christian neighbors – we can avoid serious problems. That, and the fact that we’ll never have state power behind us.

Still, the fact remains that some people want to be Pagans, but mainly they want to do their own thing. If my wildest dreams come true and Paganism becomes an institutional religion, what place is there for them?

I see six roles for solitary practitioners in a predominantly Pagan future.

1. The unaffiliated Pagan

These are the Pagans who are as devout and dedicated as anyone, but who either can’t or don’t want to be a part of a group. Maybe they’re in a remote location where there aren’t a lot of Pagans of any description. Maybe they have health issues that prevent them from going out. Or maybe they’re just really introverted and don’t want to deal with other people.

If this is you, you can still build a strong personal spiritual practice. You can make offerings and work magic to help bring about the future you want to see. Learn all you can. If you have the knowledge and skills, teach. If you don’t, teach by example. Mainly, be the best Pagan / polytheist / witch / Druid / path of your choice, and the best person you can be.

2. The community activist

Paganism is a religion of orthopraxy, not orthodoxy. And the realm of orthopraxy (“right practice”) includes not just personal conduct but also building a better, more just, more virtuous world here and now.

We need people doing environmental work, to help create and preserve wild spaces, and to protect endangered species. The work to protect religious freedom (as in “the right to practice your own religion in peace” not “a license to discriminate”) and to prevent governments from favoring one religion over others is never ending. And we need people doing the kind of pastoral care that Christians pay their ministers to do.

You don’t have to be part of a group to be a community activist. You just have to be connected enough to see the needs of the Pagan community and the wider world.

3. Pagan laity

Our Pagan religions need to be as accessible for the accountant and the plumber as they are for the mystic and the witch. We need to make room for the people who aren’t interested in performing deep devotion or working powerful magic. Maybe they participate in the occasional public ritual, but mainly they just want to honor the Gods and live virtuously while they live ordinary lives.

Some Pagan traditions have no place for laity. That’s fine – we need orders and institutions with high expectations. But if people feel the call of Paganism but either aren’t interested in deep commitments or can’t make deep commitments because of their personal or family situation, I don’t want them feeling like the only place for them is with the Christians or with the atheists.

4. The forest witch

I think this is the image most Pagans have in mind when they say “solitary practitioner.” A witch who mostly keeps to herself, growing some odd plants and harvesting others from the wild, making charms and potions, and occasionally dancing naked under the full moon. She doesn’t have a website and there’s no shingle on her cottage, but if you need her and you ask around you can find her.

This isn’t an easy path. It takes years of practice to get really good at charms and potions. It’s a lonely path. And while you may prefer to avoid dealing with other people, people will find you.

There will always be a place for the forest witch. If things get especially bad there will be an even greater need for her services.

5. The mystic

Mystics of any religion have trouble fitting into organizations and structures. I suspect that’s one of the reasons so many Pagans are solitary practitioners – we have an unusually high percentage of mystics. And by “mystic” I mean someone who has first-hand ecstatic experiences of Gods and spirits on a more-than-occasional basis.

Other religions have monasteries that allow a mystic to live in great simplicity so they can spend their time in contemplation and prayer. Some have a tradition of communities supporting holy people. In this country nobody cares that you were up all night dealing with a Battle Goddess taking over your body – you’re expected to be at work at 8:00 AM like everyone else.

This is a difficult life. If you can do anything else, do it instead. But our movement needs mystics, and if this is your calling nothing else will satisfy you.

6. Whatever you want to be

Paganism isn’t just any old thing you want it to be. I favor a Big Tent approach, but move too far away from our four centers and eventually you’re not inside the tent anymore.

Still, within that tent there are countless number of ways to be Pagan, and many of them are solitary. If you really want to be solitary and none of the five roles I’ve listed appeal to you, make your own.

Finding your own way isn’t easy. I would never have come as far as I have without the help and support of my friends and co-religionists in the Pagan, polytheist, Druid, and other communities.

But if you’re called to be a solitary, then be the best solitary Pagan you can be!

Dealing With Catholic Envy in the Pagan World

May 16, 2019 By John Beckett

Recently I’ve seen two deep and heart-felt comments from Pagans that I’ll describe as “Catholic envy.” Both are committed polytheists, but both are also envious of the Catholic church with their physical churches in every town (and in some cities, in every neighborhood), professional clergy, established seminaries and monasteries, and all the stability and continuity that comes from being the largest religious institution in the world (depending on if you consider the Sunni version of Islam to be one thing, which I don’t).

I understand their envy, and I share it to a certain extent.

Let’s be clear what we’re envious about. Despite the occasional off-hand comment from the current pope that hints at inclusivity, Catholic theology is exclusivist and therefore not something I support. I support their politics on justice for the poor and against the death penalty, and I just as strongly oppose their politics on reproductive rights and the equality of women. Their history of abuse – whether we’re talking about the Inquisition, the Magdalene Laundries, or the rape of children by priests – is long and has not been accounted for, which means we cannot be sure it has ended.

And none of that is the point here. Neither my friends nor I have any great love for the Catholic church. But we cannot help but be envious of its institutions, and we wish we had similar resources in our Pagan and polytheist religions.

A large percentage of Pagans are solitary practitioners. The institutions we do have – such as OBOD, ADF, Covenant of the Goddess, and CUUPS – are fine organizations, but at best they’re networks of small local groups and solitaries. They’re not even close to being the same thing, and won’t be in our lifetime, if ever.

There’s a reason envy is one of the seven deadly sins (which are a Catholic invention). It focuses our attention on what we lack instead of on what we have, and if we are not careful, can cause us to resent our neighbors’ abundance while ignoring our own. It can cause it to chase things we do not need and sometimes do not even want.

The best way to combat envy is to approach it head-on, examine our desires, and then figure out if we should work toward obtaining these things for ourselves or simply focus on our own lives as they are.

So I’d like to take a look at Catholic envy in the contemporary Pagan movement.

Paganism is a movement, not an institution

The Catholic church is an institution. Paganism and polytheism are movements. The primary difference is that institutions have boundaries – either you’re in or you’re out. Movements have no boundaries – they have a center and a direction. Beginning in 2013, we identified four centers of the modern Pagan movement: Nature, the Gods, the Self, and Community.

Because of their tighter boundaries and focus, institutions are far more capable of marshalling resources to build and maintain “sub-institutions” like temples and schools. Even when we have adequate numbers we rarely have the narrowly defined commitments necessary to support infrastructure.

This is the nature of a loosely defined movement. If Paganism was one thing, things would be different. But it’s not one thing, and it’s never going to be one thing. There will be no Pagan Council of Nicaea. We will remain a movement, and it’s hard for movements to build institutions.

But it’s not impossible.

Religious institutions must be built on spiritual depth

We can all come together for something like Pagan Pride Day centered on nothing more than a vague identity as Pagans. But Pagan Pride Day is a once-a-year gathering that doesn’t require most people to do anything more than show up for a few hours (though organizers invest substantially more time and effort that usually goes thankless).

Want to build a temple? Great – what deities will be enshrined there? Denton CUUPS Pantheon ritual was a great success, but does anybody really want to try to build a permanent temple to house 35 deities from at least seven different traditions? And once you start enshrining individual deities, will the “Goddess and God” Pagans and the non-theistic Pagans want to participate? Will the Hellenists be willing to share space with the Heathens, much less share rituals?

Getting to the level of commitment that will allow us to build substantial infrastructure won’t happen by different flavors of Pagans “putting aside their differences” (better stated as “important cultural and theological diversity”). It will come when one or two or six traditions develop enough spiritual depth to appeal to a larger number of people and develop the necessary resources on their own.

The leadership dilemma

You cannot build an institution without strong, competent leaders. At the same time, a group has to move from dependence on key individuals to operating as an institution. Isaac Bonewits founded ADF, but he stepped down as Archdruid in 1996 and died in 2010. ADF is still going strong. It transcended Isaac – it became an institution.

At the same time, no organization – whether institution or movement or something else – can last for long without good leadership. One of the reasons so many Pagan groups fail is that when their founder(s) die or burn out or just move on, there is no one to replace them.

We need a bigger pool of leaders. We need more people who are capable and willing to make sure the group fulfills its mission and does what it says it’s going to do, no matter what. Many people are capable of doing this – far fewer are willing.

Most Pagan groups have enough trouble attracting ordinary members – trying to recruit leaders from the general public is virtually impossible. But if we attract more people in general, that give us more chances to find someone with leadership capabilities.

Of course, it helps if we don’t burn our leaders at the stake…

Prioritize the movement

I want to be part of something bigger and longer-lasting than myself. Though I believe we live on after death, I am certain we live on in the families and communities of which we are a part. Right now, our immortality as Pagans is in the movement, not in institutions.

I expect OBOD will continue long after I move on to the Otherworld. ADF is much smaller and CUUPS is smaller still – while I expect them to continue, I’m less confident they’ll be around in two hundred years. But I’m sure Paganism and polytheism will persist. Their roots are older and far broader; they speak to basic human desires for connection to Nature and to the Gods.

Our legacy is in the movement. And the stronger the movement, the larger the pool of Pagans to fill our individual paths and traditions.

But build strong local groups

The word “religion” comes from the Latin religare meaning “to bind together.” Religion is about relationships with other persons, and while some of those persons are Gods and spirits, others are living humans.

There is no substitute for gathering together to celebrate Beltane, to work magic for a sick friend, or to discuss the nature of the Gods around a bottle of wine. I love my Facebook friends and they are my friends, but there’s no substitute for someone who can come to your house when you really need to see and hear and touch someone.

There are a million reasons why people choose to be solitary and most of them are valid. That doesn’t negate the need for strong local groups. You must do what you think is best for you, but the stronger and deeper your local connections, the better.

Stop fixating on Christianity, either Catholic or Protestant.

If we had stronger Pagan groups, Pagan institutions, and a Pagan movement we would have far fewer reasons to be envious of the Catholics and what they have. But I need to address “Catholic envy” directly.

Stop it.

Stop the envy for Protestant institutions and infrastructure too.

It’s not that envy is a mortal sin – as a Pagan I don’t believe in mortal sins and I’m not sure I believe in sin at all.

The modern Pagan movement is at best 150 years old. Realistically it’s better to date it from the publication of Witchcraft Today in 1954, making it 65. How can you compare that to a religion that’s 2000 years old and was the overwhelmingly predominant religion in the West for 1500? As much as I’d like to have temples in every city and some of them as big and ornate as cathedrals and all the things that go with all that, that’s not going to happen in the lifetime of anyone alive today.

Catholic envy is a useless distraction from the Paganism we can build here and now.

We can learn more from Judaism and Buddhism

If you want to look at other religions for ideas, there are more relevant choices than Catholicism.

Judaism has been a minority religion for over two millennia, and a persecuted minority for most of that time. Yet it has persisted, and is considered one of the “Big Five” world religions. There is much we can learn about forming and maintaining a religious identity from our Jewish friends.

Buddhism is far less hierarchical than Christianity and just as diverse. Also, the relationship between monks and lay Buddhists is rather different from that between Christian clergy and laity, in a way that may be instructional for Pagans.

I’m no expert on Judaism or Buddhism, but I know enough about them to realize they’re both significantly different from Christianity, in more ways than beliefs. It isn’t helpful to be envious of Jewish synagogues or Buddhist monasteries, but if we’re going to study the institutions of other religions, let’s look farther than what we see on the nearest street corner.

We know something about how our Pagan ancestors organized their religions – a lot about Egypt and Greece, less about Scandinavia and the Celtic lands. But those were either state religions, or the near-universal indigenous religions of the people. We can learn from them and be inspired by them, but trying to copy them is no more likely to be helpful than trying to copy the Catholics.

Envy is not helpful

Call it a sin, call it a vice, call it human nature. Whatever you call it, envy isn’t helpful.

It’s one thing to admire the beauty of an exceptionally attractive person. It’s another thing to become so obsessed with the artificial beauty of celebrities that we lose sight of the ordinary but real beauty of our spouses and partners.

I’m pretty sure both of my friends who inspired this post are on the healthy side of their attraction to the Catholic church. And I’m just as sure that many Pagans aren’t.

We’re Pagans because something called to us. Whatever that something (or Someone) was, it wasn’t institutions and infrastructure. Let’s answer those calls and become the best Pagans we can be, of whatever variety we choose or that chooses us.

And then we can build the institutions and infrastructure we need, here and now, and not mindlessly copy what they have in the religion we left.

Paganism Isn’t Dying

December 6, 2018 By John Beckett

I can’t count how many times I’ve read “Paganism is dying!” over the past couple of weeks. A few of those pronouncements expressed sadness, but most were filled with a satisfaction whose righteousness depends largely on your point of view.

I’m not going to list all the controversies driving these portents of doom, not because they’re not valid (some are and some aren’t) but because I don’t want to debate their merits here. That’s not the purpose of this post. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read the last several weeks of The Wild Hunt. They haven’t covered all these situations as well as I’d like, and in one case they were the cause of the problem. But they let the wider Pagan community know what’s going on, and that’s why I still support them.

What I want to address here is the idea that because there’s controversy, or bad behavior, or because some institution is failing, the movement itself is dying. Paganism is dying because we don’t respect our elders, or because our elders did bad things and haven’t repented. Paganism is dying because we put environmentalism before the Gods, or because we put the Gods before environmentalism. Paganism is dying because big name events, websites, and publishers include people we think they shouldn’t, or because they exclude people we think they should include, and in either case they never handle difficult situations the right way.

Mind you, I’m not saying “it’s all the same” or “both sides are wrong” or “we should tolerate anything and everything.” I have an opinion on all these controversies and I’ve expressed a few of them, most quietly but some more vocally. While it’s good to take a stand and especially to support your vulnerable friends and co-religionists, if you need to make a public statement on every controversy I have to wonder how well you’re living your values. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know where I stand on most issues. If you aren’t sure – and if you care what I think – just ask.

What’s right and what’s wrong on a given issue is important, but that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is that controversy and the fall of various “Big Name Pagans” is not evidence of the death of modern Paganism.

Paganism was never one thing

We often talk about Paganism like it’s one thing. I do it too: Pagan is one of the titles I claim in the header of this blog, which is on the Patheos Pagan website. I write about Paganism all the time. My first book is titled The Path of Paganism.

But Paganism isn’t one thing – it’s a collection of many things. It’s a religious movement with four centers. It’s a big tent that includes many different religions, traditions, and spiritualities. It’s a hundred varieties of Wicca, fifty varieties of Druidry, countless ethnic reconstructionisms, different ways of non-theistic Nature worship, and much much more.

It was the same with ancient paganism (lowercase intentional). The religion of the Celts was different from the religion of the Romans, and both were different from the religion of the Egyptians. And although Egypt was remarkably stable over 3000 years, its religion also varied from place to place and from dynasty to dynasty.

There is value in the term Pagan and I think we should continue to use it. But it’s much more than one thing.

Paganism is more than any individual

Ancestor veneration is a big part of my regular spiritual practice. That includes not just my ancestors of blood but also my ancestors of spirit – some of whom are still living and aren’t ancestors yet. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us and who laid the foundations on which we build. Most of us understand this intuitively, and we rightly hold the ancestors and elders of our traditions in high regard.

When we find that those we respect did bad things, or are accused of doing bad things, or make excuses for others who do bad things, it can be devastating.

But as influential as various personalities have been in the development of modern Paganism (and in most other religions too), they do not define it. A religion centered around a living human isn’t a religion, it’s a cult – in the common usage of the term, not the academic usage.

Our Paganism (or Paganisms, if you prefer) is grounded in Nature, in our Gods, in our communities, and in our own better selves. Cults of personality aren’t helpful and they must die.

Paganism is decentralizing

I’m not sure how centralized Paganism ever was. But we certainly talk about it like it was centralized, or that it should be centralized, or that it’s inevitable that it will be centralized one day. That’s not going to happen.

The future isn’t solitary either. Now, solitary practitioners will remain a large portion of the Pagan movement. But solitary practitioner are, well, solitary – they work on their own and so their influence on the movement as a whole is minimal.

The future of Paganism is decentralized. It’s small groups that meet in someone’s living room and create a family that can support each other in the mundane world. It’s large organizations with autonomous chapters in different locations around the world. It’s scholars and mystics and priests working together to restore and reimagine the cults of the Gods – and here cult is used in its academic sense. And it’s hundreds of independent paths and traditions, most of which will only last a few years, but some of which will turn out to be powerful and strong and relevant and will be around for generations.

Are some Pagan traditions and institutions dying? Yes. But there are many more that are doing just fine, and still more are developing all the time.

I still support the Big Tent of Paganism…

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying these words at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Turns out that may have been literary license by his biographer 50 years after his death. But whether he said them or not, they were true.

Our situation as modern Pagans isn’t quite so dire. But we are horribly outnumbered, and the only reason Christian conservatives aren’t ranting against us (more than they already are) is that they’re more afraid of Muslims and atheists. We need to work together where we have common cause, especially on respecting religious diversity and preventing religious discrimination. And we need to pool our resources to support pan-Pagan events and institutions – to do together what none of us are big enough to do separately.

…But I’m a polytheist first

When I moved Under the Ancient Oaks to Patheos in 2013, Christine Kraemer and I came up with “musings of a Pagan, Druid, and Unitarian Universalist” as the subtitle. I still wear all those hats. But if I was starting over today I’d work “polytheist” in there somewhere. My first religious commitments are to my Gods and to my co-religionists. And those commitments aren’t dying.

No fallen elders can break the ties between me and the Gods I serve. No racists, homophobes, or transphobes can come between those of us who gather in our common grove, whether that grove is in this world or the next. No manipulative mages can rob me of the magic that is my birthright – and yours.

Even if the entire Pagan movement crumbled, my ancestral, devotional, ecstatic, oracular, magical, public, Pagan polytheism would remain. I have made oaths with Gods. I have made oaths with my co-religionists. These oaths do not have an out-clause – and I don’t want one.

Real religion is messy

Most of the world follows religions that are hundreds and thousands of years removed from their founders. Their mythology is that their founder created a perfect tradition (even if their founder never claimed to do so) and that they have the best version of that tradition in existence.

Modern Paganism has no such illusion. We are inspired by our ancestors, but we’re figuring how to do it here and now. And because we’re human, we’re making mistakes.

Some modern Pagan traditions were built on weak foundations – they’re crumbling. Some were built around personalities – they’re failing. Let’s learn from the mistakes of others and do better going forward.

Let’s be patient with those who mean well, firm with those who aren’t trying, and ruthless with those who harm others out of hatred or for their own amusement.

But the Pagan movement as a whole isn’t dying – far from it. It’s bigger than any one or two individuals, or any one or two traditions. It’s good when we can gather under the Big Tent, but it’s best at the local level, where people who know and trust each other explore their common beliefs and practices in depth.

Even if some of us fail – even if most of us fail – so long as people keep working and practicing and worshipping together and on their own, Paganism will never die.

For further reading

I’ve written on this theme before, under different circumstances.

Paganism Is Evolving, Not Dying

“Biological evolution does not care if a species is beautiful or ugly, fierce or timid, millions of years old or just diverged in the current generation. It only cares if it is well-adapted to its environment, and if it is either robust enough or flexible enough to survive environmental changes.

Religious evolution is equally merciless. While the power of government can prop up a religion long after its expiration date, in a religiously free society religions either adapt to their environments or they die.

Is your Paganism robust and adaptable?”

Rethinking the Big Tent of Paganism

“Our Christian-influenced mainstream culture assumes all religions are supposed to be universal religions. It hasn’t worked for them and it won’t work for us.

Instead, let’s listen as our Gods and spirits call us onto different paths. Let’s find the others walking those paths and work with them. Let’s build strong individual traditions and local groups that encourage exploration and mutual support.”

So You Want To Be A Pagan – A Guide For Pagan Newcomers

October 14, 2018 By John Beckett

Last Sunday I posted 7 Things We Owe Pagan Newcomers, a list of what those of us in the Pagan community must do to fulfill our obligations of hospitality for those who show up at our doors. Today I want to look at this from the other side. What do newcomers need to know about Paganism when they’re just starting out?

This is an incredibly broad question – that’s why we have so many Paganism 101 books. Some of us complain “do we really need so many books for beginners?” People keep buying them, so obviously we do.

I couldn’t possibly condense several dozen books into one blog post. Instead, I want to provide some general information and some resources. Then I want to talk about what you need to know if you decide to practice the particular form of Paganism I practice.

What is Paganism?

The Big Tent of Paganism

The Four Centers of Paganism

Paganism is impossible to define – it’s too broad. But it can be described. Paganism isn’t a religion, it’s a religious movement that includes many religions. It’s centered around the four concepts and practices where modern Pagan gather: Nature, the Gods, the Self, and Community. The two blog posts listed above cover these topics in more detail.

The fewer words you use the less precise you can be, but sometimes you need a Pagan elevator speech: something you can say if someone in an elevator asks “what’s your religion all about?” and you have to answer before they reach their floor.

My elevator speech is that Paganism a connection to Nature and its rhythms and cycles, a connection to our ancestors and to their beliefs and practices, and a view of the Divine that is multiple in number and in gender. That probably covers about 90% of Pagans, and if somebody is looking for a quick definition, that’s as good as it’s going to get.

But if you’re interested in becoming Pagan you’re going to have to do some more research to find the particular path that fits you best.

Getting started

Pagan Reading List

Druid Reading Recommendations

6 Critical Situations, 6 Helpful Books

Five Non-Pagan Books For Pagans

A common saying is that while Jews, Christians, and Muslims are the People of the Book, Pagans are the People of the Library. There are many versions of Paganism and we have books written for and about our many different traditions. But also, we find helpful material in non-Pagan, non-religious books. I find Richard Dawkins’ atheist diatribes on religion to be annoying, but his book on evolution The Greatest Show on Earth is brilliant and highly recommended for Nature-centered Pagans.

Everyone needs a first book. I have three recommendations. Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham (1988) is the classic Wicca 101 book. Irish Paganism: Reconstructing Irish Polytheism by Morgan Daimler (2015) is a short introduction from a polytheist perspective. And while Druid Mysteries by Philip Carr-Gomm (2002) is intended to be guide to Druidry, it also serves well as a general Pagan introduction.

Paganism is most importantly a religion of doing, not a religion of thinking or believing (though thinking and believing are important too). Exactly what you do depends on which particular form of Paganism you choose to follow. I can’t tell you how to start becoming a Gardnerian Wiccan or a Hellenic Reconstructionist, because I’m neither of those things.

But if you’re interested in becoming an ancestral, devotional, ecstatic, oracular, magical, public, Pagan polytheist, read on.

Following this path

Why What I Am Takes So Many Words To Describe

Beginning a Devotional Practice

Why Would Anyone Take an Oath to a God?

The Path of Paganism

It seems rather presumptuous to call what I do a “tradition.” Perhaps someday it will be a tradition – and maybe by then it will have a real name instead of a long list of adjectives. Or perhaps it will simply be seen as one person’s way to follow a larger tradition. For now, let’s just call it a path – the path I’ve traveled so far, and the direction I’m heading going forward.

My path is a religious path. Magic and self-development are part of it, but first and foremost it’s about religion, from the Latin religio (meaning obligation and reverence) and religare (meaning to bind together). Religion is about forming and maintaining respectful, reciprocal relationships with our Gods and ancestors, with our families and communities, and with the natural world.

And that begins with devotion. Choose a deity and create an altar and/or a shrine. Pray, meditate, and make offerings. Read, study, and learn.

What are the virtues of the deities you follow? How can you embody them in your life? How can you help manifest them in this world?

You may be called to deeper service, to ecstatic practice, or to make an oath to a God. These are not matters to be taken lightly, nor to be jumped into without careful consideration. This level of commitment was neither expected nor asked of me when I was starting out. That’s rare, although it does happen occasionally.

My first book The Path of Paganism is essentially a guide to walking this path. It begins with Building a Foundation – how to recognize the unquestioned assumptions in your life and figure out for yourself what makes sense, rather than mindlessly accepting what you’ve always been told is true. It covers Spiritual Practice in detail, at both the beginning and intermediate levels. And it concludes with Living at the Edge – what to do once you’re not a beginner any more.

Advice for beginners

9 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was A New Pagan

Will You Be My Teacher? Essential Questions For Beginners

So Long and Thanks for All the Abuse: A History of Sexual Trauma in the Pagan Community by Sarah Anne Lawless

Some Pagan traditions are only taught one-on-one, face-to-face. But those traditions are very few. For others, a personal teacher is certainly nice to have, but it is not required. I trained with OBOD’s postal mail course. I engaged a paid spiritual director for about four months when I felt stuck. Her services weren’t cheap but they were worth every penny. And I had a personal mentor as I trained for another tradition. That did not end well, though it was for the best (don’t ask – I won’t talk about it online).

Other than that, though, my training and education has been self-directed, with a lot of help from my Pagan friends and co-religionists. There’s been a lot of trial and error – learning by doing is undervalued in our education-obsessed society.

You don’t have to have a teacher, and there are two major problems with thinking that you do.

The first is that you’ll end up with a teacher who’s wrong for you. Someone who doesn’t know your path. Or possibly, someone who doesn’t know their own path. I continually come across “elders” (mostly self-proclaimed, but occasionally folks with a substantial following) who learned Paganism 101 and never went on to Paganism 102, much less higher levels.

Or you could end up with a teacher who’s looking to exploit students. Read “So Long and Thanks for All the Abuse: A History of Sexual Trauma in the Pagan Community” by Sarah Anne Lawless. If anybody tells you that you have to do something that violates your ethics, or that just doesn’t seem right, walk away.

The second problem with the idea that everybody has to have a teacher is that you may decide you need to be a teacher long before you’re ready.

You don’t need to become a teacher to validate your knowledge and experience. You need to become a teacher when someone shows up looking to learn something you know very well. How long does it take to learn something “very well”? It depends. I was teaching Introduction to Paganism after four years of serious practice and three years of group work. I’m still reluctant to teach journeying.

Your timeline will be different. Just make sure you teach only what you know, not what you think you know.

*Nova Iconologia* by Cesare Ripa (1618) – National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Welcome to Paganism

Before Christianity and before Buddhism, there were the many religions of our ancestors. They were for the most part based in animism and polytheism, with a deep respect for ancestors and for the land. A few of those religions continue uninterrupted to this day, primarily in Africa. The ancestral religions of most of Europe and the Near East were wiped out by Christianity and Islam.

We cannot simply pick up where they left off. Too much time has passed, too much has been lost, and the world around us has changed immensely. We must create a Paganism – many Paganisms – for our time and place.

If you feel called to this great work, welcome. Come into the Big Tent, look around, and see where you might belong. It’s OK if you bounce around a bit at first – the first place you stop may not be the right one for you. Or maybe it is.

It isn’t perfect. Paganism is made up of Pagans, who are humans, who make mistakes. Sometimes bad mistakes. But on the whole it’s been a deeply fulfilling journey for me, and I intend to continue on this path for the rest of this life, and beyond.

I hope you’ll join me.

What Makes Paganism Pagan?

July 22, 2018 By John Beckett

A couple weeks ago, Cyndi Brannen of the Keeping Her Keys blog asked “what is it that makes witchcraft… witchcraft?” Jason Mankey liked that idea so well he asked all the Patheos Pagan bloggers to write on what makes what we do what it is.

My first thought was to write on Druidry. It would be both easy and timely to write on polytheism. But after further thought I want to explore this question at its broadest level: Paganism. What is it that makes Paganism Pagan?

The origin of “Pagan”

The English word “pagan” comes from the Latin word paganus, which means “country dweller.” It was used by the invading Romans as a term of derision (think “hick”) to refer to the native Britons who worshipped in sacred groves and wild places instead of in “proper” temples. When the Empire converted to Christianity, the term was used for those who kept their ancestral religions regardless of where they lived.

The term stuck. When all the English-speaking world became Christian, it was used to refer to anyone outside the Abrahamic tradition (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) – again, as a term of derision. It reached its worst during the days of the British Empire, when Imperial operatives, missionaries, and scholars lumped ancient Greeks, Celts, and Norse together with Hindus and Buddhists and with the remaining tribal religions of Africa and Asia.

What do all those diverse “Pagans” have in common? They weren’t proper civilized English-speaking Anglican Christians. That’s it. When you read “pagan” in 19^th and 20^th century literature, it almost always means “not us, and therefore wrong and in need of correction.”

No ancients called themselves Pagan

It’s not hard to imagine a conversation in southern Britain around 400 CE that went something like this. “Paganus? You’re damn right I’m paganus. Now get out of here before I go all Boudica on your Roman ass!” Terms of derision often become a badge of honor.

Other than that, though, no one ever called themselves Pagan. The Iceni were the Iceni. The Hellenes were the Hellenes. Religion wasn’t a set of beliefs to be affirmed or denied, it was part of who you are and especially whose you are.

We often speak of “ancient Paganism” but there is no such thing. There were many ancient religions, some of which were similar, some of which were syncretized (see Ptolemaic Egypt), and some of which have virtually nothing in common. It is a conceit of the modern West to assume that “deep down it’s all the same” when even a casual look at the foundations, core beliefs, and regular practices of different religions clearly show that they are, in fact, different.

And that, too, is part of our heritage.

Our more recent ancestors wanted to be Pagan

In his excellent survey of Pagan philosophy The Earth, The Gods and The Soul, Dr. Brendan Myers said:

People got tired of the austerities of Christian discipline and the misanthropy of the Doctrine of Original Sin. They maintained the appearance of being committed Christians, of course … But they dramatized for themselves a world that never knew Original Sin, and so still existed in a state of original blessing. In that imagined world it was no sin to ‘dance, sing, feast, make music, and love.’

The Europeans of the Renaissance and after didn’t know exactly what they were looking for, but they knew they wanted something that wasn’t proper civilized Anglican Christianity. And they had a word for it: Pagan.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. –Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

“The World Is Too Much with Us” – William Wordsworth (1802)

Pagan or Neo-Pagan?

Expressing Pagan yearnings and Pagan themes in a Christian context is one thing. Abandoning Christianity for a Pagan religion is something entirely different. That started happening in significant numbers in the second half of the 20^th century. And when it did, some people began to realize they weren’t doing anything like what the Paganus were doing 2000 years earlier.

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart is generally credited with coining the term “Neo-Pagan” to describe the Wiccan and Wiccan-influenced religions that were growing in popularity from the 1960s forward and that focused on reverence for Nature, gender equality, sexual freedom, and magical practice. It was an attempt to say “we’re reimagining ancient religions for our era.”

By the time I got here in 1993 “Neo-Pagan” was already fading. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. More than that, people began to understand that the Pagan movement was never going to be just one thing – it was going to be many things. There was Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, and eclectic Wicca. There were several dozen forms of Druidry. Heathenry, Hellenism, Kemeticism, and countless other traditions were rising. We might – or might not – all call ourselves Pagans, but we knew that deep down we had some differences, and we saw no reason to ignore them.

Some people didn’t like this “speciation” and wanted unity, but at the cost of the distinctions that give our various traditions depth and meaning. In 2014 John Halstead tried to re-establish “Neo-Paganism” and set up a very nice website, but it doesn’t appear to have been updated since its launch, and the term is rarely used among practitioners.

Today we have Pagan music, Pagan books, and Pagan Pride Day. We wear Pagan jewelry and go to Pagan conferences. This website is called Patheos Pagan. I wrote a book called The Path of Paganism. Language is an organic thing that evolves on its own, and “Pagan” is the winner.

The Big Tent of Paganism

I first heard the phrase “Big Tent” in reference to the Democratic Party’s attempt to appeal to voters with a wide variety of interests: labor unions, racial minorities, feminists, LGBTQ persons, economic liberals, and more. It’s a place where groups who are too small to exert significant influence on their own can come together and use their collective power for the common good.

I wrote about the Big Tent of Paganism in 2015.

The Big Tent provides a visible, easy-to-find entry point for ordinary people who are looking for something their current religion isn’t providing. And it makes it much easier for us to find others inside the tent who are doing the same things for the same reasons …

We are not one. There is no single Pagan religion and I have no desire to create one. But the Big Tent of Paganism is a useful and beneficial approach to grow and support our many Pagan religions.

We understand that Wicca and Norse Reconstructionism aren’t the same things. We know that what modern Druids do probably isn’t all that close to what the ancient Druids did. And perhaps most importantly, we understand that while there is much we can learn from Hinduism, African Traditional Religions, and other remaining tribal religions, they are not part of the Pagan movement and they are not ours to take.

But where we can come together to support things like The Wild Hunt and Mystic South, and where we can raise our collective visibility far higher than we can individually, we are better off embracing the Big Tent of Paganism.

Pagan currents

And that brings us back to our original question: what is it that makes Paganism Pagan? The answer lies in all the complicated – and at times, conflicting – usages of this problematic word throughout the centuries.

It’s the beliefs and practices of our pre-Christian ancestors. It’s their values and virtues and ways of seeing the world. It’s their Gods. It’s what was stolen from us by missionaries and empires, and it calls us to reclaim our heritage.

It’s the organic religions of the world, which arise not from the word of a prophet (not that there’s anything wrong with prophets) but from the interactions of a group of people with the land and the spirits where they live. It calls us to put our faith in our lived experiences and the experiences of our co-religionists rather than in sacred texts or creeds that are frozen in time.

It’s living in a world that, despite its challenges and indifferences, is not fallen but good. It’s dealing with the thorns to enjoy the beauty of the rose… and then finding that the thorns are beautiful in their own way. It calls us to “dance, sing, feast, make music, and love” and to enjoy our time in this life as deeply as we can.

It’s the organic religions arising from the lived experiences of people in the industrial and post-industrial West. It’s a reverence for Nature and it’s seeing the Divine in all genders. It’s the magic of the learned scholars and the magic of the ordinary folk – the paganus of today. It calls us to remember that good religion is a living thing, growing and changing to adapt timeless principles to where we are here and now.

These four “currents” are what makes Paganism Pagan. Like currents in the ocean, they collide, combine, and comingle in ways that can be difficult to predict. Sometimes they are in conflict, and no one expression of Paganism can be all these things in full. This is why we cannot define Paganism, and why the best description of it uses a model with four centers.

Self-identification and the Big Tent

Some people who wander into the Big Tent of Paganism say “I’m not a Pagan.” They find their primary identity as a Heathen or a Hellenist, as an animist or a polytheist. So be it. A big part of religion is who you are and whose you are, and if you don’t identify as Pagan, I’m not going to call you a Pagan even if you spend a lot of time inside the Big Tent.

And even though I’m inspired and at times informed by the tribal religions of the world, I’m not going to insist that they’re Pagan. Their identity is their own and we have no right to claim them.

My primary religious identity is polytheist – the worship of the many Gods. But my polytheism is a Pagan polytheism – it flows from the Pagan currents, from the many ways in which the word paganus has morphed and evolved over the centuries.

This is what makes Paganism Pagan.

Addendum: In a Facebook comment, Dr. Edward Butler took issue with the common belief that “pagan” meant “country dweller.”

Edward Butler: Pagus is a district, not necessarily a rural one. We see its descendants in Romance languages such as French pays, which means a country or nation. I would argue that pagani, which as far as I know in its religious connotation originates with Christians, functions as a direct Latin translation for the Greek term ethnê, “nations”, which is used in the New Testament to refer to the “gentiles”, the faiths which are particular to some nation, as opposed to the new church, which is “catholic”, from Greek kath’holikos, “pertaining to the whole”, i.e., “universal”.

John Beckett: I think I hear you saying that “pagan” was still a way of othering people who kept to their ancestral religions, though not in the way most modern Pagans think. Is that a fair assessment?

Edward Butler: Yes, it was definitely a way of othering people by saying that they belonged to a religion that was “particular” instead of the one that was “universal”. That was the method of othering, not the charge of being “rustic”.

Another common term that early Christians used for pagans in the East was simply “Hellenes”, which was used even for people who were not ethnically Greek in the modern sense, but who were seen as upholding the values of Hellenistic civilization as it had developed over the centuries since Alexander, which included polytheism.

I say this because there is a tendency, greatly encouraged by Christians, to project the evils of Christianity as much as possible back onto the Roman Empire, as though what the Christians did in eradicating indigenous faiths was no more than what pagans had already been doing to one another, just “business as usual”.

Paganism Is Evolving, Not Dying

April 30, 2017 By John Beckett

So I go on vacation and everybody decides Paganism is dying, or deserves to die, or something like that.

Jonathan Woolley said British Paganism is Dying. He blamed the struggles of the Pagan movement on the economic hardships of the current economy and called for the destruction of capitalism (it is a Gods & Radicals piece, after all).

John Halstead wrote Why Contemporary Paganism Deserves to Die – an essay that while flawed, is more optimistic than its click-bait-y title. Halstead says we need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and work together for a better world. That’s a noble goal that I support, though John’s recommended path to a better world is rather different from my own.

R.M. McGrath said The Problem With Neo-Paganism is a lack of discipline and devotion, particularly in regards to the reality of the Gods. I’m in strong sympathy with that thought, even though the Pagan movement has deep roots in rebellion against rules and structures, including those that are helpful.

Several commenters pointed out that without good data (which we’ve never had, and likely never will), we really can’t say if Paganism is growing or shrinking. All we have to go on is what we hear and see and read: this festival is ending, that new conference is starting up, and Pagan retail is dying (I can’t name a brick and mortar retailer that isn’t struggling, except Wal-Mart).

I’m not challenging the observations of these writers – what they see is real. But Paganism isn’t one thing – it’s not an institution. Paganism is a movement with four centers. Paganism is a big tent that contains many religions, proto-religions, and spiritualities. Even as parts of Paganism are dying, new parts are being born.

Paganism isn’t dying, it’s evolving.

The process of evolution

Biological evolution brings and expansion and contraction of species. Mutations and adaptations occur on an on-going basis. Those that are well-suited to a particular environment survive and succeed – those that don’t die off. The vast majority of species that ever existed are now extinct – their environment changed and they couldn’t change with it. Some species are extremely robust – crocodiles have been unchanged for 55 million years. Others are relatively new – our species is perhaps 200,000 years old. All other human species are extinct.

Religious evolution works in a similar fashion. Right now we’re in a period of speciation – lots of environmental factors are stimulating a wide variety of Pagan beliefs and practices. Some of these varieties are revivals of ancient beliefs and practices, such as the many ethnic reconstructionisms. Some are new inventions, or new variations on more established traditions like Wicca and Druidry. It’s been said there are as many Paganisms as there are Pagans, and while I think that statement downplays our many commonalities, it’s not wrong.

Most of these Pagan “species” will go extinct in a few years. Maybe they sounded good at the time, but they weren’t robust enough to survive. They were very meaningful to their founders, but never appealed to enough other people to reach critical mass. They were a good response to the conditions in a particular place and time, but the environment changed and people needed something different. The Pagan shops and New Age bookstores that served as community centers worked well for a while, but economic changes have driven most of them out of business.

This is OK. While I’m a big fan of building institutions, one of their downsides is that people often put the survival of the institution ahead of fulfilling its mission. Rather than mourning the loss of retail businesses, let’s gather in parks, homes, UU churches… and maybe start thinking about building some actual temples.

Paganism is evolving. As good Pagans, let’s embrace its deaths as much as we embrace its births.

The comparisons to early Christianity are flawed

Many people have compared contemporary Paganism to the first and second centuries of Christianity. The founders are dead, there are many competing versions of the religion, and it’s not entirely certain the religion will survive, much less go on to become a major influence in the world. I’ve made this comparison myself, and there are some valid similarities.

But it is virtually certain Paganism will not have a Constantine, much less a Theodosius. More relevantly to our time and place, we will have no Council of Nicaea to determine orthodoxy.

There will be no intentional events to consolidate our many Pagan religions into one religion.

I expect the variations of Paganism that are especially well-suited to our environment will grow over time. If some of the better ones are particularly broad and robust, we will see consolidation. But without a means for enforcing orthodoxy (Gods be praised!) the process of mutation and adaptation will continue.

Those that aren’t sufficiently well-suited to our environment will die. Absent state support and other forms of coercion, natural selection applies to religious species as much as to biological species.

Paganism is particularly well-suited to our environment

The roots of the contemporary Pagan movement lie in the modern urban / industrial disconnection from Nature, in the need for gender balance in religion, and in the beliefs and practices of our pre-Christian ancestors.

We in the West do not face the massive pollution we did 50 years ago, but climate change presents its own challenges. Even those of us who live in clean cities and suburbs are still separated from the land in ways that our ancestors were not. We grew out of the land and we need the land. Paganism helps connect us to the land, and reminds us that the land is worthy of our respect.

While some forms of Christianity have embraced gender equality, many have not, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, the two largest denominations in this country. And while a few Christians are exploring the divine feminine, most still worship a father God and a male savior. Meanwhile, Paganism offers whole pantheons of Goddesses and mostly sees men, women, and gender-nonconforming folks as equal and religiously interchangeable.

Western culture owes as much to Athens as to Jerusalem, and some of us realize the Gods of Athens are far more than characters in old stories. The Anglo-Saxon Gods are more than the days of the week. The fairy-faith never really went away, and the Fair Folk are returning to the ordinary world (or at least, more of us are noticing them).

Without good data, we cannot say for sure if the Pagan movement as a whole is growing or shrinking. But we can say that the conditions are favorable for Pagan growth in the coming years, even if that growth may come in ways we are not expecting.

Evolution is a merciless process

Biological evolution does not care if a species is beautiful or ugly, fierce or timid, millions of years old or just diverged in the current generation. It only cares if it is well-adapted to its environment, and if it is either robust enough or flexible enough to survive environmental changes. And sooner or later, the environment always changes.

Religious evolution is equally merciless. While the power of government can prop up a religion long after its expiration date, in a religiously free society (and despite our shortcomings, we live in the most religiously free and religiously diverse society in the history of humanity) religions either adapt to their environments or they die.

Is your Paganism robust and adaptable? Does it celebrate the wonder and awe of Nature? Is it open to the blessings of the Gods… and to Their work assignments? Does it help you deal with the inevitability of death and the other Big Questions of Life? If so, the odds on it surviving into the future are good.

Storefronts will close. Orders will dissolve. Beliefs and practices will be abandoned. But also, new institutions will be formed. New groups will arise. Ancient beliefs and practices will be restored and new ones will be refined.

Paganism isn’t dying, it’s evolving.