We\u2019ve been through a period of time where many of us apparently had some foreknowing of difficult times to come. Are you aware of this happening before in Neopagan times (roughly since 1900) and how does it fit into your theology?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I can\u2019t think of a time prior to recent years when modern Pagans were predicting difficult times to come. I\u2019m not a historian, but I\u2019m more than a little familiar with the origins and development of the modern Pagan movement. I\u2019m pretty sure the reason I can\u2019t think of one is that there aren\u2019t any.<\/p>\n
Now, there are prophets of doom in every era, in every decade. Most of them are misanthropes and malcontents. Some are mentally ill. I\u2019m not interested in digging up some Pagan version of a street preacher who managed to be a stopped clock that\u2019s right twice a day. In the history of modern Paganism, you just don\u2019t find many (or any) authors, teachers, and other public figures predicting difficult times to come.<\/p>\n
Quite the contrary. Many of the key figures of the early modern Pagan movement (which I usually date from the founding of the Golden Dawn in 1887) predicted a new era \u2013 a New Age \u2013 of peace and enlightenment. Aleister Crowley said humanity was moving from the Aeon of Osiris to the Aeon of Horus, when \u201cfreed of the obsession of the doom of the Ego in Death, and of the limitation of the Mind by Reason, the best men again set out with eager eyes upon the Path of the Wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until very recently, most Pagan and occult leaders expected things to get better \u2013 and they expected to be a big part of the reason why.<\/p>\n
We need to begin by looking at this from a human perspective.<\/p>\n
While modern Paganism has roots in the beliefs and practices of our ancient ancestors, the return of Paganism as a religion (or religions, to be more precise) began with the Renaissance.<\/p>\n Recent scholarship has begun to show that the Dark Ages weren\u2019t so dark and dreary after all. They were just a time of relative isolation in Europe, when it was hard for ideas to be communicated and preserved. The invention of the printing press and the expansion of trade brought about an expansion of ideas, including rediscovering the art, stories, and religious practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans.<\/p>\n To some they were myths, to some they were quaint ideas, and to some they were inspiring. In the words of Druid and philosophy professor Brendan Myers<\/a> \u201cpeople got tired of the austerities of Christian discipline and the misanthropy of the Doctrine of Original Sin.\u201d For a society that was thoroughly Christian (often oppressively so), the rediscovery of Paganism was like a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n The earliest modern Paganism was about dreams of a better way of living.<\/p>\n Ross Nichols\u2019 story that the modern Druid movement was founded in the Apple Tree Tavern in London in 1717<\/a> is more apocryphal than historical, but that date is a fair approximation for the beginnings of the Druid revival. There is evidence for people considering themselves to be Druids as early as the late 1600s, and the first documented Druid order was founded in 1792.<\/p>\n It is not coincidental that the Industrial Revolution began about the same time. For all that the Industrial Revolution improved living standards, it also uprooted society and desecrated the environment. In 1804, William Blake (who Nichols included in his list of Chief Druids) wrote about \u201cEngland\u2019s green and pleasant land\u201d and also about its \u201cdark satanic mills.\u201d Modern Paganism is in part a response to the disruption of the Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n But while there are plenty of examples of 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> century Druids and Pagans complaining about industrialization and romanticizing pastoral life, I can find no examples where they prophesied about coming bad times. They were complaining about their current times and presented their spiritual path as a better alternative.<\/p>\n By the time the Pagan Movement started to shift from \u201cChristians with Pagan leanings\u201d to \u201cactual Pagans\u201d in the late 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries, the Myth of Progress was in full swing. We had the telegraph, then the telephone, then radio. We had the beginnings of modern medicine and a tremendous growth in life expectancy. We had the end of slavery and the extension of voting rights to women.<\/p>\n The world was getting better and better and there was no reason to expect that trend wouldn\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n 20 million people died in World War I, but it was called \u201cthe war to end all wars.\u201d That was a bad prediction, but it reflected the general optimism in the wider culture. By the 1950s Jack Parsons could rant against<\/a> \u201cthe pretense and lying hypocrisy of Christianity\u201d and advocate for \u201can end to prudery and shame, to guilt and sin, for these are of the only evil under the sun\u201d and do so with the expectation that it would come to pass.<\/p>\n Things were bad (relatively speaking) but they were getting better. People expected they would continue getting better. Were they seeing \/ intuiting the future or were they just assuming their then-current trends would continue? I don\u2019t know. I do know people who expect things will keep getting better don\u2019t issue prophecies of decline and demise.<\/p>\n I once heard a UU minister (sadly, I can\u2019t remember who) tell a children\u2019s story with the tag line \u201cgood things happen, bad things happen, life goes on.\u201d The story encourages us to live a calm and balanced life and to reject the tendency to get too high in good times or too low in bad times. There is wisdom in that story.<\/p>\n But it doesn\u2019t change the fact that the past 300 years have been a time of remarkable progress, at least in the West.<\/p>\n It is unnecessary to list the events over the past 50 years or so that have gotten us to where we are today. By themselves, none of them are enough to signal anything more than the kind of temporary setbacks that are always part of life. Taken together, though, they tell us that this isn\u2019t just a short-term problem. It\u2019s the end of an era, and the beginning of what some of us are calling Tower Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n I started hearing about it from my Gods \u2013 especially the Morrigan \u2013 somewhere around 2010. I didn\u2019t know exactly what it meant. I just knew it was important, and there were things I needed to do to get ready \u2013 not so much physical preparations as building skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n And now we know. Or at least, we know what\u2019s happened so far. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming next, but we know the general trend. And it\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n The question asked how this fits into my theology. If the Gods (or at least, some of Them) warned us in 2010 that Tower Time was coming, why didn\u2019t They tell us what to do in 1970 or 1980 or 1990 that would have helped us take a different path?<\/p>\n Who\u2019s to say They didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying They did. I am saying They\u2019re known for speaking softly and subtly. Sometimes so softly and subtly that those who aren\u2019t paying close attention can\u2019t hear Them.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2022\/09\/back-side-of-Newgrange-2018.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA Renaissance of ideas and possibilities<\/h2>\n
The beginnings of the Druid Revival<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAn era of near-continuous progress<\/h2>\n
No trend lasts forever<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Theology of Tower Time<\/h2>\n