{"id":3486,"date":"2015-04-16T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T23:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=3486"},"modified":"2015-04-15T20:08:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T02:08:02","slug":"fertile-ground-for-polytheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2015\/04\/fertile-ground-for-polytheism.html","title":{"rendered":"Fertile Ground For Polytheism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Ephesus<\/a>There\u2019s been a lot of talk recently about the decline of the West.\u00a0 I\u2019ve posted my own thoughts describing the situation<\/a> and what we can do about it<\/a>.\u00a0 John Halstead wrote about the need for a shift in consciousness<\/a> and Rhyd Wildermuth responded with a piece on the need for significant action now<\/a>.\u00a0 John Michael Greer has been writing about this on his Archdruid Report<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n

Coru Cathubodua<\/a> priest Rynn Fox pointed me toward this piece<\/a> from Adbusters<\/em> magazine.\u00a0 It was published last October, but it\u2019s as timely as any of the links above.\u00a0 It\u2019s titled The Twilight of the West<\/a> and it explains our situation in great clarity.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a key quote:<\/p>\n

We had expected the new countries in Asia and Africa to conform to the nation-state pattern constructed in Europe from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. We had expected these societies to become, like Europe, more secular and instrumentally rational and less religious as economic growth accelerated. We had most recently expected them, after the discrediting of socialism, to imitate the triumph of consumer capitalism in the West, and for the new middle classes to pave the way to democracy. The reality is that these nations, instead of converging on the Western model, were becoming disorderly in complex ways that make Western conceptions seem what they always were: the product of a particular and unrepeatable historical experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To that last sentence I would add \u201cunsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than rehash what\u2019s already been said on the inevitable collapse of the contemporary American lifestyle, I want to explore the religious aspects of the Twilight of the West.<\/p>\n

As the Adbusters<\/em> essay describes, we\u2019re seeing diverse and decentralized political and economic approaches.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t because divinely ordained representative democracy and free market capitalism are being perverted by corruption and communism.\u00a0 It\u2019s because the conditions that led to the rise of representative democracy and free market capitalism in the West aren\u2019t present in other parts of the world\u2026 and they won\u2019t be present in the West for much longer.<\/p>\n

The facts have changed so a different approach is required.\u00a0 One size does not fit all.\u00a0 And this is as true for religion as it is for politics and economics.<\/p>\n

Before we go any further, I want to make one thing very clear:\u00a0 the reality of the Gods<\/a> does not depend on the structure of human society.\u00a0 But religion \u2013 how we relate to questions of ultimate importance, including the Gods \u2013 is a human response to specific conditions at a specific place and time.<\/p>\n

Modern Paganism has its roots in the excesses of Christianity.\u00a0 As Brendan Myers said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

To put it simply, people got tired of the austerities of Christian discipline and the misanthropy of the Doctrine of Original Sin \u2026\u00a0 they dramatized for themselves a world that never knew Original Sin, and so still existed in a state of original blessing.\u00a0 In that imagined world it was no sin to \u2018dance, sing, feast, make music, and love.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It also has roots in the disconnection from the land that happened during the Industrial Revolution and that continues today.\u00a0 Our species spent over 100,000 years living close to the land.\u00a0 When we were moved off the land and into industrial cities something in us (in some of us, anyway) tried to re-establish that connection ritually.<\/p>\n

Once the illusion of monotheism was broken (see the review of A Million and One Gods<\/a><\/em>), a revival of polytheism was inevitable.\u00a0 The wide diversity of religious experiences throughout the world leads to the logical conclusion that there are many Gods, not one.<\/p>\n

As the infrastructure of the West (both physical and philosophical) continues to crumble, people will look for local solutions that match the local circumstances in which they find themselves.\u00a0 Some will cling to familiar churches, some will seek out extremist and violent religions, and some will abandon all religion.<\/p>\n

Polytheism is particularly well-suited for the world to come.<\/p>\n

\"Beltane<\/a>Polytheism doesn\u2019t assume everything should be done only one way.\u00a0 You worship your Gods your way and I\u2019ll worship my Gods the way They call me to worship Them.\u00a0 If you find something that works for you, I may try it out.\u00a0 If it works for me, great.\u00a0 If not, I\u2019ll keep doing what I was doing.\u00a0 There\u2019s no reason for us to fight over our religious differences.<\/p>\n

Polytheism doesn\u2019t promise what it can\u2019t deliver.\u00a0 There is no prosperity gospel in polytheism.\u00a0 Read the stories of the Gods and heroes \u2013 no one is promised an easy life.\u00a0 Instead, we\u2019re encouraged to live virtuously and heroically in spite of difficult times\u2026 and the difficult times are coming.<\/p>\n

Polytheism doesn\u2019t distract from this-world problems.\u00a0 Is there an Otherworld?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Is reincarnation for real?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But here\u2019s what we do know:\u00a0 there\u2019s no pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die promise to keep oppressed people in line.\u00a0 Marx was only half right:\u00a0 the opium of the people isn\u2019t religion, it\u2019s religion that preaches conformance and compliance with injustice.<\/p>\n

Polytheism encourages us to see beyond ourselves.\u00a0 It encourages us to honor the Gods and the virtues they represent.\u00a0 It tells us to honor our ancestors, and to live in such a way that our descendants will honor us.\u00a0 It reminds us that while individuals have value, so do families, communities, and tribes.<\/p>\n

The polytheism \u2013 or more precisely, the polytheisms \u2013 that arise in response to the decline of the West will be inspired by the past but they will not be identical to the polytheisms of ancient Greece or Pharaonic Egypt or Iron Age Britain.\u00a0 Our conditions and circumstances are different, so our polytheisms will be different.<\/p>\n

I have mixed feelings about the decline of the West.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done OK with it.\u00a0 But the Western political and economic system has never fulfilled its promise of \u201clifting all boats,\u201d much less sharing its benefits fairly and equitably.\u00a0 It\u2019s pushed us into a lifestyle that is harmful to other people and other creatures \u2013 and it\u2019s not meaningful, even to those who have far more than their share.<\/p>\n

How I feel isn\u2019t important.\u00a0 It\u2019s not sustainable, it\u2019s in decline, and it will collapse.\u00a0 What replaces it will be different \u2013 slightly different in some areas, very different in others.\u00a0 The ground is fertile for religions that recognize many ways and many Gods.<\/p>\n

The future is a scary time and it will be a difficult time, but in the words of the Anomalous Thracian<\/a>, it\u2019s also a damn fine time to be a polytheist.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The decline of the West is bringing many challenges and difficulties, but it\u2019s also creating fertile ground for polytheism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":3488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[665,33,304,41,4,5,666,8,438],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-2","tag-adbusters","tag-brendan-myers","tag-john-halstead","tag-john-michael-greer","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-pankaj-mishra","tag-polytheism","tag-rhyd-wildermuth"],"yoast_head":"\nFertile Ground For Polytheism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The decline of the West is bringing many challenges and difficulties, but it\u2019s also creating fertile ground for polytheism.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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