Neopaganism and the Past

Paganism and the Past
Sarenth

What does the past of Paganism matter? Are we to simply go back, attempting to gloss over what we do not wish to see? Are we to fight, not fifty years after Neopaganism’s founding amongst one another, confusing, and bumbling over such things as the “true history of Wicca”? At this juncture, what does it matter if Wicca was a fabrication by Gerald Gardner, possibly in conjunction with Aleister Crowley? What does it truly matter, so long as people are happy and enjoy their religious choice? What is “true Wicca”, given that far too little of us here in America could honestly say what that is, much less that we are part of the ‘true Wiccan” path? Far too often “true Wicca” was described to me by books and people alike, as someone who can, through their coven, their HPS and/or HP, trace their training to Gerald Gardner. However, if indeed Gerald Gardner simply made up the religion from a conglomeration of sources, what does this lineage matter?
Should the “true path” truly matter whatsoever? We are in a lack of knowledge of the time that Gardner put forth his ideas to paper, have little resources of his thought processes and little enough to go on. However, whether a true spiritual leader of his time or a charlatan and conman, Gardner is pointless. Those who have followed him in their myriad of ways, have created a way of life from their own teachings, experiences, resources and understandings. Kabbalah, Alchemy, Wicca, Heathen teachings, New Age teaching, and old parchments from religions of the world have helped mould our understanding of modern Paganism in all its forms.
I am a child of the Eclectic Movement, a path I started in my early childhood research of Native Americans, their shamans and their stories, and in Wicca in my college years, beginning with Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. A synthesis between the shamanistic ways I studied up through to this point in my life and the call of the Goddess, the God and the animal spirits that spoke through Cunningham’s book, helped solidify my decision. However, my thoughts then turned to “Now what?” and I joined a coven. There was one lesson I was taught in this coven over a six-month period, and soon after the sixth month, the group was utterly disbanded due to internal problems. My first understanding and work in Wicca and Paganism in general, was stained with failure, but I went on, learning what I could from the books around me, and the experiences I had. I have read of many Eclectic Pagans struggling in this way.
I was enthralled, however, at this point, in the heart of the matter that is Wicca and Paganism today: the religion. I was not worried about the past of Wicca, I was worried about my future in it. I was not worried about whether or not the first founders of the faith were charlatans; what did it matter? Christianity has had many leaders who have been less than savory, have been more than their share of lewd, mean, murderous or barbaric, and yet, it still survives to this day as on of the world’s largest religions. This is not, as some may believe, because they are all brainwashed into “this is the only Path” but most genuinely have embraced this faith whether through their explorations of faith (i.e. the agnostic turned Christian) or the traditional cradle-Christian. What does it matter the religion, so long as the connection to Deity is made and is fulfilling for oneself?
If all we worry about is our degrees, our coven’s pedigree or our personal credibility, then we lose the focus of what religion is about. It is about connection with Deity; religion is not to be stagnant, nor is it to make oneself look better than another. Pedigree, degrees and credibility should be signs of our hard work, not the cause of it. Our goal should be the connection to Deity we forge through our everyday action, and ritual when we partake of it. Our goal should be the solemn joy of meditation and prayer, and the beautiful ecstasy of vision questing, of sexual bliss and the blessings that Deity instills in us each moment of life. Simply, I believe religion is not completely about the End, about Death or Life, but the Journey, the Wheel of Life. In Death we find Life, in the Beginning we find the End, in finding Deity, we find Our Self and vice versa.
If this is true, then we should be concerned not truly with where we have been or where are going, though these are important too, but where we are. If we are to be part of the religious movement called Paganism, what does this truly mean? Is the term Pagan an umbrella term we use to describe those not related to the Judaism-oriented faiths? Is the term Pagan a term used to describe Nature worshippers, ceremonial magicians, Wiccans, Heathens, Gardnerians and the like? As part of Paganism (I count the Nature-based religions, Heathenism, Wicca in all its forms, Khemeticism, Old Religion Reconstructionism i.e. Egyptian or Greek, ceremonial magick, and related fields/faiths as Pagan for my own clarity) should we not understand some basic concepts of what we believe?
There is inherent danger in forming an overarching idea to Paganism, and that is Dogmatism, much-feared by groups such as Eclectic Pagans, like myself. However, I found in my Eclectic wanderings and work, that I had to devote much time to understanding one book’s mindset, then switching over to another book’s mindset and finally, when I did join another coven, synthesizing the whole of what I had learned into a universal whole. If there was an overarching “We believe that Deity may be broken up into one of these ways 1, 2, 3, etc.” then I would have had a springboard into how I believe and what I believed and why. However, I must say that this transforming journey is part of why I have accept Paganism; it not only allows for individual interpretation of the Divine and Its’ many Messages, but encourages active participation in understanding and receiving them. In this, guidelines and the like can be stifling, even choking the progress of the individual, much as I found in Catholicism. The barebones guidelines might be given through a resource such as those released by specific branches of Paganism, such as Solitary through Scott Cunningham, or non-denominational Wiccan such as through Raymond Buckland. However, these resources cost money, oftentimes that which Pagans or developing Pagans (such as when I first began to explore this Path) do not have. Furthermore, not all developing Pagans are in an environment in which they may explore their faith without fear of repercussion (such as was the case in my household) or in an environment which encourages it, do to the religious atmosphere, or sometimes, in simply the books/webpages not being available.
In wanting to clarify the journey of those on specific paths, solidifying the basic concept will not work completely with their cosmology, philosophy, etc. However, my counterargument is this: for those who have come to the faith of Paganism, there should be at least some basic tenets. Not a list of commandments, not a list of die-hard rules, but tenets, something to stick to and believe in. The following could be a simple list for the Eclectic Pagan:
1) All Paths of faith are valid. All people are trying to find the Divine through their faith. Allow them to, and be allowed to.
2) All People are created with the spark of the Divine; recognizing this in all its forms is paramount. Not all around you will act as you may expect ‘Divine beings’ to. Remember that the universe is large, and that some culture’s teachers were also tricksters, like Loki or Coyote.
3) Remember The Law of Three (What energy you send out comes back to you three times) applies to every aspect of your life. Remember the Four Qualities of the Crone/Magus: To Know, To Dare, To Will, To Be Silent
4) To better ourselves, and the world around us through our learning, and our teachings.

Or, perhaps we could use the list compiled by the Council of American Witches

1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters.
2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept.
3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called "supernatural", but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all.
4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity—as masculine and feminine—and that this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be supportive to the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship.
5. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc.—and we see in the inter-action of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment.
6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership.
7. We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it—a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft—the Wiccan Way.
8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch— but neither does heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature.
9. We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it.
10. Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be "the only way" and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief.
11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and our future.
12. We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil", as defined by the Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another.
13. We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being.

Either way, some sort of direction is at the least helpful. The problem inherent with direction is that people adopt it as the ‘whole truth’. A friend of mine put the whole truth like this: “We can only see our facet of the whole gem of the whole truth. Although we have only our facet, we need to try and see as many other facets as we can, to see more of the whole truth.” We can only see a part of the whole truth, and when we limit our self to the one facet we feel comfortable with, we shut out the beauty of all the other facets that make up the beautiful gem of the whole truth. This is much the same as those who accept Paganism, but bash Christianity and call it a false path. They have shut their eye to the Path of Christianity as a valid path for spiritual enlightenment and expression. I myself have done this and it has taken much introspection (and a conversation ironically, with Jesus Christ) to accept again that Christianity is just as viable a path as my own. I have seen the truth of my friend’s words: if I shut my eyes, I don’t just shut my eyes to their facet, but to the whole beautiful gem of the whole truth.