Abstract
As increasing numbers of people in industrial or post-industrial societies refuse or withdraw from traditional religions, there are some who have begun to blend some of the best traditions from the pre-Christian era with new inspirations. Paganism is a significant social movement with millions of participants worldwide. It is syncretic, very flexible in organization, and does not discriminate based on birth, sex, sexual orientation, health or handicap, or other religious commitments. Pagans say “Yes” to embodied life on Earth and celebrate the many ways we have to enjoy it; yet, in many cases, they also make a serious commitment to renewing the land and seeking social justice. Paganism promotes self-confidence, responsibility for one’s actions, research skills, and stewardship of the natural world. Beliefs, rituals, and observations vary, but they are usually based upon solar and lunar cycles and thus help Pagans attune themselves to the specificities of where they are in time and space, reminding practitioners of the many blessings they enjoy. There is not a simple answer to how Pagans relate to deities, but it has been generalized that they often experience an awakening or enhancement of their powers in partnership with these deities, which they may or may not regard as objectively real. Paganism is committed to the use and enjoyment of humankind’s only truly unlimited resource: our imagination, and to cultivating the virtue of gratitude, which will enable us to make the most of everything else.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Ananta Kumar Giri, “The Calling of Practical Spirituality,” Gandhi Marg: Quarterly Journal of the Gandhi Peace Foundation. Volume 36, No. 2 (July–December 2014, pp. 203–225).
- 2.
Some religions have a tendency to demonize the beliefs, practices, and deities of their competition when they are unable to co-opt them. However, Pagans do not believe in any animate force of evil, and they do believe in humans taking responsibility for their actions rather than blaming them on supernatural entities. Death, decay, and the emergence of new life forms are all part of nature’s cycles and they believe that one does better to understand and accept them than to fear and avoid what can’t be changed. Some Pagans, notably Wiccans, identify themselves as witches and others do not, but the figure of the witch is disassociated from Christian and folkloric traditions that consider them as evildoers. Traditional Wiccans adhere to a code called the Wiccan Rede, which essentially advocates that one may do as one likes so long as it does not harm others.
- 3.
Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 4.
- 4.
The surveys, statistics, and general observations I discuss are all from English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, and Great Britain), where Anglo-Saxon forms of Neopaganism are most prevalent. Resurgent Native Faiths in the New World or in formerly colonized countries and Slavic, Baltic, Classical, and Scandinavian forms of Paganism or Heathenism, Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions such as Voudoun and Santeria, or the many different forms of witchcraft found worldwide are related topics beyond the scope of this chapter.
- 5.
James R. Lewis, “The Pagan Explosion Revisited: A Statistical Postmortem on the Teen Witch Phenomenon,” University of Tromsø: Article under Review (2013), p. 2.
- 6.
Sian Lee Macdonald Reid, Disorganized Religion: An Exploration of the Neopagan Craft in Canada (Doctoral thesis, Carleton University, Ottawa, 2001), pages are not numbered.
- 7.
Jason Pitzl-Waters, “Canada’s 25495 Pagans and 7.8 Million Nones,” The Wild Hunt (May 18, 2013). http://wildhunt.org/2013/05/canadas-25495-pagans-and-7-8-million-nones.html, accessed on May 26, 2014.
- 8.
Jason Pitzl-Waters, “Modern Pagan Religions Now Over 80k in England and Wales,” The Wild Hunt (December 11, 2012). http://wildhunt.org/2012/12/modern-pagan-religions-now-over-80k-in-england-and-wales.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 9.
Radhika Sanghiani, “Church of England Creating Pagan Church to Recruit Members,” The Daily Telegraph (June 21, 2013). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10133906/Church-of-England-creating-pagan-church-to-recruit-members.html?fb, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 10.
Historian Ronald Hutton writes: “the unique significance of pagan witchcraft to history is that it is the only religion which England has ever given the world. The English have always developed their own distinctive versions of other religious systems ever since their state acquired an identity, but this is the first which has ever originated in it, and spread from there to many other parts of the world” (1999: vii). I have strong doubts that the campaign to lure Pagans into “a pagan church where Christianity [is] very much in the centre” will be successful—especially if they contemptuously refuse to capitalize the word Pagan—but it demonstrates that the Church knows and acknowledges its adversary. R. Hutton , op. cit., p. vii.
- 11.
J. Lewis, op. cit., p. 5.
- 12.
S. Reid, op. cit., pages not numbered; J Lewis, op. cit., p. 2; Patheos.com, “How Many Pagans Are There?” http://www.patheos.com/Library/Answers-to-Frequently-Asked-Religion-Questions/How-many-Pagans-are-there.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 13.
Steve Doughty. “Just 800,000 Worshippers Attend a Church of England Service on the Average Sunday.” Mail Online (March 22, 2014). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586596/Just-800-000-worshipers-attend-Church-England-service-average-Sunday.html, accessed on May 3, 2015.
- 14.
Archbishops’ Research Council, Research and Statistics Department. Statistics for Mission 2012 (London: ARC Central Secretariat, 2014), pp. 4–8. Available at: https://churchofengland.org/media/1936517/statistics%20for%20mission%202012.pdf, accessed on May 3, 2015.
- 15.
David Voas and Laura Watt, “The Church Growth Research Programme Report on Strands 1 and 2 Numerical Change in Church Attendance: National, Local and Individual Factors.” http://www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk/UserFiles/File/Reports/Report_Strands_1_2_rev2.pdf, accessed May 3, 2015.
- 16.
“Closed Churches Available for Disposal.” https://www.churchofengland.org/clergy-office-holders/pastoralandclosedchurches/closedchurches/closed-churches-available.aspx, accessed on May 3, 2015.
- 17.
Pew Research Center, Cary Funk and Greg Smith, Senior Researchers, “Nones” on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation (October 9, 2012), p. 16. http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx, accessed on June 22, 2013; D. Voas and L. Watt, op. cit., pp. 9–10.
- 18.
J Lewis, op. cit., p. 1.
- 19.
Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, Second Edition (Coral Springs, FL: Llumina Press, 2004), p. 2.
- 20.
Phyllis Curott, Witch Crafting (New York, NY: Broadway Books, 2001), pp. 30–31.
- 21.
Jeffrey Pierce, Principles of Magick (Salem, OR: Sage and Scribe LLC, 2013), p. 29.
- 22.
Margarian Bridger and Stephen Hergest, “Pagan Deism: Three Views,” The Pomegranate, 1 (February 1997), p. 37, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass of Apuleius, trans. W. Adlington, 1566 (New York, NY: The Modern Library, 1928).
- 25.
Doreen Valiente, “Charge of the Goddess.” http://doreenvaliente.org/2009/06/poem-the-charge-of-the-goddess/, accessed on June 22, 2013. This is one of the most important pieces in the modern Pagan/Wiccan liturgy and can be found in many books and on websites.
- 26.
M Bridger and S Hergest, op. cit., p. 37.
- 27.
P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, “Belief, Trust, and Faith without Creedalism for Modern Pagans” (January 25, 2013). http://www.patheos.com/Pagan/Pagan/Belief-Trust-Faith-Sufenas-Virius-Lupus-01-25-2013.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 28.
T. Thorn Coyle, “Why I am Not a Believer,” The Huffington Post (June 6, 2013). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-thorn-coyle/why-i-am-not-a-believer_b_3394044.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 29.
Ananta Kumar Giri, op. cit., pp. 212–213.
- 30.
Bishop, Teo, 2013. “Crowdsourcing Pagan Theology,” The Wild Hunt. www.wildhunt.org/2013/04/crowdsourcing-pagan-theology.html#disqus_thread, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 31.
D Valiente, op. cit.
- 32.
Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 392.
- 33.
Quoted by Jason Pitzl-Waters, “Quick Notes: Pagan Councils, Fundamentalism Clarifications, and the Green Man,” The Wild Hunt, (February 4, 2013). www.wildhunt.org/2013/02/quick-notes-pagan-councils-fundamentalism-clarifications-and-the-green-man.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 34.
For a good diversity of answers, please see the discussion among Wild Hunt readers facilitated by T Bishop (op. cit.). I also posted on this page, writing: “I believe there is a unified matrix of being, becoming and potential. It can be called Goddess or something else (Tao might also be apt) by those who are so inclined, but of course those are metaphors. Consciousness is one of its integral properties. It may be embodied or non-embodied, and it moves in swirls and eddies through space, time, and ‘matter.’ Some of this consciousness naturally resides in us—we seem to be particularly dense receptacles for it—and some moves perceptibly through us, as in communication, or it moves beyond our faculties of perception and we can only witness the results. Deities are part of this mystery.”
- 35.
See also Scott Cunningham, Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2004) and www.oldways.com.
- 36.
Raymond Buckland, Wicca for One: The Path of Solitary Witchcraft (New York, NY: Citadel Press Books, 2004); also S Cunningham, op. cit.
- 37.
S Cunningham, ibid.
- 38.
I originally encountered this poem on a Pagan website with the word “God” removed and did not realize the omission until checking the citation. Although Cummings did not profess Paganism, he was born into a Unitarian family and expressed a thoroughgoing transcendentalism or pantheism throughout his life and his works. In any case, since Pagans have many different orientations toward deity it is still suitable for appropriation. Perhaps also significantly, the Unitarian Universalist church has in recent years incorporated elements of Wicca and other Pagan faiths, including worship of a Goddess (on occasion), and the adoption into their official statement on the sources for basing current practice: “Spiritual teachings of earth-entered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” In 2006, only 20% of Unitarian Universalists professed to be Christian, and the rest described themselves as “monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, humanist , agnostic, deist, atheist or pagan.” James Ishmael Ford, Zen Master Who? (Seattle, WA: Wisdom Publications, 2006), p. 187.
- 39.
Brendan Myers cites a quote provided by the explorer Amundsen from a shaman he encountered who went out alone for many months “until I could finally hear the voice of the Universe. And the voice of the Universe is that of a mother calling after her beloved children. That is my real magic” in Brendan Myers, Loneliness and Revelation: A Study of the Sacred (Winchester, UK: O Books, 2010).
- 40.
Sean Donahue, “Ecstasy and Revelation,” Gods and Radicals: A Site of Beautiful Resistance (May 4, 2015). http://godsandradicals.org/2015/05/04/ecstasy-and-revolution/, accessed May 5, 2015.
- 41.
Brendan Myers, Loneliness and Revelation: A Study of the Sacred (Winchester: O Books, 2010); Brendan Myers, The Other Side of Virtue: Where our Virtues Came From, What They Really Mean, and Where They Might be Taking Us (Winchester: O Books, 2008); Brendan Myers, Circles of Meaning, Labyrinths of Fear: The Twenty-Two Relationships of a Spiritual Life and Culture—And Why They Need Protection (Hants: Moon Books, 2012).
- 42.
B Myers 2010, op. cit., p. 81.
- 43.
B Myers, 2008, op. cit., p. 231.
- 44.
Ibid., pp. 321–333.
- 45.
“In 2008, there were 25,000 self-identifying American Scientologists, down by over a half from 55,000 in 2001, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. (Over the same time period, the number of Wiccans more than doubled from 134,000 to 342,000).”
Jason Pitzl-Waters, “Scientology and the Paths Wicca Didn’t Take,” The Wild Hunt (January 16, 2013). www.wildhunt.org/2013/01/scientiology-and-the-paths-wicca-didn’t-take.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 46.
D. Voas and L. Watt, op. cit., pp. 17–19.
- 47.
Another sign that Paganism is not only increasingly prevalent but also entering American mainstream society that the Book Industry Study Group recently reclassified Paganism , Neopaganism, Wicca, and Witchcraft from the “occult” to the “religion” category in its Book Industry Subject and Category (BISAC) codes. While these codes are not usually seen by consumers, they are used by publishers and purchasers for bookstores and libraries to classify books by content, and therefore influence which books reach the shelves. Elysia Gallo, “The Biggest Pagan News That No One Is Talking About” (January 18, 2013). http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2013/01/the-biggest-pagan-news-that-no-one-is-talking-about/, accessed on May 2, 2015.
- 48.
Choose your preferred figure for Anglophone Neopagans above, then factor in others who follow other Pagan traditions such as Nordic Heathenism, Greek/Roman, Egyptian, Ancient Middle Eastern, African Syncretic, Baltic, Slavic, Native Faiths, and so on.
- 49.
Helen Berger, cited by Jason Pitzl-Waters, “Circling Alone: Paganism’s Solitary Eclectic Future” (November 29, 2011), Patheos.com (a server that claims to be “the premier online destination to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality and to explore and experience the world’s beliefs”). http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/11/circling-alone-paganisms-solitary-eclectic-future.html, accessed on June 22, 2013.
- 50.
Helen Berger, private correspondence.
- 51.
Albert Schweitzer quoted by B Myers 2010, op. cit., p. 210.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reidinger, M. (2018). Paganism as Practical Spirituality. In: Giri, A. (eds) Practical Spirituality and Human Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0803-1_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0803-1_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0802-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0803-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)