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Paganism and Neo-Paganism Practiced by the Reformed Druids of North America Is Neo-Pagan

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Paganism and Neo-Paganism Practiced by the Reformed Druids of North America Is Neo-Pagan RT1806_P.qxd 1/30/2004 3:35 PM Page 307 P Paganism and Neo-Paganism practiced by the Reformed Druids of North America is Neo-Pagan. Paganism and Neo-Paganism are religions that prac- Contemporary Neo-Pagan traditions are diverse tice, reclaim, or experiment with non- and pre- and include groups who reclaim ancient Sumerian, Christian forms of worship. The term pagan, from Egyptian, Greek, and Roman practices as well as the Latin word paganus (country dweller), was used those dedicated to reviving Druidism (the priest- by early Christians to describe what they saw as hood of the ancient Gauls) and the worship of Norse the backward, unsophisticated practices of rural peo- gods and goddesses. Traditions also include her- ple who continued to worship Roman gods after metic (relating to the works attributed to Hermes Christianity had been declared the official religion of Trismegistus) groups such as the Ordo Templo the Roman Empire in 415 CE. The term maintained a Orientis (OTO), an occult society founded in negative connotation until it was reclaimed by Germany in the late 1800s to the revive magic and Romantic (relating to a literary, artistic, and philo- mysticism; cabalistic groups who study ancient sophical movement originating in the eighteenth Hebrew mysticism; and alchemists, who practice the century) revivalists in nineteenth-century Europe. spiritual refinement of the will. By far the largest sub- Inspired by the works of early anthropologists and group within Neo-Paganism is made up of revival folklorists, who attributed spiritual authenticity to witchcraft traditions, including Wicca (revival witch- pre-Christian Europeans and the indigenous people craft). Some Neo-Pagans may mix elements from of the Third World, revivalists coined the term neo- these traditions with others borrowed from Native pagan to characterize the religions they were creating. American and Afro-Caribbean spiritualities, yielding Today the terms pagan and neo-pagan are often used highly syncretic (combining different forms) tradi- interchangeably by Neo-Pagans to emphasize the his- tions. It is therefore almost impossible to generalize torical and cultural continuity they claim with their accurately about Neo-Pagan ritual practice. spiritual forebears. Some Neo-Pagans distinguish between their own Ritual in Neo-Pagan Religions revival movement and what they call “paleo-pagan- ism” and “meso-paganism.” According to this dis- Ritual is the most important form of religious expres- tinction, paleo-paganism includes pre-Christian sion common to Neo-Pagan religions. Neo-Pagans religions, whereas meso-paganism includes the reli- emphasize ritual because of the tremendous attention gions of indigenous groups who were never fully it received from early anthropologists, folklorists, Christianized and thus never lost contact with their and religious scholars, who saw it as a set of pat- polytheistic traditions. Thus, for example, the Roman terned behaviors intended to regulate humans’ rela- state religion is paleo-pagan; indigenous Native tionships with supernatural agents such as deities or American religions are meso-pagan; and the religion ancestor spirits. Neo-Pagans have adopted this early 307 RT1806_P.qxd 1/30/2004 3:35 PM Page 308 Paganism and Neo-Paganism Stonehenge in southern England is probably the best-known symbol of pagan religion. Its location on a slight rise in the Salisbury Plain and mysteries about its origin and meaning add to its allure. COURTESY OF KAREN CHRISTENSEN. anthropological concept; but because they generally pants into the everyday world. This structure is see divinity as present in every living thing, ritual grounded in the work of twentieth-century ritual becomes a vehicle to achieve communion not only scholars such as the French sociologist Arnold Van with deities, but also with nature, community, and the Gennep, who identified three principal stages of ritu- inner self. Neo-Pagan rituals are a form of commu- al, and Victor Turner, who described ritual as “limi- nally created artistic expression that strives to give nal” (existing outside ordinary time and space). Most participants direct, transcendent experiences of the Neo-Pagan groups do not have regular meeting sacred. places such as churches or temples. Their rituals take Neo-Pagans use a variety of techniques to bring place in private homes or in public parks and meet- about these experiences. These techniques include ing places. Rituals usually begin by consecrating the meditation, music, dance, poetry, drumming, cos- space: a series of actions designed to put participants tumes, and handmade objects, as well as symbolic in a frame of mind that Neo-Pagans call “between the action and speech. The stimuli are designed to com- worlds,” that is, between the sacred world and the municate with participants’ unconscious minds, mov- everyday, mundane world. Neo-Pagan traditions dif- ing them toward both religious ecstasy and new fer in how they accomplish this, but they may use cognitive understandings. The planning and coordi- incense and saltwater to symbolically cleanse the nation of a successful ritual become an art form in and space or mark the area in which the ritual will occur of themselves, and participants may contribute by with a knife or sword blade drawn through the air or making objects for use in a ritual, playing instru- with a line of chalk on the ground. These actions ments, singing, dancing, reciting poetry, or engaging symbolically separate the ritual world from the in other art forms within the ritual context. Most Neo- everyday world. Ritualists may then summon the Pagan rituals are participatory experiences; there is spirits of the four cardinal directions (north, south, little separation between clergy and laity in these reli- east, and west) and the elements associated with each gions, and all who are present play a part in the ritu- one (earth, fire, air, and water). When the space and al performance. the participants are ready, other spiritual entities, such as deities, nature spirits, or ancestors, may be Structure of Neo-Pagan Rituals summoned into the sacred space to honor them, give thanks, or request their help for the ritual’s principal Most Neo-Pagan rituals have a three-part structure: goal. setting the stage for the primary action, performing The middle part of the ritual constitutes its core. It is the actual work of ritual, and reintegrating partici- here that the participants commune with the gods 308 RT1806_P.qxd 1/30/2004 3:35 PM Page 309 Paganism and Neo-Paganism Wiccan yearly cycle of eight sabbats (holy days, usu- ally corresponding to the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days between each solstice), there no single calendrical cycle is common to all forms of Neo-Paganism; rather, each tradition follows a yearly cycle linked to the religion or spirituality that it emu- lates. For example, members of the Fellowship of Isis in Los Angeles commemorate the Navigium Isidis, a historical ritual in which boats were launched in the A collection of ritual objects used in worship by a follower of Nile River delta to honor the goddess Isis during the Neo-Paganism in western Massachusetts in 2002. COURTESY OF month of March. At that time in old Egypt the Nile KAREN CHRISTENSEN. flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land. In the absence of the Nile, U.S. practitioners through dance, music, movement, and a technique gather at a beach along the Pacific Ocean, where they called “guided meditation,” in which a narrator tells a release into the waves small boats made of ice (which story that participants follow in their imagination. is nonpolluting) imbued with their wishes and The story may feature a journey to an imaginary tem- dreams. Practitioners of Asatru, a form of Norse ple where participants encounter gods and goddesses paganism, celebrate Walpurgisnacht, a feast sacred and receive personal messages from them. During to the Teutonic goddess Walpurga, on the night this part of the ritual participants may raise energy between 30 April and 1 May. This feast, which marks with their bodies by dancing and singing and direct it the return of spring, is characterized by drinking, toward a prearranged goal, such as world peace. dancing, feasting, and jumping over a bonfire (bale- The final part of the ritual is designed to thank and fire) for good luck. dismiss the entities with whom participants have Rites of passage mark changes in the life cycle and communed and to prepare the participants to return status of the individual. These rites include child- to ordinary reality. Sometimes food and drink are blessing rites, puberty rites, marriages and funerals. shared by all present as a symbol of fellowship. In Neo-Pagan traditions have developed rites for all some traditions this act is said to help participants these occasions. For many Neo-Pagans the most sig- return to an ordinary state of consciousness after hav- nificant rites of passage are initiations. Some tradi- ing experienced religious ecstasy. After the spirits tions require members to undergo an initiation in have been honored and saluted, the sacred circle (the order to become full participants; in other traditions, spiritually purified space wherein Neo-Pagan and initiates gain status as they progress through a hier- Wiccan rituals are usually held) is opened, and partic- archy of initiatory “degrees.” During these rites, eso- ipants return to ordinary time and space. teric knowledge is communicated to the initiates by elders in the tradition, and often by the gods them- Types of Rituals selves through visions. Initiation rites are secret in that their structure and esoteric teachings are never Neo-Pagans tend to value variety in their ritual expe- communicated to outsiders; however, they have rience, and no two rituals are ever quite the same, even some common elements. Sometimes initiates are within the same tradition or group. Nevertheless, ritu- required to undergo physical, psychological, or spiri- als can be divided into several categories.
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