The One, True Religion
They usually can be found on urban street corners or heard yelling from the TV or radio. Their rhetoric is filled with clichés and admonitions about how, if we don’t follow their particular brand of religion, we’ll suffer dire consequences. Religious zealots can be found in every religion. You never have to look too long before you find one. Trying to have a calm conversation with them about what it is they believe is usually a complete waste of time. They think they have the One, True Religion and you don’t unless you’re standing up there with them and screaming exactly the same words. And even then you might not be accepted by them as a True Believer.
It’s very easy to pass these people by and put them on your list of ‘Nut Jobs.’ And, in truth, they probably would benefit from some kind of therapy. But they aren’t the only ones to believe in The One True Religion. The fact is… we ALL do!
In spite of what many organized religions have tried to create, we all have a different idea of what the Divine is and how we relate to it. Everybody’s is different. And each of us has the One, True Religion… for us. Even people who claim no religious thoughts whatsoever have their OTR. Whatever they believe about the nature of reality and how they fit into it constitutes their spirituality. They might vehemently deny this makes up a religion because it isn’t something they’ve heard from a preacher or holy man, but it’s just as much a religion as any other. Remember, we each have our own.
If you ever want to test just how unique each person’s religion really is, try the following: On a piece of paper, put three questions with enough space in between to allow for a brief answer:
1. What is the nature of The Divine?
2. What happens to you when you die?
3. What is the best way to worship The Divine?
This is an especially interesting test when you give it to people who all belong to the same organized religion. Even if they have attended the same place of worship, you’ll get very unique and often even contradictory answers.
Of course, being Pagans, we’d expect that, right? Not so fast there, partner. In all likelihood, when you discuss what it means to be your brand of Pagan with others who profess to be the same brand, you go on the assumption that they mean the same thing as you do when they use certain words. Words like ‘the gods’ and ‘magic’ for example. But write those two words on a piece of paper and see what meanings others put to them; you might be very surprised.
My point is that we all have extremely different notions about our religious ideas but we usually operate as if everyone else has the same as ours. I’ve long held the belief that religious groups usually provide only two major additions to our personal spirituality. First, they offer an umbrella label that sort-of / kind-of gives us a model for our spiritual beliefs. This is handy because it makes the second thing happen more easily. The second thing is it offers a vocabulary by which we can talk about our spiritual thoughts. Even if we have totally different ideas of what ‘the gods’ may mean, at least we can find some communication about them that has meaning for each of us. Having some kind of model for expressing our religious concepts makes it easier to apply them in our own world. And using a common verbiage helps us discuss our spirituality with others. At the very least, that’s useful.
Most people in the Pagan scene aren’t too concerned with understanding their religion at a very deep level. Those who have been touched by the gods to become priests and priestesses will often tell you that it’s a cross between a blessing and a curse. One of the most difficult things about it is the fact that you will never stop revising your own spirituality. It will never be ‘finished.’ You’ll never feel complete in your perception of the divine and you will always long for more knowledge, more understanding, and then even more understanding. If your life flows that way, you will also likely become a minister to those around you, Pagan or otherwise. That job also has its own requirements and you will find yourself up at odd hours helping when nobody else would bother.
The Pagan priesthood is sometimes a very solitary thing, even in the middle of a crowd. Your mind will focus on something and you’ll have a million unanswerable questions about it as you carry on a second life in the ‘real’ world. Or you’ll wander aimlessly amid the philosophical possibilities, seeking out the multiplicity of meanings to a single event or sensation. The priesthood will dissect you; your mind will be beyond the clouds, your feet will walk a strange path, and your heart will be stretched across the universe. And the only thing that will hold you together will be the compelling faith that somewhere, somehow there is meaning.
But most Pagans are not in the priesthood; most are participants, not practitioners. If you follow that path, it’s likely that you’ll also be interested in the craft portion of most western Pagan traditions. You will be bombarded with information about all kinds of things that are usually not taught in your local school system. Things like herbalism, astrology, meditation, astral projection, auras, tarot reading, crystals and gems, yoga, other religions, oils and incenses, healing arts, mythology, ritual creation, seasonal changes, lunar aspects, psychic arts, familiars, crop cultivation and irrigation, sewing, spinning, kitchen witchery, lions and tigers and dragons – oh my! The list is seemingly endless. Nearly everything is of interest to those involved in the Craft. Knowledge is a drug to us and you can bet most Pagans have more books in their house than their next ten neighbors combined! And even if they don’t bother to attend any formal rituals, they too have their own One, True Religion.
One thing all the Pagan religions have in common is they are mystery religions. That is, they expect each person to find their own spiritual meaning to the cosmic events that happen around them all the time. Since no two people will experience anything in exactly the same way, the meaning for each person will be different. Revealed religions, those that have a text that provides a consistent message about the mysteries, give the illusion that all of their members have the same spiritual beliefs. This flies in the face of the evidence to the contrary but that doesn’t seem to bother them. The very fact that there are thousands of Protestant sects who all use the King James Bible but still divide themselves over its interpretation should be convincing enough. But they have a different interpretation of that problem.
Although we all generally work from the premise that other people think as we do, the truth is that isn’t the case… ever. Everyone has their own interpretation of the universe and how it’s run. And though this will always be so, it’s at least comforting to know that we can usually operate with our mutual delusion in a civil and productive fashion. When faced with what may appear to be a vast difference in beliefs, just remember that the world has been turning a long time with everyone seeing the sunrise at a different place. Our differences are part of the great machinery called humanity. And, in spite of all our differences, we’re all pretty much the same.
It’s like what the billboard on the side of the road says, “We’re a lot like you: a little different.”