{"id":2885,"date":"2009-12-01T01:10:53","date_gmt":"2009-12-01T06:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=2943"},"modified":"2009-11-23T15:45:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T20:45:00","slug":"pagan-theology-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/12\/01\/pagan-theology-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin: 1ex;\">\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\"><strong>Pagan theology:\u00a0 roots and  influences<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">So I\u2019m teaching a class \u201cPaganism  as a Religious Tradition\u201d and the other night I wanted to cover the  progression of modern Paganism from its inception with Gardner to the  present.\u00a0 While that\u2019s a big task, its\u2019 not as big as it seems;  I find that many of the Pagans I encounter are not well informed about  the roots of our faith, despite a very large number of books on the  subject [1].\u00a0 So a lot of detail and fippery was just as likely  to overwhelm as inform, and the class was geared toward a more general  religious seeker audience anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to do  the same old boring chronological who begat whom begat what.\u00a0 And  so I was searching for a different way to organize our history. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">But before getting into organizing  principles, I first want to talk about why history is important.\u00a0  I\u2019ve talked about this a little before, but want to mention it again  in a more general context.\u00a0 There are many different ways to use  history.\u00a0\u00a0 You can use it to justify the legitimacy of whatever  it is you are doing now.\u00a0 Nation-states are great examples of historical  precedence, and our legal system is based on the idea that what has  been decided in the past should be given weight when considering the  present.\u00a0 Religions also use the historical record as a way to  buttress legitimacy directly and indirectly.\u00a0\u00a0 The religions  of the book have an innate basis in history, without certain historical  events these religions would lose a lot of their theological underpinnings.\u00a0\u00a0  Likewise, all religions rely on tradition, ritual, and inter-generational  common practice to establish their authority over various aspects of  social life, marriage, for example.\u00a0 Changing those traditions  can be fraught with implied threats to the underpinnings of religions  place in society, as may be the case with the current resistance to  providing marriage as a civil right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Given that the modern Pagan movement  has that \u201cmodern\u201d appellation it can seem less worthy or somehow  \u201cjust made up.\u201d\u00a0 Of course people make up almost everything  except the fossil record (and sometimes even that gets fabricated).\u00a0\u00a0  I believe that our counter-argument is that Pagans do have a history,  it just wasn\u2019t written down as clearly as some others, and there were  many institutions in the West that actively attempted to suppress or  eliminate the memory of whatever was preserved [2]. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">You can also use history to understand  why some things are done or believed today.\u00a0 For example, the reason  we celebrate Christmas is because historically many different tribes  celebrated some sort of holiday around the winter solstice.\u00a0 In  particular the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, and some argue that Saturnalia  is a direct predecessor to the modern Christmas.\u00a0 Certainly the  need to celebrate the end of increasing darkness and the beginning of  the return of light is cemented in our, and other, cultures [3].\u00a0\u00a0  Understanding the origin of various things that you are doing can deepen  their meaning, and allow you to build on the past to create new practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">With the latter idea in mind, I wanted  to organize modern Pagan history in a way that both made sense and was  interesting.\u00a0 Looking across all of the various people and ideas  that contributed to what has become modern Paganism I believe you can  see several deep channels running amongst all of the tributaries, streams,  and swamps that make up everything that we are doing now.\u00a0 Those  main channels can all be traced back to the origins of modern Paganism  in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> and 19<sup>th<\/sup> centuries.\u00a0 Even though  all these elements can be found in our modern practices, to keep the  historical origins of them clear I choose to label them from their source,  as opposed to what they eventually became.\u00a0 They are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"DISC\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Spiritualism.\u00a0 This    movement, which originated in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century in America,\u00a0    was monotheistic but had a strong belief in spirits.\u00a0 It, along    with Theosophy and New Thought, was an influence on the New Age movement,    and comes down to us in the form of the human potential movement, New    Age beliefs including various forms of psychic and healing practices,    and the current fascination with ghosts and their hunters.\u00a0\u00a0    While the tradition begins with Spiritualism and Theosophy [4], the    general influence has been one of individualism and active access to    \u201cthe other side\u201d.\u00a0 This uniquely American tendency has influenced    not only the modern Pagan movement, but it has also influenced the broader    concept of religion and spirituality.\u00a0 Recently the idea of spirituality    and self-fulfillment through religion has been taken up by many other    religions, and has generated the whole \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d    trend that is seen amongst all forms of religion in the United States    [5].\u00a0\u00a0 The individualist tradition, which is perhaps a better    name for it, has also drawn and incorporated beliefs from Asia, including    Buddhism (meditation) and Hinduism (chakras).\u00a0 While Asian influences    also came into the Western Occult Tradition (for example through Crowley\u2019s    study of Yoga [6]), the most theologically influential have been those    that addressed the individual and their potential. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Romanticism.\u00a0 The romantic    tradition begins in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century with the Romantic Movement    in England, and the Transcendentalists in the United States.\u00a0 This    movement is characterized by a veneration of the natural world, which    is seen as somehow more authentic, wild, or compelling than the human.\u00a0    As part of the romantic tradition, there was a revival of interest in    ancient, and particularly Celtic\/Druidic, religious traditions in the    middle 18<sup>th<\/sup> century [7].\u00a0 This leads directly to our    current interest in revivalist traditions, Druidic, Northern, Egyptian,    and Roman\/Greek.\u00a0 For modern Pagans this tradition of seeing value    in \u201cwild nature\u201d is also related to the 1960\u2019s interest in ecology    and the natural world.\u00a0 A focus on the natural world in the 1960\u2019s    and 1970\u2019s brought the Gaia movement and earth-centered, sacred earth    beliefs, into the modern Pagan movement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Goddess cult.\u00a0 In the    early years of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century there are a number of individuals    who were speculating about ancient Pagan practices, and their meaning    in the modern world.\u00a0 Robert Graves with his book <em>The White    Goddess<\/em>, created a speculative tradition of Goddess\/God worship    across Europe.\u00a0 He created the idea of the triple Goddess, of the    sacred moon\/sun duality, and other ideas that were taken up by modern    Paganism.\u00a0 Margaret Murray in her books <em>Witch-cult in Western    Europe<\/em> and <em>God of the Witches<\/em> developed an anthropological    argument for a European-wide Goddess cult that, she speculated, had    survived into modern times.\u00a0 She argued this cult was what the    Church was trying to destroy when it began burning witches in the 13<sup>th<\/sup> through 17<sup>th<\/sup> centuries.\u00a0 While much of Graves\u2019 and    Murray\u2019s (and others [8]) work was later discredited as inaccurate    and unsubstantiated, the feminist movement in America picked it up and    incorporated it into a sacred theaology of Goddess worship. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Western Occult Tradition.\u00a0    By far one of the greatest influences on modern Paganism has been the    Western Occult Tradition.\u00a0 This loose amalgam of ritual magic,\u00a0    Occultic practices, and secret societies has been a unique feature of    the West since Pagan times.\u00a0 Working alongside the established    religious traditions the practices and beliefs of the Occult tradition    have influence both mainstream and alternative religions.\u00a0 The    primary influencers for modern Paganism have been the high ritual magical    traditions, derived from Crowley and the Golden Dawn by Gardner, the    folk traditions which drew from the Medieval Grimoires, and the practices    and rituals of the Masons (again through Gardner).\u00a0\u00a0 All of    these various high magical traditions have intertwined and interacted    in complex ways over the centuries, but they have influenced almost    everything else we are talking about here. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Traditional witchcraft.\u00a0    While Gardner is said to have derived his influences from a traditional    New Forest coven [9], most of his direct ritual and theological influences    appear to have been from the Occult and Goddess traditions (Crowley    and Murray).\u00a0 Instead, the folk traditions have seen their practices    incorporated into the modern Pagan movement more through diversity,    networking, and publications, as things have gone along.\u00a0 Examples    of traditions that have influenced modern Paganism include Cochrane,    Pickingill, and Sybil Leek [10].\u00a0 Its difficult to determine what    influence has come from a traditional practice, and what has come from    other influences, because of the use by traditional Cunning Men and    Witches of the same medieval sources that many of the Hermetic traditions    also drew from. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">These threads came together in different  ways.\u00a0 First Gardner in a brilliant combination of Witchcraft,  religion, and magic brought together the Goddess tradition, the Western  Occult tradition, and traditional into his new idea of a religiously  framed Witchcraft.\u00a0 He was associated with Crowley, and it is generally  believed he knew a lot about \u201chigh\u201d magical practices.\u00a0 Gardner  was also a Mason, and he was formulating his theories about Witchcraft  in the years (1940-1950) after the publication of Murray\u2019s books (1921  and 1933).\u00a0 His incorporation of all of these forces, along with  a healthy dose of Romanticism (which, in his case, was incorporated  as nudity), resulted in a mix that was both adaptable, and inspirational  for what would later happen in England and America in the 1960\u2019s. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">British traditional Witchcraft had  a seriousness and formality that was brought to the United States by  Raymond Buckland and others in the 1950s.\u00a0 Here it encountered  a strong naturalist and conservationist tradition, and the growing feminist  movement.\u00a0 The ideas originated by Gardner were sufficiently rich,  and adaptable, to incorporate these new ideas into the existing framework  of Witchcraft and occult tradition.\u00a0 The mix exploded in the United  States in the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s into a wide range of traditions  that mixed and matched these key elements in different ways.\u00a0\u00a0  In the 1960\u2019s people like Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Starhawk, and Z  Budapest took the basic ideas of Gardnerian Witchcraft and mixed in  an emphasis on the Goddess, nature, and New Age concepts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Each of these major threads in Pagan  history has led us to what we have today.\u00a0 In fact I\u2019d claim  that our traditions and actions could be traced back to these early  influences and how they have been combined and melded into modern practices.\u00a0  From Spiritualism we have ultimately drawn a lot of the Eastern, New  Age, related influences in our work, from healing to crystals to the  manipulation of energy within our bodies (Chakras).\u00a0 From the Romantics  we have incorporated the reverence and awe for the natural world, and  a strong movement toward Reconstructionist religious traditions.\u00a0  The Goddess Cult has given rise to feminist Witchcraft and all of the  Dianic and feminist traditions.\u00a0 It has also given us a powerful  mythology of persecution.\u00a0 While the myth of the Witch trials that  Murray created has been discredited, the idea that our religion was  essentially wiped out in Europe by modern Christianity is not a fiction.\u00a0  It reminds us that Witchcraft and Paganism have existed in the shadows  for a reason, and given us a reason to come out of the shadows. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">From the Western Occult Tradition we  take most of our formalisms, our rituals, circle castings, quarter callings,  and other actions.\u00a0 We also have all of the details we\u2019ve inherited  from that tradition, from correspondences to astrology to magical practices.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0  Witchcraft, and modern Paganism, are both direct products of that occult  tradition, and its influences can be seen and felt everywhere within  the traditions.\u00a0 Likewise traditional Witchcraft has heavily influenced  both the practices, and diversity, of the Craft movement.\u00a0 What,  exactly, was derived from traditional practices, and what was derived  from the occult traditions, is very hard to distinguish.\u00a0 Certainly  the idea of covens, of solitaires, and charms and curses are things  that derive directly from traditional practices. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">But we come back to the underlying  question of \u201cwhy does all this matter?\u201d\u00a0 It matters for many  reasons, not the least of which is that we are honoring our ancestors  (a good thing at this time of year).\u00a0\u00a0 But for me the most  important has to do with understanding where modern Paganism is going,  not where it has been.\u00a0\u00a0 A key question is \u201cis there another  influence that is ready to claim a part of modern Paganism?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0  One example might be the eclectic movement (of which I am a part) that  participates and accepts practices inspired by a wide range of Pagan  or indigenous traditions in addition to the Northern European ones.\u00a0  (You have not been to a Yule celebration until you\u2019ve been to a Shinto  inspired Yule celebration [11]).\u00a0\u00a0 Or perhaps it is the incorporation  of warrior protector traditions by those who serve our country in the  Armed Forces.\u00a0 Or hunters and low impact farmers who seek to live  out our relationship to the seasons and food in ways that are different  from how we do now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">While I don\u2019t know where modern Paganism  is going, what I do know is that Paganism is fundamentally an adaptive  and open religion.\u00a0 In that way its like open systems hardware  or software.\u00a0 The \u201ccode\u201d or \u201cDNA\u201d of Paganism is not a  fixed, closed, system that cannot be changed or undone.\u00a0 It is  constantly taking in things that fundamentally change it, and its followers,  relationship with the world and each other.\u00a0 Book religions, while  they have sects and schisms, are never as adaptable to fundamental theological  changes as is Paganism.\u00a0\u00a0 The merging of Witchcraft and Paganism,  of earth-centered values and Paganism, and of feminism and Paganism  all represent deep shifts in the very ideas behind Pagan religion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">Perhaps that is what an exploration  of our history can really teach us.\u00a0 To be open to change, to participate  in the dance of ideas, and to be ready for when a new one comes and  sweeps everything else away. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">It is up to us, all of us, to work  to build our religion on the pillars our ancestors gave us, and to thoughtfully  incorporate into it the next, and the next, and the next big idea that  comes.\u00a0 Because that is the spiral dance of the Goddess, ever changing,  never the same.\u00a0 Just as in the world, so in theology \u201cShe changes  everything she touches, and everything she touches changes, we are changers,  everything we touch can change\u201d \u2013 Starhawk <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[1] The best and perhaps the most canonical  one for the British Pagan revival is Hutton\u2019s <em>Triumph of the Moon<\/em>.\u00a0  For a less scholarly but one closer to the action you could look at  Valiente\u2019s <em>Rebirth of Witchcraft<\/em>.\u00a0 For the United States  Margo Adler\u2019s inspiring <em>Drawing Down the Moon<\/em> is essential,  but more recently Chas Clifton in <em>Her Hidden Children:\u00a0 The  Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America<\/em> has done a great job of detailing  the connections between the various threads that I discuss here.\u00a0  I\u2019d recommend them all.\u00a0\u00a0 At the same time I do not claim  any credentials as knowing anything about the history of anything, I\u2019m  just trying to put things together in ways that make sense to me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[2] What we can\u2019t claim, which is  both interesting and frustrating at the same time is that we are indigenous  practitioners of what was essentially a religious practiced based on  both place and tribe.\u00a0 We are not at that place, and, while some  of us may be related to the \u201ctribe\u201d about the only thing we tend  to share is the same last name or great-great-great grandparents.\u00a0  On the other hand this is a completely specious argument when you open  up the filters and include the book religions.\u00a0 Christianity, for  example, was essentially a Jewish sect that rearranged itself to allow  Gentiles to enter into the religion.\u00a0 Much of the legacy and Bible  ties to Judaism, which is a very tribal religion.\u00a0 Of course the  counter-argument is that Christianity and Islam, because they are deliberately  designed to break the tribal paradigm, are something completely different  than the tribal religions of their origins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[3] The whole question of holidays  is a complex one, like asking who invented the light bulb you are looking  at (Edison, right?\u00a0 But what about Sir Humphrey inventor of the  carbon arc lamp? Or, if you are looking at a CFL, Ed Hammer).\u00a0  It depends on exactly what you mean by \u201choliday\u201d and \u201cinvented.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0  For example, Christmas as we know it is a Victorian (trimmings, customs,  etc.) and a commercial (stores, wrapped gifts, etc.) invention of the  19<sup>th<\/sup> and 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries [see, for example, Stephen  Nissenbaum.\u00a0 <em>The Battle for Christmas<\/em>, New York: Alfred  A. Knopf 1997 or, if you don\u2019t want to buy it you can read a review\/summary  here: <a href=\"http:\/\/findarticles.com\/p\/articles\/mi_m2005\/is_n1_v32\/ai_21186997\/?tag=content;col1\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/findarticles.com\/p\/articles\/mi_m2005\/is_n1_v32\/ai_21186997\/?tag=content;col1<\/a>].\u00a0\u00a0  In ancient times the feast of the Nativity replaced both the celebration  of the unconquered sun (Sol Invictus), itself a relatively recently  created Roman celebration, the Saturnalia, and the Kalendae of Janus.\u00a0  But for much of its history, including Roman Pagan history, the midwinter  celebration looked more like our Halloween (pranks and misrule) rather  than our Christmas [for the best commentary on all this see Ronald Hutton.\u00a0 <em> Stations of the Sun<\/em>, Oxford, 1996 which you can also read the review  of here: <a href=\"http:\/\/findarticles.com\/p\/articles\/mi_m2005\/is_n1_v32\/ai_21186988\/?tag=content;col1\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/findarticles.com\/p\/articles\/mi_m2005\/is_n1_v32\/ai_21186988\/?tag=content;col1<\/a>].\u00a0\u00a0  The adoption of Christmas = nativity was a late one in the Church, coming  in the 300 (first association) to 500 (council of ?X) CE period. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[4]\u00a0 Theosophy is a blend of Western  Occult traditions and eastern thought constructed by HP Blavatsky in  the late 1800\u2019s [see, for example HP Blavatsky, <em>Isis Unveiled<\/em> or <em>The Secret Doctrine<\/em>].\u00a0 It is of the \u201cascended master\u201d  tradition where beings of greater wisdom and influence communicate and  assist people on this plane of existence.\u00a0 It continues to exist  in the form of the Theosophical Society.\u00a0 There are a lot of books  out recently on the whole spiritualism movement, for example Todd Leonard\u2019s <em> Talking to the Other Side: A History of Modern Spiritualism and Mediumship:  A Study of the Religion, Science, Philosophy and Mediums that Encompass  this American-Made Religion<\/em>, IUniverse Inc., 2005 was critically  acclaimed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[5]\u00a0 This trend toward being \u201cspiritual\u201d  but not participating in the social construct of \u201creligion\u201d has  been given a lot of attention in the religious studies literature.\u00a0  It has also come in for a lot of criticism as being Narcissistic and  detached from the idea of compassion, charity, and good works (a general  and common criticism of \u201cNew Age\u201d religions as well as Paganism).\u00a0  See, for example, Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, <em>The Spiritual Revolution,  why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality<\/em>, Blackwell 2005; and  Robert C. Fuller, <em>Spiritual but not Religious:\u00a0 Understanding  Unchruched America<\/em>, Oxford 2001. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[6]\u00a0 See, for example, Lawrence  Sutin, <em>Do What Thou Wilt:\u00a0 A Life of Alistair Crowley<\/em>, St.  Martins 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[7] In the first chapter of <em>The  Triumph of the Moon<\/em>,\u00a0 \u201cFinding a Language,\u201d\u00a0 Hutton  gives a detailed treatment to the evolution of Pagan ideas through the  19<sup>th<\/sup> century. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[8]\u00a0 In addition to Graves and  Murray, George McDonald Fraser with his <em>Golden Bough<\/em> was also  critically influential in establishing an underlying concept of what  ancient European Paganism looked like. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[9]\u00a0 For surveys of the origins  of modern Witchcraft in England see Hutton, Valiente, or for another  view Michael Howard (ed.), <em>The Roebuck in the Thicket:\u00a0 An Anthology  of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition<\/em>, Capall Bann 2001.\u00a0  For a survey of what happened in the United States see Adler or Clifton.\u00a0  I am assuming a basic familiarity with the story of Gardner, and some  of the other traditional British traditions that arose at roughly that  same time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[10]\u00a0 W.E. Liddell and Michael  Howard, <em>The Pickingill Papers:\u00a0 The Origin of the Gardnerian  Craft<\/em>, Capall Bann, 1994.\u00a0 Sybil Leek, <em>Diary of a Witch<\/em>,  Prentice-Hall 1968. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;\">[11]\u00a0 Before everyone I actually  agree with gets upset I\u2019ll point out that I believe that Paganism  is inherently tribal, and that my \u201ctribe\u201d is Irish\/Welsh\/Celtic  and we have enough to do to understand and claim our traditions without  bothering anyone else.\u00a0 However as an eclectic I don\u2019t mind participating  in and understanding what others do, even though I may not be drawn  to that myself. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pagan theology:\u00a0 roots and influences So I\u2019m teaching a class \u201cPaganism as a Religious Tradition\u201d and the other night I wanted to cover the progression of modern Paganism from its inception with Gardner to the present.\u00a0 While that\u2019s a big task, its\u2019 not as big as it seems; I find that many of the Pagans I encounter are not well informed about the roots of our faith, despite a very large number of books on the subject [1].\u00a0 So a lot of detail and fippery was just as likely to overwhelm as inform, and the class was geared toward a more general religious seeker audience anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to do the same old boring chronological who begat whom begat what.\u00a0 And so I was searching for a different way to organize our history. But before getting into organizing principles, I first want to talk about why history is important.\u00a0 I\u2019ve talked about this a little before, but want to mention it again in a more general context.\u00a0 There are many different ways to use history.\u00a0\u00a0 You can use it to justify the legitimacy of whatever it is you are doing now.\u00a0 Nation-states are great examples of historical precedence, and our legal system is based on the idea that what has been decided in the past should be given weight when considering the present.\u00a0 Religions also use the historical record as a way to buttress legitimacy directly and indirectly.\u00a0\u00a0 The religions of the book have an innate basis in history, without certain historical events these religions would lose a lot of their theological underpinnings.\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise, all religions rely on tradition, ritual, and inter-generational common practice to establish their authority over various aspects of social life, marriage, for example.\u00a0 Changing those traditions can be fraught with implied threats to the underpinnings of religions place in society, as may be the case with the current resistance to providing marriage as a civil right. Given that the modern Pagan movement has that \u201cmodern\u201d appellation it can seem less worthy or somehow \u201cjust made up.\u201d\u00a0 Of course people make up almost everything except the fossil record (and sometimes even that gets fabricated).\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that our counter-argument is that Pagans do have a history, it just wasn\u2019t written down as clearly as some others, and there were many institutions in the West that actively attempted to suppress or eliminate the memory of whatever was preserved [2]. You can also use history to understand why some things are done or believed today.\u00a0 For example, the reason we celebrate Christmas is because historically many different tribes celebrated some sort of holiday around the winter solstice.\u00a0 In particular the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, and some argue that Saturnalia is a direct predecessor to the modern Christmas.\u00a0 Certainly the need to celebrate the end of increasing darkness and the beginning of the return of light is cemented in our, and other, cultures [3].\u00a0\u00a0 Understanding the origin of various things that you are doing can deepen their meaning, and allow you to build on the past to create new practices. With the latter idea in mind, I wanted to organize modern Pagan history in a way that both made sense and was interesting.\u00a0 Looking across all of the various people and ideas that contributed to what has become modern Paganism I believe you can see several deep channels running amongst all of the tributaries, streams, and swamps that make up everything that we are doing now.\u00a0 Those main channels can all be traced back to the origins of modern Paganism in the 18th and 19th centuries.\u00a0 Even though all these elements can be found in our modern practices, to keep the historical origins of them clear I choose to label them from their source, as opposed to what they eventually became.\u00a0 They are: Spiritualism.\u00a0 This movement, which originated in the 18th century in America,\u00a0 was monotheistic but had a strong belief in spirits.\u00a0 It, along with Theosophy and New Thought, was an influence on the New Age movement, and comes down to us in the form of the human potential movement, New Age beliefs including various forms of psychic and healing practices, and the current fascination with ghosts and their hunters.\u00a0\u00a0 While the tradition begins with Spiritualism and Theosophy [4], the general influence has been one of individualism and active access to \u201cthe other side\u201d.\u00a0 This uniquely American tendency has influenced not only the modern Pagan movement, but it has also influenced the broader concept of religion and spirituality.\u00a0 Recently the idea of spirituality and self-fulfillment through religion has been taken up by many other religions, and has generated the whole \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d trend that is seen amongst all forms of religion in the United States [5].\u00a0\u00a0 The individualist tradition, which is perhaps a better name for it, has also drawn and incorporated beliefs from Asia, including Buddhism (meditation) and Hinduism (chakras).\u00a0 While Asian influences also came into the Western Occult Tradition (for example through Crowley\u2019s study of Yoga [6]), the most theologically influential have been those that addressed the individual and their potential. Romanticism.\u00a0 The romantic tradition begins in the 18th century with the Romantic Movement in England, and the Transcendentalists in the United States.\u00a0 This movement is characterized by a veneration of the natural world, which is seen as somehow more authentic, wild, or compelling than the human.\u00a0 As part of the romantic tradition, there was a revival of interest in ancient, and particularly Celtic\/Druidic, religious traditions in the middle 18th century [7].\u00a0 This leads directly to our current interest in revivalist traditions, Druidic, Northern, Egyptian, and Roman\/Greek.\u00a0 For modern Pagans this tradition of seeing value in \u201cwild nature\u201d is also related to the 1960\u2019s interest in ecology and the natural world.\u00a0 A focus on the natural world in the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s brought the Gaia movement and earth-centered, sacred earth beliefs, into the modern Pagan movement. Goddess cult.\u00a0 In the early years of the 20th century there are a number of individuals who were speculating about ancient Pagan practices, and their meaning in the modern world.\u00a0 Robert Graves with his book The White Goddess, created a speculative tradition of Goddess\/God worship across Europe.\u00a0 He created the idea of the triple Goddess, of the sacred moon\/sun duality, and other ideas that were taken up by modern Paganism.\u00a0 Margaret Murray in her books Witch-cult in Western Europe and God of the Witches developed an anthropological argument for a European-wide Goddess cult that, she speculated, had survived into modern times.\u00a0 She argued this cult was what the Church was trying to destroy when it began burning witches in the 13th through 17th centuries.\u00a0 While much of Graves\u2019 and Murray\u2019s (and others [8]) work was later discredited as inaccurate and unsubstantiated, the feminist movement in America picked it up and incorporated it into a sacred theaology of Goddess worship. Western Occult Tradition.\u00a0 By far one of the greatest influences on modern Paganism has been the Western Occult Tradition.\u00a0 This loose amalgam of ritual magic,\u00a0 Occultic practices, and secret societies has been a unique feature of the West since Pagan times.\u00a0 Working alongside the established religious traditions the practices and beliefs of the Occult tradition have influence both mainstream and alternative religions.\u00a0 The primary influencers for modern Paganism have been the high ritual magical traditions, derived from Crowley and the Golden Dawn by Gardner, the folk traditions which drew from the Medieval Grimoires, and the practices and rituals of the Masons (again through Gardner).\u00a0\u00a0 All of these various high magical traditions have intertwined and interacted in complex ways over the centuries, but they have influenced almost everything else we are talking about here. Traditional witchcraft.\u00a0 While Gardner is said to have derived his influences from a traditional New Forest coven [9], most of his direct ritual and theological influences appear to have been from the Occult and Goddess traditions (Crowley and Murray).\u00a0 Instead, the folk traditions have seen their practices incorporated into the modern Pagan movement more through diversity, networking, and publications, as things have gone along.\u00a0 Examples of traditions that have influenced modern Paganism include Cochrane, Pickingill, and Sybil Leek [10].\u00a0 Its difficult to determine what influence has come from a traditional practice, and what has come from other influences, because of the use by traditional Cunning Men and Witches of the same medieval sources that many of the Hermetic traditions also drew from. These threads came together in different ways.\u00a0 First Gardner in a brilliant combination of Witchcraft, religion, and magic brought together the Goddess tradition, the Western Occult tradition, and traditional into his new idea of a religiously framed Witchcraft.\u00a0 He was associated with Crowley, and it is generally believed he knew a lot about \u201chigh\u201d magical practices.\u00a0 Gardner was also a Mason, and he was formulating his theories about Witchcraft in the years (1940-1950) after the publication of Murray\u2019s books (1921 and 1933).\u00a0 His incorporation of all of these forces, along with a healthy dose of Romanticism (which, in his case, was incorporated as nudity), resulted in a mix that was both adaptable, and inspirational for what would later happen in England and America in the 1960\u2019s. British traditional Witchcraft had a seriousness and formality that was brought to the United States by Raymond Buckland and others in the 1950s.\u00a0 Here it encountered a strong naturalist and conservationist tradition, and the growing feminist movement.\u00a0 The ideas originated by Gardner were sufficiently rich, and adaptable, to incorporate these new ideas into the existing framework of Witchcraft and occult tradition.\u00a0 The mix exploded in the United States in the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s into a wide range of traditions that mixed and matched these key elements in different ways.\u00a0\u00a0 In the 1960\u2019s people like Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Starhawk, and Z Budapest took the basic ideas of Gardnerian Witchcraft and mixed in an emphasis on the Goddess, nature, and New Age concepts. Each of these major threads in Pagan history has led us to what we have today.\u00a0 In fact I\u2019d claim that our traditions and actions could be traced back to these early influences and how they have been combined and melded into modern practices.\u00a0 From Spiritualism we have ultimately drawn a lot of the Eastern, New Age, related influences in our work, from healing to crystals to the manipulation of energy within our bodies (Chakras).\u00a0 From the Romantics we have incorporated the reverence and awe for the natural world, and a strong movement toward Reconstructionist religious traditions.\u00a0 The Goddess Cult has given rise to feminist Witchcraft and all of the Dianic and feminist traditions.\u00a0 It has also given us a powerful mythology of persecution.\u00a0 While the myth of the Witch trials that Murray created has been discredited, the idea that our religion was essentially wiped out in Europe by modern Christianity is not a fiction.\u00a0 It reminds us that Witchcraft and Paganism have existed in the shadows for a reason, and given us a reason to come out of the shadows. From the Western Occult Tradition we take most of our formalisms, our rituals, circle castings, quarter callings, and other actions.\u00a0 We also have all of the details we\u2019ve inherited from that tradition, from correspondences to astrology to magical practices.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Witchcraft, and modern Paganism, are both direct products of that occult tradition, and its influences can be seen and felt everywhere within the traditions.\u00a0 Likewise traditional Witchcraft has heavily influenced both the practices, and diversity, of the Craft movement.\u00a0 What, exactly, was derived from traditional practices, and what was derived from the occult traditions, is very hard to distinguish.\u00a0 Certainly the idea of covens, of solitaires, and charms and curses are things that derive directly from traditional practices. But we come back to the underlying question of \u201cwhy does all this matter?\u201d\u00a0 It matters for many reasons, not the least of which is that we are honoring our ancestors (a good thing at this time of year).\u00a0\u00a0 But for me the most important has to do with understanding where modern Paganism is going, not where it has been.\u00a0\u00a0 A&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}