{"id":436,"date":"2008-11-01T00:01:46","date_gmt":"2008-11-01T04:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=406"},"modified":"2008-10-23T21:07:42","modified_gmt":"2008-10-24T01:07:42","slug":"pagan-theology-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2008\/11\/01\/pagan-theology-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experiencing the work:\u00a0 What Witches Do<\/strong> [1]<\/p>\n

In the last two columns we discussed various ways in which Pagans can connect with the divine.\u00a0 We can use prayer, meditation, shamanistic journeys, ritual, magic, or other means to connect with the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 But what happens once we do connect?\u00a0 What evidence do we have for a connection in ourselves, and in others?<\/p>\n

This is a complex and important question that leads across psychology, philosophy, and theology.\u00a0 Because its so big, and I can do it so little justice even in the column space and time that I do have, we\u2019ll break this topic up into three installments, starting this month with a general discussion of the topic, and beginning a detailed discussion with the problem of desire.\u00a0\u00a0 In the next few columns we will discuss how it changes how you deal with people, and how you deal with the world.<\/p>\n

This is an important question for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 First, if we understand what to expect once \u201ccontact is made,\u201d we can establish internal criteria for our growth along the Pagan path.\u00a0 We can also recognize, as too often happens, when we are stagnant, or, heavens forbid, way far behind where we think we are!\u00a0 When we meet people who profess some experience along the path, and who wish to present themselves as learned, or as teachers, we can have some criteria to assess whether they are what they say they are.<\/p>\n

Obviously there will be a lot of different ways in which people will be affected by an encounter with the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We cannot possibly list them all.\u00a0 However we can characterize them into broad categories, then look at some examples of how people might be affected in each of those groupings.<\/p>\n

In my view encountering the Gods and Goddesses is a fundamentally transformative experience.\u00a0 It changes what we think about, and how we think about it.\u00a0 An encounter with the Gods and Goddesses opens up the expansive terrain of a reality whose limits have moved.\u00a0 The Gods and Goddesses move the markers of what is possible out, out beyond what we are thinking of as the limits of the conventional world.\u00a0\u00a0 In the process they expand not only how we think about things, but also our emotional and social reactions to the world and others.\u00a0 The scales of conventional reality fall from our eyes and we see.\u00a0 And what we see is a world that has possibilities we didn\u2019t think of before.<\/p>\n

This line of thought fits in well with what has long been a supposition of mine:\u00a0 kids are natural born Pagans [2]. For a kid of a certain age the world is a boundless unknown.\u00a0 Magic is possible, spirits live in everything and everywhere, and any new object or experience is a source of wonder.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we quickly outgrow that stage [3], but while we are there we are open to the idea of magic actually happening in the world.\u00a0 You could say that some people never outgrow that stage, and they go on to become Pagans.\u00a0 Or that some people are willing to admit that this early stage is sufficient, and nothing more is needed to explain what they encounter in the world.\u00a0\u00a0 Or that we actually manage to find a path that takes us back to this world of childhood, a path that leads away from a socially constructed world, and back into the naturally existing one.<\/p>\n

So what changes when we return to this state of childhood with our adult selves? Ultimately it has to come down to something simple, something that when you see it, catches you and turns around the way you look at everything.\u00a0 For some Christians this is the \u201cborn again\u201d experience.\u00a0 For Pagans it has to be the realization that the Gods, Goddesses, and lesser spirits actually walk with us in this world, and we can work, live, and play with them through our ritual actions.\u00a0 If you really know that the world is filled with spirit, you are going to behave differently.<\/p>\n

How will we behave differently?\u00a0\u00a0 We will change in many ways, including changes in desires, in relations with other people, and in how you view the world and how it works.\u00a0 Lets discuss each of these ways in turn for now, and perhaps by the time we get to the end we will have thought of others.\u00a0 But this is a good enough place to begin.<\/p>\n

Desire <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Buddhist tradition desire and ignorance are the roots of suffering.\u00a0 Because we want, we have a problem: whenever we get what we want we get bored and want something else.\u00a0 Only when we stop wanting everything will we truly free ourselves from the suffering that comes from want.<\/p>\n

The existentialist Christian writers, such as Kierkegaard, maintain that someone who truly believes, not just pretends, but also actually believes, has a real problem [ref].\u00a0 For them the world changes: things that used to be important become less important, or not important at all, and the drive of their belief will ultimately run everything. The world as seen through the lens of a radical and unequivocal belief will demand that radical and substantial actions be taken on the part of the believer.\u00a0 Otherwise the belief just isn\u2019t that strong.<\/p>\n

Both of these philosophies get at what I consider a fundamental of spiritual belief, that there is a basic challenge to our normal way of living that occurs when deity is encountered.\u00a0 You change, the world changes. Everything changes when you know (or believe) that the Gods and Goddesses exist.\u00a0 This fundamental re-orienting of the world is not something that is often discussed in Pagan religious discussions, perhaps because it is seen as a reflection of the \u201cborn again\u201d tradition that so pesters us in this country.\u00a0 However it is not the same.\u00a0 It is not the same because Christianity is predicated on belief, and Paganism is predicated on knowledge.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, for us, because we know, not just believe, we have fewer excuses than even the Christians do.<\/p>\n

In a Pagan theology that has us actually encountering the Gods and Goddesses, Kierkegaard\u2019s line of reasoning presents substantial challenges to our continuing to behave as if nothing happened.\u00a0 We don\u2019t just have faith, we know because we\u2019ve seen the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even have the excuse of faith to get us out of radical action based on belief.\u00a0 We are caught.<\/p>\n

At the same time our knowing of the Gods and Goddesses in this world, challenges the Buddhist contention that desire leads to suffering.\u00a0 The Gods and Goddesses exist in the same, suffering, world that we do.\u00a0 They, as we do, have desires and suffering.\u00a0\u00a0 Desire, in the Pagan [5] perspective is simply part of the world; it does not necessarily lead to suffering.\u00a0 Suffering, in its turn, is also part of the world, part of the overall way in which we, the Gods and Goddesses, and everything else in the world exists.\u00a0 To escape suffering would be to escape the world, and to escape the world would be to deny what we, and what deity, really is.<\/p>\n

But the fact that we can both be enlightened Pagans and still desire stuff does not answer the logical next question: what should we desire?<\/p>\n

Proscription of desire is a common application of religion.\u00a0 Many religions, trapped at one of the more infantile levels of spiritual progress, seem to be used mainly to tell people what they can\u2019t have.\u00a0\u00a0 Religion is often advanced as a way to keep people in line, lest they figure out there really are no rules and run amok [6]. Religion exists to channel and repress desire, so that people behave themselves.\u00a0 While this is a very naive approach to both ethics and religion, it does fulfill a very large number of those who are religions and seem to desire the structure and limits it imposes on their lives.<\/p>\n

However as Pagans we cannot get away with this sort of limited approach toward religion and desire.\u00a0 We have, and do, experience the Gods and Goddesses directly.\u00a0 This forces us to confront the existential dilemma of Kierkegaard and other that asks: \u201cthey are real, so what are you going to do?\u201d\u00a0 One would suspect that the answer would be \u201cA lot of things. Differently.\u201d\u00a0 Because we know the Gods and Goddesses firsthand, they will not let us run away or ignore them.<\/p>\n

This direct experience does not change our desires; it changes the nature of desire.\u00a0 We do not want to run amok, not because we might be punished, but because we have seen something better.\u00a0 We have an alternative, and that is in the Gods and Goddesses.<\/p>\n

After our encounter with the Gods and Goddesses, our most basic desire becomes the experience of the magical and the sacred.\u00a0 This leads, in turn, to a spiritual pilgrimage, which many of you are probably taking right now.<\/p>\n

First, having experienced the Gods and Goddesses once in circle, often when we first are called to the Pagan path, we seek to continue that sacred experience either through continued ritual practice, or through magic.\u00a0 As part of that experience involves constructing circles and worship with others, this inevitably leads to complications and intrusions into the central experience of the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0\u00a0 Anytime group activities have to be put on, we have the potential for trouble, and work.\u00a0 Eventually this intrusion of others into the relationship with the Gods and Goddesses begins to drag; there are schedules to be kept, newsletters to be published, articles to be written, and irritating people to be avoided.\u00a0 As time goes along, however, the balance between people and spirit, between organization and circle and the Gods and Goddesses, comes back into equilibrium.\u00a0 Those that reach this level understand that without the relationship with the Gods and Goddesses they can\u2019t be much use to the coven, or to Paganism in general.\u00a0 At the same time, they also understand that without the Coven, one of the central parts of public worship is missed.<\/p>\n

This sounds a lot like a progression of understanding and goals for those entering the Pagan path.\u00a0 It generally corresponds to the three degrees of initiation as laid out by Gardner.\u00a0 The first level, or the newly minted Pagan, is enthused and energized by their encounter with the Gods and Goddesses, and seeks more in the form of covens and circles with others.\u00a0 This leads to relationships and responsibility, which distracts from practices of the spirit.\u00a0 Eventually, at the third level, the sprit and the social become integrated, and brought into balance.\u00a0 The enthusiasm and ability to speak with the Gods and Goddesses becomes manifest in your relationship with others, and the world.<\/p>\n

It is this melding, or integrated spiritual practice, that fulfills all of the spiritual desires of the Pagan, both religious and mystical.\u00a0 The mystical encounter with the Gods and Goddesses provides a center of calm and balance, and perspective, on how you deal with the world and the other individuals in it.\u00a0 There is no desire to play political games, or to squabble or criticize, as you can see such things in the context of the radical proposition of the Gods and Goddesses\u2019 existence.\u00a0 Likewise you don\u2019t have the same overeager and naive approach toward the mystical experience, having grounded it in much practice and relationships with others.\u00a0 Your feet are in the ground of community worship, while your head is in the radical experience of the Gods and Goddesses.<\/p>\n

Defining the trajectory of desire for Pagans leads us not to discussions about naughtiness, but rather how our direct relationships with the Gods and Goddesses affect our relationships in the world.\u00a0 How do you integrate the Gods and Goddesses into your beliefs about everyday living?\u00a0 As Pagans we have no choice, they will be present, its how we react to them and use the knowledge of their presence that really matters.<\/p>\n

But we started off with desire. What is the fate of desire in the face of the radical proposition that the Gods and Goddesses exist?\u00a0 To understand desire we needed to understand the process of maturation and growth through a Pagan spirituality.\u00a0 Initially the relationship between spiritual experiences and desire out in the \u201creal world\u201d is not very clear.\u00a0 We may desire, strongly, to \u201cbe\u201d a Pagan, to have the label as a witch or the standing of an initiated level.\u00a0 However as we work in ritual and magical practice we learn firsthand what love and community will give us.\u00a0 It is not the object of \u201cbeing\u201d a Pagan that appeals to us; rather it is the reality of the Pagan experience, which keeps calling to us again and again.<\/p>\n

If our faith and practice lasts, over the years the nature of the work begins to affect how we look at the world.\u00a0 The world becomes full of the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 It becomes our sacred project, a project that results in our changing how we treat others, our ambitions, and ourselves.\u00a0 If you truly see and have experienced the presence of the Gods and Goddesses, then you would not treat a sacred world badly, nor would you treat another within whom the Gods and Goddesses dwelled disrespectfully.\u00a0\u00a0 In the end you get wisdom, and wisdom changes what you desire.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine who became a witch by going to the local Goddess bookstore started off by threatening to, jokingly; hex everyone at work (including me!).\u00a0 While we kept joking about her not being allowed to hex at work, she kept at her path.\u00a0 Four years after she started going to circle we had a serious talk about what her path had done for her.\u00a0 \u201cIt makes me want to be a better person, it makes me want to do the right thing, to change my life in a way that the Catholic Church doesn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 That is the desire that the Gods and Goddesses inspire.\u00a0 They do it without a lot of fuss, without intimidation, without guild, but softly, with guile and patience, a patience that comes from the stones, and trees, and breath of the Earth.<\/p>\n

[1] This is a direct allusion to Stewart Farrar\u2019s book What Witches Do:\u00a0 A Modern Coven Revealed.\u00a0 1983.\u00a0 Not because I believe in what they say about Alexandrian Witchcraft in the book will help you figure out what I\u2019m talking about, but because at least some of this column was inspired by a recent meeting with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone.\u00a0\u00a0 A meeting that showed me very clearly what it is like for someone to be far long the path of spiritual development as a Priest, Priestess, or Witch.<\/p>\n

[2] There is another interesting argument, which we\u2019ll discuss later that says that the \u201cground state\u201d of human religious experience is polytheistic.\u00a0 Not only are kids born Pagans, but humanity was born Pagan as well.\u00a0 Only after it grew up, went to work, and got a job did the monotheistic exclusionists take over.\u00a0 Probably to make sure we all went to work, but I digress…<\/p>\n

[3] There is yet another line of argument in the psychological literature (James Fowler, Stages of Faith, HarperOne, 1995) that says we go through various stages in our faith development, much like we may go through stages in our psychological development.\u00a0 The usual evolution seems to be from an intuitive and mythic approach to faith to one that acknowledges the truth inherent in all faiths and the transcendence of any one path.\u00a0 In my opinion this type of psychological characterization of faith is a little weird when applied to Pagan faiths, and seems mostly directed at western Christian faiths where there is often a process of conformity followed by questioning and acceptance.<\/p>\n

[4] Kierkegaard also sets up a kind of progression in his work: from \u201cchildish Christianity\u201d which is a tendency to venerate the external manifestations of the Church and Christ to \u201cobjective Christianity\u201d which is a definition of being Christian because one adheres to the tenants of Christianity, to \u201csubjective Christianity\u201d which is confronting the existential, subjective, questions posed by faith.\u00a0 (See the \u201cConclusion\u201d section of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Soren Kierkegaard, (Swenson and Lowrie trans.) Princeton, 1968.)<\/p>\n

[5] Here I\u2019m talking specifically about the western deconstructionist paganism, not world paganism.\u00a0 Whether to include Buddhism in Paganism is an ongoing debate that we won\u2019t get into here.\u00a0 Suffice to say there is always a question about the more ethereal sorts of Buddhism as to whether it is even a religion vice a philosophical outlook.\u00a0 The more practical, every day, sorts of Buddhism as are often practiced in Asia clearly fit into a Pagan construct.<\/p>\n

[6] Fowler argues that the first stage of faith is simple wish fulfillment, through certainty and unreflective faith, until, ultimately you may reach a sort of integrative faith that is open to all things, even those that threaten your concept of self worth.\u00a0 While all this is thoroughly doused with psychological speak, it does provide a framework for discussing how different people integrate faith into their lives at different times in their life.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Pagan experience, which is sort of a combination of the first and later stages (magic plus openness)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experiencing the work:\u00a0 What Witches Do [1] In the last two columns we discussed various ways in which Pagans can connect with the divine.\u00a0 We can use prayer, meditation, shamanistic journeys, ritual, magic, or other means to connect with the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 But what happens once we do connect?\u00a0 What evidence do we have for a connection in ourselves, and in others? This is a complex and important question that leads across psychology, philosophy, and theology.\u00a0 Because its so big, and I can do it so little justice even in the column space and time that I do have, we\u2019ll break this topic up into three installments, starting this month with a general discussion of the topic, and beginning a detailed discussion with the problem of desire.\u00a0\u00a0 In the next few columns we will discuss how it changes how you deal with people, and how you deal with the world. This is an important question for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 First, if we understand what to expect once \u201ccontact is made,\u201d we can establish internal criteria for our growth along the Pagan path.\u00a0 We can also recognize, as too often happens, when we are stagnant, or, heavens forbid, way far behind where we think we are!\u00a0 When we meet people who profess some experience along the path, and who wish to present themselves as learned, or as teachers, we can have some criteria to assess whether they are what they say they are. Obviously there will be a lot of different ways in which people will be affected by an encounter with the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We cannot possibly list them all.\u00a0 However we can characterize them into broad categories, then look at some examples of how people might be affected in each of those groupings. In my view encountering the Gods and Goddesses is a fundamentally transformative experience.\u00a0 It changes what we think about, and how we think about it.\u00a0 An encounter with the Gods and Goddesses opens up the expansive terrain of a reality whose limits have moved.\u00a0 The Gods and Goddesses move the markers of what is possible out, out beyond what we are thinking of as the limits of the conventional world.\u00a0\u00a0 In the process they expand not only how we think about things, but also our emotional and social reactions to the world and others.\u00a0 The scales of conventional reality fall from our eyes and we see.\u00a0 And what we see is a world that has possibilities we didn\u2019t think of before. This line of thought fits in well with what has long been a supposition of mine:\u00a0 kids are natural born Pagans [2]. For a kid of a certain age the world is a boundless unknown.\u00a0 Magic is possible, spirits live in everything and everywhere, and any new object or experience is a source of wonder.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we quickly outgrow that stage [3], but while we are there we are open to the idea of magic actually happening in the world.\u00a0 You could say that some people never outgrow that stage, and they go on to become Pagans.\u00a0 Or that some people are willing to admit that this early stage is sufficient, and nothing more is needed to explain what they encounter in the world.\u00a0\u00a0 Or that we actually manage to find a path that takes us back to this world of childhood, a path that leads away from a socially constructed world, and back into the naturally existing one. So what changes when we return to this state of childhood with our adult selves? Ultimately it has to come down to something simple, something that when you see it, catches you and turns around the way you look at everything.\u00a0 For some Christians this is the \u201cborn again\u201d experience.\u00a0 For Pagans it has to be the realization that the Gods, Goddesses, and lesser spirits actually walk with us in this world, and we can work, live, and play with them through our ritual actions.\u00a0 If you really know that the world is filled with spirit, you are going to behave differently. How will we behave differently?\u00a0\u00a0 We will change in many ways, including changes in desires, in relations with other people, and in how you view the world and how it works.\u00a0 Lets discuss each of these ways in turn for now, and perhaps by the time we get to the end we will have thought of others.\u00a0 But this is a good enough place to begin. Desire In the Buddhist tradition desire and ignorance are the roots of suffering.\u00a0 Because we want, we have a problem: whenever we get what we want we get bored and want something else.\u00a0 Only when we stop wanting everything will we truly free ourselves from the suffering that comes from want. The existentialist Christian writers, such as Kierkegaard, maintain that someone who truly believes, not just pretends, but also actually believes, has a real problem [ref].\u00a0 For them the world changes: things that used to be important become less important, or not important at all, and the drive of their belief will ultimately run everything. The world as seen through the lens of a radical and unequivocal belief will demand that radical and substantial actions be taken on the part of the believer.\u00a0 Otherwise the belief just isn\u2019t that strong. Both of these philosophies get at what I consider a fundamental of spiritual belief, that there is a basic challenge to our normal way of living that occurs when deity is encountered.\u00a0 You change, the world changes. Everything changes when you know (or believe) that the Gods and Goddesses exist.\u00a0 This fundamental re-orienting of the world is not something that is often discussed in Pagan religious discussions, perhaps because it is seen as a reflection of the \u201cborn again\u201d tradition that so pesters us in this country.\u00a0 However it is not the same.\u00a0 It is not the same because Christianity is predicated on belief, and Paganism is predicated on knowledge. Unfortunately, for us, because we know, not just believe, we have fewer excuses than even the Christians do. In a Pagan theology that has us actually encountering the Gods and Goddesses, Kierkegaard\u2019s line of reasoning presents substantial challenges to our continuing to behave as if nothing happened.\u00a0 We don\u2019t just have faith, we know because we\u2019ve seen the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even have the excuse of faith to get us out of radical action based on belief.\u00a0 We are caught. At the same time our knowing of the Gods and Goddesses in this world, challenges the Buddhist contention that desire leads to suffering.\u00a0 The Gods and Goddesses exist in the same, suffering, world that we do.\u00a0 They, as we do, have desires and suffering.\u00a0\u00a0 Desire, in the Pagan [5] perspective is simply part of the world; it does not necessarily lead to suffering.\u00a0 Suffering, in its turn, is also part of the world, part of the overall way in which we, the Gods and Goddesses, and everything else in the world exists.\u00a0 To escape suffering would be to escape the world, and to escape the world would be to deny what we, and what deity, really is. But the fact that we can both be enlightened Pagans and still desire stuff does not answer the logical next question: what should we desire? Proscription of desire is a common application of religion.\u00a0 Many religions, trapped at one of the more infantile levels of spiritual progress, seem to be used mainly to tell people what they can\u2019t have.\u00a0\u00a0 Religion is often advanced as a way to keep people in line, lest they figure out there really are no rules and run amok [6]. Religion exists to channel and repress desire, so that people behave themselves.\u00a0 While this is a very naive approach to both ethics and religion, it does fulfill a very large number of those who are religions and seem to desire the structure and limits it imposes on their lives. However as Pagans we cannot get away with this sort of limited approach toward religion and desire.\u00a0 We have, and do, experience the Gods and Goddesses directly.\u00a0 This forces us to confront the existential dilemma of Kierkegaard and other that asks: \u201cthey are real, so what are you going to do?\u201d\u00a0 One would suspect that the answer would be \u201cA lot of things. Differently.\u201d\u00a0 Because we know the Gods and Goddesses firsthand, they will not let us run away or ignore them. This direct experience does not change our desires; it changes the nature of desire.\u00a0 We do not want to run amok, not because we might be punished, but because we have seen something better.\u00a0 We have an alternative, and that is in the Gods and Goddesses. After our encounter with the Gods and Goddesses, our most basic desire becomes the experience of the magical and the sacred.\u00a0 This leads, in turn, to a spiritual pilgrimage, which many of you are probably taking right now. First, having experienced the Gods and Goddesses once in circle, often when we first are called to the Pagan path, we seek to continue that sacred experience either through continued ritual practice, or through magic.\u00a0 As part of that experience involves constructing circles and worship with others, this inevitably leads to complications and intrusions into the central experience of the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0\u00a0 Anytime group activities have to be put on, we have the potential for trouble, and work.\u00a0 Eventually this intrusion of others into the relationship with the Gods and Goddesses begins to drag; there are schedules to be kept, newsletters to be published, articles to be written, and irritating people to be avoided.\u00a0 As time goes along, however, the balance between people and spirit, between organization and circle and the Gods and Goddesses, comes back into equilibrium.\u00a0 Those that reach this level understand that without the relationship with the Gods and Goddesses they can\u2019t be much use to the coven, or to Paganism in general.\u00a0 At the same time, they also understand that without the Coven, one of the central parts of public worship is missed. This sounds a lot like a progression of understanding and goals for those entering the Pagan path.\u00a0 It generally corresponds to the three degrees of initiation as laid out by Gardner.\u00a0 The first level, or the newly minted Pagan, is enthused and energized by their encounter with the Gods and Goddesses, and seeks more in the form of covens and circles with others.\u00a0 This leads to relationships and responsibility, which distracts from practices of the spirit.\u00a0 Eventually, at the third level, the sprit and the social become integrated, and brought into balance.\u00a0 The enthusiasm and ability to speak with the Gods and Goddesses becomes manifest in your relationship with others, and the world. It is this melding, or integrated spiritual practice, that fulfills all of the spiritual desires of the Pagan, both religious and mystical.\u00a0 The mystical encounter with the Gods and Goddesses provides a center of calm and balance, and perspective, on how you deal with the world and the other individuals in it.\u00a0 There is no desire to play political games, or to squabble or criticize, as you can see such things in the context of the radical proposition of the Gods and Goddesses\u2019 existence.\u00a0 Likewise you don\u2019t have the same overeager and naive approach toward the mystical experience, having grounded it in much practice and relationships with others.\u00a0 Your feet are in the ground of community worship, while your head is in the radical experience of the Gods and Goddesses. Defining the trajectory of desire for Pagans leads us not to discussions about naughtiness, but rather how our direct relationships with the Gods and Goddesses affect our relationships in the world.\u00a0 How do you integrate the Gods and Goddesses into your beliefs about everyday living?\u00a0 As Pagans we have no choice, they will be present, its how we react to them and use the knowledge of their presence that really matters. But we started off with…<\/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-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","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=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}