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The last few articles about Catholic anti-Paganism on the Wildhunt, have gotten me thinking about some of the most oft criticized aspects of modern Paganism. Extremely simplified, one can be paraphrased as this:
This is right up there with the Burning Times stories when it gets blasted as revisionist history and fluffy Paganism. I have to say, though, how many religions or religious movements have a literal and historically supported mythology? Neo-Wiccan/animist/neo-Paganism is a movement is trying to find an identity.
Traditional Wicca has its own mythologies, as does every cultural Pagan faith. Animist neo-Paganism does not. The stories about the Great Mother Goddess and peaceful matriarchal societies sounds very much like many hero myths to me. A lot of things are exaggerated and smoothed out to sound as fantastical as possible.
I wonder if it is really necessary to try and take that away. To my mind, there is no harm in letting Animist/Goddess worshipping neo-Paganism create their own mythology. There may not be a lot that is based in fact, but hero tales never really are (unless you find it terribly likely that Achilles really did die from a single arrow to the heal).
I have some more thinking to do on this. It may make my first article of the year.
--Phae
"The notion behind [neo-Paganism] is that there was once a magical far-off time when humans dwelt in harmony with Mother Earth ... and all was well as we worshipped the 'gods' and 'goddesses' who both expressed the beauty of Nature and got us in touch with our inmost selves."
This is right up there with the Burning Times stories when it gets blasted as revisionist history and fluffy Paganism. I have to say, though, how many religions or religious movements have a literal and historically supported mythology? Neo-Wiccan/animist/neo-Paganism is a movement is trying to find an identity.
Traditional Wicca has its own mythologies, as does every cultural Pagan faith. Animist neo-Paganism does not. The stories about the Great Mother Goddess and peaceful matriarchal societies sounds very much like many hero myths to me. A lot of things are exaggerated and smoothed out to sound as fantastical as possible.
I wonder if it is really necessary to try and take that away. To my mind, there is no harm in letting Animist/Goddess worshipping neo-Paganism create their own mythology. There may not be a lot that is based in fact, but hero tales never really are (unless you find it terribly likely that Achilles really did die from a single arrow to the heal).
I have some more thinking to do on this. It may make my first article of the year.
--Phae
