Some Thoughts on Neo-Paganism

[pt_tangles]

I have been hanging around newbie boards a lot lately, and we have the standard, 'What is Paganism' questions. The standard answer always makes an appearance, but I have been beginning to wonder recently if Neo-Paganism isn't slowly becoming its own religion.

Everyone is always saying about how Wiccans are not all nature-loving stereotypes, but there are a lot of people who 'do' fit the general stereotype. If someone tells you that they are a Neo-Pagan, don't you have a pretty good idea of what they believe?

It also kind of ties into some issues of Pagan families. From what I have seen, a lot of the stuff that is aimed at small kids and families is of the generic Neo-Pagan stripe. Which does make sense if you see Wicca as a preisthood and not suitable for children. Which puts a lot of the next generation of Pagans being raised in a Neo-Pagan religion, if not in the specific trad of their parents.

Thoughts?

I am gonna xpost this one to PW, I think.

--Phae

Comments

[matrinka69.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. I've thought to myself over the past few years that the general pagan community is really the lay community, while BTW and other priesthoods are just that, priesthoods. They're adult, mystery-oriented and not really appropriate for the vast majority of people. Not because they can't do the studies, but because most people really aren't that devoted to their religions outside of the superficial stuff.

[pt_tangles]

It makes me wonder if generic Paganism isn't going to become more of a cultural thing than a religious thing. Like how so many western countries have a Christian culture.

Maybe that is a side effect of becoming more 'mainstream'. And I kind of wonder if perhaps allowing 'Paganism' to become what it will, then maybe the Mystery oriented trads can be kept what they are.

--Phae

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

To a large extent, this strikes me as the Pagan equivalent of Christian "Christmas wreaths and Easter lilies;" self-identified "Christians" who join a congregation because it is socially expected, but who actually come to services only at Christmas and Easter, and who seem to have no real religious aspect to their lives other than that.

There's a sort of "I wanna be a Pagan, and I wanna worship Nature, and I wanna Harm None, and I wanna do magic, and I wanna write my own rituals, but don't actually expect me to do this with any sort of intellectual rigor," to much of the generic Neo-pagan stuff that's out there. Like the people who got thorougly worked over at wiccan a while back becasue they were preparing an "Imbolc" ritual using five "deities," none of which were Celtic, and one of which they had just dreamed about as "perhaps being a Chinese goddess," the previous week.

Yeah, there's something there, but it's so amorphous that all too often it reminds me of the scunge one has to have sucked out of a restaurant's grease trap a couple of times a year.

[pt_tangles]

Yeah, I saw that row. I would like to think that NeoPagans can find some sort of middle ground. Not necessarily being 'Sabbat Pagans', but not being clergy either.

I think that there is a lot of work to be done, but I would like to think that it isn't impossible to create something 'Pagan' that more people can be a part of. Not every Pagan has to be a Witch. There does seem to be a Pagan Culture that has been created over the last few decades, and its ideologies are very enticing to a lot of people.

I'm not sure if that would solve any problems or create more. But it does seem pretty clear that Paganism's popularity isn't going away any time soon.

--Phae