THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
[from http://www.oakgrove.org/GreenPages/bos/0329.txt ] Subject: A LITTLE LESS MISUNDERSTANDING (What Christians Don't Understand about Neopaganism) by J. Brad Hicks Q: Are you a witch? A: That's actually a tricky question to answer, so let me g o about it in a round-about way. What I am is a Neopagan. Neopaganism is a beautiful, complex religion that is not in opposition to Christianity in any way - just different. Howeve r, some of the people that the Catholic church burned as "witche s" were people who practiced the same things that I do. In identification with them and the suffering that they went throug h, some of us (Neopagans) call ourselves witches. One expert, P.E.I. Bonewits, says that there are actually several kinds of grou ps who call themselves "witches." Some are people whose ancestors we re the village healers, herbalists, midwives, and such, many of wh om had (or were ascribed to have) mental, psychic, or magical powers, which were passed down through the family in the form of oral trad ition, and Bonewits calls them "Traditional Witches." Some are peop le who have deliberately used the term to oppose themselves to Christi anity, are practicing "Satanists," and practice (deliberately) most of the practices invented by the Inquisitors. Bonewits calls them "G othic" or "Neo-Gothic Witches." Of a different kind are some radical feminist groups, who call themselves witches because they believ e that the original Inquisition was primarily anti-female; some o f these also practice magic, many of them do not - Bonewits cal ls them "Feminist Witches." But the vast majority of modern witches are harmless people who worship God in many forms, including the Lord of the Dance, the Lady, and the Mother Earth. These are th e people that Bonewits (and I) call"Neopagan Witches" - and this is what I am. I hope that this helps more than it confuses. Q: Are you a devil worshipper? A: I'm tempted to just say, "No!" and leave it at that, but th at probably isn't enough. Devil worship (including Satanism ) is really a Christian heresy. (If you don't believe me, ask an ex pert - say, any well-read pastor or theology professor.) In order to w orship Satan, you have to believe in him - and there are no referen ces to Satan outside of the Christian Bible. So to be a Satanist or a devil worshipper, you have to believe in the accuracy of the Chr istian Bible, then identify yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that yo u are "evil," and then try to "fight against Jesus" or similar nonsense. Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as a sou rce of truth. As a source of some beautiful poetry, sometimes, or as a source of myth, but not as a source of truth. Emphatically, we do not believe that God has an Opposite, an evil being trying to d estroy God, the world, man, or whatever. So it is non-sensical to sa y that Neopagans worship Satan. Of course, many people insist that a ny god other than JHVH/Jesus (and his other Biblical names) is a demon or an illusion created by Satan. Well, you're welcome to believe t hat if you like - but over half of the world's population is going to be unhappy at you. Jews and followers of Islam are just as con fident that they worship the True God as you are, and resent being called devil worshippers. So do I. Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD 329 Q: What do Neopagans believe about God? A: Neopaganism is a new religion with very, very old roots. I t harks back to the first religions that man ever practiced (based on the physical evidence). Neopagans worship a variety of symbo ls from the Old Religions - the practices of the ancient Celts, t he Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans - and differ with each othe r over what those symbols really represent. What I (and many o thers) believe is that they are all aspects of God (or maybe, the God s) - some kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force tha t ties all of life together and is the origin of all miracles - inc luding miracles such as written language, poetry, music, art ... Q: Do Neopagans have a Bible? A: Not most of us. The closest analogue would be a witch's Bo ok of Shadows, which is a sort of notebook of legends, poetry, hi story, and magic ritual which is copied by every newly-initiated witch, then added to. But on the whole, even a Book of Shadows isn' t what Christians think of as a Bible. It's not infallible (couldn 't be, they've been brought to us via hastily-copied texts under trying circumstances), it doesn't prescribe a specific code of mo rality (except for a few general guidelines), and it doesn't claim to be dictated by God - except for a few, debatable parts. Those of us who aren't witches don't even have that much. Neopaganism is a religious system that relies more on the individual than on the Book or the Priest. One of the principal beliefs of Neopagan ism is that no one, not Pope nor Priest nor Elder, has the ri ght to interfere with your relationship to God. Learn from whomev er you want, and pray to whatever name means the most to you. Q: Did you say magic? Do Neopagans believe in the occult? A: Cringe. What a badly worded question - but I hear it all t he time. Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we practice magic. Magic is simply a way to focus the mental abi lities that you were born with, and use them to change the wo rld in positive ways. Magic can also be mixed with worship; in which c ase it differs very little from Christian prayer. Q: But I thought that you said that you weren't a demon-worsh ipper? A: That's right. Magic and demonology are two different thing s. Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even as "the power of positive thinking" - in essence, the magical worl d view holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human min d, and as such, can be altered by the human mind. That's all ther e is to it. Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD 330 Q: How do you become a Neopagan? A: In a very real sense, nobody every "becomes" a Neopaga n. There are no converts, as no conversion is necessary. Neopagani sm is an attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you d on't. My case is not atypical. All of my life, I have been fascina ted by the old mythologies. I have always found descriptions of the Greek Gods fascinating. If I had any religious beliefs as a child, i t was that somewhere, there was a God, and many people worship Him, but I had no idea what His name was. I set out to find Him, and thro ugh an odd combination of circumstances, I because convinced that hi s Name was Jesus. But seven years later, I had to admit to mysel f that Whoever God is, he answers non-Christians' prayers as well as those in the name of Jesus. In either case, true miracles are rare . In both cases, the one praying has a devout experience with God. After searching my soul, I admitted that I could not tell that I was better off than when I believed in the Old Gods. And in the mean time, I had found out that other people also loved the Old Gods - and that they call themselves Neopagans. When I realized that what I believ ed was little or no different that what they believed, I called my self a Neopagan, too. The common element for nearly all of us is that nearly all of us already believed these things, before we found ou t that anyone else did. "Becoming" a pagan is never a conversion. It's usually a home-coming. No one ever "brainwashed" me. I f inally relaxed, and stopped struggling against my own self. Q: I've heard about witches holding orgies and such. Do you? A: No, that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. Most of th e crap that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up by the National Enquirer to sell magazines. But I shouldn't be fl ippant about this, because it underlies a serious question - what k ind of morality do Neopagans hold to? "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: An it harm none, do what thou will!" from an old Book of Shadows That about sums it all up. Neopaganism teaches that it is harmful to yourself (and dangerous) to harm others. It al so teaches that trying to impose your moral standards on somebo dy else's behavior is (at least) foolish - and probably dangerous, as you run some serious chance of hurting that person. Perhaps in a sense Neopagans don't have morality, for as R. A. Wilson sai d, "There are no commandments because there is no Command er anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics - standards for behavio r based on honor and mutual benefit. Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD 331 Q: I saw on the news that Neopagans use a star in a circle as their emblem. Isn't that a Satanic symbol? A: A pentacle (that's what it's called) is a Satanic symbol in precisely same sense that the cross is a Nazi symbol. The Germa n National Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four fla gs attached to it as their emblem. (Yes, I know - that's a swastik a. Well, before the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people ju st called it a "bent cross" - it's an old heraldic symbol, and it means the same thing that a normal cross does). That doesn't ma ke the Nazis good Christians, and it doesn't make Christians int o Nazis. In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use a type of pentacle as their emblem. That doesn't make them Neop agans, nor does it mean that Neopagans are Satanists (or even rock-and-rollers). Q: Are Neopagans opposed to Christianity? A: Some Neopagans are ex-Christians, and I'm not going to deny that some of them have a grudge against the Church because of wh at they perceived as attempts to control their minds. Further, ma ny Neopagans are suspicious of the Church, because it was in the na me of Jesus Christ that nine million of our kind were murdered. Neopagans are opposed to anyone who uses force to control the minds of others. Does that include you? If not, then it mea ns that Neopagans as such are not opposed to you. Do you work f or the benefit of mankind, are you respectful to the Earth? Then it makes us allies, whether or not either of us wants to admit it. - - - - - - - - - - There are manyother misconceptions in the popularmind about the Neopagan religion. Unless you've studied it, read abo ut it from sympathetic sources, then you really don't know anything about Neopagan history, beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, cu lture, or magic. But it would take several entire books to teach you, and I already fear that I will be accused of trying to win co nverts (despite what I've said above). If you are curious and will ing to learn, try some of the following books: Margot Adler, _Drawing Down the Moon_ Starhawk, _The Spiral Dance_ P.E.I. Bonewits, _Real Magic_ Stewart Farrar, _What Witches Do_.
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|