Jan 04 2009
The Meaning of Paganism and Neo-Paganism With Focus on Druidism and Neo-Druidism
Recently, someone left a blog comment (hoping to be funny I suppose) asking if pagans were “still around.” This actually warrants an explanation, I think, because the term pagan is intentionally general and does confuse a lot of people. Paganism is now used to describe pre-Christian religions in Europe as well as neo-paganism, or the incorporation of originally pagan elements and ideals into modern day incarnations of paganism. To add to the meaning of the word, paganism describes nontraditional non-Christian religions in terms of Christianity, including shamanistic traditions and the native traditions of people from around the globe.
Each pagan has his or her own beliefs about the origin and practice of their own spirituality. Reconstructionists generally attempt to follow original pagan beliefs as accurately as possible, but not all pagans attempt to do this. This is often discussed in Wicca, which certainly has very ancient elements, but seems to have been put together only as early as the 1920s.
Because so little is known about Druids historically, modern day Druids or neo-Druids are excellent examples of this debate. A lot of what we do know about Druids comes passed down from legend, which to many people is perfectly acceptable. I tend to study a lot of Irish literature and history, and if I do not consider the validity or importance of Irish mythology, there truthfully isn’t much to work with. I feel that if mythology is such a large aspect of the present, living culture as it is in Ireland, it does have a historical and sociological validity, whether it is true to the letter or not.
That said, there are historical writings from the Romans and the time of Saint Patrick regarding Druids and their practices. The source of the below video about Druids has a fine description about them.
What do you think about this debate?
I was always under the impression the Wicca was developed in the late 60’s or early 70’s? Also, I tend to think that most people use “Pagan” to describe any religion not of the “traditional” mono-theistic, Buddhist, or Hindu type religions.
I really don’t know much (okay, anything) about the Pagan religion/world, so I have been reading your posts eagerly. Please keep up the great work.
Also, do you have any books you’d suggest for those people who are interested in learning more, from a beginner’s point of view? I’d love to hear any ideas you might have.
Hava
http://nonfictionlover.today.com
I don’t think it matters. The important thing now is that there are people out there practicing these religions/following these spiritual paths. I once had a History teacher in high school suggest that the Bible was put together by a group of Roman politicians trying to find a good election campaign gig: they invented Christianity. I’m not going to use that against a Christian though. I’m not going to say to them: Oh, your religion isn’t real because politicians may have put it together. I really don’t know if they did or didn’t.
I feel any path to the divine/the force/God/whatever you want to call “it” is valid. I am of the school of thought that sees the Divine as a diamond and each personal deity, religion, access point as one facet of that larger truth. The larger truth is too large for any of us to comprehend. How we decide to access it isn’t effected by how long that method has been around or how it was put together.