Pagan, Easter

The Hindu newspaper web site has a great column called Wordspeak written by Anand that examines some rather confusing and often-puzzling observations about the English language. This past week the words Pagan and Heathen were the subject of his(?) essay.

http://www.hindu.com/lr/2007/03/04/stories/2007030400350600.htm

It’s great to get such a concise and succinct overview of a subject that often fills endless pages on pagan web boards. What is so refreshing about the article is in how there is relatively no aim at reclaiming the word in a positive light, which undoubtedly occurs on such web boards. A brief history of how the terms were used in a negative manner by Christians, and a wrap-up of some creative uses in recent literature are all that is needed to get the authors point across. It’s a nice informative piece written better than anything I’ve seen by the standard pagan writers.

The last paragraph is wonderful, looking at the Pagan influence on Christianity concerning Easter. Very timely.

I have some rather strong feelings myself on the word Pagan. I might even call them some big issues. Having beliefs in common with those who choose to use that descriptor as a way of labeling their faith, is at times an issue of it’s own. Am I a polytheist? Yes, I certainly am. Am I worshiper of nature? Yes, I certainly am. Do I believe in the inter-connectedness of all things? Yes.

If I have all of this in common with folks who call themselves Pagans, why do I have an issue with the word Pagan? There are a few reasons. First, the word Pagan was a derogatory term adopted by those in the middle ages who looked down on my ancestors with disdain and contempt and is still carried forth through contemporary usage. For that reason alone, I don’t like using the word. It is true that the original usage of the word was not so derogatory, but the centuries of bitter attack by the monotheistic cultures stained the word forever in my eyes. Embracing a pejorative term like this caries certain baggage with it that might not bother the adherents themselves, but re-enforces the negative within groups that still use the term in a disparaging fashion like modern day Christians and such. If we are to become more accepted as a legitimate religious group, we need to use words that hold a respectful meaning in other cultures and worldviews. It is similar to the use of the words redneck, hick, mic, wop, or limey. There are those that revel in the seedier application, enjoying the rebel status associated with calling oneself a bastard or such. I’m not one of those people. I have Irish and Italian ancestry, but I would never call myself a mic or a wop, why would I call myself a Pagan?

Secondly, it’s association with atheism and hedonism in the world’s eye. One of the common definitions of the word Pagan is a lack of religious quality, a-religious. This is or course, far from the truth. I have read several news articles over the past year written by Christians using the word Pagan in this manner. Anyone they don’t like, they label a Pagan. Need to blame somebody? Just call them a Pagan. No one cares about Pagans, right? They don’t believe in anything but having a good time, getting naked, and taking drugs.

Thirdy, Paganism is often closely identified with the new age movement. This might be a semantic issue more than anything else. The outside world often lumps things together without thinking much about the differences. New age movements are really newly invented approaches to spiritualism often through eastern ideas, whereas Paganism is at least partially based on traditional methods of spiritualism and western ancient religion. I wish it were as simple as New age is invention, and Paganism is reconstruction. But even this has its confusion and fuzziness. Not all Pagans admit to having re-constructionist approaches. A lot of modern Pagans are just inspired by the past, and invent from that inspiration. There’s a big difference between romanticizing the past and re-constructing its socio/ religious elements.

Fourthly, there are a few fundamental differences between what I believe and what pagans in general believe. What we have today is a loosely fragmented group with widely varying beliefs all under the same umbrella name of Paganism. With the beliefs I wrote about above as being in common with other Pagans, I have many more that are not in common. I am a reconstructionist. Some Pagans might call me a snob for even battling over the term Pagan, but as a person re-constructing a once living worldview/religion, I’m just trying to be as accurate as I can. Are there basics we can all agree on? There are probably a few simple outlooks most Pagans share, but with the great degree of variance between groups, the differences are far greater than the similarities. With so few points of agreement, a blanket term like Pagansim means very little. Some might say, “All pagans are users of magic”. Not me. I’m not sure I even believe in magic, at least not in the ways I see practiced in other Pagan religions. Others say, “ Pagans are peaceful and pacifistic.” Not most of the re-constructionist Pagans I talk to. “Well, all Pagans certainly believe in the Lord and the Lady.” Um, no. “Aren’t all Pagans goddess worshipers?” Once again, no. Some Pagans are not even nature worshipers.

Fifthly, it is a rather inaccurate term. Even if we ignore the negative history of it’s usage, the original use did not really describe what we are talking about today. The term Pagan came from the latin Paganus which came to mean “country dweller”, and eventually came to mean “civilian” by the 5th century Roman military. With early medieval practices of tying people to the land (serfdom), the term began to take on pejorative connotations. The term began to infer a “hick” status on those who were heterodox to the Christian church. It meant backwards, un-educated, and primitive. These are not words I like thrown at me. It had very little to do with religion, but rather more to do with cultural and social judgments. It was a term of looking down.

Sixthly, it is often these days defined as anyone not of the abrahamic faith. This would include atheists, astrologers, jedi knights, etc. The term becomes practically void of meaning and certainly useless in examining and defining a religious meaning.

And finally, I don’t really like a lot of people that call themselves Pagans. Do I want to belong to a group of people that accept anyone that wants to call themselves a druid? What about Satanists? Silly little devil worshipers, in my book they should call themselves Christians for believing in Satan, not Pagans! We don’t even believe in Satan, for crying out loud.

The true test for me is the fact that I refuse to tell people that I’m a Pagan. I don’t want all the negative weight that comes with that word. I’m not ashamed of what I believe, but I have received ruffled eyebrows, steps back on the bus just for reading a book with the word pagan in its title. I recently had a woman pull her son from sitting next to me once for reading Hilda Davidson’s book Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe. So, what do we call this? In the end, I’m not even sure that a name is important at all, and I have a feeling that using it makes us lazy as far as examining what we really believe. All I know is that I’m not using that word. The real value of this word would be in communicating with the rest of the world from a centralized set of perspectives and views. Do we really have those common views? Are we really in agreement? I’m not so sure.

From dictionary.com :
pa·gan
1. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion.
2. One who has no religion.
3. A non-Christian.
4. A hedonist.
5. A Neo-Pagan.

The entries for the thesaurus at dictionary.com are just as interesting. Here are some of the words they believe to be close or identical to the word Pagan:
Irreligious, agnostic, atheistic, ethnic, gentile, heathen, heathenish, idolatrous, impious, infidel, polytheistic, profane, unchristian, doubter, freethinker, heretic, idolist, scoffer, skeptic, unbeliever, barbarian, profane, savage.

Wow, i wrote a lot more than i wanted to, and maybe i got a little off-track and a little worked-up.

I need a beer.