![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Just a quick rant here (don't expect coherence or logical flow). Anyway, I'm jotting down some notes regarding my observations and interactions with people who claim to be Neopagans or "heathens" or whatever other label a person of that persuasion might affix to themselves.
Probably owing to how small/fringe/marginal Neopaganism is, there hasn't yet been any sort of substantial intellectual culture that has sprung from any of its various subdivisions. And yes, emphasis on subdivisions. Since efforts at reviving pagan traditions tends to focus on one specific (and long-lost) ethnic tradition, there's very little coordination or cooperation between these various endeavors, and thus no unity. The closest thing we have to a unified doctrine is Wicca, which isn't at all based on a real historical tradition; a British Neo-occultist made the whole thing up out of thin air during the mid 20th century ara. I've heard Wicca described as "Christianity with boobs," and I'm inclined to largely agree with that assessment. Wicca has more to do with the Victorian occult counterculture than it does with anything related to the religious/spiritual practices of prehistorical Western European peoples.
Anyway, because of this massive amount of disunity and splintering among the Neopagan community, it's quite difficult to formulate a singular "Neopagan" metaphysical system; any such effort would come from one of the groups and this could easily be seen as one group attempting to impose a rigid doctrine on all the other groups. Yeah, most Neopagans are (rightfully) pretty sore about what Christianity has done various native religious traditions for many centuries; a big reason they become "pagans" is to escape from all of that while being able to maintain some kind of spiritual worldview.
Of course when we actually examine the history of pagan cultures, states, empires, ect., we see a vastly different picture painted. Pantheons were often consolidations of various ethnic traditions. And philosophy, particularly in Greco-Roman civilization, did indeed produce several attempts to formulate an all-encompassing metaphysical system using the Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) pantheon as a thematic backdrop, combined with Mesopotamian (Chaldean) astrotheology and Egyptian emanation models. This is precisely what the Eclectic School during lately antiquity did, though modern historians generalize this movement as "Neoplatonism." The Eclectic movement led to yes, Neoplatonism, but also similar movements/doctrines we know today mainly as Gnosticism and Hemeticism. And oh yeah, I shall not fail to also mention the 900 lb. gorilla in the room, that is Christianity, which was really the grand state-approved product of Hellenistic eclecticism.
So yes, once upon a time "paganism" was indeed supremely philosophical. But the historical traditions most Western Neopagans today draw upon is whatever can be cobbled together from the scattered remnants of pre-Christian Germanic and Celtic tribal folklore. These traditions were never the traditions of great civilizations (it requires urbanized societies to develop deep thought on metaphysical matters) and due to the tribal nature of these traditions, they were each fractured into sub-traditions and local docrtines according each small/local tribal division. And of course, folklore itself isn't a whole or intact religious tradition. From my own interactions with Neopagans, I've come under the impression that many are just fine with pretending that fragmentary knowledge of folklore is enough for a reconstruction effort. Many of these people I suspect to actually be atheists, agnostics, or maybe vague pantheists if they actually hold something resembling a spiritual worldview. But many are just people alienated from their Christian upbringing and looking for something spiritual-y to be a part of. And then there's some who use Neopaganism as a method means of engaging in ethnonationalist identity politics. I'm thinking particularly of White Identitarians who take up the mantle of "Heathenry" (Germanic/Norse Neopaganism)as a way of expressing their (imagined) ethic identity, i.e. something along the lines of "We Wuz Vikangz." These people generally call themselves Folkish Heathens. Of course there are many Neo-Heathens who shun ethnic identity politics and practice an inclusive version of Heathenry; I would be doing a massive injustice if I failed to mention the folks who are actually the majority of the Neo-Heathen movement. Anyway, regarding the Folkish Heathens, I quickly discovered upon interacting with some of them, that they seem largely hostile to philosophy or anything all the intellectual. Their heathenry is largely about expressing their emotions and desire to form tight-knit ethnic cliques adorned with the same gang colors and regalia. BTW, I have nothing against ethnic solidarity itself, I just think groups who take up that cause tend to be quite hostile to cosmopolitan (in the true sense of the word) endeavors like philosophy. As we know, the goal of philosophy is to get at and unveil universal truths.
If Neopagans are to be philosophical and united in any way, then the next logical step would be to revive the great pagan philosophical schools which formed the underpinnings of Western thought to begin with. This is really a no-brainier. The Western Esoteric Tradition, i.e. Hermetic, which is really just the aforementioned Eclectic School of late antiquity, can easily be flavored with the various godforms (i.e. old gods and goddesses interpreted as ideal forms or archetypes) of whatever folklore traditions can be incorporated into the whole. There's even been some pretty substantial efforts to inject metaphysics into the Nordic Rune system. That was a great start, now let's see if it can be taken further.
Probably owing to how small/fringe/marginal Neopaganism is, there hasn't yet been any sort of substantial intellectual culture that has sprung from any of its various subdivisions. And yes, emphasis on subdivisions. Since efforts at reviving pagan traditions tends to focus on one specific (and long-lost) ethnic tradition, there's very little coordination or cooperation between these various endeavors, and thus no unity. The closest thing we have to a unified doctrine is Wicca, which isn't at all based on a real historical tradition; a British Neo-occultist made the whole thing up out of thin air during the mid 20th century ara. I've heard Wicca described as "Christianity with boobs," and I'm inclined to largely agree with that assessment. Wicca has more to do with the Victorian occult counterculture than it does with anything related to the religious/spiritual practices of prehistorical Western European peoples.
Anyway, because of this massive amount of disunity and splintering among the Neopagan community, it's quite difficult to formulate a singular "Neopagan" metaphysical system; any such effort would come from one of the groups and this could easily be seen as one group attempting to impose a rigid doctrine on all the other groups. Yeah, most Neopagans are (rightfully) pretty sore about what Christianity has done various native religious traditions for many centuries; a big reason they become "pagans" is to escape from all of that while being able to maintain some kind of spiritual worldview.
Of course when we actually examine the history of pagan cultures, states, empires, ect., we see a vastly different picture painted. Pantheons were often consolidations of various ethnic traditions. And philosophy, particularly in Greco-Roman civilization, did indeed produce several attempts to formulate an all-encompassing metaphysical system using the Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) pantheon as a thematic backdrop, combined with Mesopotamian (Chaldean) astrotheology and Egyptian emanation models. This is precisely what the Eclectic School during lately antiquity did, though modern historians generalize this movement as "Neoplatonism." The Eclectic movement led to yes, Neoplatonism, but also similar movements/doctrines we know today mainly as Gnosticism and Hemeticism. And oh yeah, I shall not fail to also mention the 900 lb. gorilla in the room, that is Christianity, which was really the grand state-approved product of Hellenistic eclecticism.
So yes, once upon a time "paganism" was indeed supremely philosophical. But the historical traditions most Western Neopagans today draw upon is whatever can be cobbled together from the scattered remnants of pre-Christian Germanic and Celtic tribal folklore. These traditions were never the traditions of great civilizations (it requires urbanized societies to develop deep thought on metaphysical matters) and due to the tribal nature of these traditions, they were each fractured into sub-traditions and local docrtines according each small/local tribal division. And of course, folklore itself isn't a whole or intact religious tradition. From my own interactions with Neopagans, I've come under the impression that many are just fine with pretending that fragmentary knowledge of folklore is enough for a reconstruction effort. Many of these people I suspect to actually be atheists, agnostics, or maybe vague pantheists if they actually hold something resembling a spiritual worldview. But many are just people alienated from their Christian upbringing and looking for something spiritual-y to be a part of. And then there's some who use Neopaganism as a method means of engaging in ethnonationalist identity politics. I'm thinking particularly of White Identitarians who take up the mantle of "Heathenry" (Germanic/Norse Neopaganism)as a way of expressing their (imagined) ethic identity, i.e. something along the lines of "We Wuz Vikangz." These people generally call themselves Folkish Heathens. Of course there are many Neo-Heathens who shun ethnic identity politics and practice an inclusive version of Heathenry; I would be doing a massive injustice if I failed to mention the folks who are actually the majority of the Neo-Heathen movement. Anyway, regarding the Folkish Heathens, I quickly discovered upon interacting with some of them, that they seem largely hostile to philosophy or anything all the intellectual. Their heathenry is largely about expressing their emotions and desire to form tight-knit ethnic cliques adorned with the same gang colors and regalia. BTW, I have nothing against ethnic solidarity itself, I just think groups who take up that cause tend to be quite hostile to cosmopolitan (in the true sense of the word) endeavors like philosophy. As we know, the goal of philosophy is to get at and unveil universal truths.
If Neopagans are to be philosophical and united in any way, then the next logical step would be to revive the great pagan philosophical schools which formed the underpinnings of Western thought to begin with. This is really a no-brainier. The Western Esoteric Tradition, i.e. Hermetic, which is really just the aforementioned Eclectic School of late antiquity, can easily be flavored with the various godforms (i.e. old gods and goddesses interpreted as ideal forms or archetypes) of whatever folklore traditions can be incorporated into the whole. There's even been some pretty substantial efforts to inject metaphysics into the Nordic Rune system. That was a great start, now let's see if it can be taken further.
