The Futility of Neopaganism (Copypasta)
Jul. 29th, 2020 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusSome interesting copypasta from the 'Temple of the Hermetic One' FB page, regarding the incapability of most Neopagan groups to actually organize and build anything substantial:
**Begin text**
The Futility of Power Struggles
Let me preface this by saying I will be pointing out something that does not wholly exist in the group I am addressing, or the bright souls I see recently drawn to this temple.
Our founder spoke much before this temple was even named about the problem of self-made priesthood and that there were "too many chiefs, not enough indians". I want to take the opportunity to explain the depth of that problem and its implications to pagan temples.
I took a small meander this weekend. I lurked over a few groups online here, a few websites in the "pagansphere", and was disappointed. If you did look yourself you would recognize many of the same tired issues that come about when Pagan communities form. Issues I had hoped to be past, considering the flourishing of neoplatonism recently.
I recognized these things a couple of years into my almost two decades of life as a pagan. Tomes of pedantic conversations, people peddling their manifestos and constantly trying to establish dominance over one another. I guarantee you will see it in almost every Pagan group. If you've been involved in the Pagan Community you probably recognized those things. As far back as I remember most pagan worship groups fizzle out, strangled in infancy by gossip and the grandstanding of those who compose it.
Power struggle in these groups is always inevitable because those who join the temple see it often as just a means to satisfy their vanity.
Make no mistake about it. Any pagan religious community with any hope of being anything more meaningful than a book club has a mountain of work ahead of it. Too much work to be engaged in wars of gossip, scrabbling for nonexistent social footholds.
There are bridges to build between ourselves and those we are reaching out to. There is stone and mortar to be placed for the foundation of actual temples. If you compared our temples to those built by Mormon communities or Catholic communities, it's downright shameful to even think about. People who had barely a penny to their name banded together to build churches for themselves. There was no question to them that it needed to be done, it was just done.
Our temples need teachers, artists, builders, speakers, and everything between. If you find yourself serious about starting these services, you end up serving several of these roles at once.
For example. The Hindu temple in Louisville KY was built by a loyal group from the ground up, in a metropolitan area no less. They pour their work into their temple, only to have their windows smashed and walls vandalized by ignorant Christian hands. With Christians bashing their property, a growing population of devotees, and constant teaching and ceremonies...there obviously can be no time for the kind of pompous, reality-starved, nagging community of people trying to jostle over one another for a second of spotlight. No, and thankfully most of the people reading these words are likely tired of those sort of communities as well. Yet they are still so prevalent. How worthless!
We must animate ourselves, and compliment the work of each our brethren. We should seek to treasure each other's work, to amplify it. Everything we do now is a gift to each other and the gods. When you awaken in the morning, ask yourself what you will do today to bring hope and strength to your spiritual community. Who needs your aid? Every ounce of effort is precious.
If you find yourself surrounded by playgans and paper men, do not bluster. Take the paternal approach and give wisdom freely from those who ask for it, the rest will fade back into the irrelevance from which they came. Those who are focused and possessing of goodwill will win the day.
The one within all, the all within one-
Brother Nordalah
**End text**
My commentary:
I think the main issue here is twofold:
1. Most of these "Neopagan" movements have very little appeal to the common person. And thus these groups disproportionately attract weirdos, eccentrics, oddballs, misfits, ect.; the kind of people who these days are fleeing or steering clear from traditional religions and the type of structured organizations which sustain those religions. And in addition to the hyper-abundance of "know-it-alls" among these people, they also tend to be the sort of people who seldom have much in the way of extra cash to tithe toward a substantial project, like the construction of a brick-and-mortar temple. In reality, a stable religion needs the support of ordinary people, i.e. a community, in order to grow, thrive, and sustain itself.
2. In this day and age, especially in the West, and most especially here in America, a sizable number of people have very little respect for authority and hierarchy, i.e. the element needed to clearly delineate the cooks from the diners. We live in a largely Protestant culture (whether or not people are confessed Christian believers is largely irrelevant here) where Martin Luther's mandate that everyone be their own pope is still very much alive and well. By that we can say that much of Neopaganism is simply Protestantism dressed up in silly Ren-Fair costumes. On the psychological level, Neopagans are quite alien to the actual pagans of yore. Self-made priesthood is cooked into the DNA of Protestantism, whether the Protestant movement in question is religious or secular.
**Begin text**
The Futility of Power Struggles
Let me preface this by saying I will be pointing out something that does not wholly exist in the group I am addressing, or the bright souls I see recently drawn to this temple.
Our founder spoke much before this temple was even named about the problem of self-made priesthood and that there were "too many chiefs, not enough indians". I want to take the opportunity to explain the depth of that problem and its implications to pagan temples.
I took a small meander this weekend. I lurked over a few groups online here, a few websites in the "pagansphere", and was disappointed. If you did look yourself you would recognize many of the same tired issues that come about when Pagan communities form. Issues I had hoped to be past, considering the flourishing of neoplatonism recently.
I recognized these things a couple of years into my almost two decades of life as a pagan. Tomes of pedantic conversations, people peddling their manifestos and constantly trying to establish dominance over one another. I guarantee you will see it in almost every Pagan group. If you've been involved in the Pagan Community you probably recognized those things. As far back as I remember most pagan worship groups fizzle out, strangled in infancy by gossip and the grandstanding of those who compose it.
Power struggle in these groups is always inevitable because those who join the temple see it often as just a means to satisfy their vanity.
Make no mistake about it. Any pagan religious community with any hope of being anything more meaningful than a book club has a mountain of work ahead of it. Too much work to be engaged in wars of gossip, scrabbling for nonexistent social footholds.
There are bridges to build between ourselves and those we are reaching out to. There is stone and mortar to be placed for the foundation of actual temples. If you compared our temples to those built by Mormon communities or Catholic communities, it's downright shameful to even think about. People who had barely a penny to their name banded together to build churches for themselves. There was no question to them that it needed to be done, it was just done.
Our temples need teachers, artists, builders, speakers, and everything between. If you find yourself serious about starting these services, you end up serving several of these roles at once.
For example. The Hindu temple in Louisville KY was built by a loyal group from the ground up, in a metropolitan area no less. They pour their work into their temple, only to have their windows smashed and walls vandalized by ignorant Christian hands. With Christians bashing their property, a growing population of devotees, and constant teaching and ceremonies...there obviously can be no time for the kind of pompous, reality-starved, nagging community of people trying to jostle over one another for a second of spotlight. No, and thankfully most of the people reading these words are likely tired of those sort of communities as well. Yet they are still so prevalent. How worthless!
We must animate ourselves, and compliment the work of each our brethren. We should seek to treasure each other's work, to amplify it. Everything we do now is a gift to each other and the gods. When you awaken in the morning, ask yourself what you will do today to bring hope and strength to your spiritual community. Who needs your aid? Every ounce of effort is precious.
If you find yourself surrounded by playgans and paper men, do not bluster. Take the paternal approach and give wisdom freely from those who ask for it, the rest will fade back into the irrelevance from which they came. Those who are focused and possessing of goodwill will win the day.
The one within all, the all within one-
Brother Nordalah
**End text**
My commentary:
I think the main issue here is twofold:
1. Most of these "Neopagan" movements have very little appeal to the common person. And thus these groups disproportionately attract weirdos, eccentrics, oddballs, misfits, ect.; the kind of people who these days are fleeing or steering clear from traditional religions and the type of structured organizations which sustain those religions. And in addition to the hyper-abundance of "know-it-alls" among these people, they also tend to be the sort of people who seldom have much in the way of extra cash to tithe toward a substantial project, like the construction of a brick-and-mortar temple. In reality, a stable religion needs the support of ordinary people, i.e. a community, in order to grow, thrive, and sustain itself.
2. In this day and age, especially in the West, and most especially here in America, a sizable number of people have very little respect for authority and hierarchy, i.e. the element needed to clearly delineate the cooks from the diners. We live in a largely Protestant culture (whether or not people are confessed Christian believers is largely irrelevant here) where Martin Luther's mandate that everyone be their own pope is still very much alive and well. By that we can say that much of Neopaganism is simply Protestantism dressed up in silly Ren-Fair costumes. On the psychological level, Neopagans are quite alien to the actual pagans of yore. Self-made priesthood is cooked into the DNA of Protestantism, whether the Protestant movement in question is religious or secular.
