Post-Neopagan Paganism
Mar. 30th, 2023 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusFor quite a long time now I’ve been pondering the question, “what might a future Paganism here in North America look like after Neopaganism has fully run its course?”
After thinking about this and going back-and-forth on some ideas, I came to the “Captain Obvious” realization that I cannot predict the future. Duh. So, I refrained from trying to make any futile attempts to guess what the specific details might look like; particularly, when it comes to whatever cultic practices and spiritual teachings any such hypothetical future Pagan groups might have.
Instead, I thought about the possible social, cultural, political, and economic attributes of “Future Paganism.” First I shall defined Paganism is any type of religious or spiritual approach moving forward that is neither Abrahamic, nor a copypaste of some Eastern tradition.
Anyway, I think the examination of cultural-social criteria here is appropriate approach because Neopaganism seems to have been mostly a reflection of the social-cultural value system of its secular parent culture (the 1960s counterculture and the progressivist politics that followed) rather than a distinct set of spiritual teachings could stand on its own feet. Really, I’m of the belief that whole “separation of church and state” mantra is a farcical delusion; in any practical sense, at least. A belief system is a belief system. And an effective belief system is one that is capable of ordering and shaping the lives of its adherents, regardless of whatever the stated source of those beliefs might be. A non-theistic belief system that successfully tells a critical mass of people what to do is just as much a “church” as one that claims a God or Gods as the ultimate source of its authority. By that, I’ve yet to see any evidence that a “theocracy” of college professors, corporate managers, and government bureaucrats is inherently better than one consisting of people dressed in fancy robes who invoke deities and claim to divine the intent of beings vastly more intelligent and complex than humans (I’d argue the latter arrangement is better, but that’s just my opinion).
I think it’s a safe bet to say that future trends in religion and spirituality will reflect the broader culture just as much as present-day spiritual fads do. The question on whether it will be the religion that shapes the culture, or the other way around is a fascinating one, but not a question that’s a concern of mine right now in this post. What I am laying out below is simply an exercise in comparing and contrasting the values that shaped the alternative spirituality scene (and its Neopagan offspring), versus my thought experiment on what an emerging “post-liberal” value system might look like, whether that system shaped by religious or secular forces. The primary hypothetical I am taking into account is the gradual (or more sudden) decline of industrial civilization and the eventual dissolution of the sort of values and cultural expressions that have resulted from our present reality of cheap energy, material abundance, easy travel, and transient living patterns.
Below I describe each pattern using a list of keywords. The first is the arrangement we’ve been stuck with for the past several decades, though it’s now deep into its death throes. The second is something I see emerging right now out of the populist (anti-neoliberal/globalist) counterculture that has gained quite a bit of ground over the past ten years or so.
Values of the late 20th century alt-spirituality scene (which includes Neopaganism): rejection of time-honored traditions and ancient wisdom; spiritual novelty over established praxis; egalitarianism; secular humanism; (i.e. primary values derived from materialist and utilitarian doctrines rather than spiritual sources); liberal globalism; politeness and sensitivity being seen as more important than truth; hyper-individualism and the promotion of individual license; the rejection of limits and boundaries; logophobia; a thick firewall erected between religious and secular values when it comes to traditions claiming an ancient source; pacifism; nature romanticism; emotional self-expressionism; feelings and subjectivism taking precedence over impersonal observations and reasoned discourse; feminism and gynocentric perspectives taking center stage; apprehension toward making substantive value judgements; stated aversion to hierarchies and the hierarchical values (though not practiced in mundane, everyday lives); radical inclusionism; moral relativism; noble savage romanticism; “blank slate” wishful-thinking about human nature; lack of any serious challenge to big city living and consumeristic cosmopolitanism despite rhetoric suggesting such; being a cog in the system rather than challenging it despite rhetoric suggesting otherwise; romantic notions of love and family; ideological environmentalism that favors a preach over practice approach; emphasis on the foreign and exotic over the familiar; civilizational self-loathing; persistent pandering to narcissistic and solipsistic sentiments; ambivalence (or even hostility) towards family-formation and pro-natal lifestyles; aspirations toward a classless society; blind acceptable of scientific-materialist dogmas, despite rhetoric which sometimes claims otherwise.
Post-liberal religion and spirituality (which would include post-Neopagan Paganism): spirituality of localism and community-focus, with some degree of disregard toward abstract notions of “humanity”; a positive view toward ancestry and time-honored traditions; a recognition of natural limits, boundaries as being a part of the cosmic scheme; the willingness to work within those constraints rather than fight them or pretend they don’t exist; metaphysical belief becomes more a personal matter than a collective imperative; inter-community pragmatic relations rather than sectarian antagonism; religious and secular values seen as inseparable; emotional restraint and modesty/humility becoming important public virtues once again; providing a challenge/alternative to industrial modernity rather than just reflecting its favored lifestyles and value system; local experience over universal abstractions; meritocratic hierarchy (though this can easily degrade into nepotism over time); families and guild/fellowship societies as the fundamental social unit (as opposed to the atomized individual); constructive martial values; recognition of the sexes as being fundamentally different, though having complementary roles and being co-equal in terms of spiritual worth; cultural self-confidence; emphasis on small-town, small-city, and rural living; local food production; attentiveness to local ecological conditions; craftsmanship valued over raw efficiency; providing an alternative to being a cog in the system; pragmatic notions of love and family; acceptance and encouragement of family-formation and pro-natal lifestyles; practical environmentalism; recognition and utilization of natural social classes; skepticism toward scientific-materialist dogmas.
***
I’m probably missing a lot of things from both patterns. Please feel free to suggest anything that should be added or omitted!
After thinking about this and going back-and-forth on some ideas, I came to the “Captain Obvious” realization that I cannot predict the future. Duh. So, I refrained from trying to make any futile attempts to guess what the specific details might look like; particularly, when it comes to whatever cultic practices and spiritual teachings any such hypothetical future Pagan groups might have.
Instead, I thought about the possible social, cultural, political, and economic attributes of “Future Paganism.” First I shall defined Paganism is any type of religious or spiritual approach moving forward that is neither Abrahamic, nor a copypaste of some Eastern tradition.
Anyway, I think the examination of cultural-social criteria here is appropriate approach because Neopaganism seems to have been mostly a reflection of the social-cultural value system of its secular parent culture (the 1960s counterculture and the progressivist politics that followed) rather than a distinct set of spiritual teachings could stand on its own feet. Really, I’m of the belief that whole “separation of church and state” mantra is a farcical delusion; in any practical sense, at least. A belief system is a belief system. And an effective belief system is one that is capable of ordering and shaping the lives of its adherents, regardless of whatever the stated source of those beliefs might be. A non-theistic belief system that successfully tells a critical mass of people what to do is just as much a “church” as one that claims a God or Gods as the ultimate source of its authority. By that, I’ve yet to see any evidence that a “theocracy” of college professors, corporate managers, and government bureaucrats is inherently better than one consisting of people dressed in fancy robes who invoke deities and claim to divine the intent of beings vastly more intelligent and complex than humans (I’d argue the latter arrangement is better, but that’s just my opinion).
I think it’s a safe bet to say that future trends in religion and spirituality will reflect the broader culture just as much as present-day spiritual fads do. The question on whether it will be the religion that shapes the culture, or the other way around is a fascinating one, but not a question that’s a concern of mine right now in this post. What I am laying out below is simply an exercise in comparing and contrasting the values that shaped the alternative spirituality scene (and its Neopagan offspring), versus my thought experiment on what an emerging “post-liberal” value system might look like, whether that system shaped by religious or secular forces. The primary hypothetical I am taking into account is the gradual (or more sudden) decline of industrial civilization and the eventual dissolution of the sort of values and cultural expressions that have resulted from our present reality of cheap energy, material abundance, easy travel, and transient living patterns.
Below I describe each pattern using a list of keywords. The first is the arrangement we’ve been stuck with for the past several decades, though it’s now deep into its death throes. The second is something I see emerging right now out of the populist (anti-neoliberal/globalist) counterculture that has gained quite a bit of ground over the past ten years or so.
Values of the late 20th century alt-spirituality scene (which includes Neopaganism): rejection of time-honored traditions and ancient wisdom; spiritual novelty over established praxis; egalitarianism; secular humanism; (i.e. primary values derived from materialist and utilitarian doctrines rather than spiritual sources); liberal globalism; politeness and sensitivity being seen as more important than truth; hyper-individualism and the promotion of individual license; the rejection of limits and boundaries; logophobia; a thick firewall erected between religious and secular values when it comes to traditions claiming an ancient source; pacifism; nature romanticism; emotional self-expressionism; feelings and subjectivism taking precedence over impersonal observations and reasoned discourse; feminism and gynocentric perspectives taking center stage; apprehension toward making substantive value judgements; stated aversion to hierarchies and the hierarchical values (though not practiced in mundane, everyday lives); radical inclusionism; moral relativism; noble savage romanticism; “blank slate” wishful-thinking about human nature; lack of any serious challenge to big city living and consumeristic cosmopolitanism despite rhetoric suggesting such; being a cog in the system rather than challenging it despite rhetoric suggesting otherwise; romantic notions of love and family; ideological environmentalism that favors a preach over practice approach; emphasis on the foreign and exotic over the familiar; civilizational self-loathing; persistent pandering to narcissistic and solipsistic sentiments; ambivalence (or even hostility) towards family-formation and pro-natal lifestyles; aspirations toward a classless society; blind acceptable of scientific-materialist dogmas, despite rhetoric which sometimes claims otherwise.
Post-liberal religion and spirituality (which would include post-Neopagan Paganism): spirituality of localism and community-focus, with some degree of disregard toward abstract notions of “humanity”; a positive view toward ancestry and time-honored traditions; a recognition of natural limits, boundaries as being a part of the cosmic scheme; the willingness to work within those constraints rather than fight them or pretend they don’t exist; metaphysical belief becomes more a personal matter than a collective imperative; inter-community pragmatic relations rather than sectarian antagonism; religious and secular values seen as inseparable; emotional restraint and modesty/humility becoming important public virtues once again; providing a challenge/alternative to industrial modernity rather than just reflecting its favored lifestyles and value system; local experience over universal abstractions; meritocratic hierarchy (though this can easily degrade into nepotism over time); families and guild/fellowship societies as the fundamental social unit (as opposed to the atomized individual); constructive martial values; recognition of the sexes as being fundamentally different, though having complementary roles and being co-equal in terms of spiritual worth; cultural self-confidence; emphasis on small-town, small-city, and rural living; local food production; attentiveness to local ecological conditions; craftsmanship valued over raw efficiency; providing an alternative to being a cog in the system; pragmatic notions of love and family; acceptance and encouragement of family-formation and pro-natal lifestyles; practical environmentalism; recognition and utilization of natural social classes; skepticism toward scientific-materialist dogmas.
***
I’m probably missing a lot of things from both patterns. Please feel free to suggest anything that should be added or omitted!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-04-13 03:44 pm (UTC)Very good points on how a persuasive rewrite of my disorganized jumble of thoughts might look like; duly noted. If I had persuasion in mind, I would have definitely toned down the pejorative language in the first list.
Magian-Faustian religion seems primarily focused on imposing abstract ideas on the masses from the top down. In other words, it's something totally ill-equipped for encouraging any sort of genuine land-based spirituality.