Cultural Backlash: An Open Post

[causticus]

There were some interesting discussions on yesterday's Magic Monday post and on the past month's or so posts on the Ecosophia blog regarding the collapse of alternative spirituality in the West and a likely impending cultural backlash against decades of general rot and grubbiness that is decaying our civilization from within.

Some of us here in the US are afraid that a sudden cultural jolt in the other direction, away from leftism/progressivism, will result in any type of spirituality that doesn't fit a narrow, literalist Christian/Abrahamic format as being seen by the reaction mob as "part of the problem." Anything the people leading and directing this backlash deem to be adjacent to the aforementioned cultural rot will be lazily lumped together into one big, bad conspiracy against what they believe they are trying to save and preserve. This likely means anything occult/esoteric, overtly pagan, or too foreign will be included, with very little nuance. As we know, the moral collapse of both Neopaganism and the postmodern occult scene hasn't helped matters at all in this respect, especially in light of recent tragic events.

Anyway, I want to know what anyone else here thinks of this and anything in your own area (US or somewhere else) you have seen indicative of a new cultural direction that may or or may not involve the condemnation of the things I listed above (or anything else that comes to mind). Also, we could use this space to think up ideas on how to preserve and carry on various spiritual teachings and practices if/when an intolerant religious climate becomes reality.

This is an open post that will stay open for quite a long time.

Comments

[alexanderthered]

Thanks, I look forward to reading your thoughts!

That article from the church of Asphodel was exactly what I had in mind when writing my comment. It's a great article that really touches on some pretty serious issues that most neopagans just don't seem very interested in addressing.

As I alluded to in my comment, while I believe that the neopagan ship is sinking, I *do* think that there are some viable lifeboats available. I like what the Heathens are doing (it helps that they don't have any qualms about passing on their beliefs to their kids!).

The problem is, the neopagan ship *really* doesn't want to let these lifeboats go. The very nature of Subjective Solipsism means that anyone who doesn't accept (or as many say, "affirm") the "reality" (identity) of neopagans as prima facie true or correct risks ostracization and potentially violence (both physical and metaphysical) from those whos "reality" were offended. Sticking with the ship allegory, it's as if the lifeboats are attached to rusty pullies that won't budge until a certain amount of weight is put in them, then they suddenly, and violently, fail - and not many people survive that fall. Oftentimes, the whole lifeboat is destroyed.

Then there's the vortex - as the ship sinks beneath the waves, it'll create a vortex, sucking down anything too close to it. The only way to avoid that is to distance oneself as far away from the neopagan ship as possible - for many, that means switching over to Christianity (which has been picking up steam ever since the end of the COVID pandemic). For folks who practice a religion that's neopagan, it's going to be very difficult (albeit not impossible) to distance oneself adequately to keep from getting sucked back in.

For instance, say that you're able to establish a movement that isn't post-modern or solipsist, that has solid values, and actually provides for the local community - and you manage to keep it that way for some time. As it grows, the first people to try and dismantle it likely won't be Christians - it will likely be other neopagans who view you and your movement as violating their solipsistic "reality" with your existence. They'll try and destroy your reputation online; they'll try to "infiltrate" your movement by pretending they're an adherent for social media clout (very popular in LGBTQ+ spaces at the moment); they will explicitly exclude you from forums with other neopagan faiths/movements to prevent you from having any kind of voice (and any forum that does include you will get a target on its back. See the intersection of college debates and identity politics); That's the "vortex" at work.

Thus I believe, strongly, that the answer to the issues in neopaganism are new/novel movements, rather than break-offs/schisms.

Ultimately, I think that most neopagans are just not serious about their faith, and, as you say, view it more as an adult hobby that explicitly excludes children. They would view the establishment of a movement that has solid values and that *does* include children as a threat to their exclusive hobby and, by extension, to their "reality", which is why such a movement hasn't really formed yet.

I have been very slowly but surely working out such a movement for a few years now. Unfortunately, the realities of modern society make it very difficult to make anything that is deeper than surface-level, and the risks of coming out with something that isn't very thorough are pretty extreme, especially if, like most people (and myself), you have a family and need to work for a living. That's a big reason why I so rarely post anything on my blog, and why progress on Sylvydism seems to have stalled. It hasn't - but I'm mostly working on slowly aligning my life and my family towards something that is extremely high-friction in modern society, rather than working on the specifics, at the moment.

I still pray to the spirits of nature, perform offerings, perform divination, etc. but besides putting some occasional feelers out, I'm mostly staying quiet for now. I think I'm in the right place - just waiting for the right time. Which *is* coming. It's just not here yet.

I'm not the only one in the right place, waiting for the right time. I suspect soon - very soon, maybe before this decade is out - we are going to get a big influx of new religious movements here in the West. The people are tired of post-modernism, and they yearn for enchantment. They are begging for guidance.

And when it happens, neopagans are NOT going to be happy about it.

[causticus]

Hello again Alexander, my apologies for the delayed response!

Honestly, I think a lot of the lifeboats left long ago. As one example, and as Jeff alluded to in another comment, the more serious of Heathens that are still around have done a lot of work in starkly differentiating their religion from Neopaganism, to the point where these are now mostly separate things. I think Heathenry has been able to survive, because it has a lot of built-in features that are not captured by the 60s counterculture nonsense that spawned the Neopagan movement. Heathenry is thoroughly masculine and has a clear understanding of order vs. chaos, good vs. evil, the importance of venerating ancestors, a respect of ancient tradition, ect. I'm not a Heathen myself, but there's some aspects of Heathenry I've incorporated into my my own eclectic understanding of things. IN further developing your Sylvydism project, I might suggest taking a look there for a few insights to incorporate, particularly concepts like Luck/Hamingja, which is essentially a term for spiritual qualities that affect and shape individuals and groups.

IMHO, most other things that have been caught up in the Neopagan + pop-occult paradigm are simply unsalvagable. There will be no "make witchcraft great again" or anything along those lines. The Trangressive aesthetic is out; the (renewed) search for order and meaning is in. But yeah, there's very few other things from postmodern spirituality worth looking at. Most of the useful parts I've taken from the Druid Revival tradition are things that predate its current Neopagan-inflected format, which essentially is just boomer hippie spirituality and has become increasingly woke in recent years like the rest of Neopaganism. Really, any type of spirituality populated by the laptop class, has gone hard in that direction.

On future or emerging spiritual movement, yeah this is going to take some time! I will be a slow roll for sure. I think the phase where forming communities is even possible is probably at least several decades away. Any project or movement that is able to form communities will be one that has tangible benefits to offer to ordinary folk (to circle back to that article I shared with you); as we know, the average person has very little interest in the technical stuff people like us like to nerd out over.

[alexanderthered]

Thanks for the reply!

The Heathens have put in a lot of work over the years to ensure they have a solid set of principles, morals and ethics, and to hold the line when someone (often a person who describe themselves as neopagan) inevitably comes in to try and upend it all. While they certainly have their challenges, I think they have a much brighter future than most other neopagan-associated religions, as its largely managed to make itself independent of the big neopagan tent.

Re:luck, I'm working on a philosophy that's somewhat related - the idea that the universe isn't random, but pseudorandom.

This means essentially that, while nothing is predetermined, there is a limited number of possible outcomes given a situation (though, this being a big universe, that number might be really high).

Situations can be further changed utilyzing energy from the universe / nature in the form of magic or prayer, from the deities, daemons and spirits, etc

It also forms a basis for why divination and various other magical or psychic pheonomina work, and I do plan on extending this to luck (both bestowed luck from the spirits, as well as luck in the form of built up positive energies and good old fashioned positioning+action (right place plus right time)).

It's early days yet though and I have a lot to learn :)

I agree with you re:neopaganism being largely unsalvageable. The term "Witchcraft" has really bad connotations to the point where I refuse to call myself a witch (at the moment, I use the term Cleric, but I also like Magi/Magus), not that I found the term very palatable in the first place.

The early Druid stuff is really interesting and was one of the first things I looked in to heavily after failing to really connect with neopagans. The latest I'm willing to go is RDNA - while they're definitely a bit much, their documentation is excellent, and I found their "nature is good" philosophy nice and succinct enough to adopt it in to Sylvydism.

And yes I'm aware of the founding of RDNA and how it wasn't originally a serious thing. I still think they have some philosophical value though, at least until they (and every other Druid sect) got sucked in to the Age of Aquarius stuff in the late 60s / early 70s. That, combined with the fact that some Druids have been pushing the idea of making their religion proprietary, doesn't really vibe with me.

(FWIW, everything I release for Sylvydism will be public domain. I don't believe in making spirituality proprietary. We will make money for the organization - IF I even make one, which I don't even know if it'll even get that far - selling clothes for clergy or something.)

Re:technical stuff, I agree. The lack of space for lay people is a big problem in neopaganism- honestly, most people just want some guidance and stability in their lives. They don't want to be clergy, they don't want to be in charge, they don't want to do big group incantations on the regular or become a theologian just to be involved, they just want to come in, worship, ask for guidance / advice, and sometimes bring some food with them to contribute to a potluck.

But there's no space for these people in the vast majority of neopagan beliefs.

Neopaganism has a "too many cooks" problem and, combined with the taboo of involving kids as well as the push for cultural subjective solipsism, is going to result in its eventual destruction. It's already wildly unstable, and getting less stable every year.

As I like to say IRL- if your only ethic is consent, then you have no ethics. If your only moral is consent, then you have no morals. And if your only philosophy is consent, then you have no philosophy. This is a huge problem in neopaganism, and it's slowly percolating in to mainstream culture as a whole.

The proliferation of post-modern deconstruction in to the larger culture and every day life has resulted in people having nothing, and it's not sustainable.