Neopaganism
Neopaganism is the set of modern spiritual movements inspired by various forms of polytheistic religiosity that predated Christianity, often paired with a religious interpretation of modern ecology. This movement can be divided into four large areas: traditional witchcraft, Wicca and derived traditions, syncretism and, finally, various types of neopagan reconstructionism.
It is estimated that there are currently approximately one million Neopagans in the world.
Wicca
Wicca was founded by English author and occultist Gerald Gardner during the 1950s. In his books, Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a secret coven by British witches, who supposedly maintained the cult inherited from a "old religion" (see hypothesis of the cult of witches) after centuries of persecution by some Christian churches, especially the Catholic Church and Protestants.
The theology of Gardnerian Wicca can be defined as a bitheism, which integrates two main archetypal divinities of European witchcraft. The Goddess or Lady (divinized expression of the feminine principle, and goddess of witches) and the God or Lord (horned god, inspired by the ancient gods of hunting, particularly the Celtic Cernunnos and demonized by the Catholic Church). However, there are monotheistic traditions of a female goddess, such as Dianic Wicca.
Its main symbol is the five-pointed star within a circle called a pentacle.
Traditional Witchcraft
Some witchcraft traditions often call themselves traditional witchcraft to indicate that they differ from Wicca and do not share historical origins with it.
Traditional witchcraft, when not referring to specific traditions (Clan of Tubal Cain, Cultus Sabbati, Anderson Feri) is a term that includes various witchcraft traditions - some based on "culture& #34;, such as spaecrafte, seidr, Latin American witchcraft (such as Recta Provincia, streghoneria); and other practice-based ones, such as hedgewitchery, greenwitchery, kitchenwitchery Finally, others are traditions that are unique and personal to the individual.
There are various similarities between traditional witchcraft traditions; among them we can cite: dealing with spirits and elements of nature, worshiping the ancestors, belief in animism, and a use of popular magic (low magic) instead of high magic. Traditional sorcerers base their practices on songs, incantations, ballads, superstitions, collections of oral tradition, and documented witchcraft practices and rituals.
These traditions dispense with some characteristic elements of Wicca, such as the Rede and the law of triplicity. In the field of Ethics, they recognize that it can be ambiguous depending on each situation, and they emphasize that the individual must assume responsibility for his actions.
Reconstructionisms
Reconstructionisms are called those forms of neopaganism that aspire to a recovery of ancient religions of humanity, particularly those of Europe, the Middle East and Egypt. They mainly highlight Asatrú (Nordic or Germanic reconstructionism), Slavic neopaganism (or Rodnoveria), Hellenic polytheism, Roman religion, Druidism (Celtic), Guanche mythology in the Canary Islands (Spain), pre-Christian religions of the Baltic countries such as Romuva (Lithuania) or Dievturība (Latvia), Tengrism (Hungarian-Altaic monotheism) and different forms of neoshamanism, as well as, to a lesser extent, measure, the cults of Mithras and Egyptian deities of the pharaonic age.
Followers of each of the different reconstructionisms usually meet (usually separately) in large annual festivals where they dress according to the historical period they try to revive and perform different rituals inspired by those traditions, although they tend to avoid the cruelest and bloodiest aspects of them, such as sacrifices. Since 1998 there has been a World Congress of Ethnic Religions, whose headquarters are in Lithuania.
Cosmology
Cosmology is one of the meeting points between various neopagan religions.
Speaking of creation in the pagan realm, the difference emerges in relation to Jewish and Christian cults. Creation does not have a precise beginning, so as to be able to stop completely, but in reality it is not finished, because creation is an act, a constant and perennial fact in the universe. The pagan creation, therefore, corresponds to a process of natural development, change, mutation and evolution of existence. This process is caused by a god, but not originated, because it is a mechanism derived from the very emancipation of divinity in the world, and from its manifestation.
The engine that causes the birth, growth and death of things, or rather the eternal cycles of life, is the divine spirit itself, permanent in the cosmos. They are the divinities that are in the universe, the ones that shape, model and modify it, granting life. The gods are concepts, together with the created forces, that make matter aggregate and form all things that exist in nature. They are perceptible in the world that man inhabits.
The creative force is identified, in this perspective, with nature itself, the vehicle through which the divine mystery of life is fulfilled, characterized by the eternal cyclical movement, in which the mystical forces are reformed, renewed And they reincarnate continuously.
Wicca's vision is very similar to what has been described, although it has its own roots in dualism: the principle that emanates from the cosmos and animates creation is not unique, but dual. The God and the Goddess, who represent the masculine and feminine principles, personify the two cosmic forces whose alternation —in eternal exchange— gives rise to existence and is the basis of all things. According to this idea of mystical union, sexual relations between man and woman are sacred because they respect the infinite process of manifestation of divinity in the world.
However, the cosmology of neopaganism tries to give an explanation to what exists before the origin of everything: before the creation there was chaos, called in different ways according to religions, and in the chaos an inactive primordial identity was present and eternal: divinity.
Creation began when divinity passed from one state of inactivity to another, which manifested itself as a light in the infinite darkness, a cosmic energy.
This energy did not create, in the literal sense of the term, but it began to put order within the chaos, it began to determine its spirit, to shape inanimate matter, giving it harmony, ordering it.
Liturgy
Neopagan ritual systems differ from one tradition to another. There is still a common thread that runs through contact with nature. Most of the rites involve the presence of natural elements and symbols. Others are related to the pentacle. Stones, crystals, water, salts, flowers and symbols are used in rituals. Natural elements are considered catalysts of contact between the divine world and the human world. Neopagans believe that the best way to connect with the gods is to live and meditate in the universe that they fill.
Natural places are, in the current situation that sees a scarce presence of stable temples, the best areas in which to celebrate rites, practices and divine mysteries.
In Wicca, in particular, there is a rather codified liturgy that provides for the use of a series of precise liturgical objects in a ritual although it is practiced by all the various "Wiccan traditions" and in the "covens". The ritual foresees the presence of elements such as the boline, the athame, the chalice and the cauldron.
Each tradition provides for the celebration of the religious marriage union in front of a priest. The rituals, moreover, this time are diversified in the neopagan current: in Wicca there is a ritual called "tying hands", which provides, as can be deduced from the name, that the hands of the spouses are joined in a loop to form a knot. This marriage practice is actually very old, and represents other groups both Neopagans and Wiccans.
Generally there are no sexual prejudices, there are heterosexual and homosexual marriages. In some traditions or groups, the spiritual legacy is renewed every year and you can choose whether to continue with the same partner (renew the marriage) or get divorced.
Other common rituals, which tend to be embraced over time, becoming a codified liturgy like the Christian mass, there are a series of non-codified rituals or simple expressions of faith that each pagan develops behind domestic walls. Personal devotion provides for the use of an altar on which icons of divinity are placed and offered incense, water, fruit. Near the altar, which can be of any shape and dimension, the celebrant prays, meditates and recites prayers as a symbol of devotion to the gods.
Ethics and morals
All neopagan religions share a similar ethical sense, which emphasizes respect for nature.
Nature in relation to the sacred, is respected today in its form and expression. Respect for nature is an ecological respect since in many traditions the Mother Goddess is identified with nature itself.
Neopaganism in each of its forms recognizes the central role of nature in the process that the human being has carried out to get involved, to know the world, to develop its peculiarities, to discover what is the beauty of existence.
In addition to respect for environmentalism, respect for nature means respect for the natural beings of each human and each creature: each one is respected and valued for what they are, for their i; each one is divine in his particularity. This is along the lines of the multiple and multicolored nature of life.
Neopaganism offers, therefore, a significant social ethic, which allows human beings to live fully respecting their neighbor, this respect translates into respect for any difference. The pagan teaching is based, therefore, on precepts that can be easily translated as rules of daily life, particularly in the ecological field and in the social field; simple ethical rules of approach to daily life that allows the realization of a harmony that underlines the legacy of the human being with the world, with the neighbor and with the earth.
Doctrinal characteristics
As for ethics, though the doctrines of various forms of neopaganism are very similar. Essentially all neopagan religions are based on a series of principles.
The most relevant is the cyclicity: unlike the Abrahamic religions and the Iranian religions, in which time is conceived as a straight line in which the will of God is done that will lead the person towards judgment In the end, in Neopaganism (as in Hinduism) time is conceived as a circular process.
This cyclical conception is perceptible by the briefest expressions of time of the great eras. The same life today, for neopagan believers, is circular: it goes through three phases, birth, growth and old age. Death is seen as a passage from one circle to another, something that ends senile age and puts an end to biological life, giving rise to a new period of life, analogous to the previous one.
Life after death is a concept of rebirth, actually a passage from one life to another. In neopaganism it is seen as a natural future, necessary to verify the regeneration of life, to the new existence.
It is from this cyclical conception that, after all, is common in all Indo-European religions, that the neopagan currents have assimilated the concept of reincarnation, while it was not already present in the ancient form of the religion. Reincarnation is common in practically all neopagan religions (although because it is a distinctive treatment of the internal system of Indo-European traditions; however, in religions such as druidism the concept was already individual in the archaic form, in other neopagan religions it was not present, or at least it was a belief spread only among the priestly orders, initiated into the highest mysteries.Indeed, the Kemetic myth of the death and resurrection of the god Osiris operates in a context that could be considered similar to that of reincarnation proper.
Tolerance is the third key element of neo-pagan teachings: the multiplicity of lives that could lead to the understanding of the divine is firmly expressed and, therefore, each religion is considered valid and justified.
Everyone can follow the spiritual career that they feel is closest to their needs, whether it has Indo-European or Abrahamic roots. Intolerance is seen as a degeneration of morality, an inability to perceive existence for what it is, characterized by multiple points of view, all valid and respectable, since none knows the absolute truth.
In this perspective, neopaganism opposes the intolerance of Abrahamic religions which are considered to hold the only truth or, at least, in its extremist part. In the neopagan universe there are many conceptions and each one has a variety of its own truth: each one can believe in its own truth. The important thing is not to harm anyone and not to impose one's own ideas on others. In pagan doctrine there is no contrast between good and evil, since they are concepts of the human mind.
Good and evil do not really exist, because it is the same person who tends to label created things as positive or negative. From this, an a priori code of behavior is not born, based on a morality that establishes what is good and what is bad, rather, a collective and cooperative ethic, guarantee of a good society, based Fundamentally on the moral principles of acceptance of differences and respect for nature.
Although the neopaganist ethic is natural it does not condemn what, under this criterion, condemns the Abrahamic religions. Free sex, homosexuality and scientific progress (although the Abrahamic religions do not oppose the latter) are not seen as impiety or violations of nature, science is seen as a means through which laws can be known who rule the cosmos.
Magic and esotericism
Neopaganism appears as a religion full of hidden and mysterious meanings. Symbolism is an essential component. Behind a façade that may seem simple and easily challenged, a mystical and profound meaning is hidden for his followers.
It is this esoteric trend that distinguishes neopagan religions from Christianity and the Abrahamic world in general. These latter religions, in fact, are esoteric, tending not to emphasize the deep and philosophical meanings of theology.
Neopaganism is mainly esoteric because it proposes to its faithful a direct encounter with the hidden dimension of nature, emphasizing the static meaning and underlining the emanation of divine power that highlights transcendence. From this idea of direct interaction between the person and the divine, Neopaganism bases all its rituals on the divinity of nature, rich in votive devotions and practical elements, without forgetting the meditative elements.
Some neopagan currents, but particularly Wicca, adopt magic as an element of the doctrine. Magical practices are not yet in the majority, but they are used as a ritual element that channels cosmic energy to favor contact with divine forces. Magical practice can be used for shelter, as in shamanism and animism. In Wicca magic is subject to the "law of three" ("equivalent" to karma); by which the practitioners must refrain from doing evil with magic because they will receive the evil multiplied by three. In traditional witchcraft that ethical sense is not present.
In other religions in which the concept of magic is included, such as druidism, it is considered only as something of the priestly orders of the druids; At the same time, most neopagan religions, particularly Kemetism, Romanism and Ásatrú dodecateism, do not consider magic as a central part of their own doctrine and, therefore, their followers practice it personally outside of collective rituals.
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Parties
The days considered sacred by pagan religions are many, there are still festivals that all pagans celebrate in the world, regardless of the tradition to which they belong: they are the sabbat and the esbat.
The latter, above all, which are truly typical of the festivals of rituals, having one return per month by the Wiccans. Celebrated at the end of each lunar month, there are thirteen different types. Since they are based on the lunar month, they never fall on the same day. The sabbat system is based on the mechanism of rotation of the Sun around the Earth, they are festivals that celebrate the sacredness of the solstices and equinoxes, considered astronomical events with their own particular mysticism.
In Wicca, the Sabbath holidays acquire an important theological significance: they actually celebrate the union between the God and the Goddess, a myth that emphasizes the divine union of the two principles and springs from the forces of nature. There are eight sabbaths:
- Samhain is the new year for many pagans, it is clear that Halloween is not the same as Samhain, Halloween was the eve of the new Celtic year ("All Hallows Eve" eve of All Saints)
- Yule (winter solstice)
- Imbolc
- Ostara (spring season)
- Beltane, the pagans who follow the Nordic path celebrate Walpurgis Night
- Litha (summer solstice)
- Lughnasadh or Lammas
- Mabon (the autumn season).
Symbols
Neopagan religions have always been rich in symbols of great variety and from past origins. Today a symbol is predominant, which comes from the Greco-Roman religion, the pentacle that can be used by all varieties of neopaganism because it has a lot of symbology.
The pentacle formed by a pentagram inside a circle is considered a symbol of strong mystical meaning; this represents, in fact, a kind of schematized reproduction of the vital processes that govern the universe and, therefore, the cosmos. The five vertices of the constituted angles of the star symbolize the five basic elements with which life is organized: air, water, earth, fire and spirit.
The latter is the energy emanating from divinity, on which the entire order of the cosmos is founded: it, through the hidden created forces, condenses forming the atoms of matter and, consequently, matter itself, the which would be other than the physical manifestation of God. The other elements represent, generalizing, the divine forces that perennially make the universe, forging it and giving rise to life. They are the divinities, emancipations of the One, permanent in the cosmos in each of its aspects.
The pentacle is widely used in the liturgy of many of the pagan currents. It is generally placed on altars, being considered a symbol capable of evoking the mysterious forces of the cosmos, but although it is generally used as an amulet to hang around the neck, particularly by the clergy (like the Christian cross, who wear their priests, monks and faithful).
Each neopagan tradition tends to have its own symbols, which, in the case of reconstructionist religions, are heirs to the cultural heritage of the ancient pagan religions from which they are based.
Wicca tends to have the pentacle as its own symbol, it means the balance between the four elements of the world (air, earth, water and fire) with the spirit. The 3 upper points represent the three aspects of the Goddess: maiden, mother and old woman, while the two lower points represent the God in his aspect of God of light and God of darkness.
Kemetism tends to have as its own symbol the Ankh, which represents the mystery of life and the manifestation of the divine. They also have the Eye of Horus (or udjat) and the solar disk of the god Aten, in which divinity tends to manifest itself in the cosmos.
In ásatrú it tends to have Mjolnir as its own symbol, which represents protection, consecration, justice. the valknut is also used to symbolize Odin's journey through the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil, which culminates in his momentary death and regeneration, in which he obtains runic knowledge, the use of the valknut is not recommended
In druidism the triskel and the awen are of particular importance. Between the two they represent the triple nature of divinity: the triquetra, like all pagan symbols, is the most widespread but its origin is unknown. The Triskel represents the 3 evolutionary paths of the human being: Body, mind and soul. The Awen is the inspired spirit: the sudden flame of lucidity that inflames the thoughts of men and gives them wisdom, ease of speech and energy in the midst of battle.