Kenny Klein: Tales Of The Rambling Wren.
Follow Kenny from the levees of New Orleans to the whirling chaos that is the Pagan festival circuit and beyond. Musings, rants, and just plain Pagan talk.
Running From the Word Pagan
If you are active in the Pagan blogosphere, you're probably aware of Star Foster's proclamation that she is no longer Pagan. You may also have read Jason Mankey's response. I thought I'd chime in. And yes, this is going to be a words-have-meaning-and-magic kind of post. I promise next week I'll write something about bunnies and happy fairies (OK, really, I'll write about Mardi Gras).
Between Star Foster and Jason, I think what I feel is, as I have maybe said before, we have a problem with the word Pagan. Yes, here comes the back-when-I-first-became-Pagan reference, as you knew it would... back-when-I-fist-became-Pagan, there was a very specific meaning to the word. Pagans were ployrtheists, worshiping perhaps a Goddess and a God, or perhaps many Goddesses and Gods (or in deference to the VERY uneasy peace made in the '80s between Wiccans and Dianics, perhaps several Goddesses). Pagans worshiped in a ritual format. pagans usually, often, identified with a tradition of worship: Wiccan, Druid, Dianic, Feri... the list goes on.
It was not safe to be Pagan. It was dangerous. There was a keen perception that you could lose your job, or your children, if you were openly Pagan. So generally speaking, Pagans were very heartfelt about being Pagan. It was a risk Pagans took out of love. Love for the Gods we served, love for the community we found ourselves in. It was an imperfect community, but in many ways, it was a community that stuck together, for both love and protection.
And here we are in the present. As my blogs here and the responses to them have shown, there is a huge effort to make Pagan mean pretty much anything. Pagans worship Jesus, Pagans believe in Gods from The Hobbit, Pagans are atheistic, Pagans are Pagan because they own a drum.
Please, I have no problem with people worshiping Jesus, owning a drum, reading the Hobbit or believing or not believing as they like. It's your right as an American to believe in whatever you like. But when you believe whatever you like and define yourself as Pagan, it causes the term Pagan to have less and less meaning. By insisting that Pagans can worship Jesus or hobbits or nothing, we chip away at the word Pagan until we have nothing left but two empty syllables. What does Pagan end up meaning?
Then we see another problem: how do we build a Pagan community if everyone in the community believes something different? (Or nothing...different)? What is the bond that unites us? Do we build a community of people who believe vastly different things but call these things Pagan, just because they can? If I go to a Pagan event, say a Pagan festival, I like to have a respectful discussion of ritual, or of my Gods/Goddesses, or of the Wheel Of The Year, with people who understand and are conversant on these ideas, these tenets I hold very dear. But what happens when I go to a Pagan festival and try to discuss these things, and I'm told they have nothing to do with Paganism? At least, the Paganism others there hold. Suddenly I have very little reason to be at a Pagan event. I can hang out in the local cafe and find people who believe in all sorts of things, and who don't know what the Wheel Of The Year is. Why travel to Brushwood or Wisteria to have this conversation?
I think what Star Foster may be feeling is this confusion, this demeaning, of what Pagan means. She says she will no longer refer to herself as Pagan, but as a Polytheist... in my world, that's what Pagan means. But in the new world of Pagan-means-anything, apparently it doesn't. Well I've identified as Pagan for over thirty years now. It's been the basis of my beliefs my entire adult life. But I need to get behind Star here: if Pagan means anything, if Pagan means everyone, how am I a Pagan?
Next week....
Comments
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Wednesday, 09 January 2013What a wonderful and thoughtful post. I'll still call myself a Pagan (and even, depending on the day, a Witch and a Wiccan), but I suppose I can understand why someone might not want to.
On the other hand, if we allow others to take our names away from us, how does that help? -
Thursday, 10 January 2013It's not newsworthy that Star chooses to not use the term, and I'm sorry that you believe it should be a stagnant definition or that it's no longer "yours". I think the time for this pettiness is over. There are bigger issues, like religious equality, whose challenges can only be met if we get over ourselves long enough to find enough in common to unite. That tends to start with a "tribe" name, then grows from there. "Pagan" means you, and me, and everyone else who is tired of living in a Christian-privileged society and there must be one banner to wave on the field, so to have at least one commonality that speaks beyond our self interests. If it were just the Wiccans or the Druids making such a bold fight, most of the rest of us wouldn't feel an inherent investment in the outcome, but as "Pagans" surely we can come together long enough for such a worthy effort, can we not?
· Andrea likes this comment. -
Thursday, 10 January 2013I disagree that it's "not newsworthy", Peter. Star was (is?) a very prominent and public figure, managed the Pagan Portal at Pantheos, one of the largest faith-based websites around, and many people within and outside of the Pagan community are talking about it. It has also rekindled a broader discussion about the use of the term "Pagan" which is a healthy debate to have, no matter where one stands on the issue. I think those elements make it newsworthy.
Now, that doesn't speak to your other points, which I'll let others comment on, but I do think the "not newsworthy" point, specifically, is not accurate. -
Thursday, 10 January 2013I'd agree with Joe here; it is newsworthy because people are talking about it. Like it or not (I'll keep mum here) Star Foster has become a Pagan-esque (see, I qualified the term!) celebrity, and people pay attention to what she has to say. If her "I'm not a Pagan" declaration stands then I guess we'll gradually get to the point that no one in the Pagan community (loosely defined) cares what she has to say. At that point, her posts will not be news, but for the moment, they are at least gossip and/or a lightning rod.
As for "Pagan" -- as the publisher of a magazine titled "Witches and Pagans" I naturally feel good about the term. I see "Witch" as denoting the use of magick (a praxis-based name) and "Pagan" as denoting a polytheist religious belief (a theology-based name). That's just me, of course, and your mileage may vary. Personally, I'm a Witch (but not Wiccan) and definitely a Pagan, and not planning to change those self-identifiers any time soon.· Andrea likes this comment. -
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Thanks for helping me understand where Star may be coming from. I was confused but you've shed some light. To me, however, the term Pagan retains its coherence. It's a complex grouping with overlaps and gaps but overall it makes sense to me. I wouldn't say that "Pagan means anything." Rather, I'd say there are three or four (maybe five or six) different types of Pagans. But your experience is far more extensive; maybe I haven't been exposed to just how malleable the term has become.