PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in racism in paganism

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Trundholm Sun Chariot, Nordic Bronze ...

In general, the ancestors (as one would expect) speak with many voices, but not always.

Sometimes the ancestors speak with one voice.

 

Who Is an Aryan?

 

Down the centuries, the word “Aryan” has come to mean many things, but the original Aryans—the folks who originated the term—were the Sanskrit-speakers who moved southwestward into the Indian Subcontinent. For them, “Aryan” mean “our kind of people.”

What, for them, constituted "Aryan-ness"?

That, too, is clear. For the original Aryans, an Aryan was someone who spoke our language, worshiped our gods, and held to our ways.

Those were the qualifiers. It had nothing whatsoever to do with what you looked like or where your ancestors came from.

 

Who Is a Hellene?

 

For the ancient Greeks, the world was us and them: Hellenes and barbarians.

Who was a Hellene? Guess what?

A Hellene is someone who speaks our language—Greek—worships the Greek gods, and holds to Greek culture.

 

Who Is a Balt?

 

I recently read an interview with an elder in Romuva, the contemporary revival of the ancient Lithuanian religion.

Similar movements exist in the other Baltic countries and, indeed, all over Eastern Europe, having arisen out of the identity-crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of these movements are deeply nationalist in nature, sometimes (be it admitted) veering into overt racism.

Could a Russian-speaker be part of Romuva? the anthropologist asked the elder.

The question was a touchy one. In an attempt to quell nationalism, the Soviets moved Russian-speaking populations into all the Baltic Republics. There are now nearly as many Russian-speaking Lithuanians as Lithuanian-speakers. Needless to say, tensions between the two communities tend to burn hot.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 

 

In the dark days following 9/11, I heard numerous voices of condemnation raised from within the Muslim community: That isn't real Islam.

As a non-Muslim outsider looking in, I have to say that personally, I found (and find, since they continue to be raised after every subsequent atrocity) such responses disingenuous at best, self-serving at worst, but ultimately unsatisfying, and possibly even dishonest. Worst of all, such a response doesn't even begin to address the problem.

Who, after all, gets to decide just what is, and what isn't, real Islam?

As a outsider looking in, it sure looks to me as if the Islams of the world constitute a continuum. Some are inherently violent, some aren't. As a pagan outsider looking in, it seems to me that the most honest statement that, under the circumstances, one can make is: This is not my Islam.

I find that I respond similarly to discussions of racism in contemporary Heathendom. Who decides just what is and what isn't real heathenry?

(As to whether or not I can claim either insider or outsider status here, you'll have to decide for yourself. Of the Tribe of Witches, we're wont to say: We're too witchy for the heathens, too heathen for the witches. Straddling the hedge, of course, is fine old Witch tradition.)

Who owns the past? As pagans, I think that we often feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to the past: that, because of our love for it, the past somehow belongs to us in ways that it doesn't belong to others. In this, of course, we deceive ourselves. The past belongs equally to us all.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Alas, Ill News in Pagandom

Alas, ill news in Pagandom.

To judge from his social media presence, it would seem that Holden Matthews—the domestic terrorist who recently torched three predominantly-black churches in Louisiana—is pagan, apparently of some folkish heathen variety.

If that doesn't make you angry, it should.

If that doesn't make you feel ashamed, it should.

Here are some entirely inadequate responses:

He's not a pagan/heathen.

That's not real paganism/heathenism.

[It doesn't involve me because] I'm pagan, not heathen.

[It doesn't involve me because] I'm heathen, but not folkish.

[It doesn't involve me because] I'm folkish, but not racist.

Who Matthews is in his own heart, we do not know. But we can be certain that refusal to take ownership of problems in our own community achieves nothing.

Some better responses:

Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Thanks, Carol. I've updated.
  • Carol P. Christ
    Carol P. Christ says #
    link no longer working
Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race

[Image from http://www.literateape.com/blog/2016/12/19/i-fully-acknowledge-my-white-privilege-now-what]

This is Part 2 of my three-part series on race in Paganism

...
Last modified on

Additional information