I Digress

If you find my views offensive, then bear in mind that I’m neither North American nor was I Christened, baptized or raised on any kind of Christian dogma. As a clairvoyant empath I was always in communion with some kind of spirit or another. Rather, the folklore I grew up with was quite adequate enough in explaining these things in detail. So, I have never seen the need to “belong” to anything else. When I say this, some will tell me I should expand my horizons, although I’ve travelled around and lived on both sides of the North Atlantic, and speak several languages- whereas most of them have never had this experience. Others will try to tell me I have ego issues for saying this, as if they don’t have them themselves. It only makes me wonder what other moral double standards they will try to lament me with next. The only reason I am laying it out plain for everyone to see, is because I’ve been dealing with it long and wide enough to know the difference. There was always some smug tosser trying to talk down “at” me as if I didn’t know better, so this is my revenge (HA!)-

A Pagan is:
1. A) An adherent of surviving local polytheist folk traditions (Mayan, Celtic, Roman etc.)
The belief in a system of diversely interacting divine hierarchies or pantheons on different levels of existence. These may be a major part of their heritage though not necessarily their geographical location, but being raised on its language and customs was enough to be their way of life.
B) An adherent of surviving local pantheist folk traditions (shamanism, animism, etc.). Generally the belief in a continual metamorphosis of diverse entities out of the integral will or “life force” of existence (namely the “collective unconscious” as Carl Jung so aptly put it), integral to the whole, regardless what we may try to interpret as good or evil. In essence, all things, regardless if biological or elemental, are regarded as entities in this process. Christians and New Agers often try to relate the idea of an integral spirit to monotheist “God”, but fail to recognize its general ambivalence and multifariousness in the scheme of things; namely what we define as the “crooked path”. Like our polytheistic counterparts, we take pride in our heritage, thus tend not to fare well with Neopagans and New Agers making too many presumptuous claims about the “old ways”. These are wisdoms of survival sense, in the form of allegorical verse because we’re not in the habit of lugging books around on our ventures. Rather, having ancestral connections with certain places and its memories, it is wise to respectfully consult with the wights of the land one ventures into.

2. Neopaganism; the revival and adaptation of the previous two to popular esoteric trends. This is usually the case in locations where the aforementioned folk traditions no longer exist or are too far removed from their source to be fully understood- especially because of language barriers. This is usually compensated by incorporating hermetic mysticism which, based on the Kabbalah, provides a universal system of magical formulas in which seemingly anything can be integrated. This actually forms the esoteric basis of ancient biblical practices that were forbidden by the Nicene Creed as witchcraft and removed from Christian theology. Thus it tends to be favoured by Christians who feel the need for something more involved than mere humble faith and selfless subservience. In this case the practitioners are defined as pagan by the fact that witchcraft is a forbidden practice. In the same sense, its’ more freelance practitioners often express their pride in defying Christian authority. Of course, the “darker” and more “forbidden” the practice, the more intriguing the defiance. Unfortunately, in any hierarchy that defiance can easily turn into its own gospel thumping piousness. It happens in Wicca with the Rede and the Three Fold Law and I’ve also seen it in Odinism, with the Havamal as its gospel, especially the subjugation of women and the emphasis on Odin as the “Allfather”. It’s also an attitude that could easily be interpreted as a form of Nazism. I hate Nazis because they stuck my grandfather in labour camp for the free thinker he was. They stuck my mother in the Luftwaffe, because she was underage with no one left to look after her. They tried to murder her in Hameln for going out with my Anglo-Canadian father (he was a dual citizen). Thanks to the subsequent brain damage, I have never known her to be sound of mind.

3. New age spirituality; a whole esoterical “melting pot” of popular spiritual concepts from around the world, on the premise of divine oneness in universal consciousness or “all gods are one”- unfortunately, often with very little actual regard for cultural diversity, let alone, individuality. In essence, they not only call themselves pagan but every other belief or religion under the sun, especially Native American. Yet in the same breath, they’ll bewail the ever decreasing biodiversity on this planet…and when I say “popular concepts” I mean the consumer wholesale of foreign practices and wonder cures as a trendy fashion statement; with only a superficial understanding of the actual language and customs. Outside of that, they really couldn’t give a toss about the rest of the world unless for some fashionable crusade to prove just how “humane”, politically or morally correct they are. Heaven forbid if you try to spoil that illusion with any “negative” facts. On the other hand, that kind of self- righteousness always plays on some premise of impending doom where the chosen can be saved by the visions of some utopian new world order, under the divine guidance of the cosmic master race of purest spiritual being. Umm…thanks, but no thanks, I can think of better ways to indulge my hedonistic ego.

4. Anyone who isn’t christened, baptized or committed to a religious institution, provided they at least believe in their own psychic ability to effect causality, albeit for better or worse. Sometimes existentialists will use this as a premise to call themselves pagan, but theirs are usually socio-political philosophies that don’t apply very well to natural causes.