Help! I'm Clueless About Paganism
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What
Pagans Do You
may be used to the idea that religions are
basically about belief. To be part of a particular
religion, you need to believe particular things,
perhaps about the nature of God, or certain moral
precepts. In
Paganism, however, the emphasis is often on what we
do rather than what we believe. For example,
a group of Pagans can include people with very
different beliefs about the nature of gods and
goddess: one person may see them as independent
entities, another may see them as metaphors for
aspects of human personality, and another may see
them as different faces of a single universal
spirit. Nevertheless, this group of people can
perform a ritual together, in which a particular
goddess is invoked, thus sharing the activity
while maintaining distinct
beliefs. This
page describes one type of activity that is common
to many Pagan paths: ritual. As with all things
Pagan, there is a great deal of variation in the
when, how, why, and wherefore of ritual. A Word
About Wicca Wicca
is one particular modern Pagan religion, which took
shape in England in the early decades of the 20th
century. Wicca was inspired by the idea, prevalent
at the time, that the practice of witchcraft in
Europe was actually the survival of an ancient
Pagan fertility cult. Early practitioners of Wicca
believed that they were participating in this
ancient Pagan religion, that had survived in secret
through centuries of Christian persecution. (Wicca
is the Old English word for witch.) We now
know that modern Wicca owes more to the eclectic
borrowing and creative invention of its early
practitioners than it does to any ancient European
fertility cult, but it remains an extremely strong
influence in modern Paganism. In particular, the
seasonal celebrations known as the Wheel of the
Year, and the general pattern of ritual (circle
casting, calling quarters, invoking God and
Goddess) have their roots in Wicca and have since
spread across many different types of
Paganism. When
Are Rituals Performed? For
Pagans, the sacred days of the calendar are tied to
the cycles of nature, rather than commemorating
historical events. The sacred days most often
observed fall into two broad groups. The
Sabbats mark the cycle of the seasons, known as
the Wheel of the Year. There are eight sabbats.
Four are the solstices and equinoxes. (Germanic
peoples often celebrated the winter solstice in
pre-Christian times; the summer solstice and the
equinoxes seem to have had been seldom if ever
observed in ancient times.) The other four are
the so-called "cross-quarter days", corresponding
to important Celtic festivals, celebrated in
Ireland and parts of Britain. These fall midway
between the solstices and equinoxes, and represent
agriculturally significant times, such as first
harvest, or first killing frost. The
Esbats mark the cycle of the Moon. Many Pagans
celebrate the Full Moon, and some celebrate the New
Moon (Dark Moon), or other phases of the lunar
cycle as well. In
general, sabbat rituals tend to be large,
celebratory affairs, where Pagans and
Pagan-friendly people gather to mark the changing
seasons, have fun, feast, and enjoy each others'
company. Moon rituals, on the other hand, are often
more private and focused on magic or other
transformative activities. Pagans
also do rituals for special occasions: handfasting
(a Pagan wedding or bonding ceremony), rites of
passage (birth, coming-of-age, elderhood, death),
or because a ritual is needed to mark or create
some important change. What
is a Pagan Ritual Like? Compared
with a church service, a Pagan ritual is much more
active and participatory, and stimulating to the
senses. There is usually nothing like a Christian
sermon involved. Rather, the participants perform
symbolic actions that affirm the sacredness of the
occasion and foster some kind of change in
consciousness for the participants, as appropriate
for the occasion. Here
are some things that often happen during the course
of a Pagan ritual: Purification.
Participants may be ritually purified by
sprinkling with salt water, annointing with oil,
smudging with sage or incense, and so
on. Circle
Casting. Pagan rituals are usually performed
with the participants standing in a circle. During
a circle casting, the priestess or other person
presiding over the ritual walks the perimeter of
the circle, setting it off as sacred space with
words or symbolic actions. Calling
the Quarters. Pagans usually honor the four
directions (and the elements of air, fire, water,
and earth that are generally associated with them).
This is done with words and/or gestures, with
participants facing each direction in
turn. Invoking
Deity. Deity is usually welcomed in some form
during a Pagan ritual. A particular goddess and god
may be named, or the invocation may be more
general. Particular deities are often invoked when
their qualities, personalities, or areas of
activity support the purpose of the ritual. In
large public celebration, the invoking of a god or
goddess may be a simple matter of inviting their
attention and welcoming their presence. In a
private, more intense ritual, the priest or
priestess may aspect the deity, becoming a
vessel for the god or goddess to participate
actively in the ritual. Cakes
and Ale. Often, after the main activities of
the ritual are done, food and drink is passed
around the circle. This is a sharing and grounding
time. Why
Rituals? For
Pagans, rituals are very meaningful because they
mark or create change in the consciousness or life
of the participants. The change can be something
obvious, like the passing seasons, or it can be
some inward transformation a person needs or
desires to make. Some
people feel there is no need to go through the
symbolic operations of a ritual in order to mark or
create an important change. One can get married,
for example, simply by filing the necessary
paperwork. For most Pagans, however, having a
ritual gives the occasion a deeper, richer, more
symbolic and more spiritual impact on us. Rituals
help us honor important times in life by making
them special and richer. Next
Steps While
it's true that Paganism is usually more about
practice than belief, there are some beliefs that
are common to many Pagans and different from those
of Christianity or secular culture. These are
described in the next section, Go to
Page
Three. Copyright © 2008 Tom Waters |
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