5.06.2008
Recommended Reading
I've got some great links for any of my readers looking for some new online reading material. To start with, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which recently heard the testimony of Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum on religious discrimination in prisons, has posted the full transcript of the proceedings.
"If the same standards that are being required of the Wiccans were applied to the Protestants, you guys would have to fire all the Protestant chaplains right now because they don't have any ground to stand on at all in all the services that they're getting."
This is historic testimony on behalf of minority faiths before a U.S. governmental body, and should be required reading for any Pagan concerned about our religious freedoms.
Turning from political concerns, the comics/pop-culture web site Sequential Tart interviews Thista Minai about her Hellenic faith, and her recently published book "Dancing In Moonlight: Understanding Artemis Through Celebration".
"And, of course, I'm nuts about animals and wilderness. I work as a veterinary technician, and I remember a rather amusing trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with my (very Catholic) father. There was a pendant on display showing Artemis as Potnia Theron, the Mistress of Animals, and I was explaining to my father (who by then was well aware of my obsession with Artemis and suspected that it was more than academic) exactly what all that meant. When I finished, he looked at me, looked at the pendant, then looked back at me and said, 'So, basically, She's the Goddess of veterinary technicians.' And I said '... Yeah, dad.'"
An interesting and wide-ranging interview that provides a nice look into Pagan religion and ethics outside the Wiccan paradigm.
Finally, the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) has posted all the papers from its 2008 international conference. A wealth of academic papers on modern Paganism, the New Age movement, syncretic faiths, and several papers dealing with Aleister Crowley and Thelema.
"CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, was established in 1988 by a group of religious scholars from leading universities in Europe and the Americas ... CESNUR's original aim was to offer a professional association to scholars specialized in religious minorities, new religious movements, contemporary esoteric, spiritual and gnostic schools, and the new religious consciousness in general. In the 1990s it became apparent that inaccurate information was being disseminated to the media and the public powers by activists associated with the international anti-cult movement. Some new religious movements also disseminated unreliable or partisan information. CESNUR became more pro-active and started supplying information on a regular basis, opening public centers and organising conferences and seminars for the general public in a variety of countries. Today CESNUR is a network of independent but related organizations of scholars in various countries, devoted to promote scholarly research in the field of new religious consciousness, to spread reliable and responsible information, and to expose the very real problems associated with some movements, while at the same time defending everywhere the principles of religious liberty."
Some interesting looking papers include "The Rise and Fall of a Public Witch Hunt: Changing Media Attitudes to New Religious Movements Since 1988", by Suzanne Evans, "Online and Offline - Locating Pagan Community", by Angela Coco, and "Minority Religions and Law Enforcement: A Human Rights Perspective", by Alessandro Amicarelli. I recommend browsing the entire list.
Happy reading!
Labels: academia, Artemis, books, CESNUR, Chaplaincy, interview, Paganism, Patrick McCollum, Prison, Religious Freedom, Sequential Tart, Thista Minai
4.15.2008
Interview with Rita Moran
In the increasingly close (and heated) Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the role of "superdelegates" has gained a lot of scrutiny and attention as it becomes clear that these individuals will most likely decide who receives the Democratic party's nomination for president. For a short period, one of those superdelegates was an openly Pagan party official. Rita Moran, Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, who was outed and stalked by a vindictive local Christian group last year.
Rita Moran
So why was Moran a superdelegate for only a short time? That is a matter of some controversy, involving an unnecessary re-vote, and factions within the Democratic party battling it out. I was lucky enough to conduct an interview with Rita Moran about this situation, what it's like being an openly Pagan party official, and what her future plans are in the wake of losing her superdelegate position.
You are currently the Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee. How did you get involved in politics, and how did you come to be in the position you are in now?
I come from an Italian immigrant family, and it was the Democratic Party that helped my parents learn English and find a place in their new country. When my father became a citizen, and I still remember that day, he became a Democrat and eventually rose to leadership in his county committee. I guess it's in my blood.
Last year, you were "outed" as a Pagan by the Maine Christian Civil League, did that affect your standing with fellow officials within the local Democratic Party, or hinder your relationship with Democratic voters in your community?
It's hard to say. Overtly, the Democratic Party leadership stood behind me. Behind the scenes, or in the minds of individual voters, I honestly have no idea what was, is, being said.
You were recently, albeit briefly, elected as a superdelegate for the state of Maine. Could you explain how you were elected, and subsequently removed from your position?
Sure. The Maine Democratic State Committee has a "three strikes" rule which mirrors that of the Democratic National Committee: miss three consecutive meetings and you are automatically removed, but may run for the position at a subsequent meeting.
Jennifer DeChant, who ran unopposed and was elected at the June, 2004 state convention had missed three consecutive meetings; the third was in November of 2007. At that time it was announced that she would have to run for that office again at our January, 2008 meeting. The day before that meeting I was asked by someone in party leadership to run against her; I agreed to accept the nomination. I would not, however, make phone calls or send e-mails asking for support, since I knew Jennifer was experiencing a difficult pregnancy and would be unable to match that effort. I knew it could cost me the election, but it was an ethical decision I felt I needed to make.
The election happened, and I won by a narrow margin.
A few days later one of our state legislators contacted John Knutson, state party chair, and claimed the election was not legitimate. During the two months between the January and March meetings I made many phone calls to state committee members looking for support. I found there was an awful lot of misinformation out there, though couldn't say by whom it was being spread. I cannot tell you how difficult that time was. I have devoted an enormous amount of time to the Democratic Party, am loved and honored by our county team, and led them to victory in two special elections last year (the first of which led to my attack from the Christian Civic League).
The state party chair asked for an opinion from our Rules Committee, which said there was no problem with the original election. Despite this, at last month's state committee meeting my election was repealed. Another election was held and I lost by just a few votes.
Do you plan to run for superdelegate status within your state's party in the future, or are you planning on challenging the "re-vote" that reinstated Jennifer DeChant?
Right now, I'm looking forward rather than back. I am running, and running hard, for Maine's DNC Woman slot. The election will be held on May 31st at our state convention. The campaign will cost several thousand dollars, but I believe it's time we sent an "outed" pagan to the Democratic National Committee. Our views, our voices, are different, and deserve to be heard on the national level. I have set up a PayPal account under my campaign e-mail address: DNCWoman@gmail.com, and hope to have the help of my fellow Pagans who agree with me on this. Folks (especially Mainers going to the state convention) can also contact me at that same address with advice and inspiration. I'd love to pull together a Pagan Caucus, if only via e-mail.
What are your broader political goals? Do you hope to run for elected office at some point in the future? Do you think America will get to a point where (open) modern Pagans will be elected to government in our lifetimes?
I've been urged to run for political office, but feel that working in the background is best for me. Frankly, I am afraid of the negative effects on our small business (independent bookstore) should my faith become an issue in a legislative campaign. Being "outed" by the Christian Civic League certainly hasn't helped business, and this would make it all happen again on an even larger scale.
That being said, I believe there may well be open Pagans in elected office right now. We just don't know who they are!
I know that you are not currently a superdelegate, but had you held on to your position which Democratic presidential candidate would you have endorsed and why?
When the state committee elected me in January, I asked them just that question. Overwhelmingly they urged me to vote so that the superdelegates' ballots would reflect the outcome of Maine's caucuses: 60% for Barack Obama and 40% for Hillary Clinton. If I were free to express a public opinion, however, I would overwhelmingly support Barack Obama. I feel his message of hope, his campaign which has been so incredibly inclusive, has inspired me.
On the larger question of superdelegates, I do not, and will never believe that they know more than the voters who participated in primaries and caucuses. That's elitism, plain and simple. Since the Democratic Party instituted the idea of superdelegates,a lot has changed, making it far easier for voters to be well-informed. When I'm elected to the Democratic National Committee I plan to address two issues: first, the superdelegates; second, the broken system of setting dates for primaries and caucuses.
Oh, and I'm intending to show up for my first DNC meeting wearing my rather discreet pentacle. Imagine that!
Finally, what advice would you give to a Pagan wanting to run for office or get involved in American party politics?
I've helped lots of candidates. I believe that job #1 for a candidate is to give people hope...hope that things can be better and that, as a candidate you with with your constituents and fellow legislators to make a difference, to make things better.
One-to-one voter contact, with that message (as well as a good, strong idea of who you are as a candidate) that will resonate with voters, is the key to getting elected. Phone calls and mailers are far, far less effective.
Previous Wild Hunt interviews: Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Phyllis Curott, Tim Ward, Lupa, J.C. Hallman, Margot Adler.
Labels: Christian Civil League, Democratic Party, interview, Maine, Paganism, politics, Presidential election, Rita Moran
3.30.2008
Interview with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone
Authors, teachers, and elders, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have had an indelible influence on the modern Paganism movement. With her late husband Stewart Farrar, Janet helped pen some of religious Witchcraft's most well-regarded tomes, including "Eight Sabbats for Witches" and "The Witches' Way" (subsequently re-released as one volume entitled "A Witches' Bible"). Towards the end of Stewart Farrar's life, the couple were joined by Gavin Bone, a Pagan and registered nurse who entered into a personal and professional relationship with the couple.
Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone
Today Janet and Gavin are championing a new "Progressive Witchcraft", teaching classes, and running workshops around the world. I recently had the opportunity to conduct an e-mail interview with Janet and Gavin about their current projects, the recently released biography of Stewart Farrar, and living the Pagan life in Ireland.
Both of you have been living and working in Ireland for some time now. What changes and progress have you noticed among Pagans in your adopted homeland? I suspect that when Janet and Stewart first moved to Ireland in 1976, there were few "out" Pagans of any sort, or any "Pagan community" to speak of.
Ever since Gavin moved to Ireland in 1993 we have seen a lot of changes in the Pagan community in Ireland. Before '93 there were probably only about two covens, including our own. The other one, believed to be Gardnerian, we had little contact with and it disappeared by the mid '90's. The big hub of activity up until then was the Fellowship of Isis, at Clonegal Castle, which of course, is still running. From that several groups began to spring up in the mid to late '90's including the Druid Clan of Danu, the first serious neo-Druid organisation in Ireland and the Grove of Sinann which became associated with it.
The real changes took place around about 1998. By this time the first pagan moots came into being and a conference of 'interested parties' took place in Dublin. The movement was beginning to blossom, but it was noticeable that the majority of the 'movers and shakers' were not Irish but 'blow ins' to use the Irish vernacular; they were English, Swiss, Scottish, and American. The real change has taken place in the last 5 years where we have really begun to see a real Irish pagan movement as such, with multiple paths appearing including a Druid and shamanic revival.
Janet, you have recently co-authored a book on the life of Stewart Farrar with Elizabeth Guerra entitled: "Stewart Farrar: Writer On A Broomstick". Could you tell us a bit about the book, and the process behind getting it written?
Stewart had started to write his own autobiography with that title Writer on a Broomstick, back in the late '90's. This was only really a brief sketch of his fascinating life, he never, before his death got round to putting the 'bones' on it so to speak. So, a couple of years ago we approached Liz Guerra, a friend of ours for some years to write his biography. We decided to honour Stewart by using the original title he had decided upon and we went about, with Liz putting together all the research on his life.
Stewart being a professional journalist most of his life, kept a daily diary and habitually filed all the letters and replies he had ever written. The first year was taken up by Liz Guerra and ourselves going through all of this and recording the major events in his life from childhood, through his serving as an officer in the army during the second world war, through to his meeting with Alex and Maxine Sanders and joining the Craft, his writing career and finally up to his death.
We had to make some difficult decisions, one of these being whether we put everything in. We wanted to portray the real Stewart 'warts and all' so people could recognise him as a human being. In the end I believe we struck a good balance and people will be able to identify with him, not as a well known pagan author but as an individual like themselves who was lucky enough to have a fascinating life.
Speaking of Stewart Farrar, I understand that his novels ("Omega" being a personal favorite of mine) are in the process of being put back into print. Is there any definite word on when we might see them in our local bookstore or available for order?
Unfortunately, there have been some delays on publication of his novels. The publishing industry has suffered greatly from the current recession, so their publication has been on hold. We hope to have them republished in the next year though.
The two of you are now doing online seminars and classes with The College of The Sacred Mists. Can you describe what these classes entail? What are your opinions concerning the recent explosion of online schools? Do you feel this is a generally positve trend?
The decision to enter into online teaching wasn't taken lightly. We wrestled with the concept for a while going through the ethics of it, and whether you could actually teach magical subjects in this way. In the end we decided it was no different to writing a book, except there was more interaction. It was this that eventually made our minds up to do it, and the fact that we had some positive experiences teaching one off online seminars.
Our current course has several different facets to it: Including written Lessons, practical exercises, regular chat room sessions to answer questions and discuss topics and the use of MP3s for teaching, which we have just incorporated in to the course. There is also homework and students are expected to keep a Course Diary which everyone can read online. This has resulted in a community feel to the course, with ourselves and the students interacting and assisting each other on a daily basis, something we really enjoy! To be honest, once this started to happen all our doubts about its viability as a method of teaching went out of the window - it began to feel like we were teaching in a college. The technology may be different but the experience is the same.
To answer your question as to whether it is a 'positive trend'. Just as there are really good books out there, there are really good online courses, and likewise there are some really bad books written by authors with little experience. It isn't a positive or a negative trend, its just a trend and it isn't new. Correspondence courses on magic have been around since at least the early 1980's, the difference is the technology being used which opens up new possibilities. In the end the community will decide whether they will work or not. If a course is bad, the word will get around the community really quick and people will simply stop signing on to it.
On the College of the Sacred Mists web site, it says that your current practical work is in the area of Spiritism and Trance Prophesy. Could the two of you touch a bit on these explorations for my audience?
First, we should explain, so that there is no misunderstanding, that this is not what the course with College of Sacred Mists is about. With the College we're doing a seven month course called Progressive Magic. There are some things you can teach on line and other things you can't, and this is definetly a subject which requires a 'hands on' approach.
I (Janet) have always been a natural medium. When I came into the Craft and was taught Drawing Down the Moon I went to it like a 'duck to water'. I always assumed that everyone had the same experience as myself; going completely into deep trance. As Stewart and myself started to travel in the 1980's we found that this was not the case and that I was luckily naturally gifted.
Gavin and myself started to explore this more deeply in the mid 90's. Experimenting with different techniques including traditional Drawing Down where you use a silver bowl, and several trance induction techniques. Both of us had an interest in the Norse and Anglo-Saxon techniques used in what is called Seith or Seidr, and after seeing Diane Paxson; one of the foremost exponents of Seidr trance practise, at work with one of her trance groups, we became inspired to do more. We ended up studying other traditions including Shamanism, Santeria and Voudon ('riding the Loa'), to understand how these traditions used and induced trance and brought deity-spirits through.
It became very clear to us that there were some inherent problems with the current Drawing Down the Moon ritual used in modern Wicca, the main one being an actual lack of trance technique. So we went about creating a safe generic technique to teach trance-prophesy using what we have called The Underworld Descent Technique. Part of this process is using energy (Chakras) and visualization pathworking using a hypnotic induction technique.
We also teach that the Gods and Goddesses are REAL, not just Jungian archetypes. That they are spirits with their own personalities, capable of communicating with you through trance and in some cases positively possessing you when the circumstances are right. We have had quite a few seers and seeresses possessed by deities at different times. Originally we taught this as part of a weekend workshop (The Inner Mysteries) but it has become so successful that we now teach evening and one day sessions.
Aside from your publishing, teaching, and spiritual pursuits, are either of you involved in any activst or charity-related projects? If so, could you talk a bit about that? In a related note, what is your collective take on the M3 expansion through the Tara valley? I know that at least one member of Teampall Na Callaighe is actively involved in direct actions to help stop the current progress.
We're not involved as much as we'd like in activist activities. Unfortunately the current situation since 911 has made it difficult for us to be involved in direct action, particularly regarding the M3, as we cannot afford to be arrested or 'black marked' by the authorities, as this would affect our ability to gain entry into the US for tours. Most American citizens are unaware that if you are arrested as a political activist outside the US you will be denied a visa and entry.
The whole situation with Tara and the M3 is part of bigger problem currently occurring in Ireland with the conflict in the Irish psyche between spirituality and materialism. In the 1990's we had an upsurge of economic expansion, and at the same time the decline of the influence of the Catholic Church here. The Irish have always been a very spiritual people, but the scandals around the Church here, have resulted in a cynicism taking its place, and movement towards more materialistic values. Now every family wants two cars which they can replace every year and a new house. To quote Francesca Howell: 'they have a nasty dose of affluenza!'. This conflict between the material and the spiritual in the culture has over flowed into the Irish countryside and the M3/Tara Valley conflict is symbolic of this change in social perspective.
Many people outside of Ireland are unaware of the other problems we face here: Peoples rights are being eroded and we widespread corruption in the Government. It is common for Government bodies to go through 'processes of consultation' with local communities to give an impression of democracy and then totally ignore that communities wishes. At present we are involved (alongside the M3 campaign which is linked) with a campaign to stop Eirgrid, the electricity provider putting up monster pylons across the countryside. Nobody wants them, they are a risk to the environment, wildlife, people's individual health and the archeology. But, any complaint against this damage is ignored. We are pleased to say that this has resulted in a groundswell of public dissension - Irish people are beginning to realise that they have power at a grass roots level.
While I'm on the subject of Ireland's spiritual landscape, I notice that you do tours of ancient sites in Ireland, and Janet has produced a DVD of Celtic fairy stories. Is Ireland's pre-Christan past a big influence on your spirituality and practice?
Pagan tour groups started approaching us several years ago, in fact one of the first groups was one run by Starhawk as far back as the early 1980's. It seemed natural to advertise that we were 'open for business' in this area. So far we have toured groups from the United States, Mexico and Australia. We have an advantage in this area as we live central to most of the major ancient sites in Ireland, and we also know where all the lesser known, more intimate ones are which attract 'activity' of a spiritual nature.
When you live in Ireland you can't ignore the heritage around you. If you are a pagan or a witch you certainly can't ignore. Just about every coven we know links itself to the spirituality of its environment. Our coven is linked to Slieve na Callaighe (The Hill of the Witch), part of a series of hills in County Meath known as Lough Crew which has neolithic burial tombs stretched across them. Only just recently we went up at dawn to watch the sunrise on this hill as the tomb on top is aligned with the Spring Equinox.
Many of our coven, including ourselves link to deities outside of Ireland, including Freya, and Diana, but we do not ignore the heritage of this land or the ancestral spirits of it. At Imbolg we make offerings to Brid and at Lughnasa to Lugh and also throw offerings into our local river to our local river goddess Boann. Witchcraft here is linked very much to the land here, and the mythology of the Irish can be found in every hill and at every ancient site.
What new books and other projects can we expect on the horizon from the two of you?
You may not see any new books from us for a while. We do have one book being written at the moment on our experiences with trance and psychism but its publication is a long way off. At present we are concentrating on the practical workshops and the online courses. We are touring again this year, and will be in New York State, Connecticut and Washington DC towards the end of August and September.
As both of you continue in your roles as elders and teachers within the wider Pagan community, what do you think will be your greatest legacy to the modern Paganism movement?
That's a good question, and we're not really sure that it is our place to say! In the end I think we will be judged on what effect we have had, what we have done, rather than any claims we have made about ourselves. If we have changed one person, and allowed them to find their spirituality and connection to divinity then we are happy that we have achieved something. It only takes one person to change the world.
Previous Wild Hunt interviews: Phyllis Curott, Tim Ward, Lupa, J.C. Hallman, Margot Adler.
Labels: Gavin Bone, interview, Ireland, Janet Farrar, Paganism, Stewart Farrar, Wicca, Witchcraft
2.14.2008
Interview with Tim Ward
Several years ago Tim Ward, a "spiritual journalist" and author of three books on Buddhism, had an epiphany. A moment of embrace from the goddess Kali in India that eventually prompted an epic road-trip in search of The Goddess at her holy sites throughout Europe and the Middle-East, and an even deeper exploration of his own wants, fears, and motivations concerning women. The resulting book, published in 2006, was "Savage Breast: One Man's Search for The Goddess". An unflinching portrait of the spiritual void within men, and in Western society, that has come in since the ascendancy of patriarchal monotheism. I recently had the opportunity to interview Tim about his book, his relationship with the Goddess, Buddhism, and how Pagans and Goddess worshipers have received his work.
Tim Ward
How important is it in your mind that men discover the Goddess? It was certainly a hard road for you, a journey that brought a lot of dark emotions to the surface.
Discovering the Goddess was a great source of healing for me. I think it could help many men. I found, in the course of writing Savage Breast, that I had a whole realm of unconscious reactions towards women I was completely unaware of. As a result I sabotaged relationships, acting by turns weak and vicious towards the women I loved. Becoming aware of the archetypes of the Goddess, I began to see the patterns in my behavior. Recognizing the source, I could begin to deal with these reactions consciously - and that opened the door to tremendous healing. On a deeper level, reconnecting with the Goddess as a spiritual reality is where the healing really happened. As Teresa, the woman who went through this whole experience with me put it, it helped me become the man I truly was.
Was it difficult to get a book about a man searching for the Goddess published? Did you find obstacles due to preconceived notions about who should be writing a "Goddess book"?
Yes, the book was rejected by many publishers before O Books recognized it for the work of staggering genius that it is. Strangely, many prospective publishers liked the idea of a male perspective on the Goddess, but they didn't like the fact I had included my personal experiences. To me, the personal transformation was the heart of the story.
Now that it has been some time since you wrote the book, is the Goddess a daily part of your life and practice? Have you changed further since the book was published?
I've become more and more aware of how patriarchy is woven into the fabric of our society, how much we take the dominance of men and the subjugation of women for granted. Much of it is unconscious. Just look at the irrational hatred many feel towards Hillary Clinton. I'm now committed to ending patriarchy, in my own life and relationships with all women, and in society. For example, I've begun holding circle discussions with men and women on what we can do to make this change. That for me is a practical expression of my beliefs. (anyone who would like to have me hold one in your community, please write to the address below)
Would you call yourself a "Goddess worshiper" now? If so, in what sense? How do you perceive the divine feminine?
Yes, I worship the Goddess. How? By cultivating gratitude for the many blessing in my life. By seeing my work, relationships and enjoyment of life's pleasures as an offering to Her. It's Recognizing every moment of every day that the world I live in is her body, and that we are all her children. Knowing that even death is safe, for it is a return to her womb. not really very religious, but it permeates everything I do.
Since your "conversion" (awakening?), have you interacted much with men in the Pagan community?
Some men - Pagan and non-pagan - totally get this book. This includes a retired marine corps engineer I met a year ago who knew nothing about "the Goddess" as a faith. He just knew it in his life and his 30 year marriage to his wife. Often the men who impress me are older, with partners they have loved for many years.
Then there are the many men I have met within the Pagan community who worship the Goddess, but they've not yet delved into the realm of their own unconscious where animosity to the feminine resides. Believe me, the women in the Pagan community are well aware of this animosity. The advantage Pagan men have is they see the door, and there are usually women around them ready to help them open it. Truth is, it takes courage to step into the presence of the sacred feminine. Hekate and Kali are both powerful forces for this kind of transformative work, which indeed places a man right in her cauldron!
Have you had much feedback from female Goddess worshipers, and women in general, about the book? Was it supportive? Challenging?
Overwhelmingly supportive. I was expecting some women to challenge me as a man treading on sacred feminine space. But no, women are overwhelmingly saying to me "It's about time a man paid attention to this!" I've been deeply touched by women Goddess worshipers who have taken some hope from my story - that it is possible for a man to heal. There is such strong recognition by aware, conscious women that men in general have not yet taken on this task - that we have work to do if we are to embrace women as genuine equals and co-create humanity's future together.
Do you feel that your attitudes concerning women have continued to improve since the journey outlined in your book? Does your wife think you have continued to change?
Yes - and I continue to see how thick are the male blinders that I still wear. I still find it hard to really listen to what my wife (and business partner) Teresa has to say. Sometimes I will come up with a brilliant idea, and tell it to her, only to see the dismay on her face as she reminds me she is the one who told the idea to me a month ago! Then I vaguely remember...So, yeah, still a work in progress. Another area I am working on is overcoming this weird tendency of men to treat women over 40 as invisible. If we men aren't attracted to a women, of if she somehow does not command our attention, we tend to not notice them. It sounds terrible to say it. In a large part it is because our ideas of beauty have been contaminated by the porn and fashion industry which insists that only young women are worth noticing.
For all that, Teresa would say the biggest change is that I have grown really comfortable in my own skin. this includes being a much better arguer. Because we have thrashed through so many unconscious issues, now when we argue, we fight about the issue at hand, not some underlying unconscious issue. That's makes it nice and clean, no residue, no resentment. I never thought I would have a relationship so solid, where I really trusted the other 100%. She says the same about me.
You are also deeply involved in Buddhist practice, how do these two threads in your life interact?
I find the Buddhist ideas of no-self, and of reality as a field of interconnected experience fits well with my sense of the Goddess' world. And the compassion and care for all beings that arises from Buddhist insight is exactly the sense I get from seeing the world and all beings as the Goddess's living body. The Chinese have a female Bodhisattva, Kwan Yin, who has 100,000 eyes with which see sees the world's suffering and 100,000 hands with which she moves to heal that suffering. For me this is the perfect blend of Buddhism and the Goddess.
That said, many branches of Buddhism and Buddhist teaching are woefully sexist - for example in Thailand it is thought that a woman needs to first be reborn as a man in order to attain enlightenment. Even Tibetan Buddhism, which has nuns and women teachers, can be notoriously sexist in terms of the power roles in Tibetan politics. Two Tibetan scholars, a pair of sisters who are friends of mine, have done their Ph D theses on this topic. It's opened my eyes, as a big fan of Tibet, to the reality of pervasive sexism within these spiritual communities.
I am hopeful however that Buddhism in the west will become more egalitarian as issues of sexism and gender are being dealt with by intelligent and passionate men and women who dare to question the historical practices of the Sangha.
Do you think we are collectively moving beyond patriarchy? Are you hopeful about a widespread return to The Goddess?
Yes, we are moving beyond patriarchy. The big external changes have taken place in the west - unthinkable 150 years ago. What's different? Women can go to university. Women can own property. Women can vote, Women can get a divorce. Women can hold public office. Women can choose to get an abortion. It's hard to imagine this was not the case in the 19th century. What remains is the tough stuff - the internal patriarchy, the old-boy networks of male privilege. The sanctioned abuse and degradation of women. The Internet, such a potent force for transformation, has exploded with pornography which I find deeply distressing. So many men still want the experience of woman as sex object - without having to deal with the whole rest of the woman as a real human being. So, much work still to do, for all of us.
The Environmental movement, the Gaia hypothesis, and all ways of engaging with the earth as a being in whom we live -- these all dovetail with the return of the Goddess. I think She gives us a metaphor of our world that brings us back to our senses. This could be transformative on a massive scale, and for the first time in many thousands of years it could give us a spiritual connection with all of life that heals the split caused by monotheism. The cult of the sky god told us we are not of "the world." The Goddess says, "the world is my body...you are home right here, right now, in my arms"
Do you think you'll write any further books about the Goddess or related topics, or do you feel you have said what you needed to say?
Yes, I am starting work on a Da Vinci Code style thriller set at the time of the Council of Ephesus, 431 AD. This was a time when the pagan temples were being outlawed and destroyed. This church council declared Mary the "Mother of God" - and it opened the door for the worship of the sacred feminine within the newly established power of the official church. I want to explore this crucial and violent transition. Add in a dangerous love affair between a bishop and a priestess and a chase scene across the aqueducts of Ephesus, and I hope it will make a good movie!
Afterward: In addition to Tim Ward's forthcoming fiction book, he has also contributed an essay on the god Dionysos for a recent collection of devotional writings entitled: "Written in Wine - contemporary experiences of Dionysos". For anyone wanting to find out more about "Savage Breast", you can write to Tim Ward at timwardsbooks@aol.com.
Previous Wild Hunt interviews: Lupa, J.C. Hallman, Margot Adler.
Labels: goddess, interview, Paganism, The Goddess, Tim Ward
11.06.2007
Talking About Paganism
Nevada Public Radio KNPR has posted an interview with modern Pagans Margot Adler, NPR reporter and author of "Drawing Down the Moon", and Candace Kant, professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada, talking about modern Paganism and Wicca.
"NPR's Margot Adler and CSN Professor Candace Kant join us to discuss paganism and the Wiccan culture in this region. That's Tuesday at 9 am and 7 pm on KNPR's State of Nevada, News 88.9, KNPR."
You can download the show, here. Topics include how Paganism spreads, what modern Pagans believe, and the mainstreaming of Pagan faiths. For more from Margot Adler, check out my interview with her from last year.
Labels: Candace Kant, interview, KNPR, Margot Adler, Paganism, Wicca
9.29.2007
Former Punk Pagan Looks Back
The Newspaper Tree in El Paso interviews artist, educator, and practicing Pagan Bonnie Lyons about growing up in New York in the sixties, and embracing punk-rock along with modern Paganism in the seventies.
Bonnie Lyons, photo by Richard Baron
"My college years ushered in the beginning of the Punk scene, and I was enthralled with the energy of the music and the lifestyle that went with the music. Having started out as a folk kid and then being a hippie kid who survived the disco era, I embraced the Punk scene. In 1977-78 I lived in the East Village in NYC, on 13th Street and 2nd Ave., with my boyfriend and my tribe mates, all of them still my friends today. This era in my life was also the start of my Magical training and started me on the Pagan path that I presently walk. Five of us paid $200 a month ($40 each!) for a five-room railroad flat apartment on the first floor, with steel gates across the front window and many locks on the front door. Most of the time we had enough food, hot water and heat to share with fellow musicians, magicians, artists and other folks in the scene. I didn't hang as much as the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd at CBGBs, as we always had punk bands and other musicians living and rehearsing in our midst and we didn't have to pay for live music."
The entire interview is a fascinating read, it is a shame they didn't venture further into her religious history, a series of interviews like this with modern Pagans who have been involved with the community for thirty years or more could be a great boon to future generations.
Labels: Bonnie Lyons, interview, Paganism
5.18.2007
Interview with Lupa
Pagan author Lupa, whom I praised some months back for her book "Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic", has come out with a new book on the somewhat controversial subculture of Otherkin. The book, "A Field Guide to Otherkin", explains and explores a growing group of people who identify as something other than human. I have covered this subculture in the past since a large number of Otherkin also identify with modern Pagan religions or occult/magical practices, and there is some tension over their inclusion by Pagans worried about mainstream acceptance. Given this, I felt an interview with the author where we explore this subculture would benefit us far more than a simple review.
I suppose the first question for the uninitiated is what are Otherkin, and what made you want to write a book on the subject?
Otherkin are people who identify in some manner (generally nonphysical) as Other than human. While the stereotype of Otherkin is a person who believes s/he was a dragon or an elf in a past life, there's actually a wide variety of theories as to how we got to be what/where we are, and what we identify as. Reincarnation is probably the most popular theory, the idea that what you were in a previous/alternate life still affects you to an extent in this one. However, there are also theories involving genetics and physiology, psychology and neurobiology, energy, and even metaphor. (And, of course, there's the possibility that we're all sharing a collective delusion.)
As to what sorts of beings we identify as, while you get a lot of elves, fey beings, and dragons, I've also met or heard of people who identify as gryphons, unicorns, kitsune (Japanese fox spirits) and even someone who identifies on a certain level as a Chupacabra (look into cryptozoology if you don't know what I'm talking about). I've included therianthropes, people who identify in some way as nonhuman animals native to this plane of reality, as well as vampires. With regards to those groups, some people include them under the Otherkin aegis, while others don't; it's mostly an issue of semantics and personal preference. I included them because there is a good bit of crossover among Otherkin, therians, and vampires. Also, I am a wolf therian (surprise!) and I consider myself to be Otherkin because of it. But, as with just about anything involving Otherkin, it really depends on the individual.
I wrote A Field Guide to Otherkin for several reasons. I first dipped my toes into the Otherkin community about a decade ago, though my participation has been intermittent depending on how I felt about that part of myself. Pretty much from the beginning I remembered people posting on listserves every so often saying "Hey, I'm writing a book on Otherkin-wanna fill out my survey?" Other than a couple of books on vampires and one on therianthropy, I never saw anything manifest, and nothing on the Otherkin community as a whole. There have been a few books on Paganism and other topics that have mentioned Otherkin, but as far as I know, the Field Guide is the first book solely dedicated to Otherkin.
Part of why I wrote it was because Otherkin are becoming more well-known as a community, and there are a lot of misconceptions out there about us. I wanted to write a book that would be partly a resource for Otherkin themselves , but also for people who aren't Otherkin who are curious. There are tons of good websites out there, and you can find a bunch of them in the website section of my bibliography, but some people have the idea that a book is automatically a better quality resource. So rather than putting up yet another website when there are already so many good sites out there, I decided to write a book. Plus I had just published my first book, Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic, so I was open to a new project, and this was a good challenge for me.
I'll say right now that I am not the ultimate authority on Otherkin, and the Field Guide should not be seen as the do-all and end-all of Otherkin information (the same goes for this interview). I strongly urge readers of the Field Guide to check out the annotated bibliography to find both books and websites that I found really useful, and that have perspective other than my own.
Your book points out several instances of mythological and historical anecdotes that point towards the possibility (or at least the idea) of possessing a non-human soul, yet it is fairly recently that a unifying social construction of "otherkinism" has emerged. Why is it important now that these Otherkin have a shared group identity? Looking closer at some of the different varieties of Otherkin (elves, vampires, therians) many of them seem to have little in common.
I think it's mainly the idea of "I'm not the only one!" Even Otherkin admit that believing you're not human through and through is a pretty weird thing, and a lot of us, especially those of us who recognized our "Other-ness" at a young age, questioned our sanity over the years. I know I went through what I call the "belief-doubt-belief" cycle a number of times about my therianthropy. I'd start out feeling okay with the idea of being lupine on some level, but then I'd start worrying "Am I insane? What the hell am I thinking?" And so I'd repress anything having to do with therianthropy whatsoever. This invariably would make me depressed, and as with anything we repress, the wolf side would start creeping out again, whether I liked it or not. I continued in this cycle until I finally decided to just accept that this is a part of me, for better or for worse. I can honestly say I feel healthier and happier now than I ever did when I was trying to shove it back in the box, so to speak.
And for me, as well as a lot of other Otherkin, having others who have had at least somewhat similar experiences around is comforting, just as Pagans often feel happier when around other Pagans. It's not that Otherkin at gatherings and meetups only talk about Otherkin things; it's just nice knowing that if someone cracks a joke about bumping into someone with ethereal wings, or mentions something that involves being Other, it's not a big deal. It really does resemble the Pagan community in that way; you have a bunch of people with an eclectic mix of beliefs and backgrounds, but we feel better in each other's company because it's safe space with people who share a certain level of understanding.
Do you think there is a larger reason or purpose to all these "awakenings" into Otherkinism, or is it simple a by-product of the Internet allowing more networking.
Okay, first thing before I go into this question-"Otherkinism" isn't a word, at least not one that Otherkin use. "Otherkin" is pretty much a general use term, including as a collective noun. "Otherkinism" is like saying "Wiccanism". It also gives the wrong impression that Otherkin is a religion, which it isn't; it's more properly a subculture with some spiritual aspects that not all Otherkin adhere to.
But linguistic details aside, I don't think there's any huge cosmic purpose, personally. I know some Otherkin, especially more newly Awakened 'kin, often try to fit themselves into some sort of Apocalyptic destiny or other crucial story. I've heard the idea that at some vague point in the near future "the Veil between the worlds" will fall, and all Otherkin will take their "true" physical forms in order to fight some massive battle between the forces of Light and Darkness. I've also seen similar stories among people who are brand-new to magical practice in general; it's not just Otherkin. That's actually why I asked Chris Carter to write his guest essay on personal mythology for the book. There's a definite purpose for telling a story about yourself, as long as you stay grounded in the realities of this world. I think Chris did a great job of showing the boundaries between personal mythology as a way of enhancing one's understanding of this life, and personal mythology as a way of disconnecting from this life.
I do think the internet has had a definite impact on Otherkin. As to what the exact nature of that impact is, who's to say for sure? Saying that all Otherkin are a bunch of introverted, unemployed basement-dwellers who have poor personal hygiene and no real social life outside of the computer is a grossly inaccurate stereotype (and I hold myself up as an example contrary to that stereotype). On the other hand, I think it's possible that at least some people "Awakened" because they found the concept of Otherkin on the internet and thought it was cool. However, a lot of Otherkin I know felt something Other about themselves long before they ever encountered the internet; finding other people online (and in person) helped give us a structure and a common jargon to use in exploring that part of ourselves. Even without the internet Otherkin were finding each other; the Elf Queen's Daughters, and later, the Silver Elves, were all doing their elven communications via newsletters in the 1970s. People find each other using whatever communication method they have available; the internet has simply sped up the transfer of information to an unprecedented level.
Regarding reincarnation, (one of the most common explanations for Otherkin) some schools of thought teach that all of us were animals at some point in our many lives. If you subscribed to such a view wouldn't almost everyone be "Otherkin" technically speaking? Or is Otherkin identity predicated on remembrance and identification with that past life?
I have met Pagans who believed they were nonhuman animals in a previous life, but didn't identify as Otherkin. I think part of what makes one Otherkin is the conscious present identity with the Other self, whether through reincarnation or another theory. In my own case, for example, I'm not sure whether I was a wolf in a past life or not; it might just be a weird piece of psychological imprinting and conditioning. Regardless of how I got to be this way, though, there has been a part of me, since I was very young, that always felt that I should have been born a wolf rather than a human. I've balanced it out with the rest of me, so it doesn't rule my life, but it's a definite influence on how I perceive the world. I consciously accept and embrace that which is not human within me, and I think that's one of the main differences between me as Otherkin, and a Pagan who had a previous life as a wolf that doesn't really affect who s/he is now.
By the way, reincarnation just seems to be the theory of origin that gets used the most; I think part of it is because it allows a certain amount of literal interpretation, and people feel that "literal" is more legitimate than "metaphorical". Not that there aren't people who could literally be reincarnated dragons, but I think sometimes people may assume that a feeling or dream or vision they get in meditation is automatically a past life memory, when it may in fact be the subconscious mind's way of communicating information about the self to the conscious mind. It really depends on the individual person, though; I don't think it's accurate to attribute all Otherkin to one particular theory of origin.
Perhaps of special interest to readers of my blog is that a large number of self-described Otherkin (though not all) are involved in some form of modern Paganism, or occult/magical practice. Do you think there is a special reason for this, or is it simply that these religious/magical subcultures are more accepting than most of ideas outside the accepted norms?
I think that Neopaganism appeals to a lot of Otherkin because it allows for a magical worldview that a lot of Otherkin adhere to, as well as the existence of nonhuman entities (at least on nonphysical planes of reality) and broad interpretations of concepts like reincarnation. I also think the fact that Pagans tend to be (as a group) more open-minded also helps. This doesn't however, mean that "Otherkin" should be seen as a subsection of Paganism. For one thing, there are Otherkin (particularly therians) who explain themselves solely through psychology, and who are incredibly skeptical about anything magical or mystical. And there are Otherkin who aren't Pagan (at least not Neopagan)-I know of Otherkin who are various types of Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Agnostic, Atheist, etc. As I mentioned earlier, "Otherkin" isn't a religion, though some 'kin may work it in with their religious beliefs or vice versa.
Finally, while the Pagan community does tend to be more accepting of various subcultures with which it has some crossover (including the GLBT and kink communities), there are still a lot of Pagans who automatically shunt "Otherkin" into the fluff bin. This seems to be particularly so in light of the "de-fluffing" movement that seems to have gained popularity in recent years. Unfortunately, those Otherkin who do examine their beliefs about themselves critically often get thrown out along with those for whom this is all an excuse for escapism.
Pop-culture and fictional stories seem to weigh heavily on the Otherkin community, to the point where some have accused Otherkin (sometimes quite harshly) of simply being over-imaginative role-players. To complicate this you even point out that there are "mediakin" people who believe themselves to house the soul of a character from a fictional world (like Neo from the Matrix), a group that even a fair number of Otherkin have a hard time accepting. So how can an outsider tell the difference between someone with an out-of-control imagination (perhaps to the point of mental illness), and someone who healthily identifies themselves with an inhuman soul.
In general, I judge sanity by functionality. If a person can hold down a job, maintain a healthy social life, and otherwise function as well in society as anyone else, then I don't consider hir to be insane. This ties in with one of the appendices from the Field Guide, which is basically a description of a conversation I had with a therapist about my therianthropy. One of the main points she brought up was that her job, as a therapist, was NOT to judge the validity of a person's belief, but how that belief affected the person on a daily basis.
Are there people in the 'kin community I look askance at? Sure. But they're the people who seem to have a hard time reconciling being Otherkin with having an everyday life, and particularly those who seem to be deliberately causing that schism. A theoretical example might be a therian who refuses to work around other people because s/he swears s/he'll bite them, and so "can't" get a job. Part of being Otherkin is being that Other within *this* reality. Don't like it here? Tough. You're here, so deal with it. There's only one other option, and I don't recommend it. (And anyway, there are some pretty nifty things about this world—biodiversity, good books, Ben and Jerry's...)
As to Mediakin, admittedly that concept takes a little more mind-twisting than Otherkin in general. I think a lot of people get hung up on the idea of literal reincarnation involving "fictional" beings. For a more detailed explanation from a Mediakin perspective that clears up some of the misconceptions, I strongly recommend http://otakukin.atspace.com/.
The recent news article featuring someone claiming to be Neo and Trinity from The Matrix got a pretty negative reaction, including from the Mediakin community. I'm friended to a few Mediakin on Livejournal, and the sense I got was "Oh, no, not THEM!" It'd be sort of like if Kevin Carlyon ended up being the media's first exposure to witchcraft. (I don't make any personal judgment in any case; I'm just describing the reactions I encountered.)
To a certain extent the vampire and elvish communities that are now grouped under the Otherkin label were (and are) self-supporting subcultures that existed before the idea of Otherkinism. Is there resistance from these groups to being lumped under this umbrella term? It also seems that some of the vampires, instead of believing themselves to be "vampire-souled", instead simply claim to *be* vampires (just as some elves/fairies claim to be actual bloodline descendants). Does this still make them Otherkin?
As I mentioned before, there's discussion as to whether therians and vampires in particular are or aren't Otherkin, and it depends on who you talk to. Certainly there's a fair amount of interaction among the various communities, but I think it really just boils down to a debate of semantics. There are also people who could be described as Otherkin who dislike the negative connotations the term has picked up and so either use another word entirely or no label at all. You also see that in therianthropy, people who call themselves, for example, animal people instead of therians.
Not all Otherkin in general claim to have nonhuman souls; for some it's a matter of energy, or psychology, or in rare cases physiology/genetics (as in the case of elves and fey who claim to have had a nonhuman ancestor). Again, that's the common misconception that Otherkin = reincarnation. Vampires are a special case, because the majority have some physical symptoms of vampirism. Sanguine vampires require blood to maintain their health, while psychic vampires need to feed off of others' energy to stay physically healthy. If either type of vampire stops feeding, very commonly there'll be physical weakness and illness as a result. While it's possible that at least some of these cases could be psychosomatic, there's also the conscious identification with vampirism involved. So that could mean, for some people, that vampire = Otherkin, regardless of the physical aspects.
How should a non-kin approach the subject of a friend or family member "coming out" (or being found out) as an Otherkin? As you note in the book, most people will most likely see that person as a bit "touched" in the head. You also note that possible Otherkin should have real mental problems treated at once. So I guess the question is how do we draw the line between personal gnosis about your soul's identity and simple mental illness? What resources are there for Otherkin and non-kin to access to tell the difference?
Again, I stress functionality. Just as friends and family of Pagans found out after a while that we weren't running around eating babies and sacrificing the neighbor's cat in the graveyard, so the people close to those Otherkin who are out eventually discover that the dragon or elf in the family is the same person as before, albeit maybe with an "odd" belief about hirself. Obviously, if a person is using the concept of Otherkin to excuse unhealthy behaviors or is exhibiting signs of a definite mental illness, s/he needs to get help. However, believing you are Otherkin isn't necessarily a symptom of a mental illness, same thing as believing in magic or pre-Christian gods isn't, either. If you get a Pagan who tries to sacrifice hir children because the Goddess said so, or a dragonkin who believes that hir kleptomania is because s/he naturally likes hoarding shiny objects, those are cases of people using their beliefs to excuse very unhealthy behaviors. But those behaviors probably weren't *caused* by Paganism or Otherkin; the people would have found some framework to wrap their illnesses around regardless. People use Christianity as an excuse to shoot homosexuals and abortion doctors; that doesn't mean Christianity itself is to blame. It just means you have a seriously imbalanced person using the trappings of a belief system to justify hir behaviors.
In the last chapter you switch gears from a field guide to a primer for those who may think they might be an Otherkin. What would be the most important piece of advice to pass on to newcomers exploring the world(s) and cultures described in your book?
It's okay to have your head in the clouds as long as you have your feet firmly planted on the ground. It's very easy to get carried away by the idea of being something special, and more than human, and ever so amazing! I ought to know, because when I first discovered the concept of therianthropy, I kept waiting for my first physical shapeshift. After the first few fruitless full moons, though, I started talking to other therians and found out that it wasn't quite like that.
Part of the reason I emphasize research and networking so much is to make sure that newly Awakened Otherkin have a sounding board to bounce their experiences off of. No matter what you're going through, chances are that someone else has been through a similar experience and can give you some advice. In the words of Tyler Durden, "You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake"-any more than any other person, Otherkin or otherwise. That doesn't mean that what you're going through isn't important to you, but it does mean that being Otherkin doesn't make you better than human or exempt you from the rules of this reality. Explore this part of yourself, but don't forget to weave it in with the rest of who you are. I don't like meat with my salad, and work with animal totems, just because I am a wolf therian; I am a wolf therian who also happens to be omnivorous and practices totemism and other forms of animal magic.
Finally, what is the most important thing about Otherkin that an outsider should know and remember?
The Otherkin community is incredibly diverse; in some ways it makes the Pagan community look positively monolithic! Don't judge all Otherkin by a few examples. We have our nuts and flakes in our community, admittedly, but chances are so do you. Some of the really loud people in the Otherkin community are newbies who probably haven't done a lot of soul-searching yet, and who are really enamored of the idea of "I'm different!" Many of the more mature people who've explored and questioned and critiqued themselves over and over are pretty quiet and in the background, either because they see no need to be "loud and proud", or because they dislike the automatic negative reactions and stereotyping that some non-'kin throw at anyone who admits to being Otherkin. After all, if you tried to talk about something you were interested in, and someone immediately tried to shoot you down with all the worst possible aspects of what you were discussing-repeatedly-wouldn't that discourage you after a while?
For Pagans, think of it this way. The Pagans that the media often runs into first are the newbies and the flakes (though, thankfully, we've seen some improvement in that regard). How long has it taken the more mature members of the Pagan community to feel comfortable coming out and talking to the media without the automatic fear that they'll be sensationalized? Otherkin are the same way. There are Otherkin out there besides "identitykin"; you just have to look for them sometimes.
Thank you for the chance to chat about this, Jason!
You can buy an autographed copy of "A Field Guide to Otherkin" at Lupa's web site (though there is a two-week waiting period), or you can pick up a copy from Amazon.com.
1.19.2007
Interview with J.C. Hallman
Truly sympathetic outsider accounts of modern Paganism are often few and far between. So it was a pleasant surprise to read J.C. Hallman's new book "The Devil is a Gentleman: Exploring America's Religious Fringe". Hallman, the Banister Writer-in-Residence at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, has written an impressive book on the importance of a pragmatic religious pluralism in our modern world while exploring several new religious movements (including modern Pagans) with respect and an open mind. I recently had the opportunity to conduct an e-mail interview with Hallman to discuss his new work, his interactions with modern Pagans, and the legacy of William James.
J.C. Hallman
Your book "The Devil Is a Gentleman" is both a biography of William James, and an update of his most famous work "The Varieties of Religious Experience". For the uninitiated, can you quickly tell us who William James was, and why he is so important in the here and now?
James (who is the brother of Henry James, the novelist) is notable because he made significant contributions in a number of fields--psychology, philosophy, comparative religions, education, literature. It's hard to think of another American thinker who is more influential than James, though it's also true that many people are not familiar with him. This may be because he touched so many fields. It's hard to pigeonhole him into one category and identify him strictly with that. I was most interested in his contribution to comparative religions, a field he helped to kickstart with The Varieties of Religious Experience. Varieties attempted to defend religious experience in an era that was far more secular than are own, but as the United States now struggles with its religious identity I found that James's thinking applied just as well now as well as it ever had.
In a recent issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine, one former student claimed that the decline of their Divinity School and the Mainline Churches in the 1980s was partially due to ignoring William James' celebration of "the varieties of religious experience". Do you think this is true? Has mainline/mainstream religion lost its power by ignoring the fringe elements and new religious movements?
Certainly, the United States was founded on the strength inherent in diversity. Religious diversity in particular. Yet as the country has grown both more secular (with academic/scientific secularism ultimately amounting to a religion of its own) and fundamental (with the Christian right assuming power in government), it's precisely variety that we've forgotten how to celebrate. So it's not specifically that fringe elements or new religious movement's have answers that others can use, but that trying to convert everyone to way of thinking is the wrong way to bring about the basic promises on which the country is founded. James wrote: "the notion of the 'one' breeds foreignness and that of the 'many' intimacy." The Varieties of Religious Experience was as much about variety as it was about religious experience, and what this student may be referring to is the fact that a failure to celebrate variety hurts us all, in the end.
You list yourself as a adherent of the philosophy of Pragmatism. A school of thought partially pioneered by James that places a great emphasis on the practical results of theoretical ideas. How do the tenants of Pragmatism lead one to a greater tolerance and understanding of new religious movements?
Pragmatism, for James, was really a method. It's hard to call it a philosophy because there's nothing in it to really believe in. It's a way of approaching ideas. James argued that certain questions can't be approached with logic or reason, and we should approach those kinds of questions differently from how we approach questions which are susceptible to logic. There's a funny story behind this. James and a bunch of his pals were out camping one day, and they had an argument about squirrels. Squirrels, they noticed, when they climbed trees to get away from you, ran around to the other side of the tree, and kept moving around the tree if you tried to get a look at them. The question that started the argument was this: if you walked around the tree, could you be said to have walked around the squirrel? The squirrel would scurry away from you, and you wouldn't ever see its back. Indeed, from the squirrel's point of view, you were always in front of it. The argument raged for some time before James decided on an answer. Who cares? It doesn't matter. And that's the beginning of the Pragmatic method. Some questions cannot be resolved with logic, so the way to approach them is to assess what practical value they have--does the answer make a measurable, observable difference? When you ratchet up the question to something like is there a God, then the answer can make a measurable, observable difference. In this way, James approached religion scientifically.
Pragmatism asserts--again, strictly for questions not susceptible to logic--that we ought to embrace a kind of flexible truth. Variety in truth. An idea that produces a measurable result for one person may fail another entirely. So that idea is true for the first person, but not the second. If you embrace that, it's a much easier step to empathize with others whose beliefs are different from your own. Religious pluralism, then, is a natural by-product of the Pragmatic method. You don't have to legislate it.
When you set out to write this book, how did you pick and choose what went in and where you went? Were there chapters written that didn't make the final cut? Missed opportunities? Any places or groups you wish you could have covered?
You can't be comprehensive in a book about religion--it's just too vast. You can only be representative. So I tried to pick a set of religions that I felt were representative of something that was important. Ephemeral and inexpressible, perhaps, but important. James argued that by studying the fringe you got a sense of what was in the center, and I was emulating that, so I shot for a collection of groups that, after a little mental triangulation, gave one a sense of the United States' particular spiritual climate.
In the book you lament the lack of attention and coverage of new religious movements (NRMs), do you feel that the situation has improved since you started writing the book?
Not dramatically. Even within NRM's, even the ones I looked at, you have what James called the right side of religion's account, and the wrong side of its account. That is, there are religions which fall into a corporate sentiment and lose what's precious about them, and there are religions which celebrate individuality and earnest experience. For every Wicca-style movement that's on the right side of religion's account, there's a whole lot of media coverage, say, for Scientology, which is on the other side of the account. Overall, right now, I'd argue that a lot of us are caught in a battle between opposing fundamentalisms, and there's not much chance that the situation will improve until it's all over and the dust settles.
As a Pagan, I'm obviously the most interested in your coverage of the modern Pagans in your books. Two different sections are devoted to modern Pagans, one a Druid priestess in Northern California and the second the annual meeting of COG (the Covenant Of the Goddess). What made you decide on these two experiences? Do you have friends who are Pagan?
I wanted to undermine some of the stereotypes of both of these groups, so I executed a kind of reversal. With modern Druids, what non-Pagans tend to envision, I'd say, is groups of old men with long white beards and white robes. So I went to a female Druid who lived by herself in the woods. It's not by accident that a woman living by herself in the woods is the stereotype of the solitary witch--sort of Hansel and Gretel style. By way of contrast, for Wicca, I adopted a male solitary as my guide, and went to gatherings of many people. So the basic idea of these chapters, I hope, will challenge readers to think about Witches and Druids both with a new set of eyes.
During the COG meeting you had what you felt to be a "magical" experience at one of the main rituals. How do you feel about that experience now? Do you believe in "magic", or at least the reality of the Pagan magical experience?
The best part about Paganism, as I experienced it, was that it celebrated variety in exactly the way James would have prescribed. There's a whole range of thought in Paganism, and a huge variety, I found, in definitions of magic. The one I liked best was the idea that magic was not about the supernatural. There was no supernatural, really--there was just a variety of the natural world that science and logic could not approach. (You can probably already hear the hints of Pragmatism creeping in...) So magic is the attempt to manipulate, through ritual and belief, that aspect of nature we cannot manipulate in any other way. And I believe in that. I think this same basic idea explains, say, why doctors always wear white coats. Modern medicine relies more than it likes to admit on the placebo effect, and they recognize that a doctor's authority may trigger it. They're more than willing to take credit (and get paid) for someone getting better as a result of their care, even if it's just the white coat that did it. This, ultimately, puts them just a hitch step from shamanism.
One interesting thing I got from your coverage of the COG meeting was the disorganization, and a general lack of fiscal commitment that would take the organization to the "next level" in terms of size and influence. Most groups as you pointed out were opposed to even paying a regular membership due. Do you think this is a natural result of our religious autonomy and lack of hierarchy, or simply a failure to properly organize? Is the idea of a national Pagan organization (whether it is for advocacy or mutual support) a viable one?
I think it would be fair to criticize my ability to generalize on this point--I went to one CoG meeting, and one CoG meeting only. Yet I would make one observation, again relating to James. James's "wrong side of religion's account" boils down, basically, to organized religion. It's organization itself that leads to the corporate spirit. Certainly those who are drawn to religions based on a decentralized structure--decentralized precisely so it doesn't fall prey to that corporate spirit--will resist, and should resist, that corporatization. That said, I thought the CoG meeting was working. There were the benefits of organization, with little of the downside. Variety was celebrated. Maybe it wasn't an efficient process, but maybe it was as efficient as it can be.
Another dominant theme in the book that may be of interest to my audience is your dealings with the Church of Satan. You participate in a Satanic ritual, you meet Satan Xerxes, the son of Anton LaVey, and you even attend a Satanic wedding after your principal work on the book was finished. What are your attitudes now towards the Satanic movement? You seem to have a genuine affection for the people you met there, and you even seem to have been genuinely sympathetic to some of their views.
Modern Satanism demonstrated the basic idea of Pragmatism, but outside the context of belief. They found ritual to be empowering, but they did not literally believe in the figure toward which the ritual was directed. Church of Satan members are atheistic--yet they value rituals. (Incidentally, I think this probably describes a lot of Jews and Catholics as well.) As to sympathizing with them, I hope I found a way to sympathize with everyone in the book. I hoped to demonstrate the kind of pluralistic spirit that I thought I was writing about.
You cover the Church of Scientology. Of all the groups you cover in the book, from the flying saucer cult to the evangelical Christian wrestlers you seem the least comfortable with their methods and beliefs. Do you think the Church of Scientology is harmful, and has the Church responded to your book in any way?
The Church has not responded directly--though I probably couldn't tell you about it if they had. That said, Scientology did serve as kind of the "villain" of the book. Not because anyone in the Church seemed like a bad person--indeed, everyone I met seemed entirely earnest. Yet I would say that the basic structure of Scientology, its basic culture, is well down the road to the corporate spirit, and has long since slipped into the wrong side of religion's account.
Finally, how would you describe yourself religiously now, a few years after your initial visits and research? How has the book changed (or not changed) your belief structure?
I think I'm generally more open-minded and forgiving of views antithetical to my own. That's, again, a by-product of entertaining Pragmatic truth.
Labels: interview, J.C. Hallman, Paganism, Satanism, William James
