What is Paganism? A pirates point of veiw
What is a rough definition of paganism? What holidays do you celebrate? What rituals do you perform during moon phases?
Paganism is a very broad umbrella of spirituality. It encompasses so many other forms of magical belief that it is hard to define.
When you go to the book store, on-line or in hand, and look in the spirituality section, whatever it may be called in your area, you will see shelves and shelves of different types, different names. You will see Wicca, Hedge Witchery, Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Dianic, Druidic, the list can go on and on.
I use the word Pagan on purpose. I studied Wicca for years, Scott Cuningham’s work is amazing, but I had difficulty with the strict structure and rules defined in wiccanism. I also studied the Dianic faith. I had such a bad history with my was-band that I wanted a magical faith that I could feel safe in, one where men were not included. But as I grew and time between the abuse of the ex went past, I grew to appreciate a man’s energy in circle.
Just as I had spent my youth searching for a faith, I spent my adult years narrowing that faith down.
Now, in all my studies I have seen the differences between the main pagan faiths, but they are minor. They are usually a different way of casting, or different relations with the elements, or stricter rules on group participation. But they all have the same major beliefs in place.
Under the pagan umbrella, all these other religions have the same core beliefs in common: they worship a goddess and a god, you choose the pantheon either based on personal belief or the pagan belief system you choose to follow.
They all believe in the rule Harm none, though some other faiths have some other rules that can go with it. But we as the broad spectrum of pagans are able to define what harm none means ourselves, be it karma, vegetarianism, earth stewardship, etc…
All form of paganisms believe in the earth as living entity that we need to help care for, to protect and sustain, which is why so many pagans also are activists and protesters, but again, that level of activity can be related to whatever form of paganism you follow.
Then there is the Reclaiming branch of paganism, which was started in main part, by Starhawk. This is the form I tend to follow the most, that I am the most active in, especially when it comes to large group magic and ritual. This is also the form that the Pirate pagans grew up in.
Reclaiming is a tradition based strongly on personal style, freedom of expression, and earth stewardship. We have a set structure for how we call and cast circle, but we have tons of wiggle room in that structure for our own individual style. We can invoke with song, drama, group effort, it is all up to us. This was where I had started to find my home.
Now, in all these forms of paganism, we practice generally the same way, we celebrate the same holidays, and ironically so do the cross faiths. You can dive into the history of religious assimilation to find out why our holidays are so parallel to theirs, but that is too big for this discussion.
Anyway, we celebrate yule, or the coming of the light, the sun, on December 21-23, we celebrate Samhain, around the same time, same day as Halloween. We celebrate spring with Easter and our symbols are eggs and flowers. We celebrate all the Sabbats and the esbasts to a varying level. To translate, we celebrate the seasons, the shifts in earth’s life. The metling snow, the birthing light, the end of harvest. We celebrate nature and all her gifts and sacrifices.
Each group celebrates the same way, but in different styles.
And we celebrate the moon. Now many of us, due to having to live in real life, celebrate the moon in a solitary style, unless we are lucky enough to belong to a moon group.
The moon in each of its different phases holds different magic energy, that if we are strong enough, focused enough, or just lucky enough, we can tap into. Magic of blossoming new things in our life, or of getting rid of things no longer needed, or of empowering magical work we are and have been doing.
Now, I have said that each group celebrates and honors life in the same basic way, but a pirate would differ in some dramatic forms.
From my study, there are very few that use substance in a sacred form, Wicca does, to a degree, or uses profanity with such pleasure, and dives into the sexual with such bawdy exuberance. A pirate would use the moon energy to charge a bottle of mead and then use that in the banishing time to invoke the shadow side of our selves. We would make a sacred blend of herbs and use them for purification during a new moon.
A Pirate would celebrate the major holidays the same way as other forms, but shadow would have as much a place as our light. When we call in Freya, we would pull up a chair for her, pour her a glass of mead, and openly have a sacred conversation with her, that others would hear, she would swear, ask for more wine. What better way to bring goddess into circle then to do it in the modern form she might take?
Odin would come in swearing about something, and Thor would scream and shout and laugh huge! He would interrupt everyone, and laugh at the seriousness of other invocations. Lakshmi would have us get covered in honey, then lick off the sweet blessings she bestowed. Krishna would have us sing and kiss.
In a similar thread to reclaiming circle, Pirates would push the envelope on how rituals are created, celebrated, and honored. Some circles we have pushed too far, but most have been amazing experiences that free up the mind and create connections so strong time can not tear them apart.
I hope this answers the questions, and brings up more. Just like all of humanity, we are all the same, only differing on a couple of levels, but all able to bring amazing tranformation to the lives we touch.
Keep the questions coming to me!
Dreadgoddess
