<\/p>\n
Earlier this week <\/p>\n I have long Now it seems that This came as a But many Pagans What is atheism? <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Atheism can mean But it can also As we discussed But what of the Possession<\/b><\/p>\n I wonder how much But that kind of Does that make Perhaps not.<\/p>\n Pantheism<\/b><\/p>\n I think the core This kind of These Pagans have This kind of I wonder whether <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earlier this week I was down visiting Pagan friends in the Bay Area. Our conversation ranged over a lot of topics, as it always does. This time we ended up discussing a discovery that had surprised a close friend when he discovered it. It surprised me as well when he told me the story. That…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-spirituality","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI was down visiting Pagan friends in the Bay Area. <\/span>Our conversation
\n<\/span>ranged over a lot of topics, as it always does. <\/span>This time we ended up discussing a
\ndiscovery that had surprised a close friend when he discovered it. It surprised me as well when he
\ntold me the story. <\/span>That surprise
\nwas there were a significant number of Pagans who describe themselves as atheists.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nargued that a great many Pagans are not bothered by the old question so common
\nin Christian theology: proving that God exists. <\/span>We have frequent encounters with our Gods. My own personal
\njudgment as to whether a NeoPagan tradition is worth while or not is: do the
\nGods come? <\/span>If they do, good. <\/span>If they do not, look elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\nmany of us do not, but do not look elsewhere. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nsurprise to both of us. <\/span>We are
\nPagans not because of philosophical conviction or being impressed by the
\nextraordinary spiritual qualities of individual Pagans, but because we had
\npersonally encountered Pagan deities in Pagan rituals. <\/span>Or at least that is so for me, and I
\nthink him. <\/span>My own first coherent
\nthought after the Goddess manifested at a Midsummer ritual I had been invited
\nto was “Here’s a religion where they ask their God to come, and she does!”<\/p>\n
\ndescribe themselves as atheists, which at a minimum means they never had an
\nexperience like mine.<\/p>\n
\nmany things, depending on the atheist.
\n<\/span>It can be a denial that a all powerful deity with a personality, like
\nthe Biblical God, exists. <\/span>In that
\ncase I suspect ALL Pagans are atheists. I am.<\/p>\n
\nmean that there is no “supernatural” at all. <\/span>Here it gets tricky, for what is “natural and what does
\n“natural” mean? <\/span>If deity is
\nimmanent there is no supernatural because there are simply various dimensions
\nto what is real. <\/span>Or by natural
\nperhaps all that is meant is what is encompassed by “scientific laws” that
\ncannot be impacted by mind in any sense.<\/p>\n
\nthis intriguing discovery of there being many Pagan atheists, it seemed that
\nwhat atheist Pagans meant in their self-description was one of two things. <\/span>First, that what we encountered in
\nritual were really impersonal forces not conscious beings. <\/span>Or second, that the terms “Goddess” and
\n“God” were metaphors for describing qualities we perceived in nature that we
\nwere convinced amounted to more than individual subjectivity. <\/span>There are also some atheists within the
\nPagan community – on its margins, really, who sound like Richard Dawkins. <\/span>This third category I will ignore
\nbecause I do not find it very interesting.<\/p>\n
\nother two kinds of atheists?<\/p>\n
\nPagan atheism comes from the fact that so many of our traditions are not
\n“possessory”? <\/span>When the God
\nsuddenly appears in your mind, and even takes over your words, it is quite the
\nencounter, one that is hard to describe to someone for whom it has not
\nhappened. <\/span>When your feet begin to
\ndance to the beat of drums and you are not doing it<\/i>, as happens to me in certain African Diasporic
\ntraditions, I <\/span>know<\/i> I have
\n“company.”<\/span><\/p>\n
\nexperience did not account for my encounters with the Goddess. She was always
\nexternal to me. <\/span>Why did She come
\nto me and to some others, but not to all Pagans? I simply do not know.<\/p>\n
\nPagans to whom She or other deities have not come in any serious sense lacking? <\/span>Well, they lack that experience. <\/span>But is there more involved?<\/p>\n
\ninsight we all share, whether we be atheistic or theistic Pagans, is that this
\nworld is a sacred place, a place of intrinsic value. <\/span>Nature’s value, and the value of what lives around and bout
\nus, are not simply an ‘add-ons’ emerging from our own subjectivity, simply a
\nproduct of our own minds. <\/span>Rather
\nwe recognize something that exists independently of us, and brings forth our
\nrespect, awe, love and fulfillment. Something that can give meaning and depth
\nto our lives.<\/p>\n
\nPaganism does not require encountering actual deities to be genuine, heartfelt,
\nand admirable. <\/span>Atheistic Pagans
\nwith this perspective have a strength and integrity and ability to open
\nthemselves up more fully to non-logocentric perception those of us who have
\nencountered deities do not need. (And may not have. <\/span>I long felt this about the natural world but was too
\nentrapped in the modern scientific mentality to allow it room in any but the
\nmost private recesses of my soul until<\/i> I
\nencountered the Goddess. <\/span>These
\nfolks are in better touch with reality than I was.) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe confidence and discernment to know that value is real, beauty is real, and
\nthe worth of the world is real and sacred regardless of human attitudes. <\/span>These qualities bring forth our
\ndevotion. <\/span>Despite my different experiences,
\nI think this is not “inferior” in spiritual quality to my own. <\/span>‘Spiritual’ as I use the term is a
\nquality of consciousness, not whether one sees auras, channels deities, can sit
\nin a full lotus, or any other quality that can be described as outside
\nourselves and happening to us.<\/p>\n
\nPaganism is pantheistic, and I think may shade off into that fascination and
\nlove of the natural world that motivates so many scientists. <\/span>Pantheistic Pagans differ from this
\nattitude common within the scientific community in that they turn their
\nperceptions into poetry, using ritual and myth to take our understanding to
\nplaces words alone cannot go.<\/p>\n
\nany of my readers would describe themselves as “atheist Pagans” and if so,
\nwhether my description of them seems fair or lacking? <\/span>And, of course, anyone else is welcome to chip in. <\/span>This is a fascinating and recently
\ndiscovered issue for me.<\/p>\n