Some Questions and Answers

What is Neo-Paganism?

Neo-Paganism is a revival and reconstruction of ancient Nature

religions adapted for the modern world. It is a religion of the living

Earth -- a religious motif expecially appropriate to the Aquarian

Age, as Christianity was the dominant religious motif of the Piscean

Age. Neo-Paganism is a natural religion, viewing humanity as a

functional organ within the greater organism of all Life, rather than

as somethng special created separate and "above" the rest of the

natural world. Neo-Pagans seek not to conquer Nature, but to harmonize

and integrate with Her. Neo-Paganism should be regarded as "Green

Religion," just as we have "Green Politics" and "Green Economics."

Doesn't "Pagan" mean irreligious or heathen?

The word "Pagan" comes from the Latin Paganus, meaning peasant or

country dweller. As a religious term, it is correctly used by

antrhopologists to designate the indigenous folk religions of

particular regions and peoples, and by classical scholars to refer to

the great pre-Christian civilizations of the Mediterranean area (as in

the phrase "Pagan splendour," often used in reference to classical

Greece). Thus all traitional native tribal religions are Pgan, such as

those of the American Indians, Polynesians, Africans, Hindus, etc.

"Heathen" is not a specifically religious term at all, but simply

refers to the people who lived on the heaths (where the heather grew)

as in the British Isles. Since such people were usually Pgans, the two

terms became regarded as synonymous as far as Christians were

concerned.

Don't Pagans worship the Devil?

Of course not. "The Devil" is a specifically Christian concept, and no

one outside of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam recognizes him at all.

Indeed the very notion of a supreme God of Evil is entirely peculiar

to Jahvistic monotheism, and utterly alien to most Pagan theology

(though it is largely derived fromt he dualism of Persian

Zoroastrianism, wherein Ahura-Mazda, the Lord of Light, is opposed to

Ahriman, the Lord of Darkness). The popular confusion arose as a

result of the 1486 publication of the Malleus Malificarum, or "Hammer

of Witches" by Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger, wherein they gave the

first physical description of the Devil as he is commonly depicted

today, based on a demonizatio of the Greek horned God, Pan. As Pan and

other horned Gods, such as the stag-horned Cernunos and Herne, were

popular deities of the hung and the animal kingdom, and widely

worshipped by European Pagans, Kramer and Sprenger's equation of that

imagery with the Christian's Satan was able to be used to justify the

centuries of terrible persecution inflicted by the Church upon those

who clung faithfully to their worship of the old gods. "Satan" of the

Old Testament was never descived by such imagery, but was rather

referred to as a fallen angel, a serpent, or a dragon. The word Satan

is merely Hebrew for "adversary," and is related to the Egyptian Set

and the Roman Saturn. The word "devil," interestingly enough, is

Sanscrit in origin and means "little god." The root word devi, is also

the root of our words "divine" and "divinity." During the Witchcraft

persecution of the late Middle Ages, and on through the 17th century,

whenever the defendant spoke of the Horned God being present at the

Sabbats (which he was in the person of the High Priest, who contumed

himself appropriately and assumed the role) the court recorder would

substitute the word "Satan" or "Devil," to have written the word "God"

as spoken by the accused would have been considered blasphemous.

Note from Joy: It was likely, that anytime a victim uttered the name

of any God or Goddess other than the acceptable one,

that the recorder substituted "Satan" or "Devil".

Aradia, a Goddess worshipped by the streggi in Italy,

would have, obviously, been regarded by the

Inquisition as a threat.

The most universal deity worshipped by Pagans worldwide is not a God,

but a Goddess: Mother Earth. She is called by many names in many

cultures, such as Hertha, Terra, Pachamama, and the familiar Greek

name, Gaia. In a greater expansion of Her identity, She is Mother

Nature, the All-Mother, the Great Mother, and we, the animals and

plants, and the Gods themselves, are all Her children.

What is the relationship between Paganism and Witchcraft?

The spiritual leaders on Pagan Tribal culture are the shamans 1, or

medicine men and women, who are both gifted and learned in talents and

skills of augury2, herbalism, hypnosis, psychic work and sorcery. They

are the village teachers, magicians, spirit guides, healers and

midwive work and sorcery. They are the village teachers, magicians,

spirit guides, healers and midwives. Among the Celtic tribes of

western Europe, such shamans were known as Wicce -- an Anglo-Saxon

word meaning "shaper" -- from which we derive our present term

"Witch." During the centuries of persecution at the hands of the

Christian churches, many of these shamans were martyred, along with

many of the people they served. Lately there has been a revival of The

Craft, based on scholaraly reconstructions and some inherited

traditions, in which the arts of the shaman are being taught to all

member of the covens "3". Thus Witchcraft is now emerging as a

distinct religion and way of life for entire religious communities,

rather than the specialized craft of the village shamans, as it once

was. Today, The Craft is many diverse traditions os a flourishing

Neo-Pagan religions, but while all Witches are thereby necessarily

Pagans, all Pagans are not necessarily Witches!

What do you feel most Pagans have in common regardless their

tradition?

We're all children of the same Mother. Most of us work in a Circle,

call upon the four directions as Elemental Spirits Beings, and

celebrate a seasonal round (the Wheel of the Year) of eight main

Festivals (Sabbats), aligned with the Solstices, Equinoxes and cross

Quarters. We also tend to celebrate at the full Moon, and we're not

afraid of the dark! Most of us regard Divinity as immanent ("Thou Art

God/dess") and our thealogy tends towards polytheistic pantheism. We

honor and value women as Priestesses (only Pagan religions have

Priestesses!). We draw our values from nature, we regard life as

sacred, and we believe in and practice Magic (probability

enhancement). We regard sex as a sacrament, and rape in all forms as

the primal "sin." We are a part of a a seamless whole with all of

Nature, and we believe in a living cosmos, as opposed to

the inanimate clockwork of the Christian worldview. We are brought

together by our innate longing for tribal community; reverence for all

life; celebration of diversity; intellectual curiosity and honesty;

magic; feminism, environmentalism; recognition of non-human sentience;

good stories; great parties; much love; noble friends and worthy

companions; splendid rituals; wondrous festivals; magnificent Priests

and Priestesses.

What is the distinction between Pagan "magickal" and "religious"

practices?

It is impossible to separate out the magickal from the religious, as

it all seems a continuum. Magickal practices run the gamut from simple

"Kitchen Witch" spells and charms -- mostly concerned with individual

healings, blessings, tranformations, and other small workings; through

"Circle Work" involving raising anercy for healings, community

service, weather working, etc.; to larger group workings to save the

planet, -- protecting endangered forests, peoples and species,

The religious aspects include maintaining households altars and

shrines (in a Pagan household, every horizontal space becomes an

altar, just as every wall becomes a bookcase!), meiditations,

conversations with the Gods, to rituals and celebrations, especially

those of the greater Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. These latter

often include great theatrical productions, with sets, costumes, props

and music, wherein people take on the personas fo the Gods,

Elementals, and other Archetypal Beings. Much of our Festivals include

the revival of various ancient traditional customs and rites, such as

the May Games, May Queen and King, Maypole Dance, Morris Dancing,

Mummers Plays, Ostara Egg Hunt, Yule Tree & Log, and acted-out

storytelling. These is a lot of political Paganism, especially in the

area of environmental activism, as with Earth First!. This involves

going out into the wilderness, holding circles in sacred groves, and

perhaps chaingin ourselves to trees to thwart the logger; or

blockading a nuclear power plants with circles and chants.

What advice would you give to newcomers?

Cherish diversity! Find fascination in the strange and unusual. Live

passionately. Explore everything, especially things forbidden. Read

voraciously. Grow a garden. Establish and maintain altars in your

home. Go camping and hiking in the wilderness. Work on yourself.

The great strength of our evolving community is the love and

dedication of Her people, as She calls forth from each of us our best

and highest service. This service can unite us all, children of

the same Mother, that we might finally find our long-elusive unity

through diversity!

What do you see as Paganism's role in modern society?

To heal the alienation between humanity and Nature, between man and

woman, between spirit and matter, between the Darkness and the Light.

Thus shall we save the Earth, and ourselves as well. This is, after

all, what religion is supposed to do, isn't it?

What do you see as the most important issues facing Paganism in the

coming years?

How to deal with our expoential growth: we have vastly more neophytes

coming in now than we have teachers to guide and instruct them. How to

deal with an increasing public awareness of our existence: will we be

hailed as a viable alternative to the crumbling madness, or perceived

as a threat? How to deal with the increaing Fundamentalist backlash.

How to deal with legal and political systems that have been put in

place to outlaw much of what we stand for. How to come together in a

worldwide religious community with power and influence. How to handle

our inevitable success: we have been so used to being outsiders and

underdogs that we will have to undergo a major attitude change as our

basic paradigms become more mainstream.

What does the Church of All Worlds Believe?

The Church of All Worlds is not a belief-based religion, but a

religion of experience. CAW members, or "Waterkin," try to avoid

speaking of "belief" or "faith." We are committed to honoring each

other's unique individual experiences and perspectives. We are not

trying to become "true believers," but people of knowledge. "Belief"

is generally an expresession of wishful thinking rather than true

understanding, and positions of belief far too often for a basis for

the persecution of non-believers. If anything, CAW is a religion of

heretics!

What does the CAW teach about God?

Caw embraces the theology of pantheism, as we experience what has been

called "God," as an immanent quality inherently manifest in every

living Being, from a single cell to an entire planet--and likely the

universe itself. We define Divinity as the highest level of aware

consciousness accessible to each living being, manifesting itself in

the self actualization of that Being. Divinity is a function of

emergent evolution. Thus, every man, woman, tree, cat, snake,

flower or grasshopper IS "God." We express this is the phrase, "Thou

Art God," which was used by Robert Heinlein in his germinal novel,

Stranger in a Strange Land, but may also be found in the Bible (Psalms

82:6; John 10:34), and in much basic thinking of Hinduism and

Buddhism. At the macrocosmic level, we recognize that the entire Earth

is a vast living Entity: Mother Earth, Mother Nature, The Goddess. We

also recognize that groups of living Beings organized into various

ecosystems may manifest psychically as a single collective Entity;

hence the local Spirits of particular places, and even tribal deities

such as Jahveh. However, Gods, Goddesses and Spirits are personae with

their own agenda, and should not be considered merely aspects of human

psychology, as the Jungians would have it.

Does CAW accept the Divinity of Jesus?

Certainly. Why should he be left out? We accept the Divinity of every

living Being in the universe. Thou art God/dess.

Is the CAW really a religion?

Absolutely. The word religion means "re-linking." A religion is a body

of sacred myths, metaphors, observances and practices in a cultural

context, which are designed to connect ndividuals with Divinity and

heal the rift between dichotomized aspects of existence. We observe

that the great dilemma of present-day human society seems to be the

alienation caused by splitting apart man and woman, humanity and

Nature, matter and spirit, light and dark, good and evil. The

basic commitment of the CAW is to the re-integretion or re-linking of

people with ourselves, our fellow humans, and with the whole of living

Nature around us. There are many religions, and they are not all of

the same mold. We have little in common with the religious mold as

found in monotheistic or philosophical religions (Judaism,

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc.), but a very great deal in common

with the Pagan religions of all peoples. Pagans create no artificial

demarcation between the sacred and the secular. To a Pagan, religion

is ultimately a whole way of life, nor some acts performed once a week

in a ritual. In this sense, Paganism is religion; the foundation,

ground and source of all we may term "religious" and "spiritual." And

the CAW is essentially and profoundly Pagan.

Why must you create another religion?

Pagan religions, unlike philosophical religions, are not exactly

"created," but swell up from the hearts of a people to fultill a need.

Paganism is re-emerging today because natural religion is a

spontaneous evocation of the spirit of Life, and will inevitably find

expression in human cultures. The practices of the ancient Pagans

occurred during a different era in culture, when we lived closer to

the land and were more directly connected with farming. Much of what

was practiced has been lost, due to the persecutions from the onset of

the Bronze Age, through the Inquisition and Witch burnings, to the

present day. Therefore, we cannot accurately say we practice ancient

Paganism, but a form we are "remembering and reinventing" together.

The particular orientation of the CAW requires a new religious vehicle

for its expression simply because the values, knowledge and experience

we hold in common are found in no other integrated system currently

in existence.

What's different about the CAW?

CAW may be the first religion to draw as much of its inspiration from

the future as from the past, embracing science fiction as mythology

with the same enthusiasm as we embrace the classical embracing science

fiction as mythology with the same enthusiasm as we embrace the

classical myths of ancient times. We are future-oriented, meaning we

care about how we evolve and change, not only about how we got here

and how we will come to an end. We embrace evolution, and in

embracing the planet as a living organism, we embrace the evolutionary

changes of the planet by bringing human consciousness into direct

contact with the growing web of planetary consciousness through such

things as the worldwide computer Internet. Unlike nearly all other

religions, we are not focused on nostaglia for a Paradise Lost; we are

actively involved in helping to save the present world as well as

working to actualize a visionary future. With roots deep in the Earth,

and branches reaching towards the stars, we evoke and create myths not

of a Golden Age long past, but of one yet to come.

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