The multiple patterns of
polytheism allow room to move
meaningfully through a pluralistic
universe. They free one to affirm the
radical plurality of the
self, an affirmation that one has
seldombeen able to manage because of the
guilt surrounding monotheism's insidious
implication that we have to "get it
together." (Miller, ix)
Within the much larger occult
community there exists a smaller
community of individuals whose
particular beliefs clearly distinguish
them from other occultists. These
persons not only believe in "real" magic
but practice it. They believe in a
plurality of deities, the gods and
goddesses of pre-Christian polytheism.
They revere the earth and the forces of
nature and attempt to attune themselves
to them. (Melton, 5)From an historical
perspective contemporary Neo-Paganism
can trace its roots back to the early
twentieth century works of Margaret
Murray, Gerald B. Gardner and Aleister
Crowley. Mythologically contemporary
Pagans trace their roots through Murray,
Gardner and Crowley through the Middle
Ages and the Inquisition (the Burning
Times) through the pre-Christian Europe
to Paleolithic times (Adler, 46-70 and
Melton, 5-8). Today's Pagans are
creating a new religion out of myths,
dreams and a small set of shared
symbols. Because Pagans honor no single
source for their religious beliefs and
practices they areconstantly required to
create or rediscover answer to the major
religious questions:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Whathappens when I die?
This paper attempts to discover
some of the ideas about of death and
dying in the contemporary American Pagan
community. It uses as its sources three
types of materials: books written by
contemporary Pagan thinkers and
practitioners Circle Network News, a
nature spirituality quarterly published
by Circle and the Wiccan Church
individual communications with
participants of the Internet
newsgroup alt.pagan and the Pagan
on-line discussion group
PAGAN@DRYCAS.
In addition to reviewing the
material from the two Internet sources,
a short, open-ended questionnaire was
posted to these two groups. The
questionnaire asked simply:
1. What are your personal
view of death, the dying process, and
any afterlife?
2. What Halloween/Samhaim
or other ritual material focused
on death, and dying or the afterlife
have you used?
3.What other rituals you
have used? For example, rituals for a
dying loved one, funeral, memorial,
burial rituals, rituals celebrating the
anniversary of loved ones
death, etc.?
This purpose of this
questionnaire was to do a quick survey
of the views and practices of
self-identified Pagans.
When discussing Paganism this paper will
use terms like "some," "many," and
"usually" since there is no single
position with which every Pagan agrees.
Since there is not single Pagan source
or theological tradition, Pagans freely
pick and choose among ideas both within
their own culture and traditions and
from compatible foreign traditions. (For
example, there is a strong theory of
reincarnation that, while very different
from its Hindu and Buddhist
counterparts, was probably sparked by
interaction with those systems.)
Following the example of Margot Adler
the words "Pagan" and "Neo-Pagan" are
capitalized throughout this paper since
they are used to describe the members of
a religion. (Adler, 3-4, footnote)
One of the definitive descriptions of
contemporary Pagan groups is Margot
Adler's Drawing Down the Moon
.Originally published in 1979 and
revisedin 1986 it chronicles the birth,
growth and sometimes death of various
Pagan groups. In it she postulates there
are between 50,000 and 100,000 active
self-identified Pagan or members of
Wicca [1] (Adler 1) in the United
States (Compared to about 180,000
Unitarians and 40,000 Quakers in
America). (Adler 455) Although viewed by
many as a cult phenomena or simply New
Age faddism, contemporary Paganism is a
significant religious movement. However,
because Paganism in addition to being
small has no central authority or source
of demographic information, it is
difficult to determine exactly who is
included in this movement. In 1985 Adler
distributed 450 copies of a
questionnaire at three different Pagan
festivals. Based on the 195 responses
she discovered:
[1] that the religious
upbringing of Pagans mirrored the
national profile of
America
[2] and in their
professional lives they represent
"basically white-collar, middle-class
professionals."
[3] (Adler 444-447) Of
course, the participants on the Intenet
groups, while representing
many of these same groups are heavily
weighted toward students and other
members of the university
community,
[4] probably due to the
ease with which students can get
access.
