Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
More Voices
“Coming Out of the Broom Closet” #PaganPride

“Coming Out of the Broom Closet” #PaganPride

Last updated on: September 10, 2015 at 11:01 am by Carl Gregg

“Coming Out of the Broom Closet” #PaganPride 2015-09-10T11:01:03-04:00 Carl Gregg

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

My previous post on “Celebrating Mixed Religion: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Syncretism,” explored the impact of Paganism’s encounter with Christianity: from the choice to celebrate Jesus’s birthday near Winter Solstice to Christmas retaining many pagan holiday trappings — from yule logs to feasting to decorating evergreen trees, traditions that pre-date the historical Jesus by millennia. Similarly, we saw the ways the word Easter comes from the fertility goddess Oestre; hence, the carried-over pagan practice of decorating eggs and having children take pictures with oversized bunnies (both fertility symbols) on the occasion of remembering the stories of Jesus’s resurrection.

And although the Pagan influence on Christianity continues to today, as Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, the complex relationship between Christianity and Paganism was increasingly covered-up. As often happens with competing groups, the leaders of one group (in this case, Christian leaders) began to define themselves in opposition to another group (in this case, pagans). The result is a classic case of ‘other-ing’: creating an “us vs. them” dynamic, exaggerating differences between two groups, and building solidarity within one group through scapegoating another.

Fast forward two thousand years: and when many people in the Christian-influenced West encounter the word “pagan,” common associations include ungodly, irreligious, infidel, and idolatrous. Those stereotypes reflect not an impartial reality, but rather the ways self-appointed enemies of Paganism tried to define Paganism. In contrast, pagans would describe themselves very differently. To turn the tables, many people associate words like “hypocritical,” “bigoted against homosexuality,” “sheltered,” and “judgmental” with the word Christian, which is different both from how many Christians would describe themselves, and from how Christians, at their best, have stood on the side of love, forgiveness, and mercy. So what does “Paganism” or “Christianity” mean? It depends both on whom you ask and when.

There have been significant shifts in the meaning of the words “Christian” and “Pagan,” starting in particular with the Roman Emperor Constantine’s strategic (some would say cynical) political choice to support Christianity in the early fourth century — but that’s almost three hundred years after the life of the historical Jesus. As historians have shown — such as Edward Watts in his book The Final Pagan Generation (University of California Press, 2015) — for thousands of years before Jesus and even for centuries after Jesus, the people who have come to be viewed in retrospect as ‘pagans’

had no name for themselves in [that] period and did not conceive of themselves as any sort of unified confession…. Pagans had a tremendous diversity of beliefs and practices. Not all pagans were polytheists, they had no common creed, and they observed or ignored gods, rituals, and festivals according to their own individual inclinations…. [That being said,] ‘pagans,’ however imprecise the term, is preferable to a longer phrase along the lines of ‘non-Jewish devotees of traditional Mediterranean gods.’ (221, fn 2)

Historically speaking, as James J. O’Donnell has shown in his book Pagans: The End of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity (Ecco, 2015), even for centuries after the life of the historical Jesus, the Latin word paganus, simply meant ‘peasant’: “A pagus was a country district, a paganus someone who lived there…” (160). Likewise, the word heathen originally meant someone from the “heath,” someone who lived in the country, not the city. As with the word “pagan,” it was only later that the word heathen acquired negative connotations such as infidel, idolater, or heretic.

A major reason that the country-dwelling pagans and heathens came to be pejoratives was that Christianity for the most part was an urban phenomenon. The rate of people converting to Christianity was much higher in the cities of the Roman world than in the country. So those pagani, who remained in the heath and continued to celebrate their traditional local gods, became increasingly grouped together as a stigmatized, non-Christian other.

And, as strange as it may seem to us today, historians invite us to see that “pagans didn’t exist” until well after the life of the historical Jesus. The word paganus did exist, meaning “peasant,” but it didn’t have anything like the meanings it has come to have over time. Before the meaning of the word ‘pagan’ shifted, classicists such as O’Donnell tell us that:

There were people who lived here and there, people who spoke this or that language, people who were rich or poor, people who attended this or that festival because they enjoyed it, and people who were so tired and poor and ill that they just got through the day as best they could. It was the Christian who came along and called all those people by one name…. Centuries at least would pass still before anybody firmly outside the Christian community ever used the word to describe [her or] himself. Even more time would pass before anybody would not only use the word but accept it and take a little pride in it” (162-163).

Another way of thinking about this dynamic is that if you were able to travel by time machine, meet Julius Caesar, and ask him what it was like to be a pagan/paganus, “He wouldn’t have understood what you could possibly mean.… No one else would have understood either” (163).

And while this historical shift can seem strange, it is not altogether uncommon. To give a parallel example, scholars have shown that, “The name ‘Hinduism’ that we now use is of recent and European construction.” Similar to the way that Christians imposed the word Paganism on a diverse group of people, Hinduism is a term that European colonialists imposed on the wide diversity of cultural groups living in and around the Indus River. And whereas the European colonialists sought to group these people by religion, these same people living around the Indus River tended to divide themselves not by religion, but “on the basis of locality, language, caste, occupation, and sect.” But to confuse the matter further, Hindu has become “the word that most Hindus do use now to refer to themselves.” Again we see that definitions depend on whom you ask and when.

Returning to our focus on Paganism, a common theme when adherents describe what draws them to Paganism is gender egalitarianism: a strong tradition of both male and female aspects of the divine in gods and goddesses, as opposed to the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which have a strong patriarchal bias of seeing the divine as masculine. Another common theme is the transformation many people experience through participatory pagan ritual: singing, dancing, creating altars and other sacred spaces and rites. Yet another common theme, and the one that resonates with me most strongly, is the emphasis in Paganism on connection to the Earth and the turning of the seasons, known as the Wheel of the Year.

If you imagine a year as a circle, most of us are familiar with the four major quadrants: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Paganism adds the additional nuance of cross-quarter days, which further divides the year into a total of eight turning points in the cycle of seasons:

In between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox is Imbolc, an opportunity to celebrate the lengthening daylight. (This pagan holiday has been secularized in our society as “Groundhog’s Day.”)
In between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice is Beltane, most famous for the tradition of dancing around a May Pole. (Another pagan holiday that has been secularized — in this case as “May Day.”)
In between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox is Lammas. On the opposite side of the wheel from Imbolc, Lammas is an opportunity to ritually commemorate the days growing darker.
In between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice, is Samhain (also known as All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween), a time in particular, for remembering your ancestors.

In our technology-filled world of 24/7 connection and almost continually-available artificial light, the eight points on the Wheel of the Year offer a way of redirecting our attention back to the cycle of the seasons and how they affect us. The value of this Earth-centered way of being in the world was recognized officially by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1995, when a Sixth Source was added to the UU Living Tradition: “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.”

One growing tradition is increasing numbers of Pagan groups hosting a Pagan Pride Day. Pagans are “Coming Out of the Broom Closet!” Modern Pagan Pride events began in the early 1990s and have grown to include tens of thousands of people annually. The price of admission is traditionally not money, but rather a contribution for a local food bank. According to the website of the Pagan Pride Project:

In 2013, there were 98 Pagan Pride events across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Rome and Austria. 2013 event attendance was 65,717: an increase in attendance by over 20,000 when compared to 2012. The events collected a total of 39,962 pounds of nonperishable food…. For decades Pagans have been wrongly accused of practicing devil-worship and performing “black magic.” In reality most Pagans enjoy a religion emphasizing respect for nature, humanity, and oneself. Modern Paganism, or Neo-Paganism, is a growing religious movement based on combinations of ancient polytheism, modern eco-spirituality, and reverence for the Divine as both masculine and feminine.

The Pagan path is not for everyone, but I invite you to consider what wisdom there may be for you in the “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.”

The Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg is a trained spiritual director, a D.Min. graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland. Follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/carlgregg) and Twitter (@carlgregg).

Learn more about Unitarian Universalism:
http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles

Paganism (Earth-centered Religions)

CUUPS

Earth-centered Spirituality

Pagan Pride Day

Paganism

Previous Post

September 1, 2015

Celebrating Mixed Religion: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Syncretism

Next Post

September 17, 2015 “Unsanctifying Human Life”: Wrestling with Peter Singer’s Ethics

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Anti-Racism Archaeology Atheism Baptism Best of the Year List Book Reviews Buddhism Catholicism Christian Education Church and State Church Planting Climate Change Conscientious Objection to War Creation Spirituality Death Penalty Didache Disability Rights Discernment Easter Ecology Emergent Church Movement Empire-Critical Ethics Evolution Feminist Theology Film Reviews Gandhi Gospel of Mark Gun Control Hinduism Immigration Reform Interfaith Islam JFK Judaism Jungian Spirituality Lectionary Commentary Lent Letters to the Editor LGBT Marriage MLK Multiculturalism Mysticism Nonviolent Activism Occupy Paganism (Earth-centered Religions) Parables Paul Pluralism Politics Process Theology Quantum Physics Requiescat In Pace Seminary and Divinity School Sermon Series Retrospective Sermons Spiritual Direction Spiritual Practices Stewardship (Fundraising) The Book of J The Wheel of the Year (Paganism) Theoblogger Challenge Triathlon Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism Worship Resources Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2026 May 2026 March 2026 November 2025 October 2025 August 2025 February 2025 December 2024 October 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 August 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 August 2009 July 2009 May 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How did Moses' mother save him as a baby?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Placed him in a basket on the river Sent him to another city Hid him in a cave Dressed him as a girl