Paganism
Last class, we talked about Paganism and related it to the concepts that we have learned so far throughout the semester. The definition in the reading we were assigned described paganism as “..referring to nature religions that are based upon older or Paleopagan religions; concentrating upon an attempt to retain the humanistic, ecological and creative aspects of these old belief systems while discarding their occasional brutal or repressive developments which are inappropriate.”
I found out by this reading that a lot of feminists turn to this religion because it creates equality between men and women. There is a misconception that all pagans are “man haters”, but that is not necessarily true for all of these pagan feminists. They are able to live their lives without having to depend on men to do so, which is why they are attracted to it.
Something that I found interesting about the reading and the religion is that it is based on the seasons. It talked about how the Goddess, who is the Ultimate Reality, gives birth to the Horned God, her son, in mid-winter, marries him at the beginning or summer, and sacrifices him to herself in autumn. This ensures fertility for the upcoming year. This can also be seen as both a ritual and a myth of the religion.
I didn’t totally understand much else from the reading or the religion and found it to be pretty confusing, but those are the main ideas that I did come up with. This religion was shown to be more different than similar to any of the other religions we have discussed so far in class.