[Dialogue] Paganism and RSI

[Bill Bailey]

Here in Asheville we have two major groupings of "Earth Based
Spiritualities", the Heathens and Pagans. Their main Spiritual celebrations
revolve around the 4 seasons, and their one big gathering is All Hallows
Eve. Their religious understanding revolve around a pan-an-theism which can
be expressed as: "Everything is alive with Spirit." The basic form of
worship is through myth and ritual, venerating the divine in everything that
lives. Byron Ballard is a Wicken Priestesses that is very well known
Asheville, and she likes to say the "Paganism" is the oldest form of
spiritual life and religious organization known to human kind. She
participates with us at Jubilee; she works with the NC State Council of
churches, and presently is part of a group working on a course in
Spirituality at the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement at UNCA.

In so far as RS1 is concerned, the word "good, received, Approved, open" for
the pagan applies to all of life (i.e. rocks, trees, dogs, insets and on and
on). In the days of RS1 I would not say we were exactly "Earth Based" or
grounded in the Mother (Goddess). 

I would recommend reading a book by William Dever called "Did God Have a
Wife". Dever is an Archaeologist who studied under both Albright and G.E.
Wright. His thesis is that Archeological data should be the primary source
(instead of the Biblical Text) for understanding the development of Judaism
and Christianity. In our Biblical text we have "Book Religion" which ignores
"Folk Religion" and refuses to recognize Judao-Christian "Mysticism."  

In his book, he lays out with a strong Archeological argument for the
inclusion of Folk Religion in Western Spirituality. Since Folk Religious
Piety recognized both God and Goddess, they were considered "Pagan" and/or
heretics by those who consider themselves "the people of the book." Where as
Book Religion" is based on the "Alter and the Temple," Folk Religion is
grounded in the "Kitchen and the hearth."

Today, as we move away from the theistic understand of God in search of a
new and relevant ontology we are becoming more and more mindful of the need
to move "toward the comprehensive" and include the wholeness of all creation
(both Male and Female; Earth and Universe; animals and plants; and anything
else you might imagine.

 

Bill Bailey


-----Original Message-----
From: Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of aiseayew
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 4:23 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Paganism and RSI

Dear Karen,

You asked, "please say some words about paganism, and how it differs from 
the message of RS1, if it does."

Obviously the answer is no and yes and yes and no.

I feel unqualified to even respond to your question from the perspective of 
not having participated in any of the formal structures of any of the four 
groupings of paganism Harry provided in his note.  I do know that we hosted 
a Pagan conference at the ICA building for several years when I was working 
with the Conference Center (one of those groups we always, only, identified 
by their initials in the client listings).  Since it was not my tendency to 
be too wierded out by them, I usually got the task of facilitating the 
weekend and felt rather honored by being referred to by many of the 
participants as a "green witch" after several years.

On another level deeply within my experience, when I showed up at RSI and 
was asked what grounded me in history, I said, "I am an Iowa farm girl." 
Naturally some one of the pedagogues felt compelled to argue with me that 
that was not an adequate articulation of grounding in history and I was 
compelled to argue that he obviously didn't understand grounding.  Death and

resurrection are the very stuff of life when you grow up on a farm. 
Choosing to give your life for something is almost a no-brainer.  That seed 
in the ground sits and waits for the moisture sufficient that when it 
absorbs enough it bursts itself open (dies dead) to send forth a shoot into 
the unknown.  Only with grace does the plant develop and get pollinated and 
produce (a flower, an ear of corn, whatever).  Thinking of that succulent 
ear of sweet corn, when the hand reaches into the plant and tears it away 
from the stem a radical teminus has been put upon the energy flow. 
Redirection is the only option and the stalk dries up and falls over and 
disintegrates back into the soil as bedding for another seed. (Sorry, but 
this stuff is just inherently sexy.)  Meanwhile, the one who eats that 
sweet, sweet corn takes a chunk of the energy in yet another direction. 
>From the farm girl perspective, that energy goes directly into the
community 
of faith that sustains those with sufficient gumption that they are willing 
to trust another season, in spite of what they know of the perils and 
possibilities.  Choosing death, over and over again, is the only path to 
life.

The structures of the institutional church seem to have always sanitized 
this process.  You don't get dirt under your nails.  You only participate 
vicariously in the crucifixtion.  You don't feel guilty about causing death.

The resurrection is magic that happens, not a painful yet natural outcome of

the required death.  In RSI, when people talked about looking at the stuff 
of life and taking a relationship to that to define theological terms such 
as God, Christ, Holy Spirit and Church, I was more excited that I can even 
articulate.  Since arguments with my minister during confirmation classes, I

have always wanted these things to come together.  I can't say that 
structurally we did a whole lot better than the institutional church.  I 
can't say whether or not the structures of paganism's modern manifestations 
do any better.  Many participants seem to have gone off some "other" deep 
end.  They do at least know the cycles of the moon and seasons and 
understand something about their relationship to life and final reality.  I 
feel like that deserves my respect.  At least enough that I don't equate 
those who self-identify with idolatry.  My sense is that in basing their 
belief system on nature (whether it be in the form of aboriginal mythologies

or focussing on the divine feminine) they are playing with a full deck.  At 
least as full as the one chosen by the institutional church.

There have been many occassions on which my way of knowing has been put down

by my colleagues.  There are times when I feel like someone telling me I 
should read something is about the equivalent of them telling me I should at

least try to get smart.  I guess I am not particularly tolerant of that 
treatment anymore, so I will ask your forgiveness in advance of mentioning 
that resources that have been important to me include some of the works of 
Sallie McFague, Diarmuid O'Murchu, Lorna Green and, of course, Elaine 
Pagels.  The first three have worked to integrate spirituality and ecology 
(and Christianity) and Elaine has worked with the influence of  and 
potential within the historical gnostic seeds in christianity.  I mention 
them as writers that I don't hear discussed in our dialogue and I have a 
hard time getting excited about many that do, so I feel like I am still 
(after all these years) out in left field.  It's okay.  There is grass and 
clover and honey bees out here in left field, and of course left field is in

Iowa, which everyone knows is heaven.  O'Murchu's Quantum Theology is among 
my most dogeared volumes.  Paganism, struggling from centuries of 
discrimination, is probably more likely to dismiss the rigidity of RSI these

days than any new attempt to articulate RSI would be to dismiss paganism. I 
am excited that we are living in a time of growing articulation of the 
interconnections.  As uncomfortable as it may be, I can't make connections 
if I dismiss things out of hand.  So you have more than you ever wanted to 
know about where I am (still) coming from.  Margaret



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