From: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Subject: Re: >suggestion<
Reply-To: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Organization: LaserMaster Technologies, Minneapolis, MN
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 16:31:01 GMT

Dear everyone who's been involved or just reading along ...

B.A. Davis-Howe writes;

>"Maybe it was someone else who said this, but *someone* said that everyone who
>is P/pagan is part of the same religion.  This is what I am riled about.

>I hope this clears things up."

  Actually, yes.  Quite a bit.

  I suppose that existentially speaking, we're all a part of the same religion --
the religious battle of DNA to decide which is the most effective form of life, or
the worship of the possible origins of carbon-based life-forms, or reverence for
ancient perspectives on life, the universe, and everything.

  But at the level of practice and beliefs, we're all worshipping our own way.
Someone along the line of this thread said something like "we're each responsible
for the internalization of our own faith", and as such can only claim the loosest of
religious affiliation with each other.  As our awareness of ourselves evolves, and
thus our awareness of our world and our beliefs within that world changes, it
becomes hard to say that we're constantly in agreement with our yesterday selves,
much less others who share the religion we've chosen.  Since some of us choose
to follow particular formulas of faith, we can call ourselves members of that
religion, even if our personal faith varies from the strict guidelines of the faith.

  As for everyone who is P/pagan being a part of the same religion, I hadn't
picked that up.  I was probably too riled about *someone* saying that my Paganism
is not a religion and overlooked it.

  If I had picked up the "everone who is P/pagan is part of the same religion", I
probably would have joined you in being riled about it.  All pagans, and certainly all
Pagans, are an eclectic bunch and could be considered members of the same religion
only in the most general and broad of terms.  It would be like saying that because
I and a Buddhist in Hilanjang are not of the big three, then we must be members
of the same religion.  Hardly.

  I think that it is correct to say that both I and that Buddhist are pagans, and we
may have some beliefs in common, but that would be as far as you could probably
go.

  Amanda Walker mailed me a very nice letter where she said that mystics within
different religions and religious traditions often agree more strongly and are able
to talk more easily about religion than people within the same religion.  I think that's
generally true, and for me illustrates the arbitrary boundries that most religions
impose to "protect the faith".

  I don't expect to ever encounter another Pagan with the same brand of Paganism
as myself.  My grandparents were Lithuanian, Mongolian, Swedish, and Chippewa
(Algonquin)/Swedish.  They each brought to my family their own religious traditions
and superstitions which became blended together and fused until by the time my
generation inherited them they were a single inseparatable mass of tradition.

  The religious core of these traditions is very similar, and by the time I got to college
I'd learned that the word for that religious core was "pagan".  People like Issac and
Margot Addler and Mary Daly and Selena Fox taught me that each Pagan, regardless
of their affiliation, should respect the religious traditions and variations of every
other Pagan.  They taught me that Paganism is a vast and varied body of religions
which have some subtle connection which binds them together, but which is neither
codified nor dogmatized.  For any Pagan to speak for all of Paganism is an affront
on the infinite variety of the Goddess Herself.

  Of course, that's my interpretation of what they were trying to teach me.  Your 
milage may vary.

  Not feeling and deep affinity with any of the organized traditions within Paganism
(Wiccan, Gardenarian, Celtic, Dianic, Wygmunkie Oyote, and so on), I continue to
call myself a Pagan, because that's the closest I can get to defining the particular
variety of Paganism which I follow.

  I agree with you -- no one can speak for Paganism or all Pagans, and there is
certainly no such thing as One True Pagan Religion.  I think all the hoopla over
the Universal Pagan Whatzit kinda illustrates the diversity within the tribes.  I
never meant for my calling myself a Pagan to be interpreted as a declaration of
establishment of dogma or universality.

  But to whomever it was that said that Paganism is not a religion, I think you're
cutting the line too fine.  Paganism is a form of worship which is empowering many
people today, and is being accepted in all of its diversity as a rational and sacred
alternative to the majority religions of the day.  There are many organized religions
which also fall under the header "Pagan", but each one of them speaks for
themselves, and is no more and no less right for its adherents than my nameless
Paganism is for me.  Not everyone who is a Pagan is comfortable with the
definitions or structures of the recognised Pagan faiths.  Still, we have a right to
call ourselves "Pagan", and to have our form of worship respected.

  I'm pleased to see that the intensity in this thread is continuing, and that everyone
is trying to respect each other's feelings and beliefs.  I don't think I've said anything
intollerant, but if it seems I have, please ask for a clarification -- I may have just
mispoke or mistyped.

  Blessed Be,  Ciaran.