A key challenge that today's Pagan movements face is their differing views and approaches to the texts, folklore, and other cultural traditions that they utilize as the foundation for their modern religious rituals and beliefs.
- The character of modern Pagan movements is primarily determined by the sort of cultural materials that supply knowledge and inspiration, as well as how they are used.
- The fact that little knowledge about old customs was written down by Pagans in the past is a big problem for today's Pagans.
- Much of the existing information about Pagan mythology, beliefs, and rituals was written down by Christian clergymen, either in the form of clerical letters, chronicles, and other documents dealing with the spread of Christianity and the suppression of Paganism in Europe, or in post-conversion literary re-creations of Pagan myths, poems, and epics.
- In the case of Iceland, the Old Norse literary tradition of Eddas and Sagas contains narratives of Pagan myth and religion that are only equaled or surpassed by those of ancient Greece in terms of richness and vividness.
- Many of the Icelandic literature are thought to have depended on pagan oral traditions, but were transformed to written form by Christian authors in the post-conversion era, with significant influence from post-pagan, medieval Christian ideas.
As a result, it's impossible to say how much of the Pagan religion and mythology in the Icelandic manuscripts was "pure" Pagan tradition and how much was altered, removed, or manufactured by the Christian writers who decided the structure and substance of the writings.
Modern attempt to rebuild other Pagan religious systems are considerably hampered by the same challenge of differentiating Pagan source materials from Christian editorial influence.
The amount and manner in which contemporary Pagans add new beliefs and practices, either inherited from or inspired by other religious or cultural traditions, or developed through their own creative efforts, is a second, related problem.
- All modern Pagan religious movements mix and match old, traditional elements with new ideas and practices from other sources, but they can be divided along a continuum: at one end are those who strive to reconstruct ancient religious traditions of a particular ethnic group, linguistic or geographic area to the greatest extent possible; at the other end are those who freely blend the two.
- The two extremes of this continuum shall be referred to as Reconstructionist and Eclectic versions of contemporary Paganism, and its supporters will be referred to as Reconstructionists and Eclectics, respectively, for the purpose of convenience.
- Reconstructionists devote themselves to a scientific study of historical writings, folklore, archaeology, and languages that are thought to convey trustworthy information about the peoples of their specific region of interest's historical religious traditions.
- The older the data that provides knowledge about former Pagan religions, the better for Reconstructionist Pagans. On the other hand, the more current Pagan rituals and beliefs can be aligned with what is known about ancient Pagan religion, the better.
- This isn't to suggest that Reconstructionists don't make their own interpretations and adaptations of ancient traditions to fit current ideals and lifestyles; rather, they see earlier traditions as more established, authoritative, and real than freshly developed or vaguely conceived ones.
- Reconstructionists devote a great deal of time and effort to following scholarly debates and research trends in history, archaeology, folklore, and other academic fields related to the Pagan traditions they are attempting to resurrect because they are so concerned with understanding, respecting, and, wherever and whenever possible, imitating and continuing the Pagan traditions of the past.
- Some Reconstructionist Pagans are academics themselves, and virtually all are interested in what academics have to say about the religious traditions they want to conserve, defend, and promote.
- Eclectic Pagans are similarly interested in learning about past Pagan traditions, but unlike Reconstructionists, they do not regard historical religious traditions of a given location as their ultimate frame of reference; rather, they consider the traditions as a temporary portal to deeper spiritual experience.
Eclectics see the pagan history of Europe as a broad source of spiritual inspiration, but they don't try to replicate historical rituals, beliefs, or religious traditions with scholarly precision.
- They are less likely than Reconstructionists, for example, to study the original languages of their source sources.
- Eclectics, unlike Reconstructionists, do not devote themselves to a thorough study or reconstruction of a region's or people's former Pagan religion.
- Eclectics are more likely to mix and match religious ideas, rituals, and even deities from a wide range of European and non-European sources, based on what they perceive to be their resemblance or complementarity.
- Although the religious traditions of a particular people or place may serve as the major theme or identity of an Eclectic Pagan movement, there is no reason why elements from other sources cannot be incorporated.
- The more Eclectic contemporary Paganism moves away from any specific geographic or ethnic background, the closer it becomes to New Age religion, with its concept of cosmic harmony and human perfectibility glaringly devoid of any ethnic identity or sense of location or history.
- With relation to the formation of "core Shamanism" in modern Neoshamanism, Robert Wallis (2003) defined this de-ethnicizing and universalizing tendency.
- Jone Salomonsen has done the same with regard to the widely accepted but largely unsupported thesis of a worldwide, prehistoric, matriarchal society, which serves as the pseudohistorical foundation myth of the Reclaiming Tradition and other forms of Goddess Spirituality (Salomonsen 2002; see also Neitz 1993).
- People who value ethnic identification highly choose the Reconstructionist version of contemporary Paganism, whereas others who have little interest or even a positive scorn for ethnic identification prefer the Eclectic kind.
Eclectic Neopaganism is more prevalent in the British Isles and North America, where ethnic identity has tended to be de-emphasized and where completely ethnic-free forms of New Age religion have flouted, whereas Reconstructionist Neopaganism is most strongly attested in Eastern Europe.
- Here ethnic culture and identity remain important organizing principles of social life and cultural activities, whereas Reconstructionist Neopaganism is most strongly attested in Eastern Europe, where ethnic culture and identity remain important organizing principles of social life and cultural activities.
- Dievturi, a contemporary Pagan religious movement that exists solely in Latvia and among Latvian diaspora populations in Canada, the United States, and abroad, is one example that sadly could not be represented here. Dievturi is based on ancient Latvian song lyrics known as dainas, as well as the celebration of traditional Latvian calendar events (Misane 2000; Strmiska 2005).
- As a result, it's an excellent illustration of modern Paganism's more conventional, Reconstructionist style. Wicca is a great example of the Eclectic kind of modern Pagan religion, with its mostly contemporary bundle of rituals and generic male/female deities derived from various sources.
This Reconstructionist/Eclectic polarity is a valuable framework for debate, but its application to specific Pagan religious movements is not as simple as it appears at first glance.
- As committed as Dievturi is to preserving and continuing Latvian traditions, some scholars have noted that some aspects of its ritual activities are strikingly similar to Lutheran church services—for example, the gatherings at which dainas are sung in place of Christian hymns and a religious leader delivers a speech that sounds eerily similar to a Christian minister's sermon.
- Furthermore, Dievturi's monotheistic interpretation of its Pagan pantheon reveals a significant Christian impact.
Even the most ardent Wiccan will admit that much of what the movement's founder Gerald Gardner claimed to be ancient tradition was really just his own creation based on British folklore and other sources available to him (Kelly 1991), the rituals Gardner and associates devised have led many people around the world into a sincere belief in Wicca.
- Thus, the most Reconstructionist form of Paganism may contain a number of nontraditional elements, just as the most Eclectic form of Paganism may lead to people having imaginative encounters with very ancient spiritual realities.
- In fact, familiarity with specific deities has prompted some Wiccans to seek out more detailed information about the deities' original historical and cultural contexts, resulting in the same kind of intensive research into source materials and regional traditions that Reconstructionists devote themselves to.
Some Wiccans have gone on to create their own variations of Wicca, which draw on elements of ethnically based, geographically distinct Pagan faiths, giving rise to Celtic Wicca, Norse Wicca, and others; such Wicca adaptations become less Eclectic and more Reconstructionist.
- On a third level, that of identity discourses, the Reconstructionist/Eclectic divide might be understood. Reconstructionist Pagans are preoccupied with establishing an identity as loyal links in a lengthy chain of spiritual, ethnic, and cultural traditions rooted in a specific location and among a certain people.
- Theirs is a discourse of historical continuity and profound rootedness in tradition, which they think binds them to their forefathers and their predecessors' gods. Eclectic Pagans' discourse takes a different path and deals with slightly different themes.
- Theirs is an identity that emphasizes openness and naturalness, linked not so much to any particular region of the earth as to the earth itself, and associated not with any particular group of humans speaking any particular language or following any particular traditions, but with a larger and also more hazy sense of universal humanity (Harris 2000).
- The spiritual traditions of any given people or location are not the last goal for Eclectics; they are not ends in themselves, as they may be for Reconstructionists, but rather the starting point for a new spiritual journey.
- Spiritual and political meanings and motives are tightly connected for environmentally and feministically oriented Eclectics in a desire for global social change that transcends any particular region or identity.
To summarize this issue, Reconstructionist Pagans romanticize the past whereas Eclectic Pagans idealize the future. In the one, there is a strong desire to connect with the past as a source of spiritual power and knowledge; in the second, there is an idealistic optimism that a natural spirituality may be gathered from ancient sources and shared with all humankind.
Eclectic Paganism's universalistic component is another evidence of its resemblance to current New Age faiths.
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