In the footsteps of our ancestors
by Jack Maurice Lesage
The issue of organisation and permanent structures (buildings) is yet another topic Pagans worldwide tend to steer clear of, but I think it has become a topic South African Pagans can no longer ignore. Earlier this month the South African Pagan Council applied for Non-Profit and Public Benefit Organisation status with the South African Revenue Services and outlined a plan to build a national Pagan Temple in South Africa. This article merely reflects my opinions regarding just such a permanent structure - and I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone else needs take these opinions seriously. I feel the topic needs reflecting by all Pagans in this country.
As Pagans, we attempt a unique claim: to be reviving the “Old Religion”. We say we are following the ways of our ancestors. But are we really? And if so to what extent, and how selective are we in following the Ancient Ways? And what does history teach us about Paganism, about our beliefs, clergy, training and temples?
We know that monotheism began 2000 or more years ago and while most Christian are uncertain as to the true beginning of their religion, we as Pagans do know for example that Wicca began only in the 1940’s and 1950’s, so we can safely say that the majority of Wiccans know where their version of Paganism comes from.
Asatru goes one better. Norse Heathenism has been passed down relatively intact in the Nordic culture because Scandinavia was one of the last groups of European countries to be Christianised, and Asatru is still a legally recognised religion in that part of the world and has been for some time – in fact their Paganism was preserved in their national identity.
Druidry, too, can boast at least knowing with some certainty its own origins, because classical writers such as Eratosthenes, Polyhistor, Siculus, Strabo, Mela, Tacitus, Julius Caesar and Cicero wrote about Britain and Gaul in the age when the Druids existed and from their writings we can glean a lot of information about the way the Celts worshipped and the roles of their priesthood.
Reconstructionist traditions such as Hellenism also know their own culture deeply and have the remains of true temples and preserved writings.
Organisation
When it comes to organisation though, is there not a precedent in ancient Paganism that we have our roots in? Let us lay aside the monotheisms as our basis for what organised religion is and rather look at the way Paganism was practiced in the old days. Anyone who does some research will discover that in the ancient world worship of the Gods was split into two spheres: public (organised) and private (autonomous).
In ancient Rome and Greece, this split was very obvious. The Gods of the home, such as Janus who guarded the door of the house, and Vesta/Hestia who kept the hearth, characterised private worship. These were the Gods and Goddesses the Romans prayed and gave offerings to on a daily basis, without reference to anyone else. They were personal and intimate deities without a required medium to go through.
The Romans were eclectic in the ancient world – they took on deities they felt they needed at different times. The Romans for example imported Isis, who became a Goddess of women’s mysteries, from Egypt. The Romans also liked to make comparisons between Gods and Goddesses – how the original Greek Gods were renamed by them and adopted and how they compared the Gods of the Celts later on with their major figures such as Jupiter and Mercury.
However, there is evidence that public worship in ancient Rome was different. People did not just go to temples, conduct a service for themselves, make offerings and leave. The important Gods and Goddesses who were in charge of Rome’s people were spoken to through adjudicators, mediums, and the priesthood. There is evidence of organised religion – clergy were formally trained, with actual colleges.
Not just anyone could be a priest or priestess and it was great responsibility – a Vestal Virgin (sacerdos Vestalis), for example, maintained the sacred fire of Vesta and they were an exclusively female priesthood, started before puberty and sworn to sacred celibacy for thirty years, which they could not break, on pain of death. They spent ten years as students and ten years in service, then ten as teachers of new Vestal Virgins, which shows organised religion in the recruiting and training - they were specially selected by the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest, and there was a College of Vestal Virgins.
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the ancient Roman College of Pontiffs, which probably ended up giving its name to the Pope when Rome became Christian. The name translates to “bridge-builder” as the priests and priestesses were builders of bridges between Gods and men. The College of Pontiffs itself produced members who were the highest in rank of the polytheism of the state religion; there were also other groups in this college: the Rex Sacrorum (the king of the sacred rites appointed by life, usually a patrician), the Flamines (dedicated to the worship of one God or Goddess), and the Vestal Virgins. There was also a college of augurs to know the favour of the Gods and read the auspices.
So what can we learn from the ancient and classical religions, whose Gods and Goddesses we as Pagans still worship today?
We know they trained their clergy for public worship in groups; they worshipped privately at home to personal home deities/spirits; and they had a ranking order in their priesthoods, which included men and women, and deities of both genders.
What about the Celts? The Druids officiated at public worship and reading of the signs and performing of sacrifices – they did not dictate private worship, led by the head of the household. They also fit the pattern of organised religion: they were trained for their roles from a young age; they were composed of men and women (in Gaul there were the “Dryades” or Druidesses according to the Historia Augusta, and in later Irish mythology, including the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, women Druids are also referred to); there was a ranking order, from Bard to Vate to Druid; people worshipped privately at home to the spirits; there were deities of both genders and equal importance in their pantheons – look at Danu and the Dagda for comparisons of power.
We also know the Egyptians had trained priests and priestesses to act as go-betweens for gods and the people – we know they had male and female deities, and temples of worship, public places to go.
We know that the Norse society was nominally based on private, personal appeal to the Aesir and the Vanir, though they did have officiating priests and priestesses. The priesthood was not as professional and probably hereditary – women were more common than men in such an official position and they had such power that even Odin, the All-Father, consulted a priestess about the future.
Because of the way Norse society viewed women as having a special connection with the Gods and the otherworld, women were essentially shamans, the Volva (“wand carrier” or “carrier of a magic staff”), also known as the Vala, Seiðkona or Wicce (Anglo-Saxon) from which comes the modern word Witch. There were male practitioners of this office, but they were uncommon, though the recognisable godi - the gothi of nowadays in Asatru. Though the Norse society did not have a trained priesthood as such, these priestesses must have been trained in some way because they could charge money and were very respectable.
So how does this relate to what I think about organisation in today’s Paganism?
Let me assure you that like most Pagans, I do not want a central priesthood ranking over everyone, regardless of tradition, nor do I want any particular kind of leader telling me what to do, but I do think for the sake of our legal position we need to organise ourselves somewhat.
Eclecticism to a certain level makes us who we are – we’re flexible, changeable, and we adapt to the fluctuations of society in a way monotheism cannot. Organised religion may seem unsavoury to many, but adopting at least some of its trappings will go a long way towards helping our legal status; to correcting the problem of a majority of self-taught young solitaries weaned on incorrect ideas in books without any substantial teaching; we can secure ourselves for a future in which we play a bigger and better part on the world stage, showing how meaningful our religion is; and we can reach more people who are alone and unsure, people who would be Pagans if they knew the community existed, if only they had somebody to go to who could refer them to groups and traditions that were right for them.
So if the ancient Pagans had temples, centres of teaching, priest and priestesses, and “public” worship, why don’t we, the Pagans of the 21st century? Surely if we follow the way of the ancients, should we not follow suit?
Pagan buildings
Our own temples, community centres, festival grounds: there are a number of things Pagan public buildings could do to serve the Pagan community, should we choose to create them. I believe that we do need public structures, not only for us as Pagans, but we need them to interact with the non-Pagan community. Our environment is a community that does not share our beliefs, does not understand our beliefs, and sometimes fears our spirituality. Despite Paganism’s growth, we are still a miniscule minority group, and as such we depend on and need to work closely with the larger community. We need to consider our environment as we ponder the potential of Pagan buildings. We require an attitude toward our environment in which we are part of a whole.
Since the 1970’s and 1980’s Pagan paths have been going public and no longer can we maintain the old siege mentality. Such an attitude only reiterates the problem through fostering an “us-versus-them” mindset. It is time to create an attitude of “us-and-them-together” mindset - and this can without any doubt be done without Paganism becoming a mundane “mainstream religion”.
We must, however, begin to think of ourselves as members within a larger community. We must take active responsibility for our place in the whole. Public buildings can help us do this. Whether our structures are temples, community centres, or outdoor shrines, temples and parks, they harbour great potential by serving as visible embassies to the non-Pagan world, and by fulfilling niche functions within both the non-Pagan and Pagan community.
I believe that the mere presence of a Pagan temple within the community, for example, could work its own kind of magick.
Imagine a Pagan “place” where midwifery services, childcare, a library, tai chi and yoga classes, complementary and alternative healing, festival grounds, workshops, event centre, etc are offered not only to Pagans but also in a more limited way to the community at large. I think it is time that we as Pagans are accepted not for our beliefs but for our functionality in society. When non-Pagans get the idea that Pagans are valuable members of society and not dark-garbed weirdoes or the generalised “Others”, the cultural playing field will shift from Pagan-reclusive to Pagan-inclusive.
Once a tangible presence can be associated with the Pagan community, the possibility also emerges of engaging that community in dialogue. A public structure will give us a stable home from which we can confidently speak. Rather than hesitantly gathering for a festival on rented land where we may not be wanted, how much more confidently can we represent ourselves on our own land? We literally need ground to stand on where we can feel safe. Tangible structures will also allow “jumpy Pagans” and newcomers to feel confident that other Pagans are gathered safely “across the road”, and that this is a place where they are welcome.
There are a few things I wish to clarify.
Public structures should not replace nature as our primary worship space. It is only appropriate to an earth-based religion that nature should remain our chief point of communion with the divine. Public structures should not compete with nature, but should direct us toward it.
Secondly, public structures will not replace the home as the place of family worship. The home is the place where we live, love and rear our children. It is a more appropriate place for Pagan worship than any public structure. A temple will, however, hopefully, and over time, help to loosely unify the scattered children of the Goddess.
Thirdly: a public structure and a place of study and research will not take away from the independence of covens, groves, home circles, etc, which should remain responsible for all aspects of their tradition, including and especially, the training and selection of their own members, priesthood, elders, etc. In fact a public structure will strengthen this independence, and a way to assure this is by ensuring that these structures are ran by the Pagan community itself - in the form of umbrella organisations which represent all Paths and all Pagans on equal footing (such as the SAPC and the SAPC’s round-table system).
And lastly. I do not think that public structures will or should change Paganism into an outright organised religion. What I do think, however, it could do is transform Paganism into an organised and strong community.
Do I think a gathering place, such as a temple, is the answer to all our problems? Of course not. But it is a place to begin. It is where we, as a community, can gather. That is what a temple is about, communing with the divine - and with each other.
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