Dispelling Disastrous Delusions, Part 2

Let us move on to the Neo-Pagan movements, and sort of go across some very broad problems and types and discuss the whole mess. It is a huge mess! First, Neo-Paganism could probably be broken down very broadly into two distinct types, which overlap to some degree. Those two disctinct types are "New Age," and "Reconstructionist." The goal with New Age Neo-Paganism is to develop a pagan belief that means something to you in light of New Age teaching or contemporary culture. The goal with reconstructionism is to look at significant archaelogy and re-construct old Pagan practices.

First, reconstructionism as an absolute has to fail, as we live in a different time in a different setting. Absolute reconstructionists are usually merely swindlers, looking to chump someone who wants the,"real deal." However, there are reconstructionists who spend years learning Egyptian heiroglyphs, or old Gaelic languages, or what have you - expensive and time consuming - with the belief that they can draw a more accurate depiction of these pagan beliefs into today.

Where do I stand as a Neo-Pagan. With a foot on both sides and a seat on the fencepost - to some degree. I have heavily studied heavy primary and secondary sources as part of my development of my beliefs, but my beliefs are also a personal belief meant for me alone and influenced by New Age and contemporary culture. I'll discuss a bit more on that somewhere else.

So let us start with WICCA! LOL! Alright, a first thing. The term "Wicca," was a Latin word that probably deserves to be pronounced, "Witch - ah." Still - almost no one pronounces it that way, so - whateva. The word could refer to a midwife in Latin cultures, or it could mean you'd get a mark on your door and a painful public execution.

Even pagan cultures treated witchery and sorcery as a strict taboo. These people might have gone to a witch-doctor for a special trick with a mineral or herb - or even a hex or a simple charm. Still - no matter what civilization on the planet you might name, you wound up dead if things went too far. Just as today, it was a counter-culture and you covered your hiney as best as you could to avoid persecution.

When it comes to the New Age form of Wicca, the best books are the two Solitary Guides by Scott Cunningham, and both of those are still in print on the mass-market. They are pretty fluffy books, but they encourage spirituality and independent thinking, and they also contain some other good materials. There are a few other good books on the market, but we might attack that bit of sod at another time.

In terms of reconstructionist paganism, there are no titles on the "metaphysics shelf." You have to go to either a place on the 'Net where such people congregate - good luck finding any sincerity! - or procure worthwhile primary and secondary texts. There are numerous types: Gnostic, Kemetic (Egyptian), Hellenic, Latinate, Saxon and Celtic, Welsh, and so on and so forth.

Another interesting point is that I had a fairly lengthy set of chats five or six years ago with a woman about my age at the time who was what Kemetic reconstructionists (there is a minimal community) call a Tamera or a Tamerand. This means that the person is involved in Egyptian historical study, but practices a New Age form of belief. I had a lot of admiration for this young woman, and it seems good to note that our counter-culture creates its own pidgeon-holes to disambiguate some of this huge effing mess that Neo-Paganism represents.

Another note is a bit controversial but interesting. There was a super-mod in the very late period at OF who was a halakhic Jew. The kosher laws mostly involve dietary restrictions and hygiene practices, but also include some sexual censures. To be halakhic means to go beyond being kashrut. Being kashrut - literally, "pure," - is plenty of a task enough, but living halakha requires incredible dedication. This is true even understanding that the man was not even able to practice all of halakha. However he practiced it as best as he could, and according to halakha that is all that is required to be halakha.

One of the things about Talmud is that you can find everything in there from Greek paganism to the rites of Molech to fables to kosher law - and so on and on for over 50 volumes for both sets of volumes of Talmud. The decision-maker as to what is halakha in Talmud is made by the Mishnah, and sorcery is strictly forbidden to a Jew if he or she doesn't want to stop being a Jew and gain a very harsh form of perdition.

However, there is some breathing-room as to what is halakhic and what is not in the Mishnah, and this man was very involved in studying that breathing room in the Talmud. The man had enough Aramaic to study both sets of volumes of Talmud fairly extensively. He knew both Ashkenazic and Sephardic Hebrew backwards and forwards, which differ significantly enough to cause major trouble in trying to switch back and forth. He also had a mass of knowledge of both mystical texts like the Zohar (in the original Aramaic!) and traditional Jewish texts - like the Mishnah and the Midrashim.

The thing about this man was that he was - gothic. I mean just terrifying. He lived a life of purity that most monks could not hold to, but I mean - terrifying in his visage. Still - I admired that guy, and almost no scholars in America had his kind knowledge of Judaism and its related languages. I'd pay that 100 dollars flat down for some documents from that individual as well. He was amazing!

Further, he was interested in two Egyptian concepts, and I don't know how these fall in halakha, though these are not negative concepts. The first is called, "Ma'at," and it would have translated from Egyptian as "right justice." As hard and cruel as the Egyptians' lives were, they believed that a right justice governed their world.

The other is called, "Xeper," probably pronounced "Skeh - peir," although the diphthongs are a bit tough to manage. It literally meant, "rolling," and was an Egyptian concept something like, "growth," or "building," or, "evolution," or "process," or "progress." Just as "evolution," would have made no sense to an Egyptian, "Xeper," can't really translate well to us. Still - one of the reasons for their reverence of the scarab was that it, "rolled," its little balls of dung along, and this was associated with "Xeper."

That pretty much finishes up a broad look at the Neo-Pagan dung-heap. There are sincere people out there who are interested in Neo-Paganism now, but they mostly do like I am doing here. They stay away from online communities, run closed websites and stick to themselves. This is because the Golden Age was mostly a scam, and now all sincerity seems to have entirely evaporated.

I'm going to check the articles at the sites for a previous Big Al article. Then we shall attack, "Thelema," in the way that I understand it for myself today. One of the best things about Thelema as a principle is that whether Crowley stuck to it or not in his own life, the whole principle behind Thelema is independence of thought and action, and so we shall see.

I also want to do a disambiguation on talking about, "our path," in the occult underground, This is a very hackneyed and overused term among us - usually for, "I will now feed you chump so that you will send me an un-secured platinum card number," or sometimes, "you will now sit and listen to my psychotic delusions for a long period of time." I will see how I want to do this, because both articles are more than worth doing.

I also want to dispel some delusions about John Dee, Edward Kelly, and the Enochian Magic(k) System. Plenty of time, we'll see where I decide to head with this.