No Country for Old Gods

It is arguable whether modern day pagans keep old traditions alive, or if they are borrowing concepts and figures from old religions and breathing life into them for the sake of a new kind of spirituality. The real question is if those old gods really care about the who, the how, and the why.

Being a pagan is not something most people are born into, and many find their way into a tradition (or amalgam of traditions) in a state of innocence, looking for something to define or guide what they are feeling. Different ages are finding paganism that fits with emerging ideals and beliefs. There are online resources which provide materials for youth or help them find information regarding the subject, like this one. Avenues such as these provide the support that a young individual or group may need while looking with new eyes into a spiritual identity purporting to have old roots.

This isn't to say that paganism is a young person’s game by any means. Nor does it imply that the participant is qualifying themselves in the lens of the ‘new age’ spiritual phenomenon. It is possible to engage in what would be considered a pagan ceremony without holding belief in a pantheon of gods or even the supernatural power that wiccans, witches, or druids are attempting to evoke through ritualized magickal practice. One interview that highlights this point is with a woman who has been leading pagan rituals for over thirty years yet has no spiritual attachment to the events. She identify herself as more of a humanist who appreciates the ideological foundations of paganism respecting ‘human reason, ethics and social justice’ while also generally not following a strictly dogmatic path. It is the joyous and energetic elements of the ritual that she is trying to draw out. In a very telling point of the interview, she clarifies that it is not up to her what people take away from the undertaking, and that the experience is so intrinsically personal that it would be impossible to tell the participants what sort of meaning they should be getting out of it. Does the sense of community, or togetherness, elation, and spiritual connection mean anything less when guided by a person who may not necessarily be in-line with the religious aspects of every individual present? I would argue that the value of these practices should be no less than with any other religious event or performance. It still breathes life into a deep human need for ecstatic experience and if it is more profound for some than others, then that doesn't necessarily cheapen it.

Breathing life into old god’s mouths in a contemporary setting still gives some credence to what those gods may have represented in their original traditions. Maybe religion should always be up to the person following it in what they take away and new technologies have opened the possibilities of finding new forms of old ways. People are moving away from the obligatory religious practices that are entrenched in society in many ways. The ability to explore and engage fulfilling experiences and varying traditions with impunity binds these otherwise exclusive options into a whole. This is not meant to imply that having so much available to a person is watering down the original source but more so the individual ability to find what works for them and look into the history of religious traditions that interest them can strengthen the bond that they have with themselves.

I took the title of this post from a poem by William Butler Yeats entitled ‘Sailing to Byzantium,’ though many may recognize it from the book ‘No Country For Old Men’ written by Cormac McCarthy

(student post)