collapse

* Recent Posts

Re: "Christ Is King" by SirPalomides
[Today at 04:12:49 pm]


"Christ Is King" by Altair
[Today at 01:09:34 am]


Re: Cill Shift Schedule by SunflowerP
[Yesterday at 11:04:57 pm]


Re: Stellar Bling: The Good, the Bad, the OMG! by SunflowerP
[March 21, 2024, 11:21:37 pm]


Re: Spring Has Sprung! 2024 Edition by SunflowerP
[March 21, 2024, 10:24:10 pm]

Author Topic: The Long and Winding Road  (Read 7408 times)

Raindrops

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Nov 2011
  • Posts: 7
  • Total likes: 0
    • View Profile
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #45 on: November 23, 2011, 08:40:46 am »
Quote from: RandallS;31449
Neo-Pagan is used in several different ways. Some use it as a name for any modern Pagan religion, regardless of the religion's origins. Some only use it as a label for NEW Pagan religions developed in the last 100-200 years or so (and not to attempts to actually revive older Pagan religions). Some use it as a name for any Pagan religion practiced today (which makes no sense at all to me). Etc. Like "Paganism", however, it is an umbrella term even through their are people who consider their religion to be (a generic and/or eclectic) "Pagan" or "Neo-Pagan".



It's closest to the second option I listed.

 
Thanks Randall, I think I understand now :)

catja6

  • Staff
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 381
  • Total likes: 5
    • View Profile
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #46 on: November 23, 2011, 01:12:55 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;31449
Some use it as a name for any Pagan religion practiced today (which makes no sense at all to me). Etc. Like "Paganism", however, it is an umbrella term even through their are people who consider their religion to be (a generic and/or eclectic) "Pagan" or "Neo-Pagan".


See, I actually have no trouble with using "Neo-Pagan" to mean "any Pagan religion practiced today," because pretty much every Pagan religion practiced today is either new (i.e., Wicca), or a substantially different religion operating in a wildly different social context than it originally was (i.e., Reconstructionist religions).  Reconstructionist religions have their philosophical genesis in the Romantic period (coinciding with the post-Enlightenment loosening of religious strictures and the rise of nationalism), just like most other existing Paganisms today, and operate in very similar discourses of nostalgia; just because they're claiming to be based in scholarship doesn't change the fact that there is a gigantic gulf between the ancient/early medieval world of the "originals" and modern/postmodern culture, and therefore they're operating within so radically different a context that they can't be called "the same" religions as before.  Hence, "Neo-Pagan" is, I feel, perfectly appropriate: as Bob has said, they're RE-constructionist religions -- if there was something already there, they wouldn't need to be reconstructed!

Marilyn/Absentminded

  • Staff
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • *
  • Posts: 975
  • Total likes: 2
    • View Profile
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #47 on: November 23, 2011, 05:16:18 pm »
Quote from: catja6;31481


 
That's pretty much how I see it too.  I know there are people who will state emphatically that their religion is not 'neo' anything, but unless they can produce an age of majority card that shows them to be a thousand or so years old, or prove an unbroken family tradition of the same length, I will continue to consider them new.

Absent
I smile when I\'m angry.  I cheat and I lie
I do what I have to do to get by
But I know what is wrong, and I know what is right
And I die for the truth in my secret life

   In My Secret Life, L. Cohen

catja6

  • Staff
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 381
  • Total likes: 5
    • View Profile
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #48 on: November 23, 2011, 09:11:23 pm »
Quote from: Marilyn/Absentminded;31508
That's pretty much how I see it too.  I know there are people who will state emphatically that their religion is not 'neo' anything, but unless they can produce an age of majority card that shows them to be a thousand or so years old, or prove an unbroken family tradition of the same length, I will continue to consider them new.

Absent

 
Exactly!  I actually think "Neo-Paganism" is actually a more accurate and useful term when you're talking about present-day practices, to make clear that you're NOT making misleading claims about some kind of unbroken uninterrupted continuously existing religion.  I mean, in practice, I have no trouble using either "Pagan" or "Neo-Pagan" as umbrella terms for modern practices, but "Neo-Pagan" is a better description.

RandallS

  • Site Admin
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Location: NE Ohio
  • Posts: 10311
  • Country: us
  • Total likes: 296
    • View Profile
  • Religion: Hellenic Pagan
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #49 on: November 23, 2011, 09:57:03 pm »
Quote from: catja6;31481
See, I actually have no trouble with using "Neo-Pagan" to mean "any Pagan religion practiced today," because pretty much every Pagan religion practiced today is either new (i.e., Wicca), or a substantially different religion operating in a wildly different social context than it originally was (i.e., Reconstructionist religions).

Technically, I don't have a problem with that usage as almost all modern Pagan religions are "new creations". Practically, however, "Neo-Pagan" is seemed to be used most often to refer to Earth-centered, "rural-origin" Paganism with a Northern European based Pagan religions, often Wicca-like -- so using it for religions far from that seems to confuse the many people who expect a "Neo-Pagan" religion to fit that mold.
Randall
RetroRoleplaying [Blog]: Microlite74/75/78/81, BX Advanced, and Other Old School Tabletop RPGs
Microlite20: Lots of Rules Lite Tabletop RPGs -- Many Free

SunflowerP

  • Host
  • *
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Location: Calgary AB
  • Posts: 9909
  • Country: ca
  • Total likes: 732
  • Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs!
    • View Profile
    • If You Ain't Makin' Waves, You Ain't Kickin' Hard Enough
  • Religion: Eclectic religious Witchcraft
  • Preferred Pronouns: sie/hir/hirs/hirself
Re: The Long and Winding Road
« Reply #50 on: November 25, 2011, 01:15:00 am »
Quote from: Raindrops;31446
I am wondering about it and asking because I can very closely identify with the information on this page and I was wondering also what that kind of Neo-Paganism on that page would be - A religion just like Wicca, Druidry, Kemeticism, or an umbrella term?

 
One thing to keep in mind about that article is that it's almost 20 years old.  That may not seem like very long, but the modern neoPagan movement is only about 60 years old (and didn't really get to the point where it could be called a "movement" until the '60s).  There've been some shifts since the article was written - particularly, there've been huge changes in how people understand neoPaganism's relationship to ancient paganisms; in 1992, the reconstructionist approach to cultural paganisms was in its infancy, and many ideas about ancient belief and practice that had been disproven in their relevant academic fields still had wide currency in Pagandom.

I don't have time to read the article closely right now, so that's a very general statement about it; I'll come back to it later.

(Also - "Eric S. Raymond"?  Randall, I'd love to know more about the provenance of that article, if you remember it.)

Sunflower
I'm the AntiFa genderqueer commie eclectic wiccan Mod your alt-right bros warned you about.
I do so have a life; I just live part of it online!
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” - Oscar Wilde
"Nobody's good at anything until they practice." - Brina (Yewberry)
My much-neglected blog "If You Ain't Makin' Waves, You Ain't Kickin' Hard Enough"

Tags:
 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
0 Replies
2461 Views
Last post May 28, 2012, 08:47:18 pm
by RandallS
5 Replies
1319 Views
Last post April 29, 2014, 11:47:02 am
by Wood Pixie
4 Replies
1311 Views
Last post April 20, 2014, 10:37:11 am
by Kyndyl
2 Replies
2121 Views
Last post September 09, 2014, 12:45:28 pm
by Queen of Wands
4 Replies
1950 Views
Last post December 19, 2019, 10:10:23 am
by Mandi_S

Beginner Area

Warning: You are currently in a Beginner Friendly area of the message board.

* Who's Online

  • Dot Guests: 204
  • Dot Hidden: 0
  • Dot Users: 0

There aren't any users online.

* Please Donate!

The Cauldron's server is expensive and requires monthly payments. Please become a Bronze, Silver or Gold Donor if you can. Donations are needed every month. Without member support, we can't afford the server.

* Shop & Support TC

The links below are affiliate links. When you click on one of these links you will go to the listed shopping site with The Cauldron's affiliate code. Any purchases you make during your visit will earn TC a tiny percentage of your purchase price at no extra cost to you.

* In Memoriam

Chavi (2006)
Elspeth (2010)
Marilyn (2013)

* Cauldron Staff

Host:
Sunflower

Message Board Staff
Board Coordinator:
Darkhawk

Assistant Board Coordinator:
Aster Breo

Senior Staff:
Aisling, Allaya, Jenett, Sefiru

Staff:
Ashmire, EclecticWheel, HarpingHawke, Kylara, PerditaPickle, rocquelaire

Discord Chat Staff
Chat Coordinator:
Morag

'Up All Night' Coordinator:
Altair

Cauldron Council:
Bob, Catja, Chatelaine, Emma-Eldritch, Fausta, Jubes, Kelly, LyricFox, Phouka, Sperran, Star, Steve, Tana

Site Administrator:
Randall

SimplePortal 2.3.6 © 2008-2014, SimplePortal