MoonSage Reads Pagan Books

So how do people become Neo-Pagans is the first question that Adler asks in this chapter.^ She writes of people feeling as though they always connected a spiritual communion with nature but never knew that the communion with the earth had a religion or a name. She speaks of experiences that other people have and then shares her own Greek-centric awakening that occurred in her childhood. Adler presents that most people who come into the Pagan religions come to it from a sort of inner childhood moment and/or self-discovery instead of being 'converted' in the traditional sense: (IE: they went and were told the gospel of paganism) they made a choice to include it and or adapt to it)

What does Convert actually mean though and what is the difference?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Convert comes from:

convert (v.) c.1300, from Old French convertir, from Vulgar Latin *convertire, from Latin convertere "turn around, transform," from com-"together" (see com-) + vertere "to turn" (see versus). Originally in the religious sense. The Latin word is glossed in Old English by gecyrren, from cierran "to turn, return." Related: Converted; converting.convert (n.) 1560s, from convert (v.). Earlier was convers (early 14c.).

  I don't know that I completely agree with this presentation of growth. I'm not saying that the Pagan community stands outside of places with booklets like, "Athena's Way to Salvation" and "Believe in Oden who died for your stupid". But I think it's incorrect to discount the effect that the modern pagan movement has on newcomers.

Granted, I have a perspective that has been shaped by a strict Christian upbringing, but I don't know if I would have had the bravery or the ability to step away from my traditional and familial faith had it not been for books and words of other pagans (specifically Wiccans) coming into my life. I was turned and changed by the words I heard. I recognized a truth in them that I was not finding in the scriptures and spiritual meals served to me from a Sunday Morning pulpit.

Yet what Adler has documented is true too. People who live a pagan lifestyle don't always come at it from a monotheistic place. I've known lots of people in my encounters who told me off their own mountain top experiences with magick, feminine divinity and natural attunement. It doesn't make it wrong...but I feel the need to point out that not all people are lead.

I loved how Alder quotes people who feel at home and at peace at last when they find others who are like minded and tolerant of differences. She points out that many women come to Goddess-worship and other pagan groups because of their exhaustion with patriarchy and it's limits on their abilities to minister and lead in worship.

Finally, one of the most notable moments in the chapter comes from Alder's memory of hearing, for the first time, the Essex's Coven's call to Draw Down the Moon. This is also known often as the Charge of the Goddess. It's from this first audio that Adler finds a sudden connection between childhood feelings and the Wiccan/Pagan/Goddess Worshipping movement. I love this because while she is writing about people outside of herself, it's at this moment that we really see the author's connection with those she is documenting.

Next Time: Chapter 3 - The Pagan World View

(NOTES:)

*Except I really don't believe that being lazy necessarily makes me a bad pagan. After all, Wiccans aren't really suppose to hold ourselves to any type of book-learning-type standard. There are those of us who read a lot and those of us who don't. There are those of us who don't even realize that standing out in the dirt bare-footed and staring into a crackling fire while seeing faces and realizing Important Thoughts makes us pagan and it doesn't...not really unless you are then it totes does. #nolabelsyo

But my point here is that I am a Virgo and a bit of a book dork and I have been far away from other wiccans for over a year now outside of an online setting. Due to this I can be a lazy sack of crap when it comes to bettering my mind with spiritual food. I haven't celebrated a sabbot since Imbolg 2013 n' I'm not really proud of that. After all, being pagan is about Doing and if you aren't Doing, then who/what are you?

**Fun fact! Her name is pronounced Margo. The T is silent. I have been calling this lady "Mar-Got" in my head for YEARS. Srsly not qualified to write about her publicly on the internet. /shameful head shake

***Y'all, these are sort of rough drafts sent out onto the internet in their rawest form. So that means there are a shit ton of typo's n misspelled things and maybe one day I'll want to edit it all together. But for now, welcome to raw MoonSage and her babbles as she studies. You're welcome.

^Why don't I insert how I became a pagan and Wiccan?

When I was about 15, one of my (older) friends got pregnant and was kicked out of her house. She was 19. She and her boyfriend came and lived with my family for a little while. Now, my parents are Southern Baptist Convention Baptists. Yes, there is a difference between SBC Baptists and other Baptists and I do feel the need to make the distinction.

I've not got any truly awful things to say about Mom and Dad by the way. I loved them and they are good people. After all, they let these two pretty much loser people come move in with their family. See, Mom and Dad lived their lives following what they believed. Part of that meant that if you saw a person in need and you could help them, you did because, you know, WWJD.

The only problem was I didn't quite know what I believed. I knew that I wanted to be a good person, I knew I wanted to help people and live my life in a way that was unselfish, patient and made me proud, but I wasn't feeling the whole Jesus thing.

Anyway, back to...we'll call them Bunny and Assmunch. Mom and Dad, after hearing my soon-to-be-homeless friends' sob story, moved them into our apartment. Bunny shared my room and Assmunch slept on the couch. Now, at the time, I didn't KNOW that Bunny was pregnant. 1, Mom and Dad didn't want my sisters and I exposed to pre-marital sex (joke is on them, I went to public school), so Bunny and Assmunch didn't say anything and 2, Mom and Dad kept them separated in their sleeping arrangements.

I know you're thinking that we had to be stupid, you know, not to know...but see, Bun didn't SHOW at all when she lived with us. Not one bit.

One day after school, I go into my room and Bunny laying on her back, in my our bed, her eyes closed, humming and Assmunch is sitting next to her, legs crossed and they have this HUGE quartz crystal resting on her womb. He's humming too at a different frequency and I felt all the hairs on my arms just raise up. I was witnessing a healing ritual, I just didn't know it at the time.

"What are you two doing?" I asked. To me, it looked a bit nuts, but I couldn't shake that...tingling feeling off of my arms. I knew that a crystal was a rock and humming at a rock wasn't going to do that much for the nausea she'd been suffering from after eating bad fish (except no, morning sickness but again, dumb to these things at the time.) Yet it seemed to me that she did feel better afterwards. Calmer and less teary.

At the time though, they looked really surprised I was there and got all sheepish. After avoiding my questions for a few minutes Assmunch finally came out and said, "Look, we're pagan."

And then they gave me Silver Ravenwolf's Teen Witch and Scott Cunningham's Earth, Air, Fire and Water to read.

And I did.

But I didn't really believe it. After Assmunch left Bunny high and dry three months later and her mom let her move back in, I tried to find some more Wiccan books to read. I wanted to see what other people had to say. That was tough. The internet was a better source than the library. I also went to a catholic church, a mosque, an LDS service, and a Pentecostal Church of God. I was just looking for something that would touch me. Something I could find succor in. Mom was always so quiet and happy after a church service, like she'd eaten a meal or had a good shot of tequila. I wanted that contentment, but I just couldn't seem to find the same pleasure at my church services.

And I kept coming back to those books. I kept reading them and I started going outside, out behind the complex where the tall grasses grew and the trees were.

I'd sit in the grass and hear the wind, the cars on the street and the birds. I feel the itch of dirt and ants on me and after a while I could achieve a sort of waking sleep. Something that I just couldn't get at church.

So I have the Revised Edition of this book, 1 because it was cheaper and 2, because I prefer to see what happens to a book when it's been revised. Nothing in writing is truly written in stone and there are time when a good draft becomes a better book years later. So if you're looking for an indepth book review about the original 979 edition, then go somewhere else buster. Ain't no one got time for that.

Alder cites Starhawk's The Spiral Dance as a sort of fraternal twin book. Per Alder, it was published the same day as the first edition of Drawing Down the Moon and recognizes that this is the way that many people are introduced to Modern Paganism. 

-The spiritual world is like the natural world--only diversity will save it. "Monotheism is but imperialism in religions" - James Breasted

Beliefs pagans share: The World is Holy Nature is Holy The body is Holy Sexuality is Holy The imagination is Holy Divinity is immanent in nature; it is within you as well as without. Most spiritual paths ultimately lead people to the understanding of their own connection to the divine While human being are often cut off from experiencing the deep and ever-present connection between themselves and the universe, that connection can often be regained through ceremony and community. The energy you put back into the world comes back to you.

With that said, what does "Holy" really mean? Per Online Etymology Dictionary:

Old English halig "holy, consecrated, sacred, godly," from Proto-Germanic *hailaga- (cf. Old Norse heilagr, Old Frisian helich"holy," Old Saxon helag, Middle Dutch helich, Old High German heilag, German heilig, Gothic hailags "holy"). Adopted at conversion for Latin sanctus.  Primary (pre-Christian) meaning is not possible to determine, but probably it was "that must be preserved whole or intact, that cannot be transgressed or violated," and connected with Old English hal (see health) and Old High German heil "health, happiness, good luck" (source of the German salutation Heil). Holy water was in Old English. Holy has been used as an intensifying word from 1837; used in expletives since 1880s (e.g. holy smoke, 1883, holy mackerel, 1876, holy cow, 1914, holy moly etc.), most of them euphemisms for holy Christ or holy Moses.

So the reason I wanted to examine that is because too often, I've thought of the world 'Holy' as being something owned by other religions. But that's not what being pagan or in my case, Wiccan, is about. It's about finding that wholeness, that sacred space within the world and using it.

Chapter 1: Paganism and Prejudice

One of the biggest things that strikes me about this chapter is the way that Alder re-defines words that have an air and opinion about them. She focuses on words like "Pagan", "Magic" and "Witch with the intention of explaining how those who identify as pagan really understand and live the words.

The areas I liked were her examples of magic. When she tells the story of being sent to fetch fish from a dying river, the leader of the group she's in defines Magic as the art of getting results.

I think I love that. Magic isn't some type of unseen power that special people have, but rather a skill all people have to differing degrees. The point is focus, will and the ability to create one's own results. That is something that translates beyond the fish in a draining river, but connects to the power of prayer as many of my mono-theistic brothers and sisters claim.

When you have people who are bending their thoughts and wills to a goal, whether that goal be an opportunity opening up for a family or an sick person returning to health, to me, it's the same. Just uses different names.