DISKUS Vol.4 No. 1 (1996) pp.34-48 The Authority of Intimacy in Paganism and Goddess Spirituality Graham Harvey Religious Studies Department King Alfred's College of Higher Education Winchester SO22 4NR, UK ------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Contemporary Paganism and Goddess Spirituality are most distinctive in celebrating nature (inclusive of the earth and the body) rather than denigrating it in favour of 'spirit'. They are also distinctive in their positive valuation of women, females and the feminine. This paper situates their sources and expressions of authority in intimacy (relationship or neighbourliness) with the various realities and experiences of embodied life. Supernatural and hierarchical claims to authority are refused. -------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION Paganism is a spirituality centred on the celebration of Nature. One vibrant part of this movement (perhaps its most explicitly feminist aspect) is Goddess Spirituality. The roots of this Nature religion are varied and not all of the same antiquity or modernity. My interest is in the current manifestations of this growing tradition - in the trunk, branches, flowers and fruits rather than the roots. 1. Authority in other Religions There are a number of contenders for the role of ultimate authority in religion which are not important in Paganism. Discussion of them will clarify the nature of Paganism and suggest alternative sources of authority. 1.1 Not Divine Self-Revelation The most obvious source of authority in Christianity is the Christian deity. Although most Pagans are theists (usually polytheists, but some are animists or atheists) their religion, even in its demonstrably ancient parts, is not derived from divine self-revelation. For example, many Pagans (especially those who prefer to be named Heathens <1>) draw on a poem called Havamal which contains much of Odin's wisdom. There are some profound thoughts about it being better to be alive than dead, and some references to deities, elves, giants and other non-human beings. The majority of Odin's wisdom, even in the final rune songs, concerns advice on guests, fools, strangers, politeness, bravery, sadness, passion, love, generosity, asking questions, not eating or drinking to excess and so on. Imagine if Jesus' thoughts on helping neighbours who receive unexpected visitors were the centre of Christianity <2>. It is not that Pagan texts have no spiritual or religious teachings, but that Paganism is a polytheistic tradition in which the mundane is not divorced from the sacred. The deities send us back to our ordinary lives (and even meet us in that environment) with a renewed sense that everything we do 'manifests divine powers and potencies' and is 'part of a cosmic whole'. <3> The physical is of significance as the expression of life - which is itself sacred. Odin and other polytheistic deities do not seek worshippers or impart immortality but advise respectful people about healthier ways of living. (They can also be devious, dangerous and untrustworthy, and more needs to be said about this later). Their self-revelation is not the heart of Paganism. Central to other Pagans is the Charge of the Goddess <4> which also contains divine self-revelation ('I am the gracious Goddess'). The Great Goddess suggests an appropriate time to meet her (full moon) and attitudes in which to approach her (naked, with music, love, beauty, strength, compassion, honour, humility, mirth and pleasure). She affirms her manifestations in Nature (Earth, moon, waters, desires of the heart, the Soul of Nature, giver and taker of life). The climax of the Charge, however, is the affirmation that 'if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without'. Authority in Paganism does not come from divine self-revelation. When Pagans encounter deities, it is to be sent back to themselves, to self-exploration and self-development. 1.2 Not Scripture or Dogma There are books of importance to Pagans, both as individuals and as groups, but none is equivalent to a scripture. Neither the aforementioned Charge of the Goddess nor Havamal is venerated, taken as an infallible guide to life or belief. Some Pagan books list attributes and actions of significant deities, heroes and heroines, but stories or myths are more typical genres in which to encounter such significant people. Even greatly respected myths from the past are retold, reworked for today's changed world. It is not possible to produce a list of beliefs to which all Pagans would assent. The number and names of divinities vary considerably - not only between Druids and Wiccans (for example) but even from one Coven or Grove to the next. In a public ('open') ceremony one Pagan might say 'Goddess' and the next will understand that to be a reference to the all the Goddesses or even to all living things, or to the entire cosmos. If someone names a group of Anglo-Saxon deities, others will automatically, easily translate these into the names of Celtic, Egyptian or other deities. Or they might be happy to understand these names to refer to archetypal forces in Nature or in society. The Pagan Federation asserts that deity is manifest in male and female form - and their predominantly Wiccan members tend to speak of 'the God and the Goddess'. The Odinic Rite asserts that Paganism must be polytheistic - and suspect Wiccans of being duo-theists. My discussions with Pagans suggest that the nature and interactions of the divine with the physical are more significant than the question of numbers, even for those who speak of 'the Goddess' only. Certainly, however, there is a diversity of ways of talking about deity/deities. Although most Pagans celebrate eight annual seasonal festivals, they do not deny that those who celebrate a different cycle are Pagan. Similarly, although Pagans agree that to be a Pagan must at least mean 'honouring Nature', they do not insist on particular ways in which everyone must express that honour. Authority in Paganism does not come from a canon of scripture, from credal statements or from dogma. Pagan writings (of whatever antiquity) are not received in the way a scripture would be. 1.3 Not Priests Although there are Pagan traditions which have Priests and Priestess, their role is unlike that of hierarchical religions. In Wicca after a probationary period (a year and a day is traditional) getting to know and getting known by the existing group (or Coven) people are initiated as Priestesses or Priests. Further development might permit initiation as 'High Priestess' or 'High Priest' - though many groups avoid such language in favour of less hierarchical and potentially temporary labels like 'leader' <5>. A Heathen can become a Gothi (ON godi, male) or Gythia (gydja, female) <6>. Once this referred to a 'headman' or 'headwoman' in an area who would officiate in public ceremonies (legal, social or religious). The different social circumstances in which the revived faith now exists require more individuals capable of leading public ceremonies, so there are more such Priests and Priestesses. Druid Orders no longer require people to undergo twenty years of training before they can be labelled Druids - various correspondence courses are available which can be worked through in about three years. These groups, however, see themselves more as a 'priesthood of all believers' than as sacerdotal communities. Pagan priests are not clerics. They might be people recognised (by their group and primarily by themselves) as capable of conducting ceremonies (on their own or with others). More generally they are recognised as being capable of participating in ceremonies. This is somewhat as if all those who were ever called up to read Torah in a synagogue thereby gained permission to call themselves Cohen. Pagan priestesses and priests have no authority to decree what others should do, or to determine the direction of the religion or even the group. They are not licensed to act on behalf of anyone else (whether Pagan or not). 1.4 Not Gurus Pagans tend to form groups of many different sorts. There are monthly social gatherings in pubs; occasional seminar or lecture style meetings, annual conferences, festivals and the regular (monthly?) coven, grove or hearth meetings. People join groups because they discover an affinity with what they perceive the group to be doing or intending to do. Sometimes they form (or divide) around strong personalities. Leaders only maintain groups while they have something to teach, something to show. I can think of no example of a Pagan leader who does everything within her or his group; few who cannot be challenged strongly; and fewer still who could acceptably resort to rank ('I'm the high priestess', 'I'm the Archdruid') when challenged. Pagans are intolerant and sceptical (perhaps cynical) about leaders. They do not gather around 'Guru' figures and are not asked to imitate the lifestyle of leaders (of whatever undoubted knowledge or magical abilities). There are Pagan 'dignitaries' (a term of amusement not of deference) but they maintain their position on shaky pedestals only by writing a better book, leading a better ceremony, singing a more powerful song... Pagans do not gather around Gurus but encourage each individual (and each group) to form their own identity in relation to their environment. 1.5 Not imitating Deities I have already noted that on the occasions when deities reveal themselves to Pagans it is to encourage them to be themselves, to discover themselves or to celebrate their lives. The most common manifestations of the divine are either in 'natural' phenomena like sunrise, storms, trees, dreams, pleasure; or in those ceremonies in which a Pagan manifests 'the Goddess' or 'a Goddess' or 'the God' or 'a God'. That is, during a ritual someone enacts (or, in some traditions, is said to become) the / a deity after suitable preparations. Pagans are intimate with the divine (which is manifest in many ways) but they are not asked to imitate divine lives. The myths and rituals which encapsulate the lives of deities portray them in various ways. In few of them, however, are the deities all 'good' (if that is taken to mean, 'good for humanity' or 'good for me'). They can be 'nice' but they are often encountered as 'nasty' or at least as 'tricky'. Pagan deities are tricksters. They are as likely to be good to us as we are likely to be good to hedgehogs. They are equally likely to be dangerous to us, as we are likely to be dangerous to hedgehogs. And just as we are most likely completely to ignore hedgehogs (which can be dangerous for a hedgehog if the human who is not noticing it is driving a car), the deities most often ignore us. Celtic and Teutonic myths present some deities as hedonists or, to be explicit, as greedy drunks on the rampage. Even the 'good' deities do things which people are not permitted or expected to do. Myth and ritual are good places to explore anti-social actions, desires and possibilities. No one has to spend their lives like Thor or the Morrigan. Indeed they would be ostracised for doing so. Basically, the lives lived by deities are appropriate to deities; the lives hedgehogs live are appropriate to hedgehogs. Humans are expected to find appropriate or excellent ways to live with the rest of the inhabitants of Earth. 1.6 Not Supernature Some religions derive their authority from 'the supernatural' <7>, that which is above and beyond the 'natural', the human, the physical, the ordinary. Paganism is closer to those religions in which everything is related and in which humanity is part of the 'web of life'. The world is inhabited not by people and 'objects', but by human people and other-than-human people <8>. Some of these other-than-human people are known to the everyday perceptions of secular scientists (like hedgehogs, trees, midges, herons and flu viruses), others maintain their distance and are named variously according to different ancestral traditions (like the faery, elves, elementals, dwarves, brownies, boggles and boggarts). In these relationship-orientated traditions deities too are among 'all our relatives' and do not inhabit some supernatural un-worldly place. They too are affected by their relations and their 'naturalness': they are not all-knowing, omni-competent denizens of supernature. 1.7 Not antiquity Pagans are currently debating the applicability of the name 'Old Religion' to one Pagan tradition, Wicca. Views partly depend on differing estimations of the work of Gerald Gardner, the 'father of modern Witchcraft'. Some Wiccan writers still cite the work of Margaret Murray (clearly significant to Gardner's ideas) as accurate and authoritative sources of their understanding that those murdered in the great Witch hunts of the early modern period were practitioners of the 'Old Religion' of Europe. Survivors (and the misunderstood confessions of the victims) kept the tradition alive until it could become public again in this century. This is certainly fanciful but perhaps no more so than the origins myths of other religions. Wicca is not an 'old religion' let alone 'the Old Religion'. The Odinic Rite has questioned the legitimacy of Wicca on the grounds that Murray's work has been torn to shreds by Jacqueline Simpson <9>. This is perhaps to miss the point that many Wiccans had already questioned the Murray version of witchcraft. Similarly, whether or not Gerald Gardner built on these shaky foundations using materials borrowed from Masonic and Kabbalistic sources of the nineteenth century, Wiccans (correctly) argue that what was built was strong and sound. Gardner remains important because the techniques of 'raising power', casting spells and creating a sense of belonging that he disseminated remain effective <10>. Ancient Pagans may have done nothing like contemporary Wiccans - they did not, for example, celebrate eight annual seasonal festivals - but this does not negate the effectiveness of what Wiccans do today. The Odinic Rite's argument, of course, is that historical accuracy is important. They can certainly draw on better documented (and excavated) understandings of the ancestral religions of Britain than Murray's fictitious witchcraft. Their polytheism is more closely related to these religions than the 'Goddess and God' of Wicca who derive, perhaps, from the mysteries of Isis mediated through the Romantic poets. Nonetheless, the sources they use and the things they do relate more to contemporary life than they do to the past. They are explicit that their religion is a (or the) 'revived faith'. A small example: Valhalla was once the after-death destination for male heroes, specifically those killed in battle, but is now democratised in the Odinic Rite's Bael (funeral) ceremony. All who die in the faith might expect to be greeted there. More significantly, the Odinic Rite does not attempt to be merely of historical, antiquarian interest; it is not a battle re-enactment or cultural movement trying to live like seventh century Anglian settlers or tenth century Vikings. It is a spiritual tradition of value in today's fragmented, urban world. It is a tradition open to individual membership and individual practise in a way that ancient religions were not <11>. It is also able to speak to the contemporary world about the threat of ecological disaster in a way that ancient sources do not. Finally, these sources may be better than those for other traditions, but they do not enable complete certainty about many aspects of the real 'Old Religion'. As part of a polemic, and as part of the call for clarity of thought in contemporary Pagan self-definition, these arguments about the 'Old Religion' make sense. They are not, however, foundational of or central to any Pagan or Heathen path. 2. Intimacy with Nature If the above aspects characteristic of other religions are not sources of authority in Paganism and Goddess Spirituality, what are? The practice of contemporary Paganism encourages intimacy with the Nature - inclusive of the Earth (and its constituent seasons, lands, inhabitants) and the embodied human person. 2.1 Intimacy with the Seasons Whether celebrating eight or three or thirteen annual seasonal festivals, Pagans are people becoming increasingly intimate with the natural cycles of the Earth, especially as known in their immediate environment or location. Seasons, solstices, equinoxes, new moon, full moon and quarter moons; zodiac signs - these occasions of Earth's life-cycle and its relationship with neighbouring heavenly bodies are the common ground on which Pagans meet. These cycles and relationships authoritatively define the nature of Paganism. They direct Pagans in what they do and when they do it. They dictate regular occasions on which Pagans celebrate and/or contemplate life: that of their environment, of the whole Earth and of themselves in relation to it. The emotive aspect comes before the intellectual: the celebration before the contemplation, the ceremony before the meaning. The festivals are sources of revelation to those willing to listen, willing to watch, willing to feel, think, try, become intimate. They reveal the nature of time: not linear but cyclical. A tree may grow from seed to maturity and then fall and rot. This linearity is only part of its story, however. In its falling it makes room for other trees (perhaps its own seedlings) to flourish; its rotting occasions the vigorous growth of further life: insects, woodpeckers, fungi, mushroom eaters. The seasonal festivals reveal the facts of life: change, growth, maturity, breeding, decline, decay. They provide the context for explorations of the joys and sadness of embodied life (eating and being eaten, for example). Any rituals which take place at seasonal festivals distil the broader experience of observing and participating in Nature. The Pagan, intimate with Earth, is directed to fit their individual and social life into a 'scheme of things' dictated by what the planet, the moon, sun and stars are doing. The individual human life encapsulates the Nature's life: they are microcosm and macrocosm respectively. No-one could have predicted the evolution of eight festivals out of the various available ancestral festivals. Authority to celebrate them comes not from Celtic ancestors (although they are frequently called, 'the Celtic festivals') but from intimacy with the four seasons of north west Europe <12>. This intimacy, in turn, has led to the evolution of Paganism as a religion focused on such celebrations, authoritatively inculcating awareness and celebration of 'natural' and 'ordinary' life-cycles. 2.2 Intimacy with the land The Earth is not just an inanimate object (however valuable as a 'resource' such an object might be). Even before cosmonauts and astronauts gave us those pictures of our 'small blue green planet' from 'outside', Pagans envisaged the Earth as a radically interconnected and, above all, living being. They were celebrating the Earth's life cycle - seasons - and her relationships with heavenly bodies and with all her inhabitants. This, however, was not just theory. The awareness that the Earth is one (certainly made easier by those pictures and other intimations of global unity, e.g. bananas, world-music, foreign holidays, wars, and famines on TV) is grounded in the celebration of the land. Pagans become increasingly intimate with the particular place in which they live. Their spirituality is not a looking towards heaven or a seeking for release from embodied existence. Paganism is a religion of the here and now; it is 'at home' on Earth. It is a spiritual ecology. All the Earth is sacred but it has sacred sites too. These are not only places marked by the ancestors as significant (stone circles, burial mounds, cathedrals) but also 'natural' places. There are places which are less dominated by humanity and technology, less of a human artefact. There are places where the 'web of life' is not so tattered, not so depleted of natural diversity: woodlands, river banks, moors and mountains. Pagans regularly, respectfully, visit these places - perhaps a form of Darshan, seeing and being seen by the other-than-human. When Pagans return to their homes and other more human-centred environments, they carry the awareness (which becomes a celebration) of the importance of those places too. There is, in the end, no divorce between nature 'out there' in the countryside and 'nature' experienced in the kitchen or living-room - both are part of Earth as nature. Intimacy with the land is authoritative because it directs the Pagan's experience of nature. It is also insistent that Paganism earths itself in the physical, that it does not become Gnostic but celebrates embodied life. It reveals the 'place' of humanity as part of nature, and refuses to offer the Earth to humanity as gift or as responsibility. It regularly, easily reminds Pagans that they are not the sole inhabitants of the planet, but that they are linked physically, emotionally, spiritually, ecologically and in every other way, with 'all our relations'. If celebrating the seasons inculcates understanding of the 'temporality' of life, the celebration of the land teaches the 'spatiality' of life <13>. 2.3 Intimacy with land-spirits The land is inhabited by trees, hedgehogs, herons and midges. It is also the home of a variety of other-than-human people known through various ancestral traditions. In visiting a chosen special place regularly (e.g. at festivals) the Pagan gets to know its changing seasons and moods and establishes contact with its natural life. They might make contact with those traditional beings too. These might include (depending on the tradition or predilection of the Pagan; or the nature of the place) tree-spirits, faery, elves, elementals, boggles, boggarts, genii loci (spirits of places), Landvaettir (land-spirits) and others. Ways to approach them vary also (just as ways to approach a tree differ from ways to approach herons). Erazim Kohak asks what a philosopher and tree might talk about. He concludes that the conversation does not result in the exchange of factual information but is significant as a recognition of the other's agency, life, rights, responsibilities, i.e. personhood <14>. Pagans share Kohak's concern that our speaking and our actions should promote 'sustainable dwelling at peace for humans and the world alike' <15> but go further. They assert the veracity and frequency of experiences in which trees and humans have mutually informative conversations. A Pagan wishing to cut holly, ivy, yew or mistletoe for their midwinter festivities will first ask the plant for permission and make suitable (perhaps symbolic) offerings. The plant is expected to respond in some way which signals its permission or denial. Ignoring these signs may lead to the heedless cutter being cut or tripped or otherwise made aware of their transgression of traditional social courtesies. A Pagan might also sit beneath a tree and 'reach out' (in meditation or Imagination <16>) to a particular tree and expect to hold a conversation - often instructive to the Pagan, sometimes purely for the pleasure of company. Encounters with other kinds (less common kinds) of other-than-human inhabitants of the world are similar in kind. They might, however, require more specialised preparation. Their authority in Paganism is not as revealers of arcane or spiritual knowledge. Nor is it as mediators of specialised (or specially sought) initiations. Although Pagans have borrowed the idea of vision-questing from native Americans (perhaps not in a particularly contextualised way) <17> their visions are largely self-referential, personal and not passed on as authoritative. Intimacy with other-than-human persons, land-spirits or trees, is important as a confirmation of the aliveness of the Earth. They confirm that ancient traditions (and those of other comparable contemporary peoples) make sense of the real world and are not mere fantasies. They confirm too the Pagan intimation that life is about relationships. 2.4 Intimacy with 'all our relatives' Although there are Pagan atheists, most Pagans claim to be intimate with deity or deities. As I have noted, however, in encounters between deities and humans, Paganism does not expect divine self-revelation or a set of inspired truths. Nor do Pagans expect to observe deities to find out how to live - any more than their observations of hedgehogs teaches them how to live. Once again, the authority of encounters with the divine is like that of encounters with any other-than-human people. In encounters with 'all our relatives' it becomes clear that humans are not alone in being aware of the state of things. Many Pagans converse with trees because not only deities but trees too might suggest a better way for humans to live as neighbours with all other living beings. Other-than-human people, including deities, have a perspective on human living which can be helpful. Nonetheless, I can think of no example of something a Pagan has learnt from a deity (or a tree) which has been insistently communicated to other Pagans. I suspect that if this were to happen most Pagans, rather than accepting the statement as authoritative, would consider it 'New Age' and (therefore) comical. By meeting deities, in the ordinary, natural phenomena of Earth, or in ceremonies, meditation or mythology, Pagans learn to respect their environment. They learn that human living is part (neither an insignificant nor an irreplaceable part) of the web of relationships which is Life on Earth. They see that eating, drinking, travelling, work, leisure, love, sex, procreation, death, anger, joy, peacefulness and many other activities and attitudes are significant, perhaps sacred. This has authoritatively taught Pagans to disavow the dualistic temptation to denigrate the 'ordinary', 'secular' or 'mundane' - and, above all, 'matter' - in favour of the 'sacred', 'spiritual' or 'spirit'. The divine is met within matter and the ordinary manifests the sacred. Paganism is undergirded by the notion and experience that 'everything which lives is holy' <18>. 2.5 Intimacy with the embodied self Paganism does not draw a line between non-human Nature and human-nature. The sacred is manifest in all areas of life. This is true of all varieties of Paganism but is particularly clear in Goddess Spirituality. The Goddess Movement in Britain today has been most clearly introduced and discussed by Asphodel Long <19>. Feminism has been influential in almost all branches of Paganism (though sometimes it has influenced a backlash). Goddess Spirituality is only its most clear arena. Feminism is most basically the affirmation that women and men are equal (despite the doubts of some women and some men about the ability of men to 'measure up'!). This has found a spiritual or religious expression in the re-valuing, re-discovery and re-creation of Goddess-talk <20>. In its Pagan manifestation this Goddess-talk has primarily been talk about the embodied living of life by women. 'The Goddess' is not exactly equivalent to 'Woman' but is more like 'the innermost being of women'. The diversities and particularities of women's lives are significant not merely as some overarching archetypes to which people might be expected to conform <21>. Asphodel Long sums up her view in the words: 'In raising Her we raise ourselves; in raising ourselves, we raise Her'. The particular realities of women's lives are affected by their discovery of the Goddess; their imaging and descriptions of the Goddess are affected by their lives. For example, the Goddess can be portrayed fairly traditionally as young, maternal or elderly. Goddess Spirituality refuses to limit such portrayals to 'fertility' but links the everyday processes of women's growth from infancy through maturity towards death with 'the Goddess'. Aspects of their lives ignored, marginalised or shunned by patriarchal religions are released and women are enabled to realise the sacredness of, for example, menstruation, sexuality, maternity. Women's desires, intuitions, moods, thoughts and opinions are significant. They do not have to wait until they are widowed or elderly to be able to celebrate their own religious intimations <22>. They do not, in short, require men's authority or approval. Goddess Spirituality takes people's embodied experience, their spatiality, their ordinary lived reality into consideration. It does not require a valuable 'religious experience' to be 'Numinous' or revelatory of the supernatural, un-human world <23>. That which is significant to women (and men) is significant to Goddess(es) and to this influential aspect of Paganism. I should note, briefly, that talk of 'the Goddess' is easily mistaken for a revision of monotheism in which a single all-powerful dominating female deity (Goddess) replaces a single all-powerful dominating male deity (God). In fact, 'the Goddess' is better understood within polytheistic deity-talk. Deity sums up the one inter-connected reality in which everything exists, but it is also experienced in a plurality of beings, forms, manifestations. Goddesses are as real (and more frequently experienced - which is more important) as 'the' Goddess. 'The Goddess' also refers to the inner motivations and most significant foundations, however they might be changing, of a person's life. Embodied reality is authoritative in Paganism and particularly in Goddess Spirituality because it is the location in which we explore 'reality'. Models of divinity, 'the meaning of life' and religion are worked out in everyday life. Birth, menstruation, eating, drinking, making love, getting angry, being hurt, growing older and growing old, learning, forgetting - these and all other aspects of people's ordinary lives are not divorced in Paganism from the lives of other-than-human people (however exalted they might be). They are also significant as manifestations of the divine. Both the Goddess 'out-there' and human people share similar experiences, similar cycles, similarly authoritative lives. 2.6 Intimacy with the group Groups have undeniable authority over individuals. Paganism is divided between different traditions, not all mutually exclusive, not all hostile to one another, and traditions are expressed within local groups as well as national networks <24>. These traditions and groups have a variety of different structures but all are more or less, in one way or another, open to new members. Local covens, groves, hearths or study groups may not advertise in local newspapers but there are many ways of finding out about them. Groups are only 'secret' to the extent that they might not permit outsiders, especially the media, to attend celebrations - that is, most events. Pagans are not secretive in the sense of 'occult', but private. Some are careful to vet interested outsiders before permitting full access to the group. The training given and received in some groups also forms an individual's identity and way of celebrating. A Wiccan from a particular group may consider one way of 'raising energy' as the only way - though they might more often see it as the most effective or, most commonly, as 'a good way' to do so. Nonetheless, no Pagan group prevents its members knowing about other groups or traditions. Most are in fact happily pluralist: perhaps stressing the value or 'beauty' of their path without ever claiming that it is 'the whole truth'. Whatever pressures there might be on individual Pagans to bow to group demands, there are plenty of sources of information on other Pagan paths. There are also plenty of open meetings (e.g. a proliferation of pub meetings) where they can meet members of other traditions and groups. There are numerous magazines and books which can introduce yet more alternatives. Finally, Paganism actively encourages each person to find their place in relationship with others. The occasional power-tripper might build a short-term group around themselves, or they might set up yet another magazine - but this rarely gains them much credit or many followers. There are just too many alternatives and too much opportunity for the potential acolyte to stumble across a more fulfilling possibility. Group authority is important but its power is limited by the dynamics of Paganism. 3. Conclusion Paganism is not a revealed, scriptural, priestly, supernatural or dogmatic religion. Its sources of authority are in Nature: the observable cycles of the planet and the experienced cycles of the body. Paganism is formed by Pagans observing and experiencing these things and then evolving forms in which they can be celebrated. Christian writers have alleged that honouring Nature is an insufficient foundation because Nature includes violence and brutality. C.S.Lewis alleged that '... confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, "If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would see that this also is God". The Christian replies, "Don't talk damned nonsense".' <25>. Harold Wood politely calls this a 'misunderstanding of the nature of pantheism'. Pantheism is '... simply a religious teaching which does not separate humans from nature, nor the divine from natural processes.' <26>. Such 'processes' include eating and other forms of violence - including cancer, though perhaps not slums <27>. To honour nature involves finding a place for such things in an understanding of the world <28> but not necessarily a passive acceptance, pleasure or celebration. Having observed life, including death, the Pagan is not given authority to imitate anything or anyone else. They might accept that something is part of life or nature but they cannot therefore say, 'and I can (or should) do the same'. Pagan ethics are not derived from theology (or thealogy) but from relationships with 'all our relations'. Intimacy with Nature (the Earth and the body) is authoritative for Pagans and Paganism. It constitutes an obligation on each individual to find their place in the web of relationships and to play their part in the re-balancing of human life and all other life on Earth. Actual embodied, physical life reflects back the nature of the world in which we live and begins to inculcate respectful celebration of the Earth as 'home'. In Paganism the intimate relationships which form us are the prime sources of authority <29>. Pagans are, to paraphrase the title of my forthcoming book on Paganism, a 'Listening People' living with and as part of a 'Speaking Earth' <30>. ------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES 1. See G.Harvey. 1996. 'Heathenism' in C.Hardman & G.Harvey (eds.), Paganism Today. pp.49-64. 2. Luke 11:58. 3. D.Green. 1989. 'Towards a Reappraisal of Polytheism' in G.Davies (ed.) Polytheistic Systems. p.9. 4. See, for example, Starhawk. 1989. The Spiral Dance. pp.90-1; and V.Crowley. 1989. Wicca: the Old Religion in the New Age. pp.160-1. 5. Starhawk. 1989. The Spiral Dance. p.10. 6. H.R.E.Davidson 1993. The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. p. 90. 7. K.M.Morrison. 1992. 'Beyond the Supernatural: Language and Religious Action'. Religion 22: pp.201-5. and 'Sharing the Flower: a Non-Supernaturalistic Theory of Grace'. Religion 22: pp.207-19. 8. A.I.Hallowell. 1960. 'Objibwa ontology, behavior and world view' in S.Diamond (ed.) Culture in History: Essays in Honour of Paul Radin. pp.19-52. 9. J.Simpson. 1994. 'Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?'. Folklore 105: pp.89-96. 10. F.Lamond. 1993. 'Magicking the Art of the Craft'. Deosil Dance 34: pp.33-4. 11. In this respect it is more like the ancient Mystery religions - and therefore similar to Wicca. 12. The fact that Pagans in other countries sometimes celebrate the same dates suggests that their authority is tradition not the land. 13. For an important discussion of spatiality and temporality, see L.S.Jung. 1988. 'Feminism and Spatiality: Ethics and the Recovery of a Hidden Dimension', Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4: pp.55-71. 14. E.Kohak. 1993. 'Speaking to Trees'. Critical Review 6: pp.371-88. 15. E.Kohak. 1993. 'Speaking to Trees'. Critical Review 6: p.386. 16. Capitalised as an allusion to the powerful Imagination of Blake or Keats - not a synonym of fantasy. 17. See P.C.Johnson. 1995. 'Shamanism from Ecuador to Chicago: a case study in New Age Ritual Appropriation'. Religion 25: pp.163-78; and L.Jones. 1994. 'The Emergence of the Druid as Celtic Shaman'. Folklore in Use 2.1: pp.131-42. 18. W.Blake. 1795. Vala or the Four Zoas 2.366. in G.Keynes (ed.). 1972. Blake: Complete Writings. 19. A.Long. 1994. 'The Goddess Movement in Britain Today'. Feminist Theology 5: pp.11-39. This article is not devoted solely to the Pagan aspects of the movement but also to its Jewish and Christian forms. V.Crowley 1993. 'Women and power in modern paganism' in E.Puttick and P.B.Clarke (eds.). Women as Teachers and Disciples in Traditional and New Religions. pp.125-40. is also useful here. 20. For which the term 'thealogy' has been coined by N.Goldenberg. 1979. Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions. p.96. My attempts to suggest a plural form (theoilogy or polytheology) are usually greeted with amusement. My use of hyphenated 're-' is dependent on Mary Daly's re-forming of the English language to refuse the giving of authority only to that which males value(d), discover(ed) or create(d). 21. Asphodel Long also writes about 'the Goddess and Psychotherapy' in which such archetypes are more significant. 22. Cp. S.S.Sered. 1993. 'Religious Rituals and Secular Rituals: Interpenetrating Models of Childbirth in a Modern, Israeli Context'. Sociology of Religion 54.1: pp.101-14. 23. See M.Raphael. 1994. 'Feminism, Constructivism and Numinous Experience'. Religious Studies 30: pp.511-26. 24. E.g. see A.Simes. 1996. 'Mercian Movements: Group Transformation and Individual Choices' in C.Hardman & G.Harvey (eds.), Paganism Today. pp.169-90; and S.Greenwood. 1996. 'The Magical Will, Gender and Power in Magical Practices' in C.Hardman & G.Harvey (eds.), Paganism Today. pp.191-203. 25. C.S.Lewis. 1943. The Case for Christianity. pp.33-4. 26. H.Wood. 1985. 'Modern Pantheism as an Approach to Environmental Ethics'. Environmental Ethics 7: p.161. 27. T.P.Tawhai. 1988. 'Maori Religions' in S.Sutherland, L.Houlden, P.Clarke, F.Hardy (eds.). The World's Religions. pp.854-63; and G.Harvey. 1993. 'Gods and Hedgehogs in the Greenwood: the Cosmology of Contemporary Paganism', in G.Flood (ed.). Mapping Invisible Worlds. pp.89-94. 28. See Mary Oliver's poetry (e.g.1986. Dream Work) or Annie Dillard's prose (e.g. 1976. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) for examples of finding meaning in these unpleasant facts of life. 29. Cp. L.Gordon. 1991. 'On Difference', Genders 10 (Spring): 106. pp.106. 30. G.Harvey. 1996. Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism. END