ocorrain@esatclear.ie wrote:
It's very easy, from a post-religious perspective, to be nostalgic about paganism, since we understand almost nothing of it. Neo-pagan movements are generally comic, not in their internal ideas, but in the notion that they are somehow recapturing an old religion, a religion without scriptures or documents or a continuous tradition.
Humph, said the camel... indeed! Nonsense, says religionmonger. You obviously haven't researched the pagan world to much depth. Druids, for instance, have a strong, clear line going way back, as do Wiccans. Because of persecution by the God-damned church, they spent a long time underground, but there's never been a time when they weren't active and working. *You* understand nothing of it, and never will unless you could somehow convince some group to initiate you, which is unlikely. Scriptures and documents, dear one, play no part in earth and goddess centered religions. Shamans, for instance, are called personally by their spirits, taught by the same, etc., and it's all very much a personalized experience. Experiential religions have no need of scripture -- that's the bailiwick of the later, false, paternalistic, religions of the dominator cultures.