by Rel Davis
As a Unitarian minister who also happens to be a practicing witch
and author of a book called The Existential Pagan, the most
common comment I receive is this: "Why do you have to call
yourself a witch or a pagan? Why can't you use a less volatile
word for yourself?"
I get that comment all the time, and I venture to say that many of
you are thinking exactly the same thing.
They usually go on: "Why can't you just say you practice 'earth-
centered religion'? Or that you 'honor the interdependent web of
all existence of which we are a part' as the U.U. principles state?
Or that you worship the 'ground of being' as so many U.U.
ministers like to say?"
None of which are fitting, by the way, because they are all, as
Gilbert and Sullivan were wont to say, "full of sound and fury, and
signifying nothing."
It's the same argument I've gotten all my life. "Why do you call
yourself a feminist?" they say. "Why can't you just say you stand
for equal rights for all?" "Why do you call yourself an anarchist?
Why can't you just say you don't like regimentation?" "Why do
you call yourself a radical? Why can't you just tell people you
don't like things the way they are?"
After all, people say, the far right hides its true colors, so why can't
those of us on the left do the same?
A fascist will call himself a Republican, or a Conservative, or a
Patriot or a nationalist or a fundamentalist Christian. Rarely will he
call himself a fascist or a Nazi however much his politics mesh
with those traditional right-wing movements.
And someone who wants to restrict a woman's right to abortion
will call themselves "pro-life." While the anti-gay movement claims
it loves gays so much it wants to "convert" them into someone as
narrow and bigoted as themselves. People who want the Federal
government to finance private schools say they support "school
choice" and "private vouchers." Pro-war parties always say they
are for "defense."
Dissimulation and fraud are a way of life among the conservative
elements of society, but that is not a good reason for those of us on
the liberal edge of society to do the same. In fact, the basic
difference between the two opposing camps in society goes much
deeper than the superficial titles "left" and "right" imply.
There have always been within society those forces which were
driven by fear, those which sought more control over society and
more order within society, and those forces driven by a need for
more freedom, those which sought less limitations and more
individual responsibility.
After the French Revolution and the later death of Napoleon, when
the modern French parliament was formed, the supporters of
oligarchy happened to range themselves on the right side of the
chamber and those who supported popular rights ranged themselves
on the left side. This is where the terms "left" and "right"
originated.
But the real distinction between the two has always been that of
fear. The right-wing element fears chaos. It fears women's power.
It fears its own inability to control others. Coincidentally, it thrives
on fear and produces terror. It dreads death and sows death
wherever it goes. It glorifies the spirit and deadens the human
spirit.
That the right-wing is known as the "conservative" element that
is, that it seeks to conserve the status quo is indicative of the fact
that it is, and has been for thousands of years, the predominant
element within our society.
For we live in a society guided by principles laid down about four
thousand years ago quite recently in terms of human civilization
by the warrior cults who overran the original civilizations of
humankind. Under the guidance of these "conservative" elements,
humans have succeeded in polluting the environment, destroying
vast natural resources, crowding themselves into a finite space and
crowding out other species in the process and generally making a
grand mess of things.
The fear-driven elements are dangerous enough, but the most
dangerous of all are the fanatics of the far right, those insane
converts to the warrior cult mentality, who carry its principles to
extremes. In fact, the most dangerous movement in the world
today is the fundamentalist religious right of whatever description
-- which is leading our species to almost certain destruction.
The religious right is dangerous not only because of its bigotry, its
reckless disregard for the truth or even its cruelty toward minorities
of every sort (from gay to immigrant, to ethic and alternative
lifestyles); it is imminently dangerous because of its stranglehold on
American politics.
This stranglehold, dating back at least to the Reagan era, is
maintained through the purchase of politicians with campaign
contributions, by political blackmail and by brainwashing -- all
fueled by large financial reserves bankrolled by right-wing capital.
The religious right is opposed to population control, to the peace
process everywhere, and to acceptance of diversity -- all of which
are necessary for the survival of humankind.
The political element of fundamentalist Christianity is essentially a
negative force in the world today, and if allowed to go unchecked
will lead to widespread famine and war and perhaps to the end of
our species itself. The only hope for survival, I feel, lies in the new
paganism, which respects and honors the earth
And that, by the way, has to be my answer to those who dislike the
names I call myself. Not only must we not succumb to the
dissimulation and hypocrisy of the far right, it is also imperative that
we begin to take a stand for freedom, for respect for the earth, for
respect for the female principle and for the ancient principles which
guided humankind for twenty thousand years.
I call myself a witch. And a pagan. And a goddess worshiper.
Because I do not want any longer to acquiesce to the hypocrisy of
our times. My decision to "go public" was an existential choice. In
other words, I had no choice. It was either to go silently into the
slaughterhouses of a world gone mad, or to take a stand and
proclaim the principles of freedom and interdependence of all life
forms.
I am a new pagan -- which is a type of modern individual, one who
is an irreverent, iconoclastic and fervent champion of the earth and
of the ancient religions which honor the earth. The new pagan is
the sworn enemy of the negative politics of patriarchal religion,
exemplified by the fundamentalist right.
Remember this: "liberal" is not a dirty word despite the
propaganda of the Newt Gingrich crowd. It's a fine word, along
with feminist witch radical anarchist crone hag and all
the other words we have been taught to fear and distrust in this sick
society.
Let's take an honest look at some of these words this morning and,
hopefully, reclaim them as our own.
Liberal. It has been fashionable since the Reagan era to treat the
word liberal as a term of derision. Doesn't it seem strange to you
that in the so-called Land of the Free, a word meaning "of
freedom" or "befitting the free" would have pejorative
connotations? Unitarian Universalism happens to be the name we
give our movement in this country. Internationally, it is known as
Liberal Religion and philosophically that is what our religion is all
about -- maximum freedom of belief. Yet, I have been accused in
Unitarian congregations of being "too liberal"!
By the way, the word "libertarian" is just another example of fascist
double-talk. A political system that would give governmental
powers to business interests is necessarily opposed to individual
freedom (for anyone other than business people, of course.)
Pagan. For many generations, my family have been farmers. They
farmed in Virginia from the early 1600s through the American
Revolution. Farmed in Georgia throughout the 19th century.
Farmed in Texas until the Depression drove them off the land.
Most of you probably had farmers in your ancestry as well. So why
should the Latin word for farmer (paganus) be a bad word?
When Christianity conquered Europe it was initially limited to the
cities and towns throughout the region. The countryside remained
firmly within the old religion of the past. The Latin word pagus
meant a village or rural area (from pangere, "to fix or make fast"
because farmers tend to stay with the land they live on) so farmers
or villagers were called pagani. The term became one of derision
to Christian monks who called themselves "soldiers of Christ." In
the medieval period a pagan was someone who refused to fight for
the Church.
Today, many of us have reclaimed the old word. Most of us are
also pacifists, refusing to fight for any god or oligarchy. Most
importantly, we feel that a return to the old ways of living in
harmony with the earth is the best chance our species has for
survival.
Witch. In Shakespeare's time, the word "witch" was synonymous
with "wise woman." Before the Burning Times (the Inquisition), a
witch was simply the village healer, counselor, herbalist and
midwife. The Anglo-Saxon word was wicce, a feminine word
which applied to both men and women who served as healers. The
word was most likely derived (through a process called "folk
etymology" where people assume derivations for words) from two
different roots: wit- meaning "knowledge, wisdom" and vik-
meaning "to bend."
The word wicca, by the way, was the masculine form of wicce, later
used for "wizard," and the derivation of the modern word
"wicked."
A modern witch is simply a person who holds to the New Paganism
and whose roots lie in Northern Europe. The pagans of that region
would either have been witches or at least would have looked up to
the witches in their community.
Feminist. Now there's a dirty word for you. People are so quick
to point out that "I'm not a feminist, mind you," as if being a
feminist were something to be ashamed of. Well I'm not ashamed
to call myself a feminist, thank you, and if you aren't one you have
no busy belonging to a Unitarian church. Feminism is simply the
practice and belief of advocating political and social rights for
women equal to that of men.
In a patriarchal society such as ours, of course, advocating true
equality for women is a subversive and potentially dangerous
action. If women were paid as much as men, If abortion received
as much backing from government and the insurance establishment
as Viagra, If the feminine principles of cooperation and inter-
relatedness and acceptance received as much attention in the press
as the male virtues of competition and put-down humor and
snobbery, Why the world might come to an end tomorrow.
Wouldn't it?
And if you really want to put someone down in this society, call her
a radical feminist (also known as a bra-burning feminist though I
haven't heard of a decent bra burning since sometime in the 1960s!)
A radical feminist is someone who wants to get to the root of the
problem in our society the stinking mess of prejudices and
masculine assumptions that keep our world on the path of self
destruction.
Yes, I'm a radical feminist too. And proud of it.
Other negative words we hear are: anarchist, someone who holds
to the radical concept that no one should rule over anyone else;
crone, a woman who has attained an age where her wisdom is
apparent; hag, a woman who is a repository of sacred knowledge;
and elder, an older male or female who may or may not exhibit
wisdom. Of these, I consider myself an anarchist and an elder. The
other two are prohibited to me by gender.
It's time we began to reclaim our birthrights as human beings and
to accept personal responsibility for the world around us. Your
birthright as a human being is total freedom and total responsibility,
both negative words in our culture. We fear freedom and attempt
to fence in everything. We build walls around our institutions,
around our relationships, around ourselves. True freedom,
according to current society, would mean chaos. If people were
not kept rigidly under the control of the police forces or the
educational system or the economic structure, they might run amok.
Wouldn't that be terrible, if peace were to break out all over the
world? Wouldn't it be awful if all the people claimed the right to
have enough food to eat? What would we do if the world became a
place where no one had the right to control anyone else?
The war establishment would collapse. The economic
establishment would destabilize. Government systems would
disappear. Think of the unemployment that would make!
We also fear responsibility. Everyone else is responsible for
everything. Not us! God made the world the way it is. Our
parents turned us into the neurotics we are. The government is
responsible for corruption. "Those immigrants" are destroying
family values. Its their fault!
We have become a litigious society. Spill coffee on yourself and
it's the restaurant's fault. Everyone is blaming everyone else.
Tobacco companies say it isn't their fault that smoking kills more
people and costs our society more in medical costs than any other
single source. Gun manufacturers insist that they aren't responsible
for our nation having the highest murder rate of any major
industrial nation in the world.
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned responsibility? I'm
responsible for my life and you are responsible for yours. I won't
do anything to hurt you and you won't do anything to hurt me.
Perhaps it's time we began to look at ourselves and choose more
freedom and more responsibility. Lack of freedom and
responsibility the hallmark of our civilization is certainly not
proving very survivable for our species.
The world we live in today is indeed a mess. Our species is doing a
terrible job of taking care of our world. Consider these facts:
Every night, one in two children in the world goes to bed hungry.
Every 18 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from
hunger or hunger related causes.
Right now, more people are alive than have been alive in the
thousands of years of human history. Half of all the people who
have ever lived are alive today!
Humans now use nearly half (40%) of the total energy resources of
the planet. All other species must survive on the rest of the energy
resources. In 50 years, there will be 10 billion humans on the
planet, consuming 80% of the earth's energy resources. At that
time, most other species will have become extinct for the earth to
support so many humans.
Through overpopulation, pollution and depletion of natural
resources, we are rapidly destroying the only home our species has.
And, most importantly, we are doing this because our religions and
our cultures mandate that we do so!
The major problem in the world today is the religious and social
structure that has ruled humanity for more than 4000 years the
patriarchal, woman-hating, structure-driven system established long
ago by conquering warrior cults.
Looked at this way, we realize the only hope for the continued
survival of humanity is a return to the principles and ideals of the
original human civilizations of our planet. These the peaceful,
cooperative, mother-focused (matrifocal) cultures taught a way of
life that honored the earth, respected the environment, and valued
all life forms equally.
Both ancient paganism and modern existentialism teach us that we
are (whether we want to be or not) totally free and that we are
(whether we want to be or not) totally responsible.
An existential pagan is someone who recognizes that reality and
chooses to live in the world responsibly free.
An existential pagan is someone who sees the suffering of the bulk
of the human species and refuses to cover her eyes from the truth.
An existential pagan is someone who chooses to change her way of
life so that at least some other people might have the right to stay
alive.
An existential pagan is a person caught up in the anguish of a world
gone mad who chooses sanity instead of escape.
An existential pagan has no choice but to be a rebel, a voice crying
in the wilderness, an escapee from the mental prisons of a brutal
world.
Think about it. In 18 seconds, another child somewhere in the
world, will die of hunger.
Blessed be!