Since this blog will be dealing largely with all three of the above, it is time for me to engage in what Confucius called rectification of terms.
Headaches are self-explanatory, and are often the result of using the words pagan and heathen.
“Pagan” comes from the Latin word “paganus,” “country-dweller.” After some etymological adventures, it came to mean “non-Christian,” i.e., one who still worshiped the Roman (or Greek) gods.
When Christianity spread to Teutonic lands, the word was glossed to “heathen”(Old English haethen, Old Norse heidhinn), “dweller in the heath,” and meant a person who worshiped the old Teutonic gods.
The Christians, then as now, believed that the old gods were false gods. Since worshiping false gods is immoral, the words “pagan” and “heathen” began to be used for an immoral, depraved person.
Christians think that a belief in false gods is no belief at all, so the words also came to refer to those who have no religion. In modern English “heathen” more often has this connotation.
Enter modern Pagans, a little over a century ago. These would-be revivers began acting just like Christians had always said Pagans act. Many of them practiced nudism, challenged sexual mores, and indulged in general debauchery on the grounds that it was “paganism.” They were pantheistic nature worshipers at best, while some of them were downright materialists, claiming that paganism was for the here-and-now, unconcerned with an afterlife. The situation was so bad that Julius Evola wrote a piece entitled “Against the Neopagans,” which you can find at this link . It’s just as relevant to-day as it was sixty-five years ago.
The mid-twentieth century also saw the introduction of Wicca. “Traditional” Gardnerian Wicca was exempt from many of Evola’s criticisms, but within two decades it was seized upon by feminists, homosexual activists, animal rights people, environmentalists, and every manner of peacenik. Wicca soon splintered into hundreds of sects, none of which agreed on beliefs, and all of which described themselves as “Pagan.”
Wiccans tend to have a very poor understanding of history, an even worse understanding of paganism, a generally libertine attitude and a penchant for fuzzy, wishful thinking. On top of this most of them don’t seem to really believe or have respect for religion, even their own.
To further confound things, Heathens came along in the early seventies. Heathenry came into being separately from Wicca, and focused specifically on the religion of ancient Teutonic peoples. The term “Heathen” was–and is–preferred among Heathens because the word is of Teutonic rather than Latin origin. It is also preferred because Heathens wish to distance themselves from the antics of those who call themselves “Pagan” or “Neopagan.” Heathens tend to have a better grasp of history, a good understanding of heathenry, a generally conservative attitude and a penchant for more rigorous thought. Academic squabbles are a favourite Heathen pastime.
This seems like a sound and reasonable scheme, but there are snags. The biggest of these is the simple fact that people still equate the word “heathen” with “atheist.” This causes great difficulties; the last time I described my religious beliefs as heathen, the reply was, “But, Wulf, how do you think the world and everything came about? Like, where do you go when you die?”
Besides being simpleminded questions, they showed that the girl asking them believed that I was an atheist. Even abroad, the word “heathen” suffers. I spoke to a young German man recently and described myself as “heide,” which he interpreted to mean “religionslos” (his words), “irreligious.”
And I can’t have that.
To describe myself as “Pagan” will draw the ire of all other Heathens, who will immediately think I am some sort of New-Age Wiccan fluff bunny who knows nothing of our lore. To describe other Heathens as “Pagan” will draw them to my house.
Yet there are certainly serious, dedicated individuals and groups to whom the term “Heathen” may not be appropriate, e.g. for those of non-Teutonic traditions. Taoism, Shinto, Romuva, Ifa, and Hinduism are all polytheistic ethnic religions; yet I would not use the term “Heathen” to describe their adherents. The only option left to me is to refer to them as “Pagan.”
Does this make the word “Pagan” okay for them but not for me? Sure, I believe in using native Teutonic words whenever possible, and I use “Heathen” when I am in the company of people who will understand. Outside of that limited group, I will be mistaken for a materialist.
I must overlook the grievous misuse of the word “Pagan” and apply it to myself if I wish to be understood.
I take heart in the fact that I am in some august company: Nova Roma refers to its beliefs as Roman Paganism, and they are a very serious, respectable group. Even a Heathen organization, the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið, refers to its beliefs as “Pagan” in its English writings (though in Icelandic they do use the native term heiðinn).
So for purposes of this blog, I will use the term “Heathen” and the term “Teutonic Pagan” interchangeably, the latter most often in cases when I expect a diverse readership which may misinterpret “Heathen.” When referring to indigenous polytheistic religions and their followers generally, I will use the word “Pagan.”
So There.
Greetings,
Found you blog by some unrelated - but fortunate - search terms in Google, and this article is especially insightful.
All that you say about Wicca is, alas, true, in the sense that "Wicca" has been progressively watered down to transform it into some self-help group for intellectual lazy people. This is especially unfortunate for those that like me do follow that path, although the resemblance of the Wicca I know from the "fluff bunny" variety that only requires wishful thinking and some banalities about "The Burning Times" is such to the point of sometimes being utterly embarrassing.
Apart from Wicca - which is an initiatory path simultaneously rooted in the Western occult tradition and Paganism - I'm in religious terms a Pagan (Wicca isn't a Religion, or if it is it is merely in an esoteric sense: the religious background of Wicca is Paganism) and rather active in, for example, Reconstructionist Neo-paganism (that seems to fit broadly your path, since Germanic Paganism of the "Asatru" kind is generally of that school). The Pagan/Heathen/etc. question is, I think, a matter of both preference and scope: circle within circles, if you wish, in that Pagan and Paganism refer more broadly to native Indo-european religiosity and Heathen seems to invoke a narrower scope, directly related to the Germanic branch. The main problem here is again the banalisation that the word suffered at the hands of the new-agers with their beads and inanities.
I also found you comment on the Traditionalist view of modern Wicca interesting, and while I agree with you there are also several key problems with Traditionalism even when considering more serious Pagan endeavours: the insistence on the evils of "naturalism" and "telluric inferiority", the idea that Paganism shouldn't really be revived by reconstruction, etc, etc. It's no coincidence that several of them ended up either in Hinduism or Islam, while at the same time scorning the efforts of those who resisted and vowed to be faithful to the Gods of their kin and their land, and still went on talking about Tradition...
From an Iberian to a Teuton, best regards and health!
Posted by: Ophiussa | November 11, 2008 at 04:14 PM