spiralofhope

Beliefs, Writing >

(See A New Tradition of Neopagan Druidism, by P. E. I. Bonewits for additional notes)

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                         What Neopagan Druids Believe
                          (c) 1984 P. E. I. Bonewits
                   Reprinted from 'The Druids' Progress' #1

Here's a brief introduction to the basic beliefs that I expect will
characterize most members of ADF (a Neopagan Druid organiza- tion).  These
spiritual beliefs are similar to most of those held by other Neopagans (see
Margot Adler's book, 'Drawing Down the Moon') and the similarities are far
more important than whatever specific distinctions of doctrine or ethnic focus
there might be between us and other Neopagans.  I should also mention that not
all Neopagans who consider themselves Druids will necessarily agree with every
point of the following list.  Nonetheless, these beliefs will be the roots of
ADF's polytheology, the source of the spiritual grove we seek to plant.

1) We believe that divinity is both immanent (internal) and transcendent
(external).  We see the Gods as being able to mani- fest at any point in space
or time, including within human beings, which they might choose, although they
may often have their preferences.  Often this develops among some Neopagans
into pantheism ('the physical world is divine') or panentheism ('the Gods are
everywhere').  We tend more towards the latter position.

2) We believe that divinity is as likely to manifest in a female form as it
is in a male form, and that therefore women and men are spiritually equal.  We
insist on a dynamic balance between female and male deities honored and/or
invoked at every ceremony, and a strict gender balance in whatever theories of
polytheology that we eventually develop.  We're 'liberals' about women's
rights and gay rights, but not 'radicals;' that is to say, we're unwill- ing
to subordinate all our other principles in order to promote this particular
principle.  People who wish to make feminism or gay activism the absolute
center of all their spiritual activity will probably be happier in other
groups.

3) We believe in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, all of whom are
likely to be worthy of respect, love and worship.  Some- times we believe in
these divinities as individual and inde- pendent entities; sometimes as
Jungian 'archetypes of the collec- tive unconscious' or 'circuits in the
psychic Switchboard;' some- times as aspects or faces of one or two major
deities (the 'High God/dess' and/or 'the Goddess and the Horned God'); and
sometimes as 'all of the above!' We feel that this sort of flexibility leads
to pluralism (instead of monism), multi-valued logic sys- tems and an
increased tolerance of other people's beliefs and lifestyles.  All of these
are vital if our species is ever going to learn to live in peace and harmony
amid a multiplicity of human cultures.

4) We believe that it is necessary to have a respect and love for Nature as
divine in her own right, and to accept ourselves as a part of Nature and not
as her 'rulers.' We tend to accept what has come to be known as 'the Gaia
hypothesis,' that the biosphere of our planet is a living being, who is due
all the love and support that we, her children, can give her.  This is
especially important in our modern era, when 3000 years of monotheistic belief
that 'mankind is to have dominion over the Earth' have come close to
destroying the ability of the biosphere to maintain itself.  Many Neopagan
groups refer to themselves as 'Earth reli- gions' and this is a title which we
believe Neopagan Druidism should proudly claim, and which we should work to
earn.  Thus we consider ecological awareness and activism to be sacred duties.
If the ecology, conservation and anti-nuclear movements are ever to have
'chaplains,' we should be among them.

5) We believe in accepting the positive aspects of western science and
technology, but in maintaining an attitude of wari- ness towards their
supposed ethical neutrality.  The overwhelming majority of Neopagans are
technophiles, not technophobes.  We tend to be better scientifically educated
than the general population, and thus we have a religious duty to speak out
about the econo- mic, political and ecological uses and abuses of science and
technology.

6) We share with most other Neopagans a distaste for monolith- ic religious
organizations and would-be messiahs and gurus.  Ob- viously, this places the
founders of Neopagan religious tradi- tions in a complex position:  they need
enough religious authority to focus the organizations they're founding, but
not so much as to allow them (or their successors) to become oppressive.
Since the pluralistic approach denies the existence of any One True Right and
Only Way, and since Neopagans insist upon their own human fallibility, we
expect to be able to steer ADF between the Scylla of tyranny and the Charybdis
of anarchy.

7) In keeping with this, we believe that healthy religions should have a
minimum amount of dogma and a maximum amount of eclectism and flexibility.
Neopagans tend to be reluctant to accept any idea without personally
investigating both its practi- cality and its long-range consequences.  They
are also likely to take useful ideas from almost any source that doesn't run
too fast to get away.  We intend ADF to be a 'reconstructionist' tradition of
Druidism, but we know that eventually concepts from nonDruidic sources will be
grafted on to our trees.  There's no harm in this, as long as we stay aware of
what we are doing at every step of the way, and make a legitimate effort to
find authentic (and therefore spiritually and esthetically congruent)
parallels in genuine Indo-European sources first.  As for flexi- bility,
Neopagan Druidism is an organic religion, and like all other organisms it can
be expected to grow, change and produce offshoots as the years go by.

8) We believe that ethics and morality should be based upon joy, self-love
and respect; the avoidance of actual harm to others; and the increase of
public benefit.  We try to balance out people's needs for personal autonomy
and growth, with the neces- sity of paying attention to the impact of each
individual's actions on the lives and welfare of others.  The commonest Neo-
pagan ethical expression is 'If it doesn't hurt anyone, do what you like.'
Most Neopagans believe in some variant or another of the principle of karma,
and state that the results of their actions will always return to them.  It's
difficult for ordinary humans to successfully commit 'offenses against the
Gods,' short of major crimes such as ecocide or genocide, and our deities are
perfectly capable of defending their own honor without any help from mortal
busybodies.  We see the traditional monotheistic con- cepts of sin, guilt and
divine retribution for thought-crimes as sad misunderstandings of natural
growth experiences.

9) We believe that human beings were meant to lead lives filled with joy,
love, pleasure, beauty and humor.  Most Neopagans are fond of food, drink,
music, sex and bad puns, and consider all of these (except possibly the puns)
to be sacraments.  Al- though the ancient Druids appear to have had ascetics
within their ranks, they also had a sensualist tradition, and the common folk
have always preferred the latter.  Neopagan Druids try to keep these two
approaches in balance and harmony with each other by avoiding dualistic
extremes.  But the bedrock question is, 'If your religion doesn't enable you
to enjoy life more, why bother?'

10) We believe that with proper training, art, discipline and intent, human
minds and hearts are fully capable of performing most of the magic and
miracles they are ever likely to need.  This is done through the use of what
we perceive as natural, divinely granted psychic powers.  As with many other
Neopagan traditions, the conscious practice of magic is a central part of most
of our religious rituals.  Unlike monotheists, we see no clearcut division
between magic and prayer.  Neither, however, do we assume an automatic
connection between a person's ability to perform 'miracles' and either (a)
their personal spirituality or (b) the accuracy of their poly/theological
opinions.

11) We believe in the importance of celebrating the solar, lunar and other
cycles of our lives.  Because we see ourselves as a part of Nature, and
because we know that repeating patterns can give meaning to our lives, we pay
special attention to astronomi- cal and biological cycles.  By consciously
observing the sol- stices, equinoxes and the points in between, as well as the
phases of the moon, we are not only aligning ourselves with the movements and
energy patterns of the external world, but we are also continuing customs that
reach back to the original Indo- European peoples and beyond.  These customs
are human universals, as are the various ceremonies known as 'rites of
passage' -- celebrations of birth, puberty, personal dedication to a given
deity or group, marriage, ordination, death, etc.  Together these various
sorts of observations help us to find ourselves in space and time -- past,
present and future.

12) We believe that people have the ability to solve their current
problems, both personal and public, and to create a better world.  Hunger,
poverty, war and disease are not necessary, nor inevitable.  Pain, depression,
lack of creative opportunity and mutual oppression are not necessary either.
What is necessary is a new spiritual consciousness in which short-sighted
greed, power-mongering and violence are seen as absurd, rather than noble.
This utopian vision, tempered with common sense, leads us to a strong
commitment to personal and global growth, evolution and balance.

13) We believe that people can progress far towards achieving growth,
evolution and balance through the carefully planned alteration of their
'normal' states of consciousness.  Neopagans use both ancient and modern
methods of aiding concentration, meditation, reprogramming and ecstasy.  We
seek to avoid being locked into single-valued, monistic 'tunnel realities,'
and in- stead work on being able to switch worldviews according to their
appropriateness for each given situation, while still maintaining a firm
spiritual, ethical and practical grounding.

14) We believe that human interdependence implies community service.
Neopagan Druids are encouraged to use their talents to help others, both
inside and outside of the Neopagan community.  Some of us are active in
political, social, ecological and chari- table organizations, while others
prefer to work for the public good primarily through spiritual means (and many
of us do both).  As Neopagan Druids we have the right and the obligation to
actively oppose (physically and spiritually) those forces which would kill our
planet, oppress our fellow human beings, and destroy our freedom of religion.
Also, however, we have a con- stant need to evaluate our own methods and
motives, and to make sure that our actions are coming from the depths of our
spiritual beings, and not from petty or short-sighted desires for power.

15) We believe that if we are to achieve any of our goals, we must practice
what we preach.  Neopagan Druidism should be a way of life, not merely a
weekly or monthly social function.  Thus we must always strive to make our
lives consistent with our pro- claimed beliefs.  In a time when many people
are looking for something solid to hang on to in the midst of rapid
technological and cultural changes, Neopagan Druidism can offer a natural and
creative alternative to the repressive structures of mainstream monotheism.
But our alternative will not be seen as such unless we can manage to make it a
complete lifestyle -- one with con- cern, if not always immediate answers, for
the problems of every- day life, as well as the grand cosmic questions.

Obviously, there's a great deal more to Neopaganism in general and our
version of it in particular.  The details of Neopagan polytheology will take
years to develop.  The section of the 'Druid Handbook' dealing with beliefs
will consist of statements with commentaries (and even arguments) about the
meanings of the statements.  The purpose of this format is multiple:  to
emphasise that there are no final answers to the great questions of human
existence; to express clearly that Neopagans can disagree with each other
about subtle details of interpretation, while still remaining members of the
same religion; and to allow the belief system to grow and adapt to changing
cultural and technological needs.  Neopagan Druidism is to be a religion of
the future, as well as of the present and the past.

----

This article has been reprinted from 'The Druids' Progress', issue #1, and is
copyright 1984 by P.  E.  I.  Bonewits.  'DP' is the irregular journal of a
Neopagan Druid group called 'Ar nDraiocht Fein', founded by Bonewits (author
of 'Real Magic').  For more data, send an S.A.S.E.  to:  Box 9398, Berkeley,
CA, USA 94709.  Permission to distribute via BBS's is hereby granted, provided
that the entire article, including this notice, is kept intact.