CHAPTER 1

Why Paganism Mostly isn't a Religion

Plenty of people who are not Pagans seem to think it is a single,coherent religion with all the usual trappings: books, temples,founders, leaders, structures, rules and order. This can causesome confusion. Even within Paganism, people seem to thinkDruids are all organised and like the Church, which is a longway wide of the mark. There are times when Pagans (and for thatmatter, Druids) find it easier to go along with this. For one thing,not everyone has the time or inclination for a proper explanation.

The most obvious point to make is that Paganism is not 'areligion' but a passably useful way of lumping together alikeminded minority. There are benefits to be derived fromspeaking with one voice, or being recognised as a group. Thereare many traditions within Paganism – Witches, Druids,Heathens, Shamans, Hellenics, Dianics, Kemeticists, ReligioRomano, to name a few of the more obvious ones. There are agreat many eclectics and own-path folk as well. Taken asindividual groups, none of the sub-groups within Paganism arebig enough to speak productively to government and the like.The grouping under a shared 'Pagan' banner has served us politicallyand in handling the media, but is better understood as apressure group than as any kind of organised religion.

Even the above breakdown into major subgroups ismisleading. There are plenty of people who identify across thoselines, and who also connect with other religions. There are significantnumbers of Christian Pagans and Pagan Buddhists, alongwith pretty much any other cross pollination you can think of. Tofurther complicate things, subgroups can be divided up into setsthat can be significantly different from each other. Druids can beanimists, polytheists and non-theists. Alternatively you mightlook at revivalists, reconstructionists and neo-Druids. You coulddivide along the lines of Irish Druidry, Welsh, French and non-European,or further divide by country. Each has its own view ofDruids, and many Druids are not in Orders. Some orders aremore demanding of conformity than others. Druidry is not asingle, coherent religion any more than Christianity is, once youget beneath the surface. However, in our case, the divisions arefrequently arbitrary and tend to depend on your reasons forwanting to clump people into groups in the first place.

We could divide up any of the Pagan subgroups in this way,breaking Paganism down into ever smaller religions. Startdealing with individual Pagans and you'll find exceedinglyindividual definitions of path: Welsh Druid, Kitchen Witch,Celtic Shaman, Witchidruid, Polytheistic Bardic Druid, Brythonicreconstructionist. There are probably more kinds of Paganismthan there are living Pagans to embody it all. There is a lot ofcommonality between these many labels and ways of practising,just as there is between the many subsets of other religions. Whenyou compare Mormons, Catholics, Methodists and Jehovah'sWitnesses, as a small subset of Christian diversity, it's clear thatyou can squeeze a lot of variety under one religious heading.However, in most defined religions, there's also a defined focusof worship and some core features in common, and we do nothave those. Here are some of the key things we might be expectedto hold in common were Paganism to be a single religion.

1. A core text that we hold sacred. (Also absent in Shinto,although we do have ancient Pagan texts for some paths.)

2. A named founder like Jesus, Abraham or Mohammed.(Shinto has no named founder and the modern witcheshave Gerald Gardner and Alex Saunders, arguably.Polytheistic religions tend to put less emphasis onfounders than monotheism does.)

3. A set of core rules. (Many paths have their own ethicalguidelines, but those do not deliver hard and fast 'thoushalts' that conform to other people's expectation of whatethics should look like.)

4. A single agreed opinion about the nature of deity, life afterdeath or the meaning of life. (There can be more coherencewithin subgroups, but even here ideas can vary a lot. Wemay be unique in this.)

5. Some kind of earthly leader of the faithful. (There is noleader of Pagans, nor do any of the major subgroups havea 'Pope' equivalent. Jainism and Shinto have no leadershipin this style either.)

6. Financial structures and property. (Any financial arrangementsare at a very local level, which is also true of Jainismand Shinto.)

7. Converts. (This tends to be a monotheistic issue. Mosttraditional religions that relate to culture and heritagehave no interest in cultures, so Judaism, Jainism andShinto do not recruit either.)

8. Physical structures to worship in. (Ancient Pagans hadtemples, but for the greater part we do not own our spacesand do it outside. Plenty of other groups have managedwith less formal meeting spaces at times in their historytoo.)

This list covers the external trappings and actions that can easilybe seen by those considering a religion from the outside. Thuswhile many may assume Paganism is a lot like everything else,on closer investigation there are plenty who will decide that itisn't a 'proper' religion at all because it lacks these obviousfeatures. The 'not a proper religion' argument is popular withthose who wish to denigrate and disempower. However, giventhat there are two internationally recognised religions – Jainismand Shinto – that also lack a lot of the external trappings, thisseems at best a poor excuse for prejudice. There is a lot more tospiritual coherence than structure. Our wider culture's tendencyto emphasise superficial structure can make us oblivious to thefar more important issues of what a religious group actually doesin the world.

It is...