New Age
Scapegoat
Scot Rhoads
A cornerstone of the neo-Pagan movement is its focus on reviving ancient religious practices. We recognize that those societies which over millennia evolved a harmony with nature and the psyche have much that our society of change and alienation lacks. The rites, mythologies and symbols of our ancestors who lived and breathed their connection with the Earth can help us to reestablish our own connection, which has been severed by steel and concrete.
How do we know this works? The only way that is possible: we feel it. That is also how we tell when it doesn't work. The societies we borrow from often had things which do us no good at all. There are many things from the Old Age that are not appropriate in this New Age.
One of the many (and one of the less condescending) definitions of New Age is the positive attitudes now manifesting in various spiritual and metaphysical forms. Neo-Paganism, with its attitudes of healing and reconnecting with nature and the gods, is a part of this New Age. One of the tasks of this aspect of the New Age is to sift through all this old information and revive the best parts. For instance, the literature suggests that Roman and Celtic societies, for instance, seemingly filled their days with ritual sacrifice. While historical reports may be misleading, there is no doubt that there were sacrifices. Obviously, we do not want to adopt just any old ancient practice!
Part of the New Age is a focus on healing and positive energy. At times this tends to give it a reputation of being nothing but namby-pamby rainbows-and-unicorns; but when you consider the inertia behind destruction and negative energy in our world, it is a heroic stance. When we take an ancient pagan rite and put it through our New Age filter, we sometimes end up with a useless, sterile exercise; but we also occasionally create a rite that taps the ancient archetypes, channeling their potential for positive change in our modern world. It is these successes that are the foundation of the neo-Pagan movement.
One basic archetype of the ancient world is the scapegoat—the animal that takes our sins or problems upon it and is killed or banished to remove them. The prevalence of the image of Christ on the cross shows how powerful and fundamental at least this one aspect of this archetype is. Few would question the importance of the role of the scapegoat.
But when we look at it from our present perspective, it is at the least unsettling. Even if it's just a metaphor, the idea of being washed in the blood of the lamb does not sound like a healthy way of dealing with problems—it is certainly not healthy for the lamb. For some, the focus on bleeding and dying for sins becomes disconcertingly morbid. This is the kind of attitude that the New Age tries to avoid. That would argue for abandoning the scapegoat—quickly and completely.
But it is a shame to discard a powerful and fundamental symbol. In fact, it may be impossible. The scapegoat may be so ingrained that we can only sublimate or repress it. This is where the New Age filter can do us the most good.
Consider what the scapegoat does. It takes our sins upon itself and releases us from them with its death. That is its vital and positive role. Of course we want release from sin. But the New Age has a different perspective on sin than the traditional one. No longer should we blame and punish ourselves for things we feel bad about. That is heaping negativity on negativity. To change the things about us that make us unhappy, we need to recognize and embrace them. Then, instead of destroying the problems, we heal them. That is turning negative into positive. That is the strength of the New Age.
The scapegoat well represents the old attitudes toward negativity—kill it. For a New Age scapegoat, the attitude would be: heal it. We would want to find a living thing that needs our help. A sick goat would obviously fit, but it could be a sick cat or puppy or tree or flower. It could even be an animal or plant in the zoo or the wild—we don't need to own it. Or you could choose a stream or some park land or an elemental that needs help—you need not restrict yourself to the traditional definition of living."
If you are directly responsible for your New Age scapegoat's health, you should find out all you can about its malady. You should do all you can physically to bring it back to health. Make sure you understand the expenses and care you will have to provide. If it is not your" animal or plant, you may still want to learn what you can in order to help establish a connection and perhaps aid the psychic healing you do.
Next you will want to establish in a meditation or ritual that this scapegoat represents something in yourself that you want to heal—your health, money problems, relationships, whatever. You will want to avoid actually giving these problems to the scapegoat, because that would not be very nice. Some people may want to avoid this kind of ritual if they fear that they will not be able to avoid subconsciously burdening their charge with negative energy. In any case, it would probably be wise to obtain permission (through ritual, meditation, divination, etc.) from your subject or its matron/patron deity beforehand.
Once you have established your connection, the real work begins. Bring your charge back to health. Care for your scapegoat physically with medicines (allopathic and homeopathic) and food and water—however you see fit, based on the professional advice you have gotten. Care for it psychically, with healing rites and energy. And always remember that the work you are doing for the scapegoat is symbolic of the psychic work you are doing to heal the scapegoat within you.
Ideally, your chosen animal or plant will eventually recover and thrive—a very powerful symbol. But don't be dismayed if this doesn't happen. All things must die. We recognize this as a passing to other things. We may mourn the loss, but it is not a bad thing. If your scapegoat dies, see it as a transformation that your work helped to facilitate and ease. And you can see that transformation reflected in yourself, as the negative energy tied up in your own blocks returns to the cosmos where it can now take a positive form.
This exercise should not be the only thing you do to heal yourself. Certainly you will also want to pursue the appropriate physical, spiritual and psychic avenues open to you. But the unique advantage of the New Age scapegoat is that it gives you an immediate, tangible representation of your inner work. Seeing the good you do in this project can help to remove the seemingly inevitable doubts about work on the invisible levels. | 
