Religion in Society By Michael G. Sheppard One notable shift involved the gradual separation of religion and kinship. In hunting and gathering societies, religion was closely tied to one's clan—that is, one's extended family. The great world religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, emerged in the major agrarian societies. They are called world religions because they claim to apply equally to all persons, regardless of family ties. Religious beliefs were also transformed in the process, with numerous local deities being replaced by universal religions claiming that one deity ruled the entire world. The tendency to believe in a single deity may have reflected a greater awareness of the world, which arose from trade and military contact with other lands and peoples.1 The Pagan religion is basically the same as Kinship, a belief in multiple deities. It traces its roots back to nature itself. Wicca is a positive, shamanistic nature religion with two main deities honored and worshipped in Wiccan rites: the Goddess (female aspect) and Her consort, the Horned God (male aspect). Both male and female members of Wicca are known as Witches. The religion is mainly matriarchal. The High Priestess is considered the personification, and in some ceremonies the incarnation, of the Mother Goddess, who is the principal deity of witchlore. In some respects the Goddess is not dissimilar to the Virgin Mary of Roman Catholicism; She is Queen of Heaven, and Her symbols are the moon and stars. She is sometimes referred to by the names of old pagan goddesses—the Celtic Arianrhod, the Roman Diana, the Egyptian Isis. The Goddess' consort, personified by the High Priest, is the Horned God—Cernunnos, Pan, and Osiris—the dark, male aspect. Out of the union of the God and Goddess came the universe, and between them they control the turning of the seasons, bring fertility to crops and animals, bestow magical powers upon their faithful followers, and generally operate the clockwork of the cosmos.2 Many consider Wicca to be a monistic and pantheistic religion, and part of the modern Pagan resurgence (or neo-Pagan movement, as many call it). Paganism does not oppose nor deny any other religion. It is simply a pre-Christian faith. The Pagan holidays are: Spring Equinox (March 21); Beltane (April 30); the Summer Solstice (June 22); August Eve, or Lammastide (August 1); the Autumn Equinox on (September 21); Halloween (October 31); the Winter Solstice, or Yule (December 21); and Candlemas (February 2). These meetings are known as Sabbats. Additional Sabbats, held on New Moon and Full moon, are known as Esbats. Most Pagans seem to agree on many of these beliefs: Divinity is immanent or internal, as well as transcendent or external. Thou Art God and Thou Art Goddess are phrases that often express this. Divinity is just as likely to manifest itself as female. This attracts many women to the faith and its clergy. There is a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, whether as individual deities or as facets of one or a few archetypes. This leads to multi-valued logic systems and increased tolerance of other religions. There is respect for and love of Nature as divine in Her own right. This makes ecological awareness and activity a religious duty. There is dissatisfaction with monolithic religious organizations and distrust of would-be messiahs and gurus. This makes Pagans hard to organize, even for their own good, and leads to constant mutation and growth in the movement. There is a conviction that humans were meant to live lives filled with joy, love, pleasure and humor. The traditional Western concept of sin, guilt and divine retribution are seen as misunderstandings of natural growth experiences. They have a simple set of ethics and morality based on avoiding harming others. They believe that with proper training and intent, human minds and hearts are fully capable of performing all the magick and miracles they are ever likely to need, through natural psychic powers that everyone has. They embrace a minimum of dogma and a maximum of eclecticism. Pagans are reluctant to accept any idea without personally investigating it; and they are willing to adopt any concept they find useful, regardless of its origins. They have a strong faith in the ability of people to solve their own current problems on all levels, public and private. This leads to a strong commitment to personal and universal growth, evolution and balance.3 Paganism vs. the Church The emerging world religions transformed the earlier beliefs. The universal religions replaced numerous local deities, claiming that one deity ruled the entire world. And it was not unusual for the gods and goddesses of one religion to be turned into the devils and demons of the next. This was the case with the Old Religion and Christianity. And, through anti-Witchcraft Church propaganda, and the modification of folk tradition, the Pagan priests and priestesses of early times were transformed into the evil sorcerers and sorceresses of the Middle Ages. Here are a few facts from history: In 1233, Pope Gregory IX instituted the Roman Catholic tribunal known as the Inquisition in an attempt to suppress heresy. In 1320, the Church (at the request of Pope John XXII) officially declared Witchcraft and the Old Religion of the pagans as a heretical movement and a hostile threat to Christianity. Witches had now become heretics and the persecution of all pagans spread like wildfire throughout Europe. Witches and other innocent men, women and children were persecuted, brutally tortured, often sexually molested, and then executed by sadistic, bloodthirsty Church authorities who taught that their God was a god of love and compassion. In England, Witchcraft was made illegal in the year 1541, and in 1604 a law decreeing capital punishment for Witches and pagans was adopted. By the seventeenth century, the true followers of the Old Religion went into hiding and Witchcraft became a secret underground religion. The first hanging of a Witch took place in Connecticut in 1647, forty-five years before those in Salem Village in 1692. It wasn't until 1951, after England had repealed the laws that the Witches and Pagans came out of the broom closet. Paganism vs. Devil Worship As a result of deliberate misconceptions popularized in the Christian realm, the news media, horror movies, talk shows and so forth, many believe that all Witches are evil. Many victims of ignorance or religious brainwashing believe that Witches and modern day Pagans are involved in one way or another with Devil worship and perform blood sacrifices to the old gods or to the Christian's Devil. This is absurd! Wiccans do not advocate human or animal sacrifice, or the killing of any being as an offering to any deity. Real Witches do not worship, receive powers from, sign pacts with, or sell their souls to the Devil. They do not even acknowledge the existence of the Christian Devil. The Devil is an anti-pagan propaganda device invented by the Christian church. It had never existed in the literature before the New Testament. The Craft is a pre-Christian religion; it has been around much longer than the Church or its concept of Satan, who was never worshipped as a deity of the Old Religion. The Devil is strictly a part of the Christian belief system, not the Nature-loving Earth religion of Wicca. The real Devil worshippers mock Witchcraft symbols like the pentacle just as they do the crucifix. Any sadist can commit murder, rape, mutilate a victim, and then claim to be a Witch or a Devil worshipper. The true Witch wears the pentacle with the point up while the Satanist wears it down just as he wears the crucifix down. Witches never use a crucifix up or down, just as we don't use the number 666. We do not recite the Lord's prayer backward. We do nothing Christian backwards. We do not celebrate Black Mass or any other color Mass. We use no Christian artifacts so we do not break into churches to destroy or take things. Witches have a saying: Do what thou wilt and harm none, for all good you have done will come back upon you threefold and all evil you have done will also come back on you threefold. The Appeal of Paganism Churches feel public pressure to change their beliefs because society's norms are changing. The Roman Catholics' current stand on women in the priesthood illustrates this. But the authority that has been given to the churches translates into considerable power. Consider the Medieval Church: Those that didn't worship their one God were killed or worse. Power like that is not easily surrendered. Today, power lies with the Televangelists. So many people are looking for the right religion and they feel that the television religion is just as good as going to the traditional churches with the convenience of staying home. All you have to do is tune in and send your donations to the church and you will be saved. Add an actor with high charisma and you have a gold mine. Many billions of dollars move through religious channels in the United States. Churches are still the greatest recipients of voluntary financial gifts.4 The religions in today's society are based on old teachings and modern beliefs. If you don't like the religion's beliefs or teachings all you have to do is change your norms or change churches. As people created societies more and more removed from the natural world, they found themselves working against nature, subduing it, exploiting it. In time they thought of nature as neither intelligent nor divine. Eventually they came to view it as the enemy.5 People need faith, whether they get thorough traditional means or through the New Age. Faith is what makes a person grow and a society strong. Kinship started the evolution to world religions. World religions gained power. Power caused change. Change caused disbelief. Disbelief caused change. Change caused loss of power. Loss of power caused lack of belief in world religion. Lack of belief in world religion causes old religions to flourish. Notes 1) Understanding Society, p. 53. 2) Man, Myth and Magic, Modern Witchcraft, p. 1866. 3) What in Heaven's Name is going on over there? 4) Understanding Society, pp. 294-295. 5) Power of the Witch, p. 13. Bibliography Persell, Caroline Hodges, PhD., Understanding Society, 3rd Ed., 1989, pp. 294-295. Marty, Understanding Society, 3rd Ed., 1988, p. 53. What in Heaven's Name is going on over there?, Center for Nontraditional Religion, handout, 1989. Man, Myth, Magic, Modern Witchcraft, p. 1866. Cabot, Laurie with Tom Cowan, Power of the Witch, Delta Books (New York, 1990). | 
