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San Francisco Weekly/caption
Observing the societal changes taking place in America during the 1960s-70s Jean-Francois Revel wrote:
The Revolution of the twentieth century will take place in the United States. It is only there that it can happen. And it has already begun. Whether or not that revolution spreads to the rest of the world depends on whether or not it succeeds first in America... Earth Day... in America was one huge pantheistic feast... The young men and women... walked naked through the forests singing and playing guitars... We can there conclude that a counter-culture... has already sprung up in the United States... a demand for absolute individual and cultural freedom without moral censorship.
Revel a French Socialist both welcomed these changes and was puzzled by the cultural mix of left-leaning politics and neo-pagan religious views. He was critical of the hippies for what he called ... their nebulous ideology which is a mixture of confused Orientalism and adulterated primitivism...
What Revel was witnessing in America was odd but not totally without precedent. The Roaring Twenties was another out-burst of youthful enthusiasm and cultural rebellion. It combined many of the same sociological and ideological traits: A generational gap between young and old a rejection of traditional Judeo-Christian moral standards a radical shift in the style of music clothing hair. The 1920s and 30s were also a period of when American thinkers/writers showed a strong penchant for counter-cultural themes and left-wing politics.
What Revel observed if taken in the larger context of the history of Western Civilization was even less singular. It was only the newest in a long line of rehearsals for the collapse of Judeo-Christian Culture. The difference from what took place then and what is taking place now is that the historical strongholds of that culture (America and Europe) are no longer representative of the majority. The most recent Pew Research confirms a steady decline in Christian affiliation and a marked increase among people who identify themselves as astheist agnostic or neo-pagan.
Although the process is not yet complete the dominant culture in America and Europe is now pagan. We are not raising glorious new temples to pagan gods or engaging in the bloody sacrifice of millions of animals but the underlying values system is the same. (Pleasure fame power and riches) The growing shoots of a new culture are beginning to reveal what is hidden beneath the soil. The prophetic gardeners of this new culture are promising their True Believers ever expanding personal powers and special mystical insights. Their beliefs which have been discredited by science and the lessons of history for over 500 years are now making a major comeback. These beliefs cluster around a variety of names: Neo-Paganism Occultism Wiccan and Esotericism. All of these belief systems taken together are part of a world-wide movement. Its nomenclature dazzles with a huge number of nonsensical permutations. but its core beliefs remain the same. What links all of these diverse belief systems together are their fundamental tenets of: Nature worship moral-relativism truth as subjective the world as magical and the use of magic to fulfill ones needs and desires.
A major flaw in all their reasoning is the belief that because primitive and pagan peoples worship nature they must have lived in a more harmonious relationship with it. The problem with this hypothesis is that the thousands of taboos which regulated their lives were all based upon fear of consequences which they were trying to void. The level of irrational fear which characterized their lives can only be viewed as pathological. The wisest and most educated people in the ancient world knew this. An important part of the enlightenment which the philosophers of the ancient world attempted to bring about (Socrates Plato Buddha and Confucius) was directed against the fear causing morally confusing religious beliefs of their cultures.
The ancient poet/philosopher Lucretius summed up the issue when he wrote: Fear was the mother of the gods... to so many evils religion has persuaded men... The Greek word for superstition literally meant Fear of the gods. It was impossible for their relationship with nature to be harmonious because the nature they knew was teeming with unpredictable capricious malicious gods and goddesses. Any interruption in the normal pattern of nature was viewed as a spirit directed terrorist attack. The Greek poet Homer expressed the common mans view of the gods when he wrote: We men are wretched things and the gods who have no care themselves have woven sorrow into the very pattern of our lives.
Far from living in harmony with nature and enjoying any peace of mind the priests of Egypt believed that they had to use magic so that the Sun would rise each day. In many primitive and pagan cultures they believed in unlucky days and months and if a person was born on one of these he or she could be put to death. They feared water spirits that caused storms at sea underground spirits that caused earthquakes and air spirits that caused storms on land. All of these fears resulted in horrific acts of human sacrifice bodily mutilation and cannibalism. These acts were required to re-balance the world and bring back harmony into their troubled lives. Writing of the great variety of fears which plagued their lives Richard Cavendish states in his book the Powers of Evil: ... the times of maximum vulnerability are when you start to do anything and when you finish it... evil gathers around the childbed and the deathbed... round wedding... round ploughing and harvesting... The threshold of a house... Midday and Midnight.
The modern world suffers from irrational fears too but sane people know they are irrational. Primitive/pagans lived a life of mental illness in mass without knowing it. Another fundamental misunderstanding that modern pagans believe is that paganism was a more progressive belief system for women. Many feminists and especially homosexual feminists are drawn to a faith system that includes goddess worship. They view Judeo-Christianity as patriarchal and restrictive of the rights of women. On a superficial level this is partly true but below the surface it could not have been further from the truth. One has to think beyond the question of who is leading a religious act to what is the essence of the religious act. It doesnt matter if its a priest or a priestess a prophet or a prophetess if the underlying message being conveyed is immoral or insane. In both the primitive and pagan world women were mercilessly mistreated and no amount of goddess worship changed that fact. What history reveals about the characteristics of the mother goddess or earth goddess are not very flattering. Donald A. Mackenzie describes her in his book Crete & Pre-Hellenic: The original mother (goddess worshipped in Crete Greece Babylonia and many other cultures) was worshipped ... because of fear... She gloried with callous heart in her power to destroy and was untouched by the tender emotions of mankind... Christianity and Judaism both based their treatment of women on a standard of love and respect unequaled in the ancient world.
James Frazer in his classic study of primitive societies gives many examples of the brutal treatment of young girls including these: In New Ireland girls are confined four or five years in small cages being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground... in Borneo... girls at age eight... are shut up in a little room... none of her family may see her... her lonely confinement which often last seven years...
The widespread belief in and use of magic produced fear and suspicion of others and this was often a source of conflict between individuals and states. Unmitigated irrational fear led to the cheapening of human life. Pagan leadership promoted a system of mind-control which prevented the development of human rights. Because this religion was based upon fear rather than love a higher concept of universal truth and morality never developed. The modern pagans of today safe at home watching Harry Potter or Outlander are free to imagine any world they would like to live in but until they take a deep-dive into the lessons of history they shouldnt ask the rest of us to join them.
William D. Howard is a freelance writer who had a long career as an educator. He holds degrees in philosophy and history and has traveled widely in over 40 countries.
