Pagan Legacy


What will you give?

Interesting piece here, but I am not quite sure how to classify it.

A colleague recently took me to task for consulting Jews and Christians on how to keep American Buddhism alive. He didn't agree with either premise--that Jews and Christians could offer advice to Buddhists, or that Buddhism was in any danger of decline. But he was wrong on both counts. American Buddhism, which swelled its ranks to accommodate the spiritual enthusiasms of baby boomers in the late 20th century, is now aging. One estimate puts the average age of Buddhist converts (about a third of the American Buddhist population) at upwards of 50. This means that the religion is almost certain to see its numbers reduced over the next generation as boomer Buddhists begin to die off without having passed their faith along to their children. And Jewish and Christian models offer the most logical solution for reversing that decline.

The basic problem is that non-Asian converts tend not to regard what they practice as a religion. From the beginning, Buddhism has been seen in its American incarnation not as an alternative religion, but as an alternative to religion. American converts have long held Buddhism apart from what they see as the inherent messiness of Western religious discourse on such issues as faith and belief, and from the violence that has so often accompanied it.

I disagree with the article because I really don't think Buddhism is a Faith Triumphant like the Abramic monotheisms. Buddhism doesn't need to be number one, as long as it is, it is. Come to think of it, that is a very Buddhist way of looking at it.

I also think the author is overlooking the convert factor. But I do find the notion of a dynamic balance between the religious and nonreligious American Buddhists fascinating.

There are several splits I see in modern American Paganism, but one of the biggest is if Paganism is a religion or a practice. Yes, I know that the word religion is loaded, but in this context I think it fits. So for the sake of this discussion, let's define religion as the way that someone touches that part of the universe beyond humanity and leave it at that.

So assuming we have a useful axis extending between operative and ceremonial magick, we find that most (but not all) tend to fit within three clusters. And yes, there are other factors and dimensions that should be considered, but not here. Call the first cluster the temple cluster, magick is performed only within a religious setting. Call the third cluster the mechanic cluster, magick exists as a force to be used but the connection to Deity is either nonexistent or unimportant. The second cluster seems to be mainly solitaries and acknowledges Deity as needed, but often works without it.

While the proportions within the clusters will change over time, I can't see any one cluster dominating for very long.

And this was an interesting bit of speculation as far as it goes. But then came the day after Thanksgiving. And Christmas music. The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album. The Governor's Dream.

The song tells the story of Christianity as a Faith Triumphant as seen in the dream of a Pagan governor of the Jews. And all the great pagan glories are so much rubble as the New Faith builds magnificent temples and churches far beyond what those puny pagan beliefs could do, complete with angelic chorus and Divine sanction.

That got me to thinking. What will our modern Paganism leave for the ages?

Not so many years ago I would have trotted out a stock answer about greater awareness of the planet and greater acceptance of people. But I have seen enough now to recognize the tyranny in that answer.

But it is not really our decision what we will leave for the ages. History will look after itself long after the fact, it always does.

Thinking for the ages is the wrong approach. We can't control it, and we can't do anything about it if it goes wrong.

Our legacy is what we personally can pass along to another.

Right now I can only think of two of my ideas that are important enough for me to pass along.

First is my wyrd orgone root. It's one of the core principles in my Webtree lore. It is useful, but it is mostly a synthesis of the other's work.

The second is one sentence. "The story is not the journey." It took me years to work out and it may be the most important thing I have done. Even there, I am not sure it is wholly original. Victorian thinkers discussed it and I may have read something about it, history buff that I am. I haven't been able to find anything in the "standard" literature past about 1930 or so. But then there is Tolkein, story vs. journey is a major theme in The Hobbit and is touched on several times in The Lord of the Rings.

Still, those are the things that I would pass on.

Posted: Tue - November 27, 2007 at 01:42 PM
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