In 2010 Syracuse University’s Henricks Chapel formally appointed a Pagan Chaplain, making Syracuse the second American university to appoint such a position. The University of Southern Maine (UME) set the precedent way back in 2002. Syracuse was next in 2010 followed by the Air Force Academy (USAFA) in 2011. More than three years have passed since Syracuse welcomed Pagan Chaplain, Mary Hudson. In that time she has accomplished much; most recently, the installation of a dedicated sacred stone circle in the campus’ main quad.
Syracuse University
Photo Courtesy of Flickr’s rju92
Prior to 2010 Syracuse had already taken steps to advocate for religious plurality and tolerance. For example, The Student Pagan Information Relations and Learning (SPIRAL) was a recognized and active student-run group for whom Mary was the advisor. While working for the school’s IT department, Mary assisted Pagan students and was frequently asked to guest-lecture in mythology and religion classes.
Mary Hudson
Ironically, in 2009, Mary had made a personal decision to leave university life completely. She recalls:
I was worried what would happen [to the Pagan students] once I left the University. As it happens, the universe…gods…guides…ancestors…or…whatever had different plans. The Chaplaincy was [established] and recognized with myself appointed to be the Pagan Chaplain.
Tiffany Steinwert, Dean of Henricks Chapel, explains that having a Pagan Chaplain was “crucial to fulfilling their mission,” which reads:
Hendricks Chapel is the diverse religious, spiritual, ethical and cultural heart of Syracuse University that connects people of all faiths and no faith through active engagement, mutual dialogue, reflective spirituality, responsible leadership and a rigorous commitment to social justice.
Dean Tiffany Steinwert
Just recognizing SPIRAL wasn’t enough. Dean Steinwert stressed Syracuse’s commitment to religious equality. For that reason alone, all Pagan religions and their chaplain had to be “listed in a normative way.”
Over the past three years the response to the Pagan Chaplaincy has been mostly positive. Although there were some initial grumbles from the community, they were, as Dean Steinwert says, “low impact.” She describes the majority of reactions as “Huh? Pagan?” In her mind this confusion opens a doorway to facilitate greater religious literacy. It presents a teaching moment. Mary notes:
I’ve had the sign [taken] off my bulletin board… I get the occasional hate mail or email… I had a death threat or two in the beginning but nothing like that since then. I’ve talked with many a person to educate them that Pagans aren’t evil devil worshipers. Some believe me; some don’t but that is for them to decide not me. On occasion I get a cold shoulder from a visiting guest but it is due to their ignorance and fear….”
Despite any backlash, the Chapel and its staff have remained committed to their mission. Mary says, “I have met some of the most incredibly amazing individuals of faith you could possibly imagine and been welcomed with open arms.”
This dedication to religious pluralism extends way beyond the Chapel walls to the University administration itself. Mary explains:
The Pagan Chaplaincy was the only [one] that did not have dedicated religious space on campus. I submitted a proposal several years ago…but that was prior to the Pagan Chaplaincy being recognized. About a year ago I was asked to resubmit the proposal.
When Dean Steinwert sent the proposal to the Design and Construction team, she expected objections and concerns. Instead she got positive feedback and questions focusing solely on religious sensitivity issues such as: Would Mary have to lay the stones? What types of stones would be needed? Did the stones need to be specially blessed?
The project was approved with relative ease. On October 14, the school installed four permanent altar stones in the main quad, each representing the cardinal directions. Coincidentally, while the stones were laid, a Native American Student group happened to be performing a ceremonial dance across the quad. Mary says,“[This] is a true symbol of the dedication that the University has to supporting all people in a diverse world.”
Syracuse University’s Stone Circle
Syracuse is not the first educational institution to approve a sacred space for Pagan practice. The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) created its Falcon Circle in 2011. After much backlash and media hype over the $51,484 price tag, the USAFA Public Affairs department released this a statement:
The Cadet Chapel that now houses Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist worship areas cost $3.5 million to build — in 1959. That would be more than $25 million in today’s dollars, or enough to build 500 Falcon Circles.
Chaplain (Col.) Robert Bruno, the Academy’s senior chaplain, was quoted as saying:
The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion does not just apply to the mainstream faith groups, e.g., Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Orthodox (or) Muslim…It also applies to atheists, secularists, freethinkers and those whose belief systems are usually classified under the umbrella term of ‘Earth-Centered Spirituality….A denial of constitutional rights to one threatens the constitutional rights of all.
Since 2010 both USAFA’s and Syracuse’s inclusivity policies have made national headlines due to both schools’ prominence. This visibility has undoubtedly helped expand the public discourse on Pagan Chaplaincy and Paganism in general.
Cynthia Jane Collins
To be fair, it was a much smaller school that paved the way. In 2002 Cynthia Jane Collins became the first Pagan Chaplain at the University of Southern Maine (UME) in Portland. She was recruited to assist Pagan students work through their 9/11 grief. Cynthia resigned in 2013 handing the position over to a trusted Pagan colleague. Of the eleven years at UME, she recalls:
Seeing people of religion and faith work together for the good of all was inspiring…Everything was not easy, simple or even resolved the thing I think that held us together, and hold chaplaincies in any area together, is the commitment of folk to know other folk.
Outside of the United States, there are several universities with Pagan chaplaincies. These include Aston University and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. The University of Toronto has both Wiccan Chaplain and a Celtic & Recon Tradition Chaplain. Both the University of Victoria in Canada and Flinders University in Australia have had Pagan Chaplains in recent years. (Why they no longer do is still being investigated.)*
Why are there so few Pagan Chaplains in general? Is it fear of backlash or an age-old prejudice? Mary believes the answer is far simpler. She says, “Most institutions don’t think about Pagans, or at least haven’t in the past. [They don’t] understand that there might be a need.” This may change as highly visible institutions like Syracuse and USAFA continue to recognize Paganism through the support of Chaplaincies and sacred space.
Mary Hudson preparing an altar
Mary has described the past three years as “the greatest experience of her life”- one that she “would never have imagined possible fifteen years ago.” She recalls:
Something a little odd has happened as well with non-Pagan students, faculty and staff…As a Pagan, I’m often the “safe” Chaplain to talk to about hard issues. I have conversations start with “I’m (insert faith tradition) and I don’t want to change, but I want to talk about (insert topic causing crisis in faith) and I thought you would be safe. I don’t want to talk dogma, I just want to talk.”
Syracuse’ Pagan Chaplaincy has come a long way in three years. Mary currently continues to assist Pagan students on a daily basis, to interface with other schools, including the USAFA, and to represent Syracuse and Paganism at national and international Chaplaincy events. Mary adds:
Most of the time people have no idea how much of an impact they can make in the world around them. It doesn’t have to be a big thing to make that impact, it can be little things.
Sometimes those little things can add up to make one big thing.
* Update (11/24 3:45 PST): Flinders University has confirmed that they do still have a Pagan Chaplain.
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Ahhh! This is so cool! This is literally what I am training to do!
Well lets be clear this is Wiccan and not inclusive of Paganism itself. Paganism doesn’t have a “church” but Wiccan is an offshoot of a 60’s movement to bring back a type of Witchcraft. Unfortunately for many of us pagans whom follow pre-Wiccan beliefs we are lumped with this movement while we fight for our own recognition and get rebuffed by the Wiccan community. Fortunately we are now seeing that the Wiccan community is bringing to light other forms of Earth based beliefs that will eventually open doors for us that tend to follow the far older beliefs such as HedgeWitch or Pantheism.
Thank you for your comment. Your point is well-taken. However in the case of Syracuse Univ, it is not entirely true. Mary Hudson is not Wiccan. I asked her this question specifically. She works with the Celtic Pantheon and Fey. She chooses to keep her specific beliefs more or less private so she can better guide students on their own Pagan journeys – whatever that be.
I also want to make clear this has no reflection on Mary herself whom I admire and respect for following her own path. As to the writer I also know she is simply writing what is happening so my comment is no reflection on her either, I just want to give another point of view from a Pagan whom has been around for a very long time and has her own fairly large community with contributors across the World.
Thank you for the comments, but I think I should clarify that every year I begin with “this isn’t a Wiccan Chaplaincy” it is for Pagans, all Pagans. Over the years I have had Santeria, Solitary Wiccan, Druidic, Celtic, Asatru, Greek Reconstructionist, Russian Shamanism and a myriad of others cross my threshold – all of which are welcome and encouraged to participate and share in order to more fully integrate Pagan practices into University life. I offer what would be the “basic” neo-pagan rites for all to attend and then work with students of their varying paths to hold their rites and celebrations as well. There is no one way we do things in the Chaplaincy, it is fluid and ever changing based upon the need of the University community at the time. I hope this clears up a little of what goes on in my world?
How can you (adequately) ‘chaplain’ all of those religions?
I don’t mean to disparage what you do, I am genuinely curious as to how that can actually work. Especially when other religious chaplains are far more specialised.
This is just my guess, but I think the low population of pagan students probably necessitates a jane-of-all-trades chaplaincy when it comes to polytheist, pagan, and neopagan faiths.
I have an extensive network of individuals that I work with from varying faith traditions. I have two assistants, both of whom follow different paths than myself. Between the three of us we know a lot of people and a lot of very knowledgeable practitioners that are willing to help. Most students are looking for a safe place to practice. Once they feel comfortable in that, we move forward. I have brought in a number of speakers over the years, find many resources to make available. Is it perfect? No, but for the moment it works.
Thank you for your prompt answer.
I think I understand a little more, now. It is more about ‘facilitation’ than what I traditionally understood a chaplain to be. Which, in cases such as this, is most definitely a good thing.
Facilitate on one level yes and on another very much a traditional role. I do pastoral care, hospital visits, rites if passage such as weddings (handfastings) and funerals, educational activities and everything else. But I know I do t know it all and therefore I look to experts in faith traditions other than my own to help.
Here’s a good link on Chaplain (the military version) duties. I see no reason why Mary would not be able to fulfill most of these for any version of pagan (minus the last 2).
http://www.militaryonesource.mil/phases-military-leadership?content_id=269246
I would not more go to a Wiccan for the performance of religious duties as I would a Catholic.
I see this in as much a Female form of Christianity. I agree with your views there is No Pagan church and No pagan chaplian
s as All pagans perform the role of chaplain because there is no doctrine.
what I see here is simply a Multi denominational church.
various types of Faith that claim to be the only faith cannot share the same space as sacred to anyone else.
this includes Wiccans, heathens, animists the list is about as individual as there are Faiths
for instance in mainstream faiths.
a Muslim cannot accept a Christian offering of wine as a sacrament.
Hebrew and Muslim see witchcraft as idolatrous so cannot share the same space .
Wiccans cannot even agree whether there should be a Male God or who should be the Archetype of the Coven yet it has always been handed to the Next in Line which is supposed to Be Male to female or female to male.
Thank you
As a chaplain of sorts of the Wiccan circle at San Quentin State Prison, I meet with the circle in the minority faith chapel. Federal law mandates that inmates receive religious counsel and services of the religion of their choice. There are more religions and little sects than you can imagine that we share that little room with. Just a reality check. We live in a complex multicultural, multiethnic, multigenerational world.
Persephone Hades Paganism simply means “someone who does not follow the Christian God” by them doing this it shows progress for us all. Wicca is just a branch of Paganism as is Druidism. There are many branches to our Path and as a Pagan you should know this. We should be thankful that we are making progress. As for the word Chaplain it really is no different than using the words High Priest or High Priestess considering the words are also used by Christians. This is nothing to be upset by it is progress for us all and our students and youth are seeing the change of acceptance coming for them and their Path will become easier for them in social settings which is exactly what our community have been fighting for,
Preaching to the converted doesn’t do well.
All it serves is to show the inability to misunderstand what has been said.
I do not believe a Pagan in the singular has many branches as I stated in an earlier post,
here we go again.
Pagan is a generic term for People of various faiths and many of those Faiths are incompatible with each path and each other.
to simply state a pagan is a non Christian is the same as saying all pagans are Druids, wiccans, heathens, Celtic recon and whatever takes their fancy at the time. I think not.
perfect example is
a Heathen and a Wiccan cannot occupy the same area Space of worship.
Wiccans agree on the duality of the All. (if they don’t my opinion is they don’t follow Wicca,, being involved in the early years I might know a little)
Heathens Kill for celebration and have a patriarchal hierarchy. as well as a Patriarchal godhead. these cannot stand in the same circle celebrating a Lunar or solar totally matriarchal event. Vikings had a different faith from the Celts and certainly had a differet faith from the romans.
as for the Hindus and Buddhists,,,
pagan well ask them?
.
I’ve personally seen people of varying pagan paths step into THIS circle together and perform a ritual that was very basic, consisting only of elements that most of us would agree on, but yet was very effective for those involved. Any time you put 2 pagans together, regardless of their individual paths you’re dealing with an interfaith exchange. That’s what makes us pagan. We’re all part of an experiential faith and we all have unique experiences. That doesn’t mean we should in any way allow that to divide us. We need organizations like this Chaplaincy to support these students who will hopefully become the future leaders of our community. If you haven’t seen these students you are really missing out. They don’t buy into your argument that this person CAN’T circle with that person. That’s such a narrow worldview, and contrary to what I saw with my own two eyes.
I just want to point out, with some irony, the very idea of a “circle” or using it as a verb is fundamentally Wiccan, not something “we all agree on”.
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Wisdom/BlackElk.html
Black Elk Speaks — The Great Circle (quoting my favorite part):
“The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.”
I’m with you on blanket statements.
That’s not really the same thing as the way a “circle” is used in Wiccan/eclectic/ceremonial magick though. That’s more of a conceptual usage, which I agree is fairly common throughout various different cultures.
I meant specifically the practice of a circle used in ritual. If you can find me someone else “casting the circle” (I believe that’s the correct terminology) then I’ll agree my point is too generalized. But I’m unaware of the practice anywhere outside of Western neo-paganism.
I’m a practicality generalist. I agree with you on principle — I’ll further specify it to being unhappy that Wiccan terminology is nearly ubiquitous — but I hold to another principle embodied by this quote from Duke Ellington concerning music: If it sounds good,it is good.
That can be taken as disrespectful to people such as yourself (and me) who demand precision in language and its usage. I certainly don’t mean it that way. But I do acknowledge the utility of it.
I also see it as a potential diminshing returns problem. I will (even unhappily) sling the lingo if it means effective communication.
My personal perspective towards and perception of sacred space permits no boundaries, geometric or other. But if I want to talk about it, I need to have terms that will convey the essence. “Circle” works for me. YMMV.
I won’t pretend a thorough knowledge of the way casting a circle is used, but it seems your usage would be in significant contrast to that of someone else from the tradition that generally uses that term.
Maybe it’s just personal preference, but if that is the case I’d prefer to use another term rather than risk the confusion and ambiguity. Two people using the same term in much different ways is more harmful than me using another term and just explaining it I think, but again, that might just be my preference.
As a local pagan organizer (not currently active, hoping to again be so) I found it sometimes uncomfortable balancing on the sword’s edge between being politic and politically correct. I abhor political correctness. That alone has earned me my curmudgeon’s id card.
You and I are likely to have much further contact in this forum. Please be assured that I am not given to dismissing your (or anyone’s) position as “just preference” and I’m unlikely to be silent if someone else does that. Having said that, matters of preference can be showstoppers or jumping off points. It really depends on the choice of the participants.
I just happen to like jumping. 😀
Seems like you’re looking to beat up on straw men, since I never said “we all agree on” I said most of us would agree on the elements included in the ritual I attended. Maybe in a big city the pagans can all splinter off into their own groups and have no contact with anyone else, but here we all mix. And in my opinion we’re all much better off for it. I use the term circle you can substitute ritual, rite, whatever. It makes no difference. People of various faiths can definitely find common ground and share sacred space for an event. That’s all I was saying.
It definitely makes a difference to some of us. There is a slim difference between leaning towards the practices of most people and a tyranny of the majority, and I’ve noticed a tendency towards the later. I’m not the only one by any degree.
Honestly, I can share a space, but not at the same time. The idea of doing a ritual with a Wiccan is just as nonsensical to me as doing one with a Christian.
Also, you did say, explicitly, “elements that most of us would agree on”. I suppose “all” is a word I shouldn’t have used, but it’s not far off from what you said at all.
The difference between all and most is quite vast. I’m not looking to denigrate your beliefs at all, but I can’t help seeing some hyperbole in your comments. Somehow a chaplain trying to serve a diverse community is tyranny? Or merely using language that we all understand, you know very well what I meant when I said circle, but you chose to take offense to it because it’s not the exact word from your tradition. That’s my point of view. You’re seeing negativity where there is none. I’ve been a solitary since 1998, and my experience on Samhuinn 2013 at SU with the pagan students shook up my beliefs about how mainstream society views pagans. I saw a group performing a ritual in public with plenty of people walking by and not screaming that we’re going to hell or worshiping the devil or other such nonsense. So at precisely the time when we’re finding more mainstream acceptance, here we are fighting among ourselves. It’s really sad.
There is a divide in our wider community, and it will IMO require constant caretaking: We have no unifying identity, and those who have coalesced into bona fide communities around their “local” identity are going to look askance at the rest of us who abhor or disdain “joining”, or simply see no need to be anything but solitary in our spiritual paths.
I am personally sensitive to these boundaries. I’ve contributed a significant share of energy to the tensions, something from which I derive an equally significant ethical commitment to mediation and facilitation of finding and sharing a common ground. I cannot exaggerate how much I admire Mary Hudson in that light.
There are gradations of rhetoric, and there are the egos represented by the multitude of chips on shoulders. There is a serious issue of mistrust in both directions.
Anyone on any side of the divide is welcome to expect a default respect from others. That is valid on its face. We are also challenged to respond to disrespect with passive acceptance instead of in-kind reaction. It’s difficult, it’s damned difficult, but I assert that unless we meet that challenge we are not going to make any progress of any sort.
From my POV, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I often become frustrated trying to convince others of that POV. I make that effort from an objective judgment that it’s worth it. I’m no paragon, and maybe I’m well-calloused (okay, perhaps just jaded) or even a bit masochistic. I still come back to that judgment. It has yet to be falsified.
No, I said there is a thin line between serving the majority and a tyranny of the majority. The term as a whole is important, you must use the whole term. Further, I did not suggest the chaplain is one or the other. I’m speaking in broad terms. This issue represents a wider one.
It’s not the exact word. It’s absolutely meaningless in my tradition. I “took offense” because I’m tired of being treated as if my path does not exist and being shoved under some generalized eclectic/Wiccanate system.
There is certainly negativity in this sort of power dynamic. The reason there is “fighting” is because the direction the broader pagan community is going is privileging some over others, and it’s becoming more and more clear as time goes on. Again, this is not solely about me. I am not alone in this.
Quite simply, what you see as positive, and I’m glad it’s positive for you, to me has distinctly negative trends which are being constantly reinforced by pagan media and many of the comments I see here. Your comments seem to suggest you expect me to not mention that negative direction in order to serve some “greater good”, but I don’t see that good, nor do I think I have any responsibility to stay quiet so one part of the “pagan umbrella” can institutionalize itself as dominant.
I hear and resonate with the complaint from you and other Recons that you are marginalized under an umbrella that is largely Wiccan/oid and eclectic. You are certainly in a minority on TWH. Let me suggest a couple of alternatives to complaining about language use.Present yourselves to the folks planning Pagan Pride Days, public Samhains & Beltanes, etc as interfaith representatives — to the effect that such festivities misrepresent what they purport to hold up to the public if they do not reflect a broader spectrum. Don’t go in with a chip on your shoulder and don’t begin with gripes about appropriation. I don’t wish to re-litigate whether such complaints are valid; just saying it’s the wrong foot to start off on.Especially if you don’t get any traction at that, sponsor some specific Recon fests (or whatever you want to call them) on a city-wide basis. Hang out what you’ve got to offer and see if you can’t get some Wiccan/oid-eclectic attendees going back to the PPD sponsors saying, “Hey, why can’t we include some of their stuff? It’s cool.”To avoid getting off on another wrong foot, don’t reply to the effect that what I suggest is circumstantially impossible. Make it possible.I empathize with your situation because I’ve been through the same kind of marginalization trying to wedge the Goddess into a supposedly global institute on religion and science, when they decided to hold a conference on “The Meaning of God.” Getting nowhere, I held workshops in the available time and beat the crap out of them on their own terms. I also offered a Goddess video that evoked such interest as to need repeat showings in progressively larger rooms and got the conference center staff asking to borrow it. I had enough adrenaline going it was actually fun. That institute now has regular Goddess stuff on offer.
I think we’ll both agree when I say I’m probably not temperamentally inclined to organizing such things. I’ve run concerts, but there’s generally more consensus on such issues, and I usually do tech more than all the people stuff. Further, as much as I see the logic in it, it reminds me too much of playing the “good minority” which drives me insane.
Or in short, I don’t reject your advice, I just think I’m probably uniquely unsuited to playing that particular role.
playing the “good minority”I was a student protester in the Sixties, a neighborhood activist in the Seventies in a neighborhood threatened by the bulldozers, and part of the pioneer Pagan cohort in the Eighties. In every setting we needed both the “nice minorities” and the “uppity minorities.” The Uppities embodied the pure principles and the Nicers could tell the Establishment “Deal with us or deal with them.”I played both roles, depending on the situation, and it worked a lot of the time. What’s needed is a population with enough involved Uppities and Nicers to pull it off.
Should have been “pioneer Pagan cohort among the Unitarian Universalists.”
Who exactly it treating you as if your path does not exist? I don’t even know what path you’re on. Pagan IS an umbrella term, and just because Wiccans are the majority doesn’t mean other paths aren’t valid. As someone on a druidic path I know full well the tension between Recons and more eclectic modern “druids”. I don’t mind a conversation about the tension, but the idea that anyone else has any real impact on your own personal path is contrary to the whole idea of being a pagan in the first place. A group conducting a circle that doesn’t fit my beliefs no more effects me, than the Catholic Church 2 blocks from my home holding sunday morning services. So why get upset about it? Why put all this negativity into a discussion about what a big step forward it is that SU appointed a Pagan Chaplain? If you were a student at SU, I’m confident that Mary would do everything in her power to facilitate your tradition and provide you with the space and resources needed.
Catholic Churches don’t generally take terms and holidays from me and redefine them in completely modern ways, but the issue of appropriation seems to be a sensitive one here, if I can get people to discuss it at all. The analogy then is not accurate.
As for who, take a look around. The broader community tends to mention recons/hard polytheists/heathens in very limited circumstances. Generally in regards to racist movements. The Wild Hunt is one of the better ones, and I can think of few examples to the contrary.
Catholic Churches certainly did take holidays, symbology, and even canonized my gods for crying out loud. Still, their service on sundays has no direct effect on me, my practices, or my life.
I know there is a rift between polytheist/recons and pantheist/eclectics for lack of a better term. We’re clearly on opposite sides of that spectrum, and while I appreciate your point of view, I can’t seem to lose my rose colored glasses. I’ll refer to Charles Colton… “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Imitation means keeping the original context. The appropriation of Celtic holidays by predominantly Anglo neo-pagans, divorced from context and full of modern ideas and meanings completely foreign to the holiday itself, is nothing but pure appropriation. Why so many Wiccans and eclectics fear admitting that is beyond me, but the discussion is shut down before it can start in most cases.
The Catholics tended to rename their things in a distinct context. Something with neo-pagans have failed to do when they appropriate. A dualtheistic Wiccan has no business using the term Beltaine for a holiday that bears no resemblance to Beltaine. Create your own name and have your own holiday.
I’m all for scholarship and attempting to find a closer meaning, but IMO the reason some Recons have a hard time is on display right in your comment. You’re saying that you have “The Truth” about something, and everyone else must accept it or they’re wrong. That’s as annoying as monotheists. We should be able to reasonably agree that the 8 fold wheel of the year is commonly accepted and practiced, at the same time we can agree that your Beltane celebration will likely be very different from mine. Why is that a problem, except that you don’t like me calling mine Beltane?
It’s not “Truth”. It’s fact. You cannot create your own facts. If you try and tell me Beltaine is about “unabashed sexuality” and “maypoles” you are WRONG. If you say it’s about a God and Goddess, you are WRONG. That is a different holiday, one of your creation, it has nothing to do with Beltaine.
These names were only taken because they were “exotic” to the 19th and early 20th century Englishmen who founded many of the modern neo-pagan traditions. It is pure appropriation, they were taken, redefined, used for their exotic nature, and the people themselves were not asked in the least. The very nature of English people taking misunderstood Celtic practices after centuries of working to wipe out and marginalize Celtic peoples should give you pause on it’s own, without even discussing how clearly Celtic practices, real or fake, are used to provide “mysticism” and “exoticism” to people who find their practices too mundane.
Because your holiday is not Beltaine. Why must you call it that, since its clear it has absolutely nothing to do with the historical practice?
It’s a fact? As written down by some Christian in a monastery hundreds of years after ancient pagans stopped practicing.
Furthermore, you’re ascribing the worst possible motivation to the father’s of modern paganism. The way I’ve always heard the story is that they were inspired. At the dawn of the 20th century, people were slowly waking up to the fact that their pre-christian past wasn’t savage and terrible as told to them by the church, but instead offered a beautiful tradition to rival the eastern mystery schools. They viewed their ancestors with reverence and sought to borrow their traditions in creating a modern incarnation of their pagan past. Sounds a little nicer when you put it that way….
Maybe they didn’t get everything quite right, but after at least 60 years of Wicca in the public eye, those interpretations are the basis for current practice. Few people own livestock these days, dedicating a holiday to their blessing probably seemed a little odd, so they did appropriate the name, and associated it with the spring, fertility, etc…
I can bloody well tell you there were no “God and Goddess” involved, and I can also tell you there were no maypoles, yes, as a fact. I find people who feel uncomfortable when I bring up this point tend to minimize the reliability of the historical record as their first defense.
No, I’m ascribing to them a common human practice. Appropriation is far too common, and many people have done it. But you cannot ignore the fact that they were primarily Anglo, and that they took from marginalized cultures quite frequently, not only limited to the Celts.
Most of them fell into “noble savage” stereotypes. You’re presenting that as if it’s not harmful. If I’m being too negative, you’re being hopelessly naive and ignorant about the intellectual currents at the time.
Yes, so now a holiday that has a meaning has been redefined because of the laziness of a group of people some 60 odd years ago, and the unwillingness of their spiritual descendants to grapple with this legacy. You seem to suggest that is fine. I find it fundamentally wrong.
We can go round and round and never convince the other. I do absolutely minimize the accuracy and relevance of the historic record. To me, it’s a source of inspiration, not a shackle to bind my practice. We certainly wouldn’t agree on your neat separation of “anglo” and “celt”. Regardless, we’re rather far afield from the original article. I have enjoyed talking to you about this, but it seems pointless to continue.
I question the credentials of anyone who so willingly dismisses the accuracy of scholarship. Unless you’re a historian, archaeologist, or anthropologist, you’re essentially dismissing it because you want to, not because you have reasons to do so.
A 19th century Englishmen was very much in the Anglo camp. This isn’t about blood, it’s about culture. I don’t think you can separate the development of ceremonial magic and neo-paganism from European colonial attitudes. There is simply far too much overlap.
Funny, but every time I try and have this conversation this is what happens. It will never be “on topic”, because no one will discuss it outright.
I honestly think it’s because the discussion will go nowhere. You continue to denigrate my opinion, despite my best efforts to be kind to you. now you’re calling me intellectually lazy, which I can assure you I’m not. I simply have no use for ceremonies that bless cows and wells. I have no cows. I have no wells.
I find Reconstructionism to be absolutely pointless, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect those who do find validity on that path. The problem is you can’t return that respect. You’ve continuously told me I’m wrong, that my practices and beliefs are wrong. If you feel marginalized it’s probably because you’ve done that to yourself. I’m not trying to be harsh here, but typically the common denominator is the problem.
For what it’s worth you can google up an article on the differences between ADF and OBOD. It’s almost exactly the discussion we’ve been having.
Today we are not Vikings or Roman Senators or Irish chieftains, not Greek warriors or Egyptian pharaohs, et cie. We are (most of the readers here) Americans of all stripes, mostly with mixed ethnic and genetic heritage, and we are creating our religions to understand and appreciate (worship, if you will) the world in which we find ourselves. That’s why, IMO, the Abrahamic religions in general seem so irrelevant. Today we don’t have to worry about what’s cooked in what vessel, since we use stainless steel rather than clay. Instead, we have to concern ourselves with fossil fuels and organ donations. At least when it comes to religious persuasions, these are matters I find better addressed in Pagan contexts. Religion, to me, nourishes the soul. Further, to me it’s not about belief at all, but rather it’s about practice. Practice can bring about all manner of understandings, insights, compassion for others, perspective. I don’t think belief does that. I’m just sayin’… BTW, I am a Witch and I don’t subscribe to “agree on the duality of the All.” I practice and do my best to live a life of caring, service, cooperation, beliefs aside.
Considering there is more theological divergence between say a Wiccan and a Celtic Reconstructionist than a Wiccan and a Christian(depending on the Wiccan), I’m not sure how they can simply be “branches” of something. That suggests some sort of unitary thing, but other than being “Other” I don’t see any such unity.
Keep in mind that a chaplain is not the same thing as a coven priestess or even a parish priest. It is a specific professional function serving people of all and no faiths. Here’s a good interview with a Cherry Hill Seminary faculty member: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs105/1102857303026/archive/1114503210556.html
What great news about progress! Thanks to Mary for the work she’s doing to to Syracuse for being inclusive.
So great to hear about the ways my alma mater is serving Pagan students. I get the Hendricks Chapel newsletter, and I didn’t even know about this! I identified as a Christian when I was a grad student at the Newhouse School back in 1999-2000, and I really got a lot out of the Christian student group I was part of and the services that Hendricks offered us. But I’m a Pagan now, and it’s so awesome to hear that Pagan students will be able to have a similar experience. Go Orange!
I am so proud of you, Chaplain Mary. And I am proud of that University and the Dean as well. What a much-needed role you are fulfilling. You are going to be able to look back on your life and know that you made a very real and positive difference in many young people’s lives. Thank you for sharing your time, talent, knowledge, skills, and dedication with the University and its people. *Good, good job.*
What an awesome and excellent place!
A stone circle to represent what?
“Why do you keep using that word? I do not think it means what you think it means.”
— Inigo Montoya
Not too much levity, I hope, but there is a wider discussion here that does need to happen, and it must start — in my insufficiently humble opinion — with value to the community.
I put it that way because we are, like it or not, still stuck with a binary, negatively-defined label for ourselves. Until we come up with a comprehensive (yes, probably too many words) descriptive definition of “Pagan” we are just going to have to live with “not one of the Big Three” or variations thereof.
Mary Hudson is fulfilling a community role in a narrowly-defined community that does not have an indigenous population. Academia is not really “community” in the sense in which we usually think of it. I personally extend that to online places. When the motivation for gathering is narrowly restricted (or just almost trivially generic) there is no community. There is just a bunch of people.
The difference in the college experience is in its day-to-day in-person aspect, and in its longevity for the participants. Our children (sorry, can’t find a less paternal way to put it) uproot themselves and join a bunch of strangers in a strange place for up to (and sometimes exceeding) four years.
That was more than a bit rambling. I suggest, sincerely and with full sympathy to objections, that a “Pagan chaplain” is exactly what is needed if we are going to find a definition of that word that actually works. Mary is in the process of creating a space of freedom, where people don’t have to hide or fear while pursuing their chosen spiritual paths. Some day, one of them is going to have a personal gnosis and have the skill to express it to the rest of us and the world. It will perhaps not be perfect right away, but could just be that starting point we all want, wish for or hope will just get the annoying parts out of the way.
Anyway, I believe it will start with us first. We need to find some common ground, some “comfort zone” where some significant portion of us don’t automatically bristle at the word. Yes, we have some problems with hegemony just like Christianity in the wider society, and Wiccans need to step up and do more than talk about it. Mary demonstrates one way to go about that. Yes, we have a severe obstacle in our being solitaries more than any other category. The Syracuse example will seed other such efforts, and some day — maybe not in our lifetimes, to our personal discontent — solitaries will find themselves being as relaxed and open about their spiritual paths as anyone else.
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