Encountering and Countering Culture
by Ruby Sara
Greetings, friends Pagani, from the continuously revelatory autumn days in the pretty-wild urban midwest! I’m still kind of reeling from my unexpected rapture. My dreams have been gentle and fierce, dreams of falling towards death in an elevator full of strangers, who choose, as a group, to spend their last few minutes of life not screaming in terror, but giving each other hugs….the best of what it means to be human blazing out of them all at once. Sappy….maybe you had to be there (maybe you were)…but it was a long time before I could shake the beautiful fragile sadness-hope of that exquisite moment from my heart, and for weeks I have been captured like a trembling moth inside numinous songs that cut me to the quick.
So what does it all mean? Hell if I know. I’m just here on the planet for the cinnamon rolls and the ecstasis.
Still, of course, it’s not all revelations and pentecost over here at Pagan Godspell. I’ve been away from the ‘sphere this past week working feverishly on a variety of projects. More on those I’m sure in the future…for the nonce, I’ve got ponderings I’ve been trying to work out for a few days in my feeble brain pan, and I’m sure I won’t rest until I can worry them out in the most rambling manner possible.
Yes, I have been pondering much since my recent, ridonkulously long opus, and I imagine I will still be parsing individual items from that post for months. Good timing, as the winter takes big steps over the tops of trees and runs its freezing hand over the ground and around my shoes. A perfect season for onion work…peeling layers, removing inedible parts. My intrepid spouse and I spent the weekend battening down the windows with blankets – as fun as the meat locker temperatures of our office in the dead of winter may be, we have made arrangements designed to help keep our toes on this year. And in the closets of my spirit I have been making my own preparations – my prayers haunted with the coming hallows, I clean my altar spaces and open old caverns in my heart, waiting for those Shining and Beloved Ones I dance and burn with to pluck the strings of the instrument within my chest, playing the hard songs of winter, that bloodless teaching season.
Here is what I believe (rather, here is one of the things I believe):
Once upon a very distant time, Religion wasn’t. Religion wasn’t, because Religion was Culture instead. Then, civilization came along, and divided Religion from Culture, and Religion had a choice. It could either choose to support the dominant Culture, or it could be Countercultural. Is this a simplistic version of events? Maybe just a hair. But work with me here. I’m trying to parse a Big Idea in a single blog post. It’s rather like trying to cram a king sized sheet into a muffin tin. It’s also arguably as useful. But I digress.
Cut to….right now. This minute. We (by “we” I mean civilization, and more specifically post-industrial, capitalist, monocultural, techno-driven, radically individualistic, hyper-hierarchical, patriarchal civilization….of course) currently operate under the auspices of a culture that posits extreme dominance, the oppression of the Other, the privileging and overpowering of the few, the rampant devastation of our landbases, soul-killing, war, the annihiliation of Beauty, etc. You get the point. You can argue with specifics, that’s fine. You can also think I’m full of shit…which is why I so cannily said earlier that this is what I believe (even though this is kind of a cop out). I’m saying I find there to be Something Wrong with the way we’re Going About Things. Of course, I don’t know what the Right Way is, I just have a bunch of silly ideas. Also, it is very very very very very very very hard to get away from this culture/worldview, because it is bred into our bones from birth. But that at least it can be known that Something Is Wrong is the bedrock supposition out of which the rest of the post springs…suffice to say, if you think the dominant culture is rockin’ awesome just the way it is, then it’s probably best for us to shake hands, say friend, and leave it at that. But if you’re still with me so far, then have a cinnamon roll, and walk with me on to the next cairn of nonsense…I promise it will be rocky.
So, then, we have Religion, and Myth, and Story (all the same to me). For the purpose of this post, let’s say that Religion/Story/Myth exist for the purpose of orienting a person or a group of persons to their World, a method of embodied and ensouled storytelling and art-making that allows the human animal to exist in relative harmony with their surroundings, their fellows, their bodies, i.e. the World. Does it always do this well? Nope. Are there folks who are going to argue with me about the definition of Religion above? Oh you betcha. But let’s go with the whole NPR “This I Believe” bit for a while longer, okay? You can call me a crazy person at any point. I can’t hear you, see.
THUS, if one posits that the dominant culture is Wrong and Generally Destructive, Dastardly and Disharmonious, AND one believes that the purpose of Religion is to orient the human animal towards harmony with their World, one might conclude that the Religion of one holding this belief should be necessarily countercultural. That would be me, holding that belief there. SO, when I was a young lass, and found the Religion that spoke to my bones and my breath and my blood, and had within it all the Secret and Beautiful Trumps of my own personal Story, I also thought that, naturally, its communities and ritual expression would also be countercultural; a Liturgical, Communal and Mythical Opposition to the Ugly Way Things Are.
But, in my experience, Paganism as it exists today in America (I can’t rightly speak to any communities outside my own country so I won’t), is not by and large a countercultural set of religions (I realize that there are traditions that have at their core a radical, progressive political agenda and I grok that, but I am talking about my impressions of Paganism as a whole….the contemporary Egregore of the thing, if you will…and many won’t agree, I recognize). Paganism in America was born almost completely out of the same cultural worldview as any other American religion. As such, it often posits some of the same flaws (according to moi): rampant materialism, radical individualism (as opposed to radical community), a kind of “eye for an eye” ethic, and a spiritual libertarianism that posits a kind of radically apathetic perennialism along the lines of “if it works for you, that’s right swell, no matter the consequences, unless of course it affects me personally…” the NIMBY of religious dialogue.
Being countercultural is about values and Stories, not necessarily lifestyles or liturgical choices (standing in circles instead of sitting in rows is not necessarily countercultural), though both of these may arise out of values and embody them in ways that radiate those values in a holistic and authentically evangelical (aha….evangelism again…and you thought I was done with that) way. Which is why I curdle sometimes when someone tells me that they are worried about Paganism selling out to the “mainstream.” Paganism is mainstream, in ways that cannot be necessarily solved by simple social rebellion or alternativism (i.e. idiosyncratic dress, alternative ritual structure, armchair occultism, etc). So then, if this is what I believe, it follows that I might ask how Paganism might be countercultural, since I thoroughly believe that it can be….which may be the beginning of a very long, very extended series of entirely different blog posts…..sometimes I bite off way more than I can possibly chew. Dammit.
Meh. I am not suggesting that it’s easy to let go of any worldview, and I am certainly not excepting myself. I’m typing this on a computer, in an enormous metropolitan area, surrounded by all kinds of possessions (read: crap), much of them probably of dubious ethical origin. Even the most dedicated radical communitarian is culpable in various ways to the worldview zie grew up in. We are all culpable. But that shouldn’t stop us from questioning the worldview on a continuing basis, asking questions, coming up with ideas and stories and myths that defy it, and embodying them in prayer and ritual and action.
What I am saying is that I think Paganism is a staggering well of blessed, authentic depth that can be effectively grokked in order to advent a real and profound countercultural shift. I am saying that it might behoove us to examine the countercultural aspects of other religions and see if they hold weight with us. I am saying that it begins with conversations about what we are trying to *do* in ritual, what we hope to say to people, what we hope they take away from prayer. It begins with thinking about what our Stories are, and whether they serve the Ultimate Purpose we feel we are working towards in our hearts (and that may be different for different folks, certainly). It begins with storytelling instead of rhetoric (of which I am obviously guilty), poetry instead of props, dancing and singing and eating and sharing. It begins with rich, embodied, sensate experiences, moments of real mystical ecstasis, which naturally infuse the individual and a community with real and authentic evangelism, which fuels action, and embraces compassion.
Yes, it may be that I am talking out of my own idiosyncratic theology, which I admit is richly influenced by my education in Protestant Christian circles, and in which case, as I’ve mentioned in my previous post on Angel-wrestling, I will have to deal with what that means. But now, in this moment, I am thinking about what it is to live a truly art-centric, earth-bound, prayerful, richly storied, countercultural religion, or at least to try to vett myself against that ideal, and see where I measure. To ask the Angel that holds me who She thinks is winning here. And that’s enough. Certainly, it’s enough talking. Prayer. Prayer and a cookie.
Grok Earth.
(standing in circles instead of sitting in rows is not necessarily countercultural),
Hmm, I’m not so sure.
It begins with rich, embodied, sensate experiences, moments of real mystical ecstasis, which naturally infuse the individual and a community with real and authentic evangelism, which fuels action, and embraces compassion.
You had me until “evangelism” — which has only, and very, negative connotations to me. I don’t want to evangelize anyone. Ever. Nor do I want to be evangelized. But I take your larger point and it’s one that I’ve struggled with and blogged about. I think that creating and experiencing and recovering physically from those kind of experiences — which are what I think Paganism is SUPPOSED to produce — take time that our society works very hard to ensure we don’t have. Ehrenrich’s “Dancing in the Streets” is great on how capitalism and the need for regimented workers more or less destroyed public ritual. I don’t know the answer, but I do think that’s the beginning of asking the right question.
Hecate – as ever, thank you so much for your response. Certainly, I don’t feel that I know for sure about much, and I am grateful for the opportunity to engage in conversation with folks on these issues.
Certainly I see that circles vs. rows can be revolutionary – or rather, the embodied act of meeting people in a shape that implies equality and wholeness rather than one that has traditionally meant hierarchy, this I get. But I have seen also rituals in circles that maintain hierarchy with the best of them, and so I wonder if this is enough. Also, if a person is inspired to change themselves, feed people, do Work in the world to end oppression, etc., while sitting in a pew…well I just don’t know. I’m still working that out for myself.
Your point about the word “evangelism” is well taken. Certainly I know there are many who object to the term, as anyone defines it. Of course, I do not interpret evangelism as the same act as proselytization – the former, to me, being the living embodiment of deeply held values and beliefs (in the case of earth-centered Pagani, the non-invasive sharing of the Mama’s “Good News”), and the latter being the kind of in-your-face, superior, fear-mongering, invasive crap we all can’t stand. But I’m aware of the word’s incendiary and problematic nature for a lot of folks. I am guilty of using it partly to be provocative, it’s true.
But I also think, given a different lens, it can be a truly stirring concept, or at least, it has been for me.
And I agree whole-heartedly with you regarding having time, and of course, I think Eherenrich is spot on here (and what a great effing book “Dancing in the Streets” is!!!).
I don’t have the answers either…
But I do believe in asking questions!
Also, not that you’ve implied that I said any such thing, but I do think it’s important, while I’m here, to point out that I also believe that there are folks among the Pagani doing really awesome, important, countercultural work…this particular post was born out of my experiences over a long period of time and on a perceived larger scale…and I’m very willing to be convinced otherwise.
Thank you again for your thoughts!!
-RS
I really appreciate this:
“Once upon a very distant time, Religion wasn’t. Religion wasn’t, because Religion was Culture instead. Then, civilization came along, and divided Religion from Culture, and Religion had a choice. It could either choose to support the dominant Culture, or it could be Countercultural.”
Yes, simplified just a touch. “Just a skosh” as my old choir director used to say, but still something that I don’t think we spend enough time thinking about, enough time absorbing in our lives. Indeed, this is one of the things that tends to frustrate me with modern pagan religious life. We seem to spend an awful lot of time creating religion. Defining religion. Explaining religion.
We try to come up with beliefs and practices that are relevant today, to our Culture, but pay homage to the Culture/religion of our ancestors. As a result, I think we often come up with Traditions and Religions that are astoundingly inauthentic. They taste sterile. They taste as though they’ve been created, as though they’ve sprung into life fully realized. They feel as though they have no depth in experience and as though they aren’t truly rooted to anything.
I think it very well may be that the missing element is the foundational element of culture. Many of our religious constructs in NeoPaganism are strictly mental, and don’t deeply reflect our cultural experience, or even a counter-cultural movement that we are part of. Perhaps a movement towards neoculturalism as a way of creating religion is in order.
Hi Theo – thanks for your thoughts!
YES, creating culture first! I think this is hugely important, and I couldn’t agree more. I too think that we spend a lot of time being awfully cerebral about our faith, when we might could spend more time telling stories, dancing, and cooking food to feed each other, all more recognized as cultural rather than necessarily religious elements (though they are of course, when it comes down to it, actually thoroughly and authentically religious *because* they’re cultural). Not that it hurts to be cerebral, of course…good theological discussion is, after all, gold. But a religion that lacks the elements of embodied culture is not really a living religion at all…but more of an intellectual Cartesian enterprise.
The natural followup question to this then is, of course, how does one go about working towards a “neoculturalism,” and what does this look like on the ground? And, of course, what is culture? And can it be purposefully acquired in an authentic, organic way? These are rich questions….sweet.
-RS
Many, perhaps most, Pagans probably do not want to diverge all that much from the dominant culture. But some Pagans do diverge a great deal from the dominant culture, and, at times, their Paganism takes them further away from the dominant culture.
Still, the dominant culture is a widespread and ongoing presence. We all adapt to it. Every adaptation is not an acquiescence. I think that countercultural elements exist that resist co-optation. Or we keep them from co-optation.
Camouflage. Masquerade. Other values and world views. The Spirit of Trickster.
American culture is broken. Of that I think there can be no doubt.
But the culture is only as good as its myths. If the culture is broken, the myths must be broken.
We might not know what myths are the perfect ones. I doubt there even is such a thing as a “perfect myth”. But we can surely tell which myths make us feel more connected to our cosmos and to one another.
And once we’ve discovered such myths and we feel those deeper connections, surely we’ll positively burn to share the stories with others. Not with the aim of coercing them, but with the aim of inspiring them, and leaving them in peace if we fail in that.
Even our scientific myths have flaws that are parlayed into great cultural dysfunctions. It’s a kind of Dark Age we live in. But lighting just one more candle could drive out uncounted frigid shades of ignorance, hate, and despair.
To shine the light is a calling felt by every spiritual person, isn’t it?
American culture being broken gets no argument from me, but I would have to disagree that our myths are broken. They are hidden in plain sight. (I actually did a post on modern myths.) They are also dismissed by so many who think they are “reasoning” minds. There are a few modern myths that sing to me so loudly, much louder than the myths of the cultures whose Gods and Goddesses have taken me in. I wonder sometimes why more people don’t heed them in America.
Another very good post. Plenty to think on today, and many other days. I do sometimes wonder how it could be possible for Paganism to “sell out” to the mainstream? I most often hear this term used in music circles, remnants of the Punk Movement rear their heads. Counterculturalism comes in many forms, does it have to go against the current, the main stream, or can it carve it’s own path, for it’s own stream to run?
Ruby Sara,
you got me thinking more than it would be appropriate to comment with, so I’ve responded on Autumn Twilight. http://tinyurl.com/yk2apak
“The natural followup question to this then is, of course, how does one go about working towards a “neoculturalism,” and what does this look like on the ground?”
Real, authentic culture is something defined by two things: stories (that is, myths, unitive stories, communion) and a lack of dams. Therefore, in order to establish authentic culture, we must tell stories that bring down dams. And this gets straight back to Ruby Sara’s point, I think: If we continue to support destructive civilization (which is essentially poisonous to human culture as well as to human and nonhuman life in general) through our acquiescence to disembodied theologies and and the ritual technologies of the Empowered, we will be necessarily unable to reunite with the World. Reunion with the World is the renaissance of authenticity.
And that’s why we should abandon the “Magic Circle” as our ecumenical Pagan ritual format. And I have to admit (as Derrick Jensen does in his wonderful book “A Language Older Than Words,” which RS recommended to me recently) that I’m not quite so sure we shouldn’t be going out and – actually- blowing up dams, too.
And I have to admit (as Derrick Jensen does in his wonderful book “A Language Older Than Words,” which RS recommended to me recently) that I’m not quite so sure we shouldn’t be going out and – actually- blowing up dams, too.
Of course we should and, honestly, I adore Jensen beyond reason, but he ignores the validity of magical action, as if it were no more effective than traditional leftist demonstrating. I think we need both, and Jensen, himself, admits that circular myths result in different societies than do dominator myths.
Thank you all for your fantastic comments! There is a lot of rich material here.
Certainly I agree that our culture is broken, as William has commented, and as others have mentioned, I think myth and culture are practically synonymous, which would lead to the conclusion that our fundamental cultural myths are broken. That they exist is of course not in question – we have a culture, and therefore we have myths, but they are myths that foster dysfunction and radical disassociation, splintering and disharmony – as such, they are “broken” myths. What these myths *are* could take up a bunch of posts. I’ve found Daniel Quinn’s books to be very illuminating when it comes to parsing some of these broken myths.
Johnny, I really like your use of “taking down dams” on the level of culture/story. I’m not sure that the ritual technologies of the Empowered are necessarily evil in and of themselves…have to think about that. If that is the case, then what is the value, if any, of reclaiming anything? Civilization corrupts everything it touches, which leaves us with what choices? To retwist things back to their most holistic and valuable expression, maybe. To reinvent, reclaim, revitalize…to create something new out of the old and dust off old technologies, combining them with fresh ones. I’m not quite sure what that *means* necessarily, of course…for me, it’s all part of that genius Audre Lorde’s “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” I don’t know if I think this is entirely true all of the time…but I am still working that out.
And Hecate, you are absolutely right. I am a fan of Jensen’s work as well of course, but he does dismiss magical action, and does not give a lot of time to the very concrete uses of ritual/mythmaking/storytelling, which I believe are just as critical as physical action. We do need both, and we need many different people and many different approaches – a multifaceted, diverse, holy, mythic, passionate, compassionate, and anarchic movement.
-RS
Ah, the treasures you find while blog surfing…
This is some beautiful, though-provoking writing – including the stuff I disagree with. Mainly, I don’t think “Paganism in America was born almost completely out of the same cultural worldview as any other American religion.” I prefer the idea I first encountered in Ronald Hutton’s “Triumph of the Moon” – that Paganism is a reaction to the excesses of Western industrialism. We are cut off from Nature – the connections we can no longer form naturally we seek through ritual and meditation.
Paganism is a very young religion – we’re still inventing it, still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. That thought fills me with joy at the possibilities… and fear at the awesome responsibility we bear to future generations and to the Goddess and God / Divine / Spirit of Life who calls us to this great work.
A minor point: standing in circles vs. sitting in rows of chairs. How about sitting in circles of chairs – particularly if you have participants who aren’t in the best of health. Or if the gathering is large, sitting in concentric circles, so everyone can hear and see what’s going on in the center.
Time to turn off the computer and go stand under the night sky…
[...] what I perceive is even remotely true, where do I think this comes from? Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think this is a hallmark of our American culture in general….radical individualism and all [...]
I love this conversation…
A couple of weeks ago someone asked me about my religious/spiritual beliefs and I had my usual trouble when it comes to questions of identification. (There really is something to that idea of Naming holding great power.) I usually answer them in the spirit of what Pitch313 was describing–of masquerade–I am this thing, but yet not. I’m playing at being this.
Something about that gets at what you’re describing, I think, as the difference between stories that orient us to each other, ourselves, our bodies and stories that attempt to control through denying/dominating the Other, including our own radical otherness from ourselves—the fact that we can’t absolutely name and know ourselves.
Or going back to your dream—I think one kind of storytelling, value system and set of beliefs embraces those around us in our shared plunging into darkness/uncertainty/death, and the other tries to deny it, to hit the emergency brakes and say with certainty the truth is known. (Creating those dams as Johnny Rapture said.) And then those who claim that absolute truth and certainty have to try to use what power they can to shut down anything that doesn’t fit. And as the world isn’t a static place that’s a pretty mind and soul destroying (and possibly world destroying) approach.
I like this alternative use of the word “true”—not as in a transparent symbol system in which world and word are the same–but “true” in the sense of a craft in which one always needs to adjust or reshape language for it to be true.
I think this helps me in thinking about evangelism—which I also have negative associations with. If it means one person possessing the truth then it’s going to be by definition a means of dominance. But if it means sharing your beliefs with someone and taking in their response in a process in which both people will craft what is true, then that’s the kind of culture (in the sense of something that grows) that we need. And really the same kind of relational process to take not only with each other but with creating some sense of meaning in the world in general.
I think this helps me in thinking about evangelism—which I also have negative associations with. If it means one person possessing the truth then it’s going to be by definition a means of dominance. But if it means sharing your beliefs with someone and taking in their response in a process in which both people will craft what is true, then that’s the kind of culture (in the sense of something that grows) that we need. And really the same kind of relational process to take not only with each other but with creating some sense of meaning in the world in general.
Hi Jas,
Thank you for your comments! I love what you said above. This kind of evangelism is what I am looking for. And a relational process is key.
-RS
[...] it is important. And I think it’s important because I think communities are important. Insert rant about hyper-individualism (where, interestingly, I make an argument for a general Pagan culture in order to criticize it, [...]