triplew00t

Could anyone explain the concept of Secular Paganism? Links and info would be appreciated.

Thanks, Nero

Aquila ka Hecate

Hey triplew00t,

Sorry to get back to you so late, but I'm temporarily in the wilderness without internet connection at home, so have to use up work time to read my favourite site!

Secular Paganism is a name which has been loosely floating around for a while now, but I have appropriated it for my own beliefs and lack of them-I came up through Wicca and Paganism (Gardnerian and eclectic HPS for some years now) to a better realisation of the place religion should have in my lfe, ie very little.
The Internet Infidels completed my deconversion and I'm now a complete atheist.

However, I feel that many people who move into Paganism from a more mainstream religion are in the first throes of doubt about the whole thing: many Pagan paths make a good deal more sense than any one of the monotheistic religions,so they adopt the beliefs and the lifestyle and are generally happier for a while.

But many of those folk then go on to actually start using their brain.
If they were brought up and educated in science as I was, there's very little chance that they wil cling to god-beliefs for very long.

The act of celebrating, not worshiping,nature is a source of great joy to me and many others.
I obtain real pleasure from observing the changes of season, the waxing and waning of the moon, the dance of the planets, and the general awesomeness of the universe in which we live.

To seperate these delightful aspects of being alive out from the wealth of gods, goddesses, elementals, crystal healing, aura soma and like garbage leaves one with a basic way of living and interacting with the cosmos which I've slapped the 'Secular Pagan' label on.

As for links-well there used to be a site called 'The Secular Pagan'
but I fail to find her site now.

This man:

http://www.bee.net/cardigan/

is a great secular pagan also.

Otherwise, there's my own Yahoo eGroup-mostly SAfricans:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/secularpaganismsa/


and one which has its roots in (I think) New Zealand:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rational_pagan/

..althought they call it Rational Paganism it's basically the same thing-a love of life and living, an aknowledgment of the mighty gorgeous universe we live in,but no bows before gods of any kind.

Dunno if this helps a lot.

emotional

Her site is gone, but it is still archived.

Go to http://www.archive.org/

and input www.secularspirituality.org in the input box.

brighid

I am going to second what Aquila has said. I am an atheist, self-defined as a strong atheist but I am also a secular pagan. I had a very similar deconversion from Catholicism to Paganism (and actually came here as a Pagan) to atheism. There is an important social aspect that is sorely missing from the secular movement that left me longing from the relationships I developed within my Pagan group. I enjoy ritual and I enjoy the celebrations of the seasons. Paganism offers this without having to compromise my non-belief in deities. Any mention of Gods and Goddesses is a purely archetypal, meditative practice used to invoke aspects of ones own character during ritual, meditation and in times of need or celebration. I also find it to be a wonderful outlet for my creative, poetic and artistic side that doesn’t have as much opportunity to manifest in many other situations. Paganism, typically doesn’t harbor the prejudices and dogma of Catholicism and Christianity and in this way continued to appeal to me after my full deconversion from theism.

There isn’t any large secular pagan movement I know of. In my group there are several atheist/secular pagans which is sufficient for my needs.

Brighid

Calzaer

So, sort of a more literal interpretation of "Thou art god"?

Aquila ka Hecate

I don't want to speak for Brighid, but I don't think so.

I tend to view the god/dess mythos as she said, as archetypes, but very human archetypes. Varoius ways of seeing and considering ourselves, in other words.

(In my youth, it was an attractive proposition to consider all things do-able, and besides, I'm a huge Heinlein fan! Sadly, his fable remains just that to me)

But no, I do belive there are things that I cannot bring about, and I therefore cannot be considered as even an approximate deity.

The idea of personal responsibility, on the other hand, runs deep in me, and, I suspect, in most pagans-especially those of a secular/agnostic persuasion.

Gods aren't gonna do it for us, so it's very much up to us to own our lives,our actions and our destinies.

brighid

Aquila summed it up nicely. The answer would be no. I don't believe in Gods and therefore it would be silly for me to believe that I was one.

Personal responsibility is paramount to my own thinking as well. Magic potions, spells, fairies or Gods aren't going to create anything for me. I am the only creative force in my life and I am the only one responsible for the outcome of my actions.

The rituals I take part in are purely meditative, mental exercises that are time taken out of a very busy, modern life to reconnect me to the goals, dreams and hopes that I have. The imagery of myth and the pantheon of Gods is nothing more then symbolic/archetypal and purely human constructs. I have no illusion about such things. It is imagery that I enjoy, pure and simple.

Brighid