Neo-Paganism and History: Why We Need to Dispel the Myths

When I first became a Pagan almost 20 years ago, there were many claims showered around like confetti at a ticker-tape parade. I'll be the first to admit that, for a while, I accepted many things as true off the bat. After all, it seemed that no matter what popular Pagan book I went to, no matter who I spoke to, everyone kept confirming the same beliefs. They put things on bumper stickers and chanted them in songs. Things like the 9 million people being put to death for Witchcraft during the burning times, or St. Patrick's bloody holocaust forced the conversion of the Celts, or that Wicca was really just the latest version of an ancient religion that had gone underground for centuries. I thought such things were facts; common knowledge.

It didn't take a whole lot of research to discover that most of these things were not fact, but widely held misconceptions. The more I searched for verifiable facts, the more other myths fell by the wayside.The burning times resulted in the deaths of (most likely) around 60,000 people, not 9 million, and there is no proof that any of those put to death were actual Witches. There was never an underground Witch cult surviving from ancient times- Wicca was more of a re-invention than a re-construction of ancient beliefs. The wheel of the year was not universally observed at any point in history. Matriarchal cultures were not, in fact, common, but rare even among Pagan tribes. Chief Seattle never actually gave that speech about us belonging to the Earth, it was an invention of a screen writer in the 1970's.

And the ancient Celts- oh, the Celts probably were the sub-group of Pagans about whom most misinformation was spread. Pull out a book on the Celts from the alternative religion section of just about any major bookstore and it would have you thinking that the Celts were these happy, peaceful, hippy-like people frolicking with fairies and elves o'er the rolling green fields. You'd never know they were class-based warriors- violent, pillaging, head-hunting tribes- always engaged in brutal blood-feuds amongst themselves. You'd never know that the conversion of the Celts was one of the swiftest and most peaceful mass conversions in Europe. It may even come as a surprise to some that Patrick did not bring about the extinction of the Celtic race-- they're still here, today. What's more, They did not revere the potato (they didn't have potatoes in Europe until the 16th century) and they did not uphold the classical 4 elements (that idea came from the Greek).

There is so much misinformation about the Celts, I figure if the average American Celtic Wiccan of today got into a time machine and went back 2000 years to Ireland and tried to talk about what Celts believe, they'd be laughed out of the village, if not put to death.

It's not only the amount of misinformation about history perpetuated in the Pagan community that is astonishing, but the fact that so many of us stand for it. That so many of us, without bothering to do a simple fact check, will pass on the same faulty information. Even more perplexing, there are Pagans who become offended- and in some cases positively irate- if you try so much as to suggest that a dearly held "fact" is questionable. It's as though factual history has become something of the ugly stepchild of modern Paganism-- some ignore it completely, some despise it, and some are just embarrassed into silence by it.

So many Pagans-- in their books, on their 'blogs and web sites, in their conversations, music, poetry and articles-- are willing to irresponsibly perpetuate false histories, misconceptions and shaky theories because, at least it seems, they just like the fantasy version of history better. Too many of us are willing to accept any version of history without scratching the surface of our sources, as long as it adheres to the preferred fantasy. The romanticized notion paints a picture of ancient Pagans as the precursor to modern day granola-crunching tree-huggers living in utopian societies, progressive and in tune enough to have been ecologically responsible (as if their living off the land was intentional), and too open minded to have problems such as sexism or prejudice among them.

The evidence of history, however, paints quite a different picture of reality. A picture of trying times, clashing cultures, human sacrifice, torture, fear, superstition, violence and death. Pagans lived close to the land because they had no choice, not because sleeping in badly insulated mud huts on grass mats was preferred to manufacturing mattresses. Pagans doled out as many atrocities as they suffered. Pagans were not all just the hapless victims of the Abrahamic faiths. And there were Pagans who converted willingly to embrace the new concept of God and the promises of salvation that came with it.

Are the burning times really that less tragic if 60,000 died rather than 9 million? Does pretending our Pagan ancestors were more enlightened and harmonious than they actually were, ignoring the warring and atrocities they committed, somehow make modern-day Pagans feel better about themselves? Are our Pagan faiths really any less valid today if we admit that they are, in fact, different than the ancient Pagan paths? Does it belittle our modern religions if Pagans converted to other religions willingly and not at sword point?

These are the kinds of questions I struggle with when I realize that a portion of the Pagan community is unwilling or unable to look at Paganism in the past without rose-colored glasses. It's as though those misconceptions about Pagans and the past feed their ego. It seems they feel more righteous and more justified by the myths, so they would rather cling to them than face reality. Why are they ashamed of reality? It's almost as though they worship their idea of Pagans of the past more than the Gods-- as if those Pagans of the past don't live up to the romanticized myths, their faith would be shattered.

I've often heard Pagans accuse people of other faiths of being delusional because they reject certain findings of history and science. It's no different when reject versions of history or findings of science that we don't like. It makes us look just as delusional and it feeds that persecution complex that keeps so many Pagans angry, resentful and playing the victim. How does any religious path teach spiritual enlightenment when it's adherents live in the shadow of such negative emotions?

How does it help the future of modern Paganism to be intellectually dishonest about ancient Paganism and Pagans in history? If anything, this kind of dishonesty is probably more likely to lead to our downfall rather than help us progress. People will start reading the history books, learn the truth, and turn on us, accusing us of being just another group with a pocketful of lies to feed them and an agenda. Dishonesty is never the best policy- nor is self-delusion.

And if we are quick to blame other faiths, mainly Christians, for things they didn't even do, that their ancestors didn't do, that didn't happen at all or happened to a lesser extent than the common stories tell, doesn't that make us hypocrites? After all, we complain when they accuse us of things we don't do. Is it wrong to spread false stories, or isn't it?

Not all Pagans are so quick to reject history. I'm not suggesting that there is a deliberate conspiracy of lies among us. Most of the misinformation is passed on out of ignorance, the only guilt most of us bear is that we repeated what we read somewhere. It's easy to forget that doing that bears a responsibility of it's own, especially in light of the abundance of misinformation. Not enough of us have been living up to that responsibility of checking the facts before we pass them on. Not enough of us have been verifying our sources before we quote them.

If we're ever to be taken seriously by the world, if we're ever to crawl out of the shadows of those ill-feelings and move on from the past, we're going to have to start being more careful about the information we repeat and spread around. For those who do not desire to be delusional, we need to re-examine some of the information we have taken for granted, our sources, and the evidence and references that support it. We need to begin correcting the information that is out there, setting the record straight. Hopefully this will be a major part of the next step in the Pagan revival: a massive reality check.

Sources:

Snopes.com: Chief Seattle
Wicca For The Rest of Us: Why Bad History Matters
Debunker.com: Combatting Feminist Ms-Information
PBS.org: In Search Of Ancient Ireland