Apparently I registered here a while ago and never posted. Deary me. Well, here's something I've been working on.
Please note: though I use the term "Wiccan" throughout this writeup, I do not self-identify as Wiccan. I am sympathetic to much of Wiccan theology (if such an inclusive term may be used), but it is ultimately my background as a Catholic that led me to think Wicca and Paganism in general needed better apologetics than "We aren't satanists. We don't eat babies. We are an earth-based religion." as 99.999% of pagan apologetics read exactly in that way. So, here is a hopefully better explanation.
=======================================
An Attempt at Pagan Apologetics
An Essay in Two Parts
Note about the author:
The author does not self-identify as a Wiccan, though this essay almost exclusively uses the terms "Wicca" and "Wiccan". The reasons for this are his own, but much of the Wiccan theological base is sympathetic to the ideas maintained by Nepthys in his personal religious life and magical practice. Because of his background as a Catholic, Nepthys is very familiar with the voluminous writings of Catholic and other Western Christian apologeticists. It is this background that has led the author to perceive a distinct lack of serious apologetics in the neo-pagan community, and a desire to fill the void. The author hopes this apologetic essay is both informative and thought-provoking. The author makes no attempt to rationally justify or defend Gardnerian and other traditions' claims to Wicca being truly reflective of a pre-Christian pagan religion, nor does the author have any desire to explore such claims. This apologetic is an attempt to explain the religion as it exists today, its fundamental aspects and tenets, and it is up to the individual traditions that claim ancient heritage to substantiate those claims, a task that has, up to now, not been successfully fulfilled to the author's and most academicians' satisfaction.
Part I
Christians have been doing it for two thousand years. Buddhists have been doing it to a lesser extent for about the same time frame. And Muslims have been doing it since their religion was first attacked by those that disagreed with it. Apologetics, according to dictionary.com, is “1. the branch of theology concerned with the (defense)[spelling corrected by the author] and rational justification of Christianity, 2. a defensive method of argument.” Both of these definitions are lacking. For the purposes of this essay, the author's own definition will be used: “Apologetics, from the Greek apologia, is a theological argument in defense of a particular religious tradition or belief based in logic and reason.” Why is this necessary for something like Wicca? Well, because, to be honest, the majority of Wiccan apologetics out there is primarily a list of misinformation and what the individual authors have to offer in regards to education concerning why the list is not reflective of truth. This is not good apologetics. In this essay, the author will be establishing a theological groundwork from which to build on. Because Wiccans and most neo-pagans and witchy people in general do not have a scripture from which to glean revealed or inspired words of their god/goddess/deities, this will be a difficult task and will follow like a teleological argument. The author will try to refrain from utilizing ontological thinking, but makes no promises.
First of all, Wicca and most neo-pagan religions do recognize some aspect of deity. In general, aside from reconstructionist religions such as Asatru and Khemetism, these aspects take on strictly dualistic manifestations. Just as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Wicca recognizes deity as ultimately a creative force. Similar to the mystical Jewish idea that God is creation and entropy is destruction, Wiccans do not necessarily recognize a destructive force within their conception of the divine. Deity created the world, and it is a natural byproduct of the system that all life must, eventually, come to an end. Entropy is the agent of destruction, not an opposed divine entity. For a clearer representation of this basic idea, consider the following illustration:
The universe is a box. This box defies any physical or geometric restrictions and contains all space and time within it. It currently contains only light, but a light that is only light in the abstract. For this light to define itself, it requires an objective reference point. Having none, we can say concretely that there is nothing in the box (even though we know it is full of light). The light, seeking an objective reference point, comes to a dead end everywhere it looks. What must it do to create its reference point? Withdraw a part of itself. By withdrawing, it leaves a void. Where there was once light, there is now darkness. This darkness does not have the creative intelligence of our metaphysical, hyper-intelligent light, but it serves as an objective reference point against which the light can assess its own qualities. Extrapolate this idea further, and you can see quickly how the light by self-restriction is able to build and develop everything in the physical universe via further self-restricting qualities such as color and vibrancy. In this manner, by setting itself apart, it has not only defined itself, the light has defined and created everything in existence, but only through this necessarily entropic method. For this reason, Wiccans tend to think of their deity in purely creative terms. While this deity may have destructive tendencies (as Hecate and other “moodier” goddesses will generally affirm), their sole role in the universal order of things is a sort of creative benevolence. There is no deity opposed to them. Only entropy. And this is not even in opposition. It is simply an accepted part of the Wiccan reality.
So we have established the first part of a Wiccan apologetic. 1. Deity exists and is creative, not destructive. There is no secondary deity opposed to it.
The second part of our apologetic is exploring the duality of the deity. Why do Wiccans worship a god and a goddess, and end up with a plethora of different statues from ancient religious pantheons to express their religious worship?
Firstly, because deity created everything, deity ultimately is responsible for humankind. Be it a creationist style birth of man or evolution, there is an unmoved mover at the head of the chain of events that brought man into being. Because all of nature is reflective of deity, deity must be reflective of nature. In all aspects of nature there is a fundamental duality along the male/female divide, even where toads and slugs are capable of asexual reproduction. Why is this so? Ultimately, it is indicative of the “nature-as-a-mirror” conception of our relationship with the divine, and leads the Wiccan to a substantially-sound reason to assume that deity likewise manifests as simultaneously male and female. This is not to say that deity is hermaphroditic, though I am sure there are those who believe this, but rather that whatever form deity has taken, it inherently maintains a male aspect and a female aspect that are inextricably linked to one another.
When a Wiccan addresses Dionysus and Venus in an attempt to work a love spell (more on that later), he or she is not addressing a strictly Greco-Roman conception of deity, but aspects of the abstract god/goddess pair that best epitomize the purpose of the spell. When a Wiccan addresses Dionysus and Venus in one spell, and then the Horned God and Brigid in another spell, the Wiccan is not acknowledging four independent deities with limited and restricted aspects, but one god and one goddess with infinite aspects. Ultimately, the Wiccan recognizes a singular deity that is manifest as the god and goddess uniquely separated yet uniform. Consider it a Wiccan's own trinitarian mystery. The reason behind choosing specific gods and goddesses is more a matter of focusing the intent of spellwork, and will have a more in-depth explanation later.
So we have established our second point of the Wiccan apologetic:
2.Deity manifests as male and female; they are separate yet one and are not restricted in their creative force(s).
...
Bookmarks