Pagans- new identity or new spirituality?

By Kelly Moody

Having Pagan friends and being involved in the Pagan community has made me analyze many aspects of the culture. What was previously biased and derogatory connotations associated with paganism such as witchcraft, evil spells, ugly witches, wearing all black, worshipping the devil, which are all definitely falsities of paganism are still identifying factors for pagans. i go to drum circle almost every week and most of the people there wear all black, boys and girls with black eyeliner, t-shirts with references to the stereotype of 'paganism' rather than what it actually encompasses. It just seems to me so many people identify with it because of the mysteriousness of it to the rest of society, because it is an 'other' culture. With the way identity is shaped today, people take paganism and turn it into a way to commune and to belong to a group rather to even understand or identify the spirituality of it. Most of the people who go to drum circle don't even actually participate or even understand what the drum circle is about. they stand around the outside, being social, being there because they feel they belong there. The people within the drum circle, the drummers, dancers, trancers are in another world. They ARE the world. There is a definite dichotomy between the people at drum circle for the sacredness of the event and the people there for the self-identity of the group. the problem is when the two groups merge in ways that can cause disrespect for the others. The attendees that are there for the identity will often be loud, throw cigarettes in the circle, fight outside of the circle and this distracts and disrupts the sacredness of the circle itself, and the people who are there to celebrate mother earth, to feel the connection between themselves and all other things. the actual sacredness of paganism, or what the reemergence of neo-pagan culture celebrates, is a sort of reaction to the lack of the sacred in our society. It is a realization of the disrespect for the earth, an attempt to commune with nature again, to re-sacredify the earth and nature. the sad thing is that all of this happens in the middle of Norfolk, with a fence and parking lots surrounding the circle, often airplanes and transfer trucks fly overhead. that which constantly keeps me intrigued despite the 'scensters' or the 'airplanes/parking lots' is passion of the circle, the energy of the circle. The love these dedicated people have towards the earth, the way they make this love a part of every aspect of their lives. Its admirable, and it feels genuine.