Keeping the Eostre in Easter

By:  Kenny Smith, see bio at Guest Blogger                                             

As Lauri Lebo recently noted in her March 23, 2010 Religion Dispatch post, “although most Christians assume that the ideas and practices surrounding the Easter holiday are native to Christianity, Easter’s historical origins in fact lie in the pre-Christian, pagan religious worlds of Northern Europe. “The word ‘Easter,’”  Lebo explains, “is actually the name of an ancient, heathen goddess who represents fertility, springtime, and the dawn.”  Contemporary Pagans, Wiccans, Heathens, Druids, and other such communities working to re-create, preserve, and practice various pre-Christian traditions (whom I will group together here under the term “Neo-Pagan”) agree entirely! Popular websites such as Covenant of the Goddess (http://www.cog.org/), Witches Voice (http://www.witchvox.com/), and Witchology (http://www.witchology.com/), discuss the ancient roots of the Easter holiday as grounded in Germanic goddess-figures alternately known as Eostre or Ostara. Some have also begun to suggest that we “not forget the REAL reason for the season!,” and work to “Keep the Eostre in Easter.” (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-Eostre-in-Easter/308394504493) 

Now, we know that new and alternative movements, over time, typically grow more and more like the larger culture in which they live. A good example of this process (which scholars refer to as “accommodation”), can be seen in the Unificationist Church (popularly known as the Moonies).  As Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports in a recent story for NPR, with its membership “dwindling,” the Unificationist church has brought some of its teachings into greater alignment with the larger Western culture. For example, although marriages with the Unificationist community have been traditionally (and controversially) arranged by the movement’s founder, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, parents have now been granted the authority to arrange marriages for their own children. While past generations of converts were expected to sacrifice their careers and dedicate their lives to laboring on behalf of the church, personal achievement and financial success are now explicitly encouraged: “[t]oday, the church wants college valedictorians, not dropouts… [it] wants the second generation to fit into society — not fight it.”(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123805954) 

This raises a very interesting question about the direction in which American Neo-Pagan traditions are headed. When we think about 

 

Christian communities insisting that the Christmas holiday be configured in explicitly religious terms, rather than, a more secular holiday defined by bright and colorful lights, decorating a tree, giving gifts, the myth of Santa Claus, and spending celebratory time with fiends and family, images of a religious militancy seem as if they are not that far behind. Indeed, while I sometimes grow weary of Christmas shopping, I always dread the shrill religious voices demanding that I observe a Christmas defined along certain pre-approved, sectarian lines. 

Are American Neo-Pagans taking on some of these characteristics in their gradual accommodation to the larger culture? Can we expect increasingly shrill Neo-Pagan voices demanding adherence to sectarian understandings of Eostre over and above all competing others?  I would argue that this is unlikely to be case, and that efforts to “keep the Eostre in Easter” differ significantly from those to “keep the Christ in Christmas.” This is so for at least two reasons.   

Firstly, the positionality of Neo-Pagans within the broader culture differs radically from that of most Christians. While Christian communities often perceive themselves as a persecuted minority, as living in a time when all things Christian “are being discouraged and swept away,” this is a very difficult argument to sustain. As numerous sociological studies have shown, most Americans (72%) continue to self-identify as Christian, and most seats of political, economic, and social power are filled by those who see themselves as Christian. One suspects that, within some Christian communities, “being persecuted” has come to be mean “no longer enjoying an hegemonic presence” in American culture.  Neo–Pagans, however, occupy a very different position. While their numbers continue to grow at impressive rates, if grouped with all other “new movements,” they only represent approximately 1.2% of the adult population. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm) Consequently, they are much more likely to experience not only discrimination in various forms, but social invisibility.     

Secondly, unlike most Christian communities, Neo–Pagan traditions are not at all evangelical. They do not assume a mandate to make their worldview everyone else’s worldview, and so they do not actively seek converts. To the contrary, many such groups rebuff those who seek to join them and require the completion of lengthy periods of study (a year and a day is not uncommon), tests of competency, initiations, and group consensus as to the appropriateness of applicants, prior to admittance. In such contexts, rates of attrition may run as high as 90%.  Neo-Pagan traditions, then, tend to regard their own teachings and practices as suitable only for a small number of persons with particular interests and temperaments.   

Taken together, these differences suggest quite varied frames of reference for Christmas and Eostre purity concerns. Christians who seek to police the ways in which Christmas is conceptualized and lived are hoping to reestablish clear cultural control. For many, this is not simply a matter of preference, but a cosmological and eschatological necessity.   

For Neo-Pagans, who are better understood as a religious species recently returned from the brink of extinction, and who practice a largely esoteric religious craft, Eostre purity concerns represent an act of resistance and a struggle to assert one’s cultural identity within a culture where such Neo-Pagan identities are often demonized or unrecognized. 

Still, when we consider the sustained rates of growth with this community, the diffusion of its symbols into popular culture (e.g., in the Harry Potter novels and films), and the tendency towards accommodation over time, one wonders whether Neo-Pagan traditions 

Eostre

might come to resemble more closely the dominant religion in ways that could shift Eostre purity concerns in a different direction. In my own research with Wiccans, more than a few have expressed concerns about precisely this issue. “I’m not sure I would be comfortable,” a Wiccan priestess remarked to me several years ago, “if Wicca became the dominant religion in our culture, the way Christianity is now. I’m not sure I would it would remain ‘Wicca’ anymore.” 

Note – Read a complimentary article from the Religion Nerd’s archive:   Easter – Christian, Jewish, or Pagan?

An Encounter With A Modern Day Witch Hunter

Salem Witch Trials

By:  Heather Abraham aka Religion Nerd

“Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Live.”  How do you like that for an opening line!  During a recent visit to a local book store, I encountered a middle aged man who thought it was appropriate not only to scrutinize my choice of reading material but to comment on them also.  Since I was holding books on various religious traditions, it took me a minute to realize that in quoting Exodus 22:18, he was snidely referring to the Wiccan Encyclopedia I was holding.  Without missing a beat, this stranger continued his one sided dialogue—shrieking that I needed to put the book down, repent my satanic ways, and open my heart to Jesus Christ.  His continued ranting and bizarre body language left little doubt that a two way conversation would not benefit either of us.  Escaping his venomous verbal barrage, I slipped into the ladies room and waited for an all clear from a concerned customer.   

Although the crazed stranger was familiar with Old Testament scripture, he most certainly knew little if anything of modern Wicca or witchcraft.  Yet for some insane reason, this crazed “believer” chose to embrace an archaic and superstitious  worldview that would leave any reasonable person speechless in horror.   I had to wonder if he could trace his ancestry to those responsible for prosecuting the guiltless women of Salem, Massachusetts.  Unfortunately, this crazed creature is not a throw-back from the 17^th century—no he is product of and contributor to the persistent negative religious stereotypes embraced by a large part of our uninformed society.  He was right about one thing; Witches are alive and well and flourishing in the Americas and Europe. 

Contrary to popular belief, modern day Witches are no longer the “other”, but are in fact your neighbor, attorney, waitress, and teacher.  Witches have gone main stream and believe it or not, they don’t make sacrifice to nor worship Satan.  In fact, Wicca does not even recognize the existence of Christianity’s dark menace.  For a Witch, blaming another entity for one’s behavior is unthinkable.  Many Wiccan traditions believe in the rule of three or the law of return which teaches that all energy, positive or negative, will be returned threefold.  Thus Witches are most assuredly aware of their actions towards others as well as nature.  

Gaia

Although modern Wicca’s origins are still under debate academically, many Witches claim a direct and unbroken line from the “Old Religions” which thrived in pre-Christian Europe.  Like the religions of yore, Wicca is a nature based religious tradition which promotes the sacredness of the earth.  Although Wiccan and Witch are often used interchangeably—this is misleading.  Many Witches are solitary and do not subscribe to practicing within a coven.  In short, all Wiccans are Witches but not all Witches are Wiccan.  Like all religious traditions, Wicca is complex and diverse and cannot be summarized here; there is much more for you to learn about their story.    

Intolerance and religious fanaticism are real concerns for 21^st century.  Religious extremism mixed with ignorance is a powerful and dangerous cocktail.   If the first decade of the new century taught us anything; it illustrated the dangers of perceiving any group as “the other”.  My bookstore encounter with the crazed lout is proof positive that we all need to exercise caution and make an effort to educate ourselves on the facts of religious traditions distinctive from our own.   As for the crazed witch hunter; he is a sanctimonious ass who besmirches the beauty and message of Christianity.