The Red Demonolator

An acquaintance of mine online recently posted an article about why they dropped the label pagan. And that inspired me to touch on some of my own criticisms of the pagan movement. Some things will intersect with their article here, and I do think everyone should read it, as I think their criticisms are valid.

What Is Paganism?

No, seriously, what defines the pagan movement? If I go by the definition put forward by CUUPs, it is any nature-based tradition. According to Wikipedia, it began as a way to distinguish non-Christian traditions in the Roman Empire, alongside terms like Hellenes, Heathen, and Gentile. Further, it was later used to describe non-Abrahamic traditions, with the “nature-based” definition coming along in the late 20th century. While CUUPS doesn’t explain what it means by “nature-based,” the Pagan Federation does in its introduction, which I will link below. They describe it as the recognition of a place’s spirit through a sacred mountain or a divine embodiment of that spirit. They further state that veneration of nature is expressed through the celebration of the seasons of the year and, lastly, by viewing the Earth as sacred. They also state that Ge received the first libation of wine in ancient Greece, but that is incorrect; it was Hestia.

The problem with this is that Christianity can easily claim to venerate the Earth just as much as a Wiccan or a Hellen. Christians recognize the sacredness of spirits of place and even angels and saints that embody the cultural and spiritual values of cities and towns, the way that local Gods did in the ancient world; they recognize fairies and trolls and goblins in Europe, in Central and South America, Appalachia, and in Cajun Catholicism and Baptist traditions. They celebrate the cycles of the year through the Ember and Rogation days and through their celebrations of Pascha, Christmas, All Souls, and Candlemas (all of which Ostara, Yule, Samhain, and Imbolc are all actually based on), and finally if you read any of the writings of the Church Fathers, Luther, or Calvin you will find the celebration of the sacredness of the Earth that would make your most crunchy Neo-Druid blush in shame of his impiety towards the Great Mother.

I will then disregard this definition because it’s far too shallow and, unlike the Pagan Federation, I would shudder to make polytheism a requirement. I will instead define paganism as the ancestral traditions of reciprocity towards one’s God(s), one’s family and ancestors, one’s community and its local spirits, and nature and the local spirits that preside over nature. I do not feel qualified to weigh in on whether Native American traditions or other living traditions should fall under this label, but my focus will be on European traditions, such as Hellenistic and Roman pagan traditions, since that is what I am most informed about, as well as my practice of demonolatry.

Cultural Appropriation

One of the criticisms brought up by Lilirin Lee in their article is the misuse of CA in the modern pagan community, and as they are an anthropologist and more informed on the topic, I will be using the definition that they presented in their article, as it is the academic use of the term rather than the pop-pagan use;

“Majority culture borrows, steals, capitalizes on, and/or misrepresents a minority culture. ”

Many, mostly those racialized as white, tend to use CA as a means to gatekeep people from traditions that are otherwise open to them. This is a problem as they are confusing culture (a system of living and breathing traditions passed down from person to person) with race. A Native American can be white-passing, and a Hellene can be Black, especially in the diaspora. Further, while cultural appropriation is an issue, it’s not coming from the individual colonial pagan but instead from the crystal and witch shops that they are far too excited to buy from, grifters, and Etsy witches.

The problem with the individual colonial pagan is that they are detached and as such are clinging to cultures that they have no real roots in and can’t understand the nuances of the theology and philosophy that underlines the systems of reciprocity that make up the practices that are being sold to them due to not understanding the languages that those practices are rooted in and not understanding the systems of mythic interpretations that those cultures used.

Further, the answer is simple yet difficult to implement: an organic system needs to be built, but most pagan groups in the Empire are too passive and alienated from their communities to do so.

Modern Pagans are too afraid to get offline

This is another criticism that Lilirin and I share, and this intersects with some other criticisms that they outlined.

Firstly, because most pagan communities are being formed online, this has stunted the growth of pagan traditions within the Imperial core and has allowed for stagnation and both a lack of diversity and an abundance of creative spiritual psychosis that are exploited by grifters. And while this psychosis makes for great TikTok content, it harms the growth of the spiritual movement and leads to further alienation and further psychosis. Touching grass isn’t enough in this case; we do need some form of spiritual guidance, and we need a community that isn’t afraid to guide people towards a reality where people don’t think that Dios isn’t trying to dick you down.

Secondly, the terminally online community has caused a lack of real-world support that we saw in ancient pagan traditions and in modern Abrahamic and even Hindu and other living traditions. Lilirin calls this the “void,” and I think this is a very apt description because that is truly what this feels like. There is no pagan organization that is trying to feed people in most cities, no pagan clubs or organizations effectively working to pursue our religious rights right now, no one helping homeless pagan youths, or pagan groups fighting for Native American sovereignty and land back. At the same time, the vast majority of this is being pursued by the Catholic church and other Christian charities.

Thirdly, most pagan celebrations, from Pagan Pride to Reconstructionist rituals, are fancy LARPing and reenactment events. Look, I love LARPing as much as the next nerd, but why would anyone take us seriously when, as 21st-century Pagans, we are walking outside to celebrate our Gods in togas and legionary uniforms? Our Gods do not care if we are dressed in togas; they desire that we offer to them their symbols and tokens as they are revealed to us. A nurse can worship Heramael, Asclepios, and Hygeia in white scrubs during a communal ritual. An ironworker can depict Vulcan with a welder’s torch and use it in a ritual for him. We must modernize the way we worship, just as simple as that.

Cults, Fascists, and Sex Abuse

Within a 30-minute drive of me is a temple to Freyr called Freyshof, which provides monthly food and clothes drives. This would be amazing if it weren’t organized by the Astaru Folk Assembly, which is a Nordic Pagan White Nationalist group that owns four other temples in the U.S just like this. Similar groups have sprung up in the Reconstructionist and revivalist movement, and unfortunately, this rot is at the roots of these movements. Else Christensen popularized Heathenry through her Odinist Fellowship; Roman and Hellenic polytheism was first revived through a little-known “mystic” named Julius Evola and was popularized through various Fascist movements, and we see that legacy in Greece to this day.

Further, due to the philosophy that anything goes, we have seen sex abuse scandal after sex abuse scandal. As stated in a Wild Hunt article from 2017, one of the issues is that pagan communities are often small, insular groups. This causes cult dynamics to sprout up and for pagan leaders to gain far too much power over the people in the coven or church, leading to sexual abuse. I will not recount the stories of abuse; instead, I will provide links below to those compiled by Sarah Anne Lawless.

Shadow Work without a Shadow

While I will not sit here and say that I think there are spirits and Gods that are inherently evil, I do think that these persons exist as Others towards us. They are inherently opposed to our minds enraptured in material dross and, through covenants (personal and communal), act as an oppositional force against us. Witchcraft traditions such as the Sabbatic Craft build on this through the Law of the Opposer, as it is through opposition that one tests their beliefs and grows. This is the root of shadow work: by confronting the things that make us uncomfortable in our spiritual and material lives, we come to terms with the things that make us uncomfortable about ourselves. Be it internalized colonialist biases, racism, internalized eugenical views, internalized Christianity, etc.

This fear of the shadow has extended towards the so-called left-hand path traditions such as Satanism, Demonolatry, and Diabolism. This has come with a healthy dose of colonial ignorance of the traditions that these paths are built on, with Satanism (both theistic and atheistic) being built on the Grimoire tradition and with the same Crowleyian roots as Wicca.

This ignorance has then extended to Thelemia, which, once again, provided the theological and practical roots for Wicca and the larger pagan revival as a whole. This largely stems from internalized Christian biases towards these things. This has led Pagans to be afraid to meet their shadows on the path towards liberation, both in their personal and communal lives (if they have a communal life, that is.

Unity in Diversity vs Commercialized Diversity

Pagan traditions of the past were rooted in the unique diversity brought about by communal pacts with local Gods and spirits, and the systems of reciprocity needed to maintain those relationships. The philosophical conversations and understandings around these relationships both differed and carried similarities across cultures and traditions. Regardless, diversity remained part of how the pagan traditions thrived. In the modern world, these traditions are being replaced with shallow commercialized drivel. Instead of conversations about piety around the spirits of place, it’s what blood gems do that we order to attract luck. Instead of conversations about the virtues of native herbs, the focus is on imported herbs. How do we honor the Mountain Mother of Appalachia? Who cares, because I need to buy the next manual on starseeds. Part of this has to do with colonial pagans silencing the voices of Natives and pagans from other marginalized groups when they are discussing these topics. I have said something similar on my profile before, but imagine what a ritual honoring the spirit of Yellowstone could look like if it were done in dialogue with Medicine Men and Women from the Apsáalooke/Crow Tribes, who are Indigenous to the region.