Monotheism, Polytheism and Paganism

There is much confusion, misunderstandings and downright superstition and slander, around what Paganism is, and on the relationship between Paganism and the monotheistic religions. This demands some clarification of terms, and response from those of us who have been forced to remain silent since the victory of the Christian Inquisition over the last several centuries.

To begin with, Pagans and Witches have nothing to do with Satan worship, Black Masses or any other inverted aspect of Christianity. All of the different traditions of European Paganism pre-date Christianity and even Judaism, and have never had any need to desecrate Judeo-Christian symbols in their spiritual practices. Pagan traditions go back to the youth of humanity, before the last Ice Age: evidence of worship of the Earth Mother Goddess has been found on the banks of the Desna River in Russia that dates back to 70,000 years ago. As Pagans have had their own deities for more than 20 times longer than the Judeo-Christian religion has ever existed, Pagans certainly do not worship the Christian Satan.

Continuing, Paganism is in no way identical with the culture of Imperial Rome, the Greek "Golden Age," or any of the kingdom and city-states of the ancient Middle East. While these cultures were Polytheistic, and Paganism is Polytheistic, this does not mean these cultures were Pagan. The Middle East and Mediterranean city-states, especially Rome as the biggest city-state of all, were based on tiny privileged cliques of slave owners and plebians, and on war and plunder for more land and slaves. Whose land? What slaves? Why, the Pagans and the Barbarians, who were considered fair game for the civilized ruling classes. These imperialist slave owners and patriarchal polytheists must not be confused politically or culturally with their victims: they were not Pagans, but instead the precursors of patriarchal monotheism. Pagans do not accept responsibility for the atrocities of Rome and the other ancient empires, for those atrocities were committed against Pagans.

What was Paganism, then? Paganism was the natural way of life for Europeans living tribally and in villages, in harmony with nature, without class privilege, and without racism or sexual oppression.

Women were usually at the center of village/tribal life, and what property that existed that was not communal was passed down matrilineally. Chieftain, shaman, healer, witch - what authority figures existed did so not through wealth or force, but because they had the respect of the people. Outside of their own Pagan oral traditions, this has been independently shown to be the case by researchers of many backgrounds, beginning with Morgan, Marx, Engels and others 100 years ago. This communal-matriarchal society, with variations, was the general rule from Ireland to India, throughout Africa, Australia and the Pacific. And if one wants to look for an example in the Americas, one need go no further than to ask a Native American Traditional to tell of their ways, for they are very close indeed to European Paganism.

The Greek slave-raiders called Pagans "barbarians" from the word "bar" repeated over and over again by a Balkan tribe resting civilization's enslavement (Athens, the great "democracy," was over 80% slave in population). The Roman Imperialists called these people "pagans" after "pagus" or birch tree, for they lived in the countryside (the world "civilization" comes from "civitas" or city). The Christian Church called them "heathens," for after the bishops and feudal warlords had seized all the best land, the only places that the Pagans, rebels and other refuges could live in the old ways was by joining the remnants of pre-class tribal societies in the heaths (swamps), in the hills and the woods (it is from these anti-feudal bands that we get the word "bandit," as well as the legends of Robin Hood). The Church unilaterally declared the all non-Christians to be evil Satan worshippers (although no one in fact worshipped "Satan" until the few last centuries). The Church conducted massive Witch hunts of the 14th-17th centuries not just out of religious intolerance or superstition, but because, as the political party of feudalism, Christianity had to neutralize the rebellious peasants' leadership, primarily witches and Pagans, and then to wipe out the very memory among the people of the ancient role of women.

If there is a single lesson modern Pagans can pass on to their people in the struggle against oppression, it is this:

Europeans (and their Euro-American descendants) were not always the racist, sexist, imperialist, Earth-destroying colonialists that the world has seen so much of. The Roman and Christian Imperialists had to conquer Europe's native people by force, and Pagans resisted them every step of the way, just as the people of other continents did later. Before they could conquer the world from their European base, they had to conquer Pagan Europe from their urban bases. Europeans were once like all other peoples of this planet. And in the struggle against exploitation and oppression, so shall we again take our place among the ranks of the real Human Spirit, the Spirit of Life, which is Revolutionary Love.

Blessed Be!

- Nimué