Branching Out What’s Neo? - By Elani Temperance
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any of our Pagan traditions claim to be a continuation of a way of life practiced by our ancestors, even if these claims can rarely be supported by researched facts. Pagan writers with these claims are often challenged, and for good reason. Margret Murray, the woman who wrote the world famous ‘WitchCult in Western Europe’ is a prime example. In her book, Murray factualizes the confessions of those tortured during the witch trails. These ‘confessions’ were, of course, notably untrustworthy as it has been proven torture victims will often say anything to end the pain. If you can lay factual claim of ancestry to a Pagan (group) of old then you are one of the lucky ones. Not many of us can these days. What we can lay claim to is the spirit of living in olden days. We can (try to) imagine what our lives would be like, how dependent we would be on our society, our cattle and our fields and how
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we would deal with the changing seasons or the birth of a child. The insights gathered from this can then be integrated into our modern life. The prefix ‘Neo’ then refers to any Pagan practice adopted from the past into the present. Neoshamanism, for example, refers to the modern reconstruction of ancient shamanistic practices. Even those who can lay accurate claim to Pagan roots have to adapt these practices to our current way of living. This raises two questions; when is the claim accurate and, even if the claim is accurate, can anyone living in modern times claim the tradition has survived the years unchanged and is still being practiced exactly like it was in olden days? There is great debate on both these questions. Some even question the use of the prefix for a whole different reason; instead of claiming heritage, these people claim that, as every Pagan reinvents his or her belief system in these modern times, the prefix becomes unnecessary as there simply aren’t any actual
Pagans, only Neopagans. With this reasoning, the term ‘Pagan’ would be accurate, again, as the consensus defines any Pagan as a Neopagan by default. At Little Witch, we use the prefix, simply for the sake of clarity. It allows us to refer to the inspiration of our spiritual believes and those who practice it with the term ‘Pagan’ and to identify modern day practice and practitioners as ‘Neopagan’. We mean no disrespect to anyone who is able to lay claim to ancient traditions nor do we mean to indicate that Neopagans are somehow less invested, less attuned or less pagan because of their modern practices. A religion needs to grow, change and adapt to current living or they will be abandoned in favor of a way of life more attuned with the current needs. Dogmatic religions like Judaism or Christianity are struggling because they adapt slowly and with great difficulty. Neopaganism can change much faster and more readily, as it should. Nature and divinity are eternal; we need simply adapt our practices.