A Religious Revival

Or a Second Religiosity, a collapse of one civilization and the rise of another

Fifteen years ago I lived with and loved a woman who was a children’s musician. She performed at school’s and libraries, but she also played at several pagan festivals, almost all of which were in the Ozarks, southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. She opened me up to a world and perspective I did not know existed. I did not really fit in at these pagan festivals, and was not particularly welcomed generally, nor was I very impressed by most of the people, who were often freaks and weirdos, sexual libertines, New Age in their spirituality, which is to say, they believed whatever they wanted to.

There were a few pagans I met though, particularly in the Boston Mountains of northern Arkansas, but scattered throughout the Ozarks, who were some of the most impressive, knowledgeable, talented, artistic, self-sustaining people I have ever met.

They remind me a lot of these guys, in

Astral

s recent podcast.

Paganism Rising

I am a big admirer of

Imperium Press

, and am becoming a fan of Big Dave Martel and

Tristan Powers

on their podcast The Bog on Hearthfire Radio. Here is a shout- out for all the podcasts on Hearthfire Radio, The Heathen Podcast Network.

I recently did a podcast with

Alexandru Constantin

and

Phisto Sobanii

at the

Black Ibis Social Club

in which we talked at length about paganism and religion.

S2E21: William Hunter Duncan

Alexandru posted his thoughts about Astral’s podcast here:

Some thoughts on Pagan Revivalism

While Alexandru is supportive of people moving away from the secular into religion - he is an Orthodox Christian - his principle objection to pagan revivalism is summed up well here.

A reoccurring phrase that was repeated over and over was Tradition. The tradition of my ancestors, the tradition of my forefathers, the traditions of my people. But the word tradition is defined as a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another. But it wasn’t. The beliefs, rites, rituals, vaguely described in this podcast are not traditions passed on from one generation to another. They are reconstructions based on limited archeological evidence and fragmentary texts such as the Eddas passed down by Christians, historical accounts written by outsiders, and spurious deconstruction of folk beliefs practiced by recent Christian Europeans re-interpreted through 20th century anthropology. There is even a telling anecdote when one of the guests talks about his grandfathers as being very pious Christians. So, this belief, this tradition that we are talking about was not the religion of your fathers and your fathers fathers but of your somewhat vague ancestors. It wasn’t passed down through the unbroken chain of tradition and you aren’t honoring your grandfather’s belief and way of life because admittedly he was a man of Christ.

I see his point, the Traditions of Christianity are an unbroken lineage, easily traced over the course of 2000 years. Most pagan or heathen religions of the West were effectively conquered and swallowed up by Christianity. Only in isolated pockets in places like Wales, or among some American Indian tribes, were ancient traditions kept. Pagan of course defined loosely as anything that is not Western monotheism: Islam, Judaism or Christianity.

The flaw I see in Alexandru’s argument, is revelation. If indeed the gods are living, sentient beings, then calling out to them with true faith would lead to the restoration of the faith, regardless the lack of tradition.

My takeaway from Astral’s podcast was, paganism in America is maturing. Hearthfire Radio is a sign of how far it has come, from the boomer driven hippie sixties and the southern California focused New Age, what was a lot like the decadent prosperity doctrine of 90’s-2008 protestant/evangelical Christianity. Joel Osteen, his many books and mega-church a close kin to Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret”, which was New Age pablum justifying the economic grotesquerie of the housing/credit bubble of the new millennium. This new paganism with Hearthfire Radio as example is comparatively right wing coded and based.

If I have any negative critique of what I heard on Astral’s podcast, it would be that there can be as much intolerance of Christianity in Paganism as there is in Christianity about Paganism.

Whereas I see most of strong, healthy masculine religiosity heading in the direction of Paganism and Christian Orthodoxy, and I see both movements of a piece.¹

I often bring up Oswald Spengler’s concept of a Second Religiosity in these pages. Not necessarily being a Spengler scholar, I sum up the concept thus: every civilization/empire arises around a religion of it’s own. In the early period, that religion is very fresh and fervent. As the civilization grows, the energy of the religion become more rote, an age of Reason causes most and particularly the elite to abandon the religion, that leads to decadence and degeneracy, the civilization begins a state of collapse, in the ensuing chaos people try to restore the religion, but it is shorn of it’s early, revelatory energy and ultimately cannot restore the civilization, though it carries it’s adherents through the chaos, into what comes next..

Which leads me to another recurring theme of this substack, the collapse of Western Civilization, with some new, wholly American civilization along with it’s own, new religion arising.

I see the current Pagan and Orthodox Christian revivals as the beginning of that process, which will take centuries to mature. This new, American religion will be neither Christian nor European Pagan, but some amalgam of, if quite different. It will be monotheist in the sense of One Creator of All, but also pagan, in reverence of new American gods. The pagans and the Orthodox right now are like the seed of that.

How do I know this? I don’t know precisely, I think of it as a combination of divination, revelation, and somehow, like I have always known it. And I have this feeling like I am going to spend the next several lifetimes helping to build it.

1. For a very thoughtful, and much more erudite take on this subject, see

Fortissax

Why *are* some people turning to paganism?