Deaf Pagan Crossroads

NOTE: This post was originally written for my Pagan blog – “Ocean’s Tide.” I’m reposting it here at Deaf Pagan Crossroads as part of a beginning study I hope to write about; discussing comparisons between Paganism and Deafhood, looking at issues from different perspectives, philosophical similarities and differences, etc. I plan to reference this post in future writings, so felt it only appropriate that I start off with it. Enjoy!

Ocean

At a Pagan Study Group chat that I conducted some time ago, one member of the group brought up an interesting question of whether or not dogma does in fact exist within Paganism…or one of its Paths. Since then, I have thought a lot about the word “dogma”…. and how it does relate to Paganism.

Does dogma exist within the Pagan Path? This is an interesting question, and one worth giving some serious thought. Most of us have tended to eschew the idea of dogma within Paganism…in fact I myself wrote a paper several years ago about Paganism in which I stated (in talking about Ralph Waldo Emerson):

“His rejection of a religion based on ‘historical dogma” for one which instead encourages personal observations and inner revelations closely parallels the Pagan Path, which rejects rigid hierarchy, imposed dogma, and Fundamentalism in preference of a cellular, autonomous religion which utilizes no set prayer book or liturgy, and bases itself not upon a set doctrine administered by some external authority, but on an inner sense of justice, honor, responsibility, and value for life in all its aspects.”

While it is true that individual Pagan groups and traditions may be extremely organized and – in some cases – have a hierarchical structure, in general most Pagans are an independent lot who hate to be told what to do, what to believe, or what not to believe.

But is this in and of itself evidence that dogma does not exist within Paganism? Or is it more that we reject “historical or imposed” dogma, or perhaps…Christian dogma? Have we, in our zeal to demonstrate ourselves as a totally different religion with a different belief system, gone so far overboard that we reject any and every concept, philosophy, theory, belief, practice, or whatever that even remotely smells of Christianity?

This makes me think a little of something that a friend and High Priest said not too long ago at a Pagan Leadership Conference which I attended:

“Just because it’s Christian, doesn’t necessarily make it wrong.”

To begin, I decided to pull out my dictionary (The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition) and see how it defines the word “dogma”…

1. A system of doctrines proclaimed true by a religious sect

Hmmmmm. Interesting. This begs the question…does Paganism (or Witchcraft, or Wicca or….) have a system of doctrines? Well, I guess that depends on how you want to look at it. Granted, we don’t have a bible…Wicca is not a religion “of the book.” Certainly we have books within The Craft that are held in high regard by many Witches – such as Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler, The Spiral Dance by Starhawk, The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald Gardner or even The Witches Bible Compleat by Janet and Stewart Farrar, which in spite of its name is not endorsed by all Witches as the definitive bible of The Craft. Yes, we do have the Wiccan Rede and the ThreeFold Law, and even the 13 Principles of Belief as established in 1974 by the Council of American Witches. But are these doctrines? Do they constitute a system of such? Do we proclaim them to be true? Good questions, and interesting food for thought.

Now we go on to the next definition:

2. A principle, belief, or statement of idea or opinion, esp. one authoritatively considered to be absolute truth

Another interesting definition. I could go along with the first part of it – we as Pagans certainly have principles, beliefs, ideas and opinions…but are they “authoritatively considered to be absolute truth?” That’s where the argument comes up, which led to some of our discussions regarding the definition of truth. If we as Pagans believe that there are many truths, then how can any one of them be viewed as the absolute truth? So…I guess that while I could go along with the first part of this definition, I would have problems with the latter half of it.

Okay, the final definition….

3. A system of principles or beliefs

This one isn’t all that different from the second, except that we take away the concept of absolute truth. Well, if we consider those 13 Principles of Belief that I mentioned earlier, then we could state that the Neo-Paganism of today (which is the Paganism we are pretty much referring to anyway) does have a sense of dogma. If we use the example sentence in the dictionary to explain this definition:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present” ~ A. Lincoln

then yes…I think we could make an argument for the idea that Paganism has dogma. Most of us do subscribe to a specific system of principles and beliefs that are characteristic to this particular religious path – principles and beliefs which we will be discussing this week and in upcoming weeks. Do all Pagans subscribe to them? Perhaps not, but the vast majority do.

I also find this sentence interesting because any in-depth study of Paganism must include an analysis of the differences between “historical” Paganism and modern-day Neo-Paganism, and recognize that the beliefs and practices of ancient civilizations might not be so practical to today’s world.

So perhaps in a way….Paganism does have dogma. Certainly it differs from Christian dogma, but as said earlier – does the absence of dogma as defined by Christian standards prove the non-existence of dogma in its entirety? Maybe not.

I put this whole thinking about dogma aside for a little while, until one day I received an email from a “Daily Quote” program that I subscribed to. Within this lesson was a statement that pulled me back into this whole subject again…

Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

WOW! Now here is a really interesting definition!

“Living with the results of other people’s thinking.” Ya know, I think I like this definition. This kind of ties in with what we were talking about in our study chat, where one of us mentioned that one way of looking at dogma was that it’s

like having a set of rules that are kind of handed to me and I’m told, “Here… either you believe this or else.”

I think that is how many of us feel about dogma, and it ties in with that “authoritatively considered to be absolute truth” concept. Who decides that it is absolute truth? Who determines “the system?” Who chooses which principles or beliefs are going to go into that system, and which are tossed aside?

We do. Each and every one of us must decide, must determine, and must choose for ourselves.

We must then be willing to accept and abide by the consequences of those decisions, those determinations, and those choices. We must live with the results of our own thinking.

We create our own dogma.