A Silver Path

Many of us within the pagan community are on a spiritual path based around ancient beliefs and traditions. We are, as we so often say, of the Old Ways. We draw a certain amount of pride from the knowledge that our faith is echoed throughout the ages and that our voices now ring among those of our spiritual ancestors.

We try to hold true to the traditions still known to us, closely following instruction, some of us reconstructing exactly the rituals and Ways detailed in ancient texts. Others try to adapt their faith to the modern world – discarding the parts deemed no longer applicable in modern context, embracing those elements they believe to comprise the core of their chosen “ancient faith”, and altering other parts still to make use of more accessable materials, and to take into account our knowledge of science, space and technology.

Often these people are shouted down or mocked as “not truely Pagan” by other, more traditional members of the pagan community who see these adapted versions of ancient faiths as parodies of, or as a threat to, the reverence and commitment to the continuation of the Old Ways.

There is an understandable desperation to keep alight the spiritual fires of old in the face of unrelenting time and the turmultuous state of the modern world. The commitment to the Old Ways shown by many modern day pagans is an admirable pursuit – but is it practical? The manner in which our forebears practiced their faiths was shaped by their lifestyles, they’re understanding of the world and by geography. All of these circumstances are very much at odds with those of the modern world.

The process of elimination, adaptation and re-evaluation happening in many pagan circles today is no different to the evolution of our faiths that has taken place throughout history with the changes brought about by migration, politics, rulership, technological advances, transport, communication and all of the merging of cultures that comes with each of these things.

If our faiths are to survive, two things must, in my opinion, happen. First, the Old ways – the roots of our traditions and our beliefs – must be preserved and recounted, grounding us, if you will, binding us to the core aspects of our faiths and to those who came before us. What knowledge is left to us must, without doubt, be remembered. However, to balance this, and to reconcile these beliefs and practices with our modern lifestyles and our knowledge of science, we must embrace a certain amount of change in the way we interpret and practice our faiths.

Perhaps we ought to look upon these “New Ways” in a different light, and those who are helping to shape them with  a certain amount of respect for their courage in pioneering the next evolution of Paganism into the modern world…

- SilverSoulSong