Paganism From Our Backyard

The postpagan concept moves beyond labels and occult and re-construction tendencies to come where and when we are in a personal way. this forum is intended to provoke pagans to think about their religion and beliefs instead of regurgitating information and ceremonies.

PostPaganism is European animism for our backyard, grown in the soil of the sacred places that surround us on a daily, in the very life giving places where we live. In Animism: Respecting the Living World, Graham Harvey evaluates a new theory of animism as, "the recognition that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human." We promote and encourage the discovery of our life-place's diversity by working, and communicating, and communing, directly with the ecological regions where we live. Also according to Harvey, in his book What Do Pagans Believe, "the original meaning of 'pagan' [is] ' an inhabitant of a particular place' [and] has encouraged a new focus on locality in modern paganism." he continues to say, "A classical pagan was someone who belonged, some one who celebrated where they lived, someone who knew their local shrines, springs, hills, trees and neighbors, and could trace their decent from local ancestors." Therfore, It is only natural for us to apply the same approach to were we live now.

European Pagans participate in bioregional polytheism, where deities are expressions of the bioregion and the cosmos and known, from the regional and cultural perspective of a people, as powerful other-then-human persons, Much of the polytheism of ancient Europe was very animistic in origin and tied to their bioregional surroundings. in his book, Dwellers in the Land: The Bioreigonal Vision, Kirkpatrick Sales, writes "To become 'dwellers in the land,' to regain the spirit of the Greeks, to fully and honestly come to know the earth, the crucial and perhaps only and all-encompassing task is to understand the place, the immediate, specific place, where we live [. . .] We must make its rhythms our patterns, its laws our guide, its fruits our bounty. That, in essence, is bio-regionalism. " Furthermore, It is important to know that there is a way of relating unique to our European ancestors that we can continue today, but in our own ways centered and grounded from the spirit of place.

Postpaganism is a way of cultivating distinct and diverse tradition specifically reflecting our life-places and their community of human and other-then-human persons. It is based upon the instinct of Modern pagan movements, and is a part of, and inspired by The Bioregional Animism Project. We can claim the redeeming values and concepts within the larger modern pagan movement, and supplement the romanticism trends based in 18th to 20th century occultism with the relational ontology of BioRegional Animism.

Specifically, PostPaganism explores the animism of European language based cultures, past and present, and how it applies to ecological regions. By maintaining an awareness of appropriation and acculturation, we can reject the need to import traditions from foreign lands, while maintaining a healthy rediscovery of European animist relationships in the context of the life-places were we live.

A tribal elder of the people of Squaxin Island said it perfectly, "Our old ways are mostly memories, but our ideas march to their beat." PostPaganism seeks new tradition with practices empowered by the very places we live, challenging the assumption that pagan traditions were strictly created by humans and assumptions in ethnicity and race. Together we can discover the remains of the animism buried in our history and culture. Modern Colonial People can reclaim co-creative practices with our other-then-human community and reforge the broken links in the great chain of existence. it is imperative to form new relationships now! Ultimately, PostPaganism pushes Modern Paganism to its limits and its logical conclusion of being rooted in the land where we live. It is for anyone effected by, involved in, and a part of the larger Euro-colonial spectrum to cultivate a perspective reconciling the loss of bio-regional awareness. By understanding the narratives, customs, and history of ancient Europeans were developed in a bio-regional context, we can find our place as dwellers in the land, and as people of the land, once again.

Links:

bioregionalanimism.com/
tribes.tribe.net/bioregionalanimism
www.bioregionalanimism.org/
postpaganism.blogspot.com/

http://tribes.tribe.net/postpaganism