Pagan? What's in a name?

Why did we choose to call our boat Pagan?

Well firstly and simply because we like the name! It's short, snappy and not too common (there are other yachts in the UK called Pagan but fewer than half a dozen)

Secondly and getting a little more complex because the skipper is a pagan

And that's where it gets tricky because the term "pagan" has all sorts of connotations, both positive and negative.

Historically, and strictly, "pagan" was originally a blanket term used by early Christians to refer to anybody who was not an adherent of one of the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). The modern usage of the term in a historical context tends to utilise it as a blanket term for the pre-Christian indigenous religions of Northern Europe

In England, Paganism in its overt form effectively died out by the end of the so called "Dark Ages" with the rise to power of Wessex under Alfred which created the kingdom of England and the conversion of the Danes and their followers to Christianity. However, many of the pre-Christian (and therefore pagan) rituals, customs and practices live on to the present day

Many of our traditions around Christmas, Easter, the autumn harvest festival and so on are either rooted in pre-Christian pagan culture or completely pagan in both origin and form. Even the very name of "Easter" is directly derived from the name of the Germanic pagan goddess "Ēostre" who's worshippers feasted, according to the Venerable Bede, in her honour during the month of what we now call April

Painted eggs, Yule logs, mistletoe, holly and ivy, sacred water, wishing wells, black cats, gift giving, sumptuous celebratory feasts, it's all pagan, The whole lot of it and a lot more besides!

In fact, when we Brits became Christian we simply put the new religion on like a mantle over our old traditional ways without really changing much at all. The new churches were, by order of the Pope, built on existing sacred sites and many medieval churches even contain overtly pagan iconography such as the ubiquitous and enigmatic "green man" carvings common on medieval churches throughout Europe.

There is no evidence that the foliate face carvings, usually referred to as green men, are actually pagan. However, there is nothing in the Christian texts or traditions to account for the symbology of the carvings. The carvings closely resemble the early medieval mythical figure of Woodwose (aka the "Wild Man of the Words") who in turn, many pagans believe, or at least suspect, is based on a folk memory of the male equivalent to a mother earth figure from earlier beliefs. The figures, along with other grotesques to give them their proper name, are a bizarre feature of places of worship of a religion which sought to supplant, and even went to considerable lengths to stamp out, earlier "pagan" beliefs, myths and symbols

So in essence, when we became overtly Christian, we remained covertly pagan in many many ways.

I feel I must make clear at this point that I mean no disrespect towards Christians and it is not my intention to in any way denigrate Christianity. Some of my best friends, and indeed members of my family, are practising Christians and I have no problem with that at all. It is simply a matter of historical fact that early Christianity adopted and subsumed many of the practices and customs of earlier belief systems without however losing it's "unique selling point", to use the modern jargon.

So as I said earlier, paganism as an overt "faith" largely died out by the end of the early middle ages (c10th century). In the 19th century, modern forms of paganism began to arise and this process accelerated in the 20th century. If you're interested in the roots of the pagan revival, there's more material than you could read in a month of Sundays on the web so I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say that by recent times, modern, contemporary or neo paganism had grown into an eclectic collection of beliefs and religions covering a huge range of religious and philosophical thinking.

You'll no doubt have heard or seen on the news modern "druids" and "witches". Contemporary revivalist regions such as druidism and Wicca seek to recreate the traditions and customs of pre-Christian peoples based on historical texts and descriptions and, to be frank, guesswork and mythology (some of it made up within living memory!). It does no harm and each to their own I say

What you probably won't have heard of, unless your of a scholarly bent and study the subject, is the huge diversity of contemporary pagan beliefs and cultures. Contemporary Paganism covers all the bases, there are monotheists, pantheists, animalists, spritualists, feminists (in terms of the belief in a female rather than a male deity) and so on.

What is broadly common to all pagan groups, who generally speaking rub along with each other quite happily, is a belief that people are spiritual beings, a love of and concern for nature, a desire for a peaceful coexistence with all other people and creatures and a love of music, ritual and, not to put too fine a point on it. a damn good party as often as possible!

What modern pagans are not is evil, child killing, animal sacrificing heathens (and in fact "heathen" is simply a term of reference for the adherents of the Germanic forms of paganism). Yes, there is no denying that animal and indeed human sacrifice formed part of some pre-Christian religious practices but then Christianity features human sacrifice front and centre. OK, so in Christianity it was a one off affair and they went for the big one - sacrificing the Son of God no less - and never felt the need to do it again but just as modern Christians would not countenance human sacrifice today, nor do modern pagans (for, if I'm honest, the most part - there are certainly some fringe groups who may take things to extremes but then there's been some pretty extremist cults on the fringes of Christianity too and I would not tar all Christians with the same brush any more than all pagans should be held accountable for the actions of a very small minority)

And while we're on the subject of human and other sacrifice, there is in fact very little hard evidence for human sacrifice in the pre-Roman British Isles. Roman writers accused the Druids of all sorts of wickedness including child sacrifice, virgin sacrifice and so on but there is no hard evidence to support what may well have simply been anti-Druid propaganda promulgated by an invader determined to justify what amounted to ethnic cleansing of the entire Druidic culture.

The few bodies found, mostly from bogs in North West England and Ireland, that show signs of ritual killing could just as well have been judicial killings of criminals as ritual sacrifices to the gods. After all, it is within my lifetime (just!) that two men had their hands tied behind them, were led out to the gallows with a priest in tow, had a hood put over their head and a noose placed around their necks and killed by hanging. An archaeologist 3,000 years from now would not be able to differentiate a 20th century judicial hanging from a ritual human sacrifice

And in any case, modern contemporary pagans no more believe in human or animal sacrifice than modern contemporary Christians believe in stoning people to death, an eye for an eye or any of the other Old Testament practices that were superseded by the New Testament. You could well say that contemporary pagans are in the process of taking the good bits of old paganism and writing the pagan "new testament" as we go along!

So where does that leave me? I am a deeply spiritual person but not a religious one. That takes a bit of explaining but the best way I can put it is that life, love, relationships, friendship and the sheer magic of the world around me mean much more to me than material possessions or financial success but, and here is the kicker, I do not believe in a god or gods.

I do identify with the Bardic tradition of the Druids and I venerate my ancestors as they contributed to the person I am today. But I don't worship one or more deities and I don't believe there is anything beyond the world we can see, hear, touch and smell.

I am also an engineer and a realist and therefore a firm believer in scientific "fact" (to use the popular term) and that one day we will, if we don't destroy our planet and ourselves first, find the scientific explanation to the things we don't understand today (although I have to say that I'll never be able to wrap my head around quantum theory even if I live for a million years!)

Happily, paganism can accommodate my beliefs without even a burp or a hiccup. It's quite new, quite fresh and still developing but there is a growing movement that is becoming known as Naturalistic Paganism which is just the ticket for people who believe in science rather than Gods but also believe that the pagan mores, rituals and customs can enhance our enjoyment of and guide our lives within the world in which we live

So there you have it. I am a Naturalistic Pagan and proud of it

And our boat is called Pagan in celebration of life, love, good music and good ale. And the other thing (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)