On Being A Pagan

[Bacchus88]

I am Christian myself, but this is interesting none the less. Some what I can agree with, more than some what.

Resacralization of the world versus materialism; folk/traditional culture versus mass culture; natural social order versus an artificial hierarchy based on wealth; the tribal community versus the nation-state; stewardship of the earth versus the “maximization of resources”; a harmonious relationship between men and women versus the “war between the sexes”; handicrafts and artisanship versus industrial mass-production.

In this small masterpiece, the great French thinker Alain de Benoist claims that only the pagan deities of ancient Europe offer a spiritual recourse to the present religious malaise. The guilt, the fear, the narrow petty-bourgeois obsession with well-being, and the self-loathing love of the Other that has left Western man defenseless before the destructive behaviors of our nihilist age derive from the alien belief system that Christianity introduced to the West. They are not part of the pagan spirit that lives still in the Rig Veda, the Illiad, or the Edda. Benoist helps us rediscover these ancient wellsprings and the fonts from which future greatnesses may again flow. But let the reader be warned, his On Being A Pagan proposes no folkloric or New Age ‘return to the past,’ but rather a Nietzschean recurrence in which the future bears all the promise of our distant origins—and thus of another great beginning.” —Michael O’Meara, author of New Culture, New Right

[Kidthorazine]

as a pagan myself I have to say I've really enjoyed some of his articles, I'll be sure to pick this up.

Although I do have to say I highly disagree with many of his views, they provide an interesting perspective.

[One Eyed Cat]

I agree with some of that. I'd have to read more on what he means by tribalism.

[Kidthorazine]

well if you actually read other stuff by this guy, especially his older works, his beliefs kind of lean towards a less extreme neo-facism, although he's changed a bit in recent years.

[One Eyed Cat]

well if you actually read other stuff by this guy, especially his older works, his beliefs kind of lean towards a less extreme neo-facism, although he's changed a bit in recent years.

Ah k. Case closed then.

[Buster Friendly]

Yeah, I just can't go for the softcore closeted nazi shit. "Traditionalist" "Tribalism"...uh-huh.

My tribe is Mutt. (And I'm "more racially pure" than most neo-nazis by their own fucked up standards.)

[Bacchus88]

I have no real problem of pagan, or what ever your religion happens to be...
How the hell did we go from pagan to nazism? Back on topic ..... Odinist would be a better link to nazism...not all pagans. are...

[Kidthorazine]

I have no real problem of pagan, or what ever your religion happens to be...
How the hell did we go from pagan to nazism? Back on topic ..... Odinist would be a better link to nazism...not all pagans. are...

the guy that wrote this essay has or had a lot of fascist ideals, read some of his earlier work where he talks about separation races and whatnot. I never said anything about pagans being Nazis just that Mr de Benoist happens to have expressed a similar, albeit less extreme ideology like that in the past.

and as for the Odinists/Asatru while there are some that hold fascists ideologies, the majority of them have nothing to do with it and get pissed when people bring git up.

[Mr Karl]

religions just provide pondering material for people who don't know how to do it on thier own................anyone have any idea how many religions there are?

[DoctorZ]

2 per person. Of course, that's just a conservative estimate.

[Wickedanima]

I always think its sad that alot of the neo-tribalist voices end up being that sneaky neo-nazi crap. It continues to propagate the idea that any white person who bears pride in their ancestry or is close to their 'tribe' of people is racist, or on the edge of racism.

I can understand, Eugenics, Social Darwinism, Neo-Tribalism are all... stuffed in to the same tool bag of Pride = Racist Asshole.

I'm comfortable in Paganism because its been predominant in my life. My upbringing involved my mother flipping through religion like a book of cakes, but regardless of that, there was a sense of Pagan in our everyday, and the celebrations honored were frequently of, what I would find out, a very Pagan origin.

I'm not much for abandoning Christianity just to join Paganism with the sort of hatred and zeal that you supposedly 'hated' Christianity for. I ran into far too much of that amongst my fellows, and found it very upsetting.

But then again, I'm different than that, and have a keen sense of my 'tribe' in a way alot of other people don't.