Why Wholistic / Holistic Paganism?

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Paganism in its myriad of forms has come a long way since we first crawled out of our caves and gazed up at the night sky and asked "What is it?"

So many early achievements, Stonehenge, The Minator's labyrinth, Egyptian and New World Pyramids,  Then the Roman empire came to dominate Europe and North Africa sweeping underground most of our knowledge and practices.  The early Romans were Pagans too but oh so cruel and oh so blind. Small pockets of resistance remained, the country people keeping the traditions alive and then the Romans went home.  Once again we emerged into the light.  In Britain, Western and Central Europe came the Golden Age of Celtic culture in Europe.  It is a sad testament to the prejudice of modern historians is that they call this Golden Age "the Dark Ages".

Then slowly, like a cancer, the Romans returned. No soldiers this time just religious fanatics, They painted fishes on their houses and in the dead of night, set fire to all the houses without fishes. Gradually they grew stronger and more numerous and the age of magick and romance passed away, passed away for a long, long time. Yet still a few faithful men and women kept the precious flame alive. And then the true dark age fell, the inquisition, the burning times. Millions of brave men and women held true to their faith and perished. But it was not just a holocaust against the Witches, it was also Catholic against Protestant and Christians were killing each other as well as us.

Again the Pagan voice fell silent. We still worshipped but in secret now. The Burning Times seem a long way behind us but Pagan / New Age Shops have been petrol bombed in recent years.

The Women's Libbers and the Gay Libbers of the 20th. century showed us that there is light at the end of the tunnel if we stand firm together and accept that there may well be casualties. So is it time for we Pagans to "come out" and to demand an equal seat at the table? I think it is !

So what has all this to do with being wholistic / holistic ? "Holistic" is a term coined by Jan Smuts in the early 1920s. Smuts' definition of "holism", as given in the Oxford English Dictionary, reads "The tendency in nature to form wholes, that are greater than the sum of their parts, through creative evolution."

The other major implication of an holistic approach is that of balance. Wholistic Pagans hold Yin & Yang, Female & Male as equal and complementary forces in perfect balance. We always worship the god and the goddess together as balanced equals. In our covens and in our groves, the High Priest and the High Priestess always work as a pair, both joint firsts among equals. There is nothing feminist or sexist about Wholistic Paganism.

Copernicus gave us back the male, yang principle when he showed us the that Sun is at the heart of the Solar System. That is why this movement is also call Post-Copernican Paganism. Our ever loving Sun God radiated his love and power constantly. At Yule he mates with our Earth Mother, she becomes pregnant at Imbolg, gives birth at Beltane, and nurtures her children all through the summer. But it is an exhausting process and by Mid-summer she begins to think of rest. So gradually she begins to turn her face from her ever loving companion, but this brings him no sorrow, only joy at the love they have shared, for he knows that come Yule, she will turn her face towards him and love him once more.

Isn't that better than all the sacrificial sun god stuff of other traditions? We still get to keep our sacrificial corn god, the Green Man, and the battle between the Holly King and the Oak King. These are vegetation deities, not sun gods and are unaffected by the insights of Copernicus.

This new cosmology also provides a more accurate analogy of the true natures of men and women too.

Please don't think that I want you to give up what you are doing and follow me. Certainly not although it would be great if you wanted to incorporate some of my ideas into your work and worship. What you are doing, what I am doing, what they are doing is not the whole of the way, it is just our small part of the way. What I would like is for everyone to be more aware of the bigger picture, understand where you fit into the cosmic scheme of things. Think not of the small differences that divide us, think rather of the wonderful similarities that unite us. May all Pagans be united in our worship of the god and the goddess and in the evolution of our mother earth and of our sky father the sun.

I want to live in a world where Pagans are regarded in exactly the same way as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and all the rest. I want to live in a world where Pagan Aid contributes as much to the next disaster relief as Christian Aid. Yet I see Pagans cringing in the shadows. I see Pagans filling in hospital forms as "agnostics" rather than as Pagans and I see Pagans spelling their own religion with a small "p".

To do that we Pagans may need to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts. We may need to evolve. I follow the path of Wicca but I have not called this website, this movement, "Wholistic Wicca" but "Wholistic Paganism". It is time to look beyond the parts, Wicca, Odenism, Druidry, Shamanism etc. Its time to evolve into a whole (not a hole, that is the last thing we want, hence my preference for the "wholistic" rather than the "Holistic" spelling. It is from the same linguistic route as "wholesome" and "wholeness").

Okay, I have had my say. Now its over to you. Please do write in and tell me what you think. The best letters and articles will be published right here on this website. Please do remember that I am here doing my best in what little free time I have and with what limited funds I have. So please help by writing clearly, using correct capitalisation (not all capitals and not all small letters please). If I can't read it easily I don't have the time to struggle with it, sorry.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Blessed Be

Jack Cox