Festivals

This is another installment of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, in this case, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism.

 

Last Thursday, Neopagans celebrated the Spring Equinox. For those who follow the Wiccan Wheel of the Year, this festival is called Ostara. The festival’s name is derived from the European pagan goddess Eostre, which includes planting seeds, creating seasonal altars, spring cleaning, and feasting.

The Mesopotamians also celebrated Spring with a festival they called Akitu. Because they considered the new moon auspicious, the Akitu festival began on the first new moon after the spring equinox. Also, they considered the number 12 to be sacred. Therefore, the Akitu festival lasted for 12 days. Akitu was considered the most important festival for Mesopotamians. 

Akitu marked the beginning of the New Year for the Mesopotamians. It marked the rebirth of nature and the re-establishment of the kingship by divine authority. Akitu focused on the triumph of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized by Tiamat. 

It bears repeating: Neopaganism is the Old Religion.

Intransitiveness

This is a continuation of a series of posts on how modern Neopaganism is truly the ‘Old Religion’ because it contains similar tropes and beliefs as the oldest recorded Indo-European religion, Mesopotamian, which far predates Abrahamic monotheism. 

In classic Paganism and modern Neopaganism, our gods have a characteristic called ‘intransitiveness.’ This word, which one doesn’t hear daily, means that a divinity is located within a phenomenon and only within that phenomenon. 

'Oak King' and 'Holly King' by Anne Stokes
https://nelliecole.com/2020/06/19/folkdays-the-oak-king/

 

Thorkild Jacobson, in his book The Treasures of Darkness, gives an example of intransitiveness with the Mesopotamian god Dumuzi. Dumuzi is the Mesopotamian god of fertility and harvest. Jacobson points out that “there is no instance in which the god acts, orders, or demands; he merely is or is not. He comes into being in the spring, is celebrated as bridegroom in the cult rite of sacred marriage, is killed by powers of the netherworld, and is lamented and searched for by his mother and young widow; any action, any achievement, any demands by the god are absent altogether.” (page 10).

Examples of intransitiveness in Neopaganism are the Holly King and the Oak King. These two gods, considered manifestations of the Horned God by Wicca, are personifications of winter and summer, respectively. Neither god makes demands upon us. The seasons are their domains, and that’s the total for them. 

Neopaganism is the Old Religion.

Name and Form

In a prior post I wrote about how Neopagans share the concept of Immanence with the Mesopotamians. In this post, I want to continue this topic with the Mesopotamian practice of finding divine in name and form and how that continues today.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh we read, “Gilgamesh prayed to the Sun god for help. The Sun god heard the entreaty of Gilgamesh…” For the Sumerians, the sun in the sky as well as its divine presence were called Shamash. For them, immanent divinity had both name and form.

 

Neopagans follow similar practices. In Wicca, for example, the Triple Goddess of Maid, Mother, and Crone is associated with the Moon. She’s also evident in Wicca symbol of the full moon with the crescent moon on each side. This Wiccan practice is a modern form of recognizing immanent divinity in both name and form.

Year of the Wooden Snake

Wednesday January 29 was the Lunar New Year. According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the year of the wooden snake. The year of the wooden snake is about introspection and renewal. It’s a year involving letting go of toxicity. Inner work and personal growth are favored.

 

For readers who don’t know, Dark Paganism is a self-centric philosophy that focuses on honoring and cultivating the Self. We find meaning by looking inward rather than outward. Therefore, from a Dark Pagan perspective, 2025 as the year of the wooden snake is obviously exciting for it ties closely in with Dark Paganism. 

2025, the year of the wooden snake, has the potential to be an auspicious year for self-cultivation and personal growth. Don’t miss out on the boost you may receive this year in your Dark Pagan efforts.

Immanence

We Neopagans sometimes refer to our faith as ‘The Old Religion.’ This term was initially used by the early Elders of Neopaganism, who believed that Neopaganism, especially Wicca, was a continuation of an ancient religion that had survived unbroken over the thousands of years of Christian domination. Their belief came from the writings of early twentieth-century anthropologists such as Margaret Murray.

The belief of an underground ‘witch cult’ is no longer supported by scholarship. However, the term ‘Old Religion’ is still valid. Rather than meaning an unbroken ancient religion, calling Neopagan the 'Old Religion' is appropriate because it shares many of its tropes, beliefs, and practices of pre-Abrahamic Western traditions.

Mesopotamian artwork of the goddess Inanna.

 

One Neopagan belief that makes it part of ‘The Old Religion’ is its view of the divine. The acclaimed Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, in his book The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, compares the Mesopotamian view of the divine with the Abrahamic. In the Abrahamic view, the divine is transcendent, meaning it exists outside nature. Meanwhile, the Mesopotamians viewed the divine as immanent, something inside nature. 

Like the Mesopotamians, Neopagans see the divine in nature. We revere lakes, streams, mountains, forests, and the rest of the natural world. It’s because of this reverence that Neopaganism is often referred to as an Earth-Based Religion.

The Four Desires

Many people, myself included, have been shocked by events over the recent years. Along with the pandemic, there’s been war, violence, intolerance, and the rise of the political and cultural Far-Right. However, the philosopher Bertrand Russell wouldn’t have been surprised. 

Bertrand Russell

 

Bertrand Russell (May 18, 1872 – February 2, 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, and social reformer, a founding figure in the analytic movement in Anglo-American philosophy, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

In his acceptance speech for the 1950 Nobel Prize, Bertrand Russell said, “All human activity is prompted by desire.” He lists what he saw to be the four infinite desires of humans. Russell believed these four infinite desires were unique to humans and not found in other animals. The four infinite desires are acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power.

According to Russell, the least powerful of these infinite desires is acquisitiveness. No matter how much we acquire, we always seem to want more. We see this in lottery winners who suddenly have everything they need and end up going bankrupt because, although they’re millionaires, they spend beyond their means. 

Acquisitiveness, although potent, ranks below rivalry, according to Russell. The most famous example of rivalry was the space race between the USA and the USSR. After the Americans landed a man on the moon, they abandoned future moon missions. They had beaten the “Reds” to the moon and, therefore, saw no reason to keep returning, which puts to rest the claim that the reason for the moon launches was purely scientific.

W. L. George wrote, “Vanity is as old as the mammoth.” Russell certainly agreed and made vanity the next great desire. Many will sacrifice everything they’ve built over a lifetime if it means fame. In the musical Chicago, one of my favorite plays, Roxy expresses frustration after her acquittal when the press’s attention shifts from her to another murderer. Her vanity was so extreme that she couldn’t rejoice that the jury spared her life. Instead, she sulked because she was no longer the center of attention.

Russell believed that the love of power was the most significant of these desires. Everything, including the acquisition of wealth, is a means to power. Power is a desire for its own sake. Orwell captured this understanding in his novel 1984 when he wrote, “The object of power is power.” A person will live in abject poverty if it means that they have a sense of power. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan says, “It’s better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” According to Russell, even pursuing scientific knowledge is a pursuit of power.

So, when you watch the news here in 2025, remember these four desires. Doing so will help you make better sense of the events.

Disturbing Trends

“Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.” - Albert Camus, philosopher.

People often reflect on the previous year’s events as we approach a new year. I’m not going to review the past year on this blog. Anyone interested can find numerous end-of-the-year reviews. However, there was a disturbing trend that I think deserves attention.

2024 was a violent year in the US. Gun violence continues to plague America, as it has seen more than 488 mass shootings across the US so far this year. A ‘mass shooting’ is defined as involving 4 or more victims. However, this definition hides the severity of the situation, for it fails to consider that there are so many more killings every day with fewer victims.

 

Americans seemed to have gotten numb to the violence. To make matters worse, American voters elected a Right-wing extremist for president who has a history of violent rhetoric and has even been convicted of sexual assault. It’s almost as though Americans now revel in violence.

This celebration of violence isn’t limited to the political Right. Some on the political Left are holding up the murderer of the health insurance CEO as a hero. The irony that many of these same Left-wing individuals celebrating the vigilante are also opposed to the death penalty, even for known killers, isn’t lost on me. 

I find myself wanting to say what I think needs to be done to change this trend. However, I will admit that at this time, I’m at a loss for words. I will simply say that I fear for the future.