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.