Syncretism as Religion

http://sarahannelawless.com

 

 

What do Robert Cochrane (Roy Bowers), Victor and Cora Anderson, Robert Graves, Gerald Gardner, Manly P. Hall, Johfra Bosschart, Madame Blavatsky, and others all have in common? They were syncretists. Syncretism is the belief that the majority of the world’s religions can all be reconciled; that what they have in common is more than what they do not. Within syncretism is a feeling of harmony, unity, and overall love. Syncretism is not a modern belief, it was shared by ancient cultures – the most well-known being the cross-over gods between the Egyptians and Greeks and also the Celts and Romans. They didn’t see anything wrong with this as either their beliefs, teachings, or their blood told them their gods are of the same origin. Some believe all gods originated from Africa, others the Middle East, and others yet from the Proto-Indo European. Put the cultures of these regions on a timeline and you’ll see that all of the above are right, they just represent different evolutionary periods through early pre-history.

Most definitions found of syncretism call it “an attempt to reconcile different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.” That word “attempt” is always in the definition no matter where I seem to look.  I suppose it isn’t easy to live in harmony and love, but one needs to do better than just attempt it.  I am coming out of the polytheistic closet – I am a syncretist and an animist. I believe all of the world’s religions stem from animism and it is getting harder and harder for modern scholars to prove otherwise thanks to recent research conclusively linking modern witchcraft and folk magic practices to ancient shamanism which is deeply rooted in animism. If you listen to the descriptions of the pantheons of the different Pagan cultures but do not mention the names of the gods, you will begin to see a pattern. I believe if you take all of these pantheons and cosmologies and create a template that if you stack them upon one another they will match – not perfectly as everything can corrupt and change – but pretty darn close. I am not a pantheist or panentheist as I believe in more than one god, but there is only one sun, one moon orbiting the earth, one venus, one mercury… you get the picture. I am not saying all religion is the same as there are obvious cultural differences that are a large factor, but I am saying they are similar and share the same origins – it is only their evolution over time that has separated them. This is why folk magic (aka witchcraft, aka shamanism) fits so well into any and every religion and why every religion practices it – yes even Christianity.  It is not because folk magic is a practice or a trade devoid of religion, no, it is because it is the root of every religion and therefore inseparable from it no matter how much faith evolves through time.

 

I believe as many ancient cultures do, that the universe was created from one god who the Greeks believed was pure love and the Celts pure awareness – he had to be destroyed in order to create and so every solar system, planet, and life form in the universe is a piece of that first god. Even scientists will tell you everything is made from nuclear star dust from massive planets to the smallest organism on Earth. We truly are all connected – the Norse called this connection the Web of Wyrd –  in Buddhism it is Indra’s Net. I believe the gods do not have human faces dwelling in a heaven separate from our world, instead I believe our world and the unseen worlds overlap.  I believe the gods so often worshipped in human form are truly the earth, its greenmantle, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, and that the fey found in so many cultures are the spirits of plants, animals, and our own ancestors. The gods and spirits are constantly all around us, under our feet, in the sky, on our dinner plates. Our world of modern technology and only going outside to go from place to place has robbed us of our deep bond with our own world and our gods.  So few still feel awe over a sunrise, a full moon bedecked with stars, the budding of spring, the beauty of a wild animal, or the whispers of the wind passing through the trees… So few are thankful when they eat and drink the greenmantle for dinner every night – the wine and vegetables on your plate are the blood and flesh of the Green Man; Dionysus, Osiris, Baldr, Persephone, Tamuz, Jarilo…
Syncretism is not a popular belief in Neopaganism. I have met with many violent responses in sharing my beliefs with others in the Pagan community. So I admit I have been very hesitant to share my cosmology even on my own blog. I do not understand this attitude as syncretism was born in ancient Paganism, the ancients themselves saw absolutely nothing wrong with it and even their literature reflects these beliefs such as the quote shown below from The Golden Ass, a work in Latin from 200 CE.  I think it is mainly an issue of hard and soft polytheists not being able to reconcile their beliefs and a syncretist, who thinks they’re both right, just makes it harder for them!

“First I bathed in the sea seven times, as Pythagoras taught us. Then I called upon the goddess, naming her Demeter, Aphrodite, Artemis, Persephone, Isis, and Queen of Heaven.” “Her hair was long and heavy. A chaplet of flowers crowned her head, over which shone a full moon supported by vipers and sheafs of wheat. Her robe was multicoloured: white, yellow and red. From left shoulder to right hip she was draped in a sash of gleaming black, tasselled, plreated, embroidered with silver stars and red-gold moons. In one hand she held a golden rattle; in the other a golden bowl. Along its handle an asp hissed, ready to strike. She wore sandals of victorious palm fronds. Perfume from her body floated over me.’I am Mother Nature,’ she said, ‘queen of the living and the dead, world, heavens, seas, and underworld. Every people know me by their own name: Artemis, Aphrodite, Persephone, Demeter, Hecate, Ma-Bellona. But in Egypt I am Queen Isis.'”