Pagan Studies Conference a success

Pagan scholars discussed “Building Community” on Jan. 22 and 23 at the 7th Annual Conference of Current Pagan Studies in Claremont.  More than 70 Pagans gathered to hear the ideas and results of research by the 27 Pagan scholars, researchers and leaders who came from greater LA as well as from other areas of the country.

They gathered to discuss issues that relate to the Pagan community at large. It is important to that community’s health and growth to meet and learn from one another. It’s also important for all Pagans to be involved in the public arena and have their voices heard. With an estimate of over a million Americans now self-identified as Pagan, the Pagan religion is coming of age. And it is feeling, now more than ever, the need for trained leaders and clergy to build stronger Pagan communities that also see themselves as a part of a larger community.

The timing couldn’t have been better to have this discussion either, with the world on the brink of total ecological collapse. The world needs our point of view, especially our reverence for the natural world. Coming together allows us to have a louder voice and even now, through leaders like Patrick McCollum and Selena Fox, our voice is being heard and respected around the world.

This is the seventh year this scholarly conference has been presented. Selena and Patrick were a perfect match as this year’s keynote speakers. Both have worked tirelessly, separately and together, for the rights of individuals in the Pagan community and the community at large. As activists and elders they have much to teach.

Selena spoke about rites of passage. Pagan community is built in a wide variety of rites for the seasonal cycles and those of the sun and moon, as well as rituals that mark passages of birth, life and death, she said. The acknowledgement of the life passages of individuals – especially birth, marriage and death – are especially important because “we are reinforcing that there is a change in identification,” particularly in something like a moontime ceremony. Such rites help in identity transformation for the person going through them as well as for the people that surround that person and also for the larger community. “People come together. They identify themselves as the community.” In the case of a marriage, two communities come together. “Social bonding just happens.”

She added that public rites can be especially important. “Public education about Paganism can come out of a rite of passage.” When people encounter Paganism for the first time in this way, she added, it helps to “normalize” Paganism in the culture and enrich Paganism itself. “We can use our voices to counter the voices that don’t want us to be included.”

Patrick talked about the history of American Paganism since witchcraft laws were repealed in 1951, and his work as a prison chaplain as well as an advocate for Pagans. He also recalled attending a national summit of Pagan leaders in 2001, and establishing a wider Pagan community there. McCollum said he believes Paganism has helped to shift “mainstream” religions to adopt some terminology and ideas. At one international conference to draft recommendations to protect the religious and spiritual rights of people worldwide, he found that Pagans “were looked at very highly.” And he has found indigenous people all over the world see Pagans of European indigenous traditions as akin to their own religions. The international impact of Pagans of all kinds, he says, “is continuing to get bigger.” McCollum sees the Pagan worldview as especially important, since it declares “we’re all within the circle and we’re all sacred.” This, he added, is “the hope for all humanity.”

Those two days at Claremont Graduate University were filled with many ideas and much discussion. In part two of this article, some others will be presented.

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