The Old Ways

When Christian missionaries in old Europe witnessed sacrifices to the native Gods of the Europeans, they were seeing the everyday expression of a majestic and ancient religious tradition that had its origins in the earliest ages of human cultural time. These rites of sharing with the Old Gods were the heart and soul of the Old Ways, a community-based experience by which members of tribe, village, and clan gathered together to partake in a sacred sharing and to renew their bonds with the powers in the unseen world, and with one another.

The term "Old Ways" refers not to a single set of beliefs or practices, but to many, for all the ancient tribal peoples of Europe had local variations on religious belief and practice. Some Gods and Goddesses are so powerful and central to humankind's existence, that they are historically found across cultures, and still worshiped in the modern day. Other spiritual powers and deities were of a local variety, unique to the culture that inhabited the land which was their home, or the place that was sacred to them.

The Memory of the Land

 The Land itself is one of the central themes and mysteries of the Old Ways, and has always been so, in every era of history. Across cultures, everywhere in Europe (and the rest of the world) indigenous peoples held their land in sacred reverence, and it embodied for them the body of the divine power that gave their people food, life, and nurture. The Land, for the Celtic peoples of Europe, was the body of a Sovereign Goddess, the Mother of the people, and it is still experienced in this manner for those who live the reconstructed ways of the various Celtic peoples.

The Land is a sacred reality, a powerful conglomeration of spiritual powers which guard and protect natural locations, and which mediate the life-giving power of the fertile ground to humans and animals that rely on it. It is the body of a Goddess, the first Mother of humankind and all other living creatures, and a positive, respectful relationship is needed with her if any human culture is to thrive and be whole. The pre-Christian Germanic peoples worshipped the Goddess Earth under the ancient name Nerthus, and held her in great awe and respect.

The Land's spiritual dimension cannot be separated from it's material existence; furthermore, the Land has a memory, a memory of all ages that have passed. Ancient peoples knew that the dead came to rest in the inner reality of the Land, where they were able to contact their living kin through certain holy places. Through the body of the Land, a perpetual intercourse with the unseen world was and is possible. These simple and ancient truths are still available to men and women today, and they can help us to live better lives, and find a deeper identity for ourselves that is tied to the Land we live on, and our ancestral cultures.

The Re-emergence

 The Land remembers- and from its timeless memory of Gods, Goddesses, of worship and mystical insight, the modern "Pagan" revival began in the last century. This re-emergence of older ways of seeing and thinking has two faces, or two layers; on the outside, those who needed inspiration to break away from calcified traditions of social life and religion received it, and created the "neo-Pagan" movement, a movement which is very different in form and spirit from the reconstructionist movement. The "neo-Pagan" movement centers on supporting liberal positions on social issues and on the unique spiritual qualities inherent in men and women. Neo-pagan religions typically place an emphasis on male-female polarity and take a decidedly liberal and eclectic approach to religion, embracing spiritual ideals like monism and imported Eastern religious beliefs like karma and reincarnation.

Reconstructionist Paganism, the inner face of the re-emergence of the Old Ways, springs not from a desire to "break away" but a desire to "understand again" what wisdoms the ancestors had and preserved for countless generations, before the coming of evangelical, monotheistic faiths forced these things into the deep well of folklore and myth, or destroyed them. Reconstructionism relies on solid historical scholarship, archaeological insights, and living traditions of custom and folklore for its inspiration and its recreations of ancient religion. It does not give itself to fantasy or revisionist history.

Neo-pagans often claim that they can belong to mainstream faiths as well as to their Neo-pagan religions. For Reconstructionists, this is not a question; Reconstructionists cannot also be Christian or a members of a mainstream faith. Such a thing would be impossible, for Reconstructed Pre-Christian religions have a distinct identity, complete with very different ideas about who and what is responsible for the human world and the lives within it, and what the goal and purpose of life really is. When we "understand again" what our Ancestors knew for generations, we discover that we don't need other religious beliefs or philosophies to make us whole. We also do not need Eastern religious ideas to supplement what our ancestors believed; their beliefs and ideals can be discovered in the state of remaining evidence, as well as within ourselves. This is the nature of organic religious beliefs; they persist within us, on a deep level.

Reconstructionist Paganism of any variety does not fall neatly into the category of reactionary politics or radical liberalism; the political leanings of Reconstructionist Pagans are a matter of their own conscience, and may be found in any spectrum. What is certain, however, is that Reconstructionists are more likely to distance themselves from the radical liberal stereotypes that have (sadly) defined the "pagan" movement as a whole. One hopes that in the future, the public will be able to differentiate between Neo-pagan religions and Reconstructionist religions, for they have extreme spiritual and aesthetic differences.

A Branch of the Broom Tree

 In Christian Europe, Some men and women practiced forms of healing and medicine which relied heavily on some interestingly old patterns of knowledge and belief, some of them doubtlessly pre-Christian in origin. Much of their "craft" dealt with using herbs and plants to heal, but other aspects of their art- which included charms, the making of amulets and talismans and banishing harmful spiritual influences and (sometimes) "hexing" or cursing- were parts of a heavily Christianized but directly-descended line of belief and practice from Pagan times. In folklore, these men and women were often called "witches", and their craft "Witchcraft"- though other practicioners of occult arts were also lumped into this category as well.

Over time and through history, the attitude of official governments towards local healers and sorcerers has ranged from ambivalent to hostile- rumors of diabolism and other unsavory allegiances clustered around people who practiced esoteric arts in the Middle Ages and even later. This "devilish" reputation has never quite been shaken off, and Christian and Muslim societies worldwide have largely maintained their dislike for "non-approved" practices of spirituality or healing, leading the term "witchcraft" to maintain its ancient politically-motivated sting, even in the modern day.

Robin Artisson has written two important works on the modern practice of "witchcraft", and written countless online essays and articles on the topic. The study of "Witchcraft" represents an important chapter in our understanding of the folkloric traditions of Europe, which in turn bring us near to the numinosity of the Old ways. These studies also present an avenue to approaching alternative spiritual realities that can be of immense help for the modern seeker.

The Dangers of a New Age

 All beginnings are very delicate times. The new beginning of Paganism in the modern world has faced it's own dangers, but none are so great as the "new age" industry. The "new age" is a term given to the period from the end of the last century until now, in which alternative spiritualities have proliferated, and a massive industry has sprung up which encourages the worst in cultural misappropriation and eclecticism in the name of spirituality. All true spiritualites are born in effort and devotion to ideals; effort and devotion are not popular themes in the "do it overnight" culture we are born into.

To experience either traditional witchcraft or actual serious reconstructed Pagan practices or beliefs, one must engage history and other scholarly pursuits with a certain zeal and focus- and one must dig deep within oneself for the bravery and guidance to give one's heart to powers and "ways of seeing" that are largely at odds with the dominant metaphysical themes present in the world today. There is no glamour here; there is nothing at all that can be attained without effort and devotion. Beyond that, one must engage the cultural context of a historical people- with respect given to their modern cultural manifestations- if one would enter into the ancestral dimension of the self and the land that holds the powers of the Old Ways in store.

No historical or living culture has been as ravaged by the powers of the "new age" as the various cultures of the historical Celtic peoples- and what continues to happen to the deep spirit of this culture-group is a tragedy that defies reason or conscience. Today, many ravenous new-agers and "wiccans" imagine that the wiccan religion is "Celtic" or that the Celts had "witches" and believed in a "threefold law" or worshipped a "Triple Goddess" as described by Robert Graves- but nothing could be further from the truth. Wicca and other new-age religions are not parts of the reconstructionist movement; they are as far from it in intention and motivation as they can be. Authentic pre-Christian Celtic spirituality is possible to us today, but it isn't found through the new-age, nor is it found in disrespectfully mixing the Gods and Goddesses of old Celtia with eclectic models of religion whose final form borders on the absurd.

It takes a determined soul to do what is required to rediscover the Old Ways; it is not about "power" over others through something as shallow as what passes for "magic" these days; it is not about discarding ethics and morality in the name of "free for all" ways of living; it is not about "shocking the mundanes" or rebelling against society. It is a journey to a new sort of understanding and a new spiritual maturity. Many are called here; but some lose their way because of the flashy, tacky glamour tossed about by the giant new-age booksellers that make a considerable amount of money on people who want a quick fix to the spiritual quandary the modern world has placed us in.

The Rebirth

 The path away from the Old Ways to the foundation of a "Christian" Europe and Western World was a long one; it is just as long a road back to the Old Ways. But the invitation arises here and now; the ancestral powers are real and present to us, just as they were before; it is we that must unlearn so much of the nonsense that we have internalized for so long.

While most European Pagan cultures are being studied and their beliefs reconstructed by some groups in the modern world, Robin's work centers on the lands of the British Isles from which he derives his ancestry. He is an adherent of the Asatru Religion, the revival of the old Germanic Pagan faiths, and he is, along with his family and friends, a proponent of the revival of the old beliefs and practices of Ireland and Britain. He has worked for 14 years to study and reconstruct authentic models of worldview and religious practice based on what we known about the various ancient peoples of Ireland and Britain, and he has just finished his encyclopedic work on the subject: The Flaming Circle, (available now) which is described in the "Works" section of this website.

Those seeking to become a part of this new (yet very old) spiritual adventure of mankind have many resources available to them in the modern day, the very best of which will be shared in the links section of this site.