Organised Religion – A Perspective

Expulsion of heretics (c. 1415 illustration), British Library

Organised religion is a double edged sword. On the one hand organising religion allows religious beliefs to be preserved and propagated – this gives that religion accessibility, strength and potentially longevity. It also enhances the social aspect of religion, acting as a means by which a religious community can come together. On the other hand, organised religion can and does give rise to some serious problems. The main problem, as I see it, is that it is prone to encouraging individuals to believe that they somehow have a monopoly on divine truth. Flowing on from this, members of religious organisations may be prone to developing less flexible attitudes to their own religion, and then impose these onto other would be members of this religion and even non-members (who might be thought of destined to an undesirable future state for not believing in the spiritual authority of the organisation). It can even go so far that some organisations believe they can represent their deity’s approval, and feel entitled to exclude and shun members over trivial theological differences. In this case the believer’s ability to communicate with the divine is superficially abrogated in favour of the believer’s relationship with the leaders of an organisation, some of whom may be corrupt, stupid, fanatical and/or unkind. 

When it comes to polytheism there is no person, or even groups of persons, who can simultaneously cast you out of their organisation and deny divine goodwill towards you. No human organisation can speak for the Gods. The Gods favour who they will – it is not for men to decide.  Even Pagan priests or priestesses cannot speak for the Gods. In any case, as polytheists we are all, if we maintain a shrine and make offerings at it, priests and priestesses of the deities we honour. By this means we may come to understand the Gods we revere with a greater degree of insight, but only hubris could induce us into thinking we, of our own volition, can speak for them – the only possible exception being when efficacious divination occurs, or omens are perceived, but even in this case we merely interpret signs from the Gods.

Pagan veneration during the age of Christendom

Venus (c. 1406), Bibliothèque nationale de France

Of course, the rise of Christianity did not mean the Gods were no longer venerated. Paganism did not need an organised structure in order to survive. I suspect that the truth is that Roman polytheism is not just being revived or reconstructed now after 1500 years of supposed non-existence. The Gods have likely been worshipped throughout the entire age of Christendom. Why else do we know so much about them? Why else the incalculable number of paintings, sculptures and other objets d'art depicting and honouring them? I strongly suspect that many homes throughout European history have included a closeted shrine to the Gods and even when people dared not to do this the Gods were honoured in a myriad of other ways. The rise of the cult of courtly love from the 11th century onwards is perhaps the most obvious manner in which the worship of Venus (aka amor) was maintained, even when Christianity was apparently most powerful. The popular medieval story of Tannhäuser brilliantly exposes this. The story goes that, for a period, Tannhäuser lives a life of pleasure in the realm of Venus, called Venusberg, but subsequently seeks penance for this and so he makes a pilgrimage to Rome to seek absolution. The Pope decrees that God’s forgiveness for the sin of venerating Venus is as unlikely as flowers springing from his wooden staff. Thereafter, Tannhäuser returns to Venusberg after which his discarded staff breaks into flower, and thereby the power of Venus revealed. Another popular medieval story hints at how widespread the veiled veneration of Venus was – Tristan and Isolde famously seek refuge, and for a brief period live a life of exquisite pleasure, in an ancient cave, which is really a temple to Venus:

“The cavern had been hewn into the wild mountain in heathen times … They used to hide inside it when, desiring to make love, they needed privacy. Wherever such a cavern was found it was barred by a door of bronze, and bore an inscription to love …‘The Cave of Lovers.’

The name was well suited to the thing … the grotto was round, broad, high, and perpendicular … on the keystone there was a crown … encrusted with precious stones … the pavement was of smooth, rich, shining marble … At the centre there was a bed … and engraved along its sides with letters, announcing that the bed was dedicated to the Goddess of love [Gottfried Von Strassburg, Tristan and Isolde].”

Then there is the famous love between Lancelot and Guinevere – their romanticised adultery challenging the Christian ideal of sexlessness and, where this was not possible, monogamous life-long marriage. All of this, this hugely popular phenomenon which came to profoundly influence contemporary Western attitudes to love, was inspired by the man who inspired my own attraction to Roman polytheism – Ovid, one of the most influential writers of all time:

“Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori / Venus appointed me to [teach the ways of] love [Ovid, The Art of Love].”

Conclusion

The relative lack of religious organisation in contemporary Western polytheism is both a weakness and a strength – the most obvious strength being that no man or organisation can claim its ownership and thereby potentially defile it with human arrogance and intolerance.

“This is particularly relevant when thinking for example about the agony of the major monotheistic religions … often resulting in a blind and violent fanaticism which highlights their inability to accept … plurality … [lases.blogspot.com].”

The plurality inherent in the polytheistic world view means that accepting just one organisation’s view of reality as the only legitimate vision becomes incongruous.

“There’s one word that goes straight to the core of polytheism and that’s diversity! Not just of deities, but also of beliefs, ritual and devotional practices, symbols, festive calendars and even ethical principles. It comes with having many Gods with different functions or areas of interest, which means They will have Their own agendas … there’s a greater degree of tolerance that comes naturally to a religion that does not claim the monopoly of the divine to one God and accepts diversity as a basic element [goldentrail.wordpress.com].”

All this is not to say that polytheists should avoid organising themselves into an established communities. Clearly religious organisation has benefits, the main one perhaps being that it is an affirmation of the very existence of a particular religious path, which then makes it more visible and available to others who are attracted to it. I merely point out that religious organisations are man made and so vulnerable to all that goes with that.

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist and romanpagan.wordpress.com