Understanding Pagan Thought
A primer on the diversity of cultic activity in the ancient world.
There has never been one sole philosophical worldview or conception of reality that all Pagans agreed upon and uniformly adhered to in history. The idea that there is a “right” way of seeing things and that other views or philosophical worldviews should be referred to as “heresy” is an idea that is espoused by people with an unconscious (1) Abrahamic mindset.
Unconscious: the thoughts, ideas and beliefs we hold which we are unaware of on a psychological level.
The unconscious Abrahamic mindset is one that dictates that the holder’s view of reality is the only right one and therefore all other views should be abolished in favour of their own. My view is that we should view we should view things as our ancestors did by understanding Paganism and reality through the psychological lens of our Pagan ancestors in a sensible manner that is complimentary to the modern world. Albeit, in accordance with our chosen path.
This ultimately means that we should understand that in history we would have lived within a certain time in our own localised space such as a micro-polity where the traditions of that specific micro-polity would have been practiced. The thoughts and ideas about the nature of reality we would have held would be those instilled in us by the people pertaining to the micro-polity according to their tradition.
The Greek World
In ancient Greece, the multitude of city states all had diverse conceptions and ideas on reality and diverse philosophical beliefs, as well as customs, traditions and practices. In Athens alone, there were multiple schools of thought such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, Platonism, Scepticism and even a philosophical form of Hedonism founded by Aristippus of Cyrene. Moreover, there were numerous pre-Socratic philosophies such as Ionian, Milesian and Naturalist schools of thought, all of which had their own ideas and beliefs on reality, the Gods and the divine.
The classical Greeks were aware of their diverse cults and localised organisational structure, as the words epichoroi, polites and astoi all denote a localised people living in the same space as each other such as a city-state or micro-polity as previously mentioned. Beyond a few big, trans-regional sanctuaries such as Olympia and Delphi, the local horizon was the main factor of religious and cultic activity in the Greek world.
The Germanic World
We observe the above being the case in the Germanic world too. Uppsala in Sweden, as mentioned in the Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum by Adam of Bremen (c. 1050-1085), was a centre of religious activity for Germanic Pagans. However, the localised day-to-day practices, customs, traditions and metaphysical concepts would have varied from clan to clan, chief to chief, priest to priest.
Modern Paganism
Diverse observance of customs and traditions in ancient Greece was also present in the calendars and the ways each city-state kept track of the time with the exception of the Pan-Hellenic Games which was held once every four years. This is one of the reasons why I believe that there isn’t an issue with other Pagans of different paths such as Celtic or Germanic Pagans having, to a limited degree, different dates for annual Pagan holidays and festivities. What should be the foundational premise of these observances and customs is tradition. The attested sources must be the framework on which modern practice is built upon.
When I hear “neopagan” I believe that the term is better applied to the actual Neoplatonists who were the neopagans of their time. Most modern day neopagans are better described as neoneopagans because they basically have an unconscious Abrahamic approach to religion only they do it in the woods.