I really appreciate the call-out here of anti-intellectualism in neo-paganism. I live in the kind of town that LOVES a good cross-quarter day, and I have certainly participated in a fair amount of that sort of thing over the years (though the Quaker in me has always resisted all the pomp and circumstance of it all. Just shut up and listen, already! How will you hear the still, small Voice in the middle of all this bad-skit night nonsense? I'll confess I found myself thinking over and over. Yes, I'm kind of a cranky asshole.)
I also was an organic farmer for nearly a decade, though, and I'll say that the solar festivals and *certain* of the cross-quarter days, to the extent that they connect to the actual seasons happening outside, came to have a deep meaning for me. I don't really give a shit about Imbolc per se, for instance, but I appreciate the prompting to think about life stirring underground in the midst of a cold, (increasingly less) snowy Upstate Winter. And I don't really know anything about Lugh, so Lughnasa is kind of like... whatever? But thinking about celebrating the harvest sometime between early August and late September just makes sense here.
All this to say, I'm no Wiccan, but being connected to the land in the Northern Hemisphere, the Wheel was a useful prompt to think deeply about the actually turning of the seasons and what a sacred, embodied calendar related to that might be for me.
YOU'RE RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT!! Big agree with everything you've said here. I began my witchy polytheist journey celebrating the Wheel and over time, as I learned more, came to similar conclusions. Boy, the whiteness part though! Something to really, really chew on.
"An intervention, mind, not a reclamation or restoration." 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
As someone who practices a Gaelic path rooted in history and lore, it has been INSANE dealing with all the misinformation about paganism out here thanks to Wicca and its off branches. People calling shit "ancient" when it's not etc. Asking witches and pagans to make room for historical accuracy has gotten me shunned from so many circles 🙃
"Belenus for Beltane" actually this is untrue. Or rather, you are conflating separate Celtic cultures here. Bealtaine is Irish. Beltane is Scottish. Belenus is a Gaulish deity. Even the Celts themselves were not practicing a homogenous religion. The Irish god Bel has been linked by some scholars to Belenus, but this is not fact accepted by all and the etymology of Beltane itself is still contested. I know you mentioned Morgan Daimler, whom I love, but I'd also like to suggest The Irish Pagan School (https://irishpagan.school/bealtaine-cheat-sheet/) to anyone who is wanting more knowledge rooted in accuracy and taught by Irish people themselves. Morgan is a teacher there :)
But yes, it's bothered me for over almost the 2 decades I've been a pagan as to why people who have no connections to any Gaelic deities want to celebrate Gaelic festivals. Pick-and-mix neopaganism is a thorn in my side lol. It's so, in my opinion, disrespectful to the cultures and gods they willy-nilly pull from—usually in at attempt to garner some sort of cosmic favor. As you say, it's a white supremacist colonialist mentality and many believe they can just take from any culture they see fit. And I VERY much agree that pagans upholding this wheel as THE ONE TRUE WAY is steeped in white supremacy.
"...but isn’t that purported lack of culture ultimately a lack of differentiation? A collapsing of the many into The Dominant Caste?" Another standing ovation, cos THIS 👏🏻
Thank you so much for this post. I love knowing we agree on this! ❤️
Agree, agree, agree. It is so important to learn what is traditional/historical (so little) and what is invented. AND thank you for explaining WHY it’s important—because the invented can foster and perpetuate colonialism and white supremacy. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that study and discernment go hand in hand with mystical experience in creating a spiritual life.
this is incredibly affirming and such an important reflection on being in direct relationship with spiritual practices vs following a playbook just because it seems 'popular.' thank you!
I'm not really following the connection to white supremacy. Maybe I need to read it a few more times, IDK.
I do know that I have a very good friend for whom Wicca has been a profoundly meaningful and helpful path. She feels deeply called to it and practices it thoughtfully, and it has been life-saving for her. I'm not going to take that away from her by quibbling about when and why Wicca was invented. (To name a similar example, Traditional Chinese Medicine is also an invention from the mid twentieth century... a tangential product of the Cold War... but that doesn't mean TCM can't still be profoundly helpful for many people.) I don't feel called to Wicca, and that's OK. My friend doesn't make evangelical claims about this being the One True Path for everyone; she practices it in her own way, with a small coven of people who have similar callings. And she's had to endure significant, painful bullshit from her evangelical Christian family, condemning her choice of spiritual practice. She's not a Vapid White Woman Who Follows Fads To Be Popular.
One thing I like about chaos magick is that it recognizes that magickal practice can be spiritually rewarding for the end user while simultaneously acknowledging that it’s ALL made up (and thus abandoning the pretext* of historical legitimacy). Knowing that it’s made up, you can then take a more conscious role in its creation.
For me, the connection to white supremacy lies in the widespread willingness to simply accept the utterances of a cluster of 20th-century occultists looking for some degree of cultural legitimacy, particularly when their platform rests on a cluster of 19th-century occultists who appropriated non-western spiritual practices for their own ends.
*Or maybe I mean “pretense.” I always get them confused, and they both seem to fit.
If it brings people closer to nature, the moon, connection with themselves, community, rhythm, joy, even if it is just a bit of playfulness without "intellectual rigour" I say it's ok. I mean this world is harsh at the moment. Let's let people love what they love.
Thank you for this post! Living in Australia (white settler) on Wurundjeri land, the wheel of the year just doesn’t apply or resonate, and celebrating it feels to me like perpetuating the colonisation of this land…nature-based witchy practices that don’t align with or respect the fact that the land we enjoy only exists because Wurundjeri people took care of it for thousands and thousands of years…just doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like trying to understand the natural world around me is also in alignment with what my “witchy” ancestors on Celtic lands were more likely doing generations past. I admire the work of Julie Brett, Australian Druid, she is doing beautiful work thinking all this through. Thanks again!
The wheel of the year has always smelled fishy to me. The shiny packaging appears so seamless, right? No shade to people who want to connect with time as a part of natural cycles. We need to repair this relationship BIG TIME.
You've made such a clear case as to why not questioning the wheel of the year as a historical restoration is a problematic extension of white supremacy. The desire for some cohesive pre-colonized European cosmological calendar and animist spiritually is real. Grateful that you are ripping open the seams to unravel the unquestioned acceptance of a neopagan invention passed off as historical fact.
I really appreciate the call-out here of anti-intellectualism in neo-paganism. I live in the kind of town that LOVES a good cross-quarter day, and I have certainly participated in a fair amount of that sort of thing over the years (though the Quaker in me has always resisted all the pomp and circumstance of it all. Just shut up and listen, already! How will you hear the still, small Voice in the middle of all this bad-skit night nonsense? I'll confess I found myself thinking over and over. Yes, I'm kind of a cranky asshole.)
I also was an organic farmer for nearly a decade, though, and I'll say that the solar festivals and *certain* of the cross-quarter days, to the extent that they connect to the actual seasons happening outside, came to have a deep meaning for me. I don't really give a shit about Imbolc per se, for instance, but I appreciate the prompting to think about life stirring underground in the midst of a cold, (increasingly less) snowy Upstate Winter. And I don't really know anything about Lugh, so Lughnasa is kind of like... whatever? But thinking about celebrating the harvest sometime between early August and late September just makes sense here.
All this to say, I'm no Wiccan, but being connected to the land in the Northern Hemisphere, the Wheel was a useful prompt to think deeply about the actually turning of the seasons and what a sacred, embodied calendar related to that might be for me.
YOU'RE RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT!! Big agree with everything you've said here. I began my witchy polytheist journey celebrating the Wheel and over time, as I learned more, came to similar conclusions. Boy, the whiteness part though! Something to really, really chew on.
"An intervention, mind, not a reclamation or restoration." 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
As someone who practices a Gaelic path rooted in history and lore, it has been INSANE dealing with all the misinformation about paganism out here thanks to Wicca and its off branches. People calling shit "ancient" when it's not etc. Asking witches and pagans to make room for historical accuracy has gotten me shunned from so many circles 🙃
"Belenus for Beltane" actually this is untrue. Or rather, you are conflating separate Celtic cultures here. Bealtaine is Irish. Beltane is Scottish. Belenus is a Gaulish deity. Even the Celts themselves were not practicing a homogenous religion. The Irish god Bel has been linked by some scholars to Belenus, but this is not fact accepted by all and the etymology of Beltane itself is still contested. I know you mentioned Morgan Daimler, whom I love, but I'd also like to suggest The Irish Pagan School (https://irishpagan.school/bealtaine-cheat-sheet/) to anyone who is wanting more knowledge rooted in accuracy and taught by Irish people themselves. Morgan is a teacher there :)
But yes, it's bothered me for over almost the 2 decades I've been a pagan as to why people who have no connections to any Gaelic deities want to celebrate Gaelic festivals. Pick-and-mix neopaganism is a thorn in my side lol. It's so, in my opinion, disrespectful to the cultures and gods they willy-nilly pull from—usually in at attempt to garner some sort of cosmic favor. As you say, it's a white supremacist colonialist mentality and many believe they can just take from any culture they see fit. And I VERY much agree that pagans upholding this wheel as THE ONE TRUE WAY is steeped in white supremacy.
"...but isn’t that purported lack of culture ultimately a lack of differentiation? A collapsing of the many into The Dominant Caste?" Another standing ovation, cos THIS 👏🏻
Thank you so much for this post. I love knowing we agree on this! ❤️
Ty for this note! Will edit the post!
I second the Irish Pagan School, they have excellent resources and teachers
Agree, agree, agree. It is so important to learn what is traditional/historical (so little) and what is invented. AND thank you for explaining WHY it’s important—because the invented can foster and perpetuate colonialism and white supremacy. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that study and discernment go hand in hand with mystical experience in creating a spiritual life.
this is incredibly affirming and such an important reflection on being in direct relationship with spiritual practices vs following a playbook just because it seems 'popular.' thank you!
Thank you for underlining these issues! Great essay.
I'm not really following the connection to white supremacy. Maybe I need to read it a few more times, IDK.
I do know that I have a very good friend for whom Wicca has been a profoundly meaningful and helpful path. She feels deeply called to it and practices it thoughtfully, and it has been life-saving for her. I'm not going to take that away from her by quibbling about when and why Wicca was invented. (To name a similar example, Traditional Chinese Medicine is also an invention from the mid twentieth century... a tangential product of the Cold War... but that doesn't mean TCM can't still be profoundly helpful for many people.) I don't feel called to Wicca, and that's OK. My friend doesn't make evangelical claims about this being the One True Path for everyone; she practices it in her own way, with a small coven of people who have similar callings. And she's had to endure significant, painful bullshit from her evangelical Christian family, condemning her choice of spiritual practice. She's not a Vapid White Woman Who Follows Fads To Be Popular.
One thing I like about chaos magick is that it recognizes that magickal practice can be spiritually rewarding for the end user while simultaneously acknowledging that it’s ALL made up (and thus abandoning the pretext* of historical legitimacy). Knowing that it’s made up, you can then take a more conscious role in its creation.
For me, the connection to white supremacy lies in the widespread willingness to simply accept the utterances of a cluster of 20th-century occultists looking for some degree of cultural legitimacy, particularly when their platform rests on a cluster of 19th-century occultists who appropriated non-western spiritual practices for their own ends.
*Or maybe I mean “pretense.” I always get them confused, and they both seem to fit.
If it brings people closer to nature, the moon, connection with themselves, community, rhythm, joy, even if it is just a bit of playfulness without "intellectual rigour" I say it's ok. I mean this world is harsh at the moment. Let's let people love what they love.
Thank you for this post! Living in Australia (white settler) on Wurundjeri land, the wheel of the year just doesn’t apply or resonate, and celebrating it feels to me like perpetuating the colonisation of this land…nature-based witchy practices that don’t align with or respect the fact that the land we enjoy only exists because Wurundjeri people took care of it for thousands and thousands of years…just doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like trying to understand the natural world around me is also in alignment with what my “witchy” ancestors on Celtic lands were more likely doing generations past. I admire the work of Julie Brett, Australian Druid, she is doing beautiful work thinking all this through. Thanks again!
The wheel of the year has always smelled fishy to me. The shiny packaging appears so seamless, right? No shade to people who want to connect with time as a part of natural cycles. We need to repair this relationship BIG TIME.
You've made such a clear case as to why not questioning the wheel of the year as a historical restoration is a problematic extension of white supremacy. The desire for some cohesive pre-colonized European cosmological calendar and animist spiritually is real. Grateful that you are ripping open the seams to unravel the unquestioned acceptance of a neopagan invention passed off as historical fact.
Thank you, all of this.
This was so informative, thank you!