The Pagan Activist

by: Adrian Harris & Sean Scullion

http://www.dragonnetwork.org/tools.htm

Alternate European Social Forum

October 2004

We are the rising of the moon

We are the shifting of the ground

We are the seeds that take root,

when we bring the fortress down.

- Starhawk

What if your chosen path is one in which you see the inherent value of all life – does it drive you to oppose war, corporate exploitation and political oppression and choose instead life and freedom? Does your path fill you with a desire to protect the natural environment and nurture a belief in respect for all life?

If you are a pagan, you may have favourite ‘natural’ places for conducting your magickal rituals and occult experiments, often out in the woods, in a corner of the local park or in your back yard – in sacred groves and grottos where you know you won’t be disturbed. Pagans often establish a great rapport with particular forest nooks and crannies and will often get to know the spirits of the places where they work. But what if your sacred grove is to be destroyed and replaced with a golf course, car park or another earth-shattering monstrosity?

Spiritual Warriors

Welcome to the world of pagan activism – a world in which pagan beliefs motivate you to protect nature in all its forms, nurture social justice and in which magickal techniques aid your great work. Pagan activism, “eco-paganism” or “green witchcraft” is the new force to be reckoned with when it comes to stopping money-hungry corporations and power-seeking politicians from greedily destroying the natural environment and people’s lives. When a government body or global corporation is disrupting the harmony of nature, there are nearly always environmental protestors there ready to speak out and act up - and there will usually be pagan activists there with them. As you read this, there are dozens of environmental actions across the globe with people, many of them pagans, working to build a better world.

Being an activist doesn't necessarily mean being 'on the front line' or 'on the street'. Writing letters, campaigning, handing out flyers and basically standing up for the rights of the under-privileged makes you an activist. When members of your community go to actions, simply feeding their cats and watering their plants is essential. An activist is a person who is actively helping to build a better community and a better world. Each of us has our own abilities and interests. Celebrate the differences!

Pagan activists are motivated by many different things; many of them global, such as the anti-G8 Social Justice Movement. But many have more specific issues that they feel are particularly important. Generally speaking, gender inequality, environmental protection and political and libertarian issues motivate pagan and magical activists. For example, through much campaigning especially over the past 100 years, women are gaining personal power and freedom in society. Feminist activism is often deeply tied to a female-centric spirituality that has been denied to women for thousands of years. During this time, women have not been allowed to explore their spirituality as they wished and many women are still spiritually oppressed. There are numerous women-only pagan groups and covens that work towards a better world and the rights of all women.

Whenever there is a large mobilisation of activists against one of the world’s elitist capitalist organisations, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or the G8, there will be a group of pagans who form a Pagan Cluster, working the energy and the magick together, with the intention of intensifying the strength of non-violent protest and causing disruption to those who would rule and plunder our world.  The two aspects of pagan activism are reinforced: the spiritual motivation to protect the planet, and the tools and techniques that can assist in the activism.

When confronting a group such as the G8, there is a whole world of obstacles facing the activist. For example, the corporate media will typically shoot down the protests, declaring activists “violent ratbags” who have come to “cause mayhem in our streets”. It’s certainly not in the corporate press’ interest to talk about the violence inherent in capitalism or the mayhem caused to millions of lives in the developing world by global trade trends. The small number of people that control the corporate media are generally amongst the most capitalistic and greedy in the world with vested interests in ensuring that barriers to trade, such as limits to media-ownership are removed. Removing these limits to ownership enables the media moguls to control more of the world’s news publishing resources and thereby shape the opinions of the worlds populations.

(for the full booklet go here - an offsite link)