Book Review: The Earth, The Gods and The Soul - by Brendan Myers
Pagan Genealogy Traced Through Millenia
Subtitle of the book is: “A history of Pagan Philosophy from the Iron Age to the 21st Century”.
It was a pleasure to read, written probably in a forest by Brendan Myers PhD.
The approach taken here is to trace the story of explicitly pagan thinkers, but also pagan elements in thinkers and currents without this label. What is taken to be pagan here? Various definitions are cited, one from Margot Adler’s Drawing Out the Moon that it means animism and polytheism, Robert Kaplan’s Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos, a 2003 book providing an account of a public ethics and virtue “Virtue presupposes ambition, but not only for the sake of personal advancement”.
Finally the author settles on a trio of factors, corresponding to parts of the title:
pantheism
neoplatonism
humanism
And says a POV is pagan if it includes 1 or more of these. Pantheism here is taken in the broad sense, that there is a deity or deities in the world around us, imminent. Neoplatonism is taken to be the idea of a transcendent impartial God-Force that one can contemplate. Finally humanism as a statement of human independence, exceptionalism in possibility of enlightenment.
I don’t fully agree that it’s the best characterization in general. Pantheism is fine and it clusters close to animism, maybe the two could be differentiated. Neoplatonism isn’t something I’d call pagan at all. It was far from the everyday life of the Mediterranean region during most of the time, more of an abstract mathematical formalism than a livable doctrine. Humanism is quite present in Confucianism or secular *humanism* but is not pagan in that sense. The definition of the 3 seems to be trying to get as far as possible from the Christian God - personal, not imminent, and humans dependent on Him for salvation.
With this difference in views noticed we can discuss the sections.
The book is divided into 5 ‘Movements’
Brainy Barbarians
Philosophy and the City
Pantheism in the Age of Reason
Resurgence, Reinvention, Rebirth
Living Voices
A Commentary
Part 1, ‘Brainy Barbarians’ talks mainly about Celtic Druids as philosophers. It’s a first for me, I didn’t know this aspect of Celtic culture. They were contemplating natural philosophy, but also political one, advising kings and peacemaking. Ancient texts are discussed ad quoted, 7 mentioned as key ones:
the Audacht Morainn - the testament of Morann
the Tecosca Cormaic - the Instructions of Cormac
the Trecheng Breth Fene - a triad of judgements of the Irish aka the Irish Triads
the Bruatharthecosc Can Culainn - the precepts of Cuchulainn
the Tecosc Cuscraid - the instructions of Cuscraid
the Senbriathta Fithail - the ancient sayings of Fithal
Aidil Luigne maic Eremo In - the alphabet of Luigne mac Eremoic
Part 2, Philosophy and the City is about ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, covering late antiquity and the Dark Ages with a brief mention of Islamic philosophers and mysterious persons like John Scotus Eriugena, named ‘the most astonishing person of the ninth century’ by Bertrand Russel, terminating with Renaissance.
Part 3, Pantheism in the Age of Reason covers Enlightenment. It is no longer about self-identified pagans, but freethinkers leaning on the pantheistic side. Here is a fragment about Robert Boyle, a Protestant scientist, one of the first ones to revive a mechanistic view of the Universe. That discussion, held on page 113 emphasizes the religious zeal in this endeavor, as that giving agency to Nature, making it not mechanistic is denying God’s agency.
Here we also hear about the roots of contemporary organizations. Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids was allegedly founded in Covent Garden at Apple Tree Tavern in the early 18th Century.
A fascinating figure about whom I learned there is John Toland, an Irish freethinker, who thought that pantheistic religion is the most favorable religion to the republican concept of government.
Later thinkers mentioned are Americans Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir and Walt Whitman. This movement terminates with Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the latter’s Beyond Good and Evil quoted frequently, specifically paragraphs 225, 287, and then from Gay Science, 143, 259.
Part 4, Resurgence, Reinvention, Rebirth starts with no other than Helena Blavatsky, then proceeds to discuss Aleister Crowley and his circles, finishing about Gaia Hypothesis.
People about whom I haven’t heard much in the past but learned about them here are Robert Graves, James George Frazer, Druids Ross Nichols and George Watson MacGregor-Reid, British magician Dion Fortune, and more.
There is a fascinating discussion of ‘Charge of the Goddess’ by Doreen Valiente, and English Wiccan. The ‘Charge’ is a credo of her variant of Wicca, summarized and analyzed here thus (page 190):
The Charge of the Goddess assets universalism, pantheism, immanence, virtue ethics, neighborly love, intelligent self-interest, a little bit of humanism, and some good old fashioned hedonism
I learned more about feminist witchcraft than I ever expected to, and it was quite interesting actually. Carol P Christ, quite a colorful persona calling women to cult of the Goddess, in ‘Why Women Need the Goddess’ in 1979 - 4 things
legitimacy of female power as beneficent and independent
affirmation of the female body and the lifecycle
positive valuation of will
revaluation of the significance of the relationships between women
Author has 2 key conclusions from the discussion of feminist pagan philosophy.
First, that until the 1960s pagan philosophy had 3 things - pantheism, neoplatonism and humanism, corresponding to earth, gods, soul. Then a fourth thing appeared - power, the key topic for feminists. Second, that the intersection of feminism and paganism was in institutions, so a systematic process of reasoning became present for the first time since Justinian closed the Academy in 529.
Native Americans are mentioned as giving unique insights:
In the discussion of Gaia Hypothesis it is remarked that it was not Lovelock’s idea, but James Hutton’s, who in 1785 drew similarities between blood circulation in an organism to ecological nutrient circulation (page 228).
Finally the fifth part, Living Voices is about living writers, often very active in Wiccan, Druidic and other pagan communities.
The overview is excellent and a good exposition of various POVs. I really put many items from here into my reading list. I’ll just mention 1 of these, Pagan Theology, a 2003 book from Michael York, scholar of religion, a quote from which really captured my mind for days (page 167)":
If there is a single concept or practice that encapsulates the essential orientation and identity of paganism, it is celebration. If the basic notion of Eastern spirituality is release and that of Christianity is preparation or salvation, pagan celebration is a festive rejoicing that also embraces service because service is likewise an affirmation of humanity, the world , and divinity, Paganism views humankind, nature and whatever the supernatural may or may not be as essentially divine.
Part 6 is a commentary on all that has arisen in Pagan Philosophy. The author is hopeful about the institutional angle that’s been regained thanks to which a more structured chain of discourse can be had, with critiques, replies, avoiding re-discovering things.
The three guiding themes are reiterated, and elementary ideas presented:
animism as an elementary idea - from contemplation and apparent intentionalities in nature
pantheism - through food chains as blood of Earth
neo-platonism - from thinking, dreaming, interior life
humanism - will to know ourselves
Author concludes that these are not immortal ideas but a steady equilibrium that emerges whenever conditions are right.
8/10 Fully recommend. Follow the author of the book on twitter!
https://twitter.com/Fellwater
Next we dive into an opinionated and recent (2023), terminally online book Understanding Indo-European Cosmology, Theology and Metaphysics - from Zachary Gill, part of the Hammer & Vajra project. This is a discussion of a specific kind of paganism - reconstructionist Indo-European one.
Subscribe to see it soon.
Would you like to share the planned reading list?