{"id":2711,"date":"2011-07-18T22:53:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T02:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2020-07-18T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T11:19:09","slug":"neopaganism-and-naturalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=2711","title":{"rendered":"Neopaganism and Naturalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

⇐ Previous section<\/a>    Next section ⇒<\/a><\/p>\n

Keeping all this in mind, we come today to discover a peculiar paradox: to wit, such a paganism never even existed but was constructed by Christian apologetics. Yet some “pagan” and anti-Christian movements of racism and extreme nationalism very frequently accept it, thus threatening to make it become true today for the first time in history. No more and no less than that.<\/p>\n

This critique is devastating. Instead of recovering the primordial religion of their ancestors, these neopagans are adopting a caricature of that religion. It is obvious that the primary characteristics of neopaganism (anti-Christian, racism, nationalism) had no analog in ancient times and are purely anachronisms.<\/p>\n

What are the principle traits of the pagan outlook on life, as its apologists believe and popularize?<\/p>\n

Naturalism<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

First and foremost: naturalism<\/strong>. All transcendence is totally unknown to the pagan view of life. It would remain in a mixture of spirit and nature, in an ambiguous unity of body and soul. There is nothing to its religion but a superstitious deification of natural phenomena or the energies of the races, elevated as so many idols. From this, in the first place, a particularism, a polytheism conditioned by blood and soil. In the second place, an absence of the spiritual personality and freedom, a state of innocence that is simply characteristic of beings of nature, of those not yet awakened to any truly supernatural aspiration. This “innocence”: license, “sin”, and the delights of the flesh. Even in other domains, either superstition, or a purely “profane”, materialistic, and fatalistic civilization. Apart from certain “anticipations” considered insignificant, it is with Christianity that the world of supernatural would be revealed for the first time, that is, the world of grace and personality, in contrast to “pagan” determinism and naturalism. With it a “catholic” ideal (in the etymological sense of universality) would be affirmed; a healthy dualism, permitting the subordination of nature to a higher law, and the triumph of the law of the spirit beyond the law of flesh, blood, and the false gods.<\/p>\n

Here Evola identifies Naturalism as the primary trait of the neopagans. This is true for the most crude attempts at revival such as Wicca or Asatru, as well as the more sophisticated systems. To deny this, and thus to affirm supernaturalism, freedom, and personality, would draw neopaganism closer to Christianity, at least in a common metaphysical perspective. We should point out that Evola opposes Christianity on completely different grounds from those of the neopagans, who simply repeat the slogans of the Pharisees and the Enlightenment, sworn enemies of Tradition.<\/p>\n

These are the most typical traits of the predominant conception of paganism, i.e., of everything that is not specifically the Christian worldview. Anyone who possesses any direct acquaintance with cultural and religious history, however elementary, can see how inaccurate and one-sided this attitude is. Besides, some early Church Fathers often demonstrated a greater understanding of the symbols and cults of preceding civilizations. Here we highlight just a few points.<\/p>\n

Here Evola\u2019s frustration is showing: even an elementary knowledge of history and religion would suffice to refute the bases of neopaganism, yet we cannot even count on that today. The Church Fathers showed a deeper understanding of the Old Religion than do our own neopagans. Regular readers of Gornahoor will find many references to this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

⇐ Previous section    Next section ⇒ Keeping all this in mind, we come today to discover a peculiar paradox: to wit, such a paganism never even existed but was constructed by Christian apologetics. Yet some “pagan” and anti-Christian movements of racism and extreme nationalism very frequently accept it, thus threatening to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[502],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evola","tag-sintesi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12430,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}