Being as it is October, I've invited some friends over for a German celebration. We're going to have some bratwurst, sour kraut and beer. Maybe I'll introduce them to some of the Nordic gods and goddesses sitting on my altar. Being half German, I have to say I'm very proud of my heritage.

Question: have my friends "stolen" my culture by coming over?

No. Of course not.

Question: do my friends have to understand the meanings of the food and drink and various rituals at my party?

Again no, of course not.

The Octoberfest is a German tradition. It's basically a big party. Do people really need to know the history, importance and background of the Octoberfest celebration to partake in it?

No.

So why do so many witches and neopagans hold such a purist view when it comes to religion? Does it really matter where something comes from? Or what significance it has in a particular culture? Isn't it more important what it means now to us in our culture?

Religion is a part of culture and culture by definition is constantly changing. Just consider: where were you 10 years ago? What did you look like? How did you dress? What hairstyle did you have? What kind of car did you drive? Where did you live? How about twenty years ago? Thirty years ago? I'm guessing that most of you have changed quite a bit.

And not just for us as individuals. Things in general have changed a lot over the past thirty years - just like things have been changing since the beginning of time. Just because you can pass over thirty years in a single sentence of a history book doesn't mean that the people during that era were stagnant and completely uniform. New generations bring new things and ideas. They change and reinterpret old ways of doing things as well as adding new ways and ideas.

And the realm of religion is no exception.

Most religions pagan, Judeo, Christian or otherwise used to practice some kind of animal sacrifice at some point in their history. Some religions (again pagan, Judeo, Christian and otherwise) even included human sacrifices. Bloody sacrifice is only one thing to be noted. Old religions (including a lot of pagan religions) often mixed their teachings with politics, sponsored slavery, upheld the ideas of racial/gender inequalities and other practices we abhor today. Should these practices be brought back to keep the religion pure?

I don't think so. Should we try to understand or note that these practices were done? I suppose - but in very few cases does it have any baring on the present. A lot of the old customs and religious practices were for hunting and farming. Few of us today are hunters or farmers. If a religion is going to be tangible, it should fit in to our lives as individuals.

Don't get me wrong, I'm interested to know where these things come from and what they mean. But I don't think it's a requirement for a person to be a "true" witch or pagan. And for ancient pagans worldwide it didn't necessarily matter either. Bachus, Dionysis and Cernunnos are all gods of wine (among other things) found in the Roman world. Although they shared similar identities, they were very different from one another. There were different stories, myths and legends dealing with each of them. There were also different styles of worship. Some of these differences were pragmatic in nature. The types of grapes that grow in Italy are a little different than the ones grown in Greece or France. But the Roman travelers treated them as all the same. The deities were close enough to each other.

It's not just a European idea either. You see similar things in the Aztec world. The winged serpent Queztacoatl was a god of peace *in Tenochtitlan*. In other parts of central America he was even bloodier than a lot of the local deities.

Should it be held against the present day followers of Queztacoatl don't conduct human sacrifice? Is all the meaning lost in the worship of Queztacoatl today because modern believers don't know how the original sacrifices were treated and dispatched?

I could tell you the logic and beliefs behind these practices - but they don't matter. The only thing that does is what the feathered serpent means to us today.

And I don't have to trace my genetic/cultural lineage back to the Aztec people to count Queztacoatl amongst the gods in my pantheon either. I can't help my skin color or my heritage or how I was raised. The goddess has one thousand faces - is it a sin that I can only worship her with one at a time?

The bottom line is that it is more important to understand why *you* believe and do the things that *you* find prudent. It's not as important why others do and act and believe what they do. This is one of the big problems that I have with "organized" religions - they try to tell you what to believe and what to think and how to act. Sometimes those things don't work for me. Often these people can't answer all of my questions because the questions aren't supposed to be asked. You're just supposed to accept that this is the way (and usually it's the only way.)

There is yet another point here. As I stated before, a lot of religions like to mix with politics. This has allowed arguably some of the worst atrocities in human history. The Inquisition is probably the best known of these endeavors, but there are others and not all of them have their roots in Christianity. Organizations such as the Inquisition are masters of violence, bullying, censoring and outright destruction of other religions. A lot of traditions and lore are now lost to us thanks to the efforts of these conquerors.

So even if we wanted to know the ancient wisdom we couldn't find it - much less put meaning to it. Thus we're left to the best guesses of researchers and vague clues in the records of the victors.

Sometimes the devout themselves do things that bury the secrets. There have been many mystery cults throughout the years. There is also the prejudices of various priests and priestesses. The biggest example here are the Druids - a lot of whom believed that writing down religious ideas, stories and rituals took the magic out of it. And even today there are cults and groups that only allow members and initiates to partake in the worship.

The bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with eclecticism. If it works for you then it's okay. I don't believe there is truly any wrong way to worship the goddess if your heart is in it.

It is arrogant and elitist of coven witches to trash the eclectics as "lazy" or somehow less. I've met a lot of conveners who weren't real disciplined. I've also met a lot of conveners who seemed more interested in using their authority to get each other in to the sack than being devoted to anything. I'm not saying that covens are all bad - I'm just pointing out that a group doesn't necessarily make better religion.