Paganism an overview introduction - South African Pagan Council

hunts of medieval times. She contended that the Roman Catholic Inquisition drove
Paganism underground, passed on secretly until its re-discovery in the 20th century.
The Spiral Dance presented an eclectic mix of theology, feminist theory, mindexpanding
exercises, poetry, and rituals for celebrating the ancient seasonal festivals
of the year. In it Starhawk espoused three principles central to her theology:
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• Goddess was seen as immanent in the world.
• All things are interconnected; therefore, magick - “the art of changing
consciousness at will” - must be ethical and include a focus on social justice.
• Goddess Religion fostered community to re-define maleness/femaleness and
to transform a deteriorating planet into a place for life-affirming culture.
In her next work, Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics (1982), Starhawk
elaborated the role of ritual as an agent of societal change. Advocating the fusion of
spirituality and politics, she developed her theories of the “culture of estrangement”,
the patriarchal mainstream based on “power-over”, and the emerging Goddess-centred
communities which emphasise “power-from-within”. Her experience in the 1981
blockade of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in coastal California formed the
backdrop of the work. Confronting “the dark” - her own fear of nuclear annihilation -
she wove historical material from 16th-and 17th-century Europe with personal
reflections from the women’s jail near the power plant.
Positing magick as directed energy, an art, and as will, she argued that it necessitates
an “ethics of integrity”, which demands consistency between images and actions. Yet
these “are not based on absolutes imposed upon chaotic nature, but upon the ordering
principles inherent in nature”. She pondered that if such political events as the
blockade are acts of magick (aimed at changing consciousness), then applying the
principles of magick to political actions can make the latter more effective. The
results of this cross-pollination were several exercises for consensus group process
and an analysis of political groups from a magickal world view.
In Dreaming the Dark Starhawk contended that when we recoil from words like
Witch and Goddess, our discomfort is a sign of potential liberation into new thought
forms. She added that the God, consort or son of the Goddess, can become an image
to guide men back into the “mother-ground”, healing their separation from woman
and from nature. The Goddess and God, she asserted, “can become doorways leading
out of patriarchal cultures, channels for the powers we need to transform ourselves,
our visions, and our stories”.
Her third work, Truth Or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery
(1987), synthesised her views on personal development, political action, and
witchcraft into a “psychology of liberation”. Again, autobiographical accounts of the
antinuclear movement were abound. This time she identified a third form of power in
political communities, “power-with”, described as “the art of gaining influence and
using it creatively to empower”. Power-from-within and power-with, she argued, can
overthrow the internal Judge, Conqueror and Censor, thus changing their
manifestations in patriarchal culture.