(continued from last post)
Most importantly, the Wiccan and Neo-pagan movements are attempting
to reconstruct elements of the pre-Mystery Religion shamanic societies
and make them relevant to the modern day. Some are looking to the
Amerind tribes for inspiration, because for one thing their tradition
was formulated as a response to the energies of the Americas and not of
Europe, hence it's more relevant to Americans. Another reason the
Amerinds are so inspirational is that their lifeway has been preserved
the best of all those of Indigenous People. Even under the onslaught of
first the Spaniards, then the expanding United States, much of the old
ways have been recorded and preserved. In Europe a similar attempt is
being made at recovering old pre-Christian ways, but since the old
European shamanism is by and large long dead, they have far less to go
on.

As well as the lifeways of the Amerind tribes, also the ways of
ancient Afrika are also showing up in Neo-paganism through the
syncretes of Santeria and Voudoun. Both Santeria and Voudoun are based
on the rites of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, the tribe that was most
plundered by the slave trade to the Americas. Santeria is most
practiced by Hispanics, most notably those of Cuban descent, and
Voudoun, with its connection to the largely Black population of Haiti,
is the flavor that has sparked the imagination of not only Haitians,
but Afrikan-Americans looking for a connection to the Motherland and
its old ways and find Black Christianity and Islam to be unsatisfactory.

VI: A SUMMING UP.

World religion is still dominated very much by the Mystery Religion
mold. In a lot of areas where shamanic religions are still practiced,
they are largely mixed in with elements of Mystery Religions like
Buddhism, (in the case of Tibetan Shamanism or Bon Po and Korean
Shamanism) Hinduism (in the case of Tantra) Christianity (In the case
of the Native American Church, Santeria, Voudoun and Macumba) and Islam
(some tribal religions in Africa) and are more rightly called syncretes.

However, the rediscovery of traditional lifeways among young people
of aboriginal descent in the Americas, Africa and Australia, as well as
the growth of such synthetic religions as Wicca, Neo-paganism and
Thelema, and even the growth of Humanism as a non-religious spiritual
path shows the way to perhaps a new era that will see vital competition
with the Mystery Religion mold of religious thought. Many traditional
"out groups" pilloried by the major Mystery faiths like women, gays and
lesbians, intellectuals and those of minority races are finding
themselves drawn to these spiritual alternatives. Women especially are
finding a spiritual voice within Dianic Wicca, where the Goddess is
honored as "She who created us in Her image," in contrast to the
Judeo-Christio-Islamic view of a single Male God who creates man in his
image and creates woman as an afterthought.

I cannot see, however, a "post Christian world" where the dominant
Mystery Religion of the modern world, Christianity, is swept aside in
favor of post-Mystery Religion spiritual modalities. Even if this truly
is a "New Aeon" or a "New Age," it is obvious that Mystery Religions
will be with us for a long time to come. Hopefully Neo-paganism can
influence the more conventional religions towards less harsh treatment
of women and homosexuals, and towards AFFIRMING the individual worth of
humans for their own sake, rather than CONDEMNING those who are
"unbelievers" to perdition. But the pessimist in me sees that as being
a fairly lost cause.

1990 Michelle (Minerva Toypurina Cihacou White-Puma) Klein-Hass
based on work by Talespinner Brad Hicks