Pagan Abbeys - A Practical Heritage for Spiritual Lay and Professional Cloistered Communities

As Dr. Vandana Shiva proudly proclaims, "I am no longer employable by the Other Side", and good intentions don't often buy dinner. If you are choosing to make your way in Right Lifestyle, which is often a component of your spirituality, there are really few options available to you, because the small fraction of our culture that isn't toxic and actually set up for people like us have many times more applicants clamouring to join than could ever be supported. If you wish to learn a traditional or green profession or craft, and practice it full time with honour and dignity, perhaps as part of your spiritual practice instead of just as a hobby, you are almost totally out of luck. Or at least, until now...

I make my living following the old ways as a professional witch, largely in traditional healing, helping those most in need. It has taken me many years of dedication, research and experience to learn how to earn a living practising as a traditional witch in a modern context, even with training from mentors and learning how to teach apprentices the craft. I know many more folks who can only do it on their off hours, especially women, who often don't even expect to get paid for their expertise. And most can't take the time out of their lives to dedicate themselves to the more advanced learning about their craft. However, there has always been a group that can dedicate their lives to a traditional profession or the work of a particular Goddess or God and never have to worry about housing or their next meal. They were what the Old English knew as nonnes, or traditional European nuns (and monks) whose Orders the Christians took over, if they didn't outright purge them. In many of the traditional extant Orders, you can still see remnants today of the original pagan dedications and offices that were retained after the Christian usurpations, though most are written off now as unique historical curiosities.(1) Whether in their pagan or later Christian incarnations, most of the old abbeys in Europe were matriarchal (2), and, as the original Universities, taught all manner of scholarship.(3) The title of Dean is still used by the heads of both Abbeys and Universities. Some were also warrior training camps for women and men (4) and were centres of justice. The Abbeys and nunneries trained nonnes, which also translates as nurses, as a profession and as a spiritual calling and housed cloistered communities as well as hospitals, travellers' hospices and convalescent homes.(5) While the pagan community is reClaiming so many of its traditions, as far as I know these professional traditions and communities are rarely even discussed, much less significantly revived.

I used to have repeated arguments with others in the pagan community on this topic, though in the past few years, curiosity and hope are beginning to replace the sneering. "Why should WE need an abbey?", some said with a snort. "There are plenty of Buddhist and Taoist monasteries around.." Well, we are neither Buddhist nor Taoist, although most of us get along quite nicely with them, of course. For a religion to be more formalized, to grow and permeate more areas of a culture or a group, it needs full time members who are dedicated to practising, refining, writing, recording, studying and teaching. Though we do have quite a few of those, they usually have day jobs, rather than being a full time professional community. We have a great many of what could be termed lay sisters and brothers; those who are devoted and dedicated to living their lives in the Way, but we have no priest 'class', as it were. So, though we do have a professional priesthood of sorts, we have not yet created spaces to support them full time, or train and hone them, or even facilitate professional community environments of librarians, educators and other academics. It is vital to our religion to establish these communities, and not just as teaching venues, but as places where we can totally immerse ourselves in our religion, and not only for short retreats. But for years. They are already becoming a reality. I was in contact with an abbess of the Cybeline abbey in New York for some time. They already have a large community of nuns with hospitality, retreat centres and libraries. Though there is room for dedicating to one Goddess in particular, like mine, because that's just for me, a similar kind of non-deity specific community can appeal to far more people under the auspices of Pagan Humanism, where everyone can hear the call in their own way, yet we can work under one banner. Conserves resources and coalesces talent, doncha know...

Pagan Humanism solves the issue of the different pagan paths very elegantly. As a University structure run by professional nuns and their families, the individual Path of each practitioner is actually irrelevant to the functioning of the abbey, be they Druid, Odinist, Yogini, or atheist. In a University, there are oodles of disciplines working side by side, and each finds fulfilment and increases their own knowledge, but they are all working together. And this in particular is where Right Lifestyle professions, disciplines and education comes in. A pagan abbey must, as all abbeys have in the past, support itself. They are incorporated today, and like most corporations, can generate income by providing goods and services, especially those that are in keeping with the spiritual pursuits of the members. The old Abbeys for example provided beer, liqueurs, linens, medicines and other highly skilled products to the community that the practitioners would create while practising and teaching their Path. For a modern abbey, my preferences are for herbal products, a winery, a brewery, and retail health/pagan stores, mostly because I know how to do those. But it could be wool or meat or milk or wheat or flowers...Whatever. Hel, there are Christian convents now that support themselves by having the nuns do tech support. Not to mention the monks who manufacture Christmas fruitcakes...

I've had training in all the areas that my Goddess is matron of, but only the Enlightened achieve total perfection, and I'm not yet Graced with that yet. Although I feel well rounded in my tradition, I need to interact with other experts on a regular basis, and help people train and perfect their respective crafts, as well as collaborate with those who can share what they know of my Matron, helping me to achieve a better understanding of Her. So. A dedicated space where one can devote one's life to voluntary simplicity, learning and using one's knowledge for humankind's benefit, perhaps providing a space to those who are ill, helping them to achieve full health while practising one's art and spirituality, all without worrying about how to make one's daily bread... Mmm. Though some interest has been expressed for this kind of co-ordination and professionalism in the pagan community for a few years now, it has yet to really manifest. In fact, I would join it if I could find one that suited my needs. But if you can't find it, make it, is my motto...

Our business model operates on personal voluntary poverty and is a modern version of a self-sustaining religious NPO/Ecovillage that, for example, will create a space for crafters to follow their path in a spiritual manner while also managing to funnel surplus product to consumers, without undercutting other professionals. I specialize in herbal still room work, and there is only so many experiments and demonstrations I can store or give away. And they have a limited shelf life. So for me, having an online and physical shop was a necessity to continually hone my craft, encourage experiments, and keep the ingredients fresh and rotated. For fibre artists for example, having a space for them to get rid of their projects is almost a requirement to keep doilies and quilts from crawling all over furniture in an attempt to escape. Taking their profession and skill to the next level by generating income to help sustain themselves and create more art is a dream most aspire to. Having a community to do that, with other professionals and teachers, in a sacred space, is something many would dedicate their lives to. I know I have craved it since I was a child, and I'll be damned if I have to be Christian, or Buddhist, or Taoist to do it, either. Why can't pagans have those goodies, too? We used to, and we can again.

The Shaker community (6), for example, who are nuns and monks (and who have the lovely aphorism "Hands to work, hearts to God, which I adore..), used to commonly have entire families joining at once and living in the community or dedicating themselves to the lifestyle. Once consecrated when adults, however, they were full monks and nuns in the Christian tradition and could produce no more children, which is one of the reasons for their slow decline in numbers, despite their appeal as a spiritual community. Pagans, however, don't usually require celibacy. In fact, it is traditional for most pagans, and pagan orders of nuns, NOT to be celibate. Not only do most pagans find the enforcement of celibacy to be unnatural in humans, it's not even the usual procedure in most women's spiritual communities in antiquity. It only becomes the usual enforced restriction in the West when the patriarchal Christian structure takes over our sites and orders. With many pagans using sexual energy and the sexual acts as necessary forms of worship, and as a sex positive spirituality in general, there is little enticement to encourage celibacy as a discipline for pagan dedicates.  Even our cloistered communities can be, then, as traditional pagan communities usually have been, family friendly and supportive of partnerships, relationships, and human intimacy. Which makes us even healthier and more appealing than the celibate communities. And I'm not leaving my husband and kids behind while I devote myself to my spirituality and sacred work. Why should I? They are part of it, and reflect it.

Another necessity, though a less joyous one, is the requirement of many of our community members to have a safe space to practice their spirituality in support and comfort, since many of us had have conflict with our families of origin or society at large over our belief system.  Though some of us manage to find covens and other smaller groups to express ourselves in safety, many more do not have access to such resources, nor do they feel comfortable at the level of intimacy such groups usually require. An Abbey provides professional mentorship and community in a safe, healing environment where the novice or practitioner can feel comfortable in their faith and life choices, without judgement and in security.

Wendy Griffin, PhD suggests that our professional priesthood has already sprung up, but poses the question, do we want an educated one? I fundamentally agree with that assessment. Abbeys solve that problem and many others in a most elegant manner. Modern pagan abbeys based on traditional structure, both virtual and brick and mortar, can provide:

* a professional academic community with continual interaction and peer environment, with libraries, research and publications

* training, mentoring, discussion and maintenance of full-time professionals in traditional pagan paths and pursuits

* a sacred and supportive community for worldly or cloistered professionals and laity to dedicate themselves temporarily or permanently to spiritual devotions

* vectors to provide services and goods to benefit the community and the world 

* a safe haven for pagans and non-members who feel the harm of the world to rest and heal.

The Abbey of the Green Flame and the Copper Horse Abbey, both under the auspices of Dìsir: An Order of Traditional Aboriginal and Pagan Humanists, are two such entities that are already formed, one dedicated to green witchery and healing and the Celtic Aboriginal tradition, and the other to pagan horse magic and traditional animal medicine.  I hope the few already in existence will soon be joined by many more, as we reClaim our heritage of sacred communities, spaces, professional academic knowledge and Right Lifestyle which we, as a mature tradition, both crave and deserve.

Footnotes:

1) "St. Brigid's double monastery at Kildare was built at a location previously sacred to her pagan namesake, and the inner sanctuary of the Kildare Church also contained a blessed fire perpetually maintained by the nuns of her community. Some have speculated that St. Brigid herself once served as the last high priestess of a community of druid women worshipping the goddess Brighid, and that she led that entire community into the Christian faith."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

2) "Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior general of the monasteries in Ireland."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit_of_Kildare

3) "Brigid's most famous foundation is at Kildare, established on a generous grant of land from the king of Leinster. It is generally thought to have been a double monastery, housing both men and women, with Brigid presiding over both communities. Double monasteries were a common practice in Celtic lands, later taken by the Irish to the continent. Brigid made her monastery a remarkable house of learning for both men and women, including an art school devoted to for the creation of highly decorated handmade copies of scripture texts and other holy writings."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

4) "The, training of a warrior was a long task, frequently undertaken by warrior women who were responsible for teaching boys the arts of combat and of love. Specific titles were given to these classes of female warriors such as BAN-GAISGEDAIG (BAN-meaning woman and a derivative of GAS which means young warrior) and BAN-FEJNNIDH (which combines BAN with FEINNIDH meaning 'band of warriors') so it seems they were classed according to age and experience, possibly starting their training as very young girls. "
 http://www.pabay.org/skyeviews.html

5) "More than anything else, however, Brigid is renowned for her hospitality. The poor and the infirm come in their multitudes. She makes provision for the sick, tending to them with her knowledge of contemporary medicine. Kildare becomes a place of holy pilgrimage for all, from the prominent and powerful to the lowly and forgotten."
 http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

6) The Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers, were one of "a number of utopian experiments in communal living that strove to construct a society in which people could live in perfect harmony surrounded by the bountiful plenty of Mother Earth. The Shakers were one of the most successful of these attempts"
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/shakers.htm 

Lascivious Lupercalia: Why Valentine's is a Vital Pagan Holy Day for the Modern World

Lupercalia, "day of the wolf”- the Roman fertility festival celebrating the sexual frenzy of the goddess Juno!  Togas, random draws for sex partners, the occasional goatskin splatter from a priest, and oodles of intoxicants.  Oh, you didn't know about the traditional Valentine's Day?  Think it's just a commercial holiday intended to sell chocolates, jewelry and dinners, and make single folks feel like drinking alone? Lupercalia is not only designed for singles, they are one of the feature attractions!

Valentine's is one of my favourite pagan observances, inspiring modern women and men to at least consider how much the imposed cultural system has on their views of their own love relationships and sexuality. So many find the modern practices to be bloodless, dispassionate, superficial, commercial, and vaguely depressing.  I personally find it inspiring that this Holy Day is so powerful that it's made it to the modern era relatively intact, despite the best efforts of Christian priests to defuse and replace its practices. As a sacred and religious celebration of human sexuality and passion, many of the elements and themes have been retained: valentine's cards, red heart shapes, single people going home with partners, married women wanting children, lust, sex, fertility... It does prove how much we in the modern world, just as our ancestors did, need to acknowledge, idolize, ritualize and even worship our own most powerful drives, emotions, and relationships.

The eve and night of February 14th to the next day of the 15th were the Ides of the month of Februa, sacred to Juno Februata or Juno Februa. This day also honored the Roman gods, Lupercus and Faunus, who you may recall as the lusty Faun in current tellings. It was a vital religious observance as children of the Great Wolf, symbolizing the very fecundity of Rome herself, and the unpartnered participants who presented themselves were considered highly religious and praiseworthy, deserving of the blessings of the priests. 'Course, they didn't go home emptyhanded.  After being the focus of some mild flagellation, the single folks would be randomly assigned to each other through a lottery system.  Each pairing resulted in a sacred 'going steady' until the next year, where one thing was encouraged to lead to another. Married women weren't left out, since they were also under Juno's patronage, and at this time of year, they came to celebrate and bless their sexuality with conceptions.

On this day, Lupercalia,.. the Luperci or priests of Lupercus dressed in goatskins for a bloody ceremony. The priests of Lupercus, the wolf god, would sacrifice goats and a dog and then smear themselves with blood. These priests, made red with sacrificial blood, would run around Palatine Hill in a wild frenzy while carving a goatskin thong called a “februa.” Women would sit all around the hill, as the bloody priests would strike them with the goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The young women would then gather in the city and their names were put in boxes. These “love notes” were called “billets.” The men of Rome would draw a billet, and the woman whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner with whom he would fornicate until the next Lupercalia or February 14th.  

Thus, February 14th became a day of unbridled sexual lust. The color “red” was sacred to that day because of the blood and the “heart shape” that is popular to this day. The heart-shape was not a representation of the human heart, which looks nothing like it. This shape represents the human female matrix or opening to the chamber of sacred copulation. 1

While the women presented themselves for random selection and the men chose, one shouldn't make the modern mistake of assuming it was because the women were somehow property.  As a holiday sacred to Juno, with the priests offering the wolf blood as the Wolf Hero's virility, it is the women's fertility that is the focus of the ritual.  They were in fact presenting themselves to Juno to select a man for them for their personal pleasure, not a husband, and the men are volunteering to perform that service.  It was a sacred duty, as well as wild and joyous.

Married women also occasionally presented themselves for Lupericalia, especially if they were having trouble conceiving. Their selected love billet would service them throughout the rest of the year, as an act of piety, along with their husband, with no weird repercussions or jealousy. The holiday was pure consensual sexual licence.

Lupercalia is also built for poly.

For His sacred virility, a Hero is usually required for the Goddess Queen.  For Februa, her divine lover was Lupercus, the "hunter of wolves", who kept the wolves at bay from the shepherds and their flocks, and lent his blood to fertilize the Goddess and her daughters.  

The Greeks called Lupercus by the name of "Pan". The Semites called Pan "Baul," according to the Classical Dictionaries. Baal - mentioned so often in the Bible - was merely another name for Nimrod, "the mighty hunter" (Genesis 10:9) It was a common proverb of ancient time that Nimrod was "the MIGHTY hunter before the Lord." Nimrod was their hero - their strong man - thier VALENTINE! How plain that the original Valentine was Nimrod, the mighty hunter of wolves. Yet another of Nimrod's names was "Sanctuc" or "Santa", meaning Saint. It was a common title of any hero-god. No wonder that the Roman Lupercalia is called "St. Valentine's Day"!

But why do we associate HEARTS on a day in honor of Nimrod - the Baal of the Phoenicians and Semites? The surprising answer is that the pagan Romans acquired the symbol of the heart from the Babylonians. In the Babylonian tongue the word for heart was "bal" .. The heart - bal - was merely a symbol of Nimrod - the Baal! or Lord of the Babylonians!"2

So for centuries in Rome and its dominions and even after its fall as an Empire, the festival happily went along - the Ides of Februa featured red everywhere and heart symbols abounding, with love cards or tickets, complete with the mighty hero-love whose title was Santa.  It was so well known and associated with sex and lust that when 

the Gnostic Catholic Church began to get a foothold in Rome around the 3rd century A.D., they became known as Valentinians. The Catholic Valentinians retained the sexual license of the festival in what they called “angels in a nuptial chamber”, which was also called the “sacrament of copulation.” This was said to be an reenactment of the marriage of “Sophia and the Redeemer.” As the participants of the February 14th ritual began their sexual sacrament, presided over and watched by the priests known as Valentinians, the following literary was spoken: “Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber, receive the bridegroom… open thine arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee.”"3

The Orthodox Church thoroughly disapproved, of course, and as well as exterminating the Gnostics, did their darnest to suppress or ban the festival.

When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire there was some talk in church circles of discarding this pagan free-for-all. But the Roman citizens wouldn't hear of it! So it was agreed that the holiday would continue as it was, except for the more grossly sensual observances.  It was not until the reign of Pope Gelasius that the holiday became a "Christian" custom. " As far back as 496, Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia on February 15 to St. Valentine's Day on February 14." (p. 172 of Customs and Holidays Around the World by Lavinia Dobler). 4

The attempt to substitute or water down the more obvious components met with limited success.

As Christianity became prevalent, priests attempted to replace old heathen practices. To Christianize the ancient pagan celebration ...church officials changed the name to St. Valentine's Day. To give the celebration further meaning and eliminate pagan traditions, priests substituted the drawing of Saints names for the names of the girls. On St. Valentine's Day the priest placed saint's names into an urn or box. The young [men] then drew a name from the container. In the following year, the youth was supposed to emulate the life of the saint whose name he had drawn.

By the fourteenth century they reverted back to the use of girl's names. In the sixteenth century they once again tried to have saintly valentines but it was as unsuccessful as the first attempt...

Later, in France, both sexes drew from the valentine box. A book called Travels in England, written in 1698, gives an account of the way it was done:

"On St. Valentine's Eve an equal number of Maids and Bachelors get together, each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up and draw by way of lots, the Maids taking the Men's billets, and the Men the Maids'; so that each of the young Men lights upon a Girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the Girls upon a young Man which she calls hers. By this means each has two Valentines--but the Man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him than to the Valentine to whom he is fallen. Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples, the valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport ofen ends in Love. This ceremony is practised differently in different Countries, and according to the freedom or severity of Madame Valentine. This is another kind of Valentine, which is the first young Man or Woman chance throws in your way in the street, or elsewhere . . ."5

So despite some of the best efforts of the new priesthood to alter the festival, the original idea of sexual licence and expression, particularly for women, never went away.  The practices still lingered in nearly all the places Rome had taken it, mostly what is now known as the "Western World".

It only stands to reason that countries colonized by peoples from Europe brought the practice with them.  So in North America, we still see the remnants to this day.  Even hidden, suppressed, altered, and derided, we retain many of the most recognisable features of the only ancient festival left in the popular culture that celebrates human sexuality.  However, it still seems to generate fear, particularly in this age where women are reClaiming their sexuality and heritage. So the attempt to secularize and desexualize it goes on today. The commercialization, with it's obvious monetary rewards, the insistence on already created couples, rather than singles finding mates, and the more disturbing marketing to children, appears to be an attempt to finally remove the more worrisome lustful elements still left.

Some will claim that the holiday has adapted itself to our modern needs, and that the encouragement of children in grade school to participate in Valentine's Day by giving out cards is more than just adapting.  In fact, it appears to continue to be mutating every generation.  No longer is the Valentine a secret, given from a child to someone they fancy, as it was in two childhoods ago; it is now a class event, where everyone must bring one for everyone else, so as to ensure "no one gets left out'. It is bizarre, disquieting, and has always been inappropriate for children, expressed even by those completely ignorant of its history.

In a time when women are working to reClaim their sovereignty over their sexuality instead of being objectified, traditional rituals which celebrate joyous lust and sexual licence without bonded partners are needed more than ever. Safely sublimating its lustful nature into permitted 'couple's only' commitment activities, or reducing it by infantalization as a classroom friendship ceremony covered in pink leaves out the most vital and powerful element of the celebration: shameless consensual adult lust.  With all the disempowering of women and inappropriate sexualizing of children, we could use a good ol' fashioned Lupercalia to reClaim our bodies, divine passions, and sacred sense of self.

So this Valentine's Day, consider adding something in the spirit of the ancient practices of Lupercalia to your celebrations.  Why make it just about already paired couples?  Consider getting your friends together and having some joyous grown-up fun. Toga parties, love lotteries for the singles, erotic games for the group...  (An Edmonton version.) Give yourself an opportunity to worship sexual passions in a consensual, safe environment, without the requirement of commitment or permission from anyone but yourself!  Maybe some half-naked hotties playing the priests can occasionally slap one of the crowd with a whip dipped in red food colouring... Oh, wait.  That might be just me..

Some ideas for modern celebrations from a Halifax bathhouse.

My daughter's class is supposed to bring Valentine's cards for everyone, if they bring any at all.  Raising her as a witch, I have told her as much as I think she needs to know at 11 years old.  So she has no interest in bringing cards. As a nod to the current rituals of her class, though, we both decided to send her with enough homemade candy for everyone.  That seems to be a good compromise...