Temples on the Hill :The Return of The Old Gods who Never Really Left and The Future of Movement

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Permalink Reply by punkypagan on September 14, 2012 at 4:16am

When I was younger I totaly thought this. That being said I don't think that there is a pressing need for temples. Religious pagans at least the ones I know seem to agriee that it's all sacred therefore a specific place of worship is unessicary.
As to having a bigger public face and special intrest groups and all that mess. I think we are where we want to be. I don't know about anyone else but I have no desire to mimic other religions bad behavior.

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Permalink Reply by Thoth3G on September 15, 2012 at 6:55pm

Pagans in general don't seem to like structure and don't adhere to hierarchy very well in my experience.

I would love to see Monolithic Pagan Temples.

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Permalink Reply by Aurelia Pontia on September 15, 2012 at 7:42pm

I think it's a great idea to build temples.  Some already are.  I know of one reconstructionist group that's building a temple in Texas.  There is already the recreation of the pantheon in Nashville, TN.  It's more a cultural structure, but reconstructionists do rent it out for their gatherings.  Circle Sanctuary has built several circles I believe in their sanctuary.  There is a goddess temple somewhere in California I believe.  It's in like a business strip center and it's one of those you-don't-know-what-it-is-until-you-go-there sort of places.

Mystery schools would be great, but alas, we'd have to create our own new mysteries as many inductees to the ancient mystery religions kept their oaths and kept the rituals so secret that we don't really know what went on.

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Permalink Reply by Summer Dreams on September 15, 2012 at 8:18pm

Hmmm, well I don't know... I don't particularly want to see things more organized like the organized religions.  In fact, I wish all organized religion would kinda stop because its causing too much trouble.  I'd prefer people just having their own spirituality as kind of a natural thing.

You made a statement though in the original post that the craft is one of service to humanity.  Not sure that I've ever seen that stated before, I'll have to think on that because I never really looked at it that way.  Then again I'm not a formal Wiccan.

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Permalink Reply by Brandy Z on September 15, 2012 at 10:08pm

I'm torn on this one. On one hand it would be nice to share my beliefs with others without getting the obligatory eye roll and the "your going to hell" speech. On the other I like the fact that I can be a bit on the fringes. I certainly would never want the Pagan community become so big that we have mega temples. One turn off for me in regards to christianity is the whole megachurch thing. To me it takes the sacred aspect away and becomes more about how to turn a profit.

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Permalink Reply by Aurelia Pontia on September 16, 2012 at 2:07am

I certainly would never want the Pagan community become so big that we have mega temples. One turn off for me in regards to christianity is the whole megachurch thing. To me it takes the sacred aspect away and becomes more about how to turn a profit.

 

Are you assuming that pagan worship would turn into mega Christian type worship?  Depends on the religion of course, but in my reconstructionist path, there's not really a chance of that happening as that's not how it was even when the ancient religions were widespread.  Yes, temples could be huge and richly decorated and what not, but no one lived in them.  They were houses for the gods and they served as storerooms for the donations given them and places for the votary statues.

 

If they stick to that in modern times, there would be no real need for a profit aside from keeping up the property and compensating the priest and priestesses.  There would be no need for money to build classrooms inside or nice plush seating and sound systems inside and heating/air conditioning systems or anything like that because people don't worship inside, they worship outside, standing - remember, there isn't a Christian-like lecture for the people to listen to, just a ritual.  At most there is an outside picnic area, but that's pretty much it.  Not all of the priests and priestesses were full-timers because people didn't go to worship every week.  Many just went on holidays and not all to the same temple on those holidays.  Most of the donations would be food items for the priest/priestesses or ritual items or gifts, not money.  

 

Again, it depends on the religion, but it doesn't have to be the same way as Christians at all.

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