When holy water was rare at best It barely wet my fingertips But now I have to hold my breath Like Im swimming in a sea of it It used to be a world half there Heavens second rate hand-me-down But I walk it with a reverent air Cause everything is holy now

Peter Mayer, Holy Now (song)

Pantheism means All (pan-) is God (theos). Pantheism is the belief that the divine is not remote or separate from nature, but immanent within it. Pantheism is closely related to panentheism.According to David Waldron, pantheism, the perception of divinity as manifest or immanent in the physical world, isthe quintessential component of Neo-Pagan identity.

Many Pagans call this immanent divinity Goddess. She is everywhere and in everything, writes Karen Clark:

She is the burning ember of light interwoven with matter that shines forth in all living things. She is the unending, outrageous beauty of the wild world. She is the driving force that calls us to strive and struggle, and to grow and blossom. Her cupped hands hold us in the shifting seasons of our joys and sorrows, and life and death moments.

Neo-Pagan activist and author ofThe Spiral Dance, Starhawk, writes that the concept of immanence

names our primary understanding that the Earth is alive, part of a living cosmos. What that means is that spirit, sacred, Goddess, Godwhatever you want to call itis not found outside the world somewhereits in the world: itisthe world, and it is us. Our goal is not to get off the wheel of birth nor to be saved from something. Our deepest experiences are experiences of connection with the Earth and with the world.

Starhawkexplains how belief in a pantheistic god is unnecessary:

People often ask me if I believe in the Goddess. I reply Do you believe in rocks? It is extremely difficult for most Westerners to grasp the concept of a manifest deity. The phrase believe in itself implies that we cannot know the Goddess, that She is somehow intangible, incomprehensible. But we do not believe in rocks we may see them, touch them, dig them out of our gardens, or stop small children from throwing them at each other. We know them; we connect with them. In the Craft, we do not believe in the Goddess we connect with Her; through the moon, the stars, the ocean, the earth, through trees, animals, through other human beings, through ourselves. She is here. She is within us all. She is the full circle: earth, air, fire, water, and essence body, mind, spirit, emotions, change.

Pantheism may be understood in contrast with transcendentaltheism whichposits a God who is not a part of the world or creation, a God who is radically other or transcendent. Monotheism is an example of transcendentaltheism.The logical outcome of transcendental theism is either a fundamental dualism, in which God and the world are radically separate and humankind is alienated from God, or a monism which conceives of the world as unreality or illusion. Most forms of Christianity fall into the former category, while some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism are examples for the latter. Both of these propositions are unacceptable to Neo-Pagans, who view the world as neither fallen nor illusory.

Related Pages:

Panentheism

Nature Religion Pantheism Mother Earth Goddess Interconnectedness Re-enchantment Connecting with Nature The Gnostic Temptation

Updated 8/16/14

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