The Corpo-spirituality of Paganism

What is it about?

This article presents and examines a pagan theological outlook that comprises the three ontological ‘operatives’ of empirical existence, non-empirical existence and operative non-existence. A pagan cosmology that is based on raw desire or unformed and pre-conscious will distinguishes itself from the other theological alternatives. In Dharmic thought, especially as exemplified in Buddhism, it is the cessation of desire that is the goal – the sole means by which to obtain nirvana or the ultimate void and meaningless of non-existence. In Abrahamic outlook, by contrast, the will is to be submissive and subservient to the ‘greater will’ of a cosmic dictator. Individual desire must conform to the dictates and commandments of a personal God who has created the cosmos for no particular reason beyond his/its self-satisfaction. In a secular perspective, the will is a psychological rather than a cosmological factor. The cosmos is mechanistic. But for a pagan theology, desire is central: it is the well-spring of everything, not something to escape or repress and not something to curtail before some external or transcendent will.

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Why is it important?

Regaining the seminal telluric perspective that humanity held naturally before the rise of a Dharmic wish for *moksha* or *nirvana* and an Abrahamic wish for salvation in a transcendental or another sphere of existence is important for both human maturity and a practical engagement with life. This is what the re-recognition of paganism as a lost spiritual understanding allows and encourages. It may share with secular values and perspectives, but it does not abandon a sense of the magical and miraculous. Within paganism predominantly, enchantment is not something to scoff and reject but rather a blissful quality to honour and cherish.