January 8, 2009
This evening, Google Alerts alerted me to the following critique of my conversion to Catholicism. It comes from a blog called Meanderings Along Ancestral Pagan Paths, by someone who goes by the handle of “Ancestral Celt,” and includes a quote from a members-only Pagan site called An Fianna:
…I cannot understand Mr McColman’s reasoning for Catholicism: the magic left, meditation didn’t work anymore. As someone else recently said:
‘The magic left?’ So what about the catholic priest who claims to magically transform a wafer and a few drops of vino into the body of his God, by way of some mumbled mystical mutterings? Meditation didn’t work anymore? So what about the spiritual exercises of the Jesuits, compliments of ‘Saint’ Ignacius De Loyola? Or the mind numbingly boring constant repetitious prayers of the rosary before a plaster catholic idol of your choice? (Source: An Fianna)
It like giving up a diet because you’ve hit a plateau, isn’t it? Or, am I completely missing the point?
Well, I don’t know if “Ancestral Celt” is completely missing the point or not, but my decision to forsake Paganism for Catholicism entailed a lot more than just my dissatisfaction with Pagan-themed meditation or magic (although that was certainly part of the adventure). To push Ancestral Celt’s diet analogy, when I hit my “plateau,” I didn’t give up dieting, but I did switch diets. After four years, I have no regrets, so — for me at least — it was the right choice.
Meanwhile, the quote from “An Fianna” displays precisely the kind of rote anti-Catholicism/Christian-bashing found in some corners of the Pagan world, that I chafed against for quite some time, even before I became interested in the Catholic Church. Read the rest of this entry »
10 Comments | 
Other people's blogs, Paganism, interfaith dialogue | 
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Posted by Carl McColman
October 23, 2008
In Honour of Nature: The Sacred Well in a New Time
By Mary Shanahan
Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry: Lumenium, 2007
Review by Carl McColman
I love Irish holy wells. The sacred wells dedicated to St. Brigid in Kildare and Liscannor; Tobernault near Sligo; and Tober Phadraig near Clonmel are some of the most beautiful and moving spiritual sites I’ve ever visited — and these are just a few of the natural water sources in Ireland that have been venerated as places of healing and spiritual presence for ages untold. Emerging out of pagan water worship, the holy wells appear at various points in Celtic mythology as sacred power centers, sites where wisdom could be gained or communication with the gods might occur. With the coming of Christianity these ancient sacred sites were not suppressed but transformed, and where once people sang praises to their local fertility deities, later generations would recite the rosary and offer prayers to the Son of God and the Mother of God. Anyone interested in Celtic wisdom, Celtic Christianity, and points of continuity between indigenous and Christian spirituality will find holy wells to be places of simple yet profound spiritual nourishment.
Part of what makes the holy well tradition so special is its emphasis on the local and the particular. Each holy well is unique, with its one-of-a-kind natural setting and its own particular folklore and “pattern” (ritual of prayers and movement, which might include, as an example, reciting the rosary while walking clockwise around the well 9 times). Christianity, like the other “great” world religions, emphasizes what is universal and cosmic in significance, but the veneration of holy wells remains oriented more toward what is distinctive and singular about each individual water source.
With this in mind, Mary Shanahan’s booklet In Honour of Nature is a lot like the wells it celebrates: the author has made no attempt to exhaustively discuss holy wells throughout Ireland or even throughout a single county; rather this work zeroes in on seven wells in the northern part of County Kerry, in the lovely southwest of Ireland. Co. Kerry, like several other of Ireland’s westernmost counties, is a place where the traditional Irish language and folklore has against insurmountable odds survived, even if terribly threatened by the crushing power of English language and modern culture. So Kerry is a wonderful setting for those of us who believe that the old Irish ways have a lot to say to our troubled time. In Honour of Nature provides insight into the nature and scope of well veneration, offers directions to each of the wells profiled (with a warning that some of them are on private property!), tells the story of each well, points out what is distinctive about the well, and offers a wealth of background information on various aspects of Irish wisdom, from Sheela-na-Gigs to tree folklore. Points for personal reflection and an array of gorgeous photographs round out this handsome guide. In Honour of Nature, available from the author’s website, would be most useful for anyone planning a visit to Co. Kerry — but even armchair travelers with a love for Ireland and Celtic wisdom will enjoy reading this small treasure.
1 Comment | 
Books, Catholicism, Celtic Christianity, Ireland, Paganism, Reviews, spirituality | Tagged: Celtic Christianity, Celtic Paganism, Co. Kerry, Holy Wells, In Honour of Nature, Ireland, Mary Shanahan, sacred wells, Sheela-na-Gigs | 
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Posted by Carl McColman
May 18, 2008
Yesterday while working at the Abbey Store I got a surprise: a man came in whom I recognized, but couldn’t quite place. We spoke, and he reminded me who he was. I knew him years ago, when I was active in the Atlanta Neopagan community — and he was a Wiccan elder.
It turns out he’s discovered contemplative Christianity and has fallen in love with it. He spoke enthusiastically about meditating with the monks in the monastery church. I told him that I had become a Catholic in 2005, and he replied, “I still have a foot in both worlds.”
I nodded sympathetically. That’s basically where I was for quite some time before I embraced Catholicism, as I tried to discern how it could be that I was simultaneously making a living as a Pagan author/teacher and falling in love (again) with mystical Christianity. We talked about how a generous spirituality honors and acknowledges love and truth and beauty wherever it is to be found — even when discerned in two wisdom traditions that on the surface are hostile to one another.
Wiccans describe their magical circles as “a world between the worlds.” Sometimes I feel like I’ve taken up permanent residence between the worlds, as a devout and committed contemplative Christian who continues to feel affection and love for the nature-honoring and spiritually compassionate side of Paganism. Hanging out in this neighborhood means I’ll always be misunderstood by those who need clear boundaries and non-negotiable limits in order to feel spiritually safe within their own tradition (whether Christian or Pagan or whatever). But it also means that I get to express the fullness of my love — love for Christ, love for the mystical path, love for the earth and the body, love for community and family and friends and those who are hurting or hungry or in need of healing.
Reduced to its absolute essence, to be a mystic means to be one who loves. I’m hardly a mystic, just like on too many days I’m not very good at loving. But I aspire to be both an initiate into God’s mysteries, and one who loves in harmony with the heart of God. I think the desire for one is basically the same thing as the desire for the other. So I continue to pray that I may love all things the way God does. Even when it means that I’m always sort of hanging out in between the worlds.
4 Comments | 
Christianity, Mysticism, Paganism, interfaith dialogue, spirituality | Tagged: Add new tag, Christianity, contemplative spirituality, interfaith dialogue, Meditation, monasticism, old friends, Paganism | 
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Posted by Carl McColman
February 15, 2008
My dear friend Judith alerted me to this fascinating news article:
Possible Grave of a Druid found in the United Kingdom
My only quibble with this article is its calling this archaeological find the “first” such evidence of a druid burial. I think the case can be (and has been) made that the Lindow Man bog body, unearthed in the 1980s, is that of a druid as well.
1 Comment | Current events, Paganism | Tagged: Celtic Paganism, Current events, Druidism | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
February 4, 2008
Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
Revised and Updated
By Frank Viola and George Barna
Carol Stream, IL: Barna (An Imprint of Tyndale House Publishers), 2008
Review by Carl McColman
For years now, Neopagans have been joking (and griping) about how Christianity often appears as little more than a pagan ripoff. To find support for this claim, one need look no further than the marked similarity between many Catholic saints and pre-Christian deities (such as the Celtic goddess Brigit and her Irish namesake, St. Brigid) or indeed the uncanny correlation between the liturgical year and ancient pagan holidays (for example, Christmas corresponds with the Roman Saturnalia; Candlemas and All Saints with the Gaelic festivals of Imbolc and Samhain, etc.).
Of course, part of the joke (or frustration) in the minds of many Neopagans has been how willfully blind Christians seem to be in regard to the pagan influence on their faith. “We know that Easter is really a festival in honor of the spring goddess Eostara, no matter what the Christians might think or say” is practically a proverbial saying among pagans, who go on to note that colored eggs and rabbits were particularly sacred to this Germanic deity!
Now along comes Frank Viola, a leader in the burgeoning house church movement, who has teamed up with evangelical marketing guru George Barna to educate Christians on just how “pagan” their religion really is. Reading Pagan Christianity? is certainly an eye-opener; the authors don’t even bother with such issues as saints or holy days (although they never explicitly say so, it’s clear that they are writing for evangelical Protestants and certainly not for Catholics). Rather, they go after a number of issues that even Neopagans don’t typically concern themselves with: public church buildings, professional clergy, clergy vestments, professional music directors and choirs, even the ordinary order of worship (whether in the Catholic mass or the Protestant service) — these, and other, commonplace aspects of contemporary mainstream Christianity are all dissected, one by one, with virtually always the same verdict: these practices are rooted in Greek, Roman, or other pagan cultures, with little or no support in the Bible or the earliest Christian writings. The others go on to editorialize about how all these unscriptural, “pagan” practices are in their opinion harmful to the Body of Christ.
Needless to say, I have profoundly mixed feelings about this book. Read the rest of this entry »
21 Comments | Christianity, Paganism, Reviews | Tagged: book reviews, Christianity, Frank Viola, George Barna, House Church, Pagan Christianity, Paganism | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
January 3, 2008
Recently I was bemused by a review of one of my Neopagan books in which the critic, in panning the book, accused me of “not believing in magic.” I thought, “Well, if she means I don’t believe in magic the way a 6-year-old believes in Santa Claus, I guess she’s right.” Still, it was interesting for me to ponder about how I think about magic, both now (almost three years after entering the Catholic faith) and then (the book in question, Before You Cast a Spell, was written in 2003).
I first was drawn to Neopaganism — particularly the spiritualities of Wicca, Druidry, and Asatru — because I was interested in an earth-centered and post-patriarchal way of expressing myself spiritually. That’s what I thought Paganism was all about, thanks to reading books by folks like Starhawk, Margot Adler, and Philip Carr-Gomm. Alas, once I got into the Pagan world, what I mostly found were a lot of folks wrapped up in the chase for secret knowledge and spiritual power, both of which categories were rolled together under the umbrella term of “magic” (or “magick,” to use Crowley’s rather pompous revisioning of the word). Hindsight is 20/20, and I realize that, given my unwillingness to buy into the fantasy/superstition of Pagan magic, I was ill-suited to be a Pagan from day one. But I’m nothing if not stubborn, and so I stubbornly tried to make it work — to find some way I could reconcile my naturally skeptical mind with what seemed to me to be the mostly naive if not childlike approach to this notion of magic that I encountered at every turn in the Pagan world.
The question I kept pondering about magic was simply this: “How does it work?” No one — none of the books I read, none of the websites I visited, none of the teachers I studied under — could provide me with a satisfactory answer. Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Paganism, spirituality | Tagged: Magic, Miracles, neopaganism | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
December 21, 2007
Tonight will be longest night of the year. The exact solstice moment occurs at 1:08 AM Saturday morning, Atlanta time. So happy winter solstice, everyone!
This means that at Newgrange in Ireland, probably starting yesterday and running through Monday, the annual solstice event is occurring, meaning that for just a few minutes each morning — weather permitting — the sun will shine directly into the heart of this megalithic tomb. Even though it is about 5,000 years old, this ancient structure is perfectly aligned so that the winter solstice sunrise briefly shines directly into its heart, casting light into chambers that the rest of the year would lie in serene darkness.
We know so little about what our ancestors believed. Clearly, to build a tomb like Newgrange (which easily took several generations to complete) with such a precise astronomical alignment speaks not only to a profound reverence for the dead, but also a deep knowledge of the environment — and, we may presume, some sort of conviction about immortality. The form those beliefs may have taken, of course, has been lost in the mists of time. All that is left is a massive structure, which after millennia stands as a silent testimony to an ancient wisdom long lost.
It begs the question: what other forms of knowledge or wisdom have been lost to us? And what will take to regain such insight?
Good questions for us as we reflect on the longest night of the year, and the anticipated return of the sun.
N.B. My apologies to readers from the southern hemisphere — hope you have a joyful summer solstice!
3 Comments | Paganism | Tagged: Lost Wisdom, Newgrange, Winter Solstice | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
December 2, 2007
I went to see Beowulf last night. I thought it was pretty mediocre. Sure, it renders Grendel’s Mother as the hottest thing in a catsuit since Seven of Nine, but that’s hardly a commendation. Really, there’s not much to say about this movie other than it has its share of gee-whiz animation.
As for the story, this film does a pretty good job at eviscerating the original tale. I thought we could have expected much better from Neil Gaiman. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Christianity, Paganism, Reviews | Tagged: Beowulf, Christianity, Paganism | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
October 8, 2007
Here’s an encouraging report from theooze.com about an evangelical church in Salem, Massachusetts, that is working hard to create meaningful dialogue between Christians and Neopagans:
Beyond the Pall
Leave a Comment » | Christianity, Paganism, interfaith dialogue | Tagged: emergent church, interfaith dialogue, neopaganism | Permalink
Posted by Carl McColman
