Are Pagans pacifists or a priestly warrior class? How do we fit in a society, which has invested a lot of time, effort and legislative power towards the disarming of its people? And could there be more to this disarmament drive than what meets the eye? Do we want to be perceived as sword-carrying-people, socio-religious activists obsessed with our heritage and ancestral background, who raise our children to be fighters and warriors? Or do we instill in them the fear of weapons, stifle their natural drive of aggression, keep them away from any sort of violence disguised as entertainment and thereby teach them to submit to enemies of our Cause, tyrants and bullies?

Our historical past has coined for us terms such as sexism, chauvinism, male domination, women’s liberation, gender inequality, pacifism, machismo, revolution, militantism, etc. Where do we stand as Pagans? Have we turned our backs on the old Gods, their roles, have we too turned masculinity into a taboo and have we all begun to aspire to an egalitarian, androgynous homogeneity, where the roles are confused and where to be a man is almost a shame and a social disgrace? Are Pagan women also given to the erosion of men’s’ masculinity and toughness?
Do Pagans fall under this modern paradigm? Or do we still believe in chivalry, duty, honour and warriorship?

Is it right, even if we are all children of the Goddess, to make men live by the feminine code? Is it right that a man should find excuses for not being soft or less martial in nature? Are Pagan women guilty of encouraging their men to suppress all traces of male vigour and belligerent zeal naturally stemming from testosterone levels, of breaking their spirits by disensouling them and forcing upon them feminine qualities? What is the advice in the Classical Pagan texts? In the Odyssey, Hermes advised Odysseus to raise his sword to Circe. Attracted to his virility she landed up taking him to her bed.

In Children of the Earth (Raising Children the Southern Way) we discussed the absence of rites of initiation in our society, a clear-cut moment in a boy’s life when he becomes aware that he is a man and with that assume the responsibility that becomes a man: honour, chivalry, noble action, defense of his kin, truthfulness, the preservation of his civilization, people and homeland, and most importantly, the emulation of the ancient heroes.

And is it true that a man who cannot defend his own space cannot defend his companion, children and or his loved ones?

Amongst the Native Americans the weapon is a symbol of honour, used in hunting and for the defense of self and people. Interestingly, Comanche women were the ones who taught the boys to use their weapons. How glorious this co-operation between the sexes!

Now if amongst some cultures weapons are symbols of honour and tradition, why have they been so demonized in our society?

We should ask ourselves, are weapons a source of male domination as intimated by some? In Celtic societies [we all have Celtic ancestry] women such the phantom queen The Morrigan and the Queen of the Icenes, Boadicea, went to war, side by side with their men. Graves of important women buried with their weaponry are testimony to this. Did their participation in war emasculate Celtic men? Hardly! Everybody had their role to play, at home and on the battle field.

Now the days of battles and battlefields are gone. Some Pagans advocate activism and symbolic warriorship? But is symbolic warriorship sufficient for the fulfillment of every man?

The anti-male propaganda of the past 4 to 5 decades has led us to believe that all weapons are phallic in nature; intrusive appendages of steel with one purpose only, to kill or to subdue the weak and ensure male domination? What a sad, one-sided point-of-view that has aggravated the far-reaching consequences of men rejecting their traditional male roles!

Conversely, are anti-hunting, homosexual and politically correct males any less male than those engaged in the more traditional masculine roles? Never! Sexual orientation, blood lust or the lack thereof, feistiness, have always been a reality that has dwelt amongst us in the temples, philosophical academies and battlefields. In Ancient Greece pederastic relationships between males were a common practice, mature men had catamites, the heroic Alexander the Great loved his Hephaestion, Achilles loved Patroclus and Hercules loved amongst the Argonauts, Admetos, Iphitos, Euphemos and many more.

And is being a feminist in any way detrimental to men? Do men measure themselves up against other men, or do they validate themselves against women taking on submissive roles?

And are women who are opposed to weapons giving in to the inherent impulse to control male domination and sexuality? Can this possibly be true of Pagan women? Or do we exalt the Priapus/Iacchus in every male?

Healthy aggressive behaviour is commendable but aggressive behaviour in the home is out of place. This leads to the bully mentality and to the abuse of power, which no man of honour would be a part of.

Will Pagans agree that it is correct to postulate that gun control is the realignment of relations between the sexes and that it is a convenient and socially acceptable metaphor for women’s secret desire to castrate men? Do women view men as rivals in their struggle for equal job opportunities, money and social status? Is it all a matter of projecting one’s faults upon another? Or do folk have very many different reasons for embracing or rejecting the need for an armed society, which ranges from ignorance, fear, previous experience, discomfort, and etc. to expertise, passion and lifestyle?

Are Pagan women still proud of being mothers and wives? Proud to be family women? Do they still enthusiastically engage in consciousness raising of their young sons into men, like Spartan women raised their warrior sons?

In very many ways feminist philosophy has failed society and womankind, by teaching women that men were redundant and disposable commodities, necessary only for procreation (the complete reversal of misogyny). Through such errors men have been exonerated from their traditional obligation towards their families, in the role of providing and protection.

Women also abandoned their traditional role of mothers relinquishing the custody of their offspring to “baby farms” where they are raised en masse. Modern-day society has taken women to a detached status beyond motherhood thereby contributing towards the dissolution of the traditional family.

Yes, in our society the family is fast becoming a threatened institution.

Do we as Pagans realize that the Pagan family will be the salvation of Paganism. Its deterioration, the continual creation of single-parent families leads to the decline of the power of the stable, middle-class family environment in which the future of our spiritual heritage could be ensured and secured.

Divide and rule has always been a tactic to undermine and gain control of the masses. Beware and take the necessary care of your families. Raise secure children who will in turn raise secure Pagan families.

Remember that it is easier to subdue those who stand alone. In a stable society men and women can create a secure atmosphere where children can be raised and educated according to our ancestral customs and spiritual ways.

In a society where men and women are rivals, power struggles, infidelity, divorce, etc. ensue. In these unnatural atypical familial nuclei, women replace men in their lives with politics as the promise of safety is ever important. If men can no longer provide security, then the government will.

Let us teach Pagan boys to yield weapons. Weapons have always been with us. School brutality and violence are a relatively new phenomenon [scissors, knives, compasses, swords, screw drivers and guns being used]. Violence of PC games, films, have to a great degree desensitized us. Some postulate that the removal of inhibitions came about through the decline in the traditional notions of masculinity. But is this the whole truth?

Adolescent boys have loads of testosterone coursing through their metabolism. They are naturally wired for energetic, belligerent behaviour. How does one positively harness or channel all this energy? Successful societies in our historical past did this by teaching boys to be moral “gentlemen”, that a man’s honour depends on providing protection for the family, protecting the old, the young, the helpless, serving one’s country, etc. in the varying degrees dictated by the roles they grow into.

The values of Manhood were reinforced by roles of the male mysteries, honour, chivalry, sporting activities for the release of male aggression, the cultivation of light-hearted competitiveness, team spirit, fitness, everything essential for physical preparedness to be a warrior in his own right and not a soldier in another man’s army, for Pagans do not breed children for the social or political war machine.

In the history we hold dear, men won women with acts of bravery, heroism, honour, and commitment to family life. We are now raising a generation of fatherless men, without a role model from whom little boys can learn how to be gentlemen and from whom they can learn manly virtues, folkways mores and morals.

Due to unabated stresses and unnatural lifestyles some men have grown so out of touch with their own manhood that they lost the inclination or power to guide their sons.
Fatherlessness, lack of morals, ethics and principles inevitably lead to an escalation of violence and crime in our society.

Some folk postulate that the modern world view which has raised boys like girls are raised has enabled women to strip men of their ability to be masculine and that the sole purpose of this philosophy is to undermine capitalism, through the teaching of boys to reject old-fashioned values (heroism, honour, war, competition). And this, always according to these folk, because the culture in which the warrior class thrives is governed by the economy of capitalism.

Has Goddess-worship further eroded men’s maleness? Or is equal worth (in its very many nuances) in an egalitarian system (that promotes the nurturing through necessity of the different roles based on gender), worth fighting for?

I believe we need to realize that masculinity is not equal to violence and humankind (and not divinity) is characterized by ire, jealousy and vengeance.

Let us not teach our sons to fear their own masculinity and subdue their energetic natures with pharmaceutical formulae or with the pandering to the stories of evil male domination and anti-competitiveness. The competition is on until, in our diversity, we are all equal, and strong are the leaders who protect and guide their people.

Boys require discipline, respect and moral guidance. It is the curbing of competitive drive and the suppression of aggressive urges which lead to violence. More and more boys involved with crime, drug and alcohol abuse are on psychotropic drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, lovingly administered to curb their energy levels and masculine drive. Studies show that these drugs contribute to the aggravation of unhealthy aggressive behaviour rather than subdue it.

Pagan children should be taught to deal with the negative reality and not hide behind defense mechanisms or drugs (recreationally or clinically) that are detrimental to their mental and spiritual health.

There is a place for admiration of heroes in every human heart. Let us return the magic of this to our sons’ and daughters’ hearts.

Let us remember that the family is sacred. The family epitomizes the peaceful middle-class ideals and prosperous co-existence. As Pagans we should strive for the protection of this powerful vehicle for our Faith.

Furthermore, let us pay heed to the fact that behavioural scientists maintain that in a society where the values of honour, duty and discipline are no longer upheld, men soon lose interest in honouring the commitments to wives/life companions and children.

In The Odyssey Homer wrote: “there is nothing so good and lovely as when a man and his wife in their home dwell together in unity of mind and disposition.”

Let us teach our sons and daughters the value of chivalry, pride in our ancestral heritage, in our ways of women and men and on how to yield our weapons with respect for life and honour of all things Good. Let us encourage them to learn how to fight like hoplites, legionnaires, centurions, braves, impis, teach them to fight for our freedom and to protect our rights, recalling to respectfully ask for the advice of elders who besides the ability, the skills, also have the powerful tool of experience.