How does one keep a tradition both current and alive? That may not sound like a conflict, but it can be. What happens when we are brought by current considerations to change a tradition, but we wish to do so without destroying the identity of the tradition? Let us consider how one very old religion handles that problem by way of example, both of how the conflict can arise, and how it can be resolved.

In Judaism, two of the main movements are Orthodoxy and Reconstructionism. A number of offenses that today would not strike us as being crimes, carry a traditional requirement that the "offender" receive a number of lashes. The concept that we whip somebody for say, a sabbath violation, is an offense to modern sensibilities. So what the Orthodox, who empasize the importance of the retention of old practices, do is this - they ask "what is a lash?". Well, it is any time a leather strap touches one's back. "Well", they'll say, "show us where in the rule books it states that the strap must be stiff or that the blows must be hard". They'll still deliver the "lashes", but those "lashes" will consist of gentle taps administered by a friend with a soft leather strap.

Loopholes can be great. The letter of the law is honored, without the need to do something that we would consider barbaric. But we're kidding ourselves if we think that nothing is lost, in exchange for what we have gained. We know darn well that we have voided the spirit of the law, even as we have honored the letter of it. The forms of practice have been maintained, but the spirit has been lost. At this point, the tradition has been made current, at the expense of keeping it alive.

This sort of thought lead to the establishment of Reconstructionism, which means something quite different in Judaism, than it does in Pure Paganism. Reconstructionism views the forms as things that were created merely to express the spirit behind the act. In the case described earlier, a Reconstructionist rabbi would ask, "Why did the ancients wish to see these people whipped? What were the circumstances leading up to that decision? Do those motives arise today?" After arguing that they did not, he'd simply dispense with the observance altogether. The process of discussion itself, it would seem, has become the ritual. The problem is that when one takes that to an extreme, what results is often not recognizably Jewish. We need those forms, to remind us of which tradition it is we practice. Otherwise, like the Jewish Reconstructionists, we risk making our tradition alive, at the expense of keeping it current (in the sense that Judaism is no longer with us, in such a context, having been transformed so beyond recognition, that we can no longer accept what is in front of us, as Judaism. Eg. "Jewish" celebrations of Thanksgiving).

In practice, this difficulty is resolved using a very Pagan principle - that of moderation. The problem here is with the notion that one is to either put one's full emphasis on either the form or the spirit of the observance. One needs some of both, so one mixes and matches. On an arid, purely rational level, this may seem unappealing, but it does seem to meet the needs of the worshippers.

So, what does this have to do with Paganism?

On Feb. 15, there is (or was) a festival sacred to Faunus/Pan, known as the Lupercalia. Some in the community in Chicago claim to still observe it, but they're kidding themselves. What they do, is add a few chants to a standard Wiccan calling of the quarters. The Romans themselves never called quarters, to the best of our knowledge, and this festival involved little (if any) speaking toward the end of its observance. It was a fertility ritual, dedicated to purity. "Isn't that a contradiction?", some will ask. No, it isn't, because the perception of a contradiction stems from :

1. An excessively lurid notion of what a fertility ritual is. It is NOT an excuse for ritualized sex. Generally speaking, the act of sex will not even be involved, though sexual feelings may or may not be aroused.
   
   A fertility ritual is one intended to ease childbirth, and otherwise aid in the bringing of new life into the world. As promiscuous love making tends to lead to the spread of diseases, a number of which (like chlamydia) often lead to sterility, it is the last thing one should see at such a ritual, for this reason, if no other.
   
   .... and ....



2. The assumption that sex is somehow "impure", which is not universally held.

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