What Is ChristoPaganism

The other day, I came across a video of a deer inside a Cathedral. It reminded me that I had promised to write an article about what ChristoPaganism actually is (as opposed to what it isn’t)… I think you will agree with me why the video reminded me to answer the question ‘What is ChristoPaganism?’.

I have to confess that I’m not keen on labels and attempting to define a label I reluctantly use for lack of a better term is making me feel slightly claustrophobic. Before I dive into my definition, however, I will share a definition by authors Joyce and River Higginbotham who have written a book about it. They answer the question ‘What Is ChristoPaganism’ in the quote below.

“ChristoPaganism is spirituality that combines beliefs and practices of Christianity with beliefs and practices of Paganism, or that observes them in parallel.”

It is hard to disagree with the above statement because that is certainly how it appears from the outside. However, I did not set out to combine beliefs and practices… Rather it was something that just happened based on my experience of the divine.

Visions of Mary

As I was busy processing these thoughts, someone quite synchronistically emailed me to ask about what to do with all the visions she was having of Jesus and Mother Mary even though she wasn’t a Christian by birth. She wanted to know how to reconcile these experiences intellectually and theologically, as well as how to integrate them with her calling of being of service to the divine feminine.

I wanted to answer her straight away but her email arrived late at night so I had a chance to sleep on it. I’m glad I did because I believe my spirit guides helped me gain much clarity in Dreamtime. When I replied, it was more or less a channelled response that I have marvelled at for a couple of days now… because I essentially ended up teaching this person what I wanted to know for myself (and isn’t this so often the case!).

What has theology ever done for us?

“These mystical encounters… do they have to make sense theologically? You love Jesus… so love him! What has theology ever done for the world? Precious little. It took the simple love-centred teachings that Jesus brought us and turned everything into shit… putting a divide between us and God where God never intended one… and further down the road, it did away with the Divine Feminine to suit the political agenda of the day. Mother God/Shekinah is very much part of what Jesus taught us… the White Dove of the Holy Spirit is HER sign… My very best tip for you is to become super excited about your daily meditation practice because that is where you will find and be able to verify these answers for yourself. (…)

All Paths of Love are One – How could love be divided against itself?

You know the answer. In fact, you already know all the answers to your own questions. Patriarchy just taught you not to trust your inner wisdom.

Love and Live from the Heart

Love and live from the heart – that is how you embody HER. When you feel you have to have a theology to back it up, you are reverting to the divisive paradigm of patriarchy where only a few scholarly types supposedly hold the truth and (much like the Pharisees) do all they can to make it difficult for the rest of us to lead our lives in peace and harmony. They would much rather have us worry about doing things wrong so that they can control us.”

BAM! And from writing that reply to my friend in need, every last doubt and insecurity about my own spiritual path was gone with the wind of the Spirit.

So What Is ChristoPaganism?

I think I’m ready to define ChristoPaganism now.

ChristoPaganism is the experiential merging of devotion to the person Jesus Christ and his teachings with experiences of a spiritual nature that emanate from Mother Nature.

ChristoPaganism values experience over dogma. It evolves organically in any persons who allow the Holy Spirit/Shekinah/Mother God to speak to and through them, free from the need to be ‘corrected’ by theologians.

ChristoPaganism could very well be the next step on the evolutionary ladder of Christianity. Or perhaps a return to how things were right from the start when all it took was one encounter with the God-Man Jesus Christ for people to experience grace so completely that their lives changed forever (theological input not needed).

Jesus Christ is real, whether you see him as a ‘God,’ a ‘prophet’ or just a very cool dude with lots of integrity. He kept it real to the point of being able to reach souls across the space-time divide (as exemplified by the experiences my friend shared when she contacted me), to heal and change people’s lives in an instant for those who open their hearts to the experience.

Who Jesus Is to Me

My first experience of opening my heart to Jesus is linked with a rather mundane event. It came from watching the film ‘Jesus of Nazareth‘ with blond and blue-eyed Robert Powell playing the role of Jesus. Growing up in secular Sweden, this was my first encounter with the God-Man Jesus and his teachings other than in the Christmas hymns which we sang at school. The teachings of Yeshua made sense in a world where not much else did.

Forgive your enemies. Do not judge. Love one another. Love God with all your heart. Deep down I already knew this from the out-of-body experience I had at age five-six but years of conditioning had almost made me forget. Hearing Jesus speak (OK, so that time it was Robert Powell but you catch my drift) brought me back to what I knew to be true.

Dogma? No thanks

Much happened since. Many years of study, including in-depth Bible study and at one point I even contemplated becoming a minister or missionary. But, in the end, within the strictures of dogma, I always felt as if I was suffocating a little… and the still small voice within kept whispering ‘Why are you trying to shrink God?’ and ‘Why are you using theology to draw a line between ‘us’ and ‘them’?

So today I’m very much back to where I started 32 years ago, with a deep realisation that the words of Jesus will never stop making sense. And the mystery of it all is much greater than even the greatest work of theology could even begin to describe.

My path is ChristoCentric because I have been touched by the Holy Spirit and graced by the presence of Christ on the inner planes. He is, and forever will be, the greatest love of my life… my hero, teacher and favourite avatar of the Divine.

Check out my Q&A post about ChristoPaganism HERE and THIS POST will take you to 11 Simple ChristoPagan Rituals!