Paganism and Fertility

[ns_kumiho]

For this week's Pagan Prompt I'm going to take a question from Joyce & River Higginbotham's Paganism: An Introduction to Earth- Centered Religions:

What do you think about (most forms of) Paganism including celebrations of fertility into it's scared year? Do you think that the Pagan celebration of fertility offers something positive to the culture

Comments

[trip_tych]

To which culture are you referring?

[nicanthiel]

I believe ns_kumiho is referring to the pagan (sub)culture. They may correct me if I'm wrong.

[trip_tych]

Hm. I guess I wasn't aware there was an overarching pagan culture.

[trip_tych]

Or I guess I could look at it as the culture of my particular pagan path. We do count fertility as one of our virtues, although many of us tend to think of it less as biological reproduction and more as growth or creativity.

[trip_tych]

Right. It's not the idea of celebrating fertility in its various guises that I have trouble with. I sometimes find the idea that there is a singular pagan culture hard to deal with, especially considering that I'm usually faced with the idea of Wicca as the default brand of paganism.
I can certainly discuss the place of fertility in my practice and life but I also don't think that my practices really influence other forms of paganism. It might influence the culture within which I work but that is a much more specific culture than the idea of a general pagan culture.

[ns_kumiho]

I'm going to say the 'Pagan' sub-culture although feel free to interpret it however you wish.

nicanthiel was more or less on target.

[pierceheart]

IAWTQ.