The Way of Reasoned Inquiry

Professor Cannon’s basic description of the Way of Reasoned Inquiry is as follows:

The rational, dialectical struggle to transcend conventional patterns of thinking in the effort to attain understanding of, and consciousness-transforming insight into, the ultimate what, how, and why of things – that is, to bring together and unite, so far as possible, mind with the Ultimate Mind and thereby acquire a portion of divine wisdom. It typically involves systematic study of a tradition’s scripture and previous attempts to articulate what is ultimately the case.

(Note: All direct quotes from Six Ways of Being Religious are in bold type.)

This is the way of using spiritual philosophy, or written texts, or simply deep research into subjects touched by historical spirituality, to find one’s way to the Divine. Where the Way of Mystical Quest uses the non-intellectual part of the Mind, the Way of Reasoned Inquiry uses the intellect itself – and like the other paths, the intellect will be reshaped and purified by rubbing up against the divine mysteries.

The early Pagan revival wasn’t terribly concerned with keenly accurate writings and research; in fact some authors exaggerated or outright invented enough that we may never know how much of their claimed historicity or undocumented sources were true or were simply romantic storytelling. For all we know, Charles Leland may never have met any Italian witches and created Aradia out of whole cloth; for all we know, Gerald Gardner was never initiated by Old Dorothy Clutterbuck, who may have been a staunch Christian whose name he appropriated after her death. Various early Wiccan covens claimed that their lineage went back to all sorts of ancient traditions, and now we know nearly all of those claims to be false. Popular Pagan books were riddled with obvious historical errors and assumptions, some of which could have been easily disproven by cracking a couple of books. Focusing on the way of Sacred Rite, practitioners ignored “Is this historically accurate?” for “Does it move me?” For someone called by the Way of Reasoned Inquiry, this sort of thing is frustrating at best and maddening at worst.

Eventually some Pagans, drawn to the beauty of specific ancient cultures and their religious practices, began to gather together and recreate the rituals of those ancestral peoples, as best they could. Reconstructionist Paganism grew slowly but inexorably over the next few decades until now it accounts for a respectable percentage of the Pagan demographic. These denominations generally place a high value on scholarship in order to recreate, as closely as possible, the rituals and practices of the ancestral people. Obviously, some cultural practices such as slavery and human sacrifice are not appropriate to recreate today, but reconstructionist scholars have managed to uncover and piece together a great deal of good information about ancestral religious activities that might not have been easily available without their intellectual questing. Reconstructionists place a high value on orthopraxy, and some are beginning to reject the umbrella term “Pagan” in order to distance themselves from sects with less rigorous (or no) scholarly research. Some refer to themselves jokingly as “the religion with homework” due to their stress on textual study for, ideally, all members.

The first and most visible reconstructionists were the Heathens, who focused on Norse/Germanic religions. While some Heathen groups were growing up in the U.S., Iceland was seeing a movement to establish the original religion of the European settlers as a legal faith, which came to pass. Today, Heathenry has many different subgroups going by various names such as Asatru, Vanatru, Forn Sed, Theodism, etc. in several countries. Soon afterwards, Hellenic Paganism (reconstructing ancient Greek religion), Kemetism (reconstructing ancient Egyptian religion), and many others – Roman, Baltic, Babylonian, etc. – began to show themselves on the Pagan scene.

While most non-reconstructionist Pagan groups still focus more on inspiration than historical research, the presence of reconstructionists has encouraged better research across the Pagan demographic.  Many Pagan authors are now more willing to do research, and more willing to be held to a higher standard of research when actually referencing history. The presence of the Internet, which helps with access to international and foreign-language research, has opened up a whole world of sacred scholarship as well.

“The Greek role of exegete was as a religious specialist who knew not only the techniques and rituals of a given tradition, location, and/or Deity, but also the history of those traditions and locations, and the myths of the Deity as these related to the practices involved. The word “exegesis” tends to be used for Christian interpretations of biblical passages in their historical context these days, but that activity can apply just as much to those who do this sort of work for polytheist traditions, not only based on historical sources and ancient sacred texts, but also their employment in modern contexts. An exegete’s proper activity is exactly this sort of exegesis, therefore!  In Irish tradition, as well as wider Continental and Insular Celtic practices, such sacred scholarship was a part of the role of the filid, the poets whose roles in society were diverse and multi-faceted. The great body of tales known by the filid were often not simply myths, histories, or genealogical lineages, but were actual narratives that established legal precedent, for example, which tends to convey custom in ways not merely having to do with interpersonal and social law but also in relation to divine beings, which took on contractual elements in Irish tradition particularly (including into the Christian period).”

– P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Hellenic and Celtic Pagan.

(Note: For each of the Six Ways of Being Religious, Dale Cannon lists key ways that they can be performed skillfully or unskillfully. Thus, for each path, we will be exploring competence, incompetence and the shadow side of competence; the balance of finitude and infinitude; and the balance of selflessness and egoism.)

Competence

Knowledgeable and learned; master of authoritative scripture and traditional commentary; accomplished in intellectual concentration and analysis; patient and skillful in reasoning; adroit in intellectual debate; able to explain things well and simply to others.

Obviously, if one is called to this path, the first step is to start hitting the books. Since we as Pagans do not have a single “book of faith”, or for that matter a “book of faith with historical commentary”, the situation is much more scattered and difficult. Researchers do look to whatever historical writings are left, but many have been written down by members of the faith that hated and slaughtered those early pagans (such as the Eddas), and due to this, have to be read with a careful eye toward that bias. The Christian conversions left some early cultures with a primarily oral tradition (such as the Celtic world) so bereft of written material that scholars have to be reliant on tiny scraps that are dangerously misinterpretable. Sometimes more useful information turns up in a new archaeological dig than in any old written material. The quest for all the knowledge that can be turned up from physical-world sources is ongoing, and analyzing it properly will take many clear minds, ideally with the qualities above.

I think the most important and telling quality in that list, however, is the last one: able to explain things well and simply to others. The art of thinking a subject through until it can be explained simply to someone outside of the subject both deepens one’s understanding, and connects the work to the outside world so that it is more than just a fun intellectual hobby. If one is doing this work for real spiritual reasons, as opposed to the fun hobby aspect, this can be crucial.

Incompetence

Ignorant and ready to speak out of ignorance; reliant on secondhand teachings (that have not been reasoned out and comprehended for one’s self); possessed of unreasoned understandings (lacking in mental discipline, inconsistent, prone to logical mistakes, and sloppy in reasoning); inadequately acquainted with the authoritative sources and insufficiently learned in traditional commentary.

The problem is that a little surface knowledge can go a long way as a damaging weapon. In groups where one’s prowess on this path is a way to gain respect and credentials, many will grab for the show of knowledge without depth or real understanding, and often with mental tools which are not sharpened by long years of intellectual study. This results in concepts being quoted self-importantly out of context, chosen for how impressive it makes the writer seem. They may have memorized a few facts and are willing to trot them out and apply them to any situation regardless of relevance. They may have only read the occasional line, and are not willing to take the time to absorb anything more deeply – including arguments against the side they are arguing for, which generally makes the arguer look foolish.

In this age of sound bites, memes, and “tl;dr” (Internet speak for “Too long, didn’t read”), individuals whose post-college daily reading might not have been much more than a menu or utility bill before the Internet are now being bombarded daily by a cacophony of written messages. They may be unused to, or unprepared for, dense academic reading, and when thrown into a “religion with homework” they may feel pressured to appear to know more than they actually do. Reading aside, they may be even less acquainted with concepts of critical thinking and defensible analysis – the skills of avoiding inconsistencies and sloppy reasoning – and in their enthusiasm, they “sound bite” bits of historical research and then become reactive when they are challenged.

Shadow Side of Competence

(Note: This is not the same as incompetence, which is listed above. It is when a person who is otherwise competent in their chosen path becomes blinded to any other options than that path, not only for themselves but for anyone else in the world.)

Ready to treat all problems as calling for an intellectual resolution; intellectualizing without heart.

One of the most ambivalent acronyms thrown around in modern Paganism is “UPG”, which means either Unusual Personal Gnosis, or Unverified Personal Gnosis, or Unverifiable Personal Gnosis, depending on how unpleasant the writer is willing to be. When the Way of Reasoned Inquiry goes wrong, everything that is not found in “the lore”, which refers to any academically-approved primary source material, is dismissed as UPG and thus unimportant, or even undesirable and Should Not Be Allowed.

“I’ll never forget seeing someone on an internet forum complaining about some author who wrote a lot of material that wasn’t substantiated by current historical sources; it was all his inspiration and he put that out there bluntly. I’d recently seen a lot of heavy-handed push on this forum for people to label what was UPG and footnote what wasn’t whenever writing about anything to do with Pagan religion. I figured, good luck with that, but I had to point out that this author, at least, was blatant about everything he wrote being UPG. I could almost feel the complainer back up a step, and say, “Wellll…” Then the comment came back: “Just because you say it’s UPG doesn’t mean that it’s OK to say it.” That was the point when I threw up my hands and left. Requesting that people document their inspiration as such is one thing, however unlikely it is to catch on. Using that as a slippery slope to eventually ban all inspirational writing is something else entirely.”

Matthew Close, Heathen.

Balance of Finitude and Infinitude

(Note: These words are Professor Cannon’s chosen terminology for the balance of the practical details with the numinous energy we are opening to experience.)

Wise; both theoretically and practically thoughtful; keenly sensitive to the larger picture (comprehensiveness of vision) coupled with appreciation for detailed structure; appreciative of depth, importance, and mystery as well as breadth, detail, and rigor; sensitive to one’s own limitations and ignorance coupled with a passion to seek out understanding of the greatest truths; sensible that the deepest truths may transcend straightforward articulation and call for personal transformation to be apprehended and understood rightly.

On this path, it is particularly important to know what you know, and what you don’t know. When you change the direction of any path from interesting hobby to something spiritual, part of the process is that the Universe will be watching you, and synchronous circumstances will cause the faults and flaws in your practice to become more obviously visible. This is not a punishment, but a cleaning-out – in a way, it’s taking you at your word. With the Way of Reasoned Inquiry, the limits of your knowledge and the limitations of your intellect will be clearly pointed out to you, if you’re willing to take notice. If you’re not, they will be pointed out more harshly, and that can sometimes come with public humiliation if you’re sharing what you’ve discovered. A humble attitude that constantly seeks to revise one’s understanding of the material just a little further, and an honest assessment of what one knows and doesn’t know, are the best tools to keep from suffering too much when this happens.

The most important of the above qualities may well be the last one. The writings of thousands of years all assure us on one truth – that some Mysteries must be experienced, and will not easily, if at all, come into words. There’s no shame in ending up in that corner with so many ancestors in the same place. On this path, it’s important to accept maturely that some of the “holes” in the writing may well reflect this situation, and that the mystics may well have something more useful to say on it than the scholars. Theories and suppositions from outside the Mystery are all fine and good, but it’s important not to enclose one’s self in an echo chamber of scholarly sources with no actual modern voices of experience. The interview process is worth taking into consideration occasionally when the material runs short. 

“Far from placing “intellectual pursuits” into the realm of trivia, an enjoyable hobby, or mere mental games at best, or as disconnected and anti-experiential, contra-mystical wastes of time at worst, these (and other similar) roles highlight that one’s ability to think, reflect, and elucidate is just as much a gift of the Deities as the ability to prophesy, have insight, or be inspired in many other ways. What is commonly derided by polytheists and Pagans about other religions is their lack of critical thinking, and yet throwing the baby out with the bathwater in this very same area often occurs when it is suggested that scholarly research or writing can be beneficial to the larger community. Polytheistic cultures are not generally against use of the mind, thought, and cognition, as much as some other religions (e.g. Zen Buddhism) seem to think that thought is the enemy of practice. The intellectual traditions of the ancient Near East, Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome gave us not only philosophy, political thought, and the beginnings of science, but so much more, and none of it was considered contrary to divine will or devotion until the advent of Christianity. So much of the intellectual heritage of Greece in particular was then subsumed and appropriated by Christianity that it is understandable that some within Pagan and polytheist circles might reel at the thought of exegesis and theology, when in fact both of those terms and activities were invented by polytheists.

Indeed, it is through such exegetical activities that not only do we come to understand our place within our traditions, as well as their long history (in many ways, scholarship is a form of academic Ancestor worship, after all!), but that we can be introduced to those experiences and have their forms and functions explained. An insight gained by divine inspiration is useless unless it is enacted, given outward expression, and shared with the wider world, and while art of all types are the chosen media for some to do such sharing, scholarship can be as well, and can also assist those who are not artists of various sorts in understanding the devotional art of others, amongst many other possibilities.”

-P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Hellenic and Celtic Pagan.

Imbalance: Loss of Finitude

(Loss of a realistic understanding of the practical details of the path.)

Passionately preoccupied with the present focus of one’s intellectual quest, one’s own ideas, or one’s own perspective in a way that eclipses all other concerns, ideas, and perspectives (e.g. in intense intellectual debate); unable to distinguish one’s own ideas about ultimate reality from ultimate reality itself; unaware and out of touch with one’s limitations and ignorance.

A friend of mine refers to this as “Spiritual Special Interest Syndrome”. He’s referring to the term “special interest” as a reference to the obsessed individual with few social skills who monologues for ages at whoever will listen, usually at top speed without leaving room for responses. While we aren’t suggesting that people on the Way of Rational Inquiry are any more “dorky” than people on any other path, one of the dangers is becoming so obsessed with one’s spiritual research that one forgets to eat, sleep, work, have relationships or hobbies, or listen to anyone else about anything else. Coming into range of this monomaniacal country is heralded by a desire to prove one’s own pet theories that is strong enough to twist all pieces of information to fit them, and to see Sacred Omens in every book they crack – all of which, of course, relate positively to the pet theories. The research becomes more and more sloppy – perhaps aided by sleep deprivation – and large holes appear in the reasoning which will later be exploited by the individual’s intellectual enemies. It’s important to get distance from the work and listen to the suggestions of others before it devours you.

Imbalance: Loss of Infinitude

(Loss of a real connection to the Divine/Universe/All That Is, however you see that.)

Lacking in passion for ultimate truth; unready for personal transformation in the quest for wisdom; unable to distinguish the heart of the matter from insignificant details; unable to distinguish genuine explanation from rationalization; intellectually heartless; pedantic; characterized by nit-picking and hair-splitting; tending to repeat and rehash existing ideas.

We’ve all met this type of person – the one who has become so caught up in labeling the trees that the existence of the forest has completely passed from their mind. In speaking of scholarship and philosophy as a spiritual path – rather than a source to be mined for academic papers and publishing, an intellectual hobby, or a way to impress people in a given community – then it must never be forgotten that its end-goal is not just the accumulation of knowledge. It is personal transformation through study of that knowledge. If this process is not happening, it can mean that one has ensconced one’s self in an intellectual oubliette and one needs to back out and do something to find the path again.

Selflessness

(Note: This is not suggesting we should always be selfless, but that there will be times on each path when we need to give of ourselves freely and generously.)

Intellectually sincere; ready to change and develop one’s own thinking further when reason indicates; committed to the pursuit of truth and to making it known for its own sake, even at risk and cost to one’s self; self-critical and open to taking in the sound criticism of others; committed to thinking things through for one’s self and respectful of the needs of others to think things through for themselves; hospitable to others’ ideas; patient with the pace of others’ understanding.

While someone can – and many have – keep all the study private, piling up in their personal library so that when they die, it dies with them, one of the ways that this path can give back to the world is by (carefully and humbly) sharing the information with others. If nothing else, one owes a debt to the scholars who came before, without whose words this path would be more difficult than it already is. This is not an excuse for releasing poorly-done work into the world, however, and it should only be done with a willingness to learn from the inevitable criticisms rather than react angrily to them.

Working on this path can also lead to teaching others on this path, and patience is necessary for one’s peers and students to come to ideas in their own way and time. Sometimes a simple beginner can bring surprising information to the table. In addition, someone with whom you disagree on one area of information can have something useful in another, and just because you dislike someone personally or disagree with how they live their life does not mean that their written material is devoid of all value. Part of this path is figuring out how to pick the gems out of the detritus, and to do that picking-work, you’ve got to get your hands dirty.

Another reason why Pagans doing the Way of Reasoned Inquiry may ignore a useful source is because they fear the social repercussions of including work by someone who is speaking from another faith (especially Christianity), or who is controversial for reasons other than this work, or who is personally disliked by the people in their Pagan group, or is a former member of the group who has left under a cloud. This comes into the issue of courage. While practitioners of this path are often thought of as bookworms who prefer to avoid conflict, it requires courage to speak up clearly about truths found in places that are perceived to be disreputable, and not be drawn into judgmental language and moralizing. Where it’s really possible to be a warrior on this path is in defending a truth that the people you like and respect are vilifying, as opposed to pontificating judgment on the same people they dislike from a safe distance.

Egoism

Intellectually pretentious, intellectually hypocritical, or intellectually dishonest – i.e. using intellectual talent and understanding, or the appearance thereof, to conceal egoistic motivation or pursuit of material advantage; unready to own up to one’s own ignorance; overly defensive about one’s own ideas and thinking (or those of one’s group), or unnecessarily aggressive toward those of other persons and groups.

One of the best spiritual disciplines on this path is the ability to hold a patient, qualified open-mindedness. It’s the discipline of, instead of saying, “You’re doing it wrong”, saying “There’s a possibility that you’re just doing it differently, because you have information I don’t, or circumstances I don’t know about. Tell me about this different way, so that I can keep it in the back of my mind even if it doesn’t resonate with me?” It’s the discipline of saying, “I don’t understand this, but instead of simply rejecting it as nonsense, I’m going to put it aside for the moment without an opinion and wait, because sometimes new information comes up that makes heretofore nonsensical things make sense in the next context.” With this qualified open-mindedness comes an ability to take things in stride, including criticism and disagreement, and to take things less personally.

The main reason why so many people on this path end up being overly defensive and unnecessarily aggressive is because they identify so strongly with their work, and are so unable to see beyond themselves, that any criticism or disagreement becomes a personal attack. “I disagree” or “That fact right there is not correct in my experience” becomes “You are an unworthy human being and your entire worldview is nonsense” in their ears, and they may respond with hostility. If the person they are responding to feels the same way, it can go on until the point of scorched-earth politics. Getting one’s ego out of the equation can cut down on these incidents and make way for an eventual bridging of differences.

“The place where I practice sacred scholarship the most is, strangely enough, in my practice of astrology. I don’t study astrology for money or clients, I do it to understand the beauty of the Universe and the way it works. To me, astrology maps out the cosmic wheels better than anything I’ve ever seen. But it means that I am always going back to the books – reading and rereading, keeping files of notes that are particularly concise ways of describing a transit or combination of planets, signs, and houses. It means that I had to learn a whole complicated language, and it means that I regularly mentally translate the happenings around me into that language (and then back again so that non-astrologers can understand me). It means that I am constantly combing every new source for information, and I’ve learned the hard way to neither reject something out of hand (because it might prove to have a kernel of truth later) or swallow something whole without giving it time to prove itself. I ask the Gods regularly to send me what I need to know via this study, and so often They come through on that!  It’s broadened my capacity for compassion and understanding with my fellow humans, and it’s made me much more patient about waiting out circumstances and trends. Checking the daily ephemeris has become my devotional activity.”

– Lyn Sheehan, Ohio Pagan astrologer.

So what would a supportive, healthy, spiritual/intellectual community look like? Ideally, it would be filled with people who are more interested in discovery than setting anything in stone, who are experienced at keeping an open mind, who can consider conflicting views equally (keeping in mind that sometimes the right piece of future information resolves the conflict), and who are patient with the foibles of newcomers. A high value would be placed on courtesy, personal attacks would be discouraged, and members would encourage each other to rephrase judgmental writing more thoughtfully. Academic resources would be shared openly, and a good group sense of humor would keep everyone from taking themselves too seriously. The numinous, and the impossibility of pinning it down, would be acknowledged and understood, and not just as a frustrating difficulty with which one must live. Perhaps someday we’ll see this as the rule in modern Paganism. That would be worth praying to some of our more intellectual Gods to grant.

Resources for the Way of Reasoned Inquiry

At this time we don’t have resources specifically for this path that are relevant to modern Paganism. There certainly exist many resources for studying discrete areas of historical Pagan spirituality, but the workings of the path itself have not been well discussed within our faiths at this time. If anyone knows of anything relevant, please send it to us!