Before embarking on the explanation of the possible – or, in my view, the necessary – relation between paganism and feminism, it is better to define the former. The word "pagan" is Latin for things concerning life outside the city, i.e. those which are subject to the forces of nature, in contrast to life inside the city, which is mainly manmade. Thus, what we call today "paganism" is usually the belief in the Forces of Nature, their influence on human life and the way human beings can affect their existence and actions. My contention is that, if a person has any religious inclination, that person cannot be a feminist unless he or she is a pagan. No male monotheistic religion can allow the advent of real feminism in society.
This idea is based on the theory that there is always a correlation between the religious system and the structure of the society to which it belongs. In every religious group – and all human groups from the Upper Paleolithic period and up to the Renaissance were religious (by definition, believed in a power that exists above humanity) – there is an analogy between the religious system and the social order of that group; the religion forms the ideological basis for society's structure and function, and is used as an explanation and justification for everything that is going on in it. Even when the members of that society have ceased believing in that power and have become atheist by their own definition, they still maintain, for some time at least, the social basis which depended on the religion that characterized that society before its becoming nonreligious. This must be a part of the explanation for the patriarchal structure of Western secular society; the other part is that no one holding power would be willing to relinquish it unless on the basis of ideology. The process of releasing from the bounds of religion is slow and painful and full of regressions, paved with superstitions, which have resulted from the weakening religion.
Every religion contains two components: the one is the belief in the system of powers, which move the world; the other are the rituals used by the believers. The purpose of ritual is to materialize those powers in symbolic way, to create a connection between them and humanity, and to try and utilize them for the good of it. Rituals are a very ancient form of behavior, existing as a basis for social relations even in animals of all levels – from insects up to apes; but in humans, beside the regular social rituals (hand-shaking or smiling are basic examples), rituals connected with belief have developed, which are considered the magical actions supposed to influence the powers in which humans believe. In contrast to Freud and others, who think that shamanic magical actions have preceded religion, in my opinion these magical actions are nothing but different kinds of rituals accompanying the basic faith; without such faith they would be useless. Rituals of faith are so much rooted in the religious society, that they have become an integral part of it no less than regular social rituals (like the covering of the head by religious Jews, which is no less important than shaking hands). This is the reason that if a person stops believing, he or she still continues to maintain some religious rituals as part of their social life, giving it the name of "tradition". The reason for that is that the outer side of religion is no less important than faith itself for keeping the society as a whole.
