FOR ONE STUDENT, PAGAN PRACTICES HELPED TO EXPAND HIS MIND AND ALSO ACCEPT HIMSELF
By Ester Salguero
Bradley Veerhoff walked in late to the workshop for basic energy manipulation. He looked around the room in Monroe Hall at the University of Mary Washington and saw everyone was holding their hands out in front of them, palms up. He quickly sat down while someone in the group showed him what to do. Now he had his hands out, palms up and he began to feel an energy gathering between his hands. It made something like what he described as a spherical movement. He was amazed at what he was feeling.
“I was definitely smiling, or like holding back a smile because it was a real physical thing,” Veerhoff confessed. Though he had always been open-minded, which was why he decided to attend this Sunday Pagan Society meeting for the first time, he had no idea he would have had such a transformative experience. He admits that he did have a little bit skepticism about it, as he usually does with new experiences. His friend invited him to the society meeting at the beginning of the semester but he had become familiar with Paganism before then. The group started gathering about a year ago, but recently it became an official club at the university.
Veerhoff isn't sure about how long this journey will last until he finds something else, but he has found a sense of community at the meetings and value in some of its spiritual practices which comforts him. He's someone who likes to seek out different theoretical, mythological and spiritual perspectives, trying each of them on like hats. Veerhoff is an example of many Americans these days who are reluctant to identify with any particular religion but who still feel the need to find a sense of spirituality.
“I consider them [various theologies] to be different ways of seeing the world, which are more or less useful for me in different circumstances,” he said.
This is why Veerhoff's story is so interesting. His spiritual journey is similar to the search for meaning that so many of us go through.
* * *
When Veerhoff was younger, he used to go to church with his family. They went mostly because many of their friends did. But when Veerhoff was in elementary school his father started to doubt his own involvement in the church. His father started questioning the religion and found an unpleasant taste with the way that the church was becoming too political or too promotional of certain Republican Party platforms.
Since Veerhoff's father didn't want to go to church anymore the rest of the family followed, eventually. It was the beginning of a time when all of the family members started to think more deeply about who they were and what they believed.
One day, during Veerhoff's high school years, his father handed him a book. It was a science-fiction classic that sorted out conspiracy theories of his age, in a tone that was satirical and filled with adventure. His father knew that Veerhoff was interested in these theories and thought it would open his mind.
For Veerhoff, it did that and more. It made him realize something about conspiracy theorists, that their beliefs cloud their judgment, or as he says, “Your beliefs alter your vision.”
The book introduced him to Discordianism, as well as to a study of occult practices. What he liked about Discordianism was that it promoted questioning. It's a theory that expects its followers to figure out where they stand in the theology, without resorting to a central dogma. Discordianism and its “impetus to seek out new experiences” helped Veerhoff get out of his comfort zone.
“You are supposed to take issue with them [Discordian theories] and then form your own schism, as part of our principles,” he said, as he was trying to spool out this very confusing but intriguing theology.
"I went on the internet to find out more about this obscure religion. He was right in saying that the religion was humorous. It was sort of like a parody of religion. The central dogma is that there are no dogmas."
Given this background, paganism intrigued him since it didn't involve one single religious division. Paganism incorporates multiple outlooks from different regional religions that originate from areas like, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. It is a blanket term that encompasses many different theologies. Pagans tend to collectively venerate nature and worship manifold deities, either goddesses or gods.
For Veerhoff, Paganism is also a way to understanding. He says the community on campus makes him feel “like [he] can learn about Paganism more readily” than, if he were to try and do it on his own as he has with many other religions he has studied. It connects him with people on campus and through this society he has learned a lot about himself.
Through these perspectives, Veerhoff hopes to be able to understand people, of all walks of life, and also, to challenge himself to consistently shift his mindset, instead of being complacent with his beliefs.
Andy Unger, the president of the Pagan Society, told me over Facebook that members of the group agreed that Paganism has no central belief.
“Everyone in our group is from a different pagan religion, and some of us don’t fall into any religion at all,” he said.
The primary value of the Pagan Society “is that everyone is equal and needs to be treated with respect,” Andy said. “The only people we refuse to allow into our membership are those who have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will not respect the race, gender, sexuality, [and] religion” of others.
* * *
Hearing about paganism from Veerhoff and Andy made me curious to see what it was all about. So, I went to see for myself. I went to the last meeting of the semester, and they were discussing rocks, a.k.a healing crystals, and their many psychic properties. They talked about lapis lazuli, a deep celestial blue stone that is known for its "journalistic qualities." According to pagans, it helps people feel more creative, so if you are having difficulty with writing, make this stone your friend. Veerhoff has his own collection that hangs out on top of his drawer in his dorm and he has been wondering what to do with them, since they have been sitting there for a while.
While I was there the group passed some rocks around, someone had volunteered to share their entire collection with the group. The person leading the discussion was passing them out to people who wanted to try and feel the energy or vibrations of the rocks. She even gave each of the rocks a personality.
"This one's aggressive," she said and handed it back to the keeper. I kept looking at her pass them to people because I was curious to see how they responded. There were no visual signs of any interaction between the rock and the people but I still wanted to see if I could maybe feel something. Then she picked up another one and said, "Oh, I felt something there," she handed it to me and asked, "Do you feel it?"
With hesitation, I said, "Not really but I honestly have no idea about any of this."
Then I handed it to Bradley who was right next to me and tried to observe how he responded. He looked very enthralled by the stones, they were very beautiful and interesting to look at anyway.
But even though I didn't experience any visceral responses, I didn't discount the members' own experiences. In my life, I've seen a lot of bodily and emotional responses during spiritual gatherings. I also found the meeting more informative than experiential, this time around. I was interested and inquisitive about the mystical powers of rocks that many of the members seemed to understand.
There is another aspect of paganism that appeals to Veerhoff. Recently, he has observed “how the various pagan religions relate to being neurodivergent,” in that Paganism has a respect for plurality and that the principles also recognize the importance of an individual psyche, the inner most self, along with varying personalities. He sees neurodivergence and Paganism as ‘intersecting fields.’
By Steven Rubino
*Correction: Veerhoff clarified that the book was not The Illuminatist! Trilogy but a book written by the social theorist Paul-Michel Foucault, which he cannot recall the name of, that was given to him by his father.
By Steven Rubino
By Steven Rubino
Correction: Depicted in the comic are hands-on tests when in reality the tests were completed in an MRI scanner. The depiction is meant to visually illustrate what Veerhoff narrated as an out of body experience.
By Steven Rubino