Modern Pagan Metaphysics
Course: 9
Module: 0
By: John Beckett
Transcript by K.D. Echols
I’m John Beckett – Druid, priest and writer, and a Pagan.
When people find out I’m Pagan, one of the first questions they always ask is, “So, what do you believe?” My answer is that I believe that what we believe is far less important than what we do and how we live our lives.
The assumption that religion is primarily about what you believe, about which set of supernatural propositions you affirm and which set you deny, is a modern Western Protestant idea.
For most people throughout most of the world, throughout most of history, religion was and is about what you do, who you are, and who’s you are.
The next question that always comes up is, “Well, how does Paganism say you get to heaven?” They assume, because they’ve always been told that, that the afterlife is bifurcated, and the purpose of this life is to make sure you end up in the good place and stay out of the bad place.
They ignore the possibility that the afterlife may have many realms, or that we may be reincarnated into this world, or, though I do not think so, perhaps there’s only this one life, and we need to spend it living as fully as we can and not worrying about some afterlife that may never come.
It’s not just Christians who do this. I’ve been talking about magic and about spells I’ve worked and about results I’ve gotten, and inevitably somebody says, “That was a coincidence! There’s no way that could work.”
Well, there’s no way it could work if you assume that the universe is composed of dead matter. But if you believe that the universe is alive, that it’s full of Gods and spirits, that we’re all connected to everyone and everything, then there’s many ways that we can achieve ordinary results through extraordinary means.
The ancient Greeks had a word for these foundational assumptions about the universe: Metaphysics – beyond physics. Now science has worked wonders, and what science can explain, science can explain with great reliability. There’s some things that science can’t explain.
The theory of evolution does a beautiful job explaining how life developed from a single-celled organism to the diversity and complexity that we see today, that we’re a part of today. It can’t tell us how life began.
Science can put the movie of the universe in reverse and show us what happened right up until a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. It can’t tell us what happened at the Big Bang or before the Big Bang.
Now, there are some theories that are trying to do that – string theory, the multiverse theory. But I believe that there are some questions that science will never be able to answer, not because our technology is not sufficiently advanced, but because they’re beyond the capacity of our brilliant, but still finite brains to comprehend.
Metaphysics form a container for understanding the universe and our place in it, a container for interpreting our experiences. They draw a boundary between what we assume is possible and what we assume isn’t possible.
If something happens that’s outside that container, that’s beyond those boundaries, then we will discount it, rationalize it away, maybe even tell ourselves it never happened, because it’s easier to deny the reality of our own firsthand experiences than to contemplate the possibility that our fundamental assumptions about the universe might be wrong.
Everyone has a metaphysics, even though most people don’t realize that. For most of us, they come from what we were taught as small children – in kindergarten, in elementary school, in Sunday school. They come from the stories our parents told us, especially the stories they told us when they thought we weren’t listening.
For most people, this is just the way things are, the world as it really is. It’s just common sense. They never contemplate the possibility that perhaps those fundamental assumptions are wrong, or if they’re not wrong, maybe there’s a better explanation, or more importantly, perhaps there’s an explanation that’s better in alignment with their own values.
In this class, we’re going to begin with what we know and how we know it. From there, we’re going to build a metaphysics. It’s based on our experiences, our knowledge, and most importantly, that’s in alignment with our values – as Pagans, as polytheists, as witches, as other people of open minds and good will.
I hope you’ll join me.
Goals For the Course
What are our goals for this class?
First: to learn the basics of metaphysics: what it is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important – the stuff I just talked about in the opening, only in more depth
We want to examine the spiritual and philosophical foundations of the contemporary West. What are most people’s metaphysics? What are their foundational assumptions? Where do they come from? And why is that a problem for us as Pagans and polytheists?
We want to learn the spiritual and philosophical foundations of modern Paganism.
At the end of the day, we want to build a robust intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual foundation for our Pagan beliefs and practices, and for our lives. We want to come out of this class with a solid foundation for what we believe, what we do, why we do it, why it’s important to it, what it means to us.
What This Course is NOT
What this course is not: It’s not a survey of philosophical schools. We could spend the whole seven weeks doing nothing but a survey of great philosophers throughout history. That’s not what we’re going to do here. We’re looking to take some of what they did, but also take our own experiences, the findings of science, all the things that go into making our modern world, and build our own metaphysics for here and now.
If you go into a bookstore, a lot of the times the Pagan, the magical stuff, it’s in a section called “metaphysical”. Briefly, metaphysics is what’s beyond physics. It’s what can’t be proved but we work with it anyway because it’s meaningful and helpful. That’s caused some people to call pseudo-scientific beliefs “metaphysical”. The word metaphysical sometimes is synonymous with “woo”, with that kind of nebulous, New Age-ist, magical, whatever, I don’t know. That’s not what we’re going to do here. Magic is included in my metaphysics, and I hope it will be in yours. But that’s not all it’s about and that’s not the main focus of this class.
It’s not a repeat of Course 2, “Building a New Myth”. The two courses have different goals and different emphases. This course has completely new presentations. There will be some overlap in the concepts we discussed. I may reuse some of the pictures just because I found a really good one for something before. I may use it again. There will be some overlap, but it’s not a repeat of Course 2.
But because there is some overlap, I’m going to offer a discount to the people who took Course 2. Also I’m going to offer a discount for the people who take this course, if you want to go back and take Course 2. We’ll talk about that when we get to the slide on costs.
Modules
Let’s look at the modules. What are we going to do? This is Module 0, the free Introduction.
Module 1 is Metaphysics and Epistemology. This will be the closest we get to serious philosophy. We’re going to talk about what metaphysics is and about epistemology – how do we know what we know? We’re going talk about some of those philosophical foundations of metaphysics.
Module 2 is Animism, the idea that everything is not a thing but a person who we can relate with as a person. The universe is not composed only of dead matter, but it’s alive and it’s full of spirits, and we can connect to these spirits. Animism is a major portion of my foundational beliefs. I think they absolutely belong in a modern Pagan metaphysics.
Module 3 is Polytheism: Why do we think there are many Gods? What does it mean that there are many Gods? What does that mean to us in our beliefs, in our practices, in the way we see the world? A world with many Gods of limited power – great power, but not all-power – is very different from a world with one God of unlimited power.
Module 4: Science. What science does, it does very well. We ignore the findings of science at our peril. I find my best example for this are the fundamentalist Christians who believe in young-earth creationism, the idea that the earth is only 6000 years old. I suppose that’s possible, but all the evidence points toward the earth being more like 4.3 billion years old. We ignore science at our peril. Our modern Pagan metaphysics needs to be built on a foundation of science. It just needs to not be limited to science.
Module 5: Magic. What is magic? How does it work? What does it mean that we live in a world that has magic?
Module 6: Myth. A myth is not a made-up story. A myth is a story to live by. A myth is a story about something that never was, but always is. A myth is a story about universal human truth that speaks to our experiences. Myths speak to us indirectly whereas science and logic speak to us directly. (Do you want to take a guess at which one has more influence on how we actually live our lives?) We’re going to talk about the role of myth and how we can use myths to help build a metaphysics, and then interpret our myths in the context of our metaphysics.
Module 7 Then the final module is on Building a Metaphysics, putting all this together into one coherent system: foundational assumptions, the extensions that flow from those assumptions, our beliefs and our practices and our goals and our values and our ethics – how we put all that together in to build a sturdy, robust foundation for our Paganism, our polytheism, our witchcraft, however it is that we describe our religious and spiritual practices.
Guest Speaker
I’m bringing in a guest speaker: Dr. Brendan Meyers – Druid, friend, all-around good guy.
I’m going to interview Brendan on philosophical metaphysics from Module 1. Theat’s the one module where we are going to be talking about some serious philosophy. Well, let’s just bring in a serious philosopher who knows more about this stuff than I do.
I’ve heard Brendan speak several times. He’s an excellent speaker. This is going to be not so much a lecture as an interview and discussion with him. He brings a perspective that I don’t have. I’m really thrilled to be able to share him and his ideas with us.
He is a professor at CEGEP Heritage College in Gatineau, Quebec. He’s the author of 20 books, including The Earth, The Gods and The Soul – A History of Pagan Philosophy from the Iron Age to the 21st Century. I reviewed that book when it first came out in 2013. I’ve referred to it multiple times since. I’ve read some of Brendan’s other books. I’ve reviewed some of his other books. I like them. I like the way he thinks. This is my favorite of all his books. Yes, it will be on the recommended reading.
I’m happy to have Dr. Brendan Myers as a guest speaker in Module 1.
Who Should Take This Course?
Who should take this course? As all Under the Ancient Oaks courses, it’s intended for Pagans, polytheists, witches – Heathens, Kimetics, Druids, people who see the world more-or-less as I do. That’s who it’s geared for. That’s who the presentations are going to be tailored for.
But anyone with an open mind is welcome. If you’re a Christian, if you’re an atheist, if you’re an agnostic, you are welcome to take this course. Every time, there’s at least one or two Christians and one or two people who, if are not outright atheist, are certainly leaning that direction. You want to sign up and see what see what the Pagans are thinking? Come on in. You’re welcome.
There are no prerequisites. You don’t have to have taken any of the other Under the Ancient Oaks courses. You don’t have to have read any books. You just have to sign up for the course and dive in and see where this takes us.
Course Format
The course format is the same as the previous Under the Ancient Oaks courses. There are weekly videos. Typically they come out on Thursday morning.
They are on-demand. Still, I see lots of classes from teachers I like and respect that I would like to take. But their classes are taught live and they’re always at a time that doesn’t work for me. I do my classes differently. I make them on-demand so you can go watch the modules whenever is right for you. There’s always some people who jump on it first thing Thursday morning, other people who get to Thursday night, and others who’ll get to it when they can. That’s fine. It’s there for you to watch the classes, do the work, think about the material on your schedule and not on mine.
There will be recommended reading. I’m still working through the lesson plans now so I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like. But there will be some books that I will recommend and probably some online reading.
There will be questions for contemplation. I’m not going to call this homework, but I probably will. It’s not enough to listen to me talk about this stuff. You need to give it some serious thought. Does what I say make sense? How does it fit in with your own beliefs and practices? Is it challenging any of your beliefs and practices? If so, do you need to examine them a little more closely? Do you need to challenge me on something? Do you need to say, “Nope! We just see things differently here,” and move on? There will be questions for contemplation. To get the most out of this class, you’re going to have to do some serious thinking and probably some note taking and a little bit of writing.
There will be two video Q&As, one after Module 2 adn one after Module 5. I will put out the call for questions typically on the modules that we have just covered by I will field questions on anything in the general topic of modern Pagan metaphysics. I will answer those on camera and post the videos just as soon as I get it finished.
I used to do homework assignments and review them and that didn’t work. Some people really liked it, but for most people, it didn’t work well. This seems to be a better way for most people to get feedback on the class.
UTAO Facebook Group
There is an Under the Ancient Oaks Facebook group. If you have taken classes with me before, you’re probably already a member. It is a secret group so only members can find the group and see who’s in it and what they post. So if you’re not a member, don’t go looking for it. You can’t find it. Contact me and ask me to send you an invitation, which I will.
If you have questions and you don’t want to ask me or you didn’t like my answer or you just want another opinion, post it in the Facebook group. There’s some smart people in that Facebook group.
It’s for conversation among classmates.
We’ve got one Facebook group for all class participants, one through eight. There is a special Facebook group just for the Tarot class because we needed to share readings, but this is the main UTAO Facebook group for everybody. Everybody can participate in the in the discussions.
Your participation is completely voluntary. If you’re not on Facebook, don’t like Facebook, don’t want to do Facebook, you don’t have to.
Cost
The cost is $75 for the entire class.
I prefer PayPal. 98-99% of you pay through PayPal. I can send you an invoice, you pay it. It works very very simply. If you just cannot use PayPal, I can take Venmo. I can take Zelle. I can do credit cards. I can do some other forms of payment. I can’t do every form of payment. I don’t do Cash App. Most people use PayPal. It works fine. I know some people don’t like their politics. I don’t either. But it’s a tool and we use it.
Course 2 Discount
I mentioned a Course 2 discount. There is some overlap in the material. This is a separate class. It’s a different class that has a different emphasis. You’ve got all new presentation. So I don’t feel like I’m asking you to pay twice for the same material. However, there is some overlap and so I’m going to offer a discount to the people who took Course 2: a $25 discount, so $50 instead of 75.
It applies to all Course 2 students, whether you were a paid student or a scholarship student. Maybe in early 2020, you were in a bad place financially and you needed a scholarship, but now you’re better and you can pay the full tuition – you still get the discount.
You have to tell me that you were a Course 2 student when you register. When you send me an email that says, “I want to sign up for the metaphysics course,” you have to tell me, “I was a Course 2 student so give me the discount.” I’m not going to go back and check everybody’s registration history. That’s just too much work. Tell me you were a Course 2 student and I will be happy to give you the discount.
And I will offer that same discount in reverse, so you take Course 9 and you want to go back and pick up Course 2, you could have that for $25 instead of for $50.
Scholarships
There are always those who could benefit from a course like this but just $75 is just beyond them at the moment, so a limited number of scholarships are available.
The more paid registrations and sponsorships I get, the more scholarships I can offer. Every time, some people say: here’s my registration. I want to sponsor a student. I want to sponsor two students. There’s some generous people in this group and I appreciate that. Each sponsorship not only fully funds one student, it counts like a paid registration toward the number of scholarships that I provide. If you’re in a good place, if you want to help somebody take the course, please consider a sponsorship.
As always, scholarships are limited. Priority will go to previous Under the Ancient Oaks students.
Deadline for scholarship application is August 26.
Schedule
Let’s go on to the schedule. (I thought I had another bullet there and I don’t.)
August 15, Module 0 was released. I know that because you’re watching this video. Registration opens. Send me an email. Tell me you want to take the class. Scholarship applications are accepted.
August 26 is the deadline for scholarship applications.
August 28, scholarship applicants are notified. I will let you know, yes you’re in, or sorry, we ran out of funds.
Thursday, August 31. Module 1 is available. There will be seven weekly modules coming out every Thursday for seven weeks. It’s possible something might be delayed but I’ve never been late on any of the eight classes so far, so I don’t think I’m going to be late.
The last module is released on Thursday, October 12.
Questions
If you have questions about the course, the materials, the application, just contact me, I’ll answer. If there’s questions you have that you want answered before you sign up, by all means you can send me an email, contact me on social media, I’ll be happy to answer. If you have questions during the course, send them to me.
The response format will vary. They’ll probably go into video Q&A. I try to give at least a partial answer by email right away so you don’t have to wait for the video. I may ask you to take it to the Facebook group, particularly if I don’t have a good answer. If it’s a deep question, I may turn it into a blog post. I’ve done that a few times. I like those kind of questions.
I’m always available to answer class-related questions. So if you didn’t do the modules one a week and it’s December. You’re just now getting to Module 6 and you have a question? Ask. I’ll be there to answer. If it’s 2025-2026 and you’re taking this class for the first time, it’s too late for the Q&As, but as long as I’m here, I will answer class related questions.
However, I don’t do casual conversation. Don’t send me links and ask me to go read this and tell you what I think. I just don’t have time for it. Honestly, I don’t like casual conversational online. I don’t do it with my friends.
Class-related questions, please feel free to ask.
Signing Up
Like what you see here, want to be part of the class, send an email to john@undertheancientoaks.com or use the contact form on the website. Just send an email to the email address here. It will be easier for me in the long run and easier for you. But hey, if you want to use the contact form, it’s there.
Tell me if you’re a Course 2 student so I can get the discount.
I will send you a PayPal invoice. When you pay it, I will register you for the course.
Expect a 24-hour turnaround. If you catch me when I’m sitting at my desk and I’m not terribly busy, you may have a five-minute turnaround. If you catch me when I’m traveling, if you live on the other side of the world and I’m sleeping, it may take a few hours. But unless I’m traveling, and I have no plans to be traveling during the timeframe of this class, you should expect to hear from me within 24 hours. If you don’t, ping me again. Things do get lost in email. Stuff goes into spam folders. If you don’t hear from me in 24 hours, definitely contact me. It doesn’t happen often. It does happen occasionally.
That’s it.
I hope you like what you’ve seen. I hope you learned a bit about metaphysics and why it’s important, because everybody has a metaphysics. Most of us have a metaphysics that was created by people who don’t share our beliefs and often don’t share our values. We need to build our own metaphysics based on the world as we see it and the values that are that are most important to us, to our Gods, to our traditions.
This is some deep stuff. This is some important stuff and I hope you will join me for this exploration