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January 06, 2008
REVIEWS: Return to the Pantheon
Pagan Resurrection by Richard Rudgley was always going to be an interesting book to review. Certainly, with a byline that raises the sensational question, ‘A force for evil or the future of western spirituality?’ much was expected of the author to put some salt in his claim’s worth.
The book is a study of an ancient religion, or religious culture, referred to now as paganism. The focus of the book is upon Odin, the ancient god of war, and who is used as a singular representative of a fellow who appeared throughout ancient European religions under one name or another. The author himself is an anthropology scholar as well as a television presenter. This is his second book, and it seems that the author understands the tricks of the trade well enough. For all purposes this should be a history lesson, but the sensational content, the haunting cover and over the top demand for the public’s interest suggest this to be more: something of a Da Vinci Code break off, with a more scientific approach.
At any given point in time, there is a mainstream that believes in conventional truths: what psychiatrists would call over-valued ideas. These ideas are those that cannot be budged by rational argument, however, due to conventional belief, are not considered delusions. At the same point, there is always the occult and the occultists. Though most members of this group are those disillusioned by conventions, there are also those who indulge in the occult, simply because of its mysterious aura. To the general population, occult knowledge represents something elusive, and which appeals to their own inner ‘dark’ sides.
What this translates into is that there will also be people wanting to cash in on occult beliefs and practice, due to their stimulating matter. In this day of black holes and American Idols, the word ‘pagan’ arouses many, for it is so often paired with malevolent, perverted undertones. Pagan Resurrection seems like one such book, starting from the exaggerated byline to the absence of any concrete evidence backing the author’s conclusions. The research backing Rudgley seems to make flimsy connections, one of which I will elaborate upon now.
Odin exemplified many qualities but his defining characteristic was that of frenzy: a state of exaggerated passion and effect manifested in the frenzy of warfare, that of sexual flight and spiritual hysteria.
Odin exemplified many qualities but his defining characteristic was that of frenzy: a state of exaggerated passion and effect manifested in the frenzy of warfare, that of sexual flight and spiritual hysteria. He further goes on to quote the 20th-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung along the lines that Odin is in fact a template, innate to Europeans descending from their ancient pagan ancestors. Carl Jung was another shadowy figure, famous more for his idiosyncratic views that won him little praise from his peers, as much as it did from those who find face-value to be too boring. If that is so, is any state of altered consciousness a manifestation of an extinct god? Carl Jung, used as both prophet and authority, is nothing but a relic of post-Victorian pseudoscience; you could read any decent textbook of philosophy without chancing upon his name.
A most interesting parallel is raised early on in the book. It seems that the esoteric nature of oriental spirituality has become a hotbed for western concoctions. When the author compares pagan rituals with Sufi mystic practices, he does go on to elaborate on his theorem. The fact that both sects use the flight of imagination as a modality of accessing a higher spiritual plane is similar; the author says correctly that western writers cannot comprehend the importance the eastern mystic lays on the imaginary world — that slipping too into dreams. This follows a recent rise in an insurrection onto reason — a mechanism of the mind that has helped humanity concretely, that which serves us in the basic most of activity too. This is certainly an important question that the book raises; its importance being out of the sheer mania surrounding the wide acceptance of scepticism towards the metaphysical implications of reason.
Credit where it is due: the willing will find Pagan Resurrection as a believable account of the state of world affairs and the background behind historical events. The book reads well and supports the short attention spans of modern readers with ample breaks, ample chapters and sub-chapters. The book has a few illustrations, which however, do not complement the text very well. An interested reader would take a few days to finish reading this book, however, this book is not for sceptics. There are points where the book feels like a magic show at a blind children convention. Despite the author feeling free to call the Second World War ‘The First Odinic Experiment’, there isn’t much stimulating matter in this book to affect any student of either religion or history. The book seems part of a recent trend to commercialise history for the mass consumer. But for someone looking for some intellectual stimulation, the book falls like a burning altar.Pagan Resurrection
By Richard Rudgley
Arrow Books. Available with Paramount Books, Karachi
ISBN 0-099-28119-1
318pp. Rs695
This is with reference to A.R. Siddiqi’s review of Yasmin Khan’s The Great Partition (December 16). The key sentences are: ‘As the author would put it words like ‘Pakistan’, ‘Swaraj’ and ‘Partition’ acquired concrete meaning, ‘freedom’ itself was not clearly defined.’ Firstly, freedom is the English word for ‘Swaraj’. Secondly, the author or reviewer take a contrary position in the following sentence: ‘The ‘talismatic’ word ‘Pakistan’ was used strategically to ‘rally’ the gullible, unwary masses round a cause little understood and little explained.’ Jinnah defined Pakistan in a statement carried in the Statesman, on February 19, 1941.
The message is clear, if the masses were incapable of taking a correct decision at the British withdrawal, they are incapable of taking a correct decision at the withdrawal of military rule. It needs to be brought home that the decision to partition India was taken because of riots and not because of rhetoric. The talismatic word Pakistan had been unveiled before the gullible masses before the 1937 elections which the Muslim League lost. It was, as even Lord Mountbatten conceded, the actions of the 1937-39 Congress ministries which led the Muslims to vote for Pakistan in 1946. See Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s Mountbatten and the Partition of India, 1982 (P.22).
It is a travesty to say that the concept of Pakistan was not explained. Apart from the Jinnah-Gandhi correspondence, and Jinnah-Nehru correspondence, there were publications which discussed the communal problem threadbare. For example, Dewan Ram Prakash’s Cabinet Mission in India, Hopes and Fears by Anonymous but with a Preface by Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Jag Pravesh’s Is Grouping of Provinces Necessary? M. Ashraf’s Cabinet Mission and After and Begum Firdous Rizvi’s Pakistan Defined. All of them were published in Lahore in 1946.
The Partition Plan did not have smooth sailing in the All-India Muslim League Council. All options were heatedly discussed. The partition was flawed, but if a solution is flawed, it does not mean that an alternative was at hand. Ideal or complete solutions are a rarity. Let us speak out when a solution is capable of remedy.
Dr Muhammad Reza Kazimi
Karachi
The first paragraph of my book review on The Terror Presidency (December 21) was included in the article as an epigraph and was taken from The Federalist. Unfortunately, the review, as printed, wrongly gives the credit of those important words to the reviewer. The credit belongs to Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury.
Shahid Kamal
Islamabad
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