Pagan practitioners in Basin keep beliefs hush-hush

When you think of pagans, chances are you've got it all wrong.

Many see them as soulless and godless Devil worshippers who cast spells and sacrifice animals.

But at least two local pagans beg to differ with this stereotype, instead offering a more peaceful and community-oriented glimpse at the religious classification, which itself is broad and encompasses a large variety of different beliefs and practices.

In the interest of the family's privacy, they asked to only be identified by their pagan names, Naddya Foxfire and Aratkis, a wife and husband, respectively, who live and work in Odessa.

And they're not alone.

The duo said they have a sizable social circle - as many as 25 people - of fellow pagans in the Permian Basin who get together and practice their common beliefs, which tend to vary significantly within the broader term of "pagan."

Of course, by talking to folks, you probably wouldn't know they were pagans.

Aratkis and Foxfire said pagans tend to keep their beliefs under the rug where society cannot see them, lest they be treated like pariahs.

"A lot of times they're afraid of us - you know, we ‘worship the devil' - but we don't worship the devil," Foxfire said. "We don't sacrifice animals to small children. A lot of that is TV."

"There are a lot of people out here who celebrate it quietly," she said, "because there's evidence of it everywhere."

Since moving to Odessa about six years ago, Foxfire said, she has created an online Yahoo social group to encourage local pagans work more closely together and solidify a local community.

As of about a week ago, the group boasted 88 members.

Nationwide, too, the movement seems to be on the rise, though possibly equally as secretive.

"You go up north, and they are having huge pagan festivals with thousands of people," Foxfire said. "Down in the Bible Belt here, a lot of people practice, but they do it privately."

In 2007, a lawsuit resulted in the Department of Veterans affairs agreeing to add the pagan pentagram to the list acceptable religious symbols that can be engraved on a veteran's tombstone.

According to the 2008 American Religious Survey, a study conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College, new religious movements, including Wiccans and self-described pagans, grew faster since the dawn of the new millennium than they had in the 1990s.

The survey also found that in 2008 about 12 percent of the U.S. population - a "surprisingly large proportion" - adhered to a deistic or paganistic belief system.

Moreover, seven years earlier, a survey conducted by the City University of New York found that Wiccans, Druids and Pagans - all falling into the broader pagan category - collectively number about 307,000 in the United States.

Of course, the reason for such overarching and broad definitions of pagans, Foxfire explained, stem from the religion's "highly customizable" nature.

"What I call myself is ‘eclectic,' meaning I take a collection of anything and everything, and whatever I like I put together," she said. "That's the beauty of it as a religion, it only has two rules. The first rule is ‘harm none.' The second rule is ‘whatever you do comes back to you times three.' "

"Beyond that, you can do whatever you want," she continued. "There is no priest. There's nobody to tell you that this is wrong or this is sinful or you have to do it this particular way every time."

Aratkis compared the pagan umbrella to Christianity, which has many different denominations within it.

"When you break those down, it's kind of like with Christianity having your Baptists, your Protestants," he said. "Although their belief systems are similar, they have different practices."

But most pagans, including themselves, still believe in a higher power, or powers, to whom or to which they offer some sort of prayer - an act sometimes referred to as "casting spells."

Some pagans, Foxfire said, are also Christians who share some of the pagan spiritual beliefs and practices.

Foxfire explained her own personal beliefs.

"There is a supreme energy," she said. "It's scientific proof that it cannot be created or destroyed, so it's always there. The divine energy, whatever you want to call it - Buddha, Zen, the Great Scooby-Doo - it doesn't matter what you call it, it's still out there."

Some believe the energy, Foxfire explained, has a duality.

Christian religions, they said, focus a great deal on the male half of society, neglecting the female, which some pagan religions regard as the primary giver of life.

"It created everything, but we see the male and the female aspect in it, and that's because we see a male and female aspect in everything," she said. "We tend to pull away from the patriarchal religions where there is a male God and His son."

Respectively, Foxfire and Aratkis were raised Catholic and Baptist, they said, but neither "felt comfortable" with Christian beliefs, primarily because they decided the religion was "too judgmental."

"I wanted to look into a religion that allowed you to practice a belief system where doing good and doing what you know is right is what is acceptable, rather than something that somebody else wants to place upon you," Aratkis said.

As for their 10-year-old and 14-year-old daughters, the couple said they allow them to choose their religious beliefs for themselves.

"This is not a religion you can force somebody into and say, ‘You have to do it,' " Aratkis said. "This is a religion you have to accept on your own ... or not."

"We encourage them to learn as much as they possibly can about any religion that's out there," Foxfire said. "Knowledge is our best weapon."

THE PENTAGRAM

The five-sided star touted as the universal pagan symbol called a pentagram, represents a continuous, unbroken cycle of five elements: earth, fire, water, air and spirit, which is the point that faces upward.