Gleb Botkins Grave, Photo by Chas Clifton
Did you know that the NeoPagan (i.e. New Pagan) movement in the United States had its origins with a man that lived just down the street from our church? In 1938, a man Gleb Botkin founded the Church of Aphrodite, by fighting for his right to do so in front of the New York State Supreme Court. That’s not as incredible though as the experiences that led him to this new thealogy…
Botkin was the son of the Tsar’s personal Physician, and a childhood playmate of Anastasia. His father was murdered along with the Tsar’s family after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He witnessed horrible atrocities during the rise of soviet communism, and also witnessed the abuse of power of the Russian Othodox church. In fact, as he tried to flee the Soviet Union, he encountered a Russian Orthodox priest that refused to give up his seat on a boat so that women and children could escape first.
It was his first hand experience of the atrocities that man has done which led him to believe the world needed a radically different Thealogy. He’d seen so many problems in the caused by men that he decided that perhaps god must be a woman. He also had seen so much hate, that he decided that Love must be the core of authentic religion. Collectively these ideas led him to the conclusion that he should revive the worship of the Goddess Aphrodite. In many ways, Botkin was the original father of the “Divine Feminine” movement popularized by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
Eventually Botkin made it to the United States, and soon after he established his church in Long Island New York. As mentioned before, he had to take his case all the way to the NY supreme court (in a time where a church to an ancient goddess was a foreign idea indeed!) Later, he relocated to a little house off of Rugby Avenue, and made Charlottesville the new headquarters of his church. Needless to say, Virginia’s Statute of Religious Freedom, along with his success in New York, secured his legal right to move his church here too. According to Cavalier Daily, he became quite popular with UVa Students who often attended his services. He also was a regular guest at the Jefferson Society where he debated philosophy and theology. He even published quite a few books, some of them describing his faith, some works of fiction, and even at least one children’s book. After his death in the 1960s, former members of his group played a key role in many of the first official NeoPagan groups including at least one of the publishers of “Green Egg” an influential Pagan magazine.
So, “what is the relevance to us as Unitarian Universalists?”, you might ask. Freedom of faith, social justice, environmental justice, the rights of women, etc. , all of these are principles that we value as UUs. While the first thing that may occur to some people when they hear the word “pagan”, is an association with irrational new-age beliefs, or even some kind of anti-religious practice, I feel it is important to recognize that not only are those gross misrepresentations but the authentic core of the NeoPagan faith shares the same values that we cherish as UUs.
Indeed, the Neopagan movement even shares common roots with Unitarians from the Romantics and Transcendentalists, who were very interested in prechristian beliefs and practices. In their day, the Transcendentalists were so radical that they were forced out of many Unitarian congregations, and now I think it’s fair to say most of their beliefs, like racial equality and environmental sustainability, are the status quo in most congregations. NeoPagans too may choose to dress strangely or challenge some societal norms, just as Thoreau chose to elect voluntary simplicity or be jailed to protest slavery. Like Emerson and Thoreau, many NeoPagans may even be on the cutting edge of progressive ideas that may one day be mainstream. When that happens, will we be one of the congregations that welcomed them and supported these thealogical innovators? Will we also embrace the local history of leaders like Gleb Botkin as part of our own legacy and spiritual inheritance, or let those contributions slip into obscurity?
