Something for Neil: UK's first pagan same sex wedding in Scotland

[Martinus]

A same-sex couple have become the first in the UK to marry in a Pagan ceremony.

Tom Lanting and Iain Robertson, 34 and 39, literally tied the knot in Edinburgh ceremony yesterday.



The pair – who are both Hedge Witches – married in a ceremony that involved invoking the elements of earth, air, water, fire and spirit, casting a circle, exchanging rings and binding the couple's hands.

The newlywed couple said: "Getting married in a legal Pagan ceremony means so much to both of us.

"The new equal marriage law means that we finally have equal recognition and acceptance of our relationship, and it opens the door for all LGBTI couples to take the same step.

"As Hedge Witches we always wanted to have a Pagan marriage ceremony in line with our beliefs and it was really important to us to be able to share this ceremony with our friends and family."

Scotland is the only part of the UK where minor religious bodies including Pagans are permitted to marry, with hundreds of opposite-sex marriages conducted since 2005.



Louise Park of The Pagan Federation, who acted as the pair's celebrant, said: "We feel that, if any couple wish to, they should be able to make their marriage vows before their own personal Gods, friends, and family, in a religious ceremony tailored to suit their own beliefs.

"I am absolutely over the moon to have been able to conduct Scotland's – and the UK's – first Pagan same-sex marriage for Tom and Iain, who hold a special place in the hearts of Scotland's Pagan community."

Tom French of the Equality Network said: "We were delighted to be able to attend the UK's first Pagan same-sex marriage.

"Religious and belief groups played an important role in the campaign for equal marriage and today's ceremony is a mark of equality and freedom of belief in Scotland.

"The new law was not just about ensuring equality for LGBTI people, but also securing greater freedom of belief for the many religious and belief groups who want to conduct same-sex marriages, in line with their deeply held beliefs, but were previously denied the right to do.

"These groups, and the same-sex couples that want a religious or belief marriage in Scotland, now have their rights respected."

(Photos: Cherrie Coutts Photography)

[The Brain]

Some things should stay in the closet.

[Sheilbh]

I think it's times like this when faggots should be out the closet.

[Martinus]

It looks like a fancy dress party for the color blind people on low budget.

And to think gays were supposed to have taste.

[Eddie Teach]

And to think gays were supposed to have taste.

Like those red plastic blocks you feature prominently in your decorating scheme? 

[Darth Wagtaros]

I wonder if the Eye of Vecna is hidden in there somewhere.

[Zanza]

I consider myself fairly tolerant, but some stuff is just silly.

[Josquius]

The gods disapprove.

[Razgovory]

Real pagans would have simply strangled them and thrown the bodies in the bog.  Reconstructed paganism has always baffled me.  There are still pagan religions that exist.  Hindu is one and has the same origin European paganism.

[PDH]

Pagan just means something like "not like the main (accepted) belief systems."  If they believe in this stuff, then they are pagans.  There is no such thing as real or not real when it is based on belief.

This says nothing about if it is silly or not - amount of time believing in stuff does not give it more gravitas except in the fact there may be more worshippers...

[Razgovory]

Pagan just means something like "not like the main (accepted) belief systems."  If they believe in this stuff, then they are pagans.  There is no such thing as real or not real when it is based on belief.

This says nothing about if it is silly or not - amount of time believing in stuff does not give it more gravitas except in the fact there may be more worshippers...

Pagan, means "bumpkin".  In this context it means "polytheistic".

[crazy canuck]

Real pagans would have simply strangled them and thrown the bodies in the bog.  Reconstructed paganism has always baffled me.  There are still pagan religions that exist.  Hindu is one and has the same origin European paganism.

The word Pagan derives from a Latin insult to non Christians in the Latin West meaning that they were the equivalent of people who like to eat at gas stations around where Cal lives.  When Christians were the minority in the Empire they were not called Pagans but rather atheists because they denied the existence of the Gods.

While you are correct that one interpretation of pagan might simply mean a polytheistic religion, the word really refers to those people living in the Western Roman Empire who were not Christian.  I doubt very much that a Hindu would refer to themselves as a Pagan.

[PDH]

Pagan meant "villager" or "rustic" back when Latin was the language, but oddly enough it has evolved over the last couple of thousand years.  While most pagans are attempting to reinvent traditions, and thus the common understanding of the word now means polytheistic, I do not think the original meaning of the word fits.

My point, however, was that just because something is new does not immediately equate with belittling - belief does not work that way.  If the rituals are believed in and accepted, then they are as real as the Hindu traditions with thousands of years of evolving rituals.  Note, they both might be silly to outsiders, but they are still valid beliefs.

[Razgovory]

Real pagans would have simply strangled them and thrown the bodies in the bog.  Reconstructed paganism has always baffled me.  There are still pagan religions that exist.  Hindu is one and has the same origin European paganism.

The word Pagan derives from a Latin insult to non Christians in the Latin West meaning that they were the equivalent of people who like to eat at gas stations around where Cal lives.  When Christians were the minority in the Empire they were not called Pagans but rather atheists because they denied the existence of the Gods.

While you are correct that one interpretation of pagan might simply mean a polytheistic religion, the word really refers to those people living in the Western Roman Empire who were not Christian.  I doubt very much that a Hindu would refer to themselves as a Pagan.

Well clearly not.  They don't speak Latin.  Christianity was an urban religion, the people who spread it came to cities.  It took longer for it to spread to the countryside.  In many ways it's the same thing these days, where rural areas tend to be more traditional and less cosmopolitan.

[Ed Anger]

I wonder if the Eye of Vecna is hidden in there somewhere.

Sorry, I have that locked away in my safe.