Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England
Most of our existing material on Paganism was written post-conversion by Christian Anglo-Saxons. While information on early Pagans is minimal, we are still able to draw parallels (as seen in earlier chapters) between Butler's Earthseed and Thacker's philosophical theories.Religion and religious practices were indissoluble aspects of life and death within Anglo‐Saxon society. They provided an inbuilt function of the world view of its peoples before the acceptance of Christianity in England between the late sixth century and the late seventh century AD. Fertility rites, shamanism, and belief in ghosts and spirits, ancestor-worship, and gods liable to intervene actively in the affairs of the living, appear to be the chief components (Welch, 1).
Fertility appears to be an important factor in both Paganism and Earthseed; although Earthseed does not actively perform fertility rites, the followers of Earthseed acknowledge that fertility is key to their survival:
The establishment of their community relies on the fertility of the land availabe to them. Likewise, its survival is not guaranteed, but like the Pagan settlements, relies on the benefits bought with each individual season, "religious festivals [were] associated with months from a pagan calendar. Thus Solmanoth (February) saw ‘cakes’ offered to gods; successive months were dedicated to the goddesses Rheda (March) and Eostre (April)" (Welch, 2). Both Pagan and Earthseed societies are completely at the mercy of the seasons and rely on the changes between each season (a core principle in Earthseed) in order to survive."There are no guarantees anywhere," I agreed. "But if we're willing to work, our chances are good here. I've got some seed in my pack. We can buy more. What we have to do at this point is more like gardening than farming. Everything will have to be done by hand - composting, watering, weeding, picking worms or slugs or whatever off crops and killing them one by one if that's what it takes. As for water, if our well still has water in it now, in October, I don't think we have to worry about it going dry on us. Not this year, anyway (Butler, 321).
One final similarity between Paganism and Earthseed, is the unpredictability of their gods. Although the Pagans believed in physical gods, they are still essentially gods of change. They are beings which represent an idea or a state of being, such as Hell the god of death, Thunor the god of thunder, or Tiw the god of war. As beings of change, they are powerful, but not always benevolent, they can direct their anger at (or in the case of Earth seed obstruct the path of) humans. This theme is revived throughout history in times of trouble or disturbance, it is especially prevalent in early Christianity: "As the Black Death spread throughout Medieval Europe, the motif of the 'angry god' recurs in many of the chronicles, both fictional and non-fictional" (Thacker, 105). In the case of Parable of the Sower the "angry god" is change. It is a motif that is constantly revisited because humans ultimately do not want to contemplate the unhumanness of the world, the world-without-us is incomprehensible. Therefore, humanity throughout history craves a God-like figure which can control or take the blame for the destructive and sublime forces of nature.