On Fasting

This Full Seed Moon has filled me with energy, and that means it's time for a Double Bonus The Pagan Experience Post! This post is inspired by my sister witch Amanda's writing about the topic - I wrote her a reply so long that I realized it is a post unto itself. So here we are, an extra bonus post for the tail end of March.

I've experimented quite a bit with fasting throughout my Pagan career. When I was a baby Pagan, I took this aspect of practice very seriously. I read that fasting was a good preparation for ritual, so I fasted for at least 24 hours before each and every ritual. For my first initiation, I think we did 3 days. We allowed ourselves water and plain brioche. Not much brioche, just enough to keep us coherent. It was tough at age 13, and it was also my first attempt.

I have also experimented with fasting for health reasons. Fasting is helpful after an illness, especially a stomach virus. Reintroducing foods slowly and mindfully helps our GI tracts to heal and repopulate with healthy flora. I have also fasted after over-indulging at Yule, or as a personal spring cleaning before Ostara.

Several times I used the Master Cleanse (the maple lemonade). Sometimes it was successful, other times not. I struggle with low blood sugar, though I have no official diagnosis. I still don't fully understand why I was able to complete the Master Cleanse some years and not others.

I'm also familiar with fasting as a Yoga practitioner. The Yoga Sutras tell us to eat just enough - to fill our stomachs halfway with Sattvic (pure/balanced, most vegetables) foods, then a quarter more with water, and to leave the last quarter empty. Yoga practitioners are encouraged to fast as a means of getting closer to God, but not to the point that one becomes emaciated. The Yoga tradition also includes tales of Yogis who are able to live without food and water altogether. Is it true? Who can say?

So as Pagans, why should we fast? First off, I would never say that anyone *should* fast. We all follow different traditions and different Gods. Across world religions, there are many different reasons that people fast, and many different ways that this is practiced. Go check out this awesome infographic for a summary.

Overall, I would say that most religions fast as a form of voluntary sacrifice to the Divine, as a means of building discipline and as a form of personal purification. All of these things are helpful for Pagans, but I say this with reservations.

It seems to me that many of the religions that advocate fasting associate food with pleasure and pleasure with dissolution, gluttony or even evil. I agree that over-indulging regularly is not healthy on any level. But as a Pagan, I see the fruits of the Earth as beautiful gifts that should be enjoyed, with full gusto and pleasure. The Charge of the Goddess tells us “Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; 
for behold, 
all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.”  That is one of my very favorite passages. Some versions of the Charge also include: “Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice; 
for behold, 
I am the Mother of all living, 
and my love is poured out upon the earth.”

That’s my kind of deity. A loving one, one who does not wish us to deny ourselves or require us to prove our worth. The Goddess loves all with an unconditional and perfect love. She recognizes our inherent worth and potential. Sin does not exist anywhere in the Pagan equation, at least not in my tradition. For me, this is an essential point. 

At this point, my personal conclusion is that fasting is a useful technique when used in moderation. I know that it's much harder for me to have any type of peak experience when I am glutted with food, especially rich foods like fatty meat, dairy, sauces, etc. Fasting puts me in a different headspace, and it makes transitioning to ritual consciousness easier. Hunger – it’s an automatic altered state!

What works for me is to do short fasts (24 hr) when I want to abstain from food altogether, and an Ayurvedic monodiet when I want to do a longer fast. Also, any type of fast will work much better when I manage my energy demands. So no long days of massage while fasting, for example. Fasting during tax time or other mentally demanding work would also be difficult.

NOTE: I always drink water when fasting. I don’t see how voluntary dehydration is a good idea. Humans can live for a long time without food, but we die quickly when dehydrated. Be careful with yourself!

I fast for ritual preparation, vision quests, before initiations, and occasionally as a devotional practice. I used to like to fast on every Full Moon day. These days, with my busy workload, fasting is pretty infrequent. I just can't get through a day of massage or teaching Yoga on a fast like I could when I had a sedentary job!