Paganism and Politics

Political committment and civil responsibility have a peculiar role in Traditional Roman Paganism: surely a strong sense of civil responsibility and committment towards a community play an important role because a community is assumed to be a sort of an extended family.

In the same time a religious dimension supports the political sphere because, like in those dimension considered "normal", politics must have some religious and sacred implications.

The family (sacralized in the Goddess Vesta) is the bias around which a community is focused and sacralized (in its public meetings) in the God Quirinus. Politics are above all sacralized by the figure of Jupiter (the male polarization of the numen Jupiter/Juno)

Jupiter is the sacralization of the "near sky": he gives signs in the sky materialized by the birds' flying (augures observe them in a part of the sky ideally limited - templum). Jupiter is however the sacralization of politics and law, power and justice: he is the witness, granting oaths and punishing those violating public and private agreements.

In this way, political committment is not only a civil responsibility but also a form of religious coherence.