Representation Of Paganism Wicca And Witchcraft In Modern Fictional Mass Media

Book: Representation Of Paganism Wicca And Witchcraft In Modern Fictional Mass Media by Lisa Dinsmore

The aim of this dissertation was to examine representations of Paganism by comparing recent fictional representations of Pagans and Wiccans against a "real life" model of Pagan and Wiccan practices and beliefs. A literature review focused on forming a model of Paganism, and looked at previous works which considered the representation of Paganism in fictional media. A crude form of content analysis was used to select an appropriate text for analysis. A semiotic analysis, ideological consideration, and a syntagmatic analysis of the narrative were all applied to the text, an episode called “Family” from the television series “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.” This gave an in-depth model of a fictional text featuring Witchcraft.

Paganism with particular reference to witchcraft was portrayed positively in the text. It was discovered that the practice of magic had connotations of both power - particularly female autonomy -; and of sexuality -particularly homosexuality. Further analyses of a wide range of texts would need to be compared to the reallife model devised to give a more complete picture of the connotations behind the representations of Pagans, Wiccans and Witches.

This dissertations aims to look at representations of Paganism and in particular wicca and witchcraft in modern fictional mass media. Semiotic analysis in particular and other media theories will be used to look at the representations and the portrayals compared to a model of current Pagan practices and beliefs – the "realist" perspective versus the "real".

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Lisa Dinsmore - Representation Of Paganism Wicca And Witchcraft In Modern Fictional Mass Media

Ostara Ritual Celebrating

Ostara: ritual celebrating the coming of spring, and thus also the beginning of planting. Dates this was celebrated on varied, but tended to fall around the vernal equinox. Eggs are painted with bright colors, and hidden, and hunts are conducted for them. (Eggs are a symbol of new life, and fertility. Rabbits are a symbol of this day too, for the same reason.) Other games are sometimes played with the eggs too, such as racing with them balanced on a spoon, or rolling them downhill. Eggs are ritually thrown high into the air too, and as high as the eggs fly, that is how high the crops shall grow. A procession, led by an ass, begins festivities which include a game called "Osterball". Dancing is an important part of the celebrations. Ostara bonfires are also lit. No flesh is eaten by mariners this day, to ensure safety from storms.

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Ways Of The Asatru

Book: Ways Of The Asatru by Michael Smith

There are two issues which I would like to bring to the reader's attention concerning this book. The first would be that this book should not, by any means, be considered an absolute authority on Asatru. The reader is encouraged to read other books, do research, and explore their own hearts to find their own religious and spiritual truths. The main reason for that would be because of the second issue I have to briefly make note of.

The second would be that regardless of all, Asatru is chiefly a religion of the individuals' spiritual path. Although there is a strong sense of community that is encouraged, it is up to the individual to find what rings true to them for their own spiritual health. Asatru itself is a religion of fairly broad guidelines. It is up to the individual to decide where within those broad guidelines they lay in what they believe.

So please, dear reader, I will be bold in giving you a set of "rules" for those who decide to research or become Asatru. Rule # 1 is: Be your own scholar. Asatru is a religion with homework. This extends to not just contemporary writers but, to authors in the fields of linguistics, history, archeology, and other scholarly fields of study. All can help you in your spiritual quest. Rule # 2 is: Always get different perspectives. This is a religion that has its roots in the past, but is (and must be!) evolved within modern context. And it must and will evolve as the future unfolds.

This book has been screaming to come out of my head for quite some time. Folks over the years have asked me, "Why don't you write a book or something?" My response was usually a humorous, "Don't you think I drive enough Asatru folks nuts already?" Then I started thinking about it more seriously as my 12th anniversary of becoming Asatru came closer, and figured it was time to unleash my brain upon the masses. I only hope it helps some folks on their travels. As I know, just writing it has helped my own. Also, the fact that every time there’s a good beginner book out, it goes out-of-print. This way, by self-publishing, it won’t go out-of-print.

Lastly, I'd like to thank the folks who kept pushing me to do it and whom I've found their friendships and debates helpful. I'd like to thank all of Raven Kindred North, Vingolf Fellowship, Medoburg Kindred, Tim McKinney (co-founder of Athelingulf Fellowship), and the countless individual Asatru folks who I've harassed, infuriated, and got into huge debates with over countless thoughts, theories, and beliefs. Without challenge, the mind never evolves and grows.

But most of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife, Catheryn, my precious daughter, Freyjadis, and my strong son, Tiarnan, for being my highest inspirations. - With Honor, Michael J. Smith

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Groa List Of Recommended Heathen Reading

Book: Groa List Of Recommended Heathen Reading by Ann Groa Sheffield

This list contains only books that I have personally read and found to be of value in some way. Since I haven't read everything, this inevitably means that some excellent books have been omitted. My personal opinions and tastes are evident throughout; they are no
more and no less than that.

Mostly, I have listed only books that I believe to be in print, or at least easily obtainable. If you find that a work listed here has gone out-of-print or become hard to find, or if you find errors in ISBN’s or other key data, please let me know. -Ann Groa Sheffield

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Revival Of Paganism In Modern Iceland

Another revival, this time based on folklore and historical research rather than on mysticist speculation, took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Iceland, Asatruarfelagid, led by farmer Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson, was recognized as a religious organization by the Icelandic government in 1973. In USA, around the same period, Else Christensen began publishing "The Odinist" newsletter and Stephen McNallen began publishing a newsletter titled The Runestone. McNallen formed an organization called the Asatru Free Assembly, which was later renamed the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) . The AFA fractured in 1987-88, resulting in the creation of the Asatru Alliance, headed by Valgard Murray, publisher of the "Vor Tru" newsletter. Around the same time, the Ring of Troth (now simply The Troth) was founded by other former members of the AFA.

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Stories From Northern Myths

Book: Stories From Northern Myths by Emilie Kip Baker

"Stories from Northern Myth" written in 1914 by Emilie Kip Baker. Most of the existing records on Norse mythology date from the 11th to 18th century, having gone through more than two centuries of oral preservation in what was at least officially a Christian society. At this point scholars started recording it, particularly in the Eddas and the Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson, who believed that pre-Christian deities trace real historical people. There is also the Danish Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, where the Norse gods are more strongly Euhemerized. The Prose or Younger Edda was written in the early 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, who was a leading skald, chieftain, and diplomat in Iceland. It may be thought of primarily as a handbook for aspiring skalds. It contains prose explications of traditional "kennings," or compressed metaphors found in poetry. These prose retellings make the various tales of the Norse gods systematic and coherent.

The mythological literature relates the legends of heroes and kings, as well as supernatural creatures. These clan and kingdom founding figures possessed great importance as illustrations of proper action or national origins. The heroic literature may have fulfilled the same function as the national epic in other European literatures, or it may have been more nearly related to tribal identity. Many of the legendary figures probably existed, and generations of Scandinavian scholars have tried to extract history from myth in the sagas.

Sometimes the same hero resurfaces in several forms depending on which part of the Germanic world the epics survived such as Weyland/Volund and Siegfried/Sigurd, and probably Beowulf/Bodvar Bjarki. Other notable heroes are Hagbard, Starkad, Ragnar Lodbrok, Sigurd Ring, Ivar Vidfamne and Harald Hildetand. Notable are also the shieldmaidens who were ordinary women who had chosen the path of the warrior. These women function both as heroines and as obstacles to the heroic journey.

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The Circle Within Creating A Wiccan Spiritual Tradition

Book: The Circle Within Creating A Wiccan Spiritual Tradition by Dianne Sylvan

The Circle Within is your guide to creating a personal spiritual practice for daily life. The first section is a thoughtful examination of Wiccan ethics and philosophy that explores how to truly live Wicca. The second section includes devotional prayers and rituals that provide inspiration for group or solitary practice.

Topics include: cultivating an ongoing personal relationship with deity, ethics and standards of behavior, concepts of sacred space, elements of a daily practice, tuning into the Wheel of the Year and the elements, and creating meaningful personal rituals. Move beyond the basics of Wicca and enter the sacred space of the circle within.


I've never written a review for Amazon.com, but had to do one for this book. I came across Dianne's website some time ago & was intrigued with her way of looking at Wicca. When I found out she'd published a book, I tracked it down & was even more profoundly moved by her observations. This is a woman who will make you THINK. There are many books I've read about witchcraft & Wicca. Plenty of info on tools, quarter calls, the gods/goddesses, etc. But I found something missing in most of them. The most basic, essential thing of all: relationship with the Divine & how it affects your life on a very basic level. There were times during this book where I had to stop & say, "YES! YES!" Cheers for Ms. Sylvan for having the heart & drive to write this book & get it out to the public.

Also, I have to say that the litergy in this book is some of the most beautiful I have ever read. The chapter titled "The Book of Moonlight" is going to be used often in my practices.

Dianne Sylvan (Austin, TX) has been a practicing Wiccan since the age of sixteen. She is co-founder and President of Blessedways, a Wiccan educational and spiritual organization based out of Central Texas. Through Blessedways she teaches classes on Wicca, the Runes, spiritual magic, and ecstatic dance.

In addition to her books, Dianne's work has appeared in Circle Magazine, NewWitch magazine, and the Llewellyn Wicca Almanac and Witches' Calendar; she has also been interviewed by the Wiccan Pagan Times. More of her articles on living Wiccan spirituality can be found on her website, Dancing Down the Moon.

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Norse Mythology A To Z

Book: Norse Mythology A To Z by Kathleen Daly

"Norse mythology A to Z, Third Edition" examines the characters, objects, and places whose stories make up the folklore of the Norse people, who lived in the region known today as Scandinavia. Passed down through the generations by word of mouth and finally written down in the 13th century and later, these myths include tales of gods and goddesses; heroes, giants, and dwarfs; and serpents and dragons that inhabit enchanted realms. This colorful volume brings to life many of these Nordic myths. Entries of this title include: the most famous gods and goddesses, such as Odin, Thor, and Freya; plants and animals important to Norse mythology, such as the oak tree and the eagle; stories and poems, such as "Treasures of the Dwarfs" and the "Poetic Edda"; and, much more.

The term mythology can refer to either the study of myths or a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece.

The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story; however, the academic use of the term generally does not pass judgment on its truth or falsity. In the study of folklore, a myth is a symbolic narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form. Many scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in somewhat different ways. In a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story

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The Arctic Home In The Vedas

Book: The Arctic Home In The Vedas by Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak

On the occasion of the birth centenary of Lok. B. G. TILAK, we have the proud privilege to offer to the discriminating readers this 2nd reprint of his famous work “The Arctic Home In The Vedas,” published by the Author in 1903 and reprinted in 1925 (J. S. TILAK)

The present volume is a sequel to my Orion or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas, published in 1893. The estimate of Vedic antiquity then generally current amongst Vedic scholars was based on the assignment of arbitrary period of time to the different strata into which the Vedic literature is divided; and it was believed that the oldest of these strata could not, at the best, be older than 2400 B.C. In my Orion, however, I tried to show that all such estimates, besides being too modest, were vague and uncertain, and that the astronomical statements found in the Vedic literature supplied us with far more reliable data for correctly ascertaining the ages of the different periods of Vedic literature. These astronomical statements, it was further shown, unmistakably pointed out that the Vernal equinox was in the constellation of M?iga or Orion (about 4500 B.C.) during the period of the Vedic hymns, and that it had receded to the constellation of the K?ittikas, or the Pleiades (about 2500 B.C.) in the days of the Brahmanas. Naturally enough these results were, at first, received by scholars in a skeptical spirit. But my position was strengthened when it was found that Dr. Jacobi, of Bonn, had independently arrived at the same conclusion, and, soon after, scholars like Prof. Bloomfield, M. Barth, the late Dr. Bulher and others, more or less freely, acknowledged the force of my arguments.

Dr. Thibaut, the late Dr. Whitney and a few others were, however, of opinion that the evidence adduced by me was not conclusive. But the subsequent discovery, by my friend the late Mr. S. B. Dixit, of a passage in the Shatapatha Brahmana, plainly stating that the Kaittikas never swerved, in those days, from the due east i.e., the Vernal equinox, has served to dispel all lingering doubts regarding the age of the Brahmanas; while another Indian astronomer, Mr. V. B. Ketkar, in a recent number of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, has mathematically worked out the statement in the Taittiriya Brahmana (III, 1, 1, 5), that Boihaspati, or the planet Jupiter, was first discovered when confronting or nearly occulting the star Tishya, and shown that the observation was possible only at about 4650 B.C., thereby remarkably confirming my estimate of the oldest period of Vedic literature. After this, the high antiquity of the oldest Vedic period may, I think, be now taken as fairly established. (Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak)

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The Pagan Credo

1. Paganism is a religion (or field of related religions) in its own right, being traceable from prehistoric times through most ancient and modern cultures and making a continuing contribution to the spiritual evolution of our species.

2. It is not rigid or dogmatic in form, its exact expression depends on the individual Pagan, or willing cooperating group of Pagans. This credo is therefore itself not dogmatic but an attempt to describe the mainstream characteristics of Pagan philosophy.

3. Paganism aims to offer a way to recognise and attune with the manifold forces of nature, which already exist within and without us and which are vital to our survival, fulfilment and evolution. By celebrating the seasons and becoming one with other living creatures Pagans synchronise intimately with the planet, liberate their personalities and magnify their perceptions and talents in the interests of themselves, their groups and communities and humankind as a whole.

4. Paganism believes in the same Divine Creative Force as anyone else, because if there is one there can only be one. Like any other religion, Paganism personifies this Ultimate as a means to attuning oneself to it, because it cannot be apprehended directly, except perhaps be brief flashes of intuition.

5. Paganism's basic personification of this Ultimate is in its creative polarisation of male and female aspects, as the Father God and Mother Goddess. The God represents the fertilising, energising, analysing, intellectual, left-brain-function aspects. The Goddess represents the formative, nourishing, synthesising, intuitive, right-brain-function aspects.

6. As above so below; this basic Divine polarisation is the primal cause of all manifestation and it is reflected at all levels of being, including ourselves.

7. Pagans make use of many different God and-Goddess forms as tuning signals to different aspects of the essential God and Goddess. These forms vary according to cultural, geographical and personal backgrounds and are 'usually' (and naturally, since men and women aspire to emulate them) envisaged in perfected human form; but they are all valid. They are real in the sense that if one attunes oneself to them sincerely, they are vitalised and empowered by the Ultimate of which they represent aspects. They are not idols but are the numinous, archetypal symbols which are vital (or in everyday language, "God-given") components of the human Collective Unconscious.

8. Pagans do not worship the Devil; that would be totally incompatible with the principle of paragraphs 4 and 7 above. the Devil of monotheistic religion does not exist in Pagan philosophy. Pagans regard evil as an imbalance to be corrected, not as an independent force or entity.

9. Like all religions, Paganism believes in multi-level reality. These levels are generally defined in Pagan thinking as the spiritual, mental, astral, etheric and physical levels. Each level has its own laws but the laws of different levels do not conflict with each other; as for example the laws of mathematics, chemistry and biology are different but do not conflict with each other. Pagans believe that be understanding these laws and their interaction one can achieve results generally defined as magical.

10. Pagans regard all these levels as equally holy, and essential parts of the cosmic spectrum of manifestation. They totally reject the Dualistic concept which equates the spiritual with good and matter with evil.

11. Pagan philosophy and worship therefore tends to be strongly Nature-based. Mother Earth is not a temporary stopping-place, but our home, of which we are a vital living part, and for the health and protection of which we bear a constant responsibility.

12. The Pagan view of the Cosmos is essentially organic. The Ultimate is its creative life-force; but all manifestation is part of the total organism. Our own planet can be regarded as one limb or organ of it, and we ourselves (and all Earth's other creatures and components) as cells within that limb or organ. Our health depends on its health and vice versa.

13. Paganism therefore does not envisage a gulf between Creator and Created. The spectrum is continuous and interdependent. Each individual is of the same nature as the Source and is capable of being a channel for it.

14. On the basis of all the foregoing, most Pagans regard all sincere religions as different paths to the same truths. The particular Deity-personifications, symbology and meaningful mythology which suit one person as tuning-signals to the Ultimate may not suit another. Pagans are therefore essentially ecumenical, non-proselytising and tolerant.

15. This does not mean that Pagans cannot voice constructive criticism of the attitudes of some dogmatic systems. Pagans reject as dangerous and destructive, in particular, the belief that one's own religion is the only true one, and that all others are devilish and therefore to be condemned and persecuted.

16. Pagans lay more emphasis on continuing spiritual development than one instant revelation, though they accept that the latter can sometimes happen - usually as a breakthrough to consciousness of a longer unconscious accumulation.

17. Most Pagans believe in reincarnation in one form or another. This belief further strengthens Pagans' attitude to Earth as our continuing home for the foreseeable future, rather than as a temporary and restrictive stopping place. It is also a powerful moral force because it emphasises that all offences against other individuals, the community or the Earth and all failure to learn lessons must ultimately be put right by oneself, and cannot be evaded by bodily death.

18. Pagans' ethical attitude is often summed up in one sentence: "An it harm none, do what you will." this means achieving full self-development while accepting equally full responsibility towards one's fellow- humans, one's fellow-creatures and the Earth itself. Love for all of these is the foundation-stone of Paganism. In particular, Pagans feel a special responsibility towards the young; their vulnerability must not be abused and they must be helped to develop themselves according to their own natures, so that when they are mature they can choose their own paths - and their own religious forms - with maximum awareness and without pressurisation from their elders.

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The Nature Of Folk Religion

In the modern Western countries, religion is largely an individual matter. People meditate or pray, seek self-improvement, search for personal spiritual enlightenment, or find individual salvation. Religion is only a set of beliefs and practices, which can be chosen by the seeker as easily as we buy a new car - and changed for a new one even more easily.

This is a very new notion, one that has risen in direct proportion to our separation from nature and from our ancestors. To people in traditional cultures, this self-centered interpretation of religion is strange indeed.

Certainly all spiritual or religious paths have an individual component that is valid and worthy of pursuit. In America and the rest of the West, however, we often focus on the individual to the exclusion of the group aspect. This doesn't mean that we don't yearn after community; many neighborhood churches provide this for their members, and this role as a provider of community has become even more vital as our families disintegrate under the pressures of modern living.

What Westerners do not understand is that folk religions - native religions, indigenous religions, whatever you want to call them - are linked to a particular cultural and biological group...a people. Religion is not something apart from the life of the group; indeed, it is one more manifestation of the group's existence. Religion springs from the very nature of the people and is an expression of the totality of their experience from the beginning of time.

Folk religions are deeply ancestral. Those who have gone before, those forefathers and foremothers of times past, are still connected to the tribe or nation. The bonds of kinship transcend space and time. Indeed, many of us who follow Asatru believe that the ancestors are continually reborn into the family or clan. There is an interweaving of ancestry throughout lifetimes and across generations. We have been here, together in this world, before. Blood is not only thicker than water, it is stronger than death and distance!

From this perspective, it is unthinkable that religion should be seen as just an accessory, something to be shucked off like a coat or a hat. Rather, religion becomes a manifestation of our very essence, a part of us like our legs or our head. Asatru is not what we believe, it is what we are.

It is only natural that we seek out the spiritual path that our ancestors walked. On the most mundane level, we are more like those forebears than we are like anyone else. We carry their essence. One can try to rationalize this by pointing out that so many things about humans are influenced by heredity, and perhaps that is part of it, but ultimately the connection is spiritual. We are linked to those ancestors and to our descendants by special bonds that we do not share with others. When we find the ways of our own people, we discover things we cannot find anywhere else.
It is these two factors - the focus on the group nature of religion as a counterbalance to the individual aspect, and the importance of the ancestors, that set folk religions apart from modern, rootless, artificial constructs.

Asatru is not just a belief or a set of practices, it is an expression of who we are as men and women of European heritage.

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Victory Or Valhalla The Final Compilation Of Writings By David Lane

Book: Victory Or Valhalla The Final Compilation Of Writings By David Lane by David Lane

David Lane was a prolific writer who tackled all of the issues imperative to the survival of our race. Some of the material contained in these pages will be familiar to those who have read Deceived, Damned & Defiant. However, this book also contains newer writings, including his fictional story "KD Rebel" as well as his last interview.

The 14 words created by David Lane are immortal words. The White Race is in great danger. This collection of writings by David Lane is fantastic. He was a "MAN AGAINST TIME". In Germany a lot of people know David Lane's 14 words. We also enjoy his great writings. David Lane had been a competent author with wide-ranging knowledge of the world. We must unite our race to survive.

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Beliefs Of German Neopagans

Germanic Neopaganism (as opposed to Neopaganism in general) is often defined as Reconstructionist. Adherents are mostly polytheists, having faith in a number of Gods and Goddesses, but in practice a pantheistic or "soft polytheistic" outlook is common; the Icelandic Asatruarfelagi? defines "Asatru" as "Nordic pantheism".

Germanic Neopaganism has a strong leaning towards animism. This is most apparent in the worship of Alfar (or Elves), land-spirits, the various beings of folklore (Kobold, Huldufolk), and the belief that inanimate objects can have a fate of their own.

It is believed that Elves or land-spirits can inhabit natural objects such as trees or stones. These spirits can, and do, take sides in the affairs of the Inhabitants of their land.[13] This is in imitation of historical Norse paganism, which had strong animistic tendencies, as reflected in sagas such as that of a wizard who goes to Iceland in whale-shape to see if it can be invaded, who is attacked by land-spirits while going on shore, and is forced to flee.

It is believed by some Heathens that inanimate objects can have a soul of their own, or a fate, and therefore should be given a name, the most common cases being the naming of weapons like Gram (mythology). The objects are not “charged” before use, but have the fate or innate power within them a priori.

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Celtic Traditions In The 19th Century

Back to the idea of elevated spirit, and UnderWorld spirit. We now leap forward in time a thousand years or more . This is a crucial period, for it was when many old manuscripts, especially those of Ireland and Wales, were translated for the first time with some measure of accuracy, and given serious study and publication.

In the 19th century anthropologists, the newly burgeoning Theosophists, and professors of comparative religion in the West, ingrained with Christian conditioning, suddenly discovered (wait for it) “sun gods”. The spiritual idea of elevated light was associated, by a kind of Christianized reductionism, with the notion of pagan “sun worship”. Every ancient religion, every pagan motif of the past, every folk tradition just had to relate to solar worship and the Wheel of the Year.

When modern writers in revival paganism took up this Wheel idea, they merely copied it from Victorian sources, and developed it. But it is not ancient: it is a romantic fabrication with a traceable literary history. And yet, we find its basis in the annual cycle of the seasons , and the fourfold glyphs, mandalas, and yantras of our worldwide spiritual traditions, so it contains a powerful pattern of truth.

I am not suggesting that there were no sun gods : that would be absurd, given the widely varied evidence from the ancient world. What happened in 19th century literature, in both academic and esoteric studies, was something subtle and pernicious : all ancient magic and religion was examined, discussed, and interpreted in a solar (usually male) context. Thus the 20th century inherited an imbalanced set of ideas on ancestral religion, magic, and metaphysics. Much of our revival paganism and new spirituality has an invisible Christianized foundation that has to be excavated, considered, and rebuilt in a new way without letting the edifice above it collapse altogether.

Despite all the solar phallic wheel twirling, there is ample evidence to show that the ancestors in Ireland, Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, all believed, knew would be a better word , that life is regenerated beneath the Earth, in the UnderWorld. (As a small aside: I coined this spelling of UnderWorld back in the late 1970’s in my early book The UnderWorld Initiation: I wanted the publisher to grasp that it was not a book about the Mafia). Only in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have we started to reconsider the profound implications of this enduring idea that Life comes Up from Below, and not Down from Above.

What do the Romans tell us ?

Paradoxically, the Romans, who destroyed so much as they homogenized Europe, have left us some evidence of UnderWorld magic, in typical crass Roman style. Roman images of Celtic horned gods, in the conquered territories of Gaul (homeland of Getafix the Druid, and shame on you if you do not know who he is ), sometimes hold a pot of coins….to symbolize the wealth of power in the UnderWorld. We still call a wealthy man a “plutocrat”…. from the classical god Pluto, lord of hidden wealth in the UnderWorld. This concept is far more than one of mineral wealth…it is about power, fecundity, and regeneration. No wonder the developing and controlling new religions wanted people to stay away from goddesses and gods of a realm that granted independent power ! When religion and politics, temple and state, march hand in hand, their marriage is about control of power , not love and compassion, and certainly not freedom of thought, vision, worship or inspiration.

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Myths Of The Norsemen From The Eddas And Sagas

Book: Myths Of The Norsemen From The Eddas And Sagas by Helene Adeline Guerber

The religion of a people who could produce such a literature as this must be worthy of study, especially as we can see the results of northern heathenism developing until the end of the tenth century without interference either from Christian thought or from the Latin culture so closely bound up with it. The doors between Scandinavia and the East were still open when this literature came into being, and memories of a pre-Christian Celtic culture yet remained alive. It is a setting of another kind from that to which we have grown accustomed, that of Mediterranean influences impinging early on the Germanic world; and there are great riches awaiting the explorers of the realm of thought in that complex and vigorous age about which all too little is known. Of men’s attitude to life the literature tells us much, and we must recognise the strength amid sanity of it; how much can it tell us of their thoughts concerning death and the soul? This work is an attempt to begin the answer to this question, and if it can reveal something of the variety and richness of the lost religion of the North it will have served its purpose. Originally this book formed Part of a thesis accepted in 1940 for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of Cambridge. It was while holding a research studentship from Newnham College that I completed the greater part of the work, and my first acknowledgment must be to the College for the generous help it has provided. To Professor and Mrs. Chadwick I owe more than can be easily expressed: the discovery of both the inspiration and discipline of research, and unfailing help, both with practical advice and encouragement, the whole of the way. I would like also to thank Mr. and Mrs. J. M. de Navarro and Mr. G. N. Garmonsway for many suggestions and for their sympathetic interest; and Miss G. D. Willcock, who read the book in manuscript, and Miss Helen Brown, who read the proofs and assisted with the index, for their helpful criticism and support. Finally my thanks are due to the Syndics of the University Press for undertaking the publication of this book, despite the difficulties of war-time, and to its Staff for the courtesy and efficiency they have shown throughout. (H. R. ELLIS)

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The Reformed Druids Of North America

While modern Druidism came to North America first in the form of fraternal druidic organizations in the nineteenth century and orders such as the Ancient Order of Druids in America were founded as distinct American groups as early as 1912, the Neopagan branch of Druidism can be traced to one particular root in the Reformed Druids of North America, which was founded by protesting college students. The history of this organization is interesting and one of the best documented histories of any neo-druidic organization.

The founding of the first congregation of the Reformed Druids of North America, or RDNA, at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, in 1963, though not itself Neopagan proved influential in the birth of other Neopagan organizations. Carleton’s requirement at the time that each student participate regularly in religious services (of the student’s choice) caused a minor rebellion among several students who started calling themselves “druids”. This tongue-in-cheek religion was designed initially primarily to challenge the administration’s attempt to enforce religious attendance. It developed its own religious practices (to conform to the college’s definition of “regular religious services”), which to the astonishment of the founders began to draw increasing numbers who saw them as a legitimate spiritual outlet.

The original RDNA services involved periodically gathering in a wooded area, or “Grove”. Meetings involved several possible components: the ritual consumption of “spirits” (Scotch whisky or Irish whiskey blended with water) called “the water of life” (uisce beatha, or whisky), the singing of religious songs, the performance of ceremonial chanting, and, a meditation, occasionally a sermon, typically exploring other religious traditions. RDNA celebrated the solstices and the High Celtic days of Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain and Imbolc). Some later Reformed Druid groups added the equinoxes. These high days are celebrated with religious songs, dancing in circles, and other festivities. Various individuals will also have their own private ceremonies. Often small groups will break off and perform their own separated ceremonies before rejoining the general group — these groups are often split along initiatory lines as those of higher degree work their own ceremonies.

Individual choice is a major theme of Reformed Druidism, as is ecology and the principle of living lightly on the land.

The major gods are, in RDNA liturgy, the Earth-Mother (addressed as “our Mother”), seen as the personification of all material reality, Beal, the personification of nonmaterial essence, and Dalon Ap Landu, the Lord of Groves. Some individuals prefer to devote most of their praise, however, to other gods, like Health or Music (usually also named in Gaelic). And “A Druid Fellowship” has various scholastic posts and honors, though usually in the arts as devoted to religious praise rather than as formal studies.

Neo-druidism is often considered a Neopagan religion, though some orders consider Druidry to be a philosophical and spiritual movement rather than a religion along the lines of the major religions with centralized authority structures. It is important, however, to realize that the founders of RDNA intended it to complement or supplement “organized” religion, not to supplant it; most of the founders were practicing Christians. They were very surprised when RDNA continued after the college repealed the religious attendance requirement. As someone put it, “Apparently our disorganized religion appealed to those who couldn’t stomach organized religion!” Present-day adherents range from those who are exclusively neo-druids to those for whom it is, indeed, a complement to another faith.

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The Deer Man Ritual

In Italy there still remains a very old tradition related to the stag figure. On the last Sunday of carnival, at Castelnuovo, an annual festival takes place known as the Red Deer Man ritual or festival. It features four primary figures: the Deer man, the Deer Woman, the Fairy Wizard (the Martino), and the Hunter. The Deer Man and Woman dress in hides, with the man wearing a set of antlers and both figures wearing a necklace of cowbells. The Martino is dressed in white with a cape and wears a conical hat. He carries a wand and represents the fairy of the mountains.

The festival begins with the sound of cowbells coming out the forest and down the hill. Soon the Janare (witches) appear, after which they run about the village dashing in and out between the houses. This is followed by the appearance of the Deer man and Deer Woman. The Deer Man runs through the crowd like a wild beast chasing the village people. Next the Martino appears and tries to calm the Deer man using his wand. Eventually the Deer Man grows calm and then the Martino places a rope around the Deer man and Deer Woman. Joined together in this way the Deer Woman becomes affectionate with the Deer Man. However the wild nature of the Deer Man soon returns and he tries to break his bindings. Suddenly the Hunter appears and slays the Deer man and Deer Woman. The people then grieve for the slain Deer Woman. Slowly the Hunter approaches two bodies then blows into their ears, which brings them back to life. The Deer Man and Deer Woman arise and go back up the hillside into the forest. The witches return to the village plaza and assemble around fire where they dance accompanied by musicians playing the flute and the bagpipes.

There are several noteworthy features of this festival or ritual event. The first is the appearance of the witches who come from the mountain woods. There appearance in the village announces the consort pair of the Deer man and Deer Woman. This associates them with the horned figure and his consort, a theme long associated with the witches' sect.

The second thing of interest is the fairy being known as the Martino, a theme also intimately connected with old witchlore. The Sicilian fairy cult is perhaps the most well-known of such themes.

The third area of interest is the Hunter who returns life to the slain deer. This is a classic tale of "the hunter and the hunted" and one that appears in the writings of folklorist Joseph Campbell. Essential to this mythos is the idea that the slain animal must be restored to life in exchange for providing food and fur/hide. Traditionally a piece of the deer's antler was taken and worn by the hunter, who later danced around a fire in honor or the slain beast. His dance animated the deer and restored it to life somewhere back out in the forest.

Of final interest is the absence of Christian elements in the Deer man ritual. This reveals its great antiquity and the survival of a pagan celebration into modern times.

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Pentagram Meaning For Pagans

The pentagram (the five-pointed star, usually but not always depicted enclosed by a circle) is nearly universally used by wiccans and other witches, and comes closest to being the most commonly used symbol within paganism as a whole. Rooted in ancient Greek and Roman paganism, with ties to goddesses such as Hygeia and Venus, the pentagram has been associated with occultism, ceremonial magic, and even Christianity (the five points signifying the five wounds of Christ). By the 20th century and the rise of religious Wicca, the pentagram had become a more general symbol representing the cosmos as a whole. One common way of interpreting the pentagram assigns an element to each point of the star: the highest point represents spirit, with other points representing fire, air, water, and earth. Surrounded by a circle that signifies eternity or the vast emptiness of the cosmos, the pentagram functions as a symbol of the entirety of nature.

Because of its Greco-Roman origins and its usage today embedded in symbolism drawn from classical Occultism - the four elements underneath spirit - not all Pagans regard the pentacle as important or even useful. Celtic Reconstructionists and Odinists, for example, do not generally incorporate symbolism from cultures outside the Celtic or Norse world, and therefore regard the pentacle as irrelevant to their spirituality as the Christian cross.

Within such ethnically specific expressions of Paganism, symbols with strong cultural associations generally take precedence. Thus, pagan Druids often use the Awen, a symbol depicting three straight lines that diverge as they move downward, with a dot or point above each line. This symbol was created during the Druid renaissance of the 18th century and has been interpreted in various ways. Practitioners of Norse religion often regard the Mjollnir, or hammer of Thor, as emblematic of their distinctive cultural tradition. Similar symbols include the Caduceus for adherents of Greek Paganism, the Ankh for Egyptian traditions, and the Medicine Wheel for some Native American traditions. The labrys, or double-edged axe, has roots in Greek and Cretan culture, but because of its association with Minoan priestesses it has become a symbol of Dianic wicca and witchcraft (traditions with a strong feminist ethos).

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Pagan Social Activism

One of the first well-known pagan leaders to actively promote social activism as an outgrowth of her religious practice was Starhawk. After her first book (The Spiral Dance [1979], an introductory text to witchcraft), Starhawk wrote several books about social and political activism from the perspective of promoting ecofeminist values. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Starhawk had emerged as a public figure as renowned for her activism as for her religious beliefs. Her work includes training others in nonviolence and direct action, and supporting the peace movement, women's movement, environmental movement, and the anti-globalization movement.

In her book Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery (1987) Starhawk suggests that power can function in three ways: "power-over," "power-from-within," and "power-with." "Power-over" is power wielded by the privileged to dominate or control others. "Power-from-within," by contrast, is power not concentrated in the hands of a few, but rather power that emerges within individuals to enable them to reach their full potential and to engage creatively with others. "Power-with" is the healthy social alternative to "power-over." "Power-with" is the egalitarian and truly democratic exercise of power in which peers join together to share power in common. Most of what is wrong in contemporary society can be traced back to toxic forms of dominating power. Thus the way to transform society is to encourage all people (and particularly those who traditionally have been denied access to power) to manifest their power-from-within, and then to join together with others as equals to create shared, healthy, non-dominating power structures in order to create a truly just and good social order.

Selena Fox, the founder of Circle Sanctuary in Wisconsin, engages in a variety of social and environmental initiatives. She is the founder of the Lady Liberty League, devoted to promoting religious tolerance, especially (but not exclusively) for Pagans; through Circle Sanctuary she has led efforts toward nature preservation and environmental education. The Circle community engages in a variety of social ministries, including prison ministry, food drives, and public education on nature spiritualities. In 2005 Circle was in the forefront of "the pentacle quest," the successful legal effort to force the Veterans Administration to permit pentacle-marked headstones and memorials for wiccan military veterans.

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Pagan Religious Ethics

Many Pagans consider environmental stewardship and care for the earth to be a central tenet of their religious ethics. Such an emphasis arises less out of traditional maxims or virtues and more out of the widespread contemporary recognition that humanity needs to redefine our relationship with the earth. Consequently, some Pagans feel inspired to engage in personal environmental activities (recycling, organic gardening, using green energy and reusable items like cloth grocery bags), participate in environmental advocacy groups (from national organizations like the Sierra Club to regional and local associations devoted to conservation work), and engage in political action on behalf of environmental causes. Others within the larger pagan community may choose not to engage in such activity, either because they do not consider it spiritually necessary or because they do not see a necessary connection between Pagan spirituality and environmental activism. For example, they may prefer to engage in spiritual or magical efforts on behalf of nature, rather than emphasizing social or political action.

Indeed, magic and spirituality play an important role not only in the practice of many forms of Paganism, but also in the shaping of Pagan ethics. Magic is grounded in a recognition that self-interest and care for one's own family and tribe are acceptable principles of action; in this sense, Pagan spirituality functions quite well within a democratic capitalist economy, where self-interest is a foundational social principle. However, some magical communities impose restraints on the morality of self-interest, whether in terms of the Rede's "harm none," in terms of classical or mythological concepts of virtue, or in terms of balancing the competing interests of personal self-interest with the mandate for environmental responsibility and sustainable living.

Ultimately, no universally observed ethical principles define the Pagan movement as a whole, although mythologically-derived notions of virtue and honor, the wiccan Rede, the acceptance of magic as a tool for exercising spiritual power, and a balanced sense of the importance of caring for the environment are widely held values.

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