From the outset of my time in the public sphere, I have been against a seemingly needless division and splintering of the concept of Contemporary Paganism as a religious grouping or term. As an example, I loathe the term “neopagan” in any of its iterations. If one looks at the history of the word and concept of “paganism” as it has been used inside academia and outside, the term simply does not make any sense. The traditional use of “pagan” has, since the fourth century, meant one who is a non-Christian. This use of the term persisted throughout Christian-dominated discourse, often with strict negative connotations. It has only been comparatively recently that there has been a push to more accurately define traditional “paganism” in…
Anglo-Saxon Heathenry and Roman Polytheism
Posts by Marc
“<X> is my favorite deity!”, an anonymous Pagan scrawls on the internet. This has always struck me as an odd statement. I understand where it is coming from, in the same vein as “<Name> is my favorite person”. We play favorites as social animals, and it’s been something that’s been criticized for a long time. It’s in the Bible even – well, one of them (The Message). No, seriously. Check out Proverbs 28:21-22. It’s there. If one were to ask me which one of the pets I have known, or friends I have known, were my absolute favorite, I wouldn’t be able to answer. I’m a person who tries to approach people on their own merits. The people I am friendly with are not…
Author’s Note: This is the fourth part of a four part entry for “The Problem of Apples”. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here. Part III can be found here. The sum of this entire discussion is what amounts to the “Problem of Apples” – the problem of a broadly reductionistic association between deities of wildly different spheres of cultural and religious matters and meanings. Though many polytheistic restorations and revivals make similar claims in regards to the reduction of divinity, Heathenry appears to be unique in the frequency with which it is engaged. In some cases, it appears to be the passive reaction to the concept of pluralistic divinity. It is an act of modern convenience and an…
Categories: ACADEMIC ELITISM!!1+1, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Heathen Theology, Heathenry, Northern Tradition, Polytheism, Theology, Thoughts
Author’s Note: This is the third part of a four part entry for “The Problem of Apples”. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here. In the last entry we discussed the concept of approaching the deity in terms of their functional status within society, as well as detailing some of the pitfalls in a methodology that seeks to look at the religious tradition outside of the social and cultural structure in which it was found. In this we will endeavor to delve into the background of either deity and discuss how Ēastre and Iðunn compare in deeper terms. Linguistically and etymologically, the words which came to describe both goddesses are unrelated, and do not come from words of similar root…
Categories: Generalist Paganism, Germanic, Heathen Theology, Heathenry, Northern Tradition, Polytheism, Theology, Thoughts
Author’s Note: This is the second part of a four part entry for “The Problem of Apples”. Part I can be found here. Previously, we have been introduced to the idea that Heathenry, as a modern polytheistic religious restoration, contains within itself an inherent deficiency in regards to polytheistic theology. In this section we will approach concepts of divine functionality and approach a number of influences that impact what is considered the “function” of a god within its context. Divine concepts are often and commonly related to functional spheres of control “possessed” by the divinity in question. This is one of the key characteristics of polytheistic and animistic religious identity, and in this Heathenry is no different. Recognition of these functional and spatial foci…
Author’s Note: The length of this article got too big for a comfortable readership on the format of this blog, and so I have broken it up into four parts which will be released consecutively. Endnotes will be released along with each part, but will maintain a running total throughout all four parts consecutively. If there is demand, I will format it properly into a .pdf for future use. Heathenry’s approach to conceptions of divinity is unnecessarily limited and self-curtailing, despite being a reconstructed polytheistic revivalist religion. Evidence most often used within Heathen reconstruction generally consists of literary, material, toponymic, or folkloric elements and despite the value of these disciplines, the material with which Heathens have to reconstruct the knowledge of their religious fundamentals…
Categories: Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Heathen Theology, Heathenry, Northern Tradition, Polytheism, Regionalism, Theology
“Religion is ‘a verbal and nonverbal structure of interactions with superhuman being(s).” – Hans Penner, Impasse and Resolution: A Critique on the Study of Religion. “[Religion is] a convenient label that we use to put together all the ideas, actions, rules, and objects that have to do with the existence and properties of superhuman agents such as God.” – Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. “All religions follow the same structural contours. They invoke supernatural agents to deal with emotionally eruptive existential anxieties, such as loneliness, calamity, and death. They have malevolent and predatory deities, as well as many benevolent and protective ones.” – Scott Atran, “Religion’s Social and Cognitive Landscape”, in Handbook of Cultural Psychology. “Persons who spent whole…
Categories: Community Thoughts, Controversy!!1!, Conversational, Generalist Paganism, Polytheism, Theology, Thoughts
To Those Erecting Fallacious Political Strawmen in Response to My Last Post
Marc
Posted on May 29, 2017
Of late, there’s been some question as to the position of varying theological Pagan-types within the public (largely Online) sphere of Contemporary Paganism, and the definition of core defining characteristics of Paganism as a contemporary religious umbrella term. And, what happened to begin with the question about definitions has warped into a general attack on polytheistic theology. With this, I am putting my hat in the ring and adding my perspective, even though those I’ll be criticizing have already succeeded at getting out numerous tracts since Sunday. This has been most notably found within discussions (beginning in early April) of the question about whether or not Paganism was both an “earth-centric” religion (as denoted here: “On “Earth-Based Religions””) or, if Paganism was “dying” as…
There is some inherent, unique quality to man-made boundaries, a quality which I feel often gets overlooked in conversations about Paganism. The demarcations of space which cut across the landscape in sometimes glaringly artificial lines, which nevertheless draw our eyes to them. We follow them and trace them, experiencing them as both tangible and intangible forces. A ditch or culvert, roads and dirt tracks, an old moss-covered stone wall, and even post markers of property or former lines which no longer exist are all representative of the division of human space in this world. These structures contain something more, something that exists both within and alongside the power from the natural realm that many Pagans emphasize. At times, it can be near-palpable and…
