Hi Tim,

>>Theres an interesting cross over in the UK pagan camp scene with
reconstructionalists.. or rather re-enactors, mainly Iron Age Celtics who
are adopting some of the lifestyle and dress of our ancestors, at least for
a short period of time. It doesn't appeal to me, though I've seen some
beautiful jewelry and other craft work produced in 'authentic' style.<<

Yes, re-encating, which indeed does seem to have some cross-over wirh Pagan
reconstructionism doesn't appeal to me either. I am interested in ancient
techniques of say, weaving for example, but I can't be bothered actually
dressing up in some sort of period costume and flouncing around. Actually,
once I went to an SCA (society of creative anachronism) event here in
Australia, near Sydney, and I hated it so much that I tried to stay asleep
as long as possible, and when that didn't work, I implored the Egyptian sky
goddess, Nut, to help me escape and then I ran away screaming - I even left
my tent and other belongings there because I couldn't carry them (I'd come
in someone else's car and they were having a great old time and weren't
planning on leaving). I caught a train to Sydney and then got my mother (in
Melbourne) to phone her cousin in Sydney to get him to buy me an airplane
ticket back to Melbourne. That's how much I hated it.

>>I think you're right that the mental space has shifted too far to make a
faithful reconstruction possible; but IMO there are still insights to be
gained from trying to understand what our ancestors were doing and trying to
see the world, albeit dimly, through their eyes.<<

Absolutely, it is certainly worthwhile trying to do that. Its fascinating
just how HUGE ancient Paganism(s) were. There's a great book called
"European Paganism" by Ken Dowden (its quite expensive so I'm always tempted
to steal it from the University library, but I'm not bad enough to do such a
thing) and I really love it. It shows the hugeness of basically Roman Empire
Pagan religious manifestations - you'd get a better idea of it from actually
having a look at the book - its chapters are separated into topics like
water, trees, stones (rather than some sort of whose-who of gods or
mythology, it is looking at sites, oooh, how I love it). I also re-read
yesterday an interesting chapter in a book called "A World Full of Gods" by
Keith Hopkins (Phoenix 1999) where he constructs this particular chapter
about ancient Roman religion by sending "time travellers" back to Pompeii a
bit before Vesuvius erupts. They report back what they see etc. Its sounds a
bit weird, but he is trying to convey how anything we can know about the
past is PARTIAL, dependant on our sources who aren't even necessarily
reliable, and on our interpretation of the sources (archaeological or
textual) which also are subject to trends in academic scholarship and other
sorts of bias, and also how you have to use empathetic imagination when
reconstructing the past, otherwise it just can't be done.

>>My interest last year was taken by a local Romano British cult centre
local to me, near a village Nympsfield where a Mercury temple was replaced
by a christian church which in turn was abandoned in the 5th C; why was it
there,what rituals were performed and why. It seems to have been a healing
centre of sorts, with a collection of curse tablets almost as extensive as
at Bath though less well preserved.<<

You British are just so lucky to have so many great sites to visit.

>>The nearest I've got to reconstructing has been placing my own curse
tablet in the ground near the temple site, and paying my respects to the
local spirit of the place. The Romans seemed to have had a pretty
encompassing attitude to the local spirits, trying to adapt and adopt the
religion they found in their spreading empire. Rather than supressing they
seemed to have merged them and thats the sort of approach that appeals to
me.
Tim<<

Yes, that's why I get a bit sick of hearing Reconstructionists saying that
ancient religionsthey are attempting to "re-construct" have to be "pure" - I
mean what is that anyway? Like the ancient cultures didn't interact with
anyone else? I'm seriously jealous about you placing a curse tablet at an
authentic site.... I've thought about placing similar in the Melbourne
General Cemetery, but seeing as (according to my reading) I'd need to place
it in the grave, if not the hand of one *untimely* dead (ie/ angry dead), I
haven't done so yet, as I actually have not seen any very new graves at that
particular cemetery. But yes, of course katadesmoi (defixiones) can be put
in wells, probably into a bothros (pit for chthonic scarifice). I just
haven't got round to doing such things yet. I'm kinda looking at ancient
Love magic at the moment... perpetually interesting stuff. I think its
possibly very interesting with actual Pagan sites as you mentioned, that
what migh be happening with modern pagans using those sites again is that
"ancient Paganism(s)" are being *re-continued* after a long break, which I
suppose could be also described as *re-construction*.


~Caroline.