Hi David,
Yes, I agree with what you've said below. And I'm not saying "Pagans must be
historically-correct and always look to the past" but that if one is going
to be citing a "Pagan history" from the past - which is very much a part of
Paganism today, referring to "the past" - and talking about gods and other
supernatural beings *from past ancient socieites*, the least one could do
was to actually research those deities from within the deities' own cultural
and historical contexts. Not to say that the way particular deities were
perceived by mortals stayed the same throughout their [the deities'] entire
'lifetimes" back in pre-Christian times, or that the everyday ancient pagan
bothered to "research" their deities either, but I'd have thought that if
people today were actually interested in "ancient Pagan deities" the least
they could do was to exert themselves on a bit of research regarding those
deities - or else to be truthful and say "Actually, I can't be bothered
doing that, I'm just going to make it up", rather than make up stuff and not
admit it?
Which sort of reminds me of how Golden Dawn members used to scry the aethyr
for the components of missing parts of rituals if they couldn't construct
them from research. Which is fine... if you believe that you can obtain such
material from that source. I certainly believe you can obtain *material*
from scrying, but whether it is historically authentic ritual components,
I'm feeling mroe sceptical about that.
~Caroline.
>>I do find the blinkered approach to historical critique was a
significant limiting factor. When people dealt with this upfront and
engage with why and how they are making these distinctions it is much more
honest and leads to better ritual practice. I really love how Thorsen does
this in Asatru actually where he acknowledges its constructed nature and
then has a discussion on how we engage with the past both in terms of
literal history and where and how we can make our depatures. Its a very
honest and authentic way to approach the issue of historicity I think and
claims to historical authenticity and connection to the past lie at the
heart of the very idea of contemporary Paganism.<<
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