When the Gods Become Real

One thing that became apparent from the Pop culture Paganism discussion last year was a lot of assumptions people were making about how historic myths are, and where the distinctions lie.  The problem is if these assumptions are false then their whole religion falls apart. Hence part of my reasoning in the Authenticity post.

• Mythological heroes (Heracles, Perseus, Odysseus) were historic and therefore worthy of cultus
• Superheroes were never real people there therefore can’t be “real” gods
• Certain characters in medieval Irish and Welsh literature, written by Christian monks were all historically worshiped as gods.
• A counter-point by others: mythology and folklore was the pop culture of its day

Does this imply that the “high gods” of Olympus and Asgard (etc) were originally human, and that makes them more real? The funny thing is good ol’ Euhumerus made that argument a long time ago, that the gods were all deified humans, but he used that as a rationalist explanation of religion, and his ideas were later used by Christians to discredit polytheism. Which is rather ironic given their spiritual focus on a historic deified human.

While there are some who literally worship Superman, Sunweaver was originally just talking about using characters like him as a metaphor, but even that people freaked out about.  Saigh also writes about using a modern warrior woman character as an icon at her shrine, to serve as inspiration but clarifying that she is not worshiping her as a being. Gefnsdottir shares an intriguing anecdote: “A woman who posts on one of the fora where I lurk had been trying to get pregnant for a year without success. At the end of the year, she remembered a particular ritual from the Kushiel’s Legacy series, wherein D’Angeline women (who can’t get pregnant otherwise) light candles and pray to the goddess Eisheth to “open the gates of their womb”. She decided to perform the ritual, and the following cycle, she became pregnant, and has had no problems since.”

The evidence of worship of many supposed Irish divinities is sketchy and even more questioned is the divine status of characters in the Mabinogi tales such as Manawyddan and Arianrhod.  Some of their names are cognate with the Irish (Manawyddan=Mannanan, Llew=Lugh) memories of gods that have been “demoted” to powerful humans in the stories.  Other characters can be seen as heroes or demi-gods worthy of honor as well. The lines between God, Sidhe, Human Dead and Hero are very blurry in Celtic and Germanic traditions, and they often aren’t as clear in Greek & Roman traditions as people think they are. (Saigh addresses this historical iffy-ness in her above post)

Nowadays, instead of Euhemerus, we have scholars like Ronald Hutton that tell us, sorry to burst your romanticized bubble but that holiday custom was invented by a Scottish nationalist, and that god you’re worshiping was invented by a poet.  Nothing against Hutton, he has been a needed correction to Robert Graves and Margaret Murray, but what he says is historical should not determine our religious practices. If you want your practice to be all historically attested, fine but you’ll constantly have to re-invent the wheel whenever the new scholarly journal comes out.

This is why I’m becoming more comfortable with the idea of honoring folkloric and older literary figures as deities.  I prefer older characters (19th century or earlier) not due to the “older is more authentic” mentality necessarily but because they have had time to show their cultural staying power and relevance.  Also, by then the copyrights have often expired and the commercialism has faded.  A lot of characters come and go in waves of popularity, others stick around for decades or centuries.  At some point, new gods and spirits appear to us. Maybe they are old gods in new guises, trying to be noticed. Maybe they are totally new. Maybe old gods do disappear and reappear in other forms? But we can’t really tell for sure what’s new and what’s old we just have to follow our instincts. I think it’s the spiritual equivalent of evolution and biodiversity. Spirits and their cults and religions have their own eco-spiritual niches, they evolve with the times- or at times they die and come back in a different form if their “niche” no longer fits them.  Some spirits also broaden or narrow their cultural or geographic territory. Gaia, for example from what we know historically wasn’t worshiped very much as a goddess in ancient Greece, she was more of a distant, cosmic principle. But now she is widely worshiped among Neo-Pagans and even Hellenic recons due to modern ecological consciousness.

This is a rather rambling post- I am sorting out a lot of tangled threads, I’m sure I’ll find some of them are strong material, while other strands are thin, weak and don’t lead me anywhere.  Eventually I will start some more weaving!

More bloggy links-

Stone of Destiny: No Capes “Because fandom is not worship. Worship involves pouring energy outward to achieve a result.Fandom, on the other hand, is about the self. It’s about satisfying a need that we feel, filling a hole that our modern society has forgotten how to satisfy.”

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Who’s a “Real Pagan”? Well, who’s a “Real American”?

I’m not going to add much at least directly to the eternal debate over the definition of the term pagan/Paganism, pagan community etc. Ruadan McElroy, and others have expressed along similar lines what I think on the issue. Instead I will take a step back to contemplate the messiness of another label of mine: American.

When I call myself American, people in much of the world will assume that I am a citizen of, or reside in the United States, in spite of the fact that anyone living (or originating) from North or South America and neighboring islands could call themselves by that label. Canadians, Brazilians, etc. may take offense to me calling myself “American” with that assumption. On the other hand, Mexicans use the term “fútbol norteamericano” not “fútbol estadounidense” to refer to American football, in spite of the fact that Mexico is considered part of North America.

First generation immigrants sometimes call me “American” to distinguish me culturally from themselves, and while I have assured them that they are just as American as I am, I still know what they mean- a long assimilated descendent of European immigrants. Some people who encounter immigrants (even ones who have lived here for decades) will consider them to not be “real Americans” if they have accents, haven’t stopped speaking their native language and given up obvious aspects of their culture. (clothing, religion, holidays etc)

Furthermore, an “American” is also often thought of a resident of the “lower 48” and even when Alaska and Hawaii are included, territories like Puerto Rico and Guam are often forgotten. So we can divide who is considered “American” up into a bunch of overlapping groups, members of which identify with the label to varying to degrees, and are identified by other self-identified Americans, and non-Americans, and dual citizens (included tribally enrolled American Indians)

But at the end of the day, none of us who are self-identified or identified by others as American are _just_ Americans. I’m a Midwesterner, a Minnesotan, a St. Paulite, a British Isles mutt and German-American. Regardless of who labels who, no one is just a Pagan. What’s the point of fighting over it? Just be a Pagan or don’t be a Pagan, a polytheist, a Wiccan, Druid, Heathen whatever. Don’t worry about what others call themselves if they are not claiming to be part of your specific religion.  And to other folks, just be who you are, don’t go around trying to get everyone to affirm your “right” to call yourself pagan. And focus on doing something positive for yourself, your spiritual practice, your community. Arguing is pointless.