Pomegranate

Masks of Cernunnos

Jean-Paul Savignac — 2023-01-26

Actually, I’m Pagan Thanks to Music

Michal Puchovský — 2023-01-26

The paper presents findings regarding the role of music in the community and teachings of the Slovak contemporary Pagan leader Žiarislav, based on ethnographic research carried out between 2016 and 2018. The paper discusses three inter-related themes: (a) the role of music in the community of Žiarislav’s followers, (b) the role of Žiarislav’s music in the process of shaping modern Pagan identity, and (c) music as an instrument for the spreading of alternative or dissenting ideas. The conclusions are based on an anthropological investigation into the lives and music-related customs of Žiarislav’s followers. The paper also explores the significance of music in Žiarislav’s spiritual teachings. Research into modern Pagan music is a thriving field, and all such research assists with an understanding of a living form of modern Slovak Paganism. It also represents an ideal research space for the study of strategies regarding the (re-)actualization of Slovak national identity among modern Pagans in Slovakia, one pillar of which is traditional Slovak folk culture, including music.

Creativity, Spirituality, and Awen

Dana Driscoll — 2023-01-26

This study applies learning theory to explore bardic arts (creative practices) in the modern Druid revival movement, offering broad data from nine countries, with 266 surveys and follow-up interviews with fourteen Druids. Through this mixed-methods dataset, the research explores how different Druids take up the bardic arts as a spiritual practice, how they conceptualize “Awen” (divine or creative inspiration), and how bardic arts are central to spiritual life. The study also explores the concept of bardic community through Eisteddfodau, or bardic circles, within US contexts. These circles where bards celebrate with stories, songs, and music. A discussion of overcoming cultural challenges and talent-based mindsets, the role of community in the bardic arts, and a discussion about future possibilities for research is included.

“Of Divels in Sarmatia Honored”

Francis Young — 2023-01-26

The persistence of Paganism in the Baltic region (especially Lithuania) long after its official conversion to Christianity in 1387–1413 was a matter of widespread concern in early modern Europe, including England, challenging the narrative of Christianity’s triumph in northern Europe. England had a long history of engagement in the Baltic, and early modern English authors displayed an interest in surviving Baltic Pagans, while English Jesuits labored in Lithuania to bring Pagans to Catholicism. This article examines the language used to portray Baltic Paganism by English authors and translators, arguing that Poland-Lithuania’s status as a European power meant Lithuanian Pagans received a somewhat more sympathetic treatment than other indigenous Pagans, such as the Sámi of Scandinavia and Native Americans. Early modern English responses to Lithuanian Paganism thus illuminate the complexity of European Christian attitudes to living Pagan religion in northern and eastern Europe.

Reconstructing the Procession of Nerthus

Barbara Jane Davy — 2023-01-26

Primary data gathering for this work included participant observation research at the procession of Nerthus at Well and Tree Gathering in May of 2018 and 2019 at Raven’s Knoll, a privately-owned campground and dedicated Pagan festival site in eastern Ontario. It draws upon a larger research project on inclusive Canadian Heathen ritual practices and environmental values. Well and Tree Gathering includes Pagans of various types, but is largely run by Heathens, and prominently features the Heathen deity Nerthus. Practitioners conduct a reconstructionist revival of the procession of Nerthus based on Tacitus’ description of such events in Germania, which included human sacrifice. Contemporary Heathens revere Nerthus as a primordial power, process her veiled figure through the campground, and give her offerings in a sacred body of water. Giving these offerings operationalizes the values of inclusion and sharing, and contributes to the formation of ecological conscience through relational ontology.

April D. DeConick, The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today

Peter A Huff — 2023-01-26

April D. DeConick, The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), 380 pp., $37.00 (cloth), $28.00 (paperback).

Murphy Pizza, Paganistan: Contemporary Community in Minnesota’s Twin Cities

Marisol Charbonneau — 2023-01-26

Murphy Pizza, Paganistan: Contemporary Community in Minnesota’s Twin Cities (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), 150 pp.,
$99.95 (hardback)

Gary Lachman, Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll and the Wickedest Man in the World

Amy Slagle — 2023-01-26

Gary Lachman, Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll and the Wickedest Man in the World (New York: Jeremy Tarcher/ 2014), 387 p, $19 (paper), $11.99 (ebook).