more pagan mumblings
Upon some consideration I decided to abandon the quest to understand exactly where neo-paganism began, until we answer some basic questions first. besides I realize that it was a futile question anyway...
Firstly, How did the ancient European pagan religions die out exactly, and how much is really left? In order to answer that question we should really isolate two or three specific cultures in separate essays just to give a taste of the fall of pre-christian Europe.
Once we name a date that a culture could be called “assimilated” or “annihilated” we need to build a list of opinions and writings describing what Christian Europe believed of those specific cultures. And basically we’re looking for early re-constructionists or supposed fam-trads or even people who hold any kind of angst towards pagan beliefs and believers. This second batch of essays will probably describe the way that ancient gods became modern demons, demy gods, and were assimilated by Christianity.
Finally, once those questions are answered we can start venturing a guess as to who some of the first neo-pagans were. But I’m guessing we’ll find that neo-paganism has been initiated in one form or another one or more times before the scholars of Elizabethan times started the chain reaction that lead to Druidry, the Golden dawn, Thelema, and eventually Wicca and Druidism.
It’s also possible that we’ll run into magick-pagan religious systems that are infact the product of syncretic folklore in conquered lands. Voodun comes to mind right away, but I think that there were probably many more of these right at home in Italy, Greece, Germany, you name it.
This will have to be a multi-lingual research project. Limiting my self to English literature and scholars will severely inhibit my ability to produce any kind of reliable work. We’ll see where this all takes me…
Firstly, How did the ancient European pagan religions die out exactly, and how much is really left? In order to answer that question we should really isolate two or three specific cultures in separate essays just to give a taste of the fall of pre-christian Europe.
Once we name a date that a culture could be called “assimilated” or “annihilated” we need to build a list of opinions and writings describing what Christian Europe believed of those specific cultures. And basically we’re looking for early re-constructionists or supposed fam-trads or even people who hold any kind of angst towards pagan beliefs and believers. This second batch of essays will probably describe the way that ancient gods became modern demons, demy gods, and were assimilated by Christianity.
Finally, once those questions are answered we can start venturing a guess as to who some of the first neo-pagans were. But I’m guessing we’ll find that neo-paganism has been initiated in one form or another one or more times before the scholars of Elizabethan times started the chain reaction that lead to Druidry, the Golden dawn, Thelema, and eventually Wicca and Druidism.
It’s also possible that we’ll run into magick-pagan religious systems that are infact the product of syncretic folklore in conquered lands. Voodun comes to mind right away, but I think that there were probably many more of these right at home in Italy, Greece, Germany, you name it.
This will have to be a multi-lingual research project. Limiting my self to English literature and scholars will severely inhibit my ability to produce any kind of reliable work. We’ll see where this all takes me…