Three Cranes, Esus, and Tarvos

[chronarchy]

I've been working on further developing my connection with our Grove's namesake, Trigaranus (aka "Three Cranes", who we usually refer to in the singular as "Garanus" or "Crane"), within my own mind. If these 6th night rituals work out for the Grove, we'll talk about developing this a tad further as a Grove, too

Comments

[dragynphyre]

...the last thing I want to do is jump off the deep end and into fluff. The best I can do is avoid pretending that this stuff is "really the way it was" and say, "Well, if I were practicing Gaulish religion today, what on earth would I be doing?"

I, for one, am less reconstructionist (fundamentalist?) than many, so I'm definitely interested in this sort of interpretive work. For me, religion should be an evolving thing, not static. I tend to get snippy with anyone that insists that their way of doing things is the way that it has always been done, and that it is the ONLY way, anyway.

I honestly could care less what some moldy old book says I should or should not do if I cannot apply it to modern life in some way. There are some things that our Ancestors did that we cannot/should not do, and a good example of this would be human sacrifice. There are also things that apply in our lives that would not have applied in theirs. For instance, we have an awful lot more comfort in our lives thanks to the current level of technology, but there are also downsides. Americans might be in need of a patron diety of exercise more than we need a patron diety of the hunt. I really can't imagine that the dieties, or at least our conception of them, couldn't have evolved along with humanity.

Besides which, studies of written history, anthropology, and archaeology can only go so far to describe to us what the ancients did. We are left mostly with items that didn't rot and weren't repurposed/recycled, and written history is often biased, so the picture we have of the past is, at best, incomplete, if not wholly inaccurate.

I think that as long as you note that your work is interpretive, and not indicative of Ancient Gaulish Religious Practice (tm), no one should have cause to think that you've morphed into a fluff bunny overnight [Gee, next you'll be telling us that you've recalled that you were one of the temple priests of Atlantis :) ], or to criticize your scholarship because you haven't heavily footnoted your references.

What would Gaulish Pagan religion have looked like IF the Romans hadn't conquered and IF Christianity didn't eventually supplant most of the native religion and folk practices? Who knows? Can't go back in time to change things.

Make sense to you? I hope so. It's a Monday after a particularly busy weekend, and I cannot guarantee that I'm managing to get my thoughts out in a coherent stream.

If nothing else, you have my support in continuing with your interpretive work.

[peaceful_fox]

Shhhh. You can't tell anyone that he was a temple priest at Atlantis. It's a secret, except for of course, those that buy his new book, "I Was a Temple Priest at Atlantis" for $29.95. ::::evil grin::::

All kidding aside, I think this work is helpful as well.

[chronarchy]

Shush! I don't need people telling folk what my next book is titled and what it's about!

[chronarchy]

Thanks. I'm big on labeling, after I've found numerous interpretations of the Esus myth that . . . well, they make no sense, but they're presented as "Ooh, this is the Gaulish myth of Esus and his bull!" Like this one: creative, pretty, and complete speculation.

The thing I worry most about, I think, is someone stumbling on it and co-opting what I'm doing and thinking it's somehow authentic. *shivers* If someone thinks I know what I'm doing, well . . . *shivers again* :)

[dragynphyre]

You shouldn't have to worry too much, though if it's creative and pretty enough, it'll wind up on someone else's website and you'll have to worry about them calling it authentic (if they even credit the author at all...)

[chronarchy]

This is certainly true!