No title available
noise dept.
Misplaced Lens Cap
Love Begins
Cosmic Funnies
One Nice Bug Per Day
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Peter Solarz
Origami Around
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
No title available
roma★
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Show & Tell
Janaina Medeiros
No title available
shark vs the universe
tumblr dot com
DEAR READER
dirt enthusiast
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Brazil
seen from Portugal
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
@deuognatos
Hello followers!
As you may have noticed, this blog is on hiatus. However, I am still writing on my other blog, and have been posting some Gaul-related stuff on there lately. It's possible I may try to fold these two blogs together, in which case, go follow me over there.
Going on Semi-Indefinite Hiatus
No deletions this time. :) I haven't had anything to write about for a long time, and when I do make big research posts, it feels like I am doing a lot of work for very little return. I don't really feel a part of the pagan community on tumblr anymore. If you want to chat, send me a note. I may pick this blog up if I get the recon bug hard again, but right now it's looking more like I will stick to my own corner of the internet in quiet.
Sometimes I wonder why I keep calling myself recon… Sure, that’s the worldview that I have when it comes to my religion, but I’m pretty far from it these days. I love my research but I don’t do it often anymore. I focus a lot on UPG…
I think the term ‘reconstruction’ is seriously flawed, which is why I wrote about HIP as an alternative. One of the general Kemetic themes is THE WORD has power. Use of a word that points us in the wrong direction may be one of the reasons why some people who are serious about research are leaving the term behind.
'Reconstruction' as an accurate description has some serious problems. It's an impossible goal. There are also plenty of negative aspects of ancient culture. I think it's a mistake to sugarcoat the ancient world, and there are a lot of things that I want to say “Nope, not here, not now” to. In a way, ‘recon’ sounds like being a civil war re-enactor. You might work hard to research your uniform and gear, making sure you have the right buttons and nothing else is anachronistic. But it’s dressup and playacting (and on the plus side, education.) But you’re not really a 1860’s era person, and their day-to-day issues and life aren’t yours.
If you are reconstructing something, you’re trying to make an accurate copy (of something with missing parts.) A reconstructed ancient building wouldn’t have flush toilets, indoor plumbing, electric lights, wireless hotspots, refrigeration, climate control, etc. You’re trying to guess what it was like, but you’re not supposed to improve anything. Actual function takes a back seat to appearance. So to me, the HIP idea means that we’re making something new on old foundations. Our research, especially in ‘how things work’ (like Living in Ma’at) helps us make something much better. And we don’t want limit the religion we’re living to being an imperfect copy. We should aim for the ideal they couldn’t reach.
This isn’t exactly what I’m getting at, though… It isn’t that reconstructionists are trying to recreate exactly ancient religions and cultures. I don’t associate recon with reenactment. I know a ton of reenactors who aren’t even pagan, and if they are, aren’t recon. Then again, I’ve met a few pretty cool reconstructionists who were reenactors. There’s some similar methodology and fingerpointing (FARB vs. fluff kinda gets at it), but I don’t really think it’s a fair assessment… My experience with recon religions is that they do aspire to be living with the current times. While it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing exactly what ancient peoples did, that isn’t the goal, and I don’t think it ever has been. The goal has always been to try to at least get things right enough that if you took a time traveler from the past he might recognize the modern culture as an evolution of his own.
My issues with calling myself recon is sort of twofold. On the one hand, the above-mentioned way of doing recon was something I felt important for a long time. I tempered research with UPG, and for the most part my UPG and my research aligned with each other. The problems started when my UPG veered off the beaten path and then kept veering consistently over time. The way I interact with deities such as Cernunnos, Maponos, Epona, or Ogmios are not the same sorts of deities who I first interacted with when I was doing hardcore reconstructionism. It isn’t just learning new things about deities. Eventually I felt like I was scraping away at the Iron Age stuff until I got back to Bronze Age, then starting to get back even earlier. The whole process has been unnerving for me because I have had to let go of a lot of my old notions of the gods and give myself up to UPG more than I would have before.
As of this moment, my UPG comes first and my research acts as a stabilizer to keep me grounded. I’m no longer practicing Gaulish religion in a form the ancient Gauls would recognize. It isn’t about recreating it; it’s about a faithful evolution. One man’s UPG is not an evolution of a living tradition. Trying to stick close to what I know of Gaulish religion has not helped me to grow spiritually in the past several months, but looking to gnosis and storytelling has created a new path that makes me feel good. However, it’s not really recon. I’m not trying to bring the religion of Ancient Gaul into a modern context anymore. I am scraping at the roots of experiential knowledge to form an experiential tradition of magical storytelling.
I have deities now that I recognize as being derived from or possibly ancestors to figures like Cernunnos, Epona, Sucellos, and Matrona, but they don’t act or feel much like the figures of Gallo-Roman epigraphy. They’re a bit more wild, a bit closer tied to death and hunting. Most of what I do now is hero worship and ancestor veneration rather than honoring deities. I’ve lost a lot of piety but I’ve gained a lot of self-knowledge. Is that a bad thing? No. But it’s not really recon. I don’t hit the books when I go looking for answers, nor do I pray at my altar. I’m not even certain I’m worshiping the gods of Gaul anymore, more like weird proto-Celtic variants. It’s a whole different sort of framework.
So yeah, I guess those are my reasons. XD I’m not calling for a change of terminology of recon practices. I’m just saying those practices no longer apply to my way of worship.
Here's the whole thread for folks who don't follow my main blog! If you're wondering why deuognatos is quiet lately... this is why.
Autumn by etainfey
Goats, fertility, lunar things... Makes me think of Ataegina.
"What Is Celtic?" A 101:
Got the idea to do this because of a few things I have seen in pagan tags and the “celtic” tag. I think it’d be useful to talk about a bit, so that everyone has the vocabulary to distinguish between gods who might be calling them, different things that interest them, etc.
What is Celtic?
Celtic is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of cultures. The most important thing to learn about the word “Celtic” is that it does not, on its own, describe anything. It is only an umbrella term. Think of it as an adjective without a noun. There are many Celtic cultures, many of which (but not all!) speak Celtic languages. The term “Celtic” usually refers to language groups above all things. While there are many awesome and fascinating modern Celtic cultures, since this is a pagan blog, we’re going to talk about ancient polytheistic Celtic cultures. What is important to note here is that Celtic cultures are not interchangeable with each other. Each has a unique culture, unique deities, unique religious practices, and was culturally distinct from its neighbors, both Celtic and non-Celtic. This is the most important part. I often see people asking about “The Celtic Pantheon,” and I usually can’t help them very well because there was no such thing… There are, however, many individual pantheons that a person might be interested in:
Ireland
Language: Irish
Deities and heroes you may know: The Morrigan, the Daghda, Aoife, Fionn MacCumhaill, Dierdre, Lugh, Cuchulainn (more complete list of Irish mythological figures)
Scotland
Language: Scottish Gaelic
Deities and heroes you may known: Shared with Ireland, but with local alterations to folklore and especially folk practice (Scottish Mythology on Wikipedia)
Wales
Language: Welsh
Deities and heroes you may know: Arianrhod, Rhiannon, Pwyll, Arawn, Gwyn ap Nudd, Mabon, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, and many early versions of Arthurian figures (Welsh Mythology on Wikipedia)
Iron-Age Britain
Language: Brittonic or Gallo-Brittonic
Deities and heroes you may know: Nodens, Andraste, Brigantia, Toutatis, Sulis (British Iron Age on Wikipedia)
Gaul
Language: Gaulish
Deities and heroes you may know: Cernunnos, Toutatis, Taranis, Esus, Lugus, Matrona, Rosmerta (Wikipedia unfortunately has no article on Gaulish religion but does have one on Gaul and a hub for Gaulish and Brittonic Deities; note that there is a small degree of crossover but also a high degree of native deities on both sides of the channel)
Celtic Iberia and Lusitania
Language: Celtiberian, Lusitanian
Deities you may have heard of: Bandua, Endouellicus, Ataegina (Lusitanian Mythology on Wikipedia)
And all the rest:
I have barely scratched the surface here with this overview, but I hope that it was helpful and informative! With any luck, it will give those interested some useful jumping off points to begin research and learning.
- dewognatos
I went looking for this post and realized I hadn't put it back on the new blog yet! Now that is fixed.
Thanks for your post "A friendly reminder". I come from Scottish and Welsh blood though I live in the States and this has helped me tremendously. I was getting quite frustrated trying to find what I was looking for.
You're welcome! Is there anything in particular you're looking for? Maybe I or one of my followers has some useful sites or resources that would help. :)
these are so nifty!
I need to make myself a couple of these.
HEY MIRES. Craft day?
Ok, I need to make some of these. I dislike my current lack of ritual space.
Hello everyone!
Sorry for my long absence. I have been going through a lot lately, lots of shifts of thought patterns and belief systems, and had to take a break to sort of wait for things to normalize. I am checking my inbox now, though. :)
”..The God Graveyard, old gods that have been worshiped throughout our history but are no longer prayed to, how many more will be thrown into the wind?…”
That’s really creative and ingenious
umm… most, if not all (I can’t say for sure since I don’t know exactly who’s in this “graveyard”), of these gods are still worshipped and prayed to and have power for the people who are devoted to them.
I am emerging from tumblr absence to add my "wow this is super fucked up" to this list. The gods aren't dead. They're still worshipped by many, many people... I'm curious to know if this person even bothered to look up the religions they were "creatively" disparaging.
I'm sure Freyja enjoyed her booze and flowers though. So at least one good thing came of this... :/
Does Iberia count as nearby? If so, would you like to make a post about Ataegina? If not, maybe Arduinna?
Sure! I can do both. :) I've been meaning to do some research on Ataegina, so this is a really good excuse.
Life is tough for the old gods these days, but some of the savvier ones managed to use this modern world to their advantage and regain their power.
This idea — that without worshipers gods die or lose power — is one of my most hated tropes and concepts. It seems to me a Christian overlay designed to make people think their old gods were dead, or to make other religions look idiotic or useless. I’ve experienced deities with very few woshippers, or deities who seem to have only one, and their power is no less… I wish it showed up on fiction a lot less than it does.
It really isn’t a Christian idea, though.
It actually relates back to the concept that sacrifices to the gods fed them and so if a decline in worship (therefore sacrifices) occurred then they would starve.
If I recall correctly, it was very much a notion that priests and priestesses tried to dismiss but was still commonly believed by many lay people of various different faiths. (I’d imagine some less educated Jews may have believed the same thing.)
If this idea existed in ancient pagan religions, it almost certainly did not exist in Northern and Western European religions. I have never heard a single reference to this concept. Sacrifice is, in that context, intended to be a gift exchange indicating hospitality. It is a gift given for a gift, or else a gift given to welcome a deity into a space. The gods may eat it, but it’s not necessary for their survival. The gift only needs to be accepted. It’s possible that the idea existed in paganisms from other parts of the world, but again, not once in all of my readings, research, or, you know, university classes taken on religion and anthropology, have I ever heard this concept. I believe I have heard something similar about Kemetic worship, however. This doesn’t mean the same concept applies across all polytheistic cultures.
That’s true!
My point was meant to be that this idea is actually a misunderstanding of a faith by its own followers (at least in some religions,) Sacrifices aren’t intended to sustain the existence of the gods, generally speaking, but many people actually thought that that was the purpose.
I’m not certain how it began to be spread to apply to others, save for the fact that many people make the common mistake of lumping all ancient faiths together. I’m sure there were plenty of Christians who believed this idea also, as they would have been more likely to be surrounded by the lesser educated ancient people and not the actual priests.
They therefore, may have been the ones to spread this concept, but if I recall correctly its origins come from internal misunderstandings. (I haven’t had a chance to go find where I read that, so I can’t say which cultures in specific.)
Dropping in to mention it’s not a thing in Hellenic religion either. Their approach was that the Gods liked offerings and deserved offerings but didn’t need them to function, because that would imply the Gods are dependent on humans for their survival and that’s a no no.
Ah, I see where you're going with that. The point is still that it's not a natively pagan way of looking at the world, and it's still an Abrahamic overlay. It's still my most hated and inaccurate trope. I'd like to see a piece of fiction or film that understands the reality of sacrifice and the independence of the gods.
Life is tough for the old gods these days, but some of the savvier ones managed to use this modern world to their advantage and regain their power.
This idea — that without worshipers gods die or lose power — is one of my most hated tropes and concepts. It seems to me a Christian overlay designed to make people think their old gods were dead, or to make other religions look idiotic or useless. I’ve experienced deities with very few woshippers, or deities who seem to have only one, and their power is no less… I wish it showed up on fiction a lot less than it does.
It really isn’t a Christian idea, though.
It actually relates back to the concept that sacrifices to the gods fed them and so if a decline in worship (therefore sacrifices) occurred then they would starve.
If I recall correctly, it was very much a notion that priests and priestesses tried to dismiss but was still commonly believed by many lay people of various different faiths. (I’d imagine some less educated Jews may have believed the same thing.)
If this idea existed in ancient pagan religions, it almost certainly did not exist in Northern and Western European religions. I have never heard a single reference to this concept. Sacrifice is, in that context, intended to be a gift exchange indicating hospitality. It is a gift given for a gift, or else a gift given to welcome a deity into a space. The gods may eat it, but it's not necessary for their survival. The gift only needs to be accepted. It's possible that the idea existed in paganisms from other parts of the world, but again, not once in all of my readings, research, or, you know, university classes taken on religion and anthropology, have I ever heard this concept. I believe I have heard something similar about Kemetic worship, however. This doesn't mean the same concept applies across all polytheistic cultures.
Life is tough for the old gods these days, but some of the savvier ones managed to use this modern world to their advantage and regain their power.
This idea -- that without worshipers gods die or lose power -- is one of my most hated tropes and concepts. It seems to me a Christian overlay designed to make people think their old gods were dead, or to make other religions look idiotic or useless. I've experienced deities with very few woshippers, or deities who seem to have only one, and their power is no less... I wish it showed up on fiction a lot less than it does.
I am most likely going to need them for a paper for college, and I have no idea where to begin! (Also I’m a bit curious to learn about it, since I see it mentioned so much around the tumblr pagan-verse.)
HEY! I found some things to at least look at.
This supposedly she’s one of the few really reputable authors on it
What the hell. Lemme fix that.
1
2
3 This says Shaan, but comes highly recommended.
4 He’s an old school Heathen, probably worth digging through his site for sources
…Hopefully those’ll work now. How embarrassing
Thank you! Some of those seem a bit less citable in a university paper, but I can get them for my own knowledge and then dig through their sources to look for articles and stuff. Thank you so much! All of them work now. :D
The Jenny Blain book is good. I would definitely recommend it. I would also check on the (gasp!) wikipedia article, if only to get some sources (but I think it has some good summaries). The Saga of Eric the Red has one of the better accounts of a seidhr, so I would definitely read it. Jan Fries’ Seidways is a little iffy, but if you can find it for cheap, it might be worth it for the little bit of good information it does have. Probably can’t use it as a reference, but it might give you some ideas of where else to look.
Seidhr is really hard to learn about because we just don’t really know much about it. Modern practitioners follow Diana Paxson’s flavor of seidhr, but even that is recreated with a lot of guess work and assumptions.
Good luck! And I’m definitely interested in what you’re working on.
Yay, thanks! I'll let you know what I find. The paper is on the reliability of textual and archaeological evidence, so I'm going to try to focus on seidhr, since I know there's a lot of variability going on as to the archaeology of it and interpretations of it. Plus, it'll let me talk about Finno-Ugric stuff, which is readily available in any anthropology department.
I'm also interested in learning if there might have been Germanic overlays onto it that might parallel the bardic stuff I've been researching/experimenting with. I know just from my class the paper is for that chanting and singing play a major role, so I am curious. And wikipedia is great for finding sources! Thanks, I didn't even think of that! I'll definitely let you know what I find.
I am most likely going to need them for a paper for college, and I have no idea where to begin! (Also I’m a bit curious to learn about it, since I see it mentioned so much around the tumblr pagan-verse.)
HEY! I found some things to at least look at.
This supposedly she’s one of the few really reputable authors on it
What the hell. Lemme fix that.
1
2
3 This says Shaman, but comes highly recommended.
4 He’s an old school Heathen, probably worth digging through his site for sources
…Hopefully those’ll work now. How embarrassing
Thank you! Some of those seem a bit less citable in a university paper, but I can get them for my own knowledge and then dig through their sources to look for articles and stuff. Thank you so much! All of them work now. :D
Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of scholarly/academic resources on seidhr?
I am most likely going to need them for a paper for college, and I have no idea where to begin! (Also I’m a bit curious to learn about it, since I see it mentioned so much around the tumblr pagan-verse.)
HEY! I found some things to at least look at.
This supposedly she’s one of the few really reputable authors on it
This I actually wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve read this already
Article This is less of a source and more of an exposition, but I know the author and he’s pretty knowledgable in general
I don’t know how difficult it could potentially be to get a hold of the Price book, but I think it’s one of the best ones available if you can get it. These sources are off recommendations of my super recon Asatru online community, so I know that it’s going to at least be educational. :)
Thank you for the sources! That should help a lot! :D However, only one seems to be linked properly? The others are repeats.
Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of scholarly/academic resources on seidhr?
I am most likely going to need them for a paper for college, and I have no idea where to begin! (Also I'm a bit curious to learn about it, since I see it mentioned so much around the tumblr pagan-verse.)
