#neopaganism

[creature-wizard]

"All pagans should have to believe X" Oh, you want universal neopagan orthodoxy, do you? Should we have a neopagan Council of Nicaea about it? Should we print catechisms? Should we punish people for not conforming to your orthodoxy?

[mikeybooch]

@classicstober day 6: The Moirai aka. the Fates. Three goddesses feared by mortal and immortal alike. Clotho, who spun the thread of fate. Lachesis, who allotted each mortal their length of time on this plane of existence. And Atropos, whose dread shears cut each thread.

Sometimes the fates are depicted as beautiful goddesses, other times they are a trio of crones, in more modern depictions, it has become popular to depict them in the neopagan style of maiden, mother, and crone. I chose to give them theatrical masks to diversify them as well as give them a more mysterious appearance. For my design I imagine their faces, as well as the fates they deal in are unknowable to all… Even the other gods.

I believe in the maiden, mother, crone dynamic, Clotho is often depicted as the younger fate since she is first in the order. But In Plato’s “Republic” it is says that “Lachesis sing[s] the things that were, Clotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be” so I gave Lachesis the younger looking mask and style of dress.

[juniper-divination-and-witchery]

The "All Snakes Day" Myth: What Actually Happened in Ireland

Every March, the same story circulates in pagan spaces:

St. Patrick's "snakes" were Druids

Patrick was a conqueror

March 17th is a holiday celebrating the destruction of Irish paganism

The problem is that none of these points are true. Ireland never had snakes. The snake miracle was invented centuries after Patrick died. And the Christianization of Ireland looked nothing like a genocide. The "All Snakes Day" story feels meaningful, but it's built on fabrications — and pagans interested in Irish history deserve the actual record instead.

Where "All Snakes Day" Comes From

The pagan author and Druid Isaac Bonewits coined the term "All Snakes Day" and wrote songs about welcoming the "snakes" back to Ireland. Wild Hunt, 2012 The claim is that Patrick's "snakes" were actually Druids, making his legendary snake-banishing a stand-in for pagan persecution. The idea spread through neopagan communities online in the 2000s and 2010s and became a seasonal staple.

Bonewits was the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin and a well-known figure in American paganism, which helped give the story credibility in some circles.

Ireland Never Had Snakes

The most basic problem with the All Snakes Day story: there are no snakes in Ireland's fossil record at all.

Ireland's land bridge to Britain closed around 8,500 years ago as glaciers melted after the last Ice Age. Snakes hadn't reached Ireland before the sea cut the connection. Popular Science, 2024 Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland, reviewed the fossil record and put it plainly: "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland — nothing for St. Patrick to banish." National Geographic

In fact, writers were already noting Ireland's lack of snakes before Patrick was even born. The Roman author Solinus recorded it in the 3rd century CE. Science Musings Patrick had nothing to do with it.

The Snake Miracle Was Added Centuries Later

Patrick's earliest biographies were written in the 7th century, about 200 years after his death. The snake miracle appears in none of them.

The story first shows up in the 11th century. A more well-known version was written by Jocelin of Furness in the 12th century. Ireland's Folklore and Traditions

Celtic Reconstructionist scholar P. Sufenas Virius Lupus said in 2012:

The hagiographies of St. Patrick did not include this particular 'miracle' until quite late, relatively speaking — his earliest hagiographies are from the 7th century, whereas this incident doesn't turn up in any of them until the 11th century. Wild Hunt, 2012

There's also a logic problem with the "Druids as snakes" reading. The 7th century biographies by Muirchú and Tírechán have Patrick fighting Druids constantly. He fights them openly, with earthquakes, curses, and skull-crushing. Wikipedia: Muirchú moccu Machtheni If later writers wanted to describe a purge of Druids, they had no reason to suddenly become cryptic. It had already been said plainly.

The earliest anyone proposed that snakes meant Druids was W.Y. Evans-Wentz in Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries (1911) and even he called it personal speculation. Morgan Daimler, reviewing the text, described the logic as "faulty." Living Liminally

What the Conversion of Ireland Actually Looked Like

Christianity was already in Ireland before Patrick arrived.

In 431 CE, Pope Celestine sent a bishop named Palladius to Ireland as the "first bishop to the Scotti believing in Christ." The wording matters: you don't send a bishop to a community that doesn't exist yet. There were already Christians there. Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronicon, 431 CE, via Wikipedia: Palladius Britannica History Ireland

The real Patrick was, in his own telling, enslaved in Ireland as a teenager, escaped, and came back as a missionary. His own writing describes beatings, robbery, and real doubt about whether his work had any lasting effect. Strange Horizons / Bridgette Da Silva Living Liminally He was not a conqueror, and his writings are still readable today at confession.ie.

The druid-fighting warrior version of Patrick came from Muirchú's 7th century Vita Sancti Patricii, written about 200 years after Patrick's death. It had a clear political goal: promoting the Armagh church's claim to lead all of Irish Christianity. Wikipedia: Muirchú Strange Horizons It's church propaganda, not a historical record.

Ireland stayed mostly pagan for eight or nine generations after Patrick died. Living Liminally, citing Da Silva Druids kept working as folk magicians and diviners. Irish law texts from the 7th and 8th centuries CE still describe druids (draoithe) as active in society. Wikipedia: Druid Some joined the Christian clergy as that became the new intellectual class. Strange Horizons, citing Peter Berresford Ellis

Pagan beliefs didn't die. They blended. Samhain became All Saints' Day. Brigid's feast overlapped with Imbolc. Belief in the fairy folk was still alive when Irish schoolchildren recorded local folklore from older community members in the 1930s that is now accessible on Dúchas.ie.

This conversion was a slow process that took centuries. It was not a genocide. There is no historical evidence of a violent purge of Druids.

Why the Myth Keeps Circulating

The "pagan survival" idea — that modern paganism descends from an unbroken pre-Christian lineage that survived persecution — is emotionally appealing but historically weak. Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon (Oxford University Press, 1999) showed that modern pagan witchcraft is a new religious movement, not an ancient survival. The claimed ancient roots are mostly Victorian and 20th-century inventions. All Snakes Day fits this pattern: a modern story that feels like recovered history.

The genocide framing also gives communities a shared story of persecution and a sense of historical roots. But it's not a good reason to accept bad history.

The story also gets used as a simple argument against Catholicism and Christianity, turning a complex religious shift into a villain story. That doesn't help anyone who actually wants to understand Ireland.

These myths ends up hurting Irish and Irish diaspora communities trying to connect with real heritage. The people most drawn to the story often end up with invented history instead of the real thing.

What to Do Instead

The impulse behind All Snakes Day is not the problem. Celebrating pre-Christian Irish culture, honoring Ireland's traditions before Christianity, wearing a snake pin — none of that needs a fake genocide behind it.

The Henge of Keltria offers a "Feast of Age" as a March 17th alternative: a community celebration not built on invented history. The Witching Path

Better still: learn what Irish people actually did on St. Patrick's Day. The Dúchas Schools' Collection — a collection of folklore recorded by Irish schoolchildren in the late 1930s — documents the real customs: the shamrock's religious meaning, the "drowning the shamrock" drinking tradition, St. Patrick's Cross worn by women and children, the sally stick carried for household protection, holy well patterns, and farming markers tied to the agricultural year. All those traditions are covered in my next article.

You can also critique the plastic Paddy commercialization, the green beer, the novelty hats, the way Irish-American culture rebuilt the holiday, without inventing victims to make the point.

The actual history of Ireland's religious shift is more interesting than the myth. Beliefs layered and blended over centuries. Druids became clergy. Fairy faith lived alongside Christianity into living memory. That story is worth knowing and worth protecting from the tidier, false version.

[booksandwitchery]

Just checking in--is pagan/witchcraft Tumblr still alive?

Doing a pulse check here because I really do miss this community and want to be more active.

[theoxenia]

as much as I do geniunely value academic work on ancient religions & think its very valuable for modern polytheism. my pet peeve is when non-pagan academics (or just history nerds tbh) react to smth like a post by a polytheist, defining their own practice or their own theology, with "well that's not how xyz was done!" "that's not how xyz was originally thought of!" and/or treating modern polytheism like a cool experiment and not actual people's genuinely held religious beliefs.

it all comes down to a lack of understanding of what it means to revive these religions? like they are living faiths. polytheists aren't just cosplay or historical reenactors. and its especially wild when we are talking about faiths that had such diversity over thousands of years, over various different communities, over millions of different individuals.

im not talking about correcting misinformation or providing a new historical perspective. its the attitude of "your faith is illegitimate, or less legitimate, to me because its not just a recreation of what this religion looked like (to me) over 2000 years ago in a completely different time and social context!" that gets to me.

and because of how history works, what ends up happening is whatever wealthy land owning literate men in whatever period of time is most well-known practiced becomes the definition of the entire religion. so queer people and women and people of color get condescended to because their faith is more anti-patriarchal and anti-imperialist. again, in faiths KNOWN to be extremely diverse in thought and practice, with SO MANY practitioners who undoubtedly had much different perspectives than the mainstream one that just didn't get recorded.

polytheists aren't practicing our religions to entertain or impress anybody but ourselves and our ancestors and our gods. you need to engage with modern polytheism as a legitimate and LIVING form of spirituality, not just going through the motions of a dead and static religion from a dusty textbook. & I say that as a lover of dusty textbooks!

[deethewitch]

𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 & 𝑆𝑦𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑚

To anyone who's been in the Pagan or Spiritual communities for a while now, the appropriation of different traditions, the debates over modernization and the confusion over the term 'Syncretism', is probably something you've witnessed firsthand. When incorporating an aspect of a faith tradition or adding a new deity into your practice, it is important to research the history surrounding that deity or tradition. 𝓐𝓹𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 Appropriation is when a practice, deity or other tradition is taken out of it's cultural or religious context and used inappropriately, some common examples would be non-Indigenous people using smudging supplies and techniques, using offerings or practices that would be considered offensive to a deity's culture when working with specific gods, or practicing certain closed practices without proper initiation. 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 Modernization is the practice of taking something very old and adapting how you use or practice with that thing to better fit the modern era, modernization in and of itself is not appropriative, and modernizing religious and spiritual practices is often extremely necessary(we can't exactly go around practicing human sacrifice anymore *sigh*), however modernization CAN become appropriative if it is not done with respect and knowledge of the original practices, examples of this would be the commercialization of magical supplies like tarot cards or crystals, offering menstrual blood to hellenic deities, or the wicca-fication of modern paganism. 𝓢𝔂𝓷𝓬𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓼𝓶 Syncretism is the meshing of practices and beliefs, the practice of syncretism is as old as the concept of religion itself, and it is nearly impossible to not practice syncretism, even if you aren't always aware of it! Examples of this would be deity syncretism like Isis-Aphrodite or Serapis, practices such as Folk Catholicism, Santeria or Christopaganism, or folk magic systems. 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓲𝔃𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓻 𝓢𝔂𝓷𝓬𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓲𝔃𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓹𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 Incorporating some level of modernization to your practice is nearly unavoidable, but it is important to have a good grasp of how to do so without becoming appropriative, so here are some Do's and Dont's for modernizing! 𝓓𝓸 ♡ Research the history of the practice you are trying to modernize. ♡ Research what was and wasn't considered offensive regarding that practice in ancient times. ♡ Ensure the practice you are interested in is not closed. ♡ Be creative! Modernizing ancient practices takes not only research but creativity, find ways to adjust practices that are appropriate to the practice and are accessible to your lifestyle. ♡ Consider researching historical syncretism if applicable to what you are trying to modernize. 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 ♡ Ignore actions or things that were considered deeply offensive to the original practice(i.e. offering something considered impure or offensive to a specific pantheon). ♡ Steal practices from a closed tradition you are not a part of. ♡ "Research" historical practices purely off social media, if you want to build a practice, you need to dig a little deeper than that! ♡ Push new age/wiccan concepts, guidelines or traditions onto other spiritual traditions. ♡ Ignore people who are more experienced in a specific tradition, take their guidance!

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Green Egg, magazine, Vol. VI, No. 54, Church of All Worlds, Beltane AA13, May 1, 1973