Syncretism Slaps: A Guide
Hello everyone, and welcome to my guide to syncretism in the Irish Polytheistic context! This is a long one so text is under the cut.
Syncretism is defined in anthropology as the hybridization or amalgamation of two or more cultural traditions. Syncretism is an attempt to reconcile disparate ideologies and practices, to blend schools of thought, and to find a sense of unity and togetherness where there exists two or more distinct religions and mythologies. When used in a religious context, such as this one, it frequently refers to the blending of beliefs and myths from various cultures. It is important to remember that syncretism is a natural process, humans are communal animals and it is in our nature to try to relate to those of other cultures by drawing connections between, and when in prolonged cohabitation to mimic aspects of each other’s cultures.
In the context of the Irish conversion to Christianity there are several key things that we are Irish Polytheists need to keep in mind:
Irish conversion was peaceful - there was no inquisition where the church sent in crusaders and holy men to massacre and torture the pagans. St Padraig’s snakes weren’t pagans, I am begging y’all to read an actual history book.
The Early Church is almost definitely not what you think it is - think for a moment about the image your mind conjures when I say the words “early church” if you immediately jump to anything at all resembling Rodrigo Borgia or Gothic Cathedrals, congratulations you are several centuries too late! The early Catholic church was not centralized, and there would be no real papal authority over Ireland until a good five or six centuries after the initial point of conversion. We’ll come back to this in a bit.
We don’t have written records of lore from the pagan Irish - they don’t exist, almost every extant use of ogham is a name marker. We only have recorded lore because of Irish monks who determined that the myths of the pagan Irish were worth recording, because the Irish Catholic Church decided that there was value in our lore.
So, some big takeaways here- the Irish conversion was peaceful, it was a peaceful marriage of cultures and ideas, the early church was wild, and the early church wrote down our lore- but how exactly did this process play out?
So back to the early church, picking up where I left off in bullet point #2- Ireland was left without papal supervision for... a good long while- which means that Catholicism in Ireland was distinctly Irish, as said in a lovely little book published in preparation for the pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979 (1)
But when the Church became a social institution of the clans it was not by changing the way of life of the clans in accordance with Roman Catholic doctrine, but by changing Roman Catholic doctrine and organisation to make them tally with the way of the clans.
Even Pope Saint Gregory I (pope from 590 - 604) made allowances for the continuation of pagan traditions if they made the conversion to Christianity easier, saying “to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God.” (2) In this period, to quote @liminalblessings, “the church did not give two fucks what you were doing as long as it was christian flavored.”
So, what all does this mean? It means that while there may not have been carryover of pagan thought (and seriously get out of here with that shit, there’s over a decade of historical research proving that idea wrong), that there was a carryover of pagan Irish culture and tradition. But it especially means that the clergy of Ireland were in a unique position, the recorded lore we have is representative of the culture conversion era/transitional era Ireland, free from the control of the centralized Catholic church, but with a Christian influence that is distinct from any other in the world.
There is no modern Irish Polytheism without Christian influence, it’s a new religion- the gods are old yes, but there was no historical carryover, no existence of constant practitioners of the faith, we built this practice ourselves- and the lore we built it on, was written by monks. There is no modern Irish Polytheism without the syncretism of the early church.
Yes, this means that our lore is written from a Christian viewpoint- but think for just a moment about how beautiful that is, how incredible that the clergy of one religion took the time, and expended the (very expensive) materials to record the lore of those who didn’t believe as they did- and not only did they record it, but they tried to make it acceptable in the eyes of their god, because they saw value in it and shared a culture with those who had believed it, and because that very lore influenced their worldview and their faith.
Quotes from :
Athol Books. The Rise of Papal Power in Ireland (Cork: Athol Books, 1983).
St Bede. Trans. L.C. Jane. The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (New York: Cosimo Classics, 1910).
And as always, if you want more resources on syncretism please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for a reading list, and I’m more than happy to send over pdfs I’ve downloaded!