Round the Herne

  My reading of the final chapter of Gore Vidal's "Julian" (1962) and a reflection on some of the themes in the novel and what it has to say about society both then and now. It's an excellent book, highly recommended and, like all great works, stimulates more questions than it answers. Without spoiling anything, this final chapter is a reflection by one of the key figures in the book on life after the Emperor Julian has died and Christianity reasserted itself. Even though it was penned in 1962, this book raises issues that are still relevant in 2024.

 A discussion with a friend on social media prompted this philosophical musing about the vast popularity of murder as a form of entertainment - films, TV shows, novels (my own included) etc. Along the meandering way there is consideration of Christian theology (well, more soteriology really), the psychological craving for order in the face of chaos, Kantian ethics, and a few other asides.

 A reflection (or ramble) on the Jungian concept of synchronicity mainly for the benefit of the Suffolk Jungian Circle who are discussing this idea at the end of the month. It may, of course, interest others and it would be interesting to hear if anyone else has experiences to share around synchronicitous or meaningfully coincidental events happening in their lives.

 As previously mentioned, I gave the Annual Faith Lecture at the university campus in Ipswich, talking about animism and paganism and their involvement with environmentalism. The talk lasted an hour and the questions after were about half as much again. I made a recording of the talk, as near as I could remember it. Hopefully it might prove of interest to at least some subscribers to this blog.

 Every year I coordinate a programme of open lectures ad seminars on various topics for the college. Due to covid-19 restrictions we have started to combine live attendance from students with the virtual presence of outside guests. When the technology works, we record them and I will share some of them here. If any blog-readers would like to join events virtually, let me know and I will post the links for Microsoft Teams. The recording here is from a lecture on Carl Jung's use of alchemical imagery to explain the development of the human psyche. The rest of the 2021-22 programme is given below - email me at robin.herne@wsc.ac.uk if you want to receive the links to join in (the time are for the UK, just in case you are tuning in from more distant regions). Tuesday 16 th November, 2pm to 4.30pm (TG1.15) – The Big Three. Robin Herne leads a discussion of the explanations of Life offered by major thinkers in early psychology – Freud, Fromm, & Jung. Monday 29 th November, 2pm...

 The other week at work I ran a seminar on Jean Baudrillard's theories around the nature of hyper-reality in a world as immersed in mass media as ours is. Following a few questions and emails afterwards I started musing about how Baudrillard's ideas might apply within modern paganism. I've yet to more towards anything like a cohesive idea on this, but the podcast is part of the reflective process of toying with concepts. Hopefully viewers might provide some feedback and ideas of their own, which will help with reaching something a little more concrete. The French sociologist's ideas are merging in this meander with those of the Australian scholar of religion, Adam Possamai. He draws on a fair amount on Baudrillard and writes about hyper-real religions (ones heavily influenced or based entirely upon works of openly acknowledged fiction). Possamai regards paganism as decidedly hyper-real. On consideration I find myself rather agreeing with him (though I have hopes that th...

 This was a seminar given on the afternoon of 16th January 2021 via Facebook Live as an activity for the Ipswich Pagan Council, looking at ways in which Jungian theory can be applied to the understanding and practice of modern paganism. I asked the people tuning in to the live broadcast to donate £5 to The Dogs Trust. If you find this recording useful or interesting, perhaps you would also like to donate? If you are unfamiliar with Facebook Live, it allows viewers to type questions, comments etc. None of the comments can be seen in this recording, but knowing that I could see the messages at the time may help to contextualise who it is that I am responding to. For once it is not the voices in my head. Should you have any questions or feedback, please post your comments here on the blog.  

 The final instalment of the short series of seminars looking at theology within the pagan traditions. This one looks at notions of theodicy (why do people suffer; why are some people so horrible) and touches briefly on ethical codes in different traditions. If you have any questions, post them here and I will answer in the message section (or it might inspire a future podcast).

 The second instalment (a few days late going up due to the mayhem of life) looks at different understandings of deity in various forms of paganism and touches briefly on other orders of spiritual beings. If you have any questions for the third and final part, please add them to the comment section below. As previously, if you find this useful please make a donation to a food-bank or similar kind of charity in a place near you.

 Finally got round to putting together the short intro to Pagan Theology, having talked about it for months on end. This course will be in three parts, each uploaded on Thursday evenings and exploring different aspects of theology for pagans. I was going to do this as a live podcast, but various factors have made that difficult so I've opted for pre-records instead. If you have any questions or there are specific topics you would like covered in future instalments, please add your comments to this post. In the spirit of reciprocity (as mentioned in this first recording), if you find this series useful or interesting, please "pay" for it by making a donation to a food-bank or similar service near you - whether donations of actual food or through a monetary gift to them. If you're more of an animal-person then help feed the residents of an animal shelter local to your neighbourhood.

This talk was given at the IPC October Moot, looking at some vaguely connected ideas around the magical nature of language. Due to the need to edit out some "colourful comments" emanating from the audience I've used a free editing service which includes the watermark - I'm far too much of a cheapskate to pay for the upgrade and get the watermark removed.

A friend has enrolled on a Jungian course and asked about the Trickster archetype, so this video covers a few rambling thoughts about the matter - looking at how this challenging, boundary-pushing, sometimes humorous archetype can be thought of as manifesting via the four personality types that Jung describes, plus some ideas on its expression through paganism and wider culture. Towards the end I mention a little about the thoughts of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin on the topic of carnivalesque - a chaotic, uproarious theme in a few novels, paintings, stage plays etc. as well as celebrated worldwide from ancient pagan ritual through to the Notting Hill Carnival today.

In September I gave a live talk via Facebook for my publisher (Moon Books), talking about Ancient Egyptian religion as a taster for the new book. Might be of some interest to people who tune in to this blog on occasion. 

Having received a few questions about the previous recording of the talk on Jungian Shadow concepts at the Ipswich Moot, I decided to create this deeper look into the topic which answers those questions as well as going off in other directions. This meander contextualises what the Shadow is, how it has been projected on to pagans, how it might be thought of within modern pagan communities, and how the Shadow can be worked with via ritual etc. If there are an additional questions which people would like answered, feel free to send them in by email or as comments on this post.

Some thoughts on a dripplingly hot day, as I skulk in the shadows, about the nature of narrative and its relationship to polytheist religions as well as to our own lives as individuals. Narratives can be both positive and negative (or a parson's egg of both) and the prime purpose of this podcast is to get my listeners - both of you - to think about the role story plays in your life and the lives of the communities of which you are a member. Touches a little bit on Baudrillard's idea that we are living in a synthetic bubble as a result of the impact of cinema and TV on our expectations of reality. Could go into this more from a pagan point of view (do we expect our religions to be more like the things we see on TV than reality), but an hour of waffle seem sufficient for one day. Also brings in Collette Dowlings now somewhat dated ideas from the Cinderella Complex as an example of the potential negative impact of a widespread story.

The final installment about epistemology within polytheism, including a short muse on how Foucault's ideas on the Regimes of Truth could potentially apply. If viewers have any questions to pose, I could address them in future philosophical asides.

Some time ago I posted about the early Catholic thinking on the sin of invidia (these days called envy) and its background in earlier Roman philosophy. To briefly recap, the sin of invidia from a Catholic stance is to place our resentment that others have something which we do not above and beyond a somewhat Panglossian faith in God to make the absence of the desired-for thing worth enduring. The earlier view emphasised that this was not simply a matter of brooding self-pityingly on what the lucky swine next door has, but the active wish to deprive them of it ~ the caustic view that if I cannot have a thing then nobody else should have it either. Nietzsche's take on envy was sightly different, in that he saw it as a more noble form of honesty although one with numerous pitfalls. Nobody has everything they want and we should aspire to be honest when we see someone with a possession, a relationship, a skill or personal quality that we would dearly like but cannot (yet) have. For...

This is a general reflection (drawing no hard and fast conclusions, because I'm still mulling over it myself) about how various types of paganism might reflect on theodicy - the big question of how justice pans out in a world where seemingly a lot of unjust things happen both in terms of the innocent suffering but also the wicked getting away with it.

This is another in the series of meandering druidic philosophical reflections (for once not in the kitchen), this time contemplating the nature of language and what we understand by the truth of words. A brief bit of Wittgenstein (but not so much as to make your brain bleed). I'll probably follow up on this at some stage in the future, and see where the musings on linguistic determinism go to.

This Friday, February 16th, West Suffolk College is hosting a Religious Studies conference on the theme of Freedom of Speech and Conscience. The event is free to attend, but please notify me via my work email (robin.herne@wsc.ac.uk) if you wish to attend. The speakers include a Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, and Odinist weighing up the issues from their own perspectives. The running order is as follows: 10.00 – Welcome & housekeeping 10.10 – Gurmeet Sually; Words Have Power; Creative & Destructive 10.55 – Comfort break & coffee 11.05 – Reverend Canon Tim Jones; P auses Fall Pregnant: Language and coercion 11.50 – Janus van Helvert; Dialogue is the Essence of Life 12.30 – Lunch break 1.15 – Robin Herne; Hope, Healing, and Harmful Speech 2.00 – Workshops ·         Discussion led by Gurmeet Sually – does free speech have its limits when it comes to cherished beliefs? ·         Discussion le...