Round the Herne

 I recorded a rather rambling podcast for the Pagan Federation virtual moot. This is almost the same, but in this version I remembered to say what I forgot to say in their version. The theme set was 'Food for the Soul' and so I've reflected on the way in which storytelling - from novels to family narratives to mythical sagas - shapes our lives (scop's them, if you want an Anglo-Saxon pun) for the better or worse. We feed our bellies with bread, but our souls with sagas. One day I might transmute these disparate ideas into something cohesive, but at the moment you'll just have to endure the meandering version. I've been asked to write something a bit clever for an anthology ardently read by people who are very, very clever (and some who just think they are). I'm wary of doing so because they also seem to relish ripping one another apart in the way that posturing academics and pseuds in equal measures are prone to do. If I ever manage to produce

This Saturday at Oddfellows Hall, High Street, Ipswich, the Ipswich Pagan Council will be holding a free event to build bridges with other pagan communities around East Anglia, help people new to paganism find their feet (pssst... they're on the end of your legs), and answer questions on paganism from those who are just curious. This is a free event which runs as follows - 10.00       Doors open 10.15       Pagan Suffolk, with Robin Herne 11.00       Tales of the Native American nations, with Robert Lummis 12.00       Music and poetry over lunch 1.00         The Feast of Lupercalia, with Robin Herne 2.00         Paganism & Politics, a panel discussion 3.00         Greek mythology storytelling 3.30         Ethics of Healing, a panel discussion 4.00         Thanks & Farewell Refreshments will be provided throughout the day. There will be displays on different branches of paganism, activities for children, and a friendly welcome for friendly faces. Just drop by a

The announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor Who has flooded social media with rivers of bile, both from those who loathe the idea with every ounce of their being and equally those who love it but despise those who are even slightly equivocal on the subject. As so often, some people make a great show of tolerating everyone - except those who hold a different opinion. I have seen a lot of rather sneering claims that large swathes of science fiction fans are lost in a world of fantasy and emotionally inadequate because of it (or vice versa, depending on whether a given pontificator thinks the chicken came first or the egg). Observing these shenanigans, I have been reminded that many readers openly wept when they read the death of Little Nell when Dickens' serial hit the stands in 1841. When one business tycoon read A Christmas Carol two years later, he was so stung by his own similarity to Scrooge that he immediately gave his wage slaves the rest of the day off. People famo

Tomorrow night I have been asked to give a talk on Kemeticism (Egyptian paganism) at the Lowestoft Moot - which takes so long to get to on the train it might well feel like a journey of a thousand miles. However, the title of this post refers to a story about how the goddess Aset (Isis) began her long expedition across Egypt to flee from the vengeance of her brother Setekh. The opening part of the story - I suspect there were probably many sections to the saga at one point in time, but much of them have been lost, or at least remain untranslated from their hieroglyphic status - details how she acquired her seven golden scorpions. If you are in Lowesoft tomorrow , come along to the  Telecom Social Club, Clapham Road South, Lowestoft NR32 1QR between 7pm and 9pm.