Round the Herne

 Yesterday our druid group performed the story of Cael and Credhe at the Leaping Hare pagan convention in Colchester, which went down quite well with the audience. The tale is a tragic one of doomed love. My own interpretation is that Cedhe is an embodiment of the Land - whether she is understood as a goddess or a fairy or something else entirely is a separate issue. The marital contingency that her suitor recites the list of her many treasures strikes me as being less about materialism and more that the lucky man should know the many gifts of the earth.

 Rathe a belated contribution to World Poetry Day 2022, the choice is partly inspired by a conversation with my adoptive nephew Tom who has acquired a copy of Sir John Betjeman's collected works. So here are four poems by Betjeman and a little waffle to accompany each: The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel Felixstowe, or the Last of Her Order Monody on the Death of a Platonist Bank Clerk Death in Leamington

 I have been mulling over the issue of religious writings within ancient paganism for a while now, and finally have the time to get some thoughts down in the hope of starting a conversation that others will chip in on. Whilst it was going on in Judaism well before, Christianity has become prominently associated with the practice of hermeneutics - the study of sacred scripture. Originally it was essentially the same thing as exegesis, but since the concept has secularised hermeneutics includes communications outside of the written text (spoken conversations, political speeches etc.) whilst the term exegesis is retained in the Church for the study of the written word. I want to keep the focus here on the books, poems, and other writings of significance to ancient polytheist cultures more so than modern writings or non-textual sources. That said, there are some works (such as the Havamal) which I strongly believe are best thought of as lyrics or scripts - that is to say, they were per...

  My reading of the ninth chapter of "Puck of Pook's Hill" by Rudyard Kipling (1906). We find out more about Old Hobden (as much land-wight as human) and his mysterious friend Tom. A musical version of " The Bee Boy's Song " at the start of the chapter was composed by Peter Bellamy. The " Three Part Song " which appears at the end of the chapter is sung here by Jackie Oates.

 An anonymous poem written originally in Old Irish, which was in circulation between 600 and 900 CE is dedicated to Saint Brigit and extols her various titles and the virtues they represent. That this is a Christian saint is indicated via the line that refers to her as Daughter of Dubhtach, the father of the future abbess of Kildare as mentioned in her hagiography. The other lines of the poem could as easily be about the goddess Brigid to whom the imagery of the saint is so closely related. it may well be that audiences hearing this poem at its inaugural reading might have struggled to distinguish one from the other - and in some cases not even regarded there as being much difference. The theological demarcations of today were not necessarily seen as all that important well over a millennia ago. Even the clearly Christian references to her as being the Heaven-King's sister and having reached Holy Heaven could be seen as remembrances of pagan Brigid as sibling to divine figures such...

 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.  

Finally a visit to the barber today, so I look less like someone who sleeps in a ditch and shouts at pigeons. To mark the day, here is a meander through some philosophical concepts around epistemology from a polytheist stance - how do polytheists know what they claim to know? How can the truthfulness of claims be assessed (and what do we even mean by truth anyway)? There will be a follow-up to this at some stage, as there are other ides that I want to explore - and if anyone has any questions or reflections of their own, it will help to shape where the next video ramble goes.

I haven't added to the basic paganism podcasts for a while (much to the relief of all concerned), but Carol asked if I could do something on the festival of Imbolc. This is a bit basic, and there are various other practice and traditions that could be added, but this is the direction my brain meandered in whilst I baked cake. Authors such as Alexei Kondratiev have gone into a great deal of detail on the ritual practices from ancient to modern times, should you wish to delve into more background information.

Part three of the Introducing Paganism spiel - I promise to leave your ears unassailed for a few days before foisting the fourth part on you. I am not wholly sure where this is going, beyond my indulging the sound of my own voice. If there are specific aspects of general paganism that people would like covered, do say. This section is addressing nature worship, the role of ancestor reverencing, and touches a tiny bit on ethics.

Whilst exploring Sicily we went to the cemetery at Pozzallo to lay flowers for relatives. I had just assumed it would look rather like a British cemetery, and was intrigued to find out that it was much more akin to an ancient Roman burial ground. There wasn't a patch of grass to be seen, but (in the richer areas) a whole series of mausoleums with varying degrees of elaborate detail some of which had to be seen to be believed. I'm told that some families spend more on their tombs than on their houses. These works of art are laid out in Roman grid-style, roads lined with houses for the dead, at once beautiful and boastful - declarations of the status and grandeur of both the ancestors and their survivors. Many are heavily influenced in their design by classical architecture, and given that each contain altars (with statues of the Virgin, various saints etc.) along with the names and icons of the lost generations, and receptacles for the offerings of flowers, these are each fun...

A few days ago I accompanied a friend who lives halfway up an Essex mountain to attend a clairvoyant gathering near where he lives. Without being too specific, this was not a Spiritualist Church but a meeting in a hired village hall. They have different psychics taking the stage each month, and this particular one was a lady hailing from one of the cultural epicentres of that county. After a vaguely Christian prayer, the evening's guest medium launched into her patter and delivered various messages to random people in the audience (neither I nor my friend being on the receiving end of any Words from Beyond). My friend had been several times before, but this was my first visit and I was there as an observer more than anything. It's an interesting thing to watch in so many ways, and brings many questions to mind. Even the most devout believer must accept that there is an element of performance involved in any public display, and there were certainly times when it felt as if we ...