Modern Heathen

I was thinking the other night that I have certain strongly held political beliefs that aren't really...supported by my Heathen beliefs per se, but they give them a context, if you follow that distinction.

For example, I'm a very strong pro-choice advocate, pro-sexual health and education advocate. I would never say directly "Freya wants me to be pro-choice" or "Freya wants me to promote Scarletteen" or "Freya wants me to read Dan Savage" because I don't think that way. These are my beliefs.

Still, I view those beliefs as part of being a Freya follower. As complementing that side of things nicely. As providing a template, an underlying grounding for my beliefs and how I carry them out. Does that make any sense?

I have a whole other post here about how I view too great an emphasis on esoteric work as being a distraction, because that's the side that people tend to approach Freya from. But I'll give it time to germinate a bit longer, because I can't think of a way of putting it that doesn't sound like I'm trashing people who work seidh, and that's not my intention.

I also think the Starhawk "I go to a political rally as my way of honoring the Goddess" too ridiculous as well, it just has nothing of the spiritual in it for me.

I think that was the idea behind Green Egg people were trying to bring this sort of thing forth by including a glimpse into what they were reading, watching and doing that wasn't directly related to Neo-Paganism. However, I think it backfired. Instead of providing an overall context of one Pagan's culture or even several Pagans' culture, and how some Neo-Pagans reacted to media, it left people with the impression of "Harry Potter is really Pagan!"

Like I said, time to germinate.

Someone purports to have "warlocked" members of the online forum of which I'm a part. Whether you call it "warlocking" or in Heathen terms "wolf's heading", "setting someone wretched" or what have you, it's all the same old bullshit. It's typically done for no better reason than someone's ickle feelings are smarting or their authority was questioned. Wha!

There are instances of injured parties cursing others in the Heathen/Asatru community that I think are completely legit. But I think I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

(Now that I've written a paragraph that mentions justice being served by cursing and one hand I'm dying to make a Tyr joke, here, someone stop me.)

The spousal unit pointed out that while Brian Froud gets lumped in with the airy-fairie crowd, his work is actually surprisingly dark. The original Faeries conveys the danger of the Good Folk, it's all about folklore and menace and no matter what people have read into it, it's not about strawberries and crystals.

I'm absolutely not expecting the book to be historically accurate, but I look forward to seeing the artwork. Actually, after reading this description of Ari Berk, I'm curious to see what they do with it:

Ari Berk is an artist, poet, and teacher of mythology, folklore, American Indian studies, and medieval literature. He has published works on rune lore, faerie stories, the Wild Hunt, landscape and myth, and many other topics. Dr. Berk is a professor of literature at Central Michigan University.

Although, I still expect to see the strawberries and crystals types to be showing up for rune classes in droves in the wake of this book.

You wouldn't think someone would be able to airy-faerie the runes, but it looks like Brian Froud has given it a good try. This is from the book's editorial description:

In 24 never-before-seen paintings, best-selling fantasy artist Brian Froud interprets the ancient and mystical runes of Celtic and European origin through Elfland, a world of faeries and myth. Each painting is inspired by a specific rune, richly symbolic and potent icons open to infinite interpretations. In the hands of the exceptional folklorist and poet Ari Berk, the secret meanings of these runes are revealed and their power is made manifest.

I can't wait to see the fallout from this one as the Froud followers start popping up at Asatru events. Now, I have a soft spot for Froud's work, so I will buy this book and no doubt enjoy it on a pretty picture level.

But, my inner vitki will no doubt be shuddering away.