Archive for the 'shamanism' Category
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
In the previous post, I outlined a model of prestige and stigma which predicts whether a language or religion will grow or wither in a society. Now let’s take the prestige/stigma model and look at Neopaganism today. By these measures, Neopaganism is in trouble.
Stigmatized Neopaganism
Imagine trying to revive the Latin language. Imagine speaking it at home, teaching it to your children, seeking out Latin translations of modern works, and using it instead of English whenever you could. What would your friends and neighbors think? Do you think lots of people would jump on the bandwagon with you? Do you think that the revived Latin movement — “Neolatinism” — would have much of a future in your society? There are no celebrities speaking Latin on TV. There are no government officials speaking Latin in press conferences. Latin is stigmatized as a dead language with no future; why would anyone want to learn it?
If the analogy between religion and language holds, Neopaganism is in exactly the same situation as Neolatinism would be. (more…)
Posted in Bible, Christianity, Europe, Latin, Massachusetts, Odin, Zeus, atheism, children as natural pagans, holidays, linguistics, monotheism, paganism, polytheism, religion, shamanism | 13 Comments »
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
If you’ve been reading here a good long while, you remember my review of The Mist Filled Path, a book by Frank MacEowen that struck my life with great force a year and a half ago. Frank’s message came to me at just the right time, and I found that it resolved a lot of issues with the direction of my spiritual path, as well as laying down rich soil for growth. Perhaps the most profound gift the book gave me was a deepening of my sense of comfort and rightness in the label ‘druid’, which I had adopted as my own just a few months before, and the path circumscribed by that term.
But people are not labels, as Frank makes very clear by his own example. His path has wound among Zen Buddhism, shamanic studies, Celtic spirituality, and Jungian psychology, with a dash of poetry thrown in. He has undergone the ’shaman sickness’, participated in the Lakota Sun Dance, and slept alone in burial mounds in Scotland, listening to the song of the world.
Frank’s latest book, The Celtic Way of Seeing: Meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel, is vastly different from The Mist Filled Path. The latter is a journeyman’s chronicle, a spiritual travelogue; but The Celtic Way of Seeing is a great map of the soul. Frank looks at the ancient divisions of Ireland, and the connections between that sacred physical space and the sacred spiritual space within us. It’s a book that packs a lot of punch, especially for those of us inclined to think in terms of maps and landscapes. I’ll be writing a full review soon.
In the meantime, I’m absolutely ecstatic to present this interview with Frank, in which he very graciously opens himself up with characteristic insight and honesty on all kinds of topics. I asked Frank five questions, and I’m going to present four of them here; the fifth I’ll save for the review of The Celtic Way of Seeing, since it will make more sense in that context. And now I’m going to scurry out of the way and let you jump right into the interview! (more…)
Posted in American Indians, Buddhism, Celtic Way of Seeing, Celtic languages, Choctaw, MacEowen, Frank, Mander, Jerry, Mist-Filled Path, by Frank MacEowen, Sanskrit, Sioux, Sun Dance (Sioux), Tara, Zen, archetypes, fiction, linguistics, meditation, shamanism, synchronicities | 2 Comments »
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
In 1937, E. E. Evans Pritchard published a seminal work of anthropology entitled Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Pritchard had been studying the Azande, a people living along the upper Nile, for eleven years. In it, he recorded the interesting case of someone who cast a death spell on another member of the tribe. The victim died soon afterwards, killed without warning by a collapsing roof.
The curious Pritchard soon discovered that this roof had been riddled with termites. When he brought this to the attention of the tribe, and asked whether they still believed the spell had worked, they replied, well, of course.
“But it wasn’t the spell that collapsed the roof!” said Pritchard. “It was termites!”
“Yes,” said the people of the tribe. “But how did it just happen to fall at that time, when the victim was under it?” (more…)
Posted in God (of monotheistic religions), Law of Attraction, Tarot, anima, atheism, dreams, magic, paganism, religion, shamanism, synchronicities | 14 Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
God and Terror in the Mountains
The following story is absolutely true.
A friend of mine once worked for private detective agency. She took the job on a temporary basis, just to make a little extra money on the side. She didn’t sign up for any of the dangerous work; mostly she would just watch houses to see when people left, check legal records, that kind of thing.
One time, however, the situation turned ugly. In a remote area in the Rocky Mountains, she was watching a driveway from a safe distance when she realized that her quarry and his friends were stalking her with rifles. These were desperate men, drug smugglers; and they were skilled veterans of the Vietnam War. Realizing that the way back to her car was blocked, she headed the other direction, up the mountain, into the forest as night was falling. (more…)
Posted in Christianity, Druidry, Reconstructionist, Druidry, Revival, God (of monotheistic religions), Jesus, Malaclypse the Younger, Mormonism, Vietnam, Zen, agnosticism, atheism, paganism, religion, ritual, shamanism, sidhe | 4 Comments »
Monday, November 27th, 2006
My father-in-law recently had a remarkable experience, one which strongly shows the mutual affinity between all shamanistic religions, as well as the value of religious diversity and tolerance. (more…)
Posted in American Indians, Christianity, Maori, New Zealand, Zen, religion, shamanism | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Why choose a religion?
This post is addressed to agnostics — those who haven’t decided what they believe, or who have decided not to decide. If you believe strongly that there is no God, or that science is the ultimate answer, then I count that as a religion too (see this post for why). But if you base your worldview on the scientific method (which requires a stance of permanent doubt), then you’re agnostic, and this post is for you.
Agnosticism is like riding a bicycle. (more…)
Posted in Adams, Douglas, Buddhism, Christianity, God (of monotheistic religions), agnosticism, atheism, evangelism, paganism, polytheism, religion, shamanism | 4 Comments »
Thursday, September 21st, 2006
In this post I’ll wrap up my review of Frank MacEowen’s The Mist-Filled Path, lay out some of my ruminations on the mixing and matching of disparate spiritual paths in the modern world, and give the interpretation of the dream I described in the previous post. (more…)
Posted in American Indians, Christianity, Eriugena, God (of monotheistic religions), Irish, Irish Potato Famine, Islam, Jesus, Lilly, MacEowen, Frank, Mist-Filled Path, by Frank MacEowen, Mormonism, Pocahontas, Roman Empire, adamspeace.com, dreams, ghosts, meditation, monks, shamanism | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
In this post and the next one, I’d like to share an odd little sequence of synchronicities in my life. They led me to think long and hard about the spiritual path I’ve chosen and how it relates other paths people are following these days. (more…)
Posted in American Indians, Black Hills, South Dakota, Christianity, Irish Potato Famine, MacEowen, Frank, Mist-Filled Path, by Frank MacEowen, Picts, Sioux, South Dakota, Sun Dance (Sioux), dreams, meditation, shamanism, synchronicities | 4 Comments »
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