Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans

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Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans

November 11, 2009 by Franklin Evans

I commend to all an excellent essay by Gus diZerega, from his blog on Beliefnet: Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans.

He covers the basics very well. Commentary is welcome here or there.

Posted in Culture, Education, Franklin Evans, Gods | Tagged Beliefnet, Gus diZerega, pagan, religion | 7 Comments

7 Responses

on November 11, 2009 at 3:38 pm | Reply DSL.

Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans

I can’t wait for the Alexandrian snipoff – (ouch) er, spinoff – Seventy-Six Things You Probably Know – Or Will, Eventually – About Franklins (Or One of Them), the number chosen for him by me with hometown-boy license, or Philadelphia Freedom, which makes me knee-high to him, already, in seeing said tally vindicated, already, in my projected Item #1, viz.:

Franklin is NOT ten feet tall.

He is, though, six-foot four – or seventy-six inches: this we know, for our Franklin told us so.

Gus diZerega: Sabbats Are Sacred Days that Celebrate the “Wheel of the Year”

I always loved the old 1972 Steely Pagan (pronounced pahGAN) hit, “Wheeling in the Year”, and its follow-ups, “Do It Pagan”, “Wicci Don’t Lose That Lumber” (consecrating an enchanted barn-raising), “Pag” (♫”Pag – it will come back to you…”♫) and “Pagan Blues” (♫”This is the night/Of the moon-standing man…They call Philadelphia the ’sixers’ Pride/Call me Pagan Blues (Pagan Blues)”♫), even more…
on November 11, 2009 at 4:02 pm | Reply DSL.

“Pagan Blues”

Not to be confused with the old Kneel Dimin’ hymn (sung in the pagans’ stone-hewn pews when passing the collection gourd), “A Pagan in Blue Jeans”:

♫ Wicci walks
And she can tell the time, no need for clocks
As long as she can see the sun and moon
She’s nobody’s loon
A pagan in blue jeans, Babe… ♫
on November 11, 2009 at 4:39 pm | Reply steve

Dang, he didnt answer my question. Why do Pagans like to ride motorcycles? :-)

The issue of hate is an interesting one. pagans dont really proselytize, so I am not sure why some people hate them so much. i can sort of understand hate when you have two large groups competing for the same population, like Irish catholics and Protestants, but Pagans are no threat. Must be the witch thing and the confusion about devil worship.

Steve
on November 11, 2009 at 5:21 pm | Reply Franklin Evans

There’s plenty of fodder for your question, Steve (stud(l)iously ignoring Scott for the nonce). I like to focus on a core difference between monotheisms and modern paganisms: The former has a revealed faith and depends on (amongst other things) a holy text, the latter is an acquired faith and depends on (amongst other things) experiential methods.

From my POV, revealed faiths cannot help embracing evangelism sooner or later, at least if they want to keep their numbers up. Acquired faiths have no such onus, since we find new members at the same time they find us.

The Great Dogmas cannot escape the little Dogma Tics. ;-)
on November 11, 2009 at 5:24 pm | Reply Franklin Evans

“Wicci Don’t Lose That Lumber” (consecrating an enchanted barn-raising)…

This is a corruption of the original song, title long since lost, that admonishes the faithful to have plenty of faggots (of wood) handy for the witch-burning festival. Witches, you see, were notoriously difficult to combust, and it was considered gauche to use oil or alcohol to assist the process.
on November 11, 2009 at 9:50 pm | Reply DSL.

Rosemary Hill* in the latest number of The Times Literary Supplement:

In the last section of the book Robert J. Wallis’s essay on modern paganism considers the “re-enchantment” of the present. His account of current debates between pagans, archaeologists and museum curators about the treatment of ancient sites and human remains suggests that a less purely materialistic view of the past is once more gaining ground. When Lindow Man, the body found in Lindow Moss, was loaned to Manchester by the British Museum for a year from April 2008, a “consultation report” led to an opening ceremony for the exhibition that included a pagan ritual, and the display was augmented with a shrine space for offerings to the ancestors. Edward Lhuyd would have been astonished by the recurrence of such beliefs; John Aubrey probably would not.

*Reviewing Megan Aldrich and Robert J. Wallis, editors
ANTIQUARIES AND ARCHAISTS
The past in the past, the past in the present
on November 11, 2009 at 10:00 pm | Reply DSL.

plenty of faggots (of wood) handy for the witch-burning festival.

After Jethro Tull:

Let me bring her, Faggots of Wood
So Wicci burns much better, and she will glow…

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Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans

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