Pagan Paths - Mediterranean

Krataia Asterope

Krataia Asterope
Daemonia Nymphe, Prikosnovenie, 2007

For over two thousand years, the shadow of the Olympian Gods has touched Western science, language, art, and literature.

But what about our music? The Pagan revival of the 20th century focused heavily on Celtic, Norse, and Hindu sources for musical inspiration, and while the Greek deities were honored in ritual, musical groups often name-checked those Gods under hated Roman names.

Read more: Krataia Asterope

Greco-Egyptian Polytheism

artwork by Clayton Preston for PanGaia
artwork by Clayton Preston for PanGaia

PAGAN IDENTITY

Greco-Egyptian Polytheism
Finding Community on the Periphery
by Sannion

Three women and myself are standing in a smallish living room several blocks from the University of Oregon campus. It’s really a very spacious living room — it certainly dwarfs my own tiny studio apartment — but today it feels a little cramped. That’s probably because a huge makeshift altar has been set up in the middle of the room and the four of us are crowded around it in our festival garb, complete with garland crowns.

Register to read more...

Monotheism: Who’s Your Daddy?

Monotheism: Who's Your Daddy?

I casually flip through the bumper stickers at a metaphysical shop. One sticker in particular catches my eye, and I cease shuffling them. This sticker, with its cheery gold background and Celtic knot work border, proudly proclaims “Christianity has Pagan DNA!” Certainly the scribe of this phrase does not mean this literally, but rather simply means that Christianity was born of polytheistic roots.

Although I cherish the attitude of the phrase, the wording leaves me disconcerted. I know this as a “truism,” something I feel and understand is true, if limited. I’ve never encountered any biblical passage reading, “And you shall cut down an evergreen, yea, and bring it into your house each twenty-fifth of December,” nor have I found reference to the three kings wassailing the cedars of Lebanon.

Read more: Monotheism: Who’s Your Daddy?

A Fine Madness

wp-23_columnists05-00Dionysis lives — and we ignore His power at our peril.

Adam Lambert lies back on the cover of Rolling Stone, lips parted, his gaze somehow both lazy and challenging. A thick green snake twines up his black-clad leg. A few weeks earlier, he'd come in second on American Idol, much to the chagrin of his devoted fans who'd followed this shape-shifting, gender-bending hero as he transformed everything from emo-ballads to heavy-metal screamfests. He was the king that should have been, a wanderer whose life of performance and partying somehow culminated in his epiphany as the kind of twisted god who could drive women (and not a few men) mad.1

Register to read more...

Queen of the Great Below

Queen of the Great Below:
An Anthology in Honor of Ereshkigal

Janet Munin, Bibliotecha Alexandrina, 2010
5/5 Broomsticks

What a fascinating Goddess to dedicate a book to! While I would nitpick the first paragraph of the introduction — a sentence about Ereshkigal being jealous and vindictive — one of the epithets in the second paragraph made me laugh and nod: “She is Goddess of Dealing With Your Shit…” Yes, she certainly is! I highlighted that one.

Read more: Queen of the Great Below

Additional information