paganism as a label

'Paganism' says nothing about anything
oblivion - Today at 1:39 PM
i think the revolt against paganism as earth based spirituality  or nature worship or what have you is just second opinion bias
like... that's not -all- it is, but it's closer to summing it up in a sentence than any other attempt
once you start positing some spiritual reality superior to the earthly one it's a lot easier to coeslese under a distinct religious label
there's transcendent aspects to polytheistic religions, but they aren't held to devalue earthly proofs
PantaRhei - Today at 6:45 PM
I think the revolt against paganism as a term is because it's outworn it's usefulness. Paganism carries with it an image of beardy white dudes waxing lyrical about what a beautiful, nurturing (and ultimately, docile, and dominable) woman the Earth is, and gathering in a scout hut on a Tuesday to "worship" the four elements by abstracting them into symbols (wand, dagger, cup, disk and so on) or else.
I don't think that the rise of (basically fundamentalist) devotional polytheism is a good solution to this though
oblivion - Today at 6:50 PM
paganism as earth based spirituality
the label is still there
just what it's labeling is less distinct
PantaRhei - Today at 6:54 PM
I mean, I like animism personally. I think it carries with it a connotation of relation-with rather than worship-of. Even paganism-as-earth-based-spirituality can still be done p r o  b l e m a t i c a l l y  imo. Many pagans try to divide the world into Nature and not-Nature. A babbling brook is nature. A city square is not. Yet nature wrought the city with human hands.
oblivion - Today at 6:56 PM
yeah, religion can be done badly. pagan is like art, it's a catagorisation, not a value judgement
i don't think because someone is pagan they therefor are inbued with positive qualities
augustus sol invictus is a pagan : P(edited)
i just think that we're in a period where the term pagan has been exploded beyond all meaning, but it's still a useful term, and will eventually shrink back down to be what it conentated back in the 60s and 70s, maybe with a bit more nuance, but the same at its core
oblivion - Today at 7:00 PM
mainly becuase none of the things it has expanded to encompass really need it
Sigurd - Today at 7:00 PM
Can you really call someone outright pagan.
PantaRhei - Today at 7:00 PM
Hopefully a lot more nuance. Disregard Joseph Campbell would be a good start (inb4 someone kills me for blasphemy)
Sigurd - Today at 7:00 PM
It's more of a group name than anything.
A classification of a group of different religions rather than an outright religion.
PantaRhei - Today at 7:00 PM
Paganism could mean anything. "Neo-pagan" is more specific.
oblivion - Today at 7:03 PM
i'd be more inclined to agree that paganism has outlived its usefulness if "earthbased spirituality" or "nature worship" weren't equally as fraught
i feel like neo-pagan carries with it inescapable  implication that paganism is the thing (which i agree with)
:p

dream of a year and a day

i had a dream called a year and a day, about a place called one hill in the uk, pleasent, rural, dramatic landscape, attempts to record it were thawarted, either by theft of equiptment or electrical failure, someone there was trying to contact me by magic, there was evidence of this in obleque blog entries on a website, there was time dislocation, they had a job here in nz, tv broadcasting by running wire through thier mouth, 2013, there was a question, could i stay or must i go, i went into town, there, there was a education door, distorted image of self, learn about self door, energetic light being, learn about others door, pair of shadowy figures, old man and old woman, i picked the last door and was awoken by shrill  electrical disturbance

art and potency

cult and paramilitary the only artforms that matter art used to be important, because art movements were cultlike now we are diffuse individuals and art has no potency paramilitrys are scary and absolutist still potent though there are a million ways to organise a cult, like their are a million ways to organise an art movement it's a blank canvas i guess there's a kind of irony in the more individualist society becomes the less power an individual has to make any impact upon it which is why parallel societies are the key to potent art.