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Post by TheModernSouthernPolytheist on Apr 17, 2015 21:01:20 GMT -6
So, I’m writing a paper for my History of Religion in the United States class and, for said paper, I need people to complete a survey with a few basic questions. I’ll include the questions here and here's a link to the Tumblr post. Feel free to reblog it with the answers, send me an ask/asks, or fanmail, comment with the answers here, whatever’s easiest for you. And feel free to pass it on to friends through whatever medium is easiest. Or you can always email your answers to themodernsouthernpolytheist@gmail.com. I do need to keep this is United States people (living abroad or foreign born is fine, but I need to the answers to be confined to US practice because of the course). General Location (as specific as you’d like, but at least region):
Age:
Path of Practice/Religious Tradition:
Number of years in current path:
Number of years in the Pagan and/or Polytheist communities combined:
Have you ever practiced or been involved in Wicca or Neo-Wicca? If so, please elaborate as much as possible about said practice (what form/tradition, were you solitary or in a coven, etc.):
Do you think Wicca has influenced the broader Pagan and Polytheist communities? If yes, how so?
Do you find that media representations of Pagans and Polytheists accurately or closely reflect your practices and beliefs? Please be as detailed as possible.
Do you find representations of Pagans and/or Polytheists in research you’ve done accurately or closely reflect your practice or beliefs? Please be as detailed as possible.
Do you find that there is/are tradition(s) within the Pagan and/or Polytheist communities that overshadow others? If so, which one(s) and how so?
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aondeug
Full Member
Posts: 141
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers, He/Him/His
Religion: Thai Theravada, Irish polytheism
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Post by aondeug on Apr 19, 2015 12:27:00 GMT -6
General Location (as specific as you’d like, but at least region): California, United States of America
Age: 22
Path of Practice/Religious Tradition: Gaelic reconstructionist polytheism/Theravada Buddhism
Number of years in current path: Gaelic recon 1 year, Theravada 5
Number of years in the Pagan and/or Polytheist communities combined: About half a year
Have you ever practiced or been involved in Wicca or Neo-Wicca? If so, please elaborate as much as possible about said practice (what form/tradition, were you solitary or in a coven, etc.): No
Do you think Wicca has influenced the broader Pagan and Polytheist communities? If yes, how so?: Yes I do, though the how of it is hard for me to puzzle out exactly. One thing I have noted is that it seems that a lot of people going into pagan and polytheistic practices go in thinking of Wicca, and Neo-Wicca in particular. Even if they don't use that name exactly a lot of the terminology and general approach seems to factor in and shape how they go about things. Then there's the reconstructionist crowd which can be a bit cantankerous at times. While a lot of that is due to general misinformation, part of it does get directed at Wicca and Neo-Wicca. Which is an influence of a sort.
The most important thing to myself personally though is how I feel it may have effected gender and sexuality. I have a few asexual friends who are polytheistic who've reported feeling somewhat alienated or frustrated with how sex centric a lot of pagan things are. I've seen this about on tumblr a few times as well. That along with a gender rolls thing that I feel is a bit too rigid and a bit too transphobic for my liking I feel might have spread out and influenced the rest of things. I can't say for certain if Wiccan and Neo-Wiccan views of sex and gender HAVE influenced the transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia that I've seen. Just that I feel it's definitely possible and it worries me because I'm trans and also not straight.
Do you find that media representations of Pagans and Polytheists accurately or closely reflect your practices and beliefs? Please be as detailed as possible.: I've only ever seen one media representation that I felt ever really reflected my practices or beliefs in any regard when it comes to the polytheist thing. I've seen a number that have with the Buddhism thing, but with Gaelic things there is just one. That one thing is Amercan Gods.
American Gods does not accurately describe my views on cosmology in the slightest. I'm a bit annoyed with how it works there, honestly. For me the gods are definitely beings that exist and will continue to with or without our human worship. Why would they need us? We don't need the loving tribute of dogs to continue existing and these are beings that can shake the skies. It also didn't fit how I view certain figures either. The Morrígan always stick out as something that makes me cringe whenever Gaiman uses her in any fashion.
What American Gods did do really well I think is capture the general feel of certain things. The description of certain places being more magical than others matches up quite a bit with how I think about and feel about specific places in the world. There are areas that I feel are more likely to lead to one being stuck in Otherworld or to one meeting entities, for lack of a better word. Those places all have a very distinct feel to them that you just kind of. Pick up. For me this has always been strongest around the ocean. Then there's the character of Shadow and his devotion to Odin. Shadow goes from being very perplexed and outside of things to actually being faithfully bound to Odin. Then Odin is a huge dick, but the point is I could relate with Shadow's difficulties with things as well as his growing respect and feelings towards Odin.
This is probably the only time I've ever felt that media has come close to representing me where the Gaelic polytheist thing is concerned.
Do you find representations of Pagans and/or Polytheists in research you’ve done accurately or closely reflect your practice or beliefs? Please be as detailed as possible.: As in like I am researching about, say, what we know of druids and find descriptions of pagans and polytheists? The few times I've found pagans and polytheists come up in my research has generally been to note how most of their work isn't at all based in academia. These mentions only ever seem to take into account the non-reconstructionist practices, though given the age of some of the texts that isn't that surprising. Also I've only started researching for about a year. There's a lot of material to go through and recon has probably been mentioned somewhere, though how and to what degree I don't know. I myself haven't seen it though and the pagan and polytheistic paths all mentioned have been things like the Neo-Druidic orders or Wiccanism.
These texts have been fairly accurate history wise, though. Upon looking into things more I have found that, yes, the few times I've seen Neo-Druidic movements mentioned things were gotten right in terms of history. Things like the benefits societies and what not. So basic facts do match up accurately.
Do you find that there is/are tradition(s) within the Pagan and/or Polytheist communities that overshadow others? If so, which one(s) and how so? : Yes and I think Wicca, and specifically Neo-Wicca (which tends to just be falsely called Wicca) are the two biggest contenders. These are the names everyone knows and the frameworks that a lot of new people seem to be walking in with. I'm a weirdo in that I knew absolutely nothing about Wicca and Neo-Wicca until after I had gotten a somewhat stable basis in Gaelic recon down. Wicca is also what the media seems to think of when it comes to polytheism and pagan practices. No one else. Just Wicca. It's to the point where people who aren't pagan and sometimes even those who are equate the term pagan with Wiccan.
In terms of mythologies and such in specific outside of Wicca though the most dominate in my experience appear to be Norse, Gaelic (and mostly Irish), Hellenic, and Kemetic. I've seen bits and pieces of Baltic or Slavic practices, but generally not really. The Gaelic thing might be partly due to the fact that, given my own practice, I follow mostly Gaelic reconstructionist blogs and focus generally on that sphere of things. Kemetics, Hellenics, and the Norse crowd definitely stick out to me in a way that the Baltic and Slavic communities, say, don't. I actually see Kemetics out and about and talking about their things, or see people complaining about the latest upset from the community. I don't see this with Slavic polytheists much.
Now when it comes to specific traditions that overshadow others within mythologies...The only one I feel I can say overshadows others with any degree of certainty is Asatru. Asatru is like Wicca in that it's reached a wider audience beyond just those interested in polytheism. I won't hear about Irish recon while watching tv but Asatru, named or not, comes up often enough in crime documentaries and true crime shows. Asatru's reputation both in the pagan sphere and in the general media appears to be that of skinheads and racists.
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