{"title":"Liselotte Frisk, Sanja Nilsson, and Peter Åkerbäck, Children in Minority Religions: Growing Up in Controversial Religious Groups","authors":"C. Cusack","doi":"10.1558/pom.38866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pom.38866","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"108 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114633305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rise of the Fourfold Goddess Construct among Western Goddess Women and Feminist Witches","authors":"Shai Feraro","doi":"10.1558/pome.37570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37570","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123452921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pagan rituals structure the way that Pagans relate to each other and the other-than-human world. I argue that this means that Pagan ethics is predominantly relational ethics. The relational experiences provided by ritual shape the ethical practices of Pagans. I provide a detailed example of one teenager who used ritual to change the way she felt about herself and her life. These changed feelings are often associated with ethical changes because they shape the way people act. Similarly, other Pagans use ritual to change the way they relate to the other-than-human world. I discuss the seasonal rituals of Paganism and how they relate to the sense of ethical obligation that Pagans have towards nature. Finally, the article considers a Pagan ritual recreation of the myth of Persephone’s descent into the Underworld, and the issue of the terror and beauty of nature in a time of climate change. Pagan ritual and symbols provide resources that can generate an ethics of hope and courage.
{"title":"The Ethics of Pagan Ritual","authors":"D. Ezzy","doi":"10.1558/pome.37502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37502","url":null,"abstract":"Pagan rituals structure the way that Pagans relate to each other and the other-than-human world. I argue that this means that Pagan ethics is predominantly relational ethics. The relational experiences provided by ritual shape the ethical practices of Pagans. I provide a detailed example of one teenager who used ritual to change the way she felt about herself and her life. These changed feelings are often associated with ethical changes because they shape the way people act. Similarly, other Pagans use ritual to change the way they relate to the other-than-human world. I discuss the seasonal rituals of Paganism and how they relate to the sense of ethical obligation that Pagans have towards nature. Finally, the article considers a Pagan ritual recreation of the myth of Persephone’s descent into the Underworld, and the issue of the terror and beauty of nature in a time of climate change. Pagan ritual and symbols provide resources that can generate an ethics of hope and courage.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127120645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jefferson F. Calico, Being Viking: Heathenry in Contemporary America","authors":"Galina Krasskova","doi":"10.1558/POM.39025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/POM.39025","url":null,"abstract":"Jefferson F. Calico, Being Viking: Heathenry in Contemporary America (Sheffield: Equinox: 2018), 509 pp., $42.55 (paperback)","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"237 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121628029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The retrieval and subsequent burial of the war dead in classical Greece was considered an important component of any given battle. Scholarship has observed how the retrieval of the war dead in the classical period could determine the outcome of a battle, as well as how the commemoration of the war dead functioned as a tool of civic identity, especially in the city of Athens. Although the above observations provide sufficient motivation for the recovery of the battle dead, this paper proposes an additional impetus for their collection: religion. Although scholars have often noted that Greek customs surrounding the war dead were motivated by religious concerns, what those religious concerns were have not been elaborated. This paper remedies this gap by exploring the relationship between the war dead and the gods. In this paper, I argue that the war dead were considered the property of the gods and were afforded special protections for this reason. Moreover, the proper burial of the war dead was necessary to transfer the war dead from the custody of the human world to the gods below. Such a transfer, I argue, maintained the relationship between the polis and the gods, ensuring its continued existence.
{"title":"Fallen Soldiers and the Gods: Religious Considerations in the Retrieval and Burial of the War Dead in Classical Greece","authors":"S. Veale","doi":"10.1558/pome.37900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37900","url":null,"abstract":"The retrieval and subsequent burial of the war dead in classical Greece was considered an important component of any given battle. Scholarship has observed how the retrieval of the war dead in the classical period could determine the outcome of a battle, as well as how the commemoration of the war dead functioned as a tool of civic identity, especially in the city of Athens. Although the above observations provide sufficient motivation for the recovery of the battle dead, this paper proposes an additional impetus for their collection: religion. Although scholars have often noted that Greek customs surrounding the war dead were motivated by religious concerns, what those religious concerns were have not been elaborated. This paper remedies this gap by exploring the relationship between the war dead and the gods. In this paper, I argue that the war dead were considered the property of the gods and were afforded special protections for this reason. Moreover, the proper burial of the war dead was necessary to transfer the war dead from the custody of the human world to the gods below. Such a transfer, I argue, maintained the relationship between the polis and the gods, ensuring its continued existence.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125243506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article presents the results of the author's in-depth ethnographic research carried out during 2011-017. It focuses on the Native Faith Paganism movement in contemporary Lithuania. The popularity and peculiarities of the movement and related groups are discussed. Prehistory of the movement, establishment of related religious societies, impacts of altering history and new forms of spirituality to the phenomena debated. The turn from the folkloristic movement to the religious is explained. The diversity of the shifting phenomena and the variety of related groups are analyzed, their interrelations and relation with other modern Pagan groups are presented. Their ideas about and relation with ethnic identity, national history, ethnic culture is analyzed. The self-expression, self-presentation, aims, activities (both public and not for publicity) of Native faith movement are described. Specific attention it is given to the analysis of the Romuva group and subgroups and their ideas, as it is the most popular and the most active modern Native Faith-type Paganism active in Lithuania. Their impact on other modern Paganisms as well as to the whole image of the ancient Lithuanian/Baltic pre-Christian traditions and Lithuanian ethnic culture per se is noticeable.
{"title":"The Hunt for Lost Identity: Native Faith Paganism in Contemporary Lithuania","authors":"D. Senvaitytė","doi":"10.1558/POM.34718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/POM.34718","url":null,"abstract":"The article presents the results of the author's in-depth ethnographic research carried out during 2011-017. It focuses on the Native Faith Paganism movement in contemporary Lithuania. The popularity and peculiarities of the movement and related groups are discussed. Prehistory of the movement, establishment of related religious societies, impacts of altering history and new forms of spirituality to the phenomena debated. The turn from the folkloristic movement to the religious is explained. The diversity of the shifting phenomena and the variety of related groups are analyzed, their interrelations and relation with other modern Pagan groups are presented. Their ideas about and relation with ethnic identity, national history, ethnic culture is analyzed. The self-expression, self-presentation, aims, activities (both public and not for publicity) of Native faith movement are described. Specific attention it is given to the analysis of the Romuva group and subgroups and their ideas, as it is the most popular and the most active modern Native Faith-type Paganism active in Lithuania. Their impact on other modern Paganisms as well as to the whole image of the ancient Lithuanian/Baltic pre-Christian traditions and Lithuanian ethnic culture per se is noticeable.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122682064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2016, a group of witches organised a mass online hex against Brock Turner, the “Stanford Rapist,” in disgust toward his crime and unjust punishment. Responses to this event demonstrate the enormous diversity in Pagan’s opinions regarding the use of hexes, curses, or other forms of potentially “harmful” magic. The research outlined in this article consists of a qualitative survey which sought to identify these differences in opinion and the reasoning behind them. Results demonstrated that Pagans’ attitudes towards potentially harmful uses of magic fell into four distinct categories. It appears that fears of misjudgment and discrimination are very present amongst many within the community, which has led to some individuals attempting to conceal any practices that may be deemed harmful, or “evil,” by outsiders. Additionally, some choose to abstain from using harmful magic due to fears of harm returning to them. However, a significant proportion of Pagans today are in fact open to engaging with potentially harmful magical practices, as long as they can in some way be channeled to provide an outcome that can be deemed positive and/or healing.
{"title":"Attitudes Towards Potential Harmful Magical Practices in Contemporary Paganism - A Survey","authors":"Bethan Juliet Oake","doi":"10.1558/pome.34988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.34988","url":null,"abstract":"In 2016, a group of witches organised a mass online hex against Brock Turner, the “Stanford Rapist,” in disgust toward his crime and unjust punishment. Responses to this event demonstrate the enormous diversity in Pagan’s opinions regarding the use of hexes, curses, or other forms of potentially “harmful” magic. The research outlined in this article consists of a qualitative survey which sought to identify these differences in opinion and the reasoning behind them. Results demonstrated that Pagans’ attitudes towards potentially harmful uses of magic fell into four distinct categories. It appears that fears of misjudgment and discrimination are very present amongst many within the community, which has led to some individuals attempting to conceal any practices that may be deemed harmful, or “evil,” by outsiders. Additionally, some choose to abstain from using harmful magic due to fears of harm returning to them. However, a significant proportion of Pagans today are in fact open to engaging with potentially harmful magical practices, as long as they can in some way be channeled to provide an outcome that can be deemed positive and/or healing.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128840882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kursi is an Israeli site that has recently been increasingly appropriated by various alternative-spiritual groups, especially contemporary Pagan and neoshamanic ones. Located on the Sea of Galilee’s northeastern shore, it lies in an array of archeological-historic sites relating to Jewish-rabbinical, Christian, and, to some extent, Pagan history. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority regulates the site (rather than a religious institution) and is interested in intensifying its mystical aura, and thus amplifying its spiritual appropriation. The various discourses surrounding Kursi (of archeologists, Christian pilgrims, etc.) are eclectic, and adopt from one another to varying degrees. Nevertheless, it seems the contemporary Neo-Pagan/Neo-ShamanPagan/neoshamanic discourse is most comfortable with adopting and reinterpreting elements from other discourses. Practitioners fearlessly and creatively meld all contents together. Their invention of a tradition combines Israeli, Jewish, Christian, Pagan, and New Age symbols with scientific findings, pseudo-scientific theories, and establishment-related discourses, thus weaving them into a new synthetic-syncretistic mythology via ritualistic work.
{"title":"“The Most Powerful Portal in Zion” - Kursi: The Spiritual Site that Became an Intersection of Ley-lines and Multicultural Discourses","authors":"M. Shapiro, Adi Sasson","doi":"10.1558/pome.36576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.36576","url":null,"abstract":"Kursi is an Israeli site that has recently been increasingly appropriated by various alternative-spiritual groups, especially contemporary Pagan and neoshamanic ones. Located on the Sea of Galilee’s northeastern shore, it lies in an array of archeological-historic sites relating to Jewish-rabbinical, Christian, and, to some extent, Pagan history. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority regulates the site (rather than a religious institution) and is interested in intensifying its mystical aura, and thus amplifying its spiritual appropriation. The various discourses surrounding Kursi (of archeologists, Christian pilgrims, etc.) are eclectic, and adopt from one another to varying degrees. Nevertheless, it seems the contemporary Neo-Pagan/Neo-ShamanPagan/neoshamanic discourse is most comfortable with adopting and reinterpreting elements from other discourses. Practitioners fearlessly and creatively meld all contents together. Their invention of a tradition combines Israeli, Jewish, Christian, Pagan, and New Age symbols with scientific findings, pseudo-scientific theories, and establishment-related discourses, thus weaving them into a new synthetic-syncretistic mythology via ritualistic work.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"193 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129311421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, the result of an ongoing ethnographic fieldwork among a contemporary Pagan group in the Salento area of Italy, I research the peculiar expression of contemporary Pagan spiritualities centered on the interpretation of a “traditional” local dance called pizzica. I focus on the specific way of understanding and living time and temporality among this group that happens through the performance of this dance. In particular, by presenting the particular historicity—i.e. the way in which time and temporality are understood and experienced—of the Salentine group I studied that I refer to as “expanded present” or “presence,” I argue for a re-articulation of the relationships between contemporary Paganism and “history,” “tradition,” and the “reconstructionist/eclectic” spectrum in understanding contemporary Paganisms.
{"title":"Spiritual Pizzica: A Southern Italian Perspective on Contemporary Paganism","authors":"G. Parmigiani","doi":"10.1558/pome.37787","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37787","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the result of an ongoing ethnographic fieldwork among a contemporary Pagan group in the Salento area of Italy, I research the peculiar expression of contemporary Pagan spiritualities centered on the interpretation of a “traditional” local dance called pizzica. I focus on the specific way of understanding and living time and temporality among this group that happens through the performance of this dance. In particular, by presenting the particular historicity—i.e. the way in which time and temporality are understood and experienced—of the Salentine group I studied that I refer to as “expanded present” or “presence,” I argue for a re-articulation of the relationships between contemporary Paganism and “history,” “tradition,” and the “reconstructionist/eclectic” spectrum in understanding contemporary Paganisms.","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"144 7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129590609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stephen Edred Flowers, The Northern Dawn: A History of the Reawakening of the Germanic Spirit. Vol. 1, From the Twilight of the Gods to the Sun at Midnight","authors":"Jefferson F. Calico","doi":"10.1558/pome.38896","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.38896","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":399111,"journal":{"name":"Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128121843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}