Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Other Cloaks
It's one of the more pressing questions of contemporary pagan theology.
What happened to the pagan gods during the centuries of the Great Interruption?
Did they fall asleep? Did they go away?
In the Baltics, the Old Ways lingered long. In Latvia, the Thunderer of the old pantheon—Perkons (= Perkunas, Perun, etc.)—came to be identified (among others) with “Saint” Martin.
“Martin carries nine Perkonses under his cloak,” was the saying.
Did the Old Gods abandon their people?
No, indeed. They've never abandoned us, and They never will.
They wrapped Themselves in other cloaks and waited.
Impatience is a human trait.
Gods know how to wait.
Comments
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Friday, 17 February 2017
That's a great question, Anthony, with more than one answer. But one of those answers is surely the most surprising of all:
They hid as Themselves!
The Protestant Christianities arose during the Renaissance, which is, of course, precisely the period when the entire direction of European civilization was changed by the influx of Classical--Greco-Roman--knowledge. The writings of arch-Puritan John Milton are filled with gods and goddesses. (So are those of that great 20th-century arch-Christian, C. S. Lewis.)
Hiding in plain sight as yourself!
Now that's audacious. -
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I'm familiar with the notion that the Saints and Superheroes are the old gods in disguise. I kind of like that notion actually. What I wonder is what disguises they wore in protestant America before comic book superheroes came along?