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.

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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.

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

Comments

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Thursday, 16 February 2017

    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?

  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch 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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