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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in oral tradition

Ernie La Pointe raconte la mort chez les indiens Lakotas - Happy End

I once heard Sitting Bull's great-grandson, Ernie LaPointe (b. 1948), give what is probably the single most incisive description that I've ever heard, of how non-scriptural traditions operate.

“The Lakota Way,” he told the interviewer, “is transmitted through story and song, and actualized in ceremony.”

Transmitted through story and song, and actualized in (I'll translate into Pagan here) ritual.

You, witch: in your bones, you know that what he says is true.

When I first came into the Craft, nigh on (gods help us) 50 years ago now, I knew it in my bones too. “Teach me the stories and songs,” I said to them. But they couldn't. We didn't have any.

In those days, the Old Ways were young.

Now, half a century later (thank Goddess) that's no longer the case. Now, after a lifetime of gathering, if you come to me with a question, there's a story or song for, if not quite every occasion, at least (given a little wiggle room/lateral thinking) for most: just as ever we've done since the dawning of days.

Once, we were impoverished. Now, my friends, we are wealthy: rich in story and song.

An archivist from the Minnesota Historical Society who's currently working with the Local Pagan History Project—we have a lot of pagan history here in Paganistan—asked me why, five years ago, I started this blog.

As the ancestors would have done, I answered her question with a story: the story that I've just told you here.

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Dumber Than a Table

In the days of Bush One, there lived a bulldog named Mabel.

Even as bulldogs go, Mabel was not exactly, shall we say, the brightest candle on the altar.

And this was her song:

The Mabel Song (1)

(To the tune of: Dreidel)

 

I know a dog named Mabel:

she has a corkscrew tail.

She's dumber than a table,

but smarter than Dan Quayle.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    As always, Mabel tells it like it is. Thanks for channeling!
  • Carol P. Christ
    Carol P. Christ says #
    Dumb I am not Steve You're a snot. But she loves you anyway I am sure.
Pagan News Beagle: Watery Wednesday, October 5

Black Americans discontented with society and Christianity turn to ancestral religions. A look at the reliability question regarding oral histories. And an examination of what Heathenry may (or may not) be "missing." It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment about news in the Pagan community. It's all this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

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