Do you think it's possible to bring back paganism? Would you like to? I admit, I have an inkling of sympathy for my unchristian ancestors, mainly through a pair of rose-tinted glasses, but maybe something more than that too. By pagans and paganism, I mean any peoples or belief structure, usually polytheistic but at least animistic, and typically adhered to by the indigenous "folk" of a place. My sympathy mainly derives from a desire to understand or be within a world totally unlike the one we inhabit now. That is, one full of real, widespread magical thinking, and something approaching unity between man and spirit. Whether or not Christianity was describing or prescribing, I think the theologian's project has been one of identifying a separation between the spiritual and the material. The pagan has seemed to me to not worry about such things, and to freely believe in a world imbued with deity. Now, when I say "bring back", I don't refer to forming throngs in the woods as the "neo-Pagans," such as the right-wing political movements (eg Varg) or groups who just enjoy the LARP. I think I agree generally with the thought that what was once cannot be brought back really. And the world as it is has forsaken even regimented, internal Christian belief. And obviously magic, whatever you might think of it, is a plaything, an illusion to most. So, I acknowledge that my question is silly, and even incorrect, but part of me wonders about that distant world and how it relates to ours. Would paganistic qualities be "liberatory", as I sometimes idealize them in my mind?
Anonymous :
13 hours ago :
No.8777
>>8780
>>8777
I knew a lithuanian guy who said they still had festivals at midsummer where teenagers would go into the woods and drink and shag each other. Sounded like a real bacchanal.
But yeah I concur with >>8779 that European paganism basically cannot escape the inherent LARPiness of being defined in opposition to the Christian-atheistic mainstream. It's impossible not to laugh when you hear modern pagans going on about their 'religions'. Ok so you believe in Thor and Odin and Loki. Ok. Do you. Do you really. lmao. lmao. I don't believe you.
The Baltics is the only part of Europe I could see sincerely renouncing Christianity for Paganism. Otherwise, it's as dead as disco.
I'm not very well versed in theology but do you see any parallels between paganism and secularism with regard to what you're talking about, but with a sort of animism applied to meta ideas about human systems of organization rather than animals?
Anonymous :
8 hours ago :
No.8779
>>8780
>>8777
I knew a lithuanian guy who said they still had festivals at midsummer where teenagers would go into the woods and drink and shag each other. Sounded like a real bacchanal.
But yeah I concur with >>8779 that European paganism basically cannot escape the inherent LARPiness of being defined in opposition to the Christian-atheistic mainstream. It's impossible not to laugh when you hear modern pagans going on about their 'religions'. Ok so you believe in Thor and Odin and Loki. Ok. Do you. Do you really. lmao. lmao. I don't believe you.
You did answer your question, in my mind. It is not possible. There is no continuity, dooming any attempt at reviving paganism to remain LARP forever. And more importantly the style of thinking that is prerequisite here is no longer available to vast majority of us at the present. Paganism breathed its last as a mass phenomenon with romanticism, which was still at the core LARP, but at least it had some success reigniting the emotions and mentality adjacent to the image of pagan societies in the Europe, and could draw from last inheritors of these practises at times.
Would it be liberating? In the short term, for sure, but I do not think such change in thinking is even possible in the scale of a single lifetime.
>>8777
The Baltics is the only part of Europe I could see sincerely renouncing Christianity for Paganism. Otherwise, it's as dead as disco.
I knew a lithuanian guy who said they still had festivals at midsummer where teenagers would go into the woods and drink and shag each other. Sounded like a real bacchanal.
But yeah I concur with >>8779You did answer your question, in my mind. It is not possible. There is no continuity, dooming any attempt at reviving paganism to remain LARP forever. And more importantly the style of thinking that is prerequisite here is no longer available to vast majority of us at the present. Paganism breathed its last as a mass phenomenon with romanticism, which was still at the core LARP, but at least it had some success reigniting the emotions and mentality adjacent to the image of pagan societies in the Europe, and could draw from last inheritors of these practises at times.
Would it be liberating? In the short term, for sure, but I do not think such change in thinking is even possible in the scale of a single lifetime.
that European paganism basically cannot escape the inherent LARPiness of being defined in opposition to the Christian-atheistic mainstream. It's impossible not to laugh when you hear modern pagans going on about their 'religions'. Ok so you believe in Thor and Odin and Loki. Ok. Do you. Do you really. lmao. lmao. I don't believe you.
I know someone who actually, truly believes in the magical/supernatural/whatever you wanna call it. she's very sweet but may actually have schizophrenia. but maybe not because she is able to lead a normal life and she is definitely, definitely not on meds for any mental health thing.
last I spoke to her, she was regularly "communicating" with an entity that "knew things" and "protected her". like it would tell her who she shouldn't hang out with and give her lottery numbers