Siberian Shamans and their Music

A short documentary on contemporary Siberian shamanism from the Russian television channel RT.

The interesting part is a young shaman and his friend composing a sort of “house” music (or so the narrator describes it) to try to bridge contemporary sounds with the shamanic tradition, which was almost destroyed by seventy years of atheistic Communism. A little throat-singing comes in as well.

“Music helps me withdraw from the [trance] state,” says the shaman-musician.

The relationship between the revival of Siberian shamanism and Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies is briefly hinted at.

Being a Wizard Today

This link will take you to six-minute video wherein Oberon Zell of the Church of All Worlds and the Grey School of Wizardry discusses the school and role of the wizard in the modern world, with cameo appearances by two of the students.

There is also brief mention of the “unicorn” era of the 1980s.

Although he cannot help being labeled a “real-life Dumbledore,” I do think that Oberon and his partner Morning Glory deserve some kind of Pagan Lifetime Achievement award. They have lived the life of priest and priestess, author, editor, teacher, artist, etc. for more than forty years, with a little help from their friends but while remaining firmly “alternative” the whole time.

More Reality TV Pagans

If you want, you can sign a petition against or about the treatment of contemporary Paganism on The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel.

I’m glad that I don’t have cable TV, y’know?

Market Share of the Gods

A few weeks ago, I was looking at the Sacred Source catalog  and wondered if it could not be treated as a primary source for the extent and type of polytheistic worship in the West — or at least the Anglosphere? — today.

They sort their statuettes, etc., into categories, and I have further divided those categories by gender and also into an animal/other category for non-human representations. I did break their “Americas” category in North and Meso-South.

I double-count Great Rite/conjoined images, and I also count Buddha figures, for although Buddhas are originally human, they are effectively treated by gods by some.

New:  2 male,  13 female
Goddess/Pagan: 8 male, 43  female, 2 other
Celtic: 6 male, 22 female, 3 other
Norse: 7 male,  6 female
Greco-Roman: 19 male, 32 female, 1 other
Hindu & Buddhist: 34 male, 30 female
Native American 0 male,  5 female
African: 1 male, 3 female
Neolithic: 1 male,  3 female
Middle Eastern: 2 male, 10 female
Meso/South American: 2 male,  6 female
Gnostic: 8 male, 15 female
Egyptian: 2 male, 10 female,  5 other

As my title indicates, I am assuming that these numbers reflect sales, not theology. Slow-selling figures are dropped, which is why you do not, alas, find the Emperor Julian in the lineup anymore. (I should have bought several!)

What else do they tell us? Comments are open.

More Pagan Narrow-casting

Modern Pagan TV is a show streaming on the Web, produced in Denver.

You can watch their first programs by visiting the archives at the website.

I’m sure that this is (part of) the future, but I am not going to stop blogging, me. For one thing, I don’t have to think about what I am wearing—although, contrary to the blogger cliche, I am not wearing pajamas at this moment.

 

Survey on Pagan Needs

Gwendolyn Reece, a librarian  at American University in Washington, D.C., with a background in religious studies, is conducting a survey “to understand the importance of different practices to the Pagan/Witch/Heathen community in the United States and identify the needs, challenges, barriers, and perceptions of risk faced by Pagans/Witches/Heathens that influence their ability to practice, and whether there are variations within segments of the community. ”

I have not yet learned if she plans an academic paper or publication with the result, but I am attempting to find out.

2012 AAR “Call” Now Online

The call for papers for the next annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion is now available online. You will find the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s CFP here.

Quick Review: “Dark of Moon”

If you are a Pagan watching Dark of Moon, you probably will be thinking “I know her! I’ve met them! I’ve been there!” — even if, of course, you have not.

You will probably be so pleased to watch a feature-length film that treats Wicca and Druidry as normal rather than as scary or exotic that you will overlook the technical glitches and occasionally wooden dialog.

To me, skill in lighting separates the pros from the wannabes. The movie’s lighting was occasionally flat and harsh. M. is more conscious of dialog and kept saying that the first half of the movie was “propagandistic.”

And why all the door and window moldings have been removed from the Gardnerian covenstead must be a third-degree secret. It is odd, considering that the protagonists enter expecting something fancier than their own shared house, only to find quite the opposite.

At the center of the movie is an ensemble of Wiccan housemates, friends since college, each one single, members of the Coven of Mystic Light — and all on the threshold of “real life,” or as Beth says, “Woo-hoo, I’m an adult. What do I want from my life?”

The  zaftig Sammi (Angelia DeLuca) bubbles  her lines, most of which have to do with how much she enjoys various aspects of sex.

Like Samantha in Sex and the City, is she a gay man written as a female character? There is a lot of risqué humor in Dark of Moon, most of it about as subtle as a wet towel to the face.

Drew (Roger Conners), the actual gay housemate, is the only one with a back story—he is a would-be graphic artist waiting tables to pay the bills

The slacker-ish Miller (DJ Remark) seems to have wandered in from Clerks.

Zeke (Brad Arner), the tall, dark, and handsome one, works in —  wait for it — an occult-supply shop.

And in contrast to the conventional wisdom that says once a woman says “let’s just be friends,” any chance of romance is dead, Zeke’s long-time friend Beth (Kelly Rogers) genuinely wants him. With mobile features that register every emotional twinge, Rogers may have the most acting talent of the cast.

When Zeke leaves his old covenmates to join a Gardnerian group, the plot is set in motion.

The setting is northern Ohio, and the Gardnerian HPS is named Lady Circe. That may be an inside joke; if so, I did not find it all that funny. But maybe there was more than one Lady Circe in Ohio.

Or maybe we are in Cleveland, in which case The Drew Carey Show-with-pentagrams is still better than Charmed.

And in the end , each covener finds true love, or at least true lust, all in a setting where “Pagan” is the default setting — and that’s refreshing.

Order DVDs, read cast bios, view trailers and all the rest at the official website.

Some Recent Publications Available Online

Some recent publications in or related to Pagan Studies:

• The first issue of Goddess Thealogy: An International Journal for the Study of the Divine Feminine is available for download (PDF, 3.17 MB)

• Videos and PDF files of lectures from the “Demons in the Academy” session at the recent American Academy of Religion meeting are available at the Phoenix Academy website.

• With author Eric Steinhart’s permission, I have uploaded his series of posts on atheism and Wicca as one PDF file.

Cemetery Theory in the Upland South

From a blog about the archaeology of American cemeteries:

There are cemeteries that are formally laid out, for example, most city cemeteries (many of which follow the ideas of the Rural Cemetery movement, but that’s a topic for another day), then there are the folk cemeteries – those that follow a folk, or vernacular, pattern. The distinction is roughly analogous to that between Landmark Architecture (created by professionally trained and schooled architects) and Vernacular Architecture (everything else – often applied to barns, houses, and other structures). Like Folk/Vernacular Architecture, Folk Cemeteries follow a cultural pattern developed through tradition and practical experience. There are many different traditions in cemeteries, one of which is the Upland South Folk Cemetery as defined by D. Gregory Jeane. I’m going to prevent a sort of thumbnail sketch of the Upland South Folk Cemetery (USFC), if you’d like to know more check out suggested reading at the end of this post.

Fascinating reading.