Urban Primitive

When I read the sentence, “Children’s dolls, broken or whole, are symbolic of urban ‘elves’–the urban version of the tomte or tontu,” I was drawn further into reading–and then buying–Urban Primitive, by Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartztein.

The title and cover treatment owe something to RE/Search’s Modern Primitives, whose title in turn came from the idea that “Primitive” actions . . . rupture conventional confines of behavior and aesthetics . . . [they explore] the territory of the last remaining underdeveloped source of first-hand experience: the human body.”

It’s a Llewellyn book, which means it is “Wicca 101,” but with enough twists and originality to make it interesting–using subway trains in banishing rituals, assigning astrological symbolism to different body piercings. It’s not the usual “the ancient Celts did this and that” approach, at least. The way that the authors teach city dwellers to seek the “heart of the city” is important, because too often American culture tells us to hate our cities–and so we make them ugly, and they sprawl as we keep trying to “escape” them.

The book gave me the idea of a magical action that I wish to carry out–and it also gave me the germ of a nature-writing class assignment.

Researching Paganisms

Congratulations to Graham Harvey, Jenny Blain, and Doug Ezzy on publication of their new anthology, Researching Paganisms, with contributions by the editors plus Andy Letcher, Jone Salomonsen, Wendy Griffin, Melissa Harrington, Sarah Pike, Ronald Hutton, Ruth Mantin, Robert Wallis, and some incoherant rambling essay by me.

The publisher says, “Should researchers of spirituality and religion be distantly ‘objective,’ or engaged and active participants? The traditional paradigm of ‘methodological agnosticism’ is increasingly challenged as researchers emphasize the benefits of direct participation for understanding beliefs and practices. Should academic researchers ‘go native,’ participating as ‘insiders’ in engagements with the ‘supernatural,’ experiencing altered states of of consciousness? How do academics negotiate the fluid boundaries between worlds and meanings which may change their own beliefs? Should their own experiences be part of academic reports? Researching Paganisms presents reflective and engaging accounts of issues in the academic study of religion confronted by anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, historians and religious studies scholars—as researchers and as humans—as they study contemporary Pagan religions. The insights that contributors gain, with resultant changes to their own lives, will fascinate not only other scholars of Pagan religions, but scholars of any religion and indeed anyone who grapples with issues of reflexive research.”

My lingering question (in the tone of Carrie’s column-writing voice-over from Sex and the City), “Are we being too reflexive too soon?” But it’s fun.

New blogs on writing

Bitch Novelist: “I suppose I should begin by telling you what this blog is for. I have no intention of being one of those bloggers with attitude, as in fuck you, you figure it out. I welcome readers of this blog as enthusiastically as I welcome readers of my novels. It’s the industry, the prize committees, the reviewers, and many over-hyped novels that I am here to bitch about”

Galley Cat, a spin-off from Cup of Chicha: “While reading is still considered a relatively private and intellectual endeavor, national book clubs seem to drive up sales by ensuring books’ social currency. Reading no longer needs to be the artsy equivalent of solitary confinement; instead, it can be a ticket to a group event, as well as an affordable emulation of a beloved celebrity’s habits. Consequently, if you think literary culture is suffering for lack of readers, you probably see some good in TV shows’ book clubs; and if you think literary culture is suffering because people no longer like to think — at least, for themselves, that is — book clubs may seem like its death knell (and here comes the grim Ripa). ”

Not as new, but I never linked to it: Maud Newton’s blog, now featuring The Secret [Literary] Agent

Donation

I spent a large chunk of the afternoon sorting and packing three large cartons of Pagan magazines dating back to the 1970s. They will be donated to the American Religions Collection at Davidson Library, University of California-Santa Barbara.

My book on the first decades of American Paganism is with the publisher. I sent in one draft last spring, it went to two outside reviewers, and I spent the summer revising it in light of the reviewers’ comments. Now another editor is reading the revised ms., but I feel fairly confident that she will pass it. Finally.

And at any rate, these cartons of materials were not critical to my research. Some materials I am holding back for possible further use.

But in the long run, I am not in the archive business. If the special-collections librarian with whom I am dealing wants more, I could send him another four, five, or maybe six cartons, easily.

On one level this is a happy milestone, but on another, it feels spooky. I suppose I feel that way because in the last 18 months I have spent too much time disposing of my late parents’ belongings, and now I want to shout, “I’m not dead yet,” like the character in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Daily magic in Russia

Russians continue to use “low” magic, says this news report.

“Ghoulish as Russian traffic police are, perhaps it makes sense to resort to unorthodox measures to ward them off.”

Kinder, gentler polytheism

Charged with reviewing both it and a new book about the emperor Julian, I have finally begun Jonathan Kirsch’s God Against the Gods.

Even as the legacy of the Vietnam War still influences American politics, so the fourth-century C.E. conflict between the ideas of Julian and his uncle Constantine echo down unto our era. Kirsch’s thesis, in brief, is that monotheism produces intolerance and violence, such as flying hijacked airplanes into office buildings. “At the heart of polytheism is an open-minded and easygoing approach to religious belief and practice,” he writes by contrast–and I am all for that.

(On the other hand, when dealing with any of the “desert monotheisms”and their commands to “kill the polytheists”, it’s best to keep your eyes open.)

Jason Pitzl-Waters earlier blogged about the same volume, and it furnished the subtitle for The Juggler, the collaborative Pagan blog.

A sidelight: Julian’s story was still so annoying to some medieval Christians that Winchester Cathedral contains a set of paintings depicting an entirely fictional version of his death.

UPDATE: If you like that “open-minded and easygoing” polytheism idea, then surf on over to Godchecker.

Not Satan’s Birthday

Focus on the Family decides that Hallowe’en is all right after all, although “darker” than it used to be. Well, I am so relieved.

Drug war backfires again

The Drug Enforcement Agency’s bureaucratic blunders may unwittingly end up boosting the legal hemp industry, while new research seems to confirm that your body manufactures morphine–a finding with interesting implications for the study of addiction.

If I were (a) younger and (b) more interested in medicine as a career than I ever was, I would concentrate on the study of addiction. What a spiritual-medical-psychological-legal-social puzzle!

Thanks to The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics for the links.

“The fastest-growing religion”

James R. Lewis (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) collects data on new religious movements in this article in the online Marburg Journal of Religion.

In New Zealand, at least, “The fastest growing segment is Paganism (‘Nature and Earth Based Religions’)”. The data from other English-speaking countries are suggestive too, but the United States, of course, does not ask questions about religious affiliation in its census.

My earlier posts on this topic are here and here.

Peyote progress

The Utah Supreme Court has decided that Native American Church members may use peyote even if they are not on the rolls of a federally recognized tribe.

James Mooney, the NAC leader spectacularly busted a few years ago, is celebrating, but the feds, of course, see peyote as an Evil Drug whose use must be contained and limited to enrolled tribal members (marginal folks, you know) and continue to menace Mooney’s NAC congregation.

“If this concerned the sacrament of any other religion, people would be up in arms.” (Links from Religion New Blog.)