{"id":2436,"date":"2011-03-10T17:21:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T00:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2011-03-10T17:23:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T00:23:41","slug":"gallimaufry-but-its-a-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2436","title":{"rendered":"Gallimaufry, But It’s a Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Is your religion playing secrecy games? Anne Hill asks, “Does Your Religion Pass the Briefcase Test<\/a>?” This concept was explored in the magical religion of Candombl\u00e9 in Paul Christopher Johnson’s Secrets, Gossip, and Gods<\/a>. <\/em>Read Johnson’s book and see how much seems familiar.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sannion rants about bad ritual<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As annoying as all of this was, the thing that I found utterly intolerable was the high priestess\u2019 choice in ritual tools. Her default images of The Lord and Lady were a pair of black velvet paintings of a shirtless Fabio-faced Indian Brave and his equally improbable and extremely busty Indian Princess paramour. Next to these was the ubiquitous cheap wolf statue and more crystals and feathers than you could shake an athame at.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 If you missed my earlier brief reference to it, read Peg Aloi’s “The History of Pagans in the Media: A Cautionary Tale<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Pagans who want media attention are nothing new. Look at Aleister Crowley<\/a>; he was a public sensation and scandalous topic of conversation throughout society in the days before Facebook, before television, before radio. His desire for fame and fortune certainly marred what might have been a respectable career as a talented poet and brilliant occultist and author. Well, maybe also the drug addiction, unpaid debts and sexual enslavement of women held him back just a teeny bit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Is your religion playing secrecy games? Anne Hill asks, “Does Your Religion Pass the Briefcase Test?” This concept was explored in the magical religion of Candombl\u00e9 in Paul Christopher Johnson’s Secrets, Gossip, and Gods. Read Johnson’s book and see how much seems familiar. \u2022 Sannion rants about bad ritual: As annoying as all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,5],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blogging","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Di","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8654,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8654","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":0},"title":"What Is Wrong with Large-Scale Ritual?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When it comes to large-scale ritual, the traditional Wiccan circle does not scale up well. It was made for a small-group mystery religion, where twelve or thirteen people really is the maximum.((OK, maybe up to twenty or so, but that is more than enough, especially if they are skyclad and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/maypole4-crystalize.jpg?w=576&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8678,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8678","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":1},"title":"Large-Group Ritual: Magic, Worship, or “Just What We Do”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend in Poland sent a link to this music video, adding that it looks a lot like the Midsummer celebration in his village but needs the volunteer firefighters, more kielbasa, and more vodka, except, \"Our river\u2019s a fair bit wider, too.\" He describes the St. Nicholas Orchestra as \"Pagan-friendly,\"\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2471,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2471","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":2},"title":"This is Civic Nature Religion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Deep in Mother Earth, an important ritual takes place. Don't tell the wrong people that we might count it as \"nature religion.\"","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12879,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12879","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":3},"title":"Little Bulgarian Girls Can Chase Demons Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A photographer goes to a village in Bulgaria to photograph the Kukeri ritual, a \"druidic-oriented ritual,\" which \"many consider being one of the only remaining practiced pagan rituals in Europe today.\" OK Is tract an phenomenon? Over two medications, the variety become about 800 medications and interesting India women triggering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bulgaria\"","block_context":{"text":"Bulgaria","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=bulgaria"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Kukeri-10-1024x672.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=139","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":4},"title":"Episodic Religiosity","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Cultural anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse divides modes of religiosity into \"episodic\" and \"doctrinal.\" One relies on dramatic ritual experiences, the other on creeds, sermons, texts, exposition, etc. In his book Arguments and Icons: Divergent Modes of Religiosity, he writes that in small, tribal, or breakaway groups, \"religious life is focused around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1119,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1119","url_meta":{"origin":2436,"position":5},"title":"On Not Being a Textual Religion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"People who think that a \"real religion\" has holy books often do not understand Paganism, whether old or now. Gus diZerega, who is now blogging at BeliefNet, takes on that attitude in his latest post, \"A Pagan View on Sacred Authority.\"Fundamentally we are an oral and experiential tradition. We Wiccans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}