{"id":5491,"date":"2013-05-08T16:46:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T22:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5491"},"modified":"2013-05-08T16:47:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T22:47:03","slug":"a-quick-encounter-between-fire-and-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5491","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Encounter between Fire and Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ogle_002_sm\"<\/a>

Jekabs Bine (1895\u20131955) “Perkons (Thunder),” 1941. Oil on canvas, 53 x 65 cm.
The Janis Rozentals Saldus History and Art Museum, Latvia.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next issue of The Pomegranate <\/em><\/a>will include a special section on the revival of Paganism in Latvia<\/a>, a revival that blossomed in that Baltic nation’s first period of independence, 1917\u20131940, or between the Russian Revolution, which released Latvia from the old empire, and the beginnings of World War II, when the small nation was scooped up first Soviet Union, then by the Third Reich and then by the Soviet Union again, a crushing embrace that lasted until 1991.<\/p>\n

I was partway through layout on an article by the Latvian art historian Kristine Ogle<\/a> on Pagan themes in Latvian art before World War II, when M. came in from the veranda, saying that she could hear the emergency siren from down the valley.<\/p>\n

Drop editor persona, assume volunteer firefighter persona.\u00a0 Over my clothes I put on my “wildland interface” jacket and pants, since the sheriff’s dispatcher was saying this was a report of smoke, not a structure fire. I grabbed pack, radio, helmet, and was off, soon to be driving one of our brush trucks (wildland engines) up a county road that might <\/em>lead to the site. But nothing.<\/p>\n

Eventually we ended up with another firefighter and me in the brush truck, two more following in personal vehicles, a sheriff’s deputy, and an engine from the Bureau of Land Management. We split up to investigate different muddy ranch roads \u2014 still nothing. So after an hour, we called it off.<\/p>\n

It had already hailed briefly in the morning, and soon after I came home, another little thunderstorm went through. So it seemed reasonable not to worry too much, not this week. People are still jumpy after the fire last October <\/a>that took out 15 houses near mine\u2014a wisp of low-hanging cloud might have looked like smoke.<\/p>\n

Back at my computer, I continued where I had left off on the article. I had been just about to place a graphic in the file, and you can see it up above \u2014 the god of thunder.<\/p>\n

Thunder has been much in evidence today here in the Wet Mountains, but given the painting’s date, you have to wonder if the dark clouds over the peaceful Latvian farmstead were more than thunderheads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next issue of The Pomegranate will include a special section on the revival of Paganism in Latvia, a revival that blossomed in that Baltic nation’s first period of independence, 1917\u20131940, or between the Russian Revolution, which released Latvia from the old empire, and the beginnings of World War II, when the small nation was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,211,201,5],"class_list":["post-5491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-fire","tag-latvia","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1qz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5210,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5210","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":0},"title":"The Secret Police as Ethnographers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The next issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies will be devoted largely to new forms of Paganism in the Baltic countries, if all goes as planned. One article that I have been reading is entitled \"The Dievturi Movement in the Reports of the Latvian Political Police,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11548,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11548","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":1},"title":"Interview with an American Pagan Studies Scholar in Latvia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Long-time Pagan studies scholar Michael Strimska has been in Latvia the last few months on a Fulbright, teaching at Riga Stradii\u0161 University. He edited the volume Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives\u00a0 and guest-edited a recent\u00a0 issue of The Pomegranate devoted to Paganism and politics. The university has published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7744,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7744","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":2},"title":"Paganism Close Under the Surface","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In central and eastern Europe, and maybe elsewhere, there is a tradition to end a group hunt for deer, boar, and other animals with a ceremony. I have never seen the like in America, but then all my hunting has been with individualistic Westerners \u2014 which is not to say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"hunting\"","block_context":{"text":"hunting","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hunting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11803,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11803","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":3},"title":"Book to Explore Paganism in Early Modern Lithuania","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I post a lot about old and new Pagan movements in the Baltic nations, a region that I have never visited, although some of my family members have.((One of my older sisters lived the last couple of years of her life in Kaunas, Lithuania, but that had nothing to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Latvia\"","block_context":{"text":"Latvia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=latvia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/shrine.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8564,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8564","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":4},"title":"New Pagan Temple in Latvia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A new Pagan (Dievturi) temple has been built in Latvia, according to this article (in Latvian). Relying on Google Translate, I read, Crowded opening event alongside Latvian pagan exile pagan representatives and sanctuary creation of the people involved was also attended by other ancient white dievest?bas common to both the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Latvia\"","block_context":{"text":"Latvia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=latvia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/neskaties.lv\/2017\/05\/uz-salas-daugava-atklata-galvena-dievturu-svetnica-5914710d210f3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10588","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":5},"title":"Religion News Service: Baltic Pagans Spurred by Conservation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article from the Religion News Service, which does not normally acknowledge polytheists, describes the long-standing Pagan revivals in the Baltic republics: The pagan [sic] religions have been spurred especially by a growing awareness of climate change and the rise of conservation movements that tap into a deep local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Estonia\"","block_context":{"text":"Estonia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=estonia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491","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=5491"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5506,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions\/5506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}