{"id":7950,"date":"2016-05-30T13:36:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T19:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7950"},"modified":"2016-05-30T21:25:03","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T03:25:03","slug":"heathens-in-the-grange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7950","title":{"rendered":"Heathens in the Grange"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"newgrange\"

How the hof<\/em> will look after it has been Norse-ified.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Asatru Folk Assembly<\/a> recently concluded a successful crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to buy an old Grange hall in the Gold Rush country of California.<\/a>((Yes, I contributed and got a T-shirt in one my favorite colors. Like Ben Franklin, I give to variety of different groups.)) AFA founder Stephen McNallen chose this time to step down<\/a> as alsherjargothi<\/em> (high priest) and go out on a high note<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the joys of hof<\/em>-ownership. How is the roof? Septic system? Water? And wildfire mitigation \u2014 don’t forget that!<\/em> I know what it is like to see air tankers coming in low over my hof<\/em>, I mean house<\/em>, to make a retardant drop. I see conifers in the photo background \u2014 check your gutters!<\/p>\n

What makes me chuckle is the fact that the building used to be a Grange hall \u2014 a meeting place of\u00a0 a 150-year-old organization, the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, <\/a>that while smaller than it used to be, has not died out completely.<\/p>\n

When I was a teenager in northern Colorado, I knew of several old Grange halls that sat empty in rural areas for lack of membership. Some high school friends of mine rented one for band practice. They were not a “garage band”\u00a0 \u2014 they were a “grange band” (rimshot).<\/p>\n

My impression of the order’s demise was corrected when I was a newpaper reporter in Colorado Springs and covered a Grange convocation in order to hear some speaker \u2014 something agriculture-related, probably.<\/p>\n

By then I knew Isaac Bonewits’ classification scheme of Paleo-Pagan, Meso-Pagan, and Neo-Pagan<\/a>, and the Grangers definitely had a slight Meso-Pagan vibe. I lacked the password and handshake to get into the closed, ritual part of the meeting, but there was something mentioned about Demeter, and I saw small silver ritual plows, etc. As the Wikipedia entry notes<\/a>,<\/p>\n

When the Grange first began in 1867, it borrowed some of its rituals and symbols from Freemasonry, including secret meetings, oaths and special passwords. It also copied ideas from Greek and Roman mythology and the Bible. Small, ceremonial farm tools are often displayed at Grange meetings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The word grange<\/em> goes way back, coming from<\/a><\/p>\n

Anglo-French graunge<\/span>,<\/em> Old French grange<\/span><\/em> “barn, granary; farmstead, farm house” (12c.), from Medieval Latin or Vulgar Latin granica<\/span><\/em> “barn or shed for keeping grain,” from Latin granum<\/span><\/em> “grain,” from PIE root *gre-no-<\/span><\/em> “grain” (see corn<\/em>). Sense evolved to “outlying farm” (late 14c.), then “country house,” especially of a gentleman farmer (1550s).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Newgrange, the famous prehistoric monument in Ireland w<\/a>as named after some farm, I suppose.<\/p>\n

It was almost obsolete in 19th-century American when it was revived in the name of the fraternal order, which also sought to promote better farming practices, and mostly importantly to help farmers work cooperatively to promote their interests against the railroads. As the only mechanism to get their grain to market, the railroads always had the producers by the neck.<\/p>\n

Following the Panic of 1873<\/a>, the Grange spread rapidly throughout the farm belt, since farmers in all areas were plagued by low prices for their products, growing indebtedness and discriminatory treatment by the railroads. These concerns helped to transform the Grange into a political force. . . .<\/p>\n

The Grange as a political force peaked around 1875, then gradually declined. New organizations with more potent messages emerged, including the Greenback Party<\/a> of the 1870s, the Farmers’ Alliances of the 1880s and the Populist Party of the 1890s.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Grange had played an important role by demonstrating that farmers were capable of organizing and advocating a political agenda. After witnessing the eclipse of its advocacy efforts by other groups, the Grange reverted to its original educational and social events. These have sustained the organization to the present day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Asatru Folk Assembly recently concluded a successful crowdfunding campaign to buy an old Grange hall in the Gold Rush country of California.((Yes, I contributed and got a T-shirt in one my favorite colors. Like Ben Franklin, I give to variety of different groups.)) AFA founder Stephen McNallen chose this time to step down as […]<\/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":[237,76,75,130],"class_list":["post-7950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agriculture","tag-asatru","tag-california","tag-heathenry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-24e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":694,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=694","url_meta":{"origin":7950,"position":0},"title":"More on the \u00c0satr\u00f9 prison story","author":"Chas S. 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