{"id":8037,"date":"2016-05-21T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T16:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8037"},"modified":"2016-05-22T10:31:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T16:31:05","slug":"beings-nones-in-a-pagan-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8037","title":{"rendered":"Being “Nones” in a Pagan Society?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sacrificial<\/a>

Sacrificial pine tree of Lalli in Tartu county – photo by Pille Porila<\/p><\/div>\n

In Estonia<\/a>, as with many Eastern European countries, the native Pagan religion is entertwined with national pride. Conquerers from the medieval Teutonic Knights<\/a> to the Soviet Union have tried to supress it.<\/p>\n

According to this writer, many\u2014perhaps a majority\u2014of Estonians are spiritual-but-not-religious in a Pagan sort of way:<\/a><\/p>\n

Taaraism [native Paganism] went against the ways of Christianity and focused more upon the belief of nature. Because of the disbelief in Christianity, Estonians maintained a traditional culture of neo-Paganism that has continued to affect Estonian culture, beliefs and traditions to this day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I think might be happening can be explained by the good old 80-20 rule. Even if there is a “traditional culture of neo-Paganism” (Isn’t that a clash of adjectives?), at most only about 20 percent of\u00a0 people really care about the daily business of religion, while the rest, to use an old phrase, mainly want it when they are “hatched, matched, and dispatched” \u2014 and for festivals.<\/p>\n

Despite Estonia\u2019s well-maintained churches and other medieval tourist attractions, Estonia is considered to be one of the least religious countries in the world, with 78% of Estonians saying they do not use religion as part of their daily lives, according to the 2006-2011 Gallup polls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the normal condition of humanity, when you leave people to their own devices and do not demand that they line up in neat rows every seven days (on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) and say their prayers.<\/p>\n

More from the article:<\/p>\n

Those who had hoped Taaraism to become Estonia\u2019s national religion during the first independence period in 1918-1940, saw their prospective success squashed by the Soviet occupation, as the atheistic and collective Soviet Union didn\u2019t take any religion kindly, let alone a stand-alone national one, which would give too many independent ideas and thoughts.<\/p>\n

Today, the population of Taara or Maausk<\/em> followers is extremely small. However, according to the 2000 census, only 29% of the total Estonian population is at all religious, but in 2005, the Eurobarometer poll found that 54% believed in some spirit or external life force.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Estonia, as with many Eastern European countries, the native Pagan religion is entertwined with national pride. Conquerers from the medieval Teutonic Knights to the Soviet Union have tried to supress it. According to this writer, many\u2014perhaps a majority\u2014of Estonians are spiritual-but-not-religious in a Pagan sort of way: Taaraism [native Paganism] went against the ways […]<\/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":[283,131,5],"class_list":["post-8037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-estonia","tag-europe","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-25D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10304,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10304","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":0},"title":"Baltic Gothic: A Quick Review of “November”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In rural 19th-century Estonia, as depicted in the film November, people did not merely put out food offerings for the Dead on All Souls Day \u2014 they fed them. And talked to them. And if the Dead wished to enjoy a sauna, a fire had already been lit. And then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"death\"","block_context":{"text":"death","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=death"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10135,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10135","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":1},"title":"Marco Pasi on Sex and Esotericism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"?? Scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) speaks at a conference in Estonia. Or is that Esoteronia? If that video does not play for you, try this link: \"The Social and Cultural Aspects of Esoteric Sex.\"","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12154,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12154","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":2},"title":"Joining Folklore: The Electronic Journal of Folklore","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month I accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of Folklore: The Electronic Journal of Folklore, which is published by the Estonian Literary Museum in the city of Tartu. They have not yet updated the website, but you know how that goes. Because Folklore is government-supported and Web-only,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/estonian-literary-museum-300x174.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10588","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":3},"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":[]},{"id":6104,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6104","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":4},"title":"Tree Beings, New Age Bodies, and Censored Folklore","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the table of contents of the latest Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics ( vol. 7, no. 1 ), published in Finland, \"a multidisciplinary forum for scholars. Addressed to an international scholarly audience, JEF is open to contributions from researchers all over the world. JEF publishes articles in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":8037,"position":5},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037","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=8037"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8051,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions\/8051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}