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Arioch: How selective is the reconstruction process? How do you go about deciding what elements of a cultures history to include in your own practice and how does for example heathen reconstructionism include gay people, what are the roles it assigns to gay people or African people.
The short answer is that each group and each individual needs to find the balance that works for them, and there is often a great deal of politics surrounding the differences in answer.
Most kindreds around here are informal in their clothing, semi-formal in their ritual, and closed to members-only by default. Hrafnar is open to whoever shows up, and we're a bit high-church, employing more of the tricks of the ritual trade to make it easier for newcomers to get into things. Diana Paxson, who runs the group, is a scholar of history, and founder of the SCA (amongst other things) - so you can imagine we're more likely to dress in garb for our ceremonies. But not for everyday life, or for casual meetings to discuss Heathen topics. Moreover, Diana has no problem with the way I often dress for Hrafnar, which is probably closer to what you'd expect of a hippie neopagan, rather than an old-fashioned Viking. I don't mind a nice long T-tunic, belted at the waist, but I really don't like hanging skirts.
As for inclusiveness, the groups I spend time in all but ignore racial differences, and mostly ignore sex in favor of gender or chosen role. That is, we accept gays and lesbians, transgendered folks, or even simply tomboys, etc. into whichever roles make them comfortable at any given time. We don't stop the women from learning the "men's roles" or vice versa. But we do acknowledge that gender roles did exist then and do exist now, and sometimes those roles are worked into a ritual, or are the topic of a discussion group - and sometimes I've seen people get very uncomfortable because they assume that because we perceive gender roles, they are required to cram themselves into those boxes. From what I understand, my own local groups have gotten more sensitive to this over time, as problems have come up and been resolved one way or another. As for folks of African heritage... well, we usually just ignore that entirely. Which isn't to say we require them to ignore it - they, and anyone else for that matter, are quite welcome to call on their actual ancestors of the blood as well as their ancestors of the heart and spirit when we are honoring the ancestors - as long as the people being honored A) were human once, and B) are now dead.
Other groups, well... different people and different groups handle things differently, and I don't agree with all of the variations. There are groups and individuals that try to go with petrified gender roles, and expect anyone not obviously Germanic to provide proof they have a right to honor the Aesir. I guess as long as they aren't really hurting anybody there's nothing to be done about how they make themselves happy - but I vehemently disagree with that end of the spectrum.
WRT Escapism - well, yeah, I'm sure folks do get there. I periodically look at my life and wonder if I've just joined the world's biggest LARP or what, but I've ultimately concluded that if it gets me through life, I accomplish more than I ever did without it, and I'm happy, I'm not sure it matters.
Do you have a problem with escapism in general? Because at this point I think I've seen just about everything turned into an escape, and I'm a little tired of being expected to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
If i create a narrative for myself that isn't inclusive of all the elements that surround me in the world i live in then i risk not honoring or being respectful of those elements through a lack of inclusion of them in how i look at the world.
Mmm, for the most part, I think people are drawn to Recon Paganism because they are looking for things that aren't being included in their world. There's a kind of precarious balance, I guess. On the one hand, because the symbol set you're using is more cohesive than a mix 'n' match Eclectic symbol set may be, things are often easier to understand, easier to extrapolate, and feel more whole. But on the other hand one can indeed get caught up trying too hard to live in a culture that isn't about the here/now they actually inhabit.
Personally, I wasn't drawn to Recon paganism because it's historical, and I'm one of the least scholarly Heathens I know (which makes me uncomfortable, but I just don't learn well from reading static, impersonal books). I joined Hrafnar because I fit in socially, and stayed because the Odin hit me with a stick and said "Pay Attention!" - literally.
My main point is how do you reconstruct a past to make it applicable to the times we are living in. I have no objection to how much history is given a present context, but how do you decide which bits are relevant to a modern life and enrich the experience of living now.
That's such an open-ended question, it's hard to answer without sounding wishy-washy. So let me give you an example set:
In ancient times, various Germanic, Aesir-worshipping people regularly sacrificed food animals, and occasionally sacrificed work animals or human beings to their gods. The food animals were, as far as I know, often sacrificed in the context of a feast for the community to share in. Work animals and humans were hanged, strangled, drowned in bogs, or otherwise left entirely for the gods to consume.
Today, a majority of folks in the First World buy things like pasteurized processed cheese food sliced on a what they hope is an all-beef patty from an animal they not only never saw, but don't want to see. That's obviously something of a worst-case scenario. But things are looking up - people are becoming more aware of Organic vegetables, and Free Range meat, etc.
The Heathens I know often take it a step further, as close to the honorable food sacrifice as they can personally manage. Some folks will only eat food they could have acquired directly, and therefore don't eat food that had to be imported from a great distance, or animals too big for them to kill with a knife in hand had it been in front of them. Some Heathens are themselves farmers who raise their animals as best as they are able, giving them clean living and good care, and then, when the time comes to make them food, honoring their spirit, their sacrifice, and our gods, and killing them as quickly and cleanly as possible. Other Heathens aren't in a position to do all that for themselves, but make a point of learning how, and getting hands-on experience with it. Others leave that step to the farmers, but only buy meat that they know was treated well, and make a point of honoring the sacrifice of life that the animal made before becoming our food.
Personally - I try to be mindful, but I'm modern girl and a meat eater, and I know damned well my habits aren't up to standard. I'm working on it, slowly, with a long-term eye on learning how to be responsible for my own meat. I'm a quick study, but I've really only been practicing Heathenism for about 6 years. Yet I keep comparing myself to folks who have been at this for two, three, four times as long as I have. *sigh*
But I don't know anybody who will sacrifice non-food animals, nor who will waste all the food that results from the kill. And we don't strangle people or drown them in bogs any more. There's a ritual called a Blot that, if I understand correctly, traditionally went with this sacrifice, and involved sprinkling blood as a blessing. In modern times, most groups use alcoholic drinks in place of the blood (with the exception of the aforementioned farmers, who actually have a honorable blood option). Some folks do the actual sprinkling. Others take an understanding that the significance of the Blot as a blessing and honor to a god is more important than the mechanism, and replace the sprinkling with taking a drink, invocation, and other less historical replacements. And there are folks who insist that if you change it that much, you must call it a "faining" instead of a "blot".
The linguistic arguments are why I usually skip the special language when I'm in charge, and just announce that we'll "pass a horn in honor of Freya" when the time comes. Hrafnar goes ahead and uses "Blot".
Zippy: I was actually, I thought, defending the idea that Reconstructionism has a valid place in reaction to mainstream pagan/Wiccan ahistoricity, responding to Arioch's comment that I interpreted to mean maybe it would be better if pagans didn't make any effort to connect their practice to a past at all.
Ahh - no worries. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
I hope my replies are helpful. They are, of course, limited to my experience, but I think I do have a fair amount of experience in this area nowadays.
--Ember-- |
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