Part of being a pagan in the modern age requires you to accept the fact that any heritage you might hold dear from the ancient age is going to be filtered by what laid the ancients low. The simple truth is that most of the true myths of the Celts and the Norse, as with many others, have been twisted and changed without any reliable means of restoration to their original state. Unfortunate though it may be, many of the ancients lacked a written history, and relied on the spoken word to relate their traditions and beliefs through the generations. With the spread of Rome and its conversion methods, those spoken myths took on aspects of the Catholic belief and were subject to one of three fates; either they became vilified as sinister things, or they became remade as saintly figures, or they became fodder for simpler stories that had any sense of belief stripped from them.
The efforts of Rome were perhaps most successful in dealing with the Celts. Not only were the mythologies obscured in the destruction of their oral traditions, but any trace of the mainland-Celts were reduced to interpretations of relics. The druids of the ancient time were all but eradicated, and even the rare mention of them left so little information that we are held guessing as to what their entire purpose was (modern interpretations are certainly inspiring and have a sense of "right"-ness attached for me). Those of us who want to follow in the footsteps of the ancients are forced to sift through the ashes for those bits and pieces left strewn among the remains. We lack a full picture of the "truth" of the old ways.
It is for this reason above all others that I stress finding a personal truth when discussing the matter with pagans new to the path. Belief is a very powerful thing, but if you're adhering to someone else's vision, that belief will never be as strong as its full potential. Yes, there are certainly sticking points that we can all agree on -- the names of certain figures, their roles, their breadth of influence -- and those are points that won't get you far in terms of discussion with others if you ignore them (if you view, for example, Odin as a pink-haired punk rocker on an amplifier turned up to 11, most Norse pagans won't be too amused, even though they'd take that better than a Catholic viewing the same depiction of Christ). The hazier details, on the other hand -- the symbolism, the emotion -- are far more mutable and are made more powerful if taken at a more personal level.
You have to sift through those ashes for yourself and make your own way into the path of your choice. And really, that goes for anyone on any path; I would offer the same advice to Christians. No one can take the journey of discovery for you, and you shouldn't want them to. Use the myths as a starting point, take advantage of what has been pieced together in a reconstructive effort, but don't be afraid to let your mind wander into those uncertain details and ponder what makes the most sense to you. Question everything and take nothing at face value. After all, it wasn't in the spirits of the ancients to just blindly follow what was set before them. They were imaginative, innovators, and creators that pursued their paths in a very honest and genuine way; they resisted the change in the world to resist losing their truth. We, as their spiritual descendents, owe them the same honesty in our pursuit of their half-lost truths.
No comments:
Post a Comment