thistlewick
Crowing
So in relation to Samhain..
This article - the Celtic New Year and Feast of the Dead -- it is by renown pagan and history professor Ronald Hutton published in the peer-reviewed journal Folklore.
He (in his very gentle way, which is why I like him so much) smashes the idea of Samhain being the end of the celtic year - or in fact having anything to do with the dead. It's unfortunately just made up by a couple of antiquarians in the 19th century.
A LOT of the stuff out there is unfortunately just invented by these couple of old white guys (Sir James Frazer being one of the most nefarious villains of just 'making stuff up') who had their own ideas and their own motives.
I cannot recommend enough The Witch: A History of Fear from ancient times to the present by him as well.
We are practicing witches after all, it's nice to have a rigorous scholar, who is a pagan himself, give us the actual history with a fair and balanced lens.
edit;
It is tough being a skeptical witch - but I am. I practice and have for decades. But it's a strange place nonetheless. Because I am so highly skeptical, it is harder for me to find the belief anywhere -- but I end up just relying on the belief in myself. I have the power to manifest. It doesn't reside outside of me and so I have no need for ritual or altar or focus beyond myself. And even then, there is a kernel of me that is just like 'girl, you know this is all crap and we live in the cold vacuum of space and you're just stable probability patterns right now'... lol
Anyone else love quantum mechanics? haha!
This article - the Celtic New Year and Feast of the Dead -- it is by renown pagan and history professor Ronald Hutton published in the peer-reviewed journal Folklore.
He (in his very gentle way, which is why I like him so much) smashes the idea of Samhain being the end of the celtic year - or in fact having anything to do with the dead. It's unfortunately just made up by a couple of antiquarians in the 19th century.
A LOT of the stuff out there is unfortunately just invented by these couple of old white guys (Sir James Frazer being one of the most nefarious villains of just 'making stuff up') who had their own ideas and their own motives.
I cannot recommend enough The Witch: A History of Fear from ancient times to the present by him as well.
We are practicing witches after all, it's nice to have a rigorous scholar, who is a pagan himself, give us the actual history with a fair and balanced lens.
edit;
It is tough being a skeptical witch - but I am. I practice and have for decades. But it's a strange place nonetheless. Because I am so highly skeptical, it is harder for me to find the belief anywhere -- but I end up just relying on the belief in myself. I have the power to manifest. It doesn't reside outside of me and so I have no need for ritual or altar or focus beyond myself. And even then, there is a kernel of me that is just like 'girl, you know this is all crap and we live in the cold vacuum of space and you're just stable probability patterns right now'... lol
Anyone else love quantum mechanics? haha!
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