A friend of mine recently posted a link this interview between Deepak Chopra and Grant Morrison on Facebook (Hey Barry, nice find!)…
which in turn reminded me of this book, which I’ve been meaning to get around to reviewing for a while…
which in turn triggered off this weird, disorganized, stream of consciousness style excuse for a blog post.
Enjoy…
I’m a nerd, a geek, a dork. And if you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance that you are too.
I love history and mythology and sci-fi and super-heroes. I love stuff with Ninjas in it. And Spartans. And Vikings, of course, I love Vikings too.
Oh, and while we’re at it, I also love stuff with vampires, werewolves, witches and ghosts.
Oh, yeah, and aliens…and conspiracy theories…yep, just one big all-round dork.
And it’s very likely you are too.
See, Heathenism and Neo-Paganism are Nerd Religions. Magick and ritual are really nerdy, dorky, geeky things to do.
And that’s OK.
There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd. In many ways we’re smarter, tougher and braver than the normal folks who had such easy childhoods. We should be proud of our geek status, and we should be honest about it too.
And that means being truly honest about who we are and where we really came from.
For example, how many of us really got into Norse mythology directly? Probably very few.
I grew up on Greco-Roman mythology, King Arthur, Robin Hood, Br’er Rabbit, The Magic Faraway Tree, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, The Karate Kid, Marvel and DC, Stephen King and Anne Rice. I didn’t even start reading the Norse myths and Sagas until I was already in my twenties.
My point is this, all of that stuff I read before had its effect on me. None of us come to any religion or worldview as a blank slate, everything that we’ve learned up to that point has an effect on how we receive new ideas when we encounter them. Many of us in Heathenry and Neo-Paganism seem to come from a heavy background in comic books and sci-fi and, you know why, because comic books and sci-fi are heavily pagan genres.
Take a close look at the themes and archetypes and you’ll discover a great deal of similarity not just across cultures but across millennia. Most shocking is that this effect works backwards as well as forwards, myths written thousands of years before the industrial revolution contain sci-fi elements that are hard to deny.
So, it makes me wonder, to what extent do any of us really choose the religions we claim to follow? Most of you reading this will have come to where you are as a convert, having shed the religion (or lack of) you were raised in, but to what extent do we choose our religion as adults and to what extent is it chosen for us (perhaps indirectly) by the myths and archetypes we are exposed to as children?
And if that’s true, do we really need to call ourselves “Neo”-Pagans or Reconstructionists at all? Aren’t we just natural, home grown, organic Post-Christian Heathens? Or something?
I do love the idea of adding “Post-Christian” to *any* title; imagining the local fundamentalists balk in horror is amusing =)
Yeah its all true, but I have to draw the line at the role-play Heathen brigade. People who claim to “train” with heavier foam weapons than the ones they use in “real” combat, so that in the “field” they’ll be able to fight more effectively, for example. Huh?
I was always a nerd, and my imagination was always more interesting than the “real” world. And what do I do for fun these days? Read volume after volume of Carl Jung (its all about quarternities, man…) interspersed with fantasy novels; spend hours working on my food and fitness habits; play complex, demanding music that few can appreciate; and muck about with old gods that won’t go away. Nerds, look out: this could happen to YOU!
;)
ha ha. it’s true. i’m a total nerd. years ago before he passed on, whenever my dad was exasperated at my lack of interest in settling down into a normal life…i would remind him that he never should have read me Lord of the Rings when i was 6. it changed everything. all bets off.
My experience was that my primary tradition chose me. I got involved in a number of Neopagan movements and all the sudden the Runes came calling. I figure it’s worth stating that up front. I know a number of Heathens with a similar experience (wanting to follow one religion and being pulled around into a different path).
Ok, I am a martial arts nerd too. Training with heavier weapons than one would use is just plain stupid. The fact of the matter is that every weapon has a balance point, and one has to be intimately familiar with it to remain in control. And control is key. Control allows you to hit harder and to avoid accidents. It allows for better defence and better offence. But you can’t do it if you train with weapons that are not balanced the same way.
If you want to be effective with a given weapon, you train with it, not with a heavier and probably poorly balanced facsimile…
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of LARPing, as long as you know that’s what you’re doing.
It was the Roman Legions who used to train with heavier-than-normal weapons (though I believe the Japanese did a bit of that, too, and the Eskrima style I’m learning recommends it for grip strength). They also used to switch back to regular-weight live blade training before deployment, presumably for the reason Chris mentions.
Training with extra heavy foam boffers is super dorky, though.
Hey, did anyone else read “The Magic Faraway Tree” growing up?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faraway_Tree