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Author Topic: Pop Culture Paganism: Deifying Disney?  (Read 1817 times)

goblin-queen

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Deifying Disney?
« on: November 16, 2018, 05:11:32 pm »
I stumbled across an interesting website a couple of weeks back called the Cunning Wife, she writes all sorts of fascinating articles about witchcraft and folklore. But the series that really piqued my interest was the one titled 'Witches Incognito'. Where she reinterprets classic fairy tale princesses as witches themselves, I started on the Cinderella one and I was hooked from there.

This gem can be found here: https://www.thecunningwife.com/witches-incognito-aschenputtel/.

Even if you don't agree with her analysis it certainly is a different way of viewing beloved, old tales.

So this got me thinking, I've encountered Pop Culture Pagans who venerate superheroes, Game of Thrones Characters etc. But what about Disney? Or Don Bluth films? Heck, even Moomins or Winnie the Pooh could lend themselves to it.
Working with Jim Henson's and Brian Froud's creations could be interesting too. I imagine working with the Mystics and Gelflings from the Dark Crystal could be an interesting and fulfilling path. The thought of communing with Aughra also rather tickles me.  ;D

Are you guys out there? Do you work with fictional characters from your childhood? Do you view them as guides or mentors?  Sorry for all the questions, my mind is just a-buzz with activity tonight. XD
“...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.”

Ashmire

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Re: Deifying Disney?
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2018, 11:41:11 am »
So this got me thinking, I've encountered Pop Culture Pagans who venerate superheroes, Game of Thrones Characters etc. But what about Disney? Or Don Bluth films? Heck, even Moomins or Winnie the Pooh could lend themselves to it.
Working with Jim Henson's and Brian Froud's creations could be interesting too. I imagine working with the Mystics and Gelflings from the Dark Crystal could be an interesting and fulfilling path. The thought of communing with Aughra also rather tickles me.  ;D

Are you guys out there? Do you work with fictional characters from your childhood? Do you view them as guides or mentors?  Sorry for all the questions, my mind is just a-buzz with activity tonight. XD

While I'm not really one for including fictional characters in my practice personally---my bit of pop culture paganism is of the type that might be viewed as a more updated take on ancestor worship, being an actual person who influenced pop culture, there happens to be a popular children's anime that is widely reputed( I haven't actually got around to looking into the sources for that) to have been created by a big fan of his with a main character at least partly based on him...whom I came across as an object of veneration by a pop-culture pagan on another website.  I regret I was too shy to ask her about it, but I did ask HIM.  He seems quite pleased about it and appears to consider such to be to his benefit in terms of energy given( though perhaps if the portrayal were less flattering, it might come more under the heading of heresy!  ;) ). So now I get a little secret happy feeling myself at the sight of all that merchandise in stores.  I don't really know how it affects what the person on the other end of the altar is receiving, but presumably it must work for them on some level or they wouldn't be doing it. 

I think most of the people working with fictional characters are doing so from the assumption of a more Jungian/psychological archetype understanding of deity, which, though it doesn't work well for me,  IMO is probably actually a safer way to practice for many personality types, providing a sort of insulating layer against unhealthy obsessions and need for authority, but my experience, though admittedly UPG, does bring up the question...all these stories DID come from somewhere.  Most writers base characters on people they know, or on ancient legends and folklore if not some mix of all of the above.  Maybe in at least some of these cases, the old gods ARE working through the writers to correct gaps or errors in their own mythology?  Of course, it's possible to get carried away with that idea, as I suppose with any other.  But it's an interesting thought nonetheless.

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Re: Deifying Disney?
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2018, 02:27:28 pm »
Are you guys out there? Do you work with fictional characters from your childhood? Do you view them as guides or mentors?

As in Ashmire's case, my brand of pop culture paganism is more rooted in honoring deceased celebrities as gods and Powers than in deifying fictional characters. I also find that most of the people who work with fictional characters in pop culture paganism don't think of it as "deifying"--they aren't interested in whether these characters are gods or not, they simply work with them. There are also pop culture pagans who follow fictional religions (video game franchises like the Elder Scrolls have some of this kind of following because of their extensive lore); they usually do consider the gods they worship to be gods, because the source material treats them that way. There's also enough of a PCP following for Neil Gaiman's Sandman that the author himself is aware of it, but again, many of the characters in that are already treated as gods or Powers-beyond-gods in the text.

All of that said--I do have fictional characters who are deeply significant to me and have influenced the way I approach magic and religion. I have commented that my magical instincts are shaped by being obsessed with John Constantine as a teenager, and this is true. When I attempt trancework, I turn to El-ahrairah and the other rabbits of Watership Down to guide me.
"The peacock can show its whole tail at once, but I can only tell you a story."
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