Pop Culture Paganism

[Jack]

My practice is loosey-goosey to begin with, but being a Marvel Comics guy, I find myself often referencing two pop culture archetypes that resonate deeply for me for the feminine and masculine divine: Storm of the X-Men, and Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, respectively. The interesting thing is that Storm is a weather-witch (air, a "masculine" element; plus she has an indomitable will, so fire, again "masculine") and the Sub-Mariner is an aquatic character (water, a "feminine" element; plus he's physically superstrong, so earth, again "feminine"). I attribute the scrambled gender associations to my gayness. Or something.

 
Oooh, I like that choice of pairing. Very interesting! Was there anything in particular that inspired it?

[Sage]

I attribute the scrambled gender associations to my gayness. Or something.

I see them both as queer/gender noncomforming archetypes as well. Storm especially. Storm goddesses ftw.

[Tanbrid]

But I suppose what makes me not too eager to dive full on into a pop culture worship of Usagi is that even though she is designed with aspects of Artemis, she is definitely, at least as far as my adult experience has revealed, is not Artemis herself. But this discussion definitely makes me ponder the idea of adding a Sailor Moon visual to my altar in honor of that initial connection between me and Artemis.

 
I know one of the things that drew me into paganism was powerful descriptions of deities in fantasy fiction (ex: Tamora Pierce) and while I don't directly worship them, I can see the inspiration drawn from mythology. Recently, I was reading someone's blog who was writing about Naamah, one of the Companions of Elua in the Kushiel's Legacy series (an angel-demi-goddess) She was regarding Naamah as a deity in her own right, but I was finding it to be a good modern mythic way of possibly connecting with Aphrodite (or perhaps some Near Eastern goddesses) http://adventuresinvanaheim.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/the-companions-project-naamah/

I'm becoming interested in honoring literary/folkloric figures as spirits (or gods or...something...not sure of exact theology here!)

Some of my thoughts on this:
http://paganleft.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/archetypes-vs-real-gods/
http://paganleft.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/when-the-gods-become-real/

I think as with any spiritual practice, particularly an innovative one, it's important to consider why you're doing it, beyond "this is fun/feels good/right/it works" etc. I don't practice magic, though so I can't speak to that.

[Ecco]

I found this to be very interesting. I had a similar situation with Neil Gaiman's Sandman back in the 90's when I was really into comic books. Sandman started popping into my dreams and meditations. Eventually the figure began to physically manifest always at the foot of my bed. I'd see him when I was in that half sleep state. He never moved, just looked at me with his red eyes. I wondered if I made the figure appear or some other being took that shape because of my familiarity with it. Anyway, I haven't read Sandman in years (my mom gave away my graphic novels when I left for college), but that figure has returned to the foot of my bed the night before last. After over ten years I was surprised to see him.

Goodness, I bet that is a surprise! I have never read the series, but I definitely wonder what this reappearance might hail.
I think it is really interesting to think about how some fictional worlds resonate so profoundly with out concepts of the divine or non-material Other that we can connect with it in such a meaningful way like this.
Wow - that is fascinating! The closest thing to anything like you have experienced that I have noticed is that I tend to connect very strongly with Artemis when I interface (i.e. geek out) over shows and stories that contain very strong aspects of her - childlike aspects, huntress, strong independent womanhood, etc. It is almost as though being psychologically involved with these worlds is a light form of worship for me.

[Freesia]

Goodness, I bet that is a surprise! I have never read the series, but I definitely wonder what this reappearance might hail.
I think it is really interesting to think about how some fictional worlds resonate so profoundly with out concepts of the divine or non-material Other that we can connect with it in such a meaningful way like this.
Wow - that is fascinating! The closest thing to anything like you have experienced that I have noticed is that I tend to connect very strongly with Artemis when I interface (i.e. geek out) over shows and stories that contain very strong aspects of her - childlike aspects, huntress, strong independent womanhood, etc. It is almost as though being psychologically involved with these worlds is a light form of worship for me.

 
I had a lot of sleep issues the past week. Including my first sleep paralysis episode. Whatever that being is, its presence never scared me before.