Pop Culture Paganism

[Lokabrenna]

Especially the origins of 'The Church of All Worlds', one of the more respected Pagan groups out there.

 
I would say that if any Pagan group convinced me that it was okay to draw inspiration from fiction, it was the Church of All Worlds. Yeah, I thought it was....kind of weird....at first, but I got over my discomfort.

[Materialist]

No arguments there. This same stuff happens in every religion. "I believe in Jesus!" Oh really, when was the last time you prayed? But I digress.

I think that's called "believing in belief." He or she believes in believing in Jesus but not  believing in Jesus. Does that make sense to anyone?

[Snowdrop]

I think that's called "believing in belief." He or she believes in believing in Jesus but not  believing in Jesus. Does that make sense to anyone?

 
Yup.  As it pertains to Christianity, it's "I believe in Jesus because that's what good people do!" as opposed to, "I actually genuinely believe in Jesus."

[SunflowerP]

Unfortunately, the compilation link in http://www.ecauldron.net/forum/index.php?topic=2275.0 seems to be down now, and Wayback does not have it, alas.

 
Oh, thank you for remembering, or coming up with and trying, better search terms than I did! I did recall that someone had done an offsite compilation, too, but Could. Not. remember who it was (and my search terms didn't work any better for websearching than they did on the archive forum, unsurprisingly).

My other browser has some handy link-resurrection tools, and links to a couple of GeoCities archiving sites; I might just be able to work a bit of cleric magic on the compilation link.

And I'll start a new edition of the thread sometime in the next few days, I hope, if I can find an extra spoon.

Sunflower

[SunflowerP]

Did a bit of brush-up reading the past couple of days, and I'd decided to amend my previous statements:

While I think that my concern that the recent "fad" of "worship" of pop culture deities is a reflection of consumerism and is disingenuous, anyone in the Pagan community who thinks the worship of fictional deities is somehow new, novel, never-contested, or "fluffy", needs to get acquainted with the origins and history of the Neo-Pagan movement.

 
Heh, yep!

Also, it warms the cockles of my history-of-the-modern-neoPagan-movement geek heart when someone goes and digs up movement history for themself!

(And I'm inclined to agree that the extent to which it's a fad very likely is a reflection of consumerism.)

Sunflower

[EclecticWheel]

So apart from tumblr blowing up about it for a while now, now some BNPs are weighing in on the subject of "Is it okay to worship figures from pop culture as deities?" (Note: Not just "is it okay to incorporate popular culture into devotional practice.)

Here is the article that started it all: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/05/making-light-hero-worship/#comments

and then see here, here, here, here,here, and here.

My own response to this issue is here.

I left out some links because then I'd be here all day.

Suffice it to say (sorry for all the linkage) that this issue has led to some hurt feelings and has pretty much divided my blogroll down the middle, so I'm interested in hearing your take:

 Is it okay to worship/work with pop culture figures as deities/spirits in their own right?

 
I don't have a problem with it.  I explored this aspect of spirituality myself before I even heard of Pop culture worship or magic.

At the time I was working out the ramifications of my own postmodernism and my view of the universe as a chaotic yet unified reality.  In line with this thinking and my concept of truth, I embodied my sentiments with the help of a friend in ritual involving offerings to fictional characters from books like Tolkien or Alice in Wonderland.  For us they personified certain forces, concepts, or even local nature spirits.  We drew all kinds of characters from different fiction together in rites to create a new universe where we could all interact together.

The nature of these devotions was not meant to be worshipful in the traditional sense, it was more like creating connections with friends, learning about the infinite manifestation of life in the universe.  We put together rites with cited sources consisting of our own writing and excerpts from literature and Anime (all of this is confined to private journals, though).  It did help work out my own views of truth, animism, and Chaos.

Eventually the structure of this changed.  No longer was I constructing a parallel set of beliefs and practices, but the underlying concepts of my work with fictional beings have now been integrated into my overall worldview.  It is no longer a way of looking at things for me, but has become how I really do see my world.  I still keep my shrine with figurines, though I tend to relate to nature spirits without personifying them now.

The specific method I used to create the devotions gave me the ability to write new devotions that had more staying power and depth, a culmination of my whole prior journey and more.

I am thankful for how my worldview was enriched by this experiment.  I don't think it's a bad thing at all, nor did I abandon the basic principles of it.  It came in a chaotic way in a certain form, it integrated itself into my other beliefs as a whole, it changed into something else, just like the universe.  This taught me a lot about Chaos.  It doesn't sound a whole lot different from experiences my own neo-pagan friends and acquaintances have related to me about finding the right path and practice.  It takes time, and people change.

I don't see why everyone should have to have the same idea of what it means to worship anyway.  Christians worship differently than Muslims, and the Abrahamic faiths worship differently than Hindus.

Live and let live.  I was just glad when I found out I wasn't the only one who had practiced something like that.  I admire the creativity it takes for people to find meaning in the way they can really relate to.

[NCPilot]

Is it okay to worship/work with pop culture figures as deities/spirits in their own right?

 
Well this is my own experience with the whole Pop Culture Paganism.  I am a brony, a male who watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  One of the character on the show is named Princess Luna and when I first saw her in not only the series opener, but the episode Luna Eclipsed, I was drawing to Princess Luna as a character.  

After that I started doing research and learned about the goddess Luna.  I felt the same forces drawing me towards the goddess version of Luna.  However, there isn't that much material on her, so I started communicating to her directly and started filling in the holes.

If it wasn't for the show MLP:FiM and my fondness of the character Princess Luna, I wouldn't have discovered my patron goddess Luna and I wouldn't have dedicated myself to her.

So I think sometimes the gods uses popular media and modern stories to reach out to us.

[Riothamus12]

So apart from tumblr blowing up about it for a while now, now some BNPs are weighing in on the subject of "Is it okay to worship figures from pop culture as deities?" (Note: Not just "is it okay to incorporate popular culture into devotional practice.)

Here is the article that started it all: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/05/making-light-hero-worship/#comments

and then see here, here, here, here,here, and here.

My own response to this issue is here.

I left out some links because then I'd be here all day.

Suffice it to say (sorry for all the linkage) that this issue has led to some hurt feelings and has pretty much divided my blogroll down the middle, so I'm interested in hearing your take:

 Is it okay to worship/work with pop culture figures as deities/spirits in their own right?

 
Hell no. It's ridiculous and it makes us all look like raving lunatics.

[Jack]

Hell no. It's ridiculous and it makes us all look like raving lunatics.

 
In what way does my practice make you look like any more of a raving lunatic than any other random sampling of pagans?

[Sage]

Hell no. It's ridiculous and it makes us all look like raving lunatics.

 
You know, just because you think poorly of a practice doesn't mean 1) everyone else agrees with you, 2) that it actually reflects poorly on anyone else, or 3) that means those practices shouldn't be explored anyway by those interested.

[Darkhawk]

Hell no. It's ridiculous and it makes us all look like raving lunatics.

 
It seems to me that raving lunacy is a mandatory portion of my religious obligations, though that's rather more folkloric than popcultural.

Such is life.  (And death.  And the passage between.)

[Jack]

It seems to me that raving lunacy is a mandatory portion of my religious obligations, though that's rather more folkloric than popcultural.

Such is life.  (And death.  And the passage between.)

 
With as much moon worship as people talk about in modern paganism, you'd think lunacy would have stopped being pejorative by now.

My craziness is like 80% separate from my religion, but people like to conflate the two.

[Sage]

My craziness is like 80% separate from my religion, but people like to conflate the two.

 
Don't you know your craziness is making the rest of us look bad? Who will think of the children??!?!

[Jack]

Don't you know your craziness is making the rest of us look bad? Who will think of the children??!?!

 
I am alphabetizing at you so hard right now.

[Darkhawk]

Don't you know your craziness is making the rest of us look bad? Who will think of the children??!?!

 
Damnit, thinking of the children is my day job.  Someone else can bloody well take a turn.