(no subject)

We have lost the gods of England, and must rediscover them. One of the founding creeds of Fencraft bridges the gap between the reconstructions, who wish to know clearly what was once there, and the popculturists who celebrate what is made up. Instead, we recognise the nature of the gods is half-remembered, blurred, contradictory, shifting, and this is our strength and their divinity. We must rediscover them by walking in the woodlands and sifting through lore. We are seekers of the Landweird, of rhe land's strange dreaming, for what is asleep may be awoken.

(no subject)

In practice what this means is, I watch a lot of folk horror and read a lot of children's books. Seeking rhe Landweird means seeking those who heard its voice. This is its spiritual purpose, and it's practical purpose is that more time spent immersed in evocative media changes the timbre of life towards what one is really looking for as a Pagan - the mystery, the wonder in the woodlands.

Anyway, so Robin of Sherwood (1981) is a Brit TV show and, frankly, the first and only Robin you should consider. It's sincere, with a fiercely political edge; it's the first adaptation to depict the political and racial context of the era with accuracy ; the music, by ethereal Irish folk band Clannad is so good ive got it on cassette tape and on vinyl inherited from a family member. I read that vinyl insert so many times, with the pictures and descriptions of the characters, and it's formed my vision of Robin almost as long as I've been alive.im watching the series for the first time at the age of 32. I'm bowled over, it's everything I wanted and more.  It's all on YouTube. Don't hesitate.

Did I mention Robin is literally running a Horned God mystery cult in the forest? It's everything. This is the Robin Hood of a man who's just read The Witch Cult In Western Europe. It's got it all: Beltane rites, sacred trees, Guy of Guisborne harming the forest and being struck mad with land-panic in the undergrowth, witches, May Day mumming plays, literal Satanists, stone circles, that glorious 1970s thing where spooky sound effects are used to represent the presence of something Stellar and eerie, magic swords, literal Satan, 'don't open the secret book of incantations or you will be struck down".

So as well as the fun scripting & great sense of historic place & a great soundtrack and an extremely attractive cast and a brilliant camp scenery-chewing Sherriff, it also has the capacity to strike me with a very sincere religious awe.

(no subject)

& this is, in part, the concept of encountering the Landweird: rediscovering what has been forgotten, through our shared sense of What Ought To Have Been. There is a fairly consistent mythos that has been developed to fill the gaps, a nameless longing, a sense of presence which has been evoked by many hands and in remarkably similar ways.

The Horned God is case in point, the beloved Horned God who's formed in part from Herne,  from the Green Man, from Robin, from Cerunnosand from the God of the Witches. Now, each of the syncretic deity figures I just mentioned are on some of the shakiest vidence grounds possible. Do the research, and each of them is thin, modern, or entirely made up/speculative. Still, we love him. And we have consistently sought him: we can see these parts of the Horned One as not poor neo-pagan research skills, but as longing. As innate knowledge of a presence who has always been here. Different laths, same forest.

This is what I mean by a blend of reconstructionist and popcultural sensibilities. This is what I mean when I say that gaps and inconsistencies are not problems, but a source of Mystery in a spiritual sense. The land is palimpsest, writ by many hands; it is our task to remember it.

(no subject)

I didn't log on to write 3am liturgy but this show really speaks go me ok.  I log on to write a joke.

So I'm watching Robin of Sherwood, and hers a lot of stuff in there thst one could potentially adapt for one's own rites; and at the same time, they take their magic v seriously like I recognise some obscure god names and stuff, not the normal Hollywood mumbo jumbo.  We get to the episode about the 7 named swords and a ritual idea just jumps out at me, states me in the face.
Brilliant! Brilliant!

So I do some googleage, reasoning that a cult 70s show will have a good fan wiki, so I can get a list of the names of the swords. It does. In fact, it goes on to explain they are real and listed in the Key of Solomon, a real medieval grimoires. So, this means two things. The first is that I can't chuck them into my occult mix without doing some actual due diligence first.

And the second is - as I was beginning to suspect - Richard Carpenter is actually a wizard. I can't tell you how hard it would be to get a copy of the actual Lemegeton in 1981. The man writes about both paganism and the occult in a way which is - not historically accursed,  I suppose, but I recognise the books he was reading a lot of the time, you know? This is not idle research for flavour. Man knows his stuff. Delightful.

(no subject)

There's an important parallel between Robin of Sherwood and Penda's Fen, in that...in both, we see the old gods return, and they are hella political. Their narrative role is to reassert ownership over the people. As Mark Fisher says of capitalism, "there is a sense that something has been got away with".They return to guide us rightly, replacing a false system with a true one - in Robin it's the machinery of incompetent Norman overlords, whereas in Penda it's the English establishment: Church of England, army, public morality, all-boys schools, heterosexuality.

The old gods don't return for power or even for worship, but to re-awaken the anarchic, pagan spirit of the people

I suppose this taps into to something more broad about how The Land has been deployed in British fiction, as a stand in for our cultural consciousness; and similarly, "the pagan" is used as a stand in for a "pagan spirit" which is, as Penda says, the act of becoming "ungovernable", of challenging power.

And I suppose you can see another variant of this in the myth of Arthur, the once-and-future king who will return in England's time of need. But - and this is important - how often do you actually see the Arthur myth used like this? I don't think the English see themselves as the court of King Arthur, waiting to be saved by a divinely-chosen monarch - they see themselves as the Merry Men. For Arthur's return is just another form of control, whereas Robin stands for underdog self-governance.

(Robin is Solar-Lunar/Land, whereas Penda is Solar-Lunar/Horizon. Arthur is Solar/no element)

(Edited to add:

in Robin of Sherwood, the mysticism is clearly important to the writer. In Penda's Fen, poor old David Rudkin has actually said in interviews that he doesn't like being grouped in with folk horror and land-paganism - sorry Dave - because he views his film as exclusively political. Which it is that as well. But not exclusively, right? As any afficianado of folk horror will know, you cannot call on the power of the  land without accepting that something will come that is not of your making or control....)

(no subject)

Oh gods, I've been back on tumblr for like five minutes (to try and drum up a Following and a Presence and be Known as a Thing, and also to source out more good imagery), and my stress level is through the roof. I don't really know how else to reach out to people who might be looking for what I'm creating & have energy and ideas to bring to this kind of current.

Like, it's kinda working, but I hate it. I can't even face opening the tab to look. I don't know what it is about tumblr pagan community that gives me the willies and feels so hostile, so very threatening and transactional, even when it's just a damn image board for sharing pretty pictures that's perfect for trying to Curate A Mood with. But the experience of broadcasting to an infinity of strangers is scary, and it feels exposing.

It doesn't feel like the dynamic of standing on a platform speaking to people who have chosen to attend my lecture, as my blog does; nor does it feel like the dynamic of chatting in your own kitchen while a bunch of friends who are staying over just mill about and drink tea and half-listen to what you're saying, like Dreamwidth does. It feels like being in the centre of a mob, who are at present standing in silence and looking intently, poised to respond.

(no subject)

The fun of delving into your old notes is rediscovering questions like "Christopher Robin as Little Red Riding Hood??"