Viking Sunstone

"For centuries, it has been a crystal of legend locked in the verses of Norse myth with little or no evidence that it was ever real. Now it seems scientists at last have grounds for believing that the Viking 'sunstone' used to navigate the seas did indeed exist."

• Cahal Milmo, "Not just the stuff of legend: Famed Viking 'sunstone' did exist, believe scientists", Independent (Mar. 6, 2013).

I need to do some more reading here. I've been under the impression we understood exactly what the sunstone was; no mystery here.

Five Myths About Vikings

The five myths are:

1. Vikings were dirty and unkempt
2. Vikings wore horned helmets
3. Vikings looked like we do today
4. Vikings’ clothing style was admired throughout the world
5. Vikings’ appearance was marked by battle wounds

Do we need to elaborate? I don't think so, but if you want to read more:

Petersen , Irene Berg. "What Vikings really looked like". ScienceNordic, July 29, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2012.

Morning Prayers

Salve Lar Familiaris!
Salvete Di Penates!

I'm fascinated by the different ways people think about and create home altars.

"The first task for a new cultor Deorum is to establish a lararium. There is a process to it, in ritually cleansing the house and inviting your ancestors to visit your lararium. Usually it starts out simple. An image of the Lar familiaris or that of one’s Genius is flanked by two Lares offering food and drink.  Oil lamps and candles, an incense holder, a bowl to receive libations or other offerings. Over the years the offerings can build. On the birthday of every family member, as one example, a pebble is added to the lararium and relics of various kinds may be stored there, as well as articles  used in our rituals." (Piscinus, 2013)

More Information

• M. Horatius Piscinus, "Morning Prayer", Patheos <patheos.com> (July 13, 2013).
• M. Horatius Piscinus, "Life in Ritual Context", Patheos <patheos.com> (June 5, 2013).
• Robin Mastro & Michael Mastro, Altars of Power and Grace: Create the Life You Desire--Achieve Harmony, Health, Fulfillment and Prosperity with Personal Altars Based on Vastu Shastra (2004).
• Member # 709, "Religio Romano: Simple Daily Home Rites and Prayers", Ár nDraíocht Féin <ADF.org>.
• Tom Rowsell, "Indo-European Prayer and Ritual", Survive the Jive, YouTube <youtube.com> (Jan. 6, 2018).
• M. Sentia Figula, "The Lararium", Neo Polytheist <romanpagan.blogspot.com> (May 20, 2016).
• M. Sentia Figula, "Pagan Offerings to the Gods", New Polytheist <romanpagan.blogspot.com> (Mar. 3, 2012).
• Timothevs, "How to Design Your Own Roman Votive Altar + How to Read Latin Inscriptions on Roman Altars in Museums", Remembering the Gods <timothevs.blogspot.com>

Updated to add links.

Last Pagans

The Last Pagans of Rome

Interesting new book: The Last Pagans of Rome by Alan Cameron.

This online reviews says, "Cameron’s mission here is to topple once and for all the “myth” of a concerted resistance movement coordinated by a select group of late fourth-century pagan aristocrats to oppose Christianity’s infiltration of state and society. For more than four decades Cameron’s scholarship has been edging that romantic vision of the religious, literary, and social history of late fourth-century Rome to the brink of destruction. With the publication of this book the classic formulation of paganism’s fourth-century “revival” lies well beyond reconstitution."

The 4th century pagan revival is so much a part of how we think about this period of Roman history, it's a disappointment -- although not a surprise -- to find out that it has little foundation. 

Foreign Religions

My dad believed and taught that America as a continent has its own guardian spirits. Christianity and other "foreign religions" could never take root here. Not permanently, anyway.

Those of us descended from the European diaspora are living in a time of transition. The ancestral gods we brought with us are native to Europe, not America. In fact, that's why America has so many fanatic Christian Fundamentalists -- they are fighting an inner battle against their natural environment.

Over time, we will adopt and adapt the local gods, but we are only a few generations into something that will be an extended evolution. In the meantime, those of us who were born here, in America, are truly "Native American". We belong here, even though we haven't yet learned how to be here comfortably.

We can learn how to be here in part by looking at the culture of the local tribes our ancestors displaced. One thing we should not do is appropriate their culture in any way that would pretend it is our own culture.

As I get older, I find myself more and more interested in that idea.

A cave that might have been the inspiration for Hades, the Greek underworld.

A cave that might have been the inspiration for Hades, the Greek underworld. It’s an interesting spin, but I have to think that it is just a nice hook to drum up some publicity for a site that’s important in its own right.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/story/2012-02-25/Alepotrypa-Cave-Hades/53237894/1

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/story/2012-02-25/Alepotrypa-Cave-Hades/53237894/1//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Romanitas is slavery

An interesting comment by Tacitus, Agricola 21, quoted by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick in A History of Pagan Europe:

[Boudicca’s rebellion in 60 CE] nearly succeeded, but after it was put down and the punitive victor, Suetonius Paulinus, discreetly removed to another command, a series of new governors and their financial directors set about a systematic process of Romanization. As Tacitus observed with some acerbity, “Among the conquered it is called culture, when in fact it is part of their slavery.” Did it ever stop being part of our slavery, I wonder? Or have we successfully become Rome’s heirs rather than her slaves? Would contemporary Romans agree?

My first reaction is that as long as the Roman army occupied Britain, the Roman culture adopted by the native rulers was, as Tactus says, actually a badge of their slavery. When the occupying army withdrew, and native culture (or a blended culture) re-emerged, Roman culture was no longer a badge of slavery, but now merely a foreign influence similar, say, to the preeminence in Europe of French culture under Louis XIV. But, perhaps that is also a form of slavery. There are, I think, some obvious connections with the imperialism of the modern global monoculture, and the anger in the Muslim world about the loss of indigenous traditions.

We are all captives of our culture, and co-participate in its creation. So, we are all in some sense slaves of some culture, although perhaps we prefer that it not be a foreign culture. What’s interesting to me is how easily this topic relates back to Nietzsche’s discussion of slave mentality and the superman, where so much of our common culture is all about control of the individual, contrasted with the natural aristocrat who (supposedly) creates his own values.

Leadership

Recent events in a certain community call to mind one of my favorite passages from Thaddeus Golas’ The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment:

"Every person who allows others to treat him as a spiritual leader has the responsibility to ask himself: Out of all the perceptions available to me in the universe, why am I emphasizing the ignorance of my brothers? What am I doing in a role where this is real? What kind of standards am I conceiving, in which so many people are seen to be suffering, while I am the enlightened one? My experience is that everyone believes he or she is capable of leadership, but very few do it well."