
- Professional Artist
- Latin American / Spanish
- Pagan Neoplatonist
- Progressive Leftist
EU Commission suggests easing anti-deforestation law
7mon 29d ago in europe@feddit.org from www.dw.comWhy are we bootlicking for the Americans??
Poland is nearly as rich as the UK. How has it caught up so fast?
8mon 7d ago in europe@feddit.org from www.thetimes.comit's easy to catch up to someone that's not moving. I'm glad for the Polish people and really hope the people of Britain are able to organize and move towards a more direct democracy that will ensure the wellbeing of its citizens.
UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation
8mon 2d ago in europe@feddit.org from www.theguardian.comNeoliberalism will be the death of us.
"Patterns and Explanatory Gaps in Psychotherapy" by Alexey Tolchinsky
9mon 10d ago in neoplatonism@piefed.social from www.youtube.comStill no EU action on Israel, despite Gaza famine
9mon 20d ago in europe@feddit.org from euobserver.comshameful proof that Europe learned nothing from the Holocaust.
Old Saxon Paganism: Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum
9mon 25d ago in paganism@piefed.social from iwobrand.wordpress.comreally interesting, thanks for sharing!
Why are the Platonists so fond of sexual language? - Platonic soul
10mon 4d ago in neoplatonism@piefed.social from www.youtube.comMUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU
10mon 7d ago in experimentalfilm@sh.itjust.works from vimeo.comNorman McLaren: Pen Point Percussion
10mon 7d ago in experimentalfilm@sh.itjust.works from www.nfb.caNorman McLaren - Dots (1940)
10mon 7d ago in experimentalfilm@sh.itjust.works from www.nfb.caThe Goddess Cybele
10mon 7d ago in paganism@piefed.social from www.youtube.comDemeter & the Cult of Eleusis
10mon 7d ago in paganism@piefed.social from www.youtube.comThe Mysteries of Dionysus: God of Ecstasy
10mon 7d ago in paganism@piefed.social from www.youtube.comToshio Matsumoto - Phantom (1975)
10mon 8d ago in experimentalfilm@sh.itjust.works from www.youtube.comLet's get to know more about our host, shall we..?
10mon 9d ago in paganism@piefed.social from media.piefed.socialAlright I can answer these pretty well! Thanks for clarifying. I'll got point by point:
- I don't know about Norse mythology nearly as much as I do about its Hellenic counterpart. The difficulty around Norse myths stems from the fact that the Germanic peoples did not leave a written record that we can consult. So their theology –if they even had a concept such as that, is loosely understood compared to the concrete Greco-Roman canon. The Norse, however, still fall within the Indo-European family, so we still find aspects of their myths that point to a theological system. A good example is their creation myth involving Ginnungagap, the primordial magical void from which the first principles of their world arose. There's a parallel to that in both Hellenic and even Vedic stories. Does that mean that the Norse had a systematized theological structure around their myths? I don't know. You'll have to wait for a Norse pagan to join and contribute to ask them. I can't speak on that with confidence.
- Paganism isn't 'Paganism', first of all. It's a spiritual tradition, and its adherents don't put quote marks on it. It stands on its own. As a tradition, however, Paganism is much more loose than Abrahamic religions. We don't have a universal canon of texts, and we also don't have the structure and state-sanctioned adherence that the ancient people had. This means that Paganism today is reconstructed. Modern adherents are piecing together the historical pieces left by the people who originally practiced, and we are building a religious canon for ourselves. There's no strict universal authority over this, so groups, covens, and temple communities will largely differ from each other. What I have seen in other communities is mainly the presence of far-right elements, which do have organizations within the Pagan sphere. A good example is the Asatru Folk Alliance (AFA), which is a white nationalist organization that uses Norse paganism as a "national story" to justify their racism. The rules in this community is essentially me telling those guys "hey, this isn't your space, fuck off". Another big issue I saw on reddit's r/hellenism is that a lot of teenagers will get into Paganism, but without structural guidance, they adopt just about anything that sounds cool to them, including things that may not be good for their mental health. They will also mainly talk about "how annoying it is that their mom is making them go to church". There has also been the issue of teenagers sharing details about sexual acts "done in a ritual setting", which is very unsafe to do online. So I've included mental health resources, and put guidelines in the rules that say "hey, if you post before you think, I will take it down for your own safety". And I've also added a rule about posting verified sources because as Pagans building a reconstructed faith and practice, historical accuracy is important. You don't want to just come up with stuff willy-nilly. There's a lot of history to draw from, and pseudo-history like New Age only obscures the picture.
- I'm a Pagan. I have icons to Apollo, Dionysus, and Rhea at my home altar. I have an altar to Saturn in my office. These are not just aesthetic or symbolic. I take their reality seriously. I also have pagan scripture. I have the Chaldean Oracles, Plato's entire works, Proclus' "Elements of Theology", and Iamblichus' "On the Mysteries", and Orpheus' hymns in my home library. These are all scriptural to me. I'm a Pagan because I'm a Neoplatonist. I believe in an underlying principle which is the source of all being, and I believe in a layered reality in which my consciousness is a real, active and essential part of. Neoplatonism comes in all flavors. There's Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Neoplatonism, and the Vedic tradition shares a lot of commonalities with it. Importantly, these Abrahamic Neoplatonisms all draw their philosophy from a Pagan tradition. The Catholic church, for example, draws heavily from Pagan theurgy and ritual. I chose Pagan Neoplatonism because it was interesting to me, and it seemed to me as the most honest way for me to practice Neoplatonic spirituality. Like I said above, Pagans today vary greatly in beliefs and attitudes, so I will certainly share more commonalities with a Neoplatonic Christian or a Sufi mystic than I will with some other pagans, like the AFA for example.
- I don't believe in "sky gods". The gods in Neoplatonic paganism are Henads, unities beyond being and non-being that are the causal origin of the world. They're at the top of "the chain of Being" and are the first manifestation of the formless, groundless Source, often referred to as The One of The Good. These gods are not male or female, and don't have anthropomorphic "personalities" in any way that we would recognize. They lie outside of space-time, so any predicate used to describe them will fall short. Worship of the gods is therefore not an appeasement or supplication of them, but an active participation in their reality. It's a contemplative remembering of them, and a spiritual ascent towards The One. This is not just a modern interpretation. Ancient Hellenic theologians made a clear distinction between the fabulae (the myths and stories that depict gods as characters), and the gods as metaphysical reality. This obviously is not universal. There were plenty of people that took the myths literally. But Neoplatonism does approach the gods in more philosophical, systematic way.
- On your point about naked apes, I think that spirituality in general represents a certain humility about the universe and existence. It's an acknowledgement that we're small and kinda ignorant, and it's a large and strange reality that we live in. Religion can be very limiting in its scope and institutional enforcement, but so can be a strict materialist worldview. I think spirituality and most religions trace their origins to ecstatic/mystical experiences that people had (and still have), and it has been a process of personal, subjective understanding about our nature and the nature of existence since then.
Can you be a bit more specific about what you'd like me to answer for you?
Resources For Online Safety & Mental Health
10mon 10d ago in neoplatonism@piefed.socialBuilding A Practice Without Cultural Appropriation
10mon 12d ago in paganism@piefed.socialA personal example from me: I have an altar to Kronos in my office, and I have done my research to find his equivalent from India, Shanaishchara. I recognize that these two are different cultural expressions of the same cosmic principle, and I choose to engage with the hellenic Kronos because of my background as a Western. But if I were to talk to a Hindu devotee of Shanaishchara, I would be happy to engage in syncretic talk. It's not about closing boundaries, but recognizing cultural expression as individual colors within a larger spectrum that is the deity/cosmic principle.
Thank you for your reply. I don't interact much with followers of Lilith, so I wouldn't be able to speak much on that particular front. I do think that we shouldn't make sweeping statements like "Pomba-giras is the Brazilian Lilith", as that sweeps the indigenous practices under the rug and centers the Western conception. It essentially says "oh, yeah the Pomba-giras is just Lilith, so we don't have to learn about her. We can just treat her as Lilith anyways, and the indigenous practices are just noise". That doesn't mean, however, that you can't learn from the people of Umbanda and Quimbanda. It just means that for every commonality you find, you have to recognize the the differences and respect the cultural context. Don't just bring a statue of Kali or Pomba-giras into your home without paying your respects or supporting the people that authored these myths and practices.
THINGS I WANT TO ADD TO THE COMMUNITY:
10mon 13d ago in paganism@piefed.socialamazing





