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    #16
    Re: Pop Culture Paganism

    A common type of Buddhism practiced in western countries is called "Shambala Buddhism." It gets similar criticism from practitioners of Asian forms of Buddhism - that it is "pop Buddhism" because it is specifically adjusted to fit in with western culture allowing the practitioner to both be Buddhists and continue living a western style life, but with Buddhist principles.

    The criticism is foolish. Every place Buddhism went after leaving India (and even as it moved about in India) it changed to adjust to local culture - this is why Zen Buddhism in Japan is different from Mahayana Buddhism in Mongolia.

    All belief systems change and are altered by local needs, conditions, customs, cultures, and subcultures. The idea of "purity," for any religion, is (to be polite) goofy. The same is true for pagan beliefs. Not everybody has to be a museum recon, or wants to be.

    If a person feels compelled to judge the religion of another, I suggest sincerity of belief and effectiveness in producing promised results as more meaningful.

    I suggest respect as even better.
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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      #17
      Re: Pop Culture Paganism

      Originally posted by habbalah View Post
      Pop Culture Paganism is a relatively new "brand" of paganism, for lack of a better word. For those of you who don't know what it is, here is a rundown. A very basic explanation is using pop culture to shape your ideas and worship, but please read the link, as that leaves a lot out.

      What do you think about this? How does the idea of pop culture paganism strike you?


      This is not new. This has been going on forever. Think about it this way--we have myths from ancient cultures. Those myths came from somewhere. We don't actually know that they weren't stories about old grea-great-great-great-great grea-great-great-great-great-grea-great-great-great-great-grea-great-great-great-great-Grannie Athena, founder of Athens back in her arse kicking days before the generational game of telephone got started and people started thinking she was really something *else* and forgetting that she was actually a person. Look at the Iliad and Odessey by Homer...until about 1870 years ago, Troy was just a myth. Who is to say that myths didn't come first? That campfire on the savannah needs some entertainment now and again. And even if they didn't, myths are not authentic stories about gods--whether that god is YHWH or Ariadne; myths are metaphors. Pagans have been worshipping since well before this little Superman dust up over the past year, and even before the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Chocolate Rabbit of my early Wiccan years. Appeal to antiquity is a logical fallacy, I see no reason why religion makes it otherwise.

      Real is irrelevent. Humans have been worshipping imaginary friends for pretty much their entire modern history. people just a myth. (quoting myself from my blog)



      Look, I worship beings whose literal existence I know cannot be established, and one or two that I absolutely know are totally made up. My reverence, my experience is still real.
      Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
      sigpic

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        #18
        Re: Pop Culture Paganism

        The pop culture term is most likely not a real good term to use. That term tends to trivialize because it tends to bring up the idea of short term fads. I am not sure what term would be better suited in this discussion. Perhaps the term"Modern myths and beliefs" would better form more of a solid reason for how people interact in this way.
        MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

        all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
        NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
        don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




        sigpic

        my new page here,let me know what you think.


        nothing but the shadow of what was

        witchvox
        http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

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          #19
          Re: Pop Culture Paganism

          Let me present an interesting example of a religion intentionally incorporating a character they know to fictional, and then forgetting they have done so.

          LeVeyan (atheistic) Satanists.
          Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

          Comment


            #20
            Re: Pop Culture Paganism

            Originally posted by habbalah View Post
            Pop Culture Paganism is a relatively new "brand" of paganism, for lack of a better word. For those of you who don't know what it is, here is a rundown. A very basic explanation is using pop culture to shape your ideas and worship, but please read the link, as that leaves a lot out.

            What do you think about this? How does the idea of pop culture paganism strike you?
            I have no issue with Pop Culture Paganism, and I think that it can quite easily fit into several different forms of belief in 'entities'. Pop culture icons provide quite good foci for the worship or reverence of a conceptual figure, particularly if it's one that you are very familiar with. Pop culture icons often fit easily into typical Archetypal characters, and therefore can be used to embody any of those Archetypes just as effectively as any other entity. And if we choose to be literal, I absolutely do believe that there are a number of pop culture icons who have enough backing behind them to have become a sort of group egregore and therefore can be considered to be an actual entity.

            It's easy to have a knee jerk reaction against Pop Culture Paganism, but most of the pagans I know who work with pop culture icons don't literally worship the icon as their actual hard polytheistic style god... they work with the energy and focus of the conceptual figure or Archetype behind the icon. It's not quite the same, and while the former could easily be considered 'silly', the latter is no more silly than any other form of deity (or character) reverence.

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              #21
              Re: Pop Culture Paganism

              Originally posted by Rae'ya View Post
              I have no issue with Pop Culture Paganism, and I think that it can quite easily fit into several different forms of belief in 'entities'. Pop culture icons provide quite good foci for the worship or reverence of a conceptual figure, particularly if it's one that you are very familiar with. Pop culture icons often fit easily into typical Archetypal characters, and therefore can be used to embody any of those Archetypes just as effectively as any other entity. And if we choose to be literal, I absolutely do believe that there are a number of pop culture icons who have enough backing behind them to have become a sort of group egregore and therefore can be considered to be an actual entity.

              I need to dust off my Chaote plan of summoning Bugs Bunny against my enemies.
              life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

              Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

              "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

              John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

              "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

              Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


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                #22
                Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                Bugs is my hero!
                sigpic
                Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

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                  #23
                  Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                  I can't really say I ever found say a media figure to invoke a spiritual connection,not for myself at least. I have at times known people that became much deeper involved with them. I knew a guy that could be said to revere "James bond" and others that found super heroes(Comic,movie,graphic novel) to be worthy of elevation to idol of a sort. My take is,what ever helps you and your interaction with what can only be described as our chaotic real life interactions in human culture. I would at times consider a stiff drink something of a needed connection with the spirits to help cope with the madness that is our human reality.
                  MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                  all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                  NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                  don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                  sigpic

                  my new page here,let me know what you think.


                  nothing but the shadow of what was

                  witchvox
                  http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                    Originally posted by Munin-Hugin View Post
                    I feel that creating a new and special snowflake title of "Pop Culture Paganism" is really sort of silly, when you come to think about it.
                    The whole "Pop Culture" descriptor happened well after the practice of incorporating fictional contemporary cultural figures into personal pantheons, and it was meant to be an insult by the people doing the criticizing, not a self-adopted moniker by the people actually practicing this way.

                    Before that, it was just called Paganism.
                    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                    sigpic

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                      Should add that alcohol was used in many rites and ceremonies in many belief systems..
                      MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                      all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                      NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                      don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                      sigpic

                      my new page here,let me know what you think.


                      nothing but the shadow of what was

                      witchvox
                      http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                        I don't incorporate pop culture stuff into my religion but I love pop culture elements in spell work. I have four rock bands I use lyrics from in spell work or listen to them to get a mood or energy going. I have blasted Led Zeppelin to clean a spaces in my home. But spell work is kind of different than offering and worship.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                          Originally posted by anunitu View Post
                          The pop culture term is most likely not a real good term to use. That term tends to trivialize because it tends to bring up the idea of short term fads. I am not sure what term would be better suited in this discussion. Perhaps the term"Modern myths and beliefs" would better form more of a solid reason for how people interact in this way.
                          I agree. The problem is the term per se, not the beliefs. I disagree on a basic level with a few of the philosophical points, but I do not ridicule them. "Pop Culture" however equates those beliefs with fashion.

                          That aside, I can absolutely see how a person can look at some modern work of art and feel attracted to it. Say, a follower of Zeus looks at a painting from an artist and thinks "This - this is how I imagine Zeus to be". But it does not have to be Zeus; it could be any deity. It could be a minor deity that seems to be calling only to them. It could also be that the work of art has inspired them to such great height as to attribute divinity to it.

                          Furthermore deities often take many shapes. Is it possible that a few have adapted themselves to the modern period by portraying themselves in current forms of media? Perhaps. Interestingly, some works of fiction deal with this same subject.
                          Originally posted by Ula View Post
                          I don't incorporate pop culture stuff into my religion but I love pop culture elements in spell work. I have four rock bands I use lyrics from in spell work or listen to them to get a mood or energy going. I have blasted Led Zeppelin to clean a spaces in my home. But spell work is kind of different than offering and worship.
                          I do a similar work with music, even if I do not perform spells. I can take an instrumental piece and make up lyrics for it, and sometimes these are directed as a prayer or praise to my god. I find both the experience more enjoyable and easier to sing a prayer/praise that way.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                            Originally posted by Ula View Post
                            I don't incorporate pop culture stuff into my religion but I love pop culture elements in spell work. I have four rock bands I use lyrics from in spell work or listen to them to get a mood or energy going. I have blasted Led Zeppelin to clean a spaces in my home. But spell work is kind of different than offering and worship.
                            I had never actually thought of this as pop culture - esque. I use some modern music at times for meditative or other purposes and never really thought twice about it. Whatever works, eh?

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                              It seemed a bit silly when I first started reading about the whole thing, but as I read more through it, and as I looked at other posts here in this thread, I got to thinking about how it really isn't overly silly at all.

                              I look at it this way: if you spot the divine in the forest, perhaps in a bubbling brook, or in the light filtering through the trees... or perhaps in the playing of the birds above in the branches... some people call that divinity. Some say it is a symbolic representation of deity, it gives them faith, it makes them stronger in their beliefs and empowers them and gives them strength. In the same way, some might look to modern culture (as in the past) and find the same sort of beauty and inspiration there.

                              I thought about what draws me to my own gods, their own traits, symbolism, power... and I thought how many of those things I also find out and about in nature and in the media. I'll admit, I am a die-hard Adventure Time fan, and after thinking about all of this, I realized that, although I don't worship the show or characters in any way, I really look to some of the characters as symbols of certain traits and archetypes that I aspire to in some manner. I could see how this could be taken farther and fleshed out into a worship of the character as a symbol of the divine just as some worship the beauty of nature as the divine.

                              Its just a matter of perspective, and sometimes when you don't agree with something, you merely need to turn your perspective upside down to see it...

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                                #30
                                Re: Pop Culture Paganism

                                Oh thou poor mortals, limited by time and space!

                                I bring to thee the wisdom of the future. Behold, and tremble...

                                Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                                Comment

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