Real-Life Weirdness

[tHEhERETIC]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

The question that comes to my mind is, what do people there generally mean when they say "pagan"? Around here, it's usually a New-Agey fusion of semi-understood Wicca and a few of the more popular bits of ancient Celtic religions (absent the whole Wicker Man thing, assuming that was even a Celtic ritual and not just Gaius Julius Caesar trying to drum up support for his northern campaigns with a bit of propaganda). Baron Samedhi, as a loa of an established religious faith, wouldn't fit in well with people who babble about "the Goddess" and don't even know what the three aspects of the Triple Goddess are.

Not sure where you mean by "there", but this is a fascination of mine so I'll drop my two cents on it.

Neo-pagan is Wiccan and its offshoots, folks who are practicing a rebuilt version of religions, usually western European, that are basically lost to history. They'll have heavy hermetic influences because most can trace their actual roots back to the fraternal societies of the Victorian era or, at most, the early 19th-century Romantics. Don't tell them that though--most hate the idea that their religion isn't ancient and primitive.

As for Wicker Man, one could certainly argue that the Burning Man festival is an expression of loose neo-pagan ideas.

You get folks like me, Thelemites and our ilk, and we're remarkably close to LaVeyan Satanists. Also offshoots of the same movement but a bit less romantic, more fond of ritual and often with atheist leanings or sympathies.

Either one of the above (like myself) can include the Baron Samedi in our works, but our Baron and the one loved by the Santerians are somewhat different birds. I don't sacrifice animals or throw curses on people, for instance, and while I went through a phase I no longer worry about anyone else throwing curses on me. Atheist leanings.

Pagan, without the neo-, I would use to refer to things like Shinto or the animisms of Africa, Hawaii, the South Pacific, and others places where Christianity/Islam hasn't stomped the native religions out of existence. Polytheist/animist, not squeamish or naive like so many neos.

Pagans in general I find feel no need to proselytize and in fact can be quite private about their religions. The exception, and probably a big exception, is where that religion ties into national or ethnic identity. Then they still have no desire for converts, but they can be a lot more open about their gods.

YMMV. (Philosophy degree, and I specifically came to Japan to learn this stuff, so please forgive me if this is way TMI.)

[jacobmuller]

I'm disappointed folks.
I thought this thread would have been all over the Florida Sinkhole Disappeared.
Alien invaders need bodies; Lovecraftian weirdness; Graboids:)
Or maybe is too mundane:)

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

I'm disappointed folks.
I thought this thread would have been all over the Florida Sinkhole Disappeared.
Alien invaders need bodies; Lovecraftian weirdness; Graboids:)
Or maybe is too mundane:)

Well, you know, we've read Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey. Ex Florida semper aliquid novi.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

I'm disappointed folks.
I thought this thread would have been all over the Florida Sinkhole Disappeared.
Alien invaders need bodies; Lovecraftian weirdness; Graboids:)
Or maybe is too mundane:)

Mole men. Seriously, I never knew they could drop 20 feet.

[Luke Bunyip]

Apparently, there used to be giant camels living in Northern Canada.

[Luke Bunyip]

Dieselpunkesque, the Imperial German minigun (and the source material with an image).

[RogerBW]

Ukrainian Attack Dolphins loose in the wild.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Ukrainian Attack Dolphins loose in the wild.

It's a hoax, but only the part where the attack dolphins are "on the loose".

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Bruno

It's a hoax, but only the part where the attack dolphins are "on the loose".

They would say that, wouldn't they?

Go back to the beaches. Nothing to see here. The erroneous reporter... report... has been... corrected.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

It's a hoax, but only the part where the attack dolphins are "on the loose".

I wondered about the supposed reason for escape. Captive raised dolphins have a tendency to seek affection from human trainers rather than strange wild dolphins.