hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: August 2011
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2011. Gods as Experiences, Not Explanations. This is part two of an ongoing series of posts on the nature of gods and spirits. In the empirical/scientific paradigm, human experience is dissected into disciplines and aspects such as psychological, cognitive, emotional, sociological, cultural, natural, biological, metaphorical, etc., but our ancestors, not having many of these conceptual categories, do not appear to have differentiated them so precisely. This is quite a different enterp...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: July 2012
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html
Friday, July 13, 2012. Mother Earth" is No Mere Metaphor: Relation, Personification, and Survival. Hal wes þu folde, fira modor! Health and wholeness to you, earth, mother of men! Anglo-Saxon Land Ceremonies Charm, early 11th century.). Gaia, the Greek Earth Goddess. But the earth not only sustains us; it also provided the environment in which our species evolved. We are, in two senses, of the earth. Our physical being is not only constructed of and maintained by the fruits of the earth, but its ...It is...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: Gods as Experiences, Not Explanations
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011/08/gods-as-experiences-not-explanations.html
Tuesday, August 30, 2011. Gods as Experiences, Not Explanations. This is part two of an ongoing series of posts on the nature of gods and spirits. In the empirical/scientific paradigm, human experience is dissected into disciplines and aspects such as psychological, cognitive, emotional, sociological, cultural, natural, biological, metaphorical, etc., but our ancestors, not having many of these conceptual categories, do not appear to have differentiated them so precisely. This is quite a different enterp...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: December 2012
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html
Sunday, December 9, 2012. Another polytheist parable, this one foreshadowing a new essay post to be published eventually. I waited at a distance until the bowl had been replaced and only approached when the tremors had died down. Why'd you do it? He turned his head toward the sound of my voice, but it was a few moments before he seemed to focus on me. He croaked, and a memory came alive in his bloodshot eyes and his scarred lips trembled. "Nobody's perfect.". I fled the broken sound of his laughter.
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: May 2011
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
Saturday, May 21, 2011. Why the Language of Myth Speaks of Gods. In a series of posts I will be exploring ideas about the nature of gods. It is my contention that gods do not need to be "supernatural" to be either meaningful or real, and that they can be explained. But not completely understood or encompassed rationally, since experiences of, and relationships to, the gods is an essential part of their nature. Since mythology is the first way we learn about gods, I will begin with myth. In this post I wi...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: Necessary Masks for the Larger Mysteries
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011/09/necessary-masks-for-larger-mysteries.html
Friday, September 30, 2011. Necessary Masks for the Larger Mysteries. Who are these creatures called the gods? Other humans and non-humans, and was not originally a strategy reserved for only interacting with other humans beings. Whatever a culture's vision of a world, the world at large remains our home, and that home embraces both the vision and it shadows. The world as our home is always multi-leveled. Like a house, it has many stories. We do not first personify other entities and then socialize with ...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: Polytheist Parable: Hacker
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2012/12/polytheist-parable-hacker.html
Sunday, December 9, 2012. Another polytheist parable, this one foreshadowing a new essay post to be published eventually. I waited at a distance until the bowl had been replaced and only approached when the tremors had died down. Why'd you do it? He turned his head toward the sound of my voice, but it was a few moments before he seemed to focus on me. He croaked, and a memory came alive in his bloodshot eyes and his scarred lips trembled. "Nobody's perfect.". I fled the broken sound of his laughter.
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: Wyrd: The Tree, the Runes, and the Knot
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011/06/wyrd-tree-runes-and-knot_19.html
Sunday, June 19, 2011. Wyrd: The Tree, the Runes, and the Knot. Wyrd bið ful aræd! Fate is utterly inexorable! The Wanderer", 5, Tolkien trans.). The collective interaction of all systems and cycles is what I feel is meant by Wyrd. I know that an ash tree stands called Yggdrasil,. A high tree soaked with loam;. From there come the dews which fall into the valley,. Ever green, it stands over the well of fate [Urd/Wyrd]. From there come three girls, knowing a great deal,. Over the wide world;. We create me...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: June 2011
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html
Sunday, June 19, 2011. Wyrd: The Tree, the Runes, and the Knot. Wyrd bið ful aræd! Fate is utterly inexorable! The Wanderer", 5, Tolkien trans.). The collective interaction of all systems and cycles is what I feel is meant by Wyrd. I know that an ash tree stands called Yggdrasil,. A high tree soaked with loam;. From there come the dews which fall into the valley,. Ever green, it stands over the well of fate [Urd/Wyrd]. From there come three girls, knowing a great deal,. Over the wide world;. We create me...
hereticalheathen.blogspot.com
The Heretical Heathen: "Mother Earth" is No Mere Metaphor: Relation, Personification, and Survival
https://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com/2012/07/mother-earth-is-no-mere-metaphor.html
Friday, July 13, 2012. Mother Earth" is No Mere Metaphor: Relation, Personification, and Survival. Hal wes þu folde, fira modor! Health and wholeness to you, earth, mother of men! Anglo-Saxon Land Ceremonies Charm, early 11th century.). Gaia, the Greek Earth Goddess. But the earth not only sustains us; it also provided the environment in which our species evolved. We are, in two senses, of the earth. Our physical being is not only constructed of and maintained by the fruits of the earth, but its ...It is...