OK, I know I missed another week of the PBP. I actually wrote a post, and then decided it was silly and nothing much to do with Paganism at all, so I didn't post it. This week is L, and I might write about Loki, even though I've written about Him on here before. There are elements I could touch upon such as why I consider it important to acknowledge Him in passing at the least for every intelligent Heathen, but I might just dive into folklore and post a bunch of evidence for His historical worship. (Plenty of people say there isn't any, but I don't understand why no one would worship Him and then He would crop up in all these elements of folkloric observance.) So that might be this week's aim. I'll collect a bunch of those and shove them all up.
Because I love Him, and nuts to you if you hate Him. You don't have to understand Him, but you get that hating on Him is only going to attract His attention more, right? You're better off offering a small drink whenever you drink to Oðinn as the lore implies is appropriate and otherwise avoiding insulting Him. Calling Him a f****t isn't going to endear you to Him.
Also, check it out, I'm capitalising pronouns. This is a weird thing for me... I always capitalise pronouns when it comes to the Gods of my Hedgecraft, sort of as a method of distinction.... and then when it comes to other deities I capitalise randomly and arbitrarily. I decide one day that I want to and forget about it the next. But it's pleasing, sometimes, to capitalise pronouns. It spikes me back into awareness. Plus it upsets monotheists.
I don't know why I take vague pleasure in upsetting monotheists in this sort of way. I suppose it's something to do with taking up some sort of idea or concept that are as much our right as Pagans as they are theirs - like tagging things "god" or "scripture" or "lord", knowing that a fair number of Christians will look on such a tag expecting to find things related to only their god and only their scripture. I know it ruffles feathers when they find a quotation from the Eddur under "scripture".
Hey, did I ever tell you guys about a situation on the NaNoWriMo forums? It was hilarious. The subject was something like the afterlife. A Heathen there said "to quote scripture," and quoted the "Cattle Die" stanza of the Havamal. Most people - atheists, Christians and others - in that forum were perfectly civilised, but one Christian responded "Where exactly is that, and in what bible?".
A third writer chimed in: "The bible isn't the only holy scripture out there. If I recognise that quote it's from the Poetic Edda, specifically the Havamal or Words of Odin, held sacred by many Heathens and other Norse Pagans."
The Christian got all snotty: "Pagans and heathens don't go well with the word "holy", and there's only one book of truth."
The Heathen responded with another quote from the Havamal. "The witless man, when he meets with men, Had best in silence abide, For no-one shall find that nothing he knows If his mouth is not open too much. =D"
looooooooooool.
I like to occasionally shake things, to remind people that we're here, that other religions exist, and that our faith is valid enough to use terms like "holy" and "god" and mean them. I think there are people out there who associate Pagans with Renn Faires and sparkly "fairy" wings and glitter and dancing naked on a hill somewhere (not that these things are bad in their own rights), and don't associate Paganism with real, down-to-earth religion, with people who are happy to talk theology and scripture and history and archaeology. Maybe using words they associate nearly solely with their own faith unsettles some because it marks us out as normal, as just like them - and that gives us some legitimacy.
Whatever, it's entertaining.