Talking To The Spirits: Personal Gnosis in Pagan Religion

Batman and the Joker; Harry Potter and his classmates at Hogwarts; Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee---all have become an integral part of our modern mythology. We may not know the details of our downstairs neighbors' lives but chances are we know the Skywalker family history. Sherlock Holms and Mr. Spock are as familiar to us as Odysseus and Jason were to the Greeks and Cú Chulainn to the Irish. And while only a few could rattle off more than a handful of praise names for Odin or Dionysus, just about everybody knows who's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. When seeking meaning in historical facts, it may behoove us to study our own stories and storytellers.

The influence of the printing press on the Protestant Reformation has been well documented. Many of our modern myths have been transferred through books. C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings have had an enormous influence on Neo-Pagan thought and aestetics, even though both authors were devout Christians. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles have inspired the whole generation of vampires who look to Armand, Lestat, and company not as monsters but as role models. And Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta (and the subsequent film) has been enormously influential on Anonymous, the shadowy group of hackers and activists connected with everything from anti-Scientology protests to Occupy Wall Street.

Do you think werewolves transform during a Full Moon and can only be killed by silver? That "ancient superstition" comes from Curt Siodmak, who wrote the 1941 screenplay for The Wolf Man. Vampires disintegrate if exposed to sunlight? F.W. Murnau came up with that one for 1922's Nosferatu. Flesh-eating zombies come from Haiti? Try Pittsburg, courtesy of George Romero and his 1968 Night of the Living Dead.

Many believe the spirit world is an utterly beneficent place, where Enlightened Beings sit patiently waiting to pass on wisdom to anybody who comes along. They have forgotten the old Hermetic axiom, "as above, so below." We don't place unquestioning trust in every stranger we meet. We don't assume that everyone has our best interests at heart and is concerned only with our highest and greatest good; we accept that people may act in ways inimical to our well-being. Yet many spiritual workers ignore these lessons. They open themselves up to any spirit that approaches and take every contact at its word without question.

(...) If you take one of them on as a guide or mistake it for your patron Deity, you may find yourself dealing with the spirit world's version of Bart Simpson making prank calls. Not only does this make you look like an idiot, it is also a waste of valuable time. The hours you spend communicating with some random astral moron are hours that you are not spending engaged in productive spiritual work.

Sociologist Helen A. Berger has suggested that modern Paganism provides a new image of what religion can be in a postmodern world; one without churches or clear boundaries, based on books and the Internet and individuals gathering together and interacting and then returning to practice what they see as their own eclectic religion.

We may find it difficult to swallow the idea that today's entertainment may be tomorrow's scripture or that the Gods might speak through comic books or video games. But if we accept that there is continuing contact between the sacred and mundane worlds, is it illogical to accept that their communications would come using contemporary media and contemporary language? The idea that the best artists catch and transmit a spark of divine fire is an ancient one appearing in many cultures. We do ourselves and our Gods a disservice when we assume those holy flames no longer burn today.

Brandon, Ár nDraíocht Féin Pagan: Primary sources are trustworthy as nothing more or less than what they are: records of ideas expressed by people in those times and places. Beyond that, we must keep our wits about us when we read such texts. For one thing, those people were no less susceptible to bias than we are today. For another, there is no good reason why living Deities cannot change over the years (thus making ancient texts no longer the best source for today).