Johnston is just sort of amazing, as far as scholars go. I also recommend reading Ritual Texts for the Afterlife, which she co-wrote with Fritz Graf. You can't really talk about dead people without bringing up the Erinyes at some point.

The deities most discussed in Restless Dead are Hekate, Hermes, and the Erinyes. While there is a specific chapter about the Erinyes, Johnston dribbles information about them everywhere. :D

Thank you so much! I was wondering what had happened to it and had resorted to linking people to the Internet Archive page.

Thanks for the link! I think Apollôn and Rudra have huge Super Special Best Friends potential. ^_^

That's an interesting article. Thanks for the link. Of course, there's a huge difference between liking a group and not wanting to persecute it ... and while I would say that evangelicals shouldn't be persecuted, their belief in proselytizing means that they will run into situations of "persecution" because their beliefs interfere with the religious liberty and free will of others. I'm wondering a bit about the charts on Page 4 because the language seems biased ... after all, if something is just asking if I have a negative opinion of a group, it doesn't necessarily mean that I like them. There is also a huge difference between having an unfavorable opinion of evangelical people versus evangelical beliefs, which I am not sure is captured in any of the information he cites.

I'm happy that you liked it. :)

Yes, probably because Gnosticism pulled a lot of things from Greek philosophy about the good and the bad and ran with it. I can definitely see lots of similarities between the philosophers and your Gnostic texts ... a lot more than in the Church-approved ones, certainly.

Thanks ... it feels like I write and rewrite this every few years as I gain more experience and reflect on other things. This is the only one where I've been particularly frank about how much of an asshole I was as a kid ...

Thank you. You know, after reading some stuff on the Wild Hunt, I'm not sure that the post was written on a level accessible to the average commenter ... I think that often, people don't understand that the sociological term privilege doesn't mean snooty people drinking $200 champagne, but a systemic thing everyone participates in at a barely-conscious level (if they're even aware at all).

You're right about isolation, and it doesn't help when we venture out of our insular communities and find that others don't really approve of what we do. I think that creative types and people at cultural events are often more open-minded simply because they are exposed to a more diverse flow of ideas, which makes them great friends.

I think that what "privilege" means in this context needs to be made more clear. It is a sociological term. People outside of certain backgrounds may have a difficult time wrapping their heads around it the first few times they hear it, but I can assure you that it doesn't always encompass persecution.

We're not talking about obstinate people here (although there are those, too). Privilege in this context is very much like privilege in sexual orientation. If a heterosexual couple walks down the street holding hands, the public generally has an unspoken acceptance of this symbol of their relationship. However, if a same-sex couple walks down the same street, they may receive unpleasant stares or remarks, so they have to be conscious of WHERE they are before they even consider holding hands. The heterosexual couple in this example is not actively taunting same-sex couples. They're just doing what they've always done. The fact that it's not the same for the same-sex couple --- that they have anxieties about what shouldn't be a big deal --- shows heterosexual privilege at work.

Wiccan privilege is very much the same. When you go to a festival, the "default" is a Wiccan-based spirituality, complete with eight Sabbats spaced six weeks apart, no matter what you say your background is. Most Wiccans are completely unaware that by assuming everyone has the same general framework, they are actually marginalizing a large minority of people who do not hold to the same views.

Often, things that are recon are seen as exotic and strange. When I performed a libation and invited one or two Wiccan friends, they were very uncomfortable with the lack of circle-casting because it conflicted with their view that circles were necessary for ritual. This comes from the expectation that people who are in the community will perform their spirituality in very set ways. It can be very difficult to make space for recons in this kind of environment.

Hellenists have that, too, and it's just not the same thing. It's not just that some places are numinous or held to have spiritual power --- it's how we recognize it and what we do there that matters. And we worship deities and local spirits who are integrated with the natural environment --- so even though I would also consider this "Earth-centered," it's definitely not Earth-centered according to a more Wiccan framework because our relationships with them are different. We also have methods of divination.

With the argument you have raised, Hinduism, Shintō, and some forms of Buddhism would also fall under your definition despite the fact that many in those groups would rather remain their own distinct entities. Every religion has different ways of describing the sacred and doing everything you just subscribed. The fact that they're all conceptualized differently actually matters.