Been thinking…another one of my takeaways from Exiles of the Golden Age was the kinds of people who showed up. Lots of amazing people, united by heritage, mission, and faith.
There were none of these terminally online basement pagans who spend half of their time criticizing and complaining. One of the speakers, a fellow Germanic pagan, referenced the Rig Veda, Buddhism and Hellenism, and nobody screamed that he was an evil syncretist/monist/Platonist/etc.
One speaker was Christian, and everyone was respectful, willing to engage in a respectful interfaith dialogue and agree to disagree on certain things because we shared a common heritage and mission.
I talked with a lot of people there, even asked a few what they believed happened when the Yamnaya branched out and formed new cultures, whether they continued to worship the same Gods in their new languages; or, forgot about them and…made up new ones? They recognized Odin is known to multiple peoples under different names, as it says in the Grímnismál and Gylfaginning. A few of us even joked about certain content creators.
The conflicts you’ve seen on the pagan web over the past year were entirely started and parroted by a select vocal few, but it only exists among the terminally online. It doesn't exist in the real world.
We also discussed one of the main issues facing paganism; the fact that too many pagans focus so much on what they oppose, to the point that they become solely defined by what they hate. While hate is a necessary part of the human experience, without love of all that’s good, you will never have any genuine belief.
Our enemies are known; don’t give them any more power over you by allowing them to define your entire worldview. The way forward is known. Find your people and build your networks in the real world, and worship your Gods, Wights and ancestors with utmost piety.
Ves heill!
Wes þú hál!
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