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| The Horned One altar with bundle, tobacco pouch and headdress |
In the pagan world it is extremely difficult to find and verify sources for so much of what is put in books that sit in the metaphysical sections of Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble. Most authors bios read something like "A practitioner of X for over 30 years, a High Priestess of Y, Hedge Witch, Tarot Reader, Celtic Druid and Shaman." Not that any of these experiences should be discounted, but by and large, I have no way of verifying or denying these claims, and it honestly doesn't tell me much about the Author other than that they dabble in a LOT of different realms of belief. Which again, isn't bad, but it doesn't instill a lot of confidence either. The other problem with a lot of these books is that the references and sources are sometimes nonexistent or if they do exist, are just references to other peoples works who didn't cite their sources either. So, what is one to do.
My recommendation is to find and start with academic works. Works that don't have a "practitioner" as their author, someone who is just interested in the historical facts and interpreting them. Someone with a PHD who is trained to handle the source material and hopefully present it in an unbiased way. Then, you can use these other sources as supplemental information.
Now, I want to say that, in my personal opinion, it's all made up. We have NO idea. Any book that purports to be about "norse shamanism" or "Celtic Druidry" etc. is just made up to some degree. Yeah there are some sources, but it's filled in with a LOT of conjecture and borrows heavily from core shamanism and Wicca.
Basically, we have a bunch of scrap pieces of fabric and we're trying to reassemble a garment that we have no pattern for. We have vague clues, but nothing concrete. And so what are we to do? I think as people living in America, we have the benefit of living alongside indigenous cultures and these cultures can give us a window into world of tribal beliefs that may give us clues as to what our ancestors may have done. There are many similarities, customs and motifs that seem to be universal. That's not to say that we should come in and take things that are not ours or assume to speak on behalf of a people who we do not belong. Rather, we should approach the myths, motifs, symbolism with an eye of application. For instance, I have a bundle. Inside this bundle are sacred objects and things that are important to me spiritually, that represent my homeland, that represent my ancestors and my beliefs, animals I feel close to etc. It's very personalized and it's very unique to me. I'm in no way claiming it's a Native American bundle. It's the bundle of an Indo-European Descended North American who found something that resonated in the local customs and is employing it to fulfill a spiritual need that I feel we lost touch with almost 2,000 years ago when our tribal ancestors were conquered.
Not long ago I visited the serpent mound, and I talked about applying our Indo-European motifs and myths to the landscape around us and getting in touch with the local stories that native peoples have believed for thousands of years. I think this represents our way forward for those of us Europeans who wish to return to our more instinctive tribal religions. Take our stories, and find our way back to their everyday application through really engaging with our Native brothers and sisters and forming those bonds of friendship and mutual understanding.
It's that tribal sense that I hoped to create with our little far flung community. Not a tribe of exclusion, but a a tribe of sharing what we have and of supporting one another centered around a devotion to nature and the gods.
Just a quick post script: If you have any prayer requests or want a ritual working done for a specific need, I have put a request box on the blog (for mobile users, click on "desktop view" at the very bottom of the page to see it.) Please feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to serve the need.
