Lunar Reflection 1
May. 15th, 2023 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goatgodschildWhat stories first made you want to become a Pagan?
I grew up on a variety of non-Christian myths, despite my grandmothers both being intensely Catholic. I don't know which myths were my first -- Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Indigenous; Chinese and Russian and Irish and Persian. I believed that I ought to worship as many gods and spirits as I could, to make sure they were "well-fed and kept warm". There was a book of short stories I had about children from all over the world, and 2 of my favorites spoke of magic as being a normal part of life. Frankly, these stories all made sense to me -- it was how I saw the world, in a way that Christianity did not supply. I felt sorry for INRI (I pronounced this "'enry"), but thought he got far and enough worship, when he ought to share. I also had some other rather peculiar beliefs around INRI, but they are not applicable here.
One of the many events that led me to paganism was when I got a copy of Dover's Mythical Beasts coloring book, which had a list of sources -- a BIBLIOGRAPHY! So off to the library I went, aged six and asking for the following:
- H.C. Adams, The Wonder Book of Traveller's Tales (1927)
- John Ashton, Curious Creatures In Zoology (1890, republished 1968)
- Thomas Bullfinch, Bullfinch's Mythology (1913)
- Richard Carrington, Mermaids and Mastodons (1957)
- Clara Erskine Clement, A Handbook of Legendary and Mythological Art (1881, republished 1969)
- Charles Gould, Mythical Monsters (1886, republished 1969)
- Howe and Harrer, A Handbook of Classical Mythology (1947, republished 1970)
- Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1959)
- Henry Lee
...Sea Fables Explained (1883)
...Sea Monsters Unmasked (1884)
- Ernst and Johanna Lehner, A Fantastic Bestiary (1969)
- Peter Lum, Fabulous Beasts (1951)
- Odell Shepherd, The Lore of the Unicorn (1930)
- Edward Topsell, A History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658)
- John Vinycomb, Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art (1906, republished 1969)
- T.H. White, The Book of Beasts (1954, republished 1984)
Out of these, there were not many available at the library, but there were others. Others that gave me answers to the things I now saw around me, the fears I had of what lay in the insomniac darkness. In these things, the world I could understand, the world beyond biology and otherwise material things. Magic and religion, as odd as it may sound, brought order to my world.
I grew up on a variety of non-Christian myths, despite my grandmothers both being intensely Catholic. I don't know which myths were my first -- Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Indigenous; Chinese and Russian and Irish and Persian. I believed that I ought to worship as many gods and spirits as I could, to make sure they were "well-fed and kept warm". There was a book of short stories I had about children from all over the world, and 2 of my favorites spoke of magic as being a normal part of life. Frankly, these stories all made sense to me -- it was how I saw the world, in a way that Christianity did not supply. I felt sorry for INRI (I pronounced this "'enry"), but thought he got far and enough worship, when he ought to share. I also had some other rather peculiar beliefs around INRI, but they are not applicable here.
One of the many events that led me to paganism was when I got a copy of Dover's Mythical Beasts coloring book, which had a list of sources -- a BIBLIOGRAPHY! So off to the library I went, aged six and asking for the following:
- H.C. Adams, The Wonder Book of Traveller's Tales (1927)
- John Ashton, Curious Creatures In Zoology (1890, republished 1968)
- Thomas Bullfinch, Bullfinch's Mythology (1913)
- Richard Carrington, Mermaids and Mastodons (1957)
- Clara Erskine Clement, A Handbook of Legendary and Mythological Art (1881, republished 1969)
- Charles Gould, Mythical Monsters (1886, republished 1969)
- Howe and Harrer, A Handbook of Classical Mythology (1947, republished 1970)
- Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1959)
- Henry Lee
...Sea Fables Explained (1883)
...Sea Monsters Unmasked (1884)
- Ernst and Johanna Lehner, A Fantastic Bestiary (1969)
- Peter Lum, Fabulous Beasts (1951)
- Odell Shepherd, The Lore of the Unicorn (1930)
- Edward Topsell, A History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (1658)
- John Vinycomb, Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art (1906, republished 1969)
- T.H. White, The Book of Beasts (1954, republished 1984)
Out of these, there were not many available at the library, but there were others. Others that gave me answers to the things I now saw around me, the fears I had of what lay in the insomniac darkness. In these things, the world I could understand, the world beyond biology and otherwise material things. Magic and religion, as odd as it may sound, brought order to my world.
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Date: 2023-05-23 08:46 am (UTC)