Archive | February 3, 2012

Nervous

Feb3

Tomorrow I’m going out to the Pagan Studies Conference at Claremont Graduate School. Sunday I’m part of the author’s panel. I’m very excited and nervous. Haven’t figured out which story to read yet from the Heart Town Witch. Part of me wants to read a new story like Bella, the belly dancing bear that I just put up on the Littlest Druid blog.

I can’t wait to hear what other people are presenting. One of our new LBWS (Long Beach WomenSpirit) members is presenting early tomorrow so that will be good.

Schedule

9:00 – 10:30 Session One

James Jacob Pierri – Being a Pagan artist in the modern day

Alfred Surenyan, DMA – The Goddess Sings: The Musical Identity of Modern Paganism

10:45 -12:15 Session Two

Wendy Griffin, Ph.D. and Marie Cartier, Ph.D. – Herlands: Finding Goddess on Lesbian Land

Kenneth Christensen – Towne of Trees and Ph.Ds

Kahena Viale, Ph. D. – Identity Without Revelation: Embodied Knowledge as an Alternative to Revealed Text

Key Note Presentation: Hyperion

2:15 – 3:45 Session Three – Discourses of Identity and Authenticity in Modern Paganisms

Sabina Magliocco, Ph.D – Indigenousness and the Discourse of Authenticity in Modern Paganisms

Amy Hale, Ph.D., – Locating Identity and Authenticity in Radical Traditionalism and the Pagan New Right

Sam Webster, M. Div. – Can a Magician be a Pagan?

4:00 – 5:30 Session Four

Murtagh A. anDoile –  The Pagan History Project: Toward a Cohesive Narrative of Actual Fact and Mythic Histories

Tony Mierzwicki – Cyberpaganism

Jennifer Wong – Pagans Finding Identity Through the Online Meetup Phenomenon

6:00 Ritual

Sunday

Session Five

Doe Daughtrey – The Mormon Pagan Experience

Seth Clark – Lughnasa and Religious Identity: Freedom in the Harvest

Kimberly D. Kirner, PhD – Living Paradox: Defining Community and Identity in Non-Exclusive Spirituality

Session Six

Jeffrey Albaugh – TO BE ANNOUNCED

Joseph Futerman, Ph.D. – Identity and the Magickal Name

Elizabeth Malamed, MA, LMFT, CIBPP – I am a Stag of Seven Tines: Identity Expansion in Paganism and its Implications

Key Note Presentation: Dr. Z. Budapest

Session Seven – Pagan Literature Panel

Kat Robb— Heart Town Witch and Other Stories

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. — Secret Lives

Gayle Brandeis—The Book of Live Wires

More info here:http://paganconference.pashamusic.com/

Celtic women in battle

Feb3

I’m reading a fascinating book of my great-grandfather’s called, The Scottish Gael or Celtic Manners as preserved among the Highlanders. It was published in 1833. It was written by James Logan and our copy is very very old. It even has the address in it my great-grandparents were living at when they came in 1901. They were living over the bakery on Vermont Ave. Never knew that before. It’s one of the most peculiarly organized books I’ve ever read. Its chapters are broad topics and the only indication that the subject has changed is a few words at the top of the page.

That being said, I was trying to do some research on Highland holidays which turned out not to be there and got lost in the chapter on women in war that starts with Roman times and then goes forward.

At one point he is talking about how many could be raised as an army and states that Boudicca had 230,000 people in her army. The Romans only had 40,000 which might explain how they lost so badly to her.

He talks about Veleda, Aurinia, and Boudicca as being regarded as bearers of divine will and were venerated and followed into battle because they were touched by the divine. The Romans described the women as “the women attacked them with swords and axes and making a hideous outcry, fell upon all those who fled, as well as their pursuers, the former as traitors and the latter as enemies; mixing with the soldiers, with their bare arms, pulled away the shields of the Romans and laid hold of their swords, enduring the wounding and slashing of their bodies to the very last with undaunted resolution. It talks about them screaming and yelling at the men to excite them before going into battle. It also says they did the same when the Romans attacked the Druid’s sacred isle of Anglesea.

He says: “The great respect which Celts paid to their women was due to many amiable qualities and the estimation in which military acquirements were held by these people gave an incredible weight to the authority of the heroine…. Such women were regarded as having supernatural gifts and in the name of the deity they governed the people.”

From there he goes on to talk about the role of Bards and Druids in battle.

Love old books!