#brythpol

[awaitingasuitablemoniker]

Basic Resources for Brythonic Polytheism (Recon Centred)

Available via Search Engine

Polytheist Community Boards- Brythonic Polytheism (link) https://polytheistcommunity.boards.net/board/24/brythonic-polytheism. This is a forum that has discussions on Brythonic god/esses, daily life as a Brython, and a handy list of god/esses that one can do more research on.

Dun Brython- a website created for the Brythonic community, with the same name on Wordpress. Easily found via a search engine of your choice with keywords ‘Dun Brython’. Dunbrython.org (link: http://www.dunbrython.org/ ) is very useful, and has a calendar, essays on the gods, and other aspects of the faith, such as giants, faerie, and ancestor veneration.

Caer Feddwyd- also easily found via search engine. Dun Brython was planned and submissions were called for on this forum. Also has many conversations still accessible regarding Brythonic polytheism, which encapsulates... a lot. Would spend another week scrolling through here.

Books (Primarily Celtic- Recon, not specificallly Brython-centric)

The Religion of the Ancient Celts, by J.A. MacCulloch- I have the first rate publishers version. Honestly, I need glasses to get through it due to the small font size but it’s indispensable. Chapter titles are fairly accurate to what is covered in that chapter, but pages aren’t numbered.

Pagan Britain (2013), by Ronald Hutton- it’s similar to a textbook, which is good. It’s purely listed for its research value. Fairly advanced writing, the ‘notes’ section alone is 59 pages. I advise reading with either google, a dictionary, or both easily available. I wish I was joking. His Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (2009) might be a bit more pagan-centric, but I’ve never read that, so I can’t very well advise others to. Note: Ronald Hutton is Big in research on paganism, both ancient and modern-day.

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evens-Wentz. I like this mainly due to its ‘The Taking of Evidence’ section, which is a section of collected accounts of the Gentry, among other subjects. Ch. 10 is ‘The Testimony of Christianity’, which seems mainly to be a section devoted entirely to connecting polytheist beliefs to Purgatory. It’s from 1911, with a new foreword from 2004, so I mainly ignore ch. 10.

Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, by Miranda J. Green. Useful for quick reference, although organization might be a bit odd. (Such as searching for Camulus under ‘Mars Camulus’).

Books: Honorable Mentions

I haven’t read, nor do I own either of these, so I can’t really recommend them.

Blood and Mistletoe: The History of Druids in Britain, by Ronald Hutton. This sounds like it might be a bit more pagan-specific, but I’m not sure. However, I would read almost anything by him.

Pagan Celtic Britain, by Anne Ross. A bit outdated, but it seems to be favoured by other Recons, so?? It is said to be very dry, as well.

Honorable Mention: Search Engine

Wikipedia. We all use it, and it’s useful to get a general idea as to where and how a god/dess is attested to.

[gazeratstars-blog]

Hey folks!

I’m devoting the year to an exploration of paganism and related paths, and this blog is part of that that journey. I’m hoping to use it as a place to ask questions and collect resources, among other things.

My main focus for the time being is Celtic paganism, due both to my heritage and my existing interest in the culture and folklore of the Celtic nations, although I’m also interested in broader-scope topics that relate to the pagan community as a whole as well.

Hoping to learn as much as I can over the next 12 months!

[pysksos]

Found an essay/piece of writing on Bucca I've been searching absolutely everywhere for today in an anthology I clicked on by happenchance. I'm so, so, so, so, so excited, plus it head on tackles "bucca is the devil reskinned" and really firmly places Them in Their context as a Cornish Celtic Deity

[thegrovecalls]

Tips for getting back into regular practice?

Been feeling the need to get back into this blog and really get back into a steady devotional practice again lately. Struggling AS ALWAYS with reading and researching too much and hyperfocusing and comparing my UPG/theories to other well-learned polytheists' and feeling inadequate because I don't have the executive function to write properly-cited essays and stuff :/ Maybe recon polytheism isn't for me lol. I get so bogged down in the academic side (which I do love and I am good at, mind you) that I get burned out before I can even get to the devotional and ~personal spiritual exploration~ side!

So yeah... I'm being called by the gods to spend some actual time with them with my nose out of a book/blog/journal for a change, and I'm realising that I barely know how to do that, and certainly don't have much confidence in myself and my spiritual agency anymore :(

Kinda feels like I need to go strictly cold turkey on research for a while (I've amassed enough notes the last few years; I should be perfectly happy that what I believe is 99% evidence-based and I'm not just wildly making stuff up), and really go back to polytheist devotion 101 stuff. I haven't made any formal offerings in a really long time and haven't done a recon-style ritual, well, ever.

So uh... What is polytheist devotion 101 stuff? Does anyone have any tips for someone like me who thinks too much and doesn't DO nearly enough? For letting go of polytheist perfectionism? In some ways I feel like a beginner (which, to put a positive spin on things, is a fairly exciting place to be). Does anyone know of any good beginner's exercises/programmes/routines that could be applicable for a Gaulpol/Brythpol lacking in confidence and connection?

[Also, one of the things I've been 'stuck' ruminating about lately is what to do with offerings after they've been offered: I live in a flat in a city with no real green space nearby, and it feels wrong to eat them myself or throw them out with mundane waste. I'm never very successful with indoor plants either. Should I just offer fire (i.e. candles in my situation), incense, and votive or 'devotional activity' offerings? Or if I do make libations or food offerings, can it just be a few drops or crumbs, that I might realistically be able to leave out for birds or on a tiny patch of urban nature (as long as they're safe for said wildlife)? Can water alone be a libation?]

[aeondeug]

Solidarity on being close to very stylish and secretive Faery Kings who Love Dad Jokes (waves hello from brythpol)

I am so happy that such wordplay is found elsewhere with another king.

[poeticnorth]

New poem! New poem! New poem!

[strange-lights-and-stardust]

Starstruck Awenydd crossposting

It’s Nos Galan Mai and I have Feelings.

Lament

And May Day is coming--I wish I could sing

As I did ere I named Him, my Winter Fae King!

"Your tears are more precious than riches untold

You can sing for Him still as the world turns to gold." 

So play on the organ that plays in my soul

A witch's sad song as the faery bells toll

They're mourning their King as the maypole weaves round

And part of me lies with Him under the ground!

[strange-lights-and-stardust]

Even though I’m Brythonic I find I learn so many helpful concepts from Hellenic Polytheism. The idea of the Gods not being easily angered by little mistakes, for example. That’s a big trauma script I have that Gwyn’s been working hard to help me unlearn. I do wish I had more specifically Brythpol resources, BUT I’m grateful to my Hellenic friends and the Hellenic community on here for being a place with a lot of activity and resources. And I’m grateful to the Hellenic Gods who showed up in my Brythonic corner of the woods and helped me out so much.

I should stop hiding behind vague generalizations. I’m shy but I want to say this. What I mean is I’m grateful to Hades, for His help and kindness to me, and to Gwyn, for bringing Him into my life.

[thegrovecalls]

I drove down to Dartmoor for my summer holiday today (a very smooth and safe journey, praise the gods), and at one service station where we stopped there was a small hill with a deliberate ring of pine trees crowning the top and right in the middle, looking odd but important, a beautiful lightning rod reaching into the sky.

The whole structure - the tallest thing around - was obviously placed to protect the surrounding bridges, motorways, road lamps, and electrical lines from lightning strikes. All very practical. But my partner and I immediately felt like it was a special place the moment we were inside the ring of trees.

A modern nemeton to Taranis if ever there was one? An accidental Jupiter Column? “O Thunderer, please strike this high place - strike here as much as you like - and channel your awesome power safely into the earth so that our sprawling human highways may remain safe and functioning, and order may prevail!” Or something.

-

I’m really excited about this week in the countryside. We’re here over Medisamos (or is it Mediosamos? someone who speaks Gaulish feel free to enlighten me), which is also a full moon, and I’m so thrilled. We’ve been having *very* insistent sky father weather lately - ALL the sun, ALL the wind, ALL the clouds, ALL the rain, alternating constantly - and we will probably have one of those powerful midsummer thunderstorms at some point (or so I hope!)

O serpent-slaying Taranis, shining sky ruler! I give thanks for darkening clouds, your great bulls roaring, I give thanks for pounding rain, that strengthens green things, I give thanks for lightning-fire, your most potent gift, And for protection I thank you, O Thunderer - Through storm and calm.

[thegrovecalls]

(Re. an ask I commented on yesterday, I went and found this old note about Nodens in my drafts. Just some early thoughts, not going into his mythological role or relationships with other gods.)

I feel him associated with mists, soft rain, overcast days, estuaries, flats and marshes, brackish waters, fish that navigate both sea and stream i.e. salmon, sea trout, and eels, fishing, healing - but not acute or obvious injuries, rather chronic, mental, and invisible/unknown ailments; I can see him as lord of fallow times, retreat, looking inward as a path to healing and awareness, and ‘tending to old wounds’. He is gentle, still, wise, a sanctuary. Even the natural phenomenon most associated with him in my mind - the Severn Bore - signifies natural/cyclical movement within rather than dramatic external events. A slightly out-there possible upg I once considered is that he is associated with the moon (tides, hunting, repose?), but I haven’t found solid evidence for the hunting connection and now doubt this.

[thegrovecalls]

Okay I don't think it's been done so I hereby create the brythpol tag!!

For Brythonic polytheists on tumblr (à la gaulpol and gaelpol)

Let’s do this! I mean, I know there’s like none of us but I want a cool tumblr polytheism tag damn it

[thegrovecalls]

been away for a few months...

Now I’m back, and hoping I can keep active on here. Kinda want to start writing occasionally about my research & upg & devotional stuff, rather than just posting pretty pictures (and occasional witchy resources). And I want to maybe interact a little more with gaulpol and brythonic (brythpol?!? can we make that a tag!?) tumblr :)

A bit about my approach:

I started out in polytheism/CR a few years ago (after about a decade of baby wiccanhood and fuzzy neopaganism) interested in the Brythonic side of things, but in my research ended up feeling connected to some Gaulish gods too. I don’t consider myself a general ‘Celtic polytheist’ (the Gaelic gods and I have zero chemistry); I try to keep my practice to a group of gods who can be attested, by archaeology and informed guesswork, to have been known in both western Gaul and mainland Britain at roughly the same time and with trade and travel links.

I am not an academic - I doubt I’ll ever be writing well sourced essays and papers on the gods (mostly because of my disabilities) - but the devotional practice that takes up most of my time is indeed academic research. I lean heavily towards archaeology, linguistics, PIE reconstruction, and comparative studies, and, for my purposes, take medieval Irish and Welsh mythological literature with a fairly large pinch of salt.

My interest in comparative indoeuropean mythology means that I’m not the hardest of hard polytheists; I really enjoy seeing how different gods are related and potentially share common stories and similar worship, or at least how they had common roots. But I’m not a soft polytheist either. It depends a lot on historical context and how much cultural exchange different regions can realistically be said to have. Some gods are definitely more local than others, but I do think it’s unhelpful to see every single known deity name as individual local gods - I believe that at least some were probably local titles/epithets of more widely known figures.

[for example, I am a devotee of she who can be called *Rigantona and who I believe to be part of a supraregional goddess complex known as Epona, and possibly also addressed as Matrona (among other 'matronas’). The Great Mare, the Great Mother, the Great Queen. An obvious literary reflex is Rhiannon, although this is a much diminished portrayal. Other IE horse/sovereignty/land goddesses may have informed my picture of her, e.g. Macha, but remain separate due to being part of different language groups or time periods. Clues to her mythos and relationships with other deities can be found in many different IE polytheisms throughout history, but hers will always have its own Gaulish-Brythonic spin, and a relationship with her won’t be the same as a relationship with any other expression of the hypothesised PIE horse goddess.]

So uh… Yeah. That’s partly why I don’t tag posts with attested or reconstructed names but with created epithets. I’m much more interested in the mythological 'big picture’; if I have reason to believe there’s a gap in the mythology without (or with scant) corresponding archaeological/epigraphic evidence at this point, and my dealings with the gods tell me there’s an unnamed being there, I tend to go with it.

It will always be a massive work in progress of course, and I’m CONSTANTLY learning, but that’s half the fun of Gaulish and Brythonic polytheism :D