Navigating the Intermediate Period

[kiya]

A while back I had a conversation with vectorvillain about religion, which is, I suppose, one of the subjects that he and I talk about a fair amount when he's findable.

One of the comments he made was about something he called the Time of Prophets, the initial stages in the development of a movement, a religion. Paganism as a whole is still in its Time of Prophets, its point when individual personalities are shaping the face of what exists, where the founders of religions are still in their breathing days, where personal convictions and personal disagreements can lead to the founding of entire religions as a result of taking one's ball and going home.

It's an interesting time to be living in. In sort of the traditional curse sense.

I don't like this sort of interesting time, really; it leaves me feeling like I'm in the middle of some catastrophic literature. The natural order is upturned and all, nothing's established, nothing's stable. The raw order isn't merely ripped up; it doesn't exist yet, it hasn't even been built. I don't like it; I'm far too conservative of ba for this sort of interesting, this sort of transformational period.

The raw energy of creation, of defining the scope of the possible with the words we speak and write today, is ripping loose and through the extended pagan movement. Witness disputes about what 'Wicca' means: the shape of the word is being flexed by people, some of them people who don't even know how much their words can bend things. The energy is raw, very raw in some places, unconstrained; it makes new forms and rips them apart again. The forms that are shaped today and built well, the ones that will survive, have the potential to reach far into the future.

It's an amazing thing, to think that today's research, today's insights, today's connections, today's stories told might cascade out like that. It's terrifying. Djet is scary; it's so big. I can't live responsibly in neheh without recognising, though, that djet comes out of neheh's iterations, and in times of transformation, in intermediate periods, order is not merely maintained, it is defined.

It fills me with awe, awe complete with the oft-forgotten layers of fear.

I think the world probably needs more awe at djet.

What was it tnh says? "We live in extremely interesting ancient times"?

Comments

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who seems to be shuffling toward being a "prophet," you're damn right. Putting ourselves out there and hoping it takes. Praying it doesn't blow up too badly in our faces while knowing it will. Wishing that enough people who hear it will understand it enough to carry it forward. Trying not to get a swelled head but wanting to be respected for the work we're doing. It's terrifying.

I also see signs of it continuing, though. I know second-generation Norsefolk, and I'm fairly sure there will be third-generation ones if there aren't already. Some Celtic folk are getting to that stage, too, but we have less organization and haven't been around as a neopagan option for as long.

[jenny_evergreen]

"Putting ourselves out there and hoping it takes. Praying it doesn't blow up too badly in our faces while knowing it will. Wishing that enough people who hear it will understand it enough to carry it forward. Trying not to get a swelled head but wanting to be respected for the work we're doing. It's terrifying."

At least you have an accurate grasp of what you're getting into, speaking as someone who shuffled all the way to "prophet", albeit not under the pagan banner. *wry*