Tradition and grammar: tribal morris dancers, and Paganism versus paganism
Okay, this has to be the strangest headline I’ve come across in a while: Hey nonny no, no, no: Goths and pagans are reinventing morris dancing, from The Independent, with the sub-heading, ‘Why the newcomers are putting the fear of God into the traditionalists’. The ‘traditionalists’ are those who perform morris dancing without any appreciation or awareness of its Pagan origins, which they dispute. The dance we recognise today was cleaned up and given a Christian makeover in the late 19th century, completing the divorce from its original celebratory and ecstatic Beltane purpose as a fertility dance. What’s remarkable is that it survived so many centuries in any form whatsoever when so many aspects of our Pagan past were eradicated by the Church.
tags: Beltane, capitalisation, celebration, Celts, Christianity, dance, goths, grammar, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, morris dancing, Muslims, Paganism, religion, ritual, spirituality, tradition, WitchcraftCora Anderson 1915-2008: a great lady, a powerful and loving spirit
I found out only today that Cora Anderson, co-founder with Victor Anderson of the Feri Tradition, passed on May 1st at the age of 93.
Cora was a Grand Master of the Feri Faith, a writer, and a foundation stone in the lives of many prominent Pagans and Witches. I never had the honour of meeting her, although I know and have met a number of people who have been her students and friends, but her beliefs and practices have been and continue to be a huge influence upon my thinking, both politically and spiritually.
tags: Beltane, change, Cora Anderson, Faery, Feri Tradition, grief, healing, loss, magick, mourning, Paganism, Reclaiming, renewal, spellcraft, spirituality, transformation, Victor Anderson, Witchcraft
