bless your heart jenny , it warms my heart to see someone doing proper research with an open mind and not a pro-christian bias about it all. i'm a celtic shaman and have studied for over 15 years and would love to discuss your research over dinner. danu is my mother ,dagda is my father ,ceranus is my brother , bridgid is my sister and the morrigan is my beloved. blessed be to you and yours,joseph
As a Pagan myself, I'm really happy to see your videos - you've helped me explain things to friends a few times over with your presentations. Thank you so much!
232323C I'm sorry to hear you had that experience while you were in Ireland. The confusion with devil-worship is one of the things I am most frequently asked about. I normally explain the symbol of the pentagram and the different meanings it has in the different contexts. I also explain that Pagans don't recognise Satan, since they view that figure as part of the Christian cosmology.
Mustafa Kulle Thanks for your comment! :-) I will be updating this channel with information on my research into Paganism, fairy belief and other aspects of folklore. I am also on Twitter: twitter.com/Jenny_Butler_ and if you're interested you can read the papers I have published on academia.edu: ucc-ie.academia.edu/JennyButler, where you can download them for free.
I talk about Irish Paganism because that is the topic of my doctoral research. There are other scholars researching Paganism in other parts of the world, of course, and I am interested in those studies too.
I could listen to you all day , and for that reason it's because I say , " this video is too short love. " lol. Thank you soooo much for posting this interview. I love the image you give to Paganism. May you always , Blessed Be!!
Intensely interesting research, bringing the importance of the past into modern meaning, all that has been, will be again, best wishes in your further research!.
Thank you! Yes, I know :) In my thesis, I discuss the balance of light and dark in Pagan cosmology and distinguish this from the light/good and dark/evil cosmology of Christianity. I don't go into dark Paganism specifically (as none of my research partcipants identify as such) but themes of the Dark Mother etc. come into my study.
Ms. Butler...I found your original video a long bit ago and i have enjoyed this interview as well. I would certainly be happy to add any published work that you produce to my library,
Thanks for your comment! A half hour is quite long for a radio interview, though I acknowledge that there are so many aspects of Paganism that could be discussed!
Great interview, great explanation on paganism and it's misconceptions, although not very in depth interview I'm hoping it helped the general publics understanding of what it is and what we as a pagan community deal with.
+Jenny Butler cool, I look forward to more videos. As a gaelic polytheist, they are informative :) I wonder if you will be covering Celtic Reconstructionist Polytheism, or gaelic polytheism in future videos on paganism in Ireland?
Thanks! :-) I just responded to your other questions over on my other video (sorry it took me a while to get around to answering!). I will be exploring the use of Celtic resources (myth, language, symbolism) in Irish Paganism in a future project and so I might make a video about it in the future.
Michael Snooks-Wilson I don't know of any children's stories revolving around Paganism (though it depends on how you're defining Paganism--there would be stories, for example, about nature being special. There are books by neo-pagans written for children though I'm not sure if they include stories.
I love your work Jenny, and am wondering if you have any tale's or children's stories revolving around paganism? I have 1 and have been hunting for more. If so, where would i be able to find some (if you know of any)? Please keep up the terrific work as I personally can't wait to hear more from you and what you do. Thank you so very much for helping bring this back into light for us all!
Absolutely fascinating. Do you have a website or a facebook page to keep us up to date? I'd love to know more about your work on paganism and folklore. Thanks.
This interview isn't available to download, but if you are interested in the topic you can download most of the papers I've written here: ucc-ie.academia.edu/JennyButler
Hi Jenny, I tried writing but one has to be a contact....not usre how to go about that...anyways, while i was in Irleand I wore my pentacle....I was called a devil worshiper by several folks...so my question is do you have trouble with those types much? catholicism has a death hold on the minds of Ireland....how do you cope with that?
At 13:10 or so, the interviewer suggests that it makes more intuitive sense for a creator deity to be female. This isn't necessarily the case if the universe is thought to have had a beginning, and not to have "birthed" itself. In Christianity, at least, there is a strong theological reason why the masculine pronoun is still preferable to refer to a god who creates from without, as a divine logos. Hence, God is understood to be masculine, which is a separate quality from maleness.
That's an interesting point. I should add that many Pagans who believe in a creator deity might define it as gender neutral, or conversely, as containing both maleness and femaleness. Others believe in a creative force that isn't a deity in the sense of a god/goddess described in myths, and this would tally with the Design Argument philosophically in that the creator cannot be part of the design but has to be outside of it and precede it.
wh tlk only about either irish, scottish,english or Welsh paganism as if they're the only frms of paganism in the world? I'm studying gallic paganism & i feel left out
