The Irish-ness In Me

I kind of like that this blog is under-used; that hardly anyone, except for you, reads it anymore. It kind of feels like having a quiet corner of the forest to myself. But I do enjoy visitors, so thank you for coming.

The Irish-ness in me would like to share more of what is currently happening with me.

12 Steps Toward Decolonizing Irish American Paganism is an article by Chris Godwin at From A Common Well on reclaiming Irish culture which I was deeply moved by this morning. I have not even had my second cup of coffee, yet here I am writing about it. Also, I am supposed to be putting together an article on Heathen ritual for the Intro To Heathenry series over on The Crow's Fjord. Getting side-tracked I am, as Yoda might say.

Manannan mac Lir

Just take this image for example, which was used as a cover photo for the article. It's of a statue of Manannan mac Lir, God of the sea and guardian of the afterlife in Irish Mythology. My heart soars looking at it. I am utterly captivated as I begin to understand the symbolism of who the statue represents.

The next design I am about to start for The Crow's Fjord is meant to be the Norse God Njord, God of the Sea, and chieftain of the Vanir. There are some similarities. There are also some differences. Njord does not have any affiliation with the afterlife, that I am aware of.

Not only this article and image, but continuing on the vein of being sidetracked, I've been staying awake at night thinking about my ancestors and finding my people. You know the people I'm talking about. The people who in historic times would have been your kin, your kindred, your village, clan or tribe; family and friends; those that you trust. I had this once, twice or a few more times than that, but most of it has fallen apart over time, distance and circumstance.

His 12 steps include admitting there is a problem, mourning the loss of one's indigenous culture, recovering a connection to one's land and food, not necessarily the historically ethnic land one's ancestors were connected with, but the one that is currently inhabited. Genius I say! A connection to the land needs to be tactile, breathed, shared, lived. It can't be honoured in the distance. For those whose ancestors left their native land and became colonizers of new worlds such as the Americas and Austrailia, as well as other continents, but are trying to find their place in the world, this kind of thinking can be very helpful.

Deconstructing the colonized worldview is the goal of Godwin's article. Oh my Gods, this is turning into a review of his article. Gasp, I am no good at structured English assignments like writing proper reviews, putting together bibliographies and the like, so please don't judge. You! Yes you, the sole reader of this blog post! This is my free space to be myself. I try hard at The Crow's Fjord to make sense and do things as professionally as is possible for me. But here, I just write what I think and feel.

A colonized worldview. What does that even mean? To have a colonized worldview means (I think) first of all to be part and parcel of a colonizing society and to likely have little awareness of said societies worldview, at least consciously. It is likely a worldview that views the land and possibly even the inhabitants, including people, livestock and wildlife as resources, rather than co-inhabitants sharing the place.

Step 5 in deconstructing the colonized worldview is especially insightful. The Heathen community could really benefit from understanding it. It (a colonized worldview) harbors a false sense of security which causes innumerable problems with defensiveness, righteousness and a need to control others.

I do have to run now and go write my 'scheduled' article. I have a feeling I'll be back soon.