Understanding the Difference

I try to take time and patience to research my articles thoroughly, not only for authenticity, but the necessary perspectives that give insight into the way of life that nurtured these things into cultural being. While my experience with European customs and traditions is quite intimately first-hand, not just by heritage but living and experiencing it on location in its every language, I am forever expounding on it with each new discovery. I realize that very few pagans overseas have this opportunity, so I'm only too glad to bridge that gap.

It's a fact there's a lot of misinformation going around in popular pagan literature. All too often the authors have never even been beyond their own borders let alone had to master another language, rather, try to reinvent whatever ethnicity suits their fancy under the label of “Wicca” as if hermetic mysticism were the root of all western civilization. Instead, I've found Europe to have a far greater wealth of ancient traditions, well preserved in the works of traveling minstrels, poets and story-tellers, taking pride in a long heritage of oral tradition.

More often than not, the so-called “lack of written evidence” is just a lame excuse for what modern convenience can't provide in the English language. The irony is, the English language is relatively new compared to others of the European diaspora; thus tends to lack the concepts Germanic and Slavic still retain from as far back as their origins in the Caucasus. It can also be said of the Basques, who are actually native to Western Europe well before the last Ice Age, that their language holds the roots of earliest human beliefs.

Unfortunately, this kind of information is seldom appreciated by those who would rather imagine we are just living in the shadows of some lost magical race, with only an elite few privy to its powers; as if we haven't seen enough fanatics try to make such claims for the promise of utopia. No, I prefer to respect the providence it takes to evolve a reasonably viable existence by one's own means. It raises the question of how complacent we've become in all our urbane comfort. Bear in mind that the word “Craft” doesn't necessarily mean casting spells or summoning the powers that be, but that which you make possible with your own natural skills and kenning. A master of the art as opposed to a wannabe guru; the difference between a culture and a cult.