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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:46 am
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:24 pm
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:43 pm
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Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:32 pm
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 6:32 am
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:40 am
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:00 am
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:54 am
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:05 pm
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What is considered "source" information, though? Most of these ancient religions didn't exactly foresee a need to detail their beliefs and practices in writing. We have some texts, like The Book of Going Forth By Day or Book of the Dead) from the Egyptians, but that exists within a constructed pretense. If we're to get any description from antiquity about antiquity we have two sources: written accounts by an observer (usually Roman and horribly biased) or the mythology of that culture (with institutions like the early Church ran amok with).
Historical scholarship, I think, is crutial and I actually put a great deal more faith in the work of academics with no overt ties to the Neo-Pagan community, simply because they strike me as the least likely to bend or alter information to suit a market or audience. It can provide an account of what was done, and theories on why, or even indicate the gods or goddesses involved, but it still lacks something, and that's a sort of personal connection.
That's where I find mythology comes in handy. One needs to be careful, of course, but there is great work being done by scholars to unearth unedited myths. These myths paint a picture of what life was life, what the gods of a culture were like, their relationships to eachothers and the humans they encountered. They bring a sort of life to the rituals and practices that often times stuffy academic research simply can't do.
What we have to ccept, however, is that there is no such thing as "the original" text for any one path, and that descretion is key to arriving near the concepts we're looking for.
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:06 pm
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:36 am
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:13 pm
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