Cultural appropriation?

Many years ago, I realized that I'm as close to Family-Traditionalist witch, as one can get.

My mother was a bit of a witchy person. She was Catholic, but in that odd sort of saints-are-almost-gods sort of way. I couldn't tell the difference between the lives of the saints and the Greek myths when I was growing up.

And my mother was full of spells--I mean prayers--for every purpose.

For all that, she was quite devout, was very well versed in Doctrine and even taught Catechism.

My grandmother was born around 1900 and she was the right age for going to seances during the 1920's. In the blackout, they used to do the Ouija board of an evening, having nothing better to do. She was reputedly a pretty good medium. Although, she always said that Mrs Next Door moved the planchett.

My mother and I were fascinated by ghost stories.

Some time in my teens I learned to read Tarot cards. I used to read my mother's regularly.

Is it any wonder I ended up Pagan?

But, there was no secret-tradition-that-was-handed-down-since-the-burning-times. There's just stories, superstitions, and things that my mom always did that have long since lost their meaning.

Then, I have this name my father gave me, because he loved the Arthurian Legends, and they'd just come to Montreal. He was feeling homesick, so he gave me an ethnic name. Little realizing the effects it would have on my life.

Every time I meet someone at a festival who's taken it as a "Craft Name" I want to say, "Look, you didn't get beaten up on the playground over it, so you can't fucking use it."

I don't say that, of course, but the urge is there. Petty? Probably. But all I can remember is that I struggled (perversely at times) to keep some dignity and my name when I was constantly told that if I just let people call me by some diminutive, my life would be easier.

It would also be easier if I pretended not to be so smart, learned to not be a fashion disaster and learned how to tell people apart (I've got faceblindness).

I also get people who look down at their noses at me, convinced that I have taken on this "powerful" name to make myself feel important. I usually get along with those people, eventually.

So, this is my teeny tiny experience with cultural appropriation. It is certainly not on the same level as other's experiences. But it is the experience I draw upon when I'm trying to explain why cultural appropriation is wrong.

In every group, there's always the urge to prove one's cred. That's human nature I think. In some groups, it's easier to spot the posers. Like with military people; the guy in the corner of the party, talking about how many people he shot in Iraq? Yeah, he probably spent his tour of duty in Germany.

In Pagan and New Age circles, there's often someone who's made a name for themselves by talking about their journeys to the Astral, and thing like that. They often take money for "initiations".  They do the plastic sweat lodge thing, write a lot of books filled with repackaged "wisdom".

Stay away from those guys,they're just scary.

I was talking recently about cultural appropriation with friends and how much of a struggle it is to figure out what is appropriation vs what is already a part of American Culture.

The biggest enemy of American Animism is hipster-ism--that "Look at me! Look how cool and special I am." The craving to be a "unique and beautiful snowflake."

My daughter brought it up yesterday when we were having dinner. We were talking about dreadlocks and the politics of hair. Her position is that white people shouldn't do them because A) unless you have the right hair, they look terrible and B) it is serious cultural appropriation.

The person she was talking to had the position that one should be able to do whatever one wants with one's hair.

We talked about Celtic hair and how there is such a thing as Celtic locks, but they are different from African locks.

I love the look of locked hair. If I could get mine to do teeny tiny ones, I would love that. However, I can also imagine the African American woman looking at me and thinking, "I got/get beaten up on the playground for that. You can't have them."

As a Pagan and an American Animist, I have been examining my own beliefs for cultural appropriation. So much that is American is appropriated though. Every group that has come here, whether voluntarily, forced to flee here, or dragged here in chains brought their gods with them. Coming here, they met the gods of this land and everyone was changed.

It's all so complicated. The obnoxious and egregious appropriations like the Victoria's Secret ads are easy to spot, but what about the small things? When my children were little, they were each given a dream catcher. My daughter and I now ask the question about whether that is cultural appropriation. Hm.

The Gods are not static. Even the Abrahamic God with his tomes of literature, changes depending on who's looking.  For years, I played it safe doing the Celtic Recon thing, but it never quite worked. What kept happening was that these weird gods would show up in ritual and in my head.

The most extreme was Kali Ma. I was skeptical that She was really calling me, so I told Her, "Give me the means to make a pilgrimage to one of your temples."

Bang. The very next week I discover that there is a Temple to Kali in Laguna Beach California. The money for airfare appears from the aether, as does a place to stay. The entire trip, every obstacle was removed from my path. So much so, that the plane arrived 15 minutes early due to a tail wind. The bemused pilot informed us that a tail wind going from east to west is actually pretty rare. The Swami at the temple had time to sit and talk to me about how and why Kali Ma chooses people. He essentially said, "Yeah, she does this. Get used to it."

So, I am a devotee of Kali--but I have always had an affinity for Goddesses with bad reputations. I do not worship Her as she is worshiped in India, but she seems content enough with what I do offer.

So, are my little Kali figures cultural appropriation?

The latest goddess to call me is Santisima Muerte. She at least is an American goddess. Although I am not of  Mexican descent, I can claim her patronage as one who works on the roads at night.

An idea occurs to me; perhaps she is the Road God's consort?

I appealed to her for a homeless friend and again to her for a friend in the midst of divorce. She protects the powerless and impoverished.

But, she is the saint of a group of people who are deeply oppressed. Do I have any right to appeal to her? To display her symbols?

I suppose it's to do with respect. Understanding that I am a guest in her shrines.

Daughter and I have talked about it at length.  Thinking about pagans with their craft names, it wouldn't be obnoxious if they didn't show my name off as proof of their pagan cred. If I didn't get accused of being  one of those very hipsters every time I turn around.

So, I approach these deities very gingerly, with respect. Like one would if one were the guest in their house.

Movies, Myths and Virtue

A culture transmits its virtues with its myths.

Mythic heroes aren't necessarily gods, but they can be. Always, they are expressions of values and ideals specific to a culture. Sometimes they are subtle, more often they are exaggerations of desirable qualities and the dreams a culture holds dear.

For the last 100 years, American Myths have been created and promulgated by Hollywood. We have exported our myths and they have returned to us.

Myths are always changed by the people who come into contact with them. The reasons American Myths are, like everything else American, a mixture and a hodgepodge. Often conflicted and self contradictory.

Virtue, according to the Wikipedia, is defined as moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristicsvalued as promoting collective and individual greatness.

In today's world, the concept of Virtue seems rather quaint. Childish even. So our myths which keep the Virtues alive are pitched to children. However, a group of humans without an overarching code of conduct, a stated or implicit set of Virtues is not a community in any sense of the word. The agreed upon Virtues are not necessarily something we expect everyone to have, but they are ideals to strive for. In a community, a person with enough Virtues is considered respectable, a person who does not is an outsider.

Each community self defines Virtue and from this our ethics and values are formed. Within the various American subcultures, certain Virtues are valued more than others, but I do believe there is a unique set of Virtues that pretty much most North Americans can agree on.

Social pressure is stronger than laws for controlling the behavior of community members.

I feel strongly that it's long past time to claim our Myths and our Virtues.

I really enjoy comics and I watched The Avengers again. A classic bit of myth from Marvel Comics and Paramount. I enjoyed it, partly because I love comic books as a genre, but more, Avengers is a wonderful example of US American Myth.

For those who haven't seen the movie, and are not comic book people, The Avengers are a team of super heroes. Their leader is a mysterious figure that answers to an equally mysterious, quite literally faceless, Council.

The Femme Fatale is a Russian immigrant by the name of Natasha Romanov AKA Black Widow. The first time we see her, she is tied to a chair, apparently awaiting painful interrogation. By the end of the scene, she has beaten up the bad guys with said chair and picked up her high heels to go find another assignment.

There are two Smart Guys on the team. One is Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. Genius, billioniare, playboy, philanthropist. Sort of Bill Gates with super powers. He also plays the Handsome Rogue.

The other Smart Guy is Bruce Banner. He is sweet, kind and tormented. With "astounding anger management issues". He's got a Jekyl and Hyde thing going on, turning into the Hulk when he gets pissed.

The By-the-Book Soldier is Captain America. He was trapped in ice from WWII and is a man of his time. He is the military man who is accustomed to fighting wars without moral amibguity.

Rounding out the team is a  demigod by the name of Thor. They're properly ambiguous as to whether Thor is really a God god or just some really impressive superhero.

So, a list of some of the Virtues portrayed in this film, in no particular order:

Teamwork
There is an absolutely stunning moment in the film, when our team is surrounded on all sides by hostiles and they prepare to fight and die back to back. This is powerful in our myths, that the power of a team

Justice
In the film, the war they fight is a clear cut, just war. No messy moral ambiguities. Unlike most of the United States' wars. The Bad Guys are clearly marked.

That is one of the primary American Virtues; to fight in defense of Home and Hearth. We dislike thinking of ourselves as an Empire. We like to talk about "just" wars. Most powerfully we use the concept of the "just" war to salve our conscience over the crimes committed in our names.

Interestingly, Captain America, who is a man of his time, is the conscience of the group. Originally a soldier from World War II, he reminds the other team members that although  a soldier should follow orders, "Just following orders" is never an excuse. 

Cool
By this I mean the "Nothing upsets me, I always think with a clear head and I am rational" sense of the word. This is one of the most highly prized of the North American Virtues. I think that (like all the other Virtues) this one is easily misunderstood. Many people I know think "cool" is a sort of callous cynicism. That hipster I'm-so-cool-the-world-bores-me attitude of studious nonchalance.

People who've been in scary situations know that true "cool" is the person who takes a deep breath and thinks about what needs to be done. Cool is Shackleton in the Antarctic. Cool is the crew of Apollo 13. Cool is the pilot who landed a commercial jet on the Hudson.

Every character in this movie is deeply, deeply cool.

Fairness
This is related to, but not the same as Justice. An unjust law that applies to everyone equally is fair but still unjust. 

Courage
The courage of the superheroes is never in question--they're superheroes, but there is a lovely (although predictable  moment where an elderly man refuses to kneel before the villain, "I will never kneel before men like you." he says.
The villain replies with, "There are no men like me."
The old man sighs, seeming to resign himself to his fate, "There are always men like you."
The villain raises a weapon to destroy the elderly man and Captain America appears from nowhere to defend the old man.

Most symbolic because it is Captain America. The conscience of the group fighting a just war to defend an ordinary but courageous man from evil.

Competence
Oh, and there's another guy. Phil Coleson. At first glance he is merely a support character. A special agent, he is the teams handler and go-fer. A little lacking in the social skills dept, but extremely affable, very good at his job, and very, very ordinary.

Or he is on the surface.  He has ordinary strength, speed and agility for any athletic human, but this looks unimpressive next to the showy superheroes.  What he lacks in special powers he more than makes up for in competence.

You see, Phil makes competence into a superpower. Phil is the guy we could be, if we were really, really good at our jobs. 

He is a special agent, so he is a marksman. He's really, really good with his gun. He's got normal hand to hand skills, but he's really, really good at it. He specializes in logistics, so people always have everything they need. 

Most powerfully, he understand what makes people tick. He's really, really good at managing them.

There are other Virtues I could unpack, but those are the ones that leap out at me. Mythic heroes are reflections of what we could be. Arguably what we should be. Sadly, Virtues in North America appear to have been relegated to the realm of fairy tales.

The Imposition of Meaning

Although I have not been a Catholic for many years, the Catholic church does have one custom that I like. When one is suffering, one "offers up" one's suffering to God as a type of sacrifice or holy work. The sad, the suffering, and the afflicted then are to be seen as holy warriors rather than as victims. Or worse, as people whom God was angry with.

When my mother first developed Rhuematoid Arthritis, in her 40's, she used to say "I better offer up this pain to the Blessed Virgin."

I was never sure what she was offering the pain up for, until after my daughter was born. She said she always offered up her pain to the Blessed Virgin, that her children should be protected. She said it must have been accepted, because I and my sister-in-law had given her three granddaughters (and later a grandson) without complications.My mother saw her disease as a holy work. A long, intricate spell that was woven through her life.

She never believed that God sent her the pain, mind you. Pain and suffering were just things that happened. A big part of her religion was always to impose meaning on her own suffering.

If there is to be meaning to suffering, it must be imposed by the person suffering. Somehow, for her, "offering up" her pain somehow made it more bearable.

When people have a close call, such as surviving a plane crash or a car wreck, they say, "God was with me."

Really? What about the other 80 people on your flight. What about the people in the other car?

Does being a cripple or dead mean that God doesn't like you?

Megadoom, over at his blog, Dust In The Wind, has an excellent essay on this subject.

Gravity works for everyone. If your car spins out on a bit of black ice, the physical forces of velocity, inertia, mass, etc. are all in play. If you don't have your seat belt on, you're a marble in a box. No matter how devout or good a person you are. Conversely, when bad stuff happens, it is never some kind of punishment. 

You can't overrule the laws of physics.

I've heard of miracle cures, but they're always the merely improbable, never the truly impossible. I've also had my share of close calls.

How does this coincide with Animism?

The Animist does not see the world as a celestial ATM, nor yet is it a place of punishment. It is a complex system that is interlocking, interdependent and dynamic. Even the chaos the Anthropocene has wreaked upon the planet is part of the whole. Even if we were to cause a mass extinction event, life on this planet would continue to trip merrily on.

Since we are (as far as we know) the only fully self aware animal on the planet, it is only ourselves who try to find meaning. 

The New Age and the popularity of positive thinking takes this so far as to say that one calls one's misfortunes to oneself. That one "chooses" these "lessons",  or that karma is coming to get you, or that you had too many negative thoughts.

A really lovely discussion and debunking of this appears in Barbara Erenreich's Brightsided.

Suffering can be reduced by finding meaning in suffering.In 21st Century, North America there is a presumptuous, and sometimes cruel, urge to try to impose meaning on other people's suffering. I'm sure that this comes partly from our Calvinist leanings. That idea that misfortune happens because God doesn't like you.

Truly, bad things happen because bad things happen. At this place and time, many people feel they should be exceptions, because for years we have been told that we *are* exceptional.

No, on the macrocosmic scale, we are just one small piece. If there is meaning, one must impose one's own within the microcosm of one's own life.