Updates to Brython Home Page

[lorna]

Now we've got a working definition of Brythonic Polytheism, I think this needs to feed back into the home page - the public face of the group.

It's mainly very good but there are a few things niggling I'm uncomfortable with. I'll quote what we've got in full then draw them out.

'Brython is a group of polytheists who aim “To research, recover and redistribute to the best of our knowledge and wisdom the native British pre-Christian Spirituality, as evidenced by historical sources and personal experiences, to trace its influence and expression into later times and to explore its application and relevance to life in the modern world”

Brython is a tribal influenced community, with bonds formed through both face to face and online interaction. While Brython is completely free to join, we ask for something far more valuable: the responsibility of belonging to a community which values contribution. Broadly, we are polytheists, coming together to honour our gods and ancestors and to develop our relationship with the land we live upon. We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each is worthless without the other.'

'native' - I'm uncomfortable with this word. I'm not sure if anything is truly native, certainly not us (well me anyway with my Smithers ancestry) and perhaps not even some of our gods.

'British pre-Christian Spirituality' - I'd remove the pre-Christian as the majority of the texts I work with are written by Christians or during Christian periods.

Thus changing 'Brython is a group of polytheists who aim “To research, recover and redistribute to the best of our knowledge and wisdom the native British pre-Christian Spirituality' to 'Brython is a group of polytheists who aim “To research, recover and redistribute to the best of our knowledge and wisdom Brythonic Spirituality'

'tribal influenced community' - aaagh, there's that tribal again! Although I think we need to acknowledge Brythonic spirituality has grown from a tribal culture I certainly don't think we want to be emulating tribes governed by rich slavekeeping warlords. As I've mentioned earlier we are really not in a tribe in terms of familial, landbased connections or even meeting often to do ritual.

I'd actually suggest a wholsesale rejig of paragraph 2 to remedy this.

'Brython is currently an on-line community bringing Brythonic polytheists together in honouring our gods and ancestors and developing relationships with the land we live upon. We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each is worthless without the other.

While Brython is completely free to join, we ask for something far more valuable: the responsibility of belonging to a community which values contribution.'

And might add

'In the future we aim to co-ordinate meetings, events, rituals and visits to sacred sites bringing people together face-to-face.'

[lorna]

So as a whole, with minor amendments to structure and wording to improve the flow-

Brython is a group of polytheists aiming to research, recover and redistribute Brythonic spirituality to the best of our knowledge and wisdom

We are currently an on-line community coming together to honour our gods and ancestors and develop relationships with the land we live upon. We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each is worthless without the other.

In the future we aim to co-ordinate meetings, events, rituals and visits to sacred sites bringing Brythonic Polytheists together face-to-face.

While Brython is completely free to join, we ask for something far more valuable: the responsibility of belonging to a community which values contribution.

[Lee]

I am all for a wholesale change like this Looks good.

[Heron]

Jan 30, 2016 10:27:21 GMT -1 lorna said:

So as a whole, with minor amendments to structure and wording to improve the flow-

Brython is a group of polytheists aiming to research, recover and redistribute Brythonic spirituality to the best of our knowledge and wisdom

We are currently an on-line community coming together to honour our gods and ancestors and develop relationships with the land we live upon. We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each is worthless without the other.

In the future we aim to co-ordinate meetings, events, rituals and visits to sacred sites bringing Brythonic Polytheists together face-to-face.

While Brython is completely free to join, we ask for something far more valuable: the responsibility of belonging to a community which values contribution.

I think this really focuses much better on essentials and agree with Lee that we should adopt this. One further change I would suggest if we are doing this to the following sentence:

"We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each is worthless without the other."

Might it be a good idea not to suggest that those, for example, whose approach is experiental rather than academic are doing something worthless. Perhaps we could re-phrase it:

"We place equal value upon experiential and academic work, recognising that each depends on the other."

[Francis]

That looks good Lorna, but feel Greg's suggestion to be a very important point!

[lorna]

@ Heron- well spotted. That is rather negative isn't it? Wholly agree.

[Lee]

All done. I left the final 'original' sentence in as it does point readers to here and I think that might be useful

Also added titles in the library.. let me know if they could be more appropriate. Oh and if there are any books you think should be added. Mabinogi shan's suggestion of a short description could be handy - but does anyone want to do all of that? I could try culling description stuff from Amazon or somesuch.

[Heron]

Jan 31, 2016 21:18:06 GMT -1 Lee said:

All done. I left the final 'original' sentence in as it does point readers to here and I think that might be useful

Also added titles in the library.. let me know if they could be more appropriate. Oh and if there are any books you think should be added. Mabinogi shan's suggestion of a short description could be handy - but does anyone want to do all of that? I could try culling description stuff from Amazon or somesuch.

I'd be happy to annotate some of these, especially those in the Wales section, though some of the others might, as you say, need a crib from elsewhere. Perhaps we can also adopt Shan's suggestion and link to online texts (e.g Will Parker's Mabinogi)?

I checked the list and quite a few are actually out of print and in at least two cases nothing is coming up in a search for available second-hand copies. Should we leave these on anyway?

I'll get on and do what I can while awaiting views on whether we should list works that are unavailable outside of good libraries.

[Heron]

I have now annotated the books in the 'Wales' section, added a further title, and checked through all the others doing a couple of minor corrections ( name, spelling etc.) The only one in the Wales section I haven't annotated is Marie Trevelyan's 'Folklore of Wales'. This is quite an old text (1850) and long out of print. I wondered if it could be replaced by John Rhys' 'Celtic Folklore' which is at least been reprinted more recently and available on the Web. But have left it for now in case anyone is 'attached' to it. If so, it needs an annotation.

I could go on and annotate the others, some from my own knowledge of them, others from information gleaned from elsewhere. But as they were all put on because one of us wanted them there I wonder if anyone else wants to add a bit about the value of any of the books for them? I do feel we should only be adding comments from personal knowledge, but not everyone who added books is still around.

The four volume 'Dictionary of British Folktales' was in the 'Ireland and Scotland' section which is not the right place for it, but it doesn't seem to fit anywhere else. As I originally put this on, and as it doesn't appear to be available in any format any more, I've deleted it.

There's a book listed as being by Miranda Green 'Dying for the Gods' but it doesn't appear in any list of her works and there is a book of the same title by a David Green which I know nothing about. Is this a mistake and should it be deleted?

There's a couple of other titles that I wasn't sure about, but someone must have thought they were important, so I'll leave it there.

[lorna]

Thanks for your work, Lee and Heron.

Lee, this is looking better with titles.

Heron, the annotated section for Wales looks good.

I'm wondering whether as a Brythonic site we should bring Wales to the forefront perhaps with General Celtic then Indo-European followed by Irish and Scottish?

I'm happy to write the intros for the following Celtic books which I use frequently as sources:

The Gods of the Celts - Miranda Green

Pagan Celtic Britain - Anne Ross

and add Animals in Celtic Life and Myth - Miranda Green

Dying for the Gods - Miranda Green does exist, I currently have a copy borrowed from a friend and have find it useful. I imagine folk should be able to track it down from libraries?

I'd like to add British Goblins - Wirt Sykes to the Wales section.

I'll get back to you with some intros over the next couple of days.

Also how about a link to The History Press who publish collections of folk tales from across Britain which, on the whole, are generally well written and informative (ironically with the exception of Lancashire!) www.thehistorypress.co.uk/local-history/storytelling/

[lorna]

Here are some summaries and a couple of new additions from me to the Library -

CELTIC

Pagan Celtic Britain - Anne Ross

An academic survey of the archaeology and iconography of Celtic Britain covering sacred sites, gods and goddesses and sacred birds and animals.

The Gods of the Celts - Miranda Green

A solid introductory text on Celtic religion and deities from across Europe.

Animals in Celtic Life and Myth - Miranda Green

An accessible examination of the role of animals in Celtic cultures across Europe covering hunting and warfare, art and literature, religion and ritual.

Dying for the Gods - Miranda Green

An enquiry into different aspects of human sacrifice and attempt to understand the reasons behind it. Described as 'original, but often disturbing.'

FOLKLORE

British Goblins - Wirt Sykes

A rich compendium of Welsh fairylore published in 1880. Available at Sacred Texts:
sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfl/index.htm

The Folklore of Wales - Anne Ross

A fascinating survey of the folklore of Wales covering archaeology, folk customs and oral traditions supplemented with some compelling personal stories from the author.

The History Press British Folk Tales

The History Press describes itself as 'the premier contemporary resource for British folk tales'. It publishes up-to-date anthologies of regional folk tales by local storytellers which, on the whole, are well researched, grounded in the land, accessible and well written:
www.thehistorypress.co.uk/local-history/storytelling/

[Lee]

all done. I wont be around all weekend now, off to Glastonbury for a long weekend with the coven

[lorna]

Thanks, Lee. I really like the video of the chant for the Mothers. I'd love to see more of this.

Enjoy Glastonbury