Paganism; the way forward

I was astonished to see someone quote Marion Zimmer Bradley as a source for Celtic Paganism! What? I remember 'The Mists of Avalon,' as tampax trauma meets Chiffon Babes of Atlantis! All it can teach us is how to write soap operas, badly! What it can't teach is one single thing about the reality of being a pagan.

What happened to real research? You'd think people would check sources, read, examine, explore, be sure before committing to a depth of faith. This all seems to have been replaced by shiny spellbooks written by Moondance Moolahmaker and her best friend, Wolfstar Ravenwing, which brings me to another question:

How come when people choose totems they go for wolves and ravens? Don't get me wrong, I've met a few genuines, but they're not common. The wolf and the raven are harsh and difficult totems to work with. And if the wolf totem has so many admirers, how come the real beast is suffering so much under our respectful auspices?

I remember a most perceptive and modest pagan lecturer and eco-activist called The Toad. Totemically, Toads are magical creatures, not technically beautiful, except for their extraordinary eyes, and of course, the legendary jewel that shines in their heads, used for magic by sorcerers and as a decoration by fools.

Of course, they aren't pretty, and to know the true meaning of Toad means to dig out some info. And who cares about doing that?
Certainly not the purveyors of Buffy-generated pseudo-spellcraft rampaging across pagan web pages and bookshelves everywhere! Next we'll have Frodo worship, as an extension of the Osiris/Tammuz/Attis/Sacrificial god tradition, where Frodo takes on the mantle of Tyr, Norse God of War and Honesty. Tyr sacrifices his hand, Frodo sacrifices his finger...

Actually, the more I think about this, the more I'm sure I could turn it into a branch of the craft of the ancient ones, re-discovered by Tolkein and practiced discreetly beneath the spires of Oxford, derived from a sheaf of papers discovered in his pyjama case, now revealed and explained by me, Whiteraven Wolfinwallet.

Enough! No more! I am amusing myself too much.

Tomorrow, we go to stay with friends, eat, drink, see Revolutions, and from then on it's a weekend of BB's AD&D campaign genially christened, 'Stabface.' I can't wait, though there's a sense of impending doom about this one. Goodbye LJ. See you on Sunday, when I'll be sane again!