...bloody fic universes.
Dec. 25th, 2008 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperSeriously. Some of you may have heard me mutter about the Church of England Pagans, or the Circle folk. To make sense of the next bit, couple of quick primers :
Church of England Pagans : never got converted to Christianity, and by this point old-skool original paganism has devolved to the Church of England point. 'I'm not religious, I'm Church of England!' Getting up for dawn at Solstice is pretty much equivalent to going to church on sundays - very few people still do it. But everyone celebrates Beltane, and Easter, and Yule/Winter Solstice, and Midsummer, and so on - in, well, pretty much the exact way everyone else celebrates it. With parties and chocolate eggs and Morris Dancing and presents and feasting. they can't quite bring themselves to summon up more than a bit of irritation about the christians hi-jacking everything because a) they're British, and b) it means a bigger, longer party season. The New Agers amuse and confuse them. 'Er, the crystal is very nice, dear, but I'm not sure what you think it actually *does*.'
Circle folk : communities of varying size (anything from village to large town) that are built by the weak spots in the barrier between the Summer Country and here. Townsfolk made a pact with the Wild magic when it was founded to act as guardians, reinforced by blood shed on the stone circle, which has ended up making them conduits for it. Wild magic utterly rampant. Wild Hunt runs regularly to get rid of fairy traces, as do the old gods. Elves like to hunt and either snatch or kill the local humans on occasion. the odd one gets re-released when they're bored, anything from a couple of years to over a thousand years later. hence them keeping very, very detailed records. All utterly pagan, old school, and due to the wild magic featuring very heavily, most of the superstitions hold true. Have a habit of freezing any New Agers (Lay line *city*, plus rather nice condition stone circle) out for their own safety since attempting to focus power tends to draw elves, and the New Agers got completely the wrong end of the stick when it comes to them...
written a few snippets where *Circle* folk encounter non-pagans (normally by dint of sending them off to uni, or other people go Circle). Recently wrote a snippet where the Church of England lot did. and then the Church of England one pointed out that the Circle lot are *known about* in the pagan community. And they're known for being the hardline overly religious lot. 'Seriously, what is this, the Dark Ages? Who the fuck does Green man and Winter King and dedicates themselves to the Earth any more?' (not knowing the reason they still practice the Dark Ages stuff, because it's not like the Circle lot would say anything about the elves - who'd believe them?)
Church of England Pagans : never got converted to Christianity, and by this point old-skool original paganism has devolved to the Church of England point. 'I'm not religious, I'm Church of England!' Getting up for dawn at Solstice is pretty much equivalent to going to church on sundays - very few people still do it. But everyone celebrates Beltane, and Easter, and Yule/Winter Solstice, and Midsummer, and so on - in, well, pretty much the exact way everyone else celebrates it. With parties and chocolate eggs and Morris Dancing and presents and feasting. they can't quite bring themselves to summon up more than a bit of irritation about the christians hi-jacking everything because a) they're British, and b) it means a bigger, longer party season. The New Agers amuse and confuse them. 'Er, the crystal is very nice, dear, but I'm not sure what you think it actually *does*.'
Circle folk : communities of varying size (anything from village to large town) that are built by the weak spots in the barrier between the Summer Country and here. Townsfolk made a pact with the Wild magic when it was founded to act as guardians, reinforced by blood shed on the stone circle, which has ended up making them conduits for it. Wild magic utterly rampant. Wild Hunt runs regularly to get rid of fairy traces, as do the old gods. Elves like to hunt and either snatch or kill the local humans on occasion. the odd one gets re-released when they're bored, anything from a couple of years to over a thousand years later. hence them keeping very, very detailed records. All utterly pagan, old school, and due to the wild magic featuring very heavily, most of the superstitions hold true. Have a habit of freezing any New Agers (Lay line *city*, plus rather nice condition stone circle) out for their own safety since attempting to focus power tends to draw elves, and the New Agers got completely the wrong end of the stick when it comes to them...
written a few snippets where *Circle* folk encounter non-pagans (normally by dint of sending them off to uni, or other people go Circle). Recently wrote a snippet where the Church of England lot did. and then the Church of England one pointed out that the Circle lot are *known about* in the pagan community. And they're known for being the hardline overly religious lot. 'Seriously, what is this, the Dark Ages? Who the fuck does Green man and Winter King and dedicates themselves to the Earth any more?' (not knowing the reason they still practice the Dark Ages stuff, because it's not like the Circle lot would say anything about the elves - who'd believe them?)
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Date: 2008-12-25 06:10 pm (UTC)I may have actually said that to someone, once. Oh dear.
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Date: 2008-12-27 01:08 am (UTC)Which meant the time I was wandering around a big pagan meet (I'd got roped in to work on the book stall by flatmate) I kept going 'um, nicely painted, no, I like amber because it looks pretty, please don't give me the spiel about protection'.