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before the days of pollution from almost anywhere in the region. Thousands of
such examples exist all over the world.
Contemporary pagan practices in the United States come in many flavors
(Adler 1979). Some, based primarily on Alistair Crowley and the Golden Dawn
movement, have strict liturgies that call upon pagan gods of Celtic or Roman
origin and stand close to “true belief.” Others are more syncretic, drawing upon
lore and ritual from a variety of sources, including Native American stories.
Some invent stories and rituals related to their own locations and communities.
FromAesop'sFables(writtenbyaRomanslave)tostoriesofCoyote,Bear,
Anansi and other tricksters to stories of faeries and trolls, pagan spiritual sto-
ries and folklore often rely on non-human characters to stand in for aspects of
human behavior. Other characters, like the Navajo Rainbow Woman, the Corn
Maidens, or Grandmother Spider stand in for aspects of cosmology. In Celtic
paganism, characters like Cernunnos and the triple goddess stand in for the
mysteries and cycles of nature and work as symbolic cosmologies.
Many religious narratives, such as the injunction against cutting down an
olive grove, probably have their roots in lore that addressed the exigencies of
life long before they were incorporated by the present religion. Likewise, many
Catholic saints such as Brigid and Sophia were likely appropriated from pre-
Christian folklore.
Pagan stories attempt to capture aspects of humanity's relationship to the
natural world, the solar cycles and the cycles of agriculture, and husbandry of
the land and its creatures. They exercise our narrative intelligence to combine
knowledge, intuition, and ethics with respect for the Mysteries of conscious-
ness, creation, and purpose. Many spiritual tales, folklore, and pagan stories
exhibit pro-environmental or Gaian qualities. Typically, such stories represent
the world as a complete living being, including animals, humans, plants, and
landscape into the same system. The tendency is to seek for right relationships
with each and all.
Pagan practitioners of all sorts (including native people) have, of course, a
high positive relationship with their communities and typically, with the Earth
or a Great Spirit as well as with the characters in their narratives. Believers
in patriarchal religion typically have a negative reaction to paganism because
it comes into conflict with their faith, and because some groups - for exam-
ple, fundamentalist Christians - may associate paganism with Satan through
ignorance of actual pagan practice. Non-practitioners may dip into folklore to
address the particular needs of a child through a storytelling relationship (e.g.,
telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood to a girl who feels powerless).
