Introductory Thoughts: Pagan Conceptions of the Self

On August 8th, at 10a.m., I will be teaching the class "Pagan Conceptions of the Self" at the Salem Summer Symposium. I hope some of you will consider joining me! Here I would like to offer some beginning provocations concerning the topic. 

I described the course originally in the following form: 

The pagan commitment to multiple sources of reality (i.e. multiple divinities) and thus multiple truths about the cosmos has important implications for what it means to be a self. This lecture will consider ancient sources that point to a very different idea of the self than the one we have inherited largely from monotheistic sources. Specifically it will investigate the idea of a multiple and ever-changing self that overlaps and interweaves with the gods and the natural world.

To begin I would like to present a series of episodes from Celtic and Norse mythology and culture that present a basic question: how must the pagans have understood the nature of the self such that the transformations here described were possible and meaningful? 

The first episode comes from one of the most important books for my personal religious practice, specifically the Mabinogion which is the Welsh version of central Celtic myths. In the fourth book of the Mabinogion the magician king (originally likely a god) Math Mathonwy punishes his two nephews, Gwydion and Gilvaethwy, for rape in the following manner:

Then he took his magic wand, and struck Gilvaethwy, so that he became a deer, and he seized upon the other hastily lest he should escape from him. And he struck him with the same magic wand, and he became a deer also. "Since now ye are in bonds, I will that ye go forth together and be companions, and possess the nature of the animals whose form ye bear. And this day twelvemonth come hither unto me." 

At the end of a year from that day, lo there was a loud noise under the chamber wall, and the barking of the dogs of the palace together with the noise. "Look," said he, "what is without." "Lord," said one, "I have looked; there are there two deer, and a fawn with them." Then he arose and went out. And when he came he beheld the three animals. And he lifted up his wand. "As ye were deer last year, be ye wild hogs each and either of you, for the year that is to come." And thereupon he struck them with the magic wand... "Go ye and be wild swine, each and either of you, and be ye of the nature of wild swine. And this day twelvemonth be ye here under the wall." 

At the end of the year the barking of dogs was heard under the wall of the chamber. And the Court assembled, and thereupon he arose and went forth, and when he came forth he beheld three beasts. Now these were the beasts that he saw; two wild hogs of the woods, and a well-grown young one with them. And he was very large for his age... "Now as for you, as ye were wild hogs last year, be ye wolves each and either of you for the year that is to come." Thereupon he struck them with his magic wand, and they became wolves. "And be ye of like nature with the animals whose semblance ye bear, and return here this day twelvemonth beneath this wall."  

And at the same day at the end of the year, he heard a clamour and a barking of dogs under the wall of the chamber. And he rose and went forth. And when he came, behold, he saw two wolves, and a strong cub with them.

While the translation here is far from transparent, the key point is that the two nephews are punished for three years by being turned into a different animal each year and exchanging, consecutively, who is male and who is female. They then spend the year together with the result that they produce a child from their partnership. Their punishment is based on transformations that repeatedly cross both species and gender categories. 

The second example is a very similar one from Norse mythology as captured in the Prose Edda. Here, in order to cheat the giant who has been hired to build a wall for the gods, Loki becomes a female horse to lure the giant's horse away - thus guaranteeing that the giant will fail to meet his deadline for finishing the wall. At the end of his time alone with the giant's stallion Loki returns having given birth to Sleipnir, who would become Odin's horse.  

That same evening, when the wright drove out after stone with the stallion Svadilfari, a mare bounded forth from a certain wood and whinnied to him. The stallion, perceiving what manner of horse this was, straightway became frantic, and snapped the traces asunder, and leaped over to the mare, and she away to the wood, and the wright after, striving to seize the stallion. These horses ran all night, and the wright stopped there that night; and afterward, at day, the work was not done as it had been before. When the wright saw that the work could not be brought to an end, he fell into giant's fury... But Loki had such dealings with Svadilfari, that somewhat later he gave birth to a foal, which was gray and had eight feet; and this horse is the best among gods and men.

The final example comes from a lovely passage from "The Battle of Trees" or Cad Goddeu from The Book of Taliesin:

I have been a narrow sword,

A drop in the air,

A shining bright star,

A letter among words

In the book of origins.

I have been lantern light

For a year and a day,

I have been a bridge

Spanning three score rivers.

I have flown as an eagle,

Been a coracle on the sea,

I have been a drop in a shower,

A sword in a hand,

A shield in battle,

A string in a harp.

Here, more than just crossing gender and species boundaries, the transformations range across every possible category. The question we need to ask ourselves is, what must the self be like such that it could be "lantern light" or "a letter amongst words". What must your view of selfhood be such that there is even something that it is like to be these things? The first two examples can be addressed in at least two major ways, one I take to be philosophically monotheistic in its nature and the other to be truly pagan. This last example, however, necessitates an animism that is - I would argue - very hard to conjoin with the essentially monotheistic answer especially as it has been developed in most philosophy and theology. 

If you are intrigued by this line of thought, or curious where we can go with it, please consider joining me at the Salem Summer Symposium on Thursday, August 8th, at 10a.m.