Pagan Federation conference
Jul. 23rd, 2006 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizwilliamsThis took place in Glastonbury yesterday and we went along for some of it. Ron Hutton did a talk on images of druidry, which was very interesting - the massacre on Mona (Anglesey) described by Tacitus may not have happened at all. Not so much an example of Roman propaganda, as Tacitus trying to spice up a dull narrative. None of us would ever do that, naturally.
But the last massacre of druids took place in the 1930s (IIRC - certainly last century, might have been during WWI, I will check) and concerned 13 members of the Universal Bond group, who went out to North Africa to join a group of pacifist Islamic mystics. Like most of their predecessor druids from the 17th century onwards, they were themselves pacifists and believed that Islam and the West should become reconciled. Along with their Moslem companions, they died under poison gas and machine gun fire, courtesy of the Italian army.
Ron also touched on dodgy Welshman Iolo Morgannwg, who wrote a lot of the material my order uses today. He held one of the first revivalist druid gatherings on Primrose Hill in London, watched by the cavalry. Iolo's lot were not only pacifist, but supported the French revolution, and were vegetarians. Highly suspicious, in other words. The trouble with Iolo is that he made rather a lot of stuff up, then passed it off as ancient Welsh translations, but I gather there is a movement to rehabilitate him as being, at least, an imaginative writer if an unethical historian.
In the evening, we went along to a concert by Carolyn Hillyer and her husband - very odd music, but very powerful, based partly on Carolyn's travels in the arctic circle and her support for Survival, which is a charity that helps tribal people hang onto their land in the face of oil companies. Iolo would approve.
But the last massacre of druids took place in the 1930s (IIRC - certainly last century, might have been during WWI, I will check) and concerned 13 members of the Universal Bond group, who went out to North Africa to join a group of pacifist Islamic mystics. Like most of their predecessor druids from the 17th century onwards, they were themselves pacifists and believed that Islam and the West should become reconciled. Along with their Moslem companions, they died under poison gas and machine gun fire, courtesy of the Italian army.
Ron also touched on dodgy Welshman Iolo Morgannwg, who wrote a lot of the material my order uses today. He held one of the first revivalist druid gatherings on Primrose Hill in London, watched by the cavalry. Iolo's lot were not only pacifist, but supported the French revolution, and were vegetarians. Highly suspicious, in other words. The trouble with Iolo is that he made rather a lot of stuff up, then passed it off as ancient Welsh translations, but I gather there is a movement to rehabilitate him as being, at least, an imaginative writer if an unethical historian.
In the evening, we went along to a concert by Carolyn Hillyer and her husband - very odd music, but very powerful, based partly on Carolyn's travels in the arctic circle and her support for Survival, which is a charity that helps tribal people hang onto their land in the face of oil companies. Iolo would approve.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 08:11 pm (UTC)Plus ca change. People still look at you oddly if you ask for non-carnivorous options in some places. OK, so, admittedly, when it last happened to me, I was in a steakhouse, but still...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 08:31 pm (UTC)I'm not actually vegetarian, although we eat a lot of vegetarian food (about 3-4 days a week see us having vegetarian meals). But having just devoured 2 lamb chops, I can't really lay claim to Iolo's principles...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 06:48 am (UTC)When I was dealing with post Soviet students, many of whom were stationed with families in Brighton (aka The People's Republic of Vegetaria), their parents used to ring up and say that their kids did not get meat with every meal and thus might die. Kazakh mums also used to send their kids off with great big bags of apples because they didn't think you could get them in England.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 06:46 am (UTC)But it's all 'People's Front of Judea', 'Judean People's Front' etc!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 04:44 pm (UTC)