I too am tackling Norse spirituality for my project. I have gotten a good base of primary and secondary sources - such as Heimskringla, Hávamál, and Egil’s Saga - all of which give excellent insight into what connection these followers had with the land they came from or the land they pillaged... I have had no trouble finding content that pertains to my topic, time frame, and region. As Avery commented below, this belief system is heavily intertwined with nature. I found the belief of Landvættir (land spirts/wights) to be an epotime of what I want to focus on and research in this project. I want to focus on their rituals, beliefs, and histories that tie Norse and Nature together. I have also decided to hone in on the Viking age, as I mean, if I go Norse, I might dive into history where their culture and beliefs had fundamentally shaped the Western world. I am a little concerned with finding a faculty member, but this is the belief system and connection to the land I wish to pursue, if there is a will, there is a way.
Also @Avery. I'm glad there are two of you interested in this. Oftentimes you can find a scholar off campus who is willing to email with you. Students have had great experiences. The thing is most of us faculty are lonely specialists who would love to talk about the things we know a lot about. But I would definitely check in to the NAU comparative cultures faculty to see if anyone has any ideas on campus.
I am really interested in learning more about witchcraft and black magic associated with it. I also have looked into practices of voodoo (Or vodou?) as well. I went into my brief research thinking there was more associations with witchcraft and voodoo than there actually is. I found that voodoo is a Western African religion that has a mixture of Roman Catholicism and the West African Vodun religion. I feel like from the simple search on our NAU library website gave better options to research Voodoo and sparked more of my interest. I feel voodoo has good number of examples regarding religion and how it relates to to the land as well. It also incorporates a lot of catholicism which is another one of my interests. There are lots of areas of research within voodoo which I will narrow down my topics as I find sources and do more research about it. There are many countries that have history of voodoo practices so finding information on different cultures practicing the same religion seems interesting to me.
Sounds interesting! I suggest you connect with our future guest faculty Eric Brealt in CCS (I might have his last name misspelled). He knows about this and is eager to work with students in the class.
I'm very much interested in researching practices of the occult in Western society. My original plan was to research European uses of tarot for divination in connection to the land, but has increasingly looked more and more difficult to research. Thus, I'm also simultaneously looking into Hermeticism and the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. Hermeticism is a belief system heavily intertwined with the interconnectedness of the universe in the natural world and the power of the human mind and soul. It teaches that the land is a reflection of a higher, divine existence and that everything in the natural world radiates energy. Clearly, Hermeticism is a belief system very tied to the land, so I think it would be a great topic for research. Another aspect of Hermeticism that really fascinated me was its elements of cross-cultural exchange. Hermes Trismegistus, the creator of the Hermetica, the central text of Hermeticism, is a syncretic figure from Greek and Egyptian culture; a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Additionally, Hermeticism also has many core tenants that overlap with Christianity and Hermes Trismegistus is often identified with the profit Idris in Islam. I thought it interesting that an occult belief system could have connections to the world's major religions, which I think defies a lot of people's expectations. I was also able to find many more good sources on this topic, so this is likely the topic I'll be leaning into for my research.
I'm still considering and researching different topics and specifics for what I want to do my research on, but I find the Appalachian Mountains to be interesting in terms of land. They are some of the oldest mountains/forests and at one point were connected to the Scottish Highlands and were called the Central Pangean Mountains. For the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered to be very haunted and there is a lot of American folklore and hauntings involved with them. One particular case that I’m really invested in is the case of the Bell Witch. The Bell family lived in Tennessee during the 19th century and were haunted and tormented by the Bell Witch and the story of their haunting gained a lot of popularity at the time. It’s also unique due to a death in the Bell family during the haunting; “Not only is it the most widely documented paranormal event, the case of the Bell Witch is also the only time a death has been officially attributed to a supernatural entity.” (The Bell Witch: The Scariest Ghost Story in Tennessee - Customs House Museum & Cultural Center). I still need to do more research with the religious involvement and look at the primary and secondary sources from the Bell Witch case, and if I can find enough information on it for the project, I think it’ll be very interesting to research and discuss.
Sounds fascinating Abigail! I think when you have a witch, you can look at local ideas of the occult. Then you can ask questions about whether the people calling it witchcraft and describing these hauntings come from a particular faith and tradition of describing hauntings and witchcraft. So you're already there with a really interesting landscape with an interesting history that does connect to spiritual ideas. I think you have a project in this already.
For my research project I have done the cult of Dionysus. This topic is something I have been interested in for years, and I have known a general consensus of what it was, how it operated, when it was, etc. but I have been excited to dig deeper into the topic. Dionysus is fun to research because he is such a diverse being. Like almost every Greek myth, there are multiple versions of stories that all reveal different characterizations of the God and the people depending on when and by whom it was written. One example of this would be Plato's rewriting of the myths in order to present the gods in a just, idealized way. He did this because he wanted the gods to act as a role model for children instead of the inhuman, untouchable beings that they were. With my research on Dionysus, I am specifically focusing on how the land was viewed in connection to it and therefore femininity. These are themes that constantly come up in class and while we tend to focus on the more recent history, it is interesting to see how far back this way of thinking goes.
I have refined the topic I am researching to be the Manifest Destiny and how that was shaped by the mechanistic world view. The mechanistic world view, is a viewpoint from which you view the natural world as an machine to be used for resources rather than a living being. A good way to think about it is that if you were to take apart the remote for your TV, it would be possible for you to put it back to together and it work as good as new, while if you were to take a living being a chop off a limb, they would not recover the same way. The mechanistic world view makes everything out to be the remote, believing that everything can be repaired and not caring about the consequences
I believe that this is vastly important to how we look and think about Manifest Destiny. The idea of Manifest Destiny is that God gave the people of the United States the power to conquer the land to the west. Their belief in God was all they need as a justification to take over the land and to exert their will upon it's people. This is a point in history where Christianity had all but lost it's connections to nature, forgetting a lot of the relations to nature that it had in it's early days. As such, the United States citizens taking over the land viewed the land as a machine, only looking for what it could provide to them and now how they could build a relationship with one another.
When looking into the research of religions we have touched on or continue to study, I wanted to take a deeper dive into Celtic traditions. More so, the stories and great legends of heroism that came about with the Celts. The stories of heroes and their great feats are how we obtain both the outline of a hero’s journey and the added benefit of looking into the belief systems that surround the stories being told. We may see similarities in other cultures around the world when discussing the hero and what they may have to go through to achieve a goal, from their birth to youth, where they are threatened by dangers and trials by combat with beasts and man alike. In this research, I want to cover the mythology of the Celts but also analyze other research on how the Celts worshipped their Gods and nature even today.
One great source that helps in looking at the Celtic traditions and, along with it, the spiritualism that surrounds them is from Danu Forest’s “Celtic Tree Magic Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries.” Not only does it cover the practical use of trees in both what they symbolize, but it also has great significance to the beliefs that are still held by Celts today. Not only do we get to look into the significance, but the process of understanding the spiritual side of Celtic traditions and the magical and practical applications to the surrounding world. What I need to find are more sources in relation to the traditions held by the Celts and the spiritual attributes that have them recognized with their significance, and how exactly this has formed such an interesting spiritual connection and bond with the land and surrounding mythos.
I too am tackling Norse spirituality for my project. I have gotten a good base of primary and secondary sources - such as Heimskringla, Hávamál, and Egil’s Saga - all of which give excellent insight into what connection these followers had with the land they came from or the land they pillaged... I have had no trouble finding content that pertains to my topic, time frame, and region. As Avery commented below, this belief system is heavily intertwined with nature. I found the belief of Landvættir (land spirts/wights) to be an epotime of what I want to focus on and research in this project. I want to focus on their rituals, beliefs, and histories that tie Norse and Nature together. I have also decided to hone in on the Viking age, as I mean, if I go Norse, I might dive into history where their culture and beliefs had fundamentally shaped the Western world. I am a little concerned with finding a faculty member, but this is the belief system and connection to the land I wish to pursue, if there is a will, there is a way.
Also @Avery. I'm glad there are two of you interested in this. Oftentimes you can find a scholar off campus who is willing to email with you. Students have had great experiences. The thing is most of us faculty are lonely specialists who would love to talk about the things we know a lot about. But I would definitely check in to the NAU comparative cultures faculty to see if anyone has any ideas on campus.
I am really interested in learning more about witchcraft and black magic associated with it. I also have looked into practices of voodoo (Or vodou?) as well. I went into my brief research thinking there was more associations with witchcraft and voodoo than there actually is. I found that voodoo is a Western African religion that has a mixture of Roman Catholicism and the West African Vodun religion. I feel like from the simple search on our NAU library website gave better options to research Voodoo and sparked more of my interest. I feel voodoo has good number of examples regarding religion and how it relates to to the land as well. It also incorporates a lot of catholicism which is another one of my interests. There are lots of areas of research within voodoo which I will narrow down my topics as I find sources and do more research about it. There are many countries that have history of voodoo practices so finding information on different cultures practicing the same religion seems interesting to me.
Sounds interesting! I suggest you connect with our future guest faculty Eric Brealt in CCS (I might have his last name misspelled). He knows about this and is eager to work with students in the class.
I'm very much interested in researching practices of the occult in Western society. My original plan was to research European uses of tarot for divination in connection to the land, but has increasingly looked more and more difficult to research. Thus, I'm also simultaneously looking into Hermeticism and the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. Hermeticism is a belief system heavily intertwined with the interconnectedness of the universe in the natural world and the power of the human mind and soul. It teaches that the land is a reflection of a higher, divine existence and that everything in the natural world radiates energy. Clearly, Hermeticism is a belief system very tied to the land, so I think it would be a great topic for research. Another aspect of Hermeticism that really fascinated me was its elements of cross-cultural exchange. Hermes Trismegistus, the creator of the Hermetica, the central text of Hermeticism, is a syncretic figure from Greek and Egyptian culture; a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Additionally, Hermeticism also has many core tenants that overlap with Christianity and Hermes Trismegistus is often identified with the profit Idris in Islam. I thought it interesting that an occult belief system could have connections to the world's major religions, which I think defies a lot of people's expectations. I was also able to find many more good sources on this topic, so this is likely the topic I'll be leaning into for my research.
Glad you found a new avenue for research. I agree tarot is not a very fruitful project.
I find this YouTube channel to be a good tool for grounding in the academic possibilities in occult topics. https://youtu.be/kHHTt6Yiv5U?si=rkA7r_mepzELV6RX
I'm still considering and researching different topics and specifics for what I want to do my research on, but I find the Appalachian Mountains to be interesting in terms of land. They are some of the oldest mountains/forests and at one point were connected to the Scottish Highlands and were called the Central Pangean Mountains. For the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered to be very haunted and there is a lot of American folklore and hauntings involved with them. One particular case that I’m really invested in is the case of the Bell Witch. The Bell family lived in Tennessee during the 19th century and were haunted and tormented by the Bell Witch and the story of their haunting gained a lot of popularity at the time. It’s also unique due to a death in the Bell family during the haunting; “Not only is it the most widely documented paranormal event, the case of the Bell Witch is also the only time a death has been officially attributed to a supernatural entity.” (The Bell Witch: The Scariest Ghost Story in Tennessee - Customs House Museum & Cultural Center). I still need to do more research with the religious involvement and look at the primary and secondary sources from the Bell Witch case, and if I can find enough information on it for the project, I think it’ll be very interesting to research and discuss.
Sounds fascinating Abigail! I think when you have a witch, you can look at local ideas of the occult. Then you can ask questions about whether the people calling it witchcraft and describing these hauntings come from a particular faith and tradition of describing hauntings and witchcraft. So you're already there with a really interesting landscape with an interesting history that does connect to spiritual ideas. I think you have a project in this already.
For my research project I have done the cult of Dionysus. This topic is something I have been interested in for years, and I have known a general consensus of what it was, how it operated, when it was, etc. but I have been excited to dig deeper into the topic. Dionysus is fun to research because he is such a diverse being. Like almost every Greek myth, there are multiple versions of stories that all reveal different characterizations of the God and the people depending on when and by whom it was written. One example of this would be Plato's rewriting of the myths in order to present the gods in a just, idealized way. He did this because he wanted the gods to act as a role model for children instead of the inhuman, untouchable beings that they were. With my research on Dionysus, I am specifically focusing on how the land was viewed in connection to it and therefore femininity. These are themes that constantly come up in class and while we tend to focus on the more recent history, it is interesting to see how far back this way of thinking goes.
I have refined the topic I am researching to be the Manifest Destiny and how that was shaped by the mechanistic world view. The mechanistic world view, is a viewpoint from which you view the natural world as an machine to be used for resources rather than a living being. A good way to think about it is that if you were to take apart the remote for your TV, it would be possible for you to put it back to together and it work as good as new, while if you were to take a living being a chop off a limb, they would not recover the same way. The mechanistic world view makes everything out to be the remote, believing that everything can be repaired and not caring about the consequences
I believe that this is vastly important to how we look and think about Manifest Destiny. The idea of Manifest Destiny is that God gave the people of the United States the power to conquer the land to the west. Their belief in God was all they need as a justification to take over the land and to exert their will upon it's people. This is a point in history where Christianity had all but lost it's connections to nature, forgetting a lot of the relations to nature that it had in it's early days. As such, the United States citizens taking over the land viewed the land as a machine, only looking for what it could provide to them and now how they could build a relationship with one another.
When looking into the research of religions we have touched on or continue to study, I wanted to take a deeper dive into Celtic traditions. More so, the stories and great legends of heroism that came about with the Celts. The stories of heroes and their great feats are how we obtain both the outline of a hero’s journey and the added benefit of looking into the belief systems that surround the stories being told. We may see similarities in other cultures around the world when discussing the hero and what they may have to go through to achieve a goal, from their birth to youth, where they are threatened by dangers and trials by combat with beasts and man alike. In this research, I want to cover the mythology of the Celts but also analyze other research on how the Celts worshipped their Gods and nature even today.
One great source that helps in looking at the Celtic traditions and, along with it, the spiritualism that surrounds them is from Danu Forest’s “Celtic Tree Magic Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries.” Not only does it cover the practical use of trees in both what they symbolize, but it also has great significance to the beliefs that are still held by Celts today. Not only do we get to look into the significance, but the process of understanding the spiritual side of Celtic traditions and the magical and practical applications to the surrounding world. What I need to find are more sources in relation to the traditions held by the Celts and the spiritual attributes that have them recognized with their significance, and how exactly this has formed such an interesting spiritual connection and bond with the land and surrounding mythos.
Great topic idea! I am hoping you can find a faculty member who has knowledge in this area as I do not.