It’s that time of the year when pagans start talking about St. Patrick again, and social media is full of posts arguing about when legends say that Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, it was a metaphor for his having gotten rid of the Druids (and how that impacts how we should celebrate St. Patrick’s Day). Let’s just start by saying it was more likely a myth than a metaphor. The writers of hagiographies (saints lives), borrowed tropes from previous writers as frequently as those who told folktales, and for the same reason. The lesson is the important part, whether it’s be kind and clever and you can win without strength, power or talent,or if God chooses he can give a Saint the ability to do miracles, encouraging Christians to trust the Church and the saint. A Saint being able to speak to animals, and command them to stop bothering people (or help them) is incredibly common.
Saint Gertrude (whose feast day is also March 17th) prayed for the mice to get out of her convent, and they did. St Werburgh banished the geese causing havoc in the cornfields of Weedon, St. Colmcille banished demons as well as the Loch Ness monster, I don’t think we need include St. Urho banishing the grasshoppers from the vineyards of Finland, as I doubt anyone doesn’t know his myths were invented recently. But basically, we don’t need to look for reasons to be angry at historical characters, as much of what we’ve been told is total propaganda from one side or the other.

Too many modern folks come to paganism as an alternative to childhood teachings that didn’t satisfy, or even disturbed them. I drifted into Paganism naturally when I spoke to the gods I’d read of in myth and they responded. Scientific curiosity led me to studying psychic phenomenon in the 60s, I’m also a Historian by Avocation, Pedant by both Nature and Nurture, and Artist despite warnings that it wasn’t practical. But having been doing this for a half century, I freely confess to having believed many really foolish things over the years. In high school I read Margaret Murray’s books and thought them credible. In college I read that nine million women were killed as witches by the inquisition, although I later found well supported descriptions of how that number was extrapolated from isolated samples, and feel current suggestions that the number was closer to 40 to 60 thousand. For a while I accepted that confessions in witch trials indicated someone who was a witch, until I studied how those confessions were generated.
Many in the witch and pagan community have accepted the mantle of ‘victim’ with the same pride as those who claim that not being able to act on their beliefs means that they are oppressed by the woke culture that has been working to expand civil rights for all, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else. There’s a certain self indulgence in being able to portray yourself as picked on. There are also too many sad examples of pagans who have had their rights violated, it’s better both socially and energetically to move forward expecting that those we meet are more interested in our being good neighbors than worrying about what we do privately.

My experiences have led me to be skeptical when people start ranting about how oppressed their spiritual ancestors were, and by extension, they are. The more I study, the more I am convinced that the influences motivating those repressing fair reporting of history are only very slightly below conscious levels of those in power. We must bring truth about the contributions of others than white, male Christians to our culture, and do what we can to prevent further loss of suppressed history. But we should also avoid supporting our arguments with ridiculous myths, no matter how good they may make us feel. The warning to not believe your own propaganda is important. When those trying to make us look foolish come up with ridiculous charges, we must not sink to their level. There’s plenty of factual information to counter their inventions. We don’t need to exaggerate what happened in the past, or is happening now. 9 Million looks impressive on a cross stitch sampler, but 50 thousand is quite bad enough, and we gain more by looking into how people can lose their moral compass when part of a mob, than in blaming them.
There is enough fiction out there that can uplift us, we don’t need to be gullible enough to embrace it, and let the invented stories drag us down. And for the sake of all the Gods, don’t pass it on. Someone out there may be young enough, vulnerable enough, ignorant enough to believe it, and they’ll have to work to get past it, just as we older, more secure, and knowledgeable folks have had to do.