Sometimes I swear that if I ever were to practice “pop-culture” paganism–I’d go for Star Trek as my inspiration and home-ground.
It doesn’t really fit, not exactly…except perhaps mashing cultural religion or philosophical beliefs together. I mean, Vulcan logic-based culture is appealing, considering how emotional I am; and the logical philosophy would be something I could wrap things around. And well, there’s all the points about religion in the series. Admittedly I’d be more focused on TOS and TNG, because those are my favorites. From those two alone, I would have plenty of things to use for my beliefs…were I inclined. I just can’t get behind the whole Bajoran thing and anything from VOY or DS9…both of those just annoy me too much.
More likely though, I could wrap it as my standard jokes. I mean…who doesn’t love some of the TOS actors? Certainly me…I adore some of those actors. My family jokes that I worship DeForest Kelley (Leonard McCoy), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), Nichelle Nichols (Nyota Uhura) and George Takei (Hikaru Sulu). Those were my favorite characters, and admittedly I do gush about favorite characters, regardless of fandom. – although in all honesty I love all the characters off TOS, they’re all just precious; but that’s a digression.
It would be a bit interesting. I do assume that there are people out there who use Star Trek as a basis for pop-culture paganism–I just don’t know about any of them myself.
But I could go for that. I mean…you have the empathetic heart, the functional and logical mind, the fierce communicator, and a cheerful personality that also had quite the wit. All pretty good parts to consider and things that could be looked to. Perhaps almost like “personifications”, which are common enough in paganism of all stripes. Sometimes, personifications are the manifestations of the gods…so it’s not too far off base to even consider this as a frame of worship and belief.
I have no real desire to practice pop-culture paganism. And I’d never actually use Star Trek for it either; it just doesn’t suit me as a polytheist, pagan, practitioner–not at all. But I do deeply appreciate these characters. They’re rich, complex and do make for compelling personifications.
I need something more complex and concrete than just personifications of aspects or deities. And if I ever were tempted into pop-culture paganism, for sure I would start here. It’s more appealing and less over-done than Harry Potter (the obvious choice) or other things, like Marvel and it’s portrayal of Norse mythology.∗
The Slavic Polytheist 
Reblogged this on bridgetcasecreators.
LikeLike
I really liked this post, and then when I read some more of your posts I got REALLY into it!
Would you ever share your posts with a larger audience?
LikeLike
Thank you!
I generally just post along here, it’s the only platform I have for this kind of writing. If people like what I post here, I’m always glad for that.
LikeLike
I really think that people are really confused when they confabulate popular “culture” with their religion. You have your head on straight! The topics of drama and opera for hundreds of years have come from the religious stories of our ancestors. This has not happened as much recently. But, the characters were always from the various lores. I am not sure that LOTR has the years; and, to say that the various versions of Star Trek or Star Wars do is laughable is my opinion. Thank you for this well thought out post.
LikeLike
Thanks for the thoughts.
LOTR is perhaps “getting there”, and with how much Tolkien wrote for that whole culture, one could argue it, I think better, than many other pop-culture phenomena. Still, it’s just not the type of practice I can get my head around.
LikeLike
Kirk as Pope would be fun (his name means ‘church’ as it is)! Since Kirk and Riker were my role models growing up, I find the idea very interesting 🙂
LikeLike