American Neopaganism?

[RandallS]

As someone who writes myths, I'm intrigued; what would the goddess Columbia embody for you? What concepts/ideas/things would she govern, and what special attributes would she have? What would be her myths...and what other gods would exist alongside her in her pantheon?

I remember something along these lines in Llewellyn's old Gnostica News and Views magazine in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I think it was aimed more at ceremonial magic, however. But it's been a long time and my issues of Gnostica went missing many years ago.

[GabrielWithoutWings]

I'm curious who's behind the site--what person or group created it and maintains it. I poked around a bit, but I didn't immediately find anything.

You can find the author of the web site at his blog:

The Allergic Pagan

[Dashifen]

As someone who writes myths, I'm intrigued; what would the goddess Columbia embody for you? What concepts/ideas/things would she govern, and what special attributes would she have? What would be her myths...and what other gods would exist alongside her in her pantheon?

Columbia actually has a fairly solid foundation of support, especially in the D.C. area. She's usually depicted in a similar fashion to the statue of Freedom on top of the US Capitol building. I've worked with Her a few times, mostly through the Hail Columbia project; you can find some information that we put up about Her here: http://hailcolumbia.us/about-us/about-columbia/.



For me, though, Columbia is a bit of a paradox in that the very things that she She holds dear are the things that we in America struggle with. She represents freedom and equality for all as enshrined in America's founding documents, but it's an ideal freedom that we have not yet been able to actually produce and, in our own flawed way, may not be able to. She's been used to represent the unflinching Manifest Destiny of the American people and the ideals of exceptionalist patriotism for the USA which actually, I feel, go against her very nature as a Goddess focused on democracy, compromise, working together, and service to others.

In my experience with Her, she's a bit disappointed in us. Sort of like an older sister who sees us making poor choices but doesn't quite know how help us correct the problem.