Pagan Community Notes: Week of November 27, 2024

In this week’s Pagan Community Notes, we explore a range of stories, including parks and places being renamed to their original Indigenous names, California removing Indigenous slurs from place names, Circle Sanctuary participating in Wreaths Across America, Animist Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen delivers a TED Talk, Nexion releases new music, and more news.

Review: Gladiator II and the chaos at the heart of empire

“Nearly everyone in this film is obsessed with the Rome that was, where the emperor was a scholar instead of a syphilitic club kid in a toga,” writes Meg Elison in her review of Ridley Scott’s new film. “It is much easier to complain about a bad government than to build one that works. See Virgil for more on this. See Hannah Arendt. See Marija Gimbutas. See all of human history. See the news.”

Polysporia – a dish that dedicates every grain to the gods

“Made up of a mix of all the grains, legumes, and edible seeds grown in any given area,” writes Siobhan Ball, “polysporia belongs to that most fundamental class of agricultural ritual: the kind that gets down to the bare bones of the relationship between man and gods, expressing plainly what we want and what we’re willing to give in exchange.”