A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • Music and Religion: Performance of Christian Music as a Pagan

    Now Playing: Midnight Madonna by Powerwolf Currently, I sing in a community choir. As with most community choirs, this choir rehearses and performs in a church as a way to reduce expenses, since rehearsal spaces can get quite expensive, especially for larger groups. Many of the pieces we perform are also based around Christian themes…

  • Paganism and Representation in Popular Media

    Now Playing: Northern Lights by Tungsten Everything in this is from my perspective based on what I know, and is not meant as a commentary on global issues that may concern issues that I don’t face as a white person living in Canada. Within the Western social sphere, media have traditionally (at least for the…

  • Classical Music: Universal Language or Tool of Oppression?

    Now Playing: Wonderland by Tungsten So as a classically trained musician living in Canada, I read music in the traditional European (or “Western”) fashion. Basically, I was trained to read music like all those snooty, elitist assholes who act like the big name composers from before 1920 are the best thing to ever happen to…

  • Pagan Leadership and Organised Hierarchy

    Now Playing: Freya by Brothers of Metal When considering the major religions of the world, there are a few things that stick out as common between most of them. There’s usually a centralised text or book (or collection of texts) and a specific group of people who are considered to have a certain authority within…

  • Paganism and Gender: A Trans Man’s Perspective

    Now Playing: The Blackest of My Hearts by Elvenking While not necessarily a “common” concept, gender is something we see come up from time to time in various pagan circles, most prominently in Wicca, where there is a heavy focus on the masculine God and feminine Goddess duality. Before going further, I feel it important…

  • Individuality in the Pagan Experience

    Now Playing: Forest of Hope – Pikmin | Jazz Cover (insaneintherainmusic) Paganism as a religion is incredibly varied. Much of the reason for this, in my opinion, is because the word “pagan” as we use it today is an umbrella term for many distinct pre-Christian European religions, as well as the modern practice of these…

  • Polytheism in TTRPGs: How Well Is It Done?

    Now Playing: The Manifesto by Elvenking Within the realm of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, we consistently find examples of deities and whole pantheons. Some of these pantheons are taken from real world mythologies and cultures, and others are entirely created for a given campaign by the game master,…

  • Dumb Laws In Canada

    Now Playing: The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by The Arrogant Worms If you really take the time to think about it, there are some pretty dumb laws and by-laws in places. People are weird and sometimes stupid, what else is new? Canada, as nice as we often are in the modern day, is no exception. We…

  • A Year of Metal

    Now Playing: Son of a Wolf by Powerwolf 2023 was a solid year for power metal. New albums from Elvenking, Twilight Force, Bloodbound, and Powerwolf (as well as a live album from Freedom Call), several EPs and singles from Sabaton, Rhapsody of Fire, and DragonForce, with album announcements set for next year from several of…

  • Artistic Worship: An Intersection of Music, Studies, and Paganism

    Now Playing: Rún by SKÁLD (Intimate Version) Paganism, especially in its modern, reconstructed form, is incredibly diverse, both in terms of the number of types of paganism and the differences between different kinds of people who practice the religion. How it’s practiced and the specific beliefs will differ from person to person. (Ask ten different…