I assume this painting in the public domain needs little introduction – Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painted in 1498, one of the most famous and most imitated paintings
APOSTLES & SAINTS (MUSES): MYTHOLOGY
No, not the usual apostles and saints, the apostles and saints of Christianity, particularly as exemplified by Roman Catholicism (although ironically there is some overlap which I will also feature here) – these are my apostles of the goddess and saints of pagan catholicism.
These are the apostles and saints that I have playfully canonized for the mythos I call home – which I also playfully refer to as my pagan catholicism.
Also the ethos I call home – that classical Greek pagan ethos encapsulated by Weston La Barre as “live valiantly, gloriously and joyously in the world”.
So what are my apostles of the goddess and saints of pagan catholicism?
They are the cultural or literary figures – writers in other words for the latter, predominantly drawn from the authors of my favorite books or literary works – that embody or exemplify the mythos or ethos of paganism, consciously or otherwise (as well as seriously or otherwise – I’m joking and I’m serious!). The apostles of the goddess are my highest class of saint – those saints that spread the gospel of the goddess or that embody or exemplify the mythos or ethos of paganism with particular emphasis on the goddess or goddesses. I also classify my apostles and saints as greater or lesser (essentially based on their iconic status), with the former signified by upper case and the latter by lower case.
Finally, I use the opportunity of my lists for my apostles and saints to also include my muses – that is, the female cultural or literary figures that appeal to or inspire me, again predominantly drawn from the authors of my favorite books or literary works. Of course, most of them rank among my apostles or saints, particularly the former.
Poets and writers of fantasy tend by their very nature to be saints of pagan catholicism, but students of mythology are almost up there with them.
APOSTLES OF THE GODDESS
(1) St. Barbara Walker
Apostle of the goddess with her Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets (as well as other works)
(2) ST. ROBERT GRAVES OF THE WHITE GODDESS
The original apostle of the goddess – the White Goddess. For she is the goddess and this is her body
(3) St. Joyce Tyldesley
Egyptologist with her specialty of women in ancient Egypt and goddesses in Egyptian mythology
(4) DISCORDIAN APOSTLES OF THE GODDESS
How I found Goddess – and what I did to Her when I found Her. Apostles of the goddess Eris Discordia – the writers of the Principia Discordia and apostles of Discordianism
(5) ST. APULEIUS OF THE GOLDEN ASS
The original apostle of the goddess or at least the one with the earliest surviving gospel of the goddess – “Queen of Heaven…in whatever aspect, by whatever name, with whatever ceremony we should invoke you”
(6) St. Bettany Hughes of Helen & Aphrodite.
Apostle of Aphrodite – and of Helen of Troy
(7) St. Natalie Haynes
English classicist with her specialty of the women and goddesses of classical mythology
SAINTS OF PAGAN CATHOLICISM
(1) BIBLICAL SAINTS OF PAGAN CATHOLICISM
Or as I like to dub them, double saints – akin to double agents. That is, those saints that are simultaneously saints within Biblical or Christian tradition and also act as saints or agents of pagan catholicism. They’re surprisingly prolific – so much so that there’s enough for their own separate list.
(2) ST. HOMER OF THE ILIAD & ODYSSEY
Need I say more? Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the rosy-fingered dawn of Western literature and classical mythology. Even more so as he (or she or they?) went round singing it from memory, truly an epic level of bard
(3) St. Katherine Briggs of Fairy
The classic British folklorist, particularly of fairy folklore
(4) St. Peter Dickinson of Dragons
Canonized for his “natural history” of dragons that makes you believe in their reality
(5) ST. JOSEPH CAMPBELL OF HERO
Saint of the heroic monomyth in The Hero with a Thousand Faces – the archetypal heroic narrative which has influenced mythology and literary or writing studies ever since, most notably including George Lucas’ Star Wars
(6) St. Weston La Barre of the Ghost Dance
Canonised for his deliciously snarky magnum opus The Ghost Dance: The Origins of Religion, presenting all religions as shamanic in nature and ghost dances at heart
(7) St. Ronald Hutton
The foremost contemporary scholar of neopaganism, druids, shamans, witches, and more.
(8) SAINTS OF TAROT
Essentially any creators of Tarot decks – foremost among them SS. Pamela Coleman Smith and Arthur Waite of Tarot as creators of the definitive and most influential modern Tarot deck. (And no – I refuse to canonize Aleister Crowley, even as creator of the other definitive modern Tarot deck, although I’m prepared to beatify his artist Lady Frieda Harris)
(9) SAINTS OF THE FOLKLORE INDEX
SS. Antti Aarne, Stith Thompson, and Hans Jorg Uther – canonized as creators of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index and Thompson Motif-Index of Folklore-Literature
(10) ST. THOMAS BULFINCH
Sadly not quite how I’d like to imagine him – as a banker by day and Bacchanalian by night – but more of an accidental saint of pagan catholicism, as compiler of his classic reference Bulfinch’s mythology
(11) ST. E. COBHAM BREWER OF PHRASE & FABLE
As an ordained Reverend perhaps even more incongruously saint of pagan catholicism than Thomas Bulfinch but similarly earns his sainthood as compiler of the classic Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
(12) ST. JAMES GEORGE FRAZER OF THE GOLDEN BOUGH
Saint of the monomyth of the sacrificial sacred king and dying-resurrecting god of fertility
(13) St. Walter Burkert
Pretty much any scholar of classical mythology – or “classics” in general as it is termed in academia – ranks as a saint of pagan catholicsm by nature. St Walter Burkert earns his canonization more than most for his landmark study Greek Religion
(14) SS. Richard Barber & Anne Riches of Fabulous Beasts
Canonized for their dictionary of that title for legendary creatures
(15) SS. Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi of Imaginary Places
Canonized for their dictionary of that title for legendary geography
(16) St. Jonathan Kirsch
It may seem surprising that I canonized an author who writes almost entirely about the Bible as a saint of pagan catholicism but there you have it. After all, I’ve canonized my Biblical saints of pagan catholicism so why not Kirsch? Kirsch has written some of my favorite pagan Biblical studies, in effect if not intent – looking at the more graphic or problematic content of the Bible, the type that has people exclaim what do you mean THAT’S in the Bible?!
(17) St. John Lindow
Canonized for his encyclopediac reference to Norse mythology
(18) St. Camilla Townsend
Scholar of Aztec mythology
(19) ST. CHARLES FORT OF THE SUPER-SARGASSO SEA
Creator of the modern mythology of anomalies named for him as Forteana – and proclaimed with tongue in cheek “I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written”
(20) St. Jans Harold Brunsvand
The foremost chronicler of the modern mythology of urban legends
(21) SAINTS OF THE CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS
Eternal salvation or triple your money back!
Similar to the apostles of Discordianism, except that the Church of the Sub-Genius does not have the same focus on a supreme goddess (with the arguable exception of Connie Dobbs, wife of their prophet J. R. “Bob”Dobbs) – a joke disguised as a religion or a religion disguised as a joke
(22) ST. EURIPIDES OF THE BACCHAE
Evangelist of the gospel of Dionysus
(23) St. Paul Robichaud of Pan
Evangelist of the gospel of Pan
(24) ST. LAO TZU OF THE TAO
Evangelist of the Tao, which I rank within the broad church of catholic paganism
(25) ST. THOMAS MALORY OF ARTHUR
Evangelist of King Arthur – fifteenth century writer of the definitive version of Arthurian legend in popular culture, Le Morte d’Arthur.
(26) St. H.A. Guerber
American writer of “lively retelling of myths” in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century
(27) ST. MIRCEA ELIADE
Saint of “the nostalgia for Paradise…the desire to find oneself always and without effort in the center of the world, at the heart of reality” – one of the foremost scholars of mythology, close to Campbell albeit without the same name recognition in popular culture and imagination
(28) SS. Wil Huygen & Rien Poortvliet of Gnomes
“Jesus, read a coffee table book”
Similar to Peter Dickinson with dragons, canonized for an iconic “natural history” of gnomes that makes you believe in their reality
