Could you provide a source for this? It’s interesting, but I just don’t know enough about it. For what it’s worth, my thinking is it’s at least partly true. A modern analogy could be the infamous 40 Virgins of Muslim paradise. It’s a nice idea, if one likes that sort of thing and does not think to deeply about the practicalities, but most believers probably don’t expect its literal fulfillment, although there are doubtless zealots who do.
On the fly I can’t provide a source, but I also can’t think of a source that would suggest a literalist understanding of these mythic figures. Mythic tales varied from place to place, from teller to teller. Being oral in nature they had no fixed form (though many traditionally preserved elements). Perhaps an uneducated local might have viewed myth as literal, but even that I’m unsure of, and there’s no sign of it from any more sophisticated religionists.
If myth was a dream, then it came from the mind of a human, and was retold to create a response in other people?
Dreams would not have been assumed to come exclusively from the human mind, any more than they do in Christian scripture. Dreams and visions are one of the standard ways the spirits speak with mortals, and always have been. Of course the speech of spirits is seldom direct or literal, and must always be interpreted by mortals.
In that case I spoke loosely - I might have used the term ‘poetic vision’ instead, and still been referring to the voice of the spirits, since the words of poets were also one of the sources of that voice.
But we don’t need to worry about the truth of the myths because they are more or less only to create a mindset?
By ‘truth’ there I assume you mean ‘objective factuality’ or the like. An ancient Pagan might have said that myths were true, even if they didn’t happen in the way the stories tell. Truth is about value, there, rather than literal factuality.
Permit me to make sure I understand: the duty to perform the ritual properly is distinct from the obligation (or not) of “right belief.”
Just so. In general, religious rites did not include a ‘credo’, and members weren’t tested on what their opinions were on the nature of the Gods.
From this, is it fair to infer that what the gods want is that the ritual and customs be performed and observed?
Not exactly. I don’t think that the ancients would have held that the rites were ordained by the Gods, or at least not exclusively so. Ritual is usually understood as coming from the wise ancestors, and is just as true and proper if invented by wise mortals as by the Gods. Human wisdom isn’t devalued in Paganism.
Is it also correct to say that the gods will reward or punish according to the scrupulousness of the worshipper?
Hmmm… Certainly doing the rites well would result in blessing, which is ‘reward’ in its way, and blaspheming the Gods would result in punishment.
However, reward and punishment weren’t big parts of ancient religion. Ethical guidelines weren’t a big part of it, and while a ritual might be rendered null by errors, there were also prayers meant to ask the Powers to excuse errors in rites, and grant the blessing anyway.
The attitudes of various ethnic religions also varied widely on how important precise repetition and correct form might be. Romans and Vedics demanded precision, Norse perhaps less so.
Yes. I agree with this. As you know, it exists in the old Christian churches also.
One of the depressing things about living in North America is the relative absence of the connection between what is holy and the land itself. Depending on how one looks at it, it is either because the original spirits do not talk to the dispossessers, or it punishment for the sin of theft and covetousness.
Neopaganism is busily restoring that connection. In the work I do, an important element is aquaintance with the local landspirits, and even the local manifestations of the Gods. I have worked ritual on my little patch for some 20 years, and we have local customs that we wouldn’t fail to keep.
In the effort to restore the Old Ways, we have to restore that local connection.
). Don’t the gods just assume that different people can be defended by their own gods, and if that’s what they assume, isn’t that the natural state of the pagan world?