Digital Story

So with the culmination of my Multimedia applications class I present to you my final project. "Pagan: Just What The Hell Is It". This digital story uses many of the techniques I have learned thus far for incorporating multimedia into Sociological research and presentation.

In this digital story we look at what a Pagan is from the perspective of Pagan High Priestess in the San Antonio Pagan community. The video will also explore Pagan ritual and some of the workings that go on behind close doors. Hopefully this video will help to shed some like on the mainstream public's ideas of what Pagans are and what it is they do.

13. Creating an Xtranormal Cartoon

Sometimes animation can be far superior to any other form of teaching. The following animation I used using xtranormal.com show a conversation between High Priest Dragon and High Priestess Morgan talking about whether ritual can be made up as you go or if it needs to come directly from a book. Dragon is of the sense that things need to be by the book while Morgan thinks ritual can be much more meaningful if it flows from the heart and is something the practitioner feels very strongly about. Let's have a look.


Morgan and Dragon on Ritual

10. Digital Story Telling Outline

10. Digital Story Telling Outline

Idea 1: Filming of actual pagan ritual.

One of my ideas for my digital story would be to film an actual pagan ritual and hold a Q&A round table afterwards to ask questions about what took place during the ritual. The people that would be interviewed in this digital story would be those participating in the ritual. Some challenges that might be encountered during the process of the filming would be that many pagans are not willing to allow their rituals to be filmed. I believe I could overcome this by using pagans that are familiar with me and my works.

Idea 2: Interview of a Pagan with candid street interviews intermixed.

To perform an interview with a single pagan and ask questions about what paganism is. I would add into the film candid street interviews of normal every day people asking them a single question, “What is a Pagan?” The challenges in doing this is that candid street interviews are sometimes hard to attain as many people do not like to be filmed unexpectedly. I believe I could overcome this problem by providing some sort of quid pro quo satisfaction for the interviews. Maybe I could perform these candid interviews on a college campus and hand out a free soda or red bull to those that agree to answer the question on film. 

7. screen structure images

Assignment 7. screen structure images 

The above proper point demonstrates the four types of Screen Structures. In the narrative section images depicting the calling of quarters and invoking of deity are shown. The documentary section shows the altar table and setup of the previous ritual pictures. The Aesthetic section depicts picture of a fire sword dance and are of an artistic styling. And under the emotional screen structure section the images of one Pagans pilgrimage to the sacred monolith of Stonehenge is depicted. 

6. Video Clip as Representation of Key Concepts

The above clip shows how Durkheim’s concept of the sacred is used within the modern Neo-Drudic belief system of Paganism. Though Stonehenge was built over 5,000 years ago and very little is known what historically happen there or even what it was truly used for, it still captures the imaginations of many across the world who call themselves Pagan and all know that no matter what really took place at Stonehenge it is a holy and sacred place.

Within the classroom this clip can be used to show the sociological importance and also the impact of the sacred on society. Durkheim’s Sacred is displayed here as those who believe in the holiness of Stonehenge participate in a Neo-Drudic ritual at the site. Durkheim’s Profane can also be displayed in much the same fashion by how the participants feel about the vandalism to the stones  that has taken place over the years and archaeological excavations happening at the site. 

InfoGraphic on the Christ Story

The above Infographic I made using www.piktochart.com shows the commonalities of the Christian Christ Story versus the Divine King or Divine Child stories of 4 other non-Christian mythologies and asks the question, "Is it the greatest story ever told, or the greatest story ever stole?'

Comment with your ideas and insight on the topic.

Prezi Project on The Path to Ritual

Multimedia Prezi on Prezi

This is a Prezi project used to show the aspects of a general Pagan Ritual. Know that there is no right or wrong way to preform any ritual and these aspects are the most common found within many Pagan belief systems, known as Traditions. 

Assignment #1 Photo Mosaic and Word Cloud

The first assignment for the class was to do a photo mosaic of our own personal life and a word cloud using the online websites Big Huge Labs and Wordle. 

For the Photo Mosaic I have chosen four pictures. The two pictures on the left show what Paganism IS NOT, the two pictures on the right reflect what Paganism IS.

Let’s start with the top two pictures and first examine the picture on the left and what Paganism is not. Paganism is not Satanic Black Mass rituals that sacrifice virgins or babies, Pagans are not Devil Worshipers. The picture on the right however depicts an image of what Paganism is to some people. This image shows a Druidic ritual at Stonehenge in England. Though we cannot see much of what the ritual is about by the picture, we can at least see that there is no sacrificial virgin laid out ready for the knife.

The bottom two pictures give us an insight into what the individual pagan is not and is. The picture on the left shows us as the tree-hugging-hippie type that most people think of when they think of pagans, Wiccans, or Druids, however this is not what a pagan is (granted some pagans are the tree-hugging-hippie type), this is not the general idea of what a pagan is. The picture on the right shows a group of everyday people walking down a busy New York street. This is what a pagan really is. They are everyday people who happen to hold different beliefs than someone else. It’s really not that hard to grasp as most everyone holds different beliefs of some sort from the person next to them.

I have also included a readymade photo mosaic that I found by doing a simple Google Pictures search for what is a pagan? The following image shows the many thoughts of what a pagan is; including the perspective of the pagan.

For the Word Cloud portion of this assignment I have made a Word Cloud using various Pagan belief systems known as Traditions.

Eclectic Pagan is someone who takes various beliefs from various traditions to form their own structure.

Asatru is someone who follows a Norse or Germanic pantheon. 

Christo-Pagan is someone who mixes Christian doctrine with forms of Paganism.

Ethnic-Pagan is a person who follows the belief structure of a certain ethnicity or heritage, normally their own.

Reconstructionist is very similar to Ethnic-Pagan but is someone who tries to historically reconstruct a past cultures belief system.

Wiccan and Druid like Asatru are specific traditions though in both there are many variations.

Why a Blog on the Sociology of Paganism?

This Blog, The Pagan Sociologist, was started as a project for a Graduate Level Sociology Class on Multimedia Applications at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Fall of 2012.

As an Anthropologist and Sociologist I do most of my work in the area of Alternative Religion as well as in Counter Culture Movements. Along with my Academic interest in Alternative Religion, and more specifically the many sub-traditions of Paganism, I am also a congregate of Paganism and an ordained Priest within one of the many Pagan belief structures. So it was only nature that when I was asked to create a blog; that I center it on my own interests and research.

I encourage all readers, whether class colleagues or someone who might of stumbled onto the site, to comment and interact if you feel compelled to do so. 

Please keep in mind that some submissions to this blog will be class assignments that I will try to tailor to the topic of Paganism but this might not always be possible.