It’s funny how the void of darkness… the absence of stimuli made available because of light… opens doors to creative thinking. That’s often what I find myself thinking over and over again on morning commutes… and it played on my thinking again this morning.

That being said, this is the third consecutive day of uploading a blog post; something I haven’t done in years. I’m still… as sailors say… getting my sea legs back, but I’m also finding that the “clothes” don’t quite fit. In other words, I’m finding I’m restricting myself too much with the framework under which I opened this blog. I want room to write in any direction I want… whatever way the wind happens to be blowing for me on any particular day. As such, I’m changing both the title and subtitle of the blog. It is now…

“The Wild Pretanī: An eclectic, chaotic good, Animist (pagan), traveler, satisfying my alter ego through writing.”

I think the new title and subtitle are mostly self-explanatory, but to be clear, I can be all over the board (chaotic), about a range of topics (eclectic); I am a traveler frequenting Europe annually; and, yes, I am an active follower/reader/practitioner of earth-based spirituality/religion. While I use the term “pagan”, I sometimes don’t like it very much as 1) it’s too broadly defined (essentially, any non-Abrahamic religion); and 2) well, on one hand, as used by Abrahamic religion it’s used as an insult; yet on the other, to use it by someone who is a practitioner of an earth-based religion, I find it to be a sweet form of rebellious pushback (redundant? Meh, I’ll stick with it anyway) against those who use it as an insult.

There, I’ve said it without beating around the bush.

Lastly, I’ve been a writer of historical topics for many years, absolutely love hypertext theory and writing for the web, and… am very aware of how age is creeping up on me and dulling the edge on my writings. As much as transparency and self-awareness in writing fascinate me, they also yield painful realities. Nonetheless, here I am, writing despite it.

As for jumping from “Rewilding the Pretanī” to the “Wild Pretanī”… well, frankly, I’ve been rewilding for enough years, so, here I am… let’s just go with “wild”. Further, as you can see, at least I’ve retained the “Pretanī” part. I’m still deeply fascinated by the story of them and my genetic connections to them… from the Bronze Age, into the Iron Age and (with the story of an even wider range of Brythonic-speaking people) beyond. So, we’re talking about everything from Celtic mythology to the Hen Ogledd and Gododdin and the Welsh Triads. But, even saying that, I’m not ruling out discussing my love for my pre-Christian Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon connections. Like I said… no restrictions.

Oh yes… again, about that traveler part… not only do I travel to Europe annually, I specifically visit pre-Christian Pretanī, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian sites, and… try to attend at least one major event rooted in the “old ways” (so far, the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Midgardsblot in Borre, Norway; and, the Samhuinn Fire Festival in Edinburgh).

Music… how could I possibly forget that? As mentioned, I’ve been to the Midgardsblot music festival, but, in the States, I’ve attended Heilung and Wardruna concerts/rituals.

So, let’s “Take 2”, and get things rolling…

* Photo of me, standing in the middle of the Rosa dos Ventos, in Coruña, Spain, 2022. I’ll tell the story of that beautiful spot in another post.