Now my last post might not convince someone who is really 100% convinced that they are encoded by their DNA to be Druid Warrior of Odin (let that comment sink in, and remember I am being facetious) . But no I understand that many of you believe (feel it even) that there are physical traits that make one Celtic, or Nordic, or whatever. Well, I have some bad news for you, its not what you think. I will start with one that is most common. Red Hair. I’ve seen in various places; people insist that their red hair (hopefully not from a bottle) is a sure sign of Celtic or Germanic or Nordic ancestry ..read more

Over the years I’ve noticed a couple of trends from popular science, that pagans have seemed to adopt. The word Quantum seems to be used to justify a lot of things that are purely mystical. But because as modern humans the idea something is mystical with no apparent grounding in science is uncomfortable to many. I mean no one likes being mocked. But honestly shoehorning the idea of quantum mechanics into something it was never meant to be used for does just that. If it helps its not just pagans, but most spiritual paths have someone trying this on for size. Epigenetics explains the idea of ra ..read more

Now for some hard words. Also a statement. my comments about how DNA affects your spirituality are aimed at neopagans. None of us have grown up pagan in 100s of generations of pagans. This does not apply to people who grew up in a pagan culture, my comments about the DNA doing it however stand. So, you got a DNA test. That DNA test gave you an Ancestral result. Congratulations. But hold your horses for a moment. Lets look at mine from LivingDNA (as its specialized and is little to no good for telling you about your non UK and Irish ancestors). I’m according to them 98.2% from Great Britain and ..read more

(Its going to be a longer blog so skim if you cannot be bothered) Ok now we get into repeating some posts from my old blog, but also something meaty, and perhaps challenging to many people. Ancestral DNA Tests. Chances are we have seen the adverts. Ancestry.com, 23&Me, MyHeritage and more (those are three of the big players). They all claim they will open the world of your ancestors to you (well I am paraphrasing here). Many of us are curious of how we came to be who we are. As pagans many of us are intensely invested in honouring ancestors (both of blood, and of culture). When I lived in ..read more

(Its going to be a longer blog so skim if you cannot be bothered) Ok now we get into repeating some posts from my old blog, but also something meaty, and perhaps challenging to many people. Ancestral DNA Tests. Chances are we have seen the adverts. Ancestry.com, 23&Me, MyHeritage and more (those are three of the big players). They all claim they will open the world of your ancestors to you (well I am paraphrasing here). Many of us are curious of how we came to be who we are. As pagans many of us are intensely invested in honouring ancestors (both of blood, and of culture). When I lived in ..read more

Now for some hard words. Also a statement. my comments about how DNA affects your spirituality are aimed at neopagans. None of us have grown up pagan in 100s of generations of pagans. This does not apply to people who grew up in a pagan culture, my comments about the DNA doing it however stand. So, you got a DNA test. That DNA test gave you an Ancestral result. Congratulations. But hold your horses for a moment. Lets look at mine from LivingDNA (as its specialized and is little to no good for telling you about your non UK and Irish ancestors). I’m according to them 98.2% from Great Britain and ..read more

So you recently did a DNA Ancestry test, and you got some results. You are really excited as it shows something that: Confirms what you always knew Gives you something to go on, because it was a blank slate before this And/or  Was quiet interesting, but changes nothing for you spiritually. The advent of cheap, fast DNA sequencing has opened a world of possibilities for people. Back at the turn of the Millennium (ok 2003 really but close enough) after 13 years of hard work, the first draft of the Human genome project (at the time the ambitious project to read the whole sequence of Huma ..read more

So you recently did a DNA Ancestry test, and you got some results. You are really excited as it shows something that: Confirms what you always knew Gives you something to go on, because it was a blank slate before this And/or  Was quiet interesting, but changes nothing for you spiritually. The advent of cheap, fast DNA sequencing has opened a world of possibilities for people. Back at the turn of the Millennium (ok 2003 really but close enough) after 13 years of hard work, the first draft of the Human genome project (at the time the ambitious project to read the whole sequence of Huma ..read more

Where to start? So many options?Ok perhaps I will do one of the posts that I seem to need so often to post, when talking to either creationists, or someone who did a DNA test and was 5% Scandinavian, meaning he must have been a Viking. Belief vs facts There are essentially two ways you can claim to know something. You have data to support it. This is intellectual knowledge. It is the purview of science. And You feel it. You are aware of it but can’t prove it through facts (otherwise it would be in category (a). The Greeks had terms for these categories. Intellectual knowledge was eídein an ..read more

Where to start? So many options?Ok perhaps I will do one of the posts that I seem to need so often to post, when talking to either creationists, or someone who did a DNA test and was 5% Scandinavian, meaning he must have been a Viking. Belief vs facts There are essentially two ways you can claim to know something. You have data to support it. This is intellectual knowledge. It is the purview of science. And You feel it. You are aware of it but can’t prove it through facts (otherwise it would be in category (a). The Greeks had terms for these categories. Intellectual knowledge was eídein an ..read more