Mini Movie Review (BLACK PANTHER)

As an Eclectic Pagan, I appreciated the shamanic ancestral practices beautifully and respectfully shown in the BLACK PANTHER, as well as the nature-based, animal form goddess and god worship in that movie. The religious and spiritual material appeared to be inspired by and derived from centuries, even millennia, of a variety of actual indigenous tribal ways, with a bit of ancient Egyptian and Hindu pantheon names (Bast and Hanuman, respectively) thrown in for good measure. And while the cosmology of the Wakanda peoples and land was entirely made up, it was laid out at the start in a caring, celebratory way that left me with a sense of honoring or veneration. This pleasantly touched the devotional side of me. The very positive, normalizing portrayal of a culture of Pagan worship that is also technologically advanced while existing harmoniously with the rest of nature (or so this was at least suggested) felt deeply affirming for me as a modern Pagan. There really is a lot of goodness to be found in the refreshing imagery and ideas within the film BLACK PANTHER, from which I continue to derive good feelings.