Con-Cultural Tradition
The final lens through which we will examine this trope in fanworks: A constructed religiocultural background. For this purpose, we will be using Ouroboros, by NovusArs. Once more, Samhain shall be the central focus of the subsection. The relevant chapter involves aspects that are not related to the rite performed during the day of celebration. Namely, the use of light, ideally light from a blessed candle, used as a means of protecting oneself, and warding off mischievous spirits and beings, keeping to the belief that the light of the bonfire was a means of protecting oneself from malicious spirits and the fairy folk.
The rite itself is where the intrigue begins. In line with the above practice, the rite utilizes a blessed candle, along with an offering of food, perhaps as a means of bringing in the harvest element. Harry, who is Salazar Slytherin reborn within the work, presses
[...]the candle wick between thumb and finger, drew upon the natural magic flowing up through his feet, and pushed the energy into the wick. As he felt the energy catch on the flammable material[...]
thus setting the wick alight with a white flame. He then proceeds to use an alder flute to play a song that, per the work was not “forgotten but not used for its true purpose for centuries”, making it so the flame ceased to flicker, growing brighter alongside the magic being used, before dimming, prompting the music to cease. The light then begins to return, this time as three floating white fires, that then reform into the summoned spirits, asking who it was summoning them, with communication proceeding after the appropriate answer is given.
The rite displayed is curious, given the context within which it exists. Ouroboros’ central conceit is that of Salazar Slytherin being reincarnated, alongside being an adherent to a Mother Nature figure who served a dual role of a goddess of magic, a consequence of the magical order of which he was a member. Within the work there are natural pathways of magic on which ley lines formed, and at the confluences of which groves were planted to strengthen the magic flowing through them.
The religiosity of our point of view character is not, to my knowledge, explored overmuch, rather being a mere background asset that shapes his views, much the same as the time he first lived shaping his existence. Crucially, the nature of our point of view character being reincarnated, in conjunction with the rite performed and the religiosity that is disparately displayed allows for quite a wealth of logical deduction.
The first is the time period in which Salazar first lived was one in which bardic culture was still very much present if beginning to wane and die out in favor of the various forms of classical minstrels (notably different to the minstrelsy of America.) The element of the alder flute being used for the purpose of summoning the spirits has implications of being a key element of the religion to which Salazar adheres, an element that makes sense when one understands that, within the work, Salazar hails from just outside of Yorkshire*, thus being within the extant Celtic nations of the time, and thus one of the prominent centers of bardic culture, and one in which they played a crucial role.
The second is the use of the phrase “the Mother”, or “the Great Mother.” Serving the role of the mother of nature, and the mother of magic, the positioning of the central figure as a mother implies a key role of femininity. The specific rite being displayed being centered on natural magic, which per the work originates from this Mother figure, being used to call upon the spirits is also noteworthy. The nature of the flames forming into the spirits is noteworthy as well.
Religions with Mother figures are, as a generality, accompanied by either a Son or Daughter figure or a Father role, if not a deity presiding over fatherhood. Conjecturally speaking, this religion that Salazar adheres to may have two primary figures, the Mother figure, goddess of magic and nature, and a possible Father role and a possible inverse to the Mother figure, being associated with death, and fire, Of course, it may also be a monotheistic religion. However, I speculate on this to highlight an aspect of the system that NovusArs has built for Ouroboros. The point of view figure simply knows these things, it is not something that Salazar has to try and recall, or to learn about. Thus, we receive no overt explanation.
Ouroboros does, I feel, quite a good job at making a religion that is truly old, and one that is disconnected from the Sabbats. Something that I feel many laymen do not grasp is that, as concepts and systems age, they gain a ubiquity to them. To record them, or to explain them, seems humorous to the people who hold those beliefs, who believed those ideas. Everyone knows this, why then must we explain it? An example would be Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent of Meso-America. A great many stories of his birth exist, many involving humans. Crucially, however, those that involve humans all have the element of the human recognizing the serpent as Quetzalcoatl. These are not Ur-birth stories.
The primary takeaway from this lens is that, for a belief system to feel compelling in its age, there must be a degree of this ambiguity, this ubiquity. Conversely, many interpretations of Pureblood Culture have very clear “just-so” stories that have elements emblematic of being written as an explanation.