Question by LabGrrl: Pagans: How many monotheistic cults sprang from your religious roots?
Assuming you’re a Pagan whose religion is based on pre-Christian religions. I know this is not all Pagans.
Best answer:
Answer by bcraig5
Christianity.
What do you think? Answer below!
“your” religious roots?
The God of Abraham is unique, no pagan can claim they had Him first. 🙂
I think many were influenced & christianity adopted our festivals although they hotly deny this & call us heathens which is really quite funny when you think about it…!!
Well I’m obviously not going to give details…but I will tell you this; the Greeks had MANY cults, they weren’t really “monotheistic” but they placed a great amount of time and energy on getting to know and experiencing the “divine” as the God/dess that was the center of the Cult.
Cult of Dionysus
Cult of Aphrodite
Cult of Eucledius
Cult of Persephone
Cult of Demeter
Cult of Hermes
I’m sure the first two were the most fun! Who wouldn’t want to get super drunk and intoxicated on ecstatic chemicals while screaming throughout the night carrying torches, screaming, being wild and having amazing, ecstatic sex in the presence of Dionysus!? Who I tell you, WHO? xD
Apparently Noonehome1 hasn’t realized that Judaism sprung up from Pagan Egyptian religion and Zoroastrianism
Too many, if you count my Egyptian mythological roots. Perhaps all of them. A Prince of Egypt took the worship of one God when he was expelled out of Egypt. This minor noble’s name was Moses, and at least 3 major Monotheisms grew up out of this one heretical cult leader.
The number of cults based around any ancient religion is probably incalculable, the majority of cults are very short lived and very unlikely to leave much, if any, evidence of their existence.
That said, my pagan roots only go back to Gerald Gardener so I’m not part of your target audience, just wanted to put my 2 cents in.
There are the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism) is the other main religion that is monotheistic.
These religions were urban (Mazdaism may be different). Jerusalem was a Celestial City, and since it is where the Temple was, it was the only place Jews could offer a sacrifice. Christianity quickly gravitated towards the cities in the area, and especially to the Roman ones, where population densities were high. It took Christianity a long time to penetrate all the pagan populations of Europe. The Arabs likewise have a holy city, Mecca. Who wants to live in a city after death? I’d much rather live in the Summerland, where people can at least still have sex with each other.
Greetings!
Most people, when presented with a “personal experience” will choose a Mater or Pater and devote toward them-no matter how many other Deities inhabit that particular Pantheon.
While Pagans DO respect other Gods, and other Religions, they usually choose one or two to work with, and that usually lasts quite a while-and I don`t see that this has changed in the past 40,000 years.
Sun-Cults, Moon-Cults, War Gods, Gods of Healing, Farming, Crafts, each “Cult” might be one person, a Family, Tribe, Village, but that is what “Pagan” is all about-the right to choose, AND the right to change if they feel another call-
A Pagan Priest needs to learn of ALL Deity, and then use that knowledge to find particular Energies to make available that Path for certain situations, different needs, individual personalities.
The Abrahamic Religions have had to invent the idea of “Saints” and other titles to give their followers a personal representative with their great, invisible, un-heard, un-knowable, but very jealous Creator Deity that they try to connect to with the aid of the “Priests” and “Prophets” that do all the work, and only ask that you give them EVERYTHING.
And you can see how the “MonoTheist Religions” get along!
Pagans like the personal touch of doing the Work themselves.
So, how many Cults?
Uncountable.
But, it is a very good question to show how Theology works, and the difference between those who only follow fat lazy perverted power-monger dogma-spouting Priests, and those who CHOOSE their Path.
/!
The Mystery Cults of Odin got pretty popular. There are those who don’t believe Christianity would have gotten the foot hold in N Europe with out them actually.
No one home, you are appropriately named…
I nominate you for the golden crucifix award.
Well Labgrrl, it really depends on definitions here.
There is hard monotheism, and inclusive monotheism
(i.e. soft polytheism)… and then there’s the word
“cult”. I take it to mean those who worship a human
as a deity (i.e. Jesus, Mohamed, etc.) So most
pagan religions are not cults, whereas xianity and
islam do have that aspect.
In general, my tradition begins (to our knowledge)
in 6000 BCE and from it evolved every other Mother
Goddess tradition in the Mediterranean area. The
other side of the coin were the Kurgan war gods,
introduced around 4000 BCE, who eventually won
out by murdering everyone else, and who form the
basis for xianity, islam, etc.
Hopefully that gets to the root of your question
better than a genetic history. I should also point
out that we were the oldest known religion, and
have always been monotheistic, except for a
brief period when Attis was introduced as a
minor deity. That caused problems and is why
he has been removed from our modern practice.
Blessings,
Jean