Question by Green Pagan 4.0: If Christians can paint Fertility Eggs every year and call it “Easter”…?
Then why don’t Pagan authors evoke this as a way that Paganism has transcended the ages?
There are very popular books by certain respected Historians that refuse to admit that Pagan culture has always been alive and well in the world…
They discount the MASSIVE elements of our culture which have been streamlined and absorbed into Christianity and claim that Paganism/Wicca was “invented” by Gerald Gardner a mere 50 years ago…
Why can’t we count all the witchcraft of Christians and Native Americans in our research?
Why must we give up on all the things that have been hijacked and used against us and pretend that they are no longer “living rituals”?
Best answer:
Answer by Tedi Lee
This Christian does NOT
Add your own answer in the comments!
I am a christian, and most people i know don’t know these facts:
When the catholics were forcing all the pagans to turn christian, to make the transition easier, they just took the pagan holidays and gods, and put christian names to them. Easter was the pagan holiday celebrating the goddess of spring, I think her name was Astarte, Christmas was the pagan holiday celebrating the god of light, which is why we have a christmas tree with lights, I think his name was Saturnalis, and all the statues of saints were changed from the pagan gods and godesses. Mary was originally the Goddess that wiccans worship. Don’t believe me? Look it up!
Well Christianity and Paganism were kinda combined over time. I don’t have my facts straight for this questions but I defiantly know that. Christmas with the birth of god and the tree with presents is also a mix of christian and pagan. Hallows Eve pagan. Still celebrated by Christians. What the girl said above basically.
We all now that Christianity is a morphed version of paganism. Yule is christmas, etc.
I guess Pagans and Wiccans are afraid that if they speak up, the christians will burn them again. XD
I’d like to know the answer to this as well. I’d also like to know why Halloween is seen as evil “pagan” holiday while Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day have pagan roots but are seen as good in Christian Eyes. Does simply renaming something make it better?
I have always had a problem with using Pagan symbols to celebrate Christs Resurrection.
Myself and many Christians I know do not, but even more do because they don’t want to disappoint their kids, who will watch other kids go on Easter egg hunts…
Same thing about All Hallowed Eve. Personally, Halloween was one of my favorite nights. Now that I have accepted Christ, I know I have to let that go. But others do not want to disappoint their kids.
By the virtue of making their children happy for the now, they perpetuate the very ritual that will keep their children separate from Christ because their children will raise their children the same way.
Christians do not call coloured Easter Eggs’ Easter. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. The Egg, might in some cases, be a sign of “Life”. The life given by God in our mortal frame and the Divine Life offered to Body and Soul through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Many authors DO evoke such things as a way Pagan practices have remained alive and well, and surely many pagans themselves also see much evidence of their faiths and practices right down through the ages.
While some argue that the faiths died out, most recognize that certain aspects of the faith, as they had been absorbed into culture, never ceased to be believed and practiced.
I have never heard anyone claim paganism was invented by Gardiner. Most authors and pagans recognize that even the neo-pagan movements beginnings predate Gardiner by as much as a century. But Gardiner did establish the particular faith of Wicca. While he used older beliefs, and practices as a base, he did establish that faith. There is no shame in that. Many older faith traditions get new sects based on the teachings of a leader throughout their history. It takes nothing away from the practice of Wicca to recognize when it was established and by whom.
I don’t understand what you mean by not counting witchcraft and Native Americans in our research. Who’s research? There are many books out there on the practice and spirituality of witchcraft and that of Native Americans.
Most pagans that I know have not given up on their practices simply because people of another faith or culture have borrowed, imitated or to use your word “hijacked” them. We still do our thing, for our own reasons. Many pagans are amused, grateful and smug about how much of their faith has been continued by the very people who sought to destroy it.
I don’t know any pagans that don’t celebrate their holy days because they feel they’ve been ruined by cultural influences, or have given up their rituals for the same reason. Most of us pick up right where we are and move forward with our spirituality.
I’m sorry you feel so victimized and put down. Are you part of an active pagan community, even an online one. To see and hear and join in with others who are focusing on living their faith is pretty encouraging and inspiring. It helps one focus more on the positive things that are going on in one’s own community, than the negative stuff of another.
Being a strong active pagan is the best defense against the sort of thing you describe. We can write books too!
I’m a pagan that hasn’t heard of giving up on any of it, from any of my brother or sister pagans, or even our “cousin” groups. These rituals are very much alive with pagans I know.
As far as Christians using them in their energies and spirituality I don’t see any harm in them using it for good, and harming none. I haven’t seen them use it against pagans. Hijacking is a strong word. “Has been shared and transformed” might be better.
Thinking positive and harming none is apart of who we are. 🙂
“why don’t Pagan authors evoke this as a way that Paganism has transcended the ages?”
I feel just the opposite sometimes. Very frequently I read from Pagan authors about the way pagan beliefs and rituals and symbols have been adopted by Christianity. After a while I grow weary of reading about it over and over. By now, I would think that nearly everyone knows how Beltane, Ostara, Yule, etc have been co-opted into modern Christian and secular institutions and festivals. Everybody gets it. Even Christians now admit it. It is old news. Let us just celebrate together.
It is true that durring the early times of Christianity the Church and State, “Rome” obsorbed into Christianity the cerimonies and traditions of Pagan peoples to make taking over thier lands and peoples easier. Consider, Rome as well as all the old civilizations had to be the same religion as the leader. When I believe Ceasar Augustus became a Christian, years after the crusifiction of Christ. The people of Rome had to do the same. So to make the transition more acceptable to the people, many of the traditions of ceremony remained. Incense burning even the creation of Purgatory so the Priests could still have control over the actions of the living while they prayed and payed for the dead. No different than putting the coins on the eyes of the dead to pay the boatman to allow the dead to cross the river Styxs to enter Hades the land of the dead.
Conquorers also made it law in some countries for thier territorial leader to sleep with a local woman on her wedding night to intermingle the blood lines. To make one bloodline. In a way no different from the Pagan Beltaine, which was once a year for the peoples to come together and celebrate life by sleeping with someone other than your spouse so as to propigate and mix different blood lines. A practice of Beltaine still done today, but it is not to propigate, it is to be able to justify having sex with anyone you choose and to use religion as the excuse to get away with it on that day.
Paganism of any type was for simple peoples to try to explain thier world around them because they didnt have science and they didnt know was was beyond the edge of the woods. People had to explain the unknown so they made Gods and Goddesses. Ussually in thier image and to fit thier needs and to satisfy thier fears. Peganism today. Is for those who wish to live by a different drummer, for multitudes of reasons. If it be because they couldnt find the answers in the religion they were brought up in because the people they counted on fell short, maybe they resent the religion they grew up in because thier life wasnt what they expected and became angry at thier God. Maybe they need to be different, need the attention in their lives. Look at me “Shock Witches”. I even know of one who it has been said uses his position as High Priest for infuence and sex with the younger women, and loves Beltain. Many many reasons.
And those who truly believe. Well as long as everyone is a Closet Witch, and cannot live by thier convictions to the faith they claim they are, then you will always practice in secret. There will be no truly organized church always little satallite groups.
Yes, I know the Kicker here. Christianity. Well, consider no matter what one wants to follow. History. … Yes History., Written over and over again, in documents from Rome, from the History records of the Jews. from lost now found scrolls. Jesus was a real man. He existed. Documentation from way too many sources confirms his existance. Even the fortelling of his coming. Was he God come to earth?… Only you can seek and answer that for yourself. But as a man he was here.
Other than wishfull thinking and an”Oh wouldnt it be wonderfull” fairy tale life in ones imagination, Do Pagan Gods really exist, or have they? Any Documentation? Any myth “aka” legend that hasnt been explained?
Blessings to you
I’m pretty sure that the word Easter comes from an Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility, Eostara. So that means that “Easter” is the fertility celebration, and Christians hijacked the term. Now, many Christians only refer to the holiday commemorating Christ’s ressurection as “Ressurection Day”. Another example of pagan traditions being absorbed by Christians, of course, is the Christmas tree, which, in my house, we call the Winter Solstice tree.
“Yes, I know the Kicker here. Christianity. Well, consider no matter what one wants to follow. History. … Yes History., Written over and over again, in documents from Rome, from the History records of the Jews. from lost now found scrolls. Jesus was a real man. He existed. Documentation from way too many sources confirms his existance. Even the fortelling of his coming. Was he God come to earth?… Only you can seek and answer that for yourself. But as a man he was here.
Other than wishfull thinking and an”Oh wouldnt it be wonderfull” fairy tale life in ones imagination, Do Pagan Gods really exist, or have they? Any Documentation? Any myth “aka” legend that hasnt been explained?”
I have my degrees in near eastern archaeology and Religion and culture so let me make a few comments on that post.1st, the Christian savior Jesus was not the only Jesus recorded and some Christians tend to amalgamate them to prove whatever point is being made. 2nd Jesus the man likely did exist but he was not a god, he never claimed to be a deity of any sort and there is no more written proof for the Christian god than there is for any other. The closest thing to a god you can describe the Christan savior Jesus as is an avatar and most religions that have avatars have written documentation, history, “proving” their existence. I would also like to note that history is biased and should always be treated as such. all those “accounts” were written my humans with human flaws and have been edited by different people through time. not to mention translation errors. Dont forget that most of these things were written with political and religious agendas. Actually one of the oldest known sources of genesis is in ancient hebrew and i had to translate it to pass my ancient hebrew class. to my surprise it never spoke of “God” as singular but as a plural as in “The Gods created the heavens…”. I could go on forever about the polytheistic roots of Judaism and Christianity but I dont have all day and i already wrote my thesis on that very topic lol
In closing though, religion and spirituality is a very personal thing and if it brings you closer to the divine, brings you a sense of peace and enlightenment without hurting anyone then really who cares what traditions people follow in the present. Its not about who’s wrong or right but knowing where your traditions stem from is important in my opinion.