Posted on 12/16/2004 11:04:00 AM PST by quidnunc
The sky was already murky at 4 p.m. when I locked my bike outside Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. Inside, it was even murkier: wood-panelled corridors stretched off into the gloom, men in grey suits were wedged together, smoking Bensons and drinking bitter. No one looked even slightly like an Arch Priest of the Council of British Druid Orders. At 4:10 I found a separate little bar near the back of the pub. As I walked in, a big man with round shoulders and grey hair stared at me and I saw the corner of a magazine poking out from inside his coat. As I watched, the whole cover slowly emerged: a yellowy-purple watercolour of a fairy, and the title: The Witchtower. ‘Steve?’ I said. He nodded.
We bought bitter, found somewhere to sit, and began what turned out to be a three-hour crash course in modern paganism, one of the fastest-growing religions in Britain.
-snip-
So, can a modern pagan just pick any god to worship? I asked. Egyptian? Roman? African? Are there any rules? Steve put his hands self-consciously under the table, ‘No rules,’ he said. ‘Being a pagan is about being free from institutional rules. And the gods? Once you start seeking they choose you, really. Everyone has their own path, but we all celebrate the same festivals: the summer and winter solstices, spring and autumn equinoxes and four other festivals: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasad.’
Pagans, I discovered during our second pint, are also united by their sense of the injustices done them by Christians. The last 2,000 years of history is a heart-wrenching tale of innocent occult revivals squashed by ignorant Christians …
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.co.uk ...
Just what we need, another organization out there that hates Christians. Well, it has been foretold. It is either the internet or the times, but I have been reading a lot more things like this lately.
No need to worry, we win in the end.
They choose you? Sounds like a metaphysical version of picking up a hooker...
We are already being forced to celebrate like pagans. Christians celebrate CHRISTMAS in December because it was the time of a pagan "winter" holiday (vernal equinox, I believe). We are now forced to celebrate "winter holiday",
"winter festival", "winter concert", etc. as CHRISTMAS is being destroyed.
nutbag
Erm... the phrase "common sense" must have some... other... meaning in the UK. Otherwise I think I need to sit down and cry.
Something new,(I realize its as old as dirt) interesting, different and gives one power over others. Just the thing for gullible people, especially teens to trip over and become involved in.
Well, we did do the nose.
Winter Solstice.
Constantine picked Dec 25th for Christmas because it had long been celebrated as the Birthday of Mithras.
The Romans celebrated Saturnalia (named after Saturn, revered as king of the g-ds during the Golden Age). During the Saturnalia, children, servants, and friends were given gifts. Masters waited upon their servants. Boxing day is a hold over from that tradition.
And Roman Pagans do not celebrate Samhain, ect, but have their own list of special days. Ovid's "Fasti" is a very good ancient source for many of them.
"It is either the internet or the times,"
It's the internet. Whack jobs are older than Methuselah.
Just maybe, just maybe they weren't so ignorant...
"We Are All Pagans Now"
We are! Oh crap! Where'd I put that lambs blood?
Once during moments of spiritual weakness, the gods Ducati and Corvette tried to choose me, and they demanded sacrifices of thousands of dollars. My wife quickly put me back on the straight and narrow path.
There the "philosophy" of Freud, in a nutshell.
monotheism narrow-minded
Ah, the tolerance of "the enlighted" Left.
and a belief in original sin a sign of mental illness.
There's the insanity from what is commonly called "The Enlightenment." I guess these people would want to institutionalize Christians, like they did in the Soviet Union.
All in all, people are getting scary these days.
Most modern pagans don't trace their spiritual ancestry to any kind of druids, and none trace it to the kind who engaged in human sacrifices. Remember, there were also well-established Christian groups which burned "witches" at the stake, and went around slaughtering people who refused to convert Christianity, and imprisoning people differed with them on narrow theological points. That's hardly representative of what modern Christians believe in, and not a reason to accuse modern Christians of "romanticizing and historical blindness" when they say they their faith is focused on living in accordance with the will of a loving God.
What are you referring to?
Really elaborate there, Shakespeare. Do you believe the witchhunts never happenend?
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