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 ...
Yes. You are obviously a scholar on paganism to make such pronouncements. Bravo Einstein.
She even volunteered for Bush reelection work
Druids For Bush!!
Difference is that Islam's founder didn't say to love your neighbor as yourself. I think he said off with their heads or something to that effect.
A Christian is one indwelt by God's spirit because they've been born anew BY that Spirit. A Christian doesn't commit atroticites. However, as I said, many who think they're Christians or claim to be do.
You said there is no evidence the Christ was born on Dec. 25 and you are positively right. He fulfilled three of the major Feasts (Holy Dates) of Yahweh, and He was born during the Feast of Tabernacles - which is observed between September and October. Messiah "tabernacled" among us". He will return on a Feast of Trumpets, and things will really be under His good authority.
Let's go back to my original post. "The funny thing about this whole Celtic/Druid phenomenon is there is more than a hint of this in neo-Nazi circles. It just goes to show that Naziism and leftism are the same."
I was using the example of the pagan element in neo-Nazi circles, the truth of which is that it's a lot more than a co-opting of symbols, to support the truth that Naziism is just one manifestation of Left-wing thought. If it sounded like a generalization, it was not meant to be one.
Ever seen the movie, Galaxina?
It's a must.
"I'm a Catholic, and even though Catholics are perceived as "not knowing Scripture," I'm going to quote some Scripture.
[A]ll the gods of the Gentiles are devils - Psalm 95 (96): 5"
So, I'm a Lutheran and I believe Martin Luther had a "few" misgivings with the Catholic Church didn't he. And all but three of his "misgivings" were finally accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. Seems everyone can't be correct 100% of the time.
So you're saying that the Native American Indian's Gods were all devils and should not be important to them?
Hitler was a simple opportunist. In 1922, he was still trying to enlist Christians as backers. Later on, he didn't care. If you look at the imagery in his festivals, the symbols and rites used were pagan.
There is an important distinction here. In ancient paganism, the idols WERE a people's gods. In Christianity, a crucifix is a symbol of Christ's death on the cross. That's ancient Christianity, not modern, since most "modern" strands of Christianity have criticized the use of a corpus on the cross, since they like the emphasize the Resurrection.
There are, as you so eloquently put it, "nut cases" to be found under every religious and secular banner. To point to those few and therewith condemn the entire group is the very definition of fallacy.
What we're witnessing on this thread is just another form of relativism/indifferentism. "Since we have freedom of religion in this country, as long you don't kill or hurt people in your religion's ceremonies, your religion is valid as mine and I don't care what you do."
That kind of thinking is going to do us in.
> Try basing something like the constitution on "truths" derived from mere men, pagans.
Uh.... HELLO! That's what we've got. A nation built upon rules of law based on English common law derived from Pagan Saxon common law, with more than a dash of "Clasical" (i.e. pagan) Greek and Roman thought and philosophy.
> At the heart of Paganism is the void, Death, nothing.
BWAAAAAHAAHAHAAA!
Followers of the Temple of Set and Baptists both have a form of Communion in their worship. This does not make Baptists evil, nor does it make Satanists Christian.
If you believe in freedom of religion, who are you to say it has no place in heathenism? "Their religion is as valid as yours."
Some of the symbols I see going to Christmas services in a Luthern Church are quite pagan as well. And?
It seems that we disagree. I believe that the concept of right or wrong is something we, as humans, came up with as we formed societies. I don't believe anything we do here on earth really matters except while we're alive.
Which is what is being attempted with Druidic beliefs on this very thread. Not to mention trying to tie Northern European religions to the neo-nazi's dying ideology.
>"... your religion is valid as mine and I don't care what you do." That kind of thinking is going to do us in.
Tell us, in clear and unemotional terms without appeals to YOUR particular religious beliefs, why people believing in their own faiths and obeying the laws of the land will lead to ruin.
..." your personality is determined by your star sign is, however, regarded as common sense."
How can a nuclear reaction of fission and fusion in space cause your personality to be determined? THAT IS NOT LOGICAL --
I knew a pagan woman once -- she turned out to be insane. She collected HUMAN SKULLS! She asked me to marry her. I thank GOD that I never married this nut!
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