Tag Archives: Paganism

Is Christmas Christian?

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Why December the 25th?

The main problem in trying to establish the date of Christ’s birth is that there simply isn’t any real evidence to go on. The gospels don’t provide any dating evidence apart from the reported roman census and an astronomical phenomena, the star, to go on. Nowhere in the gospels is the date of conception or birth actually mentioned. Unfortunately there seems to be no records of any census undertaken in that period, strange as the Romans were methodical record keepers, and research has shown no contemporary records of any astronomical event sufficient to pinpoint a date to more than a few years accuracy let alone an actual day.

This wasn’t a problem for the early church as birthdays were not seen as something to actually celebrate so the only interest in establishing the date was purely theological. The main problem is that despite the hard work of the theologians, they generally met with a stunning lack of success in actually agreeing on a date.

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Posted in History, Life, Theology

A rag on a poll!

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“Sharpe: Do you really believe men will fight and die for a rag on a pole, sir?

 

 

Hogan: You do, Richard, you do”

 

 

Sharps Rifles.

The quote, for a book by Bernard Cornwall, clearly shows both the power and danger of symbols. Now Shape, a fictional soldier in the British army fighting Napoleon during the peninsular wars, was referring to a flag but one with religious meaning to the local people who it was hoped would rise up if the flag was flown. What that simple quote shows is that symbols, especially those that embody religious meaning, can inspire fanatical loyalty and deep reverence in people. It also shows how difficult we find it to understand why others feel the same way about their symbols.

Part of this dichotomy is probably in the way that symbols, particularly religious ones, are given their meaning. Possibly the most powerful part of religious symbology is that it provides the wearer a way of identifying with the group that they belong to. This feeling of group identity is very powerful, as can be seen with the way that groups will behave in a way totally different to that of any of the individual members. This group dynamic can be seen in the football fans following their team or in the ‘esprit de corps’ developed by military groupings.

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

Pantheism

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One of the problems that some ‘normal’ people have with the idea of paganism is that they really don’t understand what it is. This isn’t surprising after all as the term covers such a broad range of beliefs, practices and ideas that even the Pagan federation has had to ‘throw in the towel’ and accept that a Pagan Is somebody who says that they are a Pagan. The so called self identify test.
In a way this is a good thing of course, Pagans tend to feel at home with a wide range of different faiths and belief structures. It can cause a problem however as somebody searching for a name for their own beliefs can be faced with a vast range paths all with their own underlying beliefs and rituals. Some have a vast range of gods and goddesses; some believe that their gods are literal individuals others see them as aspects of a greater divine.

Some are based one faiths that existed many years ago, some being well documented while others little more than a folk memory, while others are ‘new’ faiths born in the recent past.
Some of these faiths are well known, others hidden and secret while others are growing in popularity. All in all a bewildering array of faiths and paths to chose from.
So in the spirit of making things even more complex I would like to present a path that formalises some thoughts about the deity that many people have. This path isn’t as well known perhaps as some of the others and is called Pantheism.
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Posted in Esoterica, Theology
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