The Roles of Paganism in Christianity
Centuries ago, before the division of the land and the domestication of wild beasts, man
believed not in just one Divine Power, but in many powerful spirits of the world. These
spirits were both male and female and were believed to dwell in the lush earth that
surrounded him. Today, in a Christian-based patriarchal society, we have come to know
just one single Divinity known as God. With the evolution of man's values at the dawning
of the Bronze age came drastic changes in spirituality. This resulted in the
transformation of God from a male superhuman force and the renitence of the Pagan
religions which were usurped by the early Judeo-Christian theological systems. These
religions can be described as sects which were not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam and
embodied the worship of more than one God or Deity. Among the most prevalent forms of
Paganism is Wicca, which was the pre-Christian spirituality of the British Celt and was
thought to have originated over 35,000 years ago. Like all Pagan religions, Wicca's main
concentration was the respect, worship and consciousness of nature or mother earth.
Before the Bronze age, nature's changing cycles and the harvest that she provided had
been imperative in the lives of the Celts as they depended greatly upon her for survival.
Although the adoption of Judaic, Islam, and Christian religions centuries ago replaced
the spiritualities practiced by the Pagans in ancient times, many of the Pagan symbols,
beliefs and practices were emulated within the new patriarchal, monotheist religions.
For the Wiccans, Spirits were found in literally everything in nature including their own
beings. They believed in many Gods and Goddesses which were all held in equal
appreciation. There were also Wiccan beliefs which envisioned the male and female Gods
and Goddesses as part of each other and together they made one complete whole. As in
Wiccan belief, the dual trinities are translated to the trinity of Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in Christian religion. In the Wiccan religion, the trinities of the spirits are of
Youth, Father and Sage and Maiden, Mother and Crone. Although the Pagan Deities took on
many different faces to the Wiccans, the main Gods were seen as "The Horned Father-Lord
of the Forest" and "The Powerful Lady Mother". The role of the horned God was to hunt and
be hunted and he was believed to "eternally pass through the gates of death that new life
may go on" writes Maryam Povey in her essay, What is Wicca?. In Wiccan tradition, we see
that the Horned God was depicted as an immortal who brought death so that life could be
renewed in the form of birth. To the Wiccans, the Mother Goddess was seen as the
birthgiver who brought all existence into life. The Goddess in the Wiccan religion was
not thought to rule the world, but she was thought of as the earth herself. Unlike
Christian belief, the Wiccan Deities were not semi-abstract, superhuman figures but they
were, as stated by Maryam Povey, "embodied in earth and sky, women and men, and even
plants and animals". In the Wiccan religion, each God was beneficent and had something
different to contribute to the people much like the Gods in Greek and Roman mythology.
Contrary to popular belief, it was not until the entry of the Judeo-Christian religions
that the Horned God of the Pagan religions, the comforter and Solace of all, was
embittered and appropriated into the new religion as Satan, the most reviled Christian
Demon.
In Christian tradition, believers worshipped one God alone; this was the Lord or God
almighty. As expressed in Deutronomy 6:4 of the Bible, "The Lord is our God, the Lord
alone". Although the Pagan practices of the worshipping of multiple gods was strictly
condemned by the Judeo-Christians, many of the Wiccan Deities were adopted as Saints or
other prominent characters in the Bible. The Christian, Judaic and Islam God was thought
of as an almighty, powerful and superhuman figure with total control of the universe and
the lives of every being. As seen in the Bible in Genesis 17:1, "I am God Almighty; walk
before me and be blameless". In the form of the scripture, the Christian God communicates
to his people the Christian way of life and declares His power. In the Bible, He was
described to mercilessly conjure tempests destroying nations. None theless, He was also
described as a gentle provider who loved all things. god was also portrayed as the
creator of life and everything in the universe, as illustrated in the book of Genesis,
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (1:1). Christians also believed
that God predestined the future for every individual and decided whether or not after
death, a person would go to heaven or be condemned to Hell.
Albeit the fact that the Wiccan views vary notably from the Christian conceptions of God,
there is tangible evidence which proves the incorporation of some Pagan-rooted deities
into the scripture. After the takeover of the Pagan religions by Judeo-Christian
doctrines, many of the Wiccan Deities were transformed into saints or magisterial figures
in the new religions. The most obvious examples are the reformation of the Horned God
into the Devil and the Mother Goddess into the Christian Lord's mother or Saint Mary. At
the time of the Christian appropriation, the Christian clergy believed that by perverting
one of the Pagan's most sacred and important Gods into the epitome of evil they would
facilitate their job to convert the British Celts from their original Pagan religion to
Christianity. The Goddess remained in Christian tradition as a Saint and symbol of
fertility keeping Pagans grasped to a faith which allowed the admiration of their Lady
Mother. Other notable figures which are said to have originated from early Pagan Deities
include Saint Patrick, Saint Kevin and Saint Columba.
As described in the Wiccan Rede, the Wiccan religion is an individual faith which
emphasizes the respect of nature, of self and of others. Wiccans advocated peace and
pleasure and communicated this through dancing, feasts and love. We see this in the
Wiccan Rede taken from The Gardnerian Book of Shadows, "True in love ye must ever be,
lest thy love be false to thee. In these eight words the Wicca Rede fulfill, 'And ye harm
none, do what ye will'". These words make up the only steadfast rule in the Wiccan
religion and are of extreme pertinence to all Wiccans. It is believed by many witches
that according to the "rule of threes" as described in Wiccan from Icarus Webb, (Metro
Interlink) that "anything you do that is in harmful intention, you will suffer the
consequence in return three times as bad as the damage you did - living out the
punishment while you are alive, even after you are dead if necessary". By these
definitions of Wicca, we see that Pagan religions are not, in fact, evil or Satanic as
they are often labeled by Orthodox Christian clergymen.
In Christianity, the religious philosophy can be found in the form of the ten
commandments. The ten cammandments encompass the same basic theory which is found in the
Pagan and Wiccan traditions except that the commandments were orders given by God instead
of adopted by the individual as in Paganism. Divergent from the Wiccan law, the first and
foremost commandment in the Bible, found in Matthew, 22:37 is "Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". This rule takes
precedence over the equivalent to the single Pagan commandment "Love your neighbor like
yourself" (Matthew, 22:39). Although the praise and love of God in the Judeo-Christian
religions are of highest importance, the respect of neighbors as embraced from the Wiccan
traditions also was extremely significant. The other world view adapted by the Christians
from the Wiccans is described by Maryam Povey. In her essay, she states that, "The
Christian Bible says that one has only to look to nature to see evidence of God. The
Celts having discovered this long before Christ, took this literally and found Spirit in
every rock, tree, in every living beast and in themselves. . . ." We see through this
element how the early Christians adapted the Wiccan's literal worship of nature into an
indication of the existence of God, the creator.
In the Wiccan religion, there are eight holidays, based on the Pagan Wheel of the Year,
which celebrate the changing of the seasons and mid-seasons. While solemn reverence is
paid in ritual to these celebrations, the focus of these festivals is to honor life,
happiness and freedom. The ancient holiday Samhain was an important holiday marking the
end of harvest season f or the British Celts. Says Riane Eisler in The Chalice and the
Blade, "[at the end of the harvest s eason,] the veil between the worlds of the living
and the dead are at their thinnest". This notion is very close to the modern day
Christianity-based celebration of Halloween, a time for paying respects to dead family
and friends. In ancient tradition, the Pagans believed that on Samhain, the spirits of
the dead would come and knock on doors. If you "treated them" by being kind, they would
not harm you, but, if you ignored or irritated them they would "trick" you. Hence, the
modern-day image of "trick-or-treating" on All Hallow's eve. The concept behind Samhain
was to celebrate death, as the Pagans thought life and death to be a cycle. This idea was
generated from the falling leaves of Autumn, the decompostition and the disintegration
into the earth. In the spring, another important holiday called Beltaine was celebrated.
The principal Christian holiday, Easter resembled Beltain in many ways, including the
fact that it was in rejoice of life and fertility. The symbols associated with Easter
today such as rabbits and eggs were also Pagan symbols representing regeneration and
fertility.
The Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is now known to be closely
associated with another Pagan festival; Winter Solstice. To the Pagans, Winter Solstice
meant the birth of the Sun by the Goddess and usually fell between December 21 to 24. In
the Chrisian faith, Winter Solstice is represented by Christmas, or "Christ's mass" which
appropriated the birth of Jesus Christ by the virgin mother Mary, who portrayed the
Goddess in Pagan faith. As expressed in the Wiccan Rede about the Pagan Winter Solstice,
"When the wheel hath turned a Yule, light a log the Horned One rules heed ye flower, bush
and tree, by the Lady, blessed be. . . . " The stanza taken from the Wiccan Rede
signifies the Pagan Wheel of Seasons bringing the "Yule time", a saying used even today
to express the holiday season. For the Pagans, the burning of the "yule log" was part of
a rite which welcomed the Solstice and the New Year. As written in the traditional
Christmas Carol, "Here We Come-A-Wassailing", symbols that are still used in Christian
Christmas celebrations such as holly, mistletoe, Yule logs and wassail bowls originated
in Pagan and Wiccan traditions. In advent of Winter Solstice, the Evergreen tree was
worshipped by the Wiccans and equivalated through the Christmas Tree today in the way in
which it was adorned in celebration. In other Pagan religions, houses and barns were
decorated with evergreen trees at the start of the new year to scare away demons. Pagans
also set out trees, which represented fertility, for the birds in the winter.
There are many rituals, symbols and beliefs rooted in the ancient faiths of Wicca and
Paganism which were taken and appropriated to a wide array of religions. These practices,
whether emulated directly from Paganism or disguised to qualify the theological
philosophies of a certain creed were in all rectitude and goodness. In exploring the
common traditions of a modern Christian-based society, one sees that most of the customs
thought to be of Christian descent are not truly original to Judeo-Christianity. Perhaps
this is because the beliefs and rituals rooted in Paganism were established by some of
the early civilisations whom had not yet found "evil" in the meaning that it has today.
The fact that the Pagans were simple, nature-loving people whose values were of "self"
and of "earth" most likely rendered the other religious realms avid to grasp their ideal
views and incorporate them into their own spiritual complexes. The fact is undistorted
that Paganism and Christianity have not been closely related by their ways of devotion
and worship throughout the centuries in a society ruled by monotheism. This is not to
say, however, that Paganism has not played an important role in the development of
Judeo-Christianity. Even in our patrilineal monotheist society we find traces in the form
of symbols and rites of an ancient religion founded by a people amid those at the base of
civilisation.
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