NMR ISSUE 39

Adjusting to Time Changes
Astrological Forecast 39
Bee and gopher
Crane
Editorial 39
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Harvest
Letters 39
Meditations on the Elements: Fire
Pagans and the Net
The Joy of Death
The Sirius Connection
The Spirit's Dance

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Letters

Science and Truth
(a Case of Black and White)

Allow me to make a few points of discussion, for you to consider, and we may all get on with our lives. As most of you are aware, life, the conscious existence we enjoy and celebrate through ritual and ceremony, is perceived just a little different by each of us based upon a multitude of environmental and genealogical conditions. Even identical twins vary to some degree in the genealogical sense, and even more so in relation to the environment, they were raised in. No two humans think exactly alike, with the possible exception of soul mates, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Paganism is supposed to be one of the last bastions of total tolerance of varied belief systems. A haven from the finger pointing, the name calling we, as Pagans, stereotype unto members of the major religions. Are we so petty as to demean our selves to the level of vulgar?

In particular I was appalled by Tarostar's (Letters in NMR 7:4) definite black and white attitude. Us vs. Them. The Christian's, (yes, you capitalize other peoples religions, even if you do not agree with them, it is common custom) are entitled to their beliefs no matter how much they proselytize or defame. It is their right as free people.

To quote from my own Tome o Shades de Pentagram, There can be no monopoly on wisdom. We share what we can of our ways with others who seek them, but hide mystic lore from the eyes of those who would destroy us, for to do otherwise increases our destruction. Mock not the rituals or spells of another religion, for who can say ours are greater in power or wisdom? Ensure that your actions are honorable, for all that thee do shall return to thee three times over, good or bane.

The question then is, Who among us is primus inter pares? (First among equals)

Unpleasant as it may be, history is written by those who survive and conquer. The Christians did a better job of suppressing other religions during the dark ages and most of the history books written after that point in time reflect the Christian belief system. Adding the word science merely makes history into a religious system since it is then based on theory and belief. Science of history must be the ultimate oxymoron.

The other usage I find troublesome is the use of C.E., Common Era. Why not just use the original in its original context, aD? anno Domini was an Roman term, used to describe a point of time in Roman history. If you were to read Suetonius's, The Lives of the Caesars a 1913 translation by J.C. Rolfe, you would learn that Octavian Caesar, who changed his name to Augustus, was the person to whom the term aD was correct. Caesar Augustus, upon the death of his uncle Julius Caesar became proconsulare imperium leader of all the armies of Rome. Later as Augustus solidified his rule he added the title of Tribunicia potestas, the final level of judicial decision. Lastly about two thirds of the way through his rule as emperor, he added the title of Pontifex Maximus, making him the supreme high priest of all the Pagan temples of Rome. At this point in time Augustus's enemies in the Senate of Rome started using the term, anno Domini. Caesar Augustus did not like the term and referred to it as reproachful and insulting because Domini or Dominus is a term used by a slave for his Master or Lord (lord as in the English land owner or baron). Flavius Domitian is credited with making aD official.

How ironic that just recently Biblical historians were so ecstatic when they though they had found proof of the birth of a male Hebrew, Jesus, son of Joseph in the year of four BC. How about that for a paradox? Supposed proof of the birth of a man four years before they claim he was born and they celebrate.

While on the subject of the Christian Bible as a historical document, it may be note worthy that the first unification of the various testaments, old and new into what is some what similar to the book we see today was done by Saint Jerome in the late fourth century aD and is called the Vulgate Bible, the Catholic version.

The main problem with any mythology, including Christian, Hindu, etc. is the accuracy and intent of the people who translate oral and written renditions into other languages. If one were to take a simple phrase and translate it into Vulgar Latin, you might end up with; fortunatus esse or beatus essentia or benedicere favere all of which would be proper translations, dependent upon the meaning one wished to convey or syntax of the phrase. These three phrases all translate to our very own sacred, BLESSED BE.

Even small changes in writing style have great effect, example Dominus a government supported master or lord of many peoples can change to a simple property owner by rewriting the word as dominus.

There are very great changes ahead for Neopaganism. We the guardians of the old ways, may be molding a religious system as vast as any main stream religion is today. Destiny and Time, two of the old gods, have placed us head long into the mainstream of theological thought. Of particular interest was as article about the Unitarian Universalist Church, which stated that the General Assembly had adopted ceremonies of Native American, African American, East Indian, Celtic, Druid and Pagan belief systems. Earth-centered traditions are added to the list of source material that the individual congregations may use in there living faith. As we gain legitimacy, we may lose our individuality but this does make an opportunity for those like Bronwyn.

Yes, Bronwyn, even traditionalists have difficulty with family members who have given up Paganism for Christianity. Those family members who once enjoyed the solstice fire, now look upon Paganism with disdain and scorn. They look for any opportunity to try and convert the believers of the old religion to theirs.

But this I emphasize to all by Sisters and Brothers, To Thy Own Inner Self Be True.

Truth is in the eyes and ears of the beholder. No matter how well the argument is made or convincing the speech, people believe what they want to, without regard to fact as we know them. The best we can hope for is that they do not try to limit our religious freedom through political process.

Calendar reformation began in c.1450 by an Austrian astronomer Puerback (1423-1461). Work completed by and agreed to by Christian nations in 1582 A.D. Also, Julius Caesar commissioned the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C., introduced under the rule of Caesar Augustus in ~1 aD.

aD is a Roman term, where as A.D. is the later Christian adaptation. Please to keep in mind that the Christian religion is a product of the previous belief systems of human history and does not stand alone on its own merit.

Some of the first beliefs of an after life were introduced by the Mesopotamian and Sumerian religious systems and incorporated into the Hebrew concept of Sheol. Thirty-five of the fifty Laws given unto the Hebrew people in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Pentateuch, were taken nearly word for word from the Hammurabi Code and the whole of the Mesopotamian legal tradition. The Persians, through Zoroastrainism, gave later Christianity the concept of good vs. evil in the eternal struggle of Ahura-Mazdas, God of light, against Aingra-Manu, God of darkness. The Persians also gave us the concepts of pride, gluttony, sloth and other of the Christian deadly sins. Even the concept of Christ as a Redeemer was borrowed from the Roman Empire from Mithraism.

The only truly original concept the Hebrew-Christian religion gave humanity was the conversion of a barley God, Yahweh, into a monotheistic deity. And that was not agreed upon until the third century A.D.

Until the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the three chief centers of Christianity had been Jerusalem, Caesarea and Antioch, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called `Christians' (Acts, 11:26). After A.D. 70 the chief centers were Antioch, Ephesus and Rome, although about the beginning of third century Alexandria eclipsed Ephesus in importance. Antioch and Alexandria were the homes of two vigorous and opposing schools of Christian doctrine. Antioch, in Syria, close to the scenes forever associated with the birth, life and crucifixion of Jesus, clung to its view of the Jesus of history, and tended toward the heresy of adoptionism, i.e. that Jesus, of human birth, was adopted into the Godhead, and was thus divine. The Antiochene school was of a concrete, practical and ethical bent, inclined to a literal interpretation of the scriptures. The Alexandrian school, less familiar with the scenes and homely facts of Jesus' life, inclined to the heresy of docetism, i.e. that Jesus was actually god, a phantasma of a man, and only seemed to be a human being (from the Greek dokein, to seem). This school was inclined to abstraction, mysticism, theology and was moved by the Christ of experience.

Early Christians commonly avoided participation in either local or imperial government; resisted service in the army for they were of the world, but they sought not to be of it. In the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr wrote in his first defense of Christianity to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, Having heard that we are looking forward to a kingdom, you Emperors have wrongly assumed that we refer to a kingdom of men, like yours, whereas we mean the kingdom of God! St. Augustine made the contrast even clearer when he wrote of Civitas Dei vs. Civitas terrena. But what was the Christian educator, in actual fact, to do with the scientific and cultural inheritance of the pagan past? A third century source in Didascalia Apostolorum, iii, ed R. H. Connolly, 1929:

Avoid completely heathen books! For what have you to do with strange words or laws or false prophecies, which are a ready source of error for unsteady minds? For what do you lack in the word of God that you should betake yourself to these heathen tales? If you wish to read histories, you have the Book of Kings; If you wish to read philosophy and poetry, you have the Prophets? Who alone are truly wise. If you want books of songs, you have Psalms; etc.

Thus as Christianity gained support the persecution of the Christian cults lessened until 313, when Christianity finally received official recognition for all time. Christian writers had pleaded for religious freedom and toleration and had assailed persecuting Emperors as evil tyrants and violators of the very soul of men; with the triumph of their faith, however, Christians became persecutors in their turn and in the later fourth and fifth centuries the Pagan cults and mysteries were largely destroyed. The final victory of Christianity may be studied in the religious edicts of the Theodosian Code where Pagan rites and sacrifices were prohibited; the cults suppressed and the privileges of their priests revoked; Pagans were debarred from civil and military service; scorn was cast upon veneration of images made by the work of mortals; provision was made for the destruction of temples until finally there were laws enough to suppress any Pagans who did survive.

The character of western civilization has been determined in no small part by the Christians' acceptance or rejection of the cultural legacy of the pagan past. But it remains to be seen to what extent the Christians will be influenced by Graeco-Roman rationalist philosophy, literary traditions, Greek cannons of beauty in art and architecture, Roman law and government, etc. The great battles for religious freedom and prevention of the Christian state government are yet to be fought. The war is upon us now.

G. Harroun
Spokane, WA

(There are good lessons here—I hope one is of the unfortunate losses everyone suffers through conflict. Let us abandon warlike language, even as metaphor.)

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