Posts Tagged ‘pagan’

Once upon a time there was darkness. And darkness was a happy creature. She
could fly and soar through space, and there was nothing to hinder her every
whim. She was quite content in this freedom for many many years. Until one day,
after soaring around, she realized that she couldn’t tell how fast she was
flying through space. Nor could she tell how far she traveled.
So the Dark Goddess thought and thought about what she could do to show speed
and distance. Soon the Dark Goddess realized that if she created time, that she
would be able to know how fast she was going. But then she realized that time
needs physical objects to count with. So the Goddess decided to create the
Universe.
She dotted the Darkness with beautiful stars all over. Painting many galaxies of
planets and stars and moons. The Goddess made all of the planets turning deosil
around all the suns, and all the moons turned deosil around the planets. And all
the solar systems went deosil around to make pretty swirls in the sky. Pretty
soon, there wasn’t just darkness around the Goddess, there were beautiful jewels
all around her.
The great Dark Goddess looked around her was smiled! She was pleased! She had
created something magickal, beautiful. And now as she soared through the
darkness she could see how fast she was going, and how far she traveled. The
stars would create beautiful streaks in the corner of her eyes as she flew past
them all.
The Dark Goddess was very happy with what she had created. And stayed happy for
a very long time. Until one day as she was flying around, and was looking at all
the beautiful stars and planets, that she started to feel something strange. She
felt sad, that she was the only being that was seeing her creations. And then
she felt something even more distressing. She felt loneliness, for not having
another to share these sights with.
Then the Dark Goddess had a wonderful idea. She would create other creatures on
one of the planets to share all of this wondrous beauty with. She picked one of
her favorite blue planets to start with. There were already luscious forests and
meadows all over the planet. So she knew that the creatures she created would
have plenty to eat and drink. Then she got to working on her children.
First she created creatures that lived in the waters of the planet. She gave
them names, and languages to speak with each other. She created the very tiniest
to the very largest of these creatures, all of them knowing her love and her
touch.
And the greatest of the water creatures she names Whales, and bestowed on them a
wondrous gift. The gift of history. They above all other creatures will know the
beginning and they will know the end. She sang to them her song of freedom
before, when there was only darkness. She sang to them the song of how she
created time and all the stars in the darkness. And then she sang to them of her
sadness and loneliness, so they will know why she created all the creatures of
the world. And she made them one great promise. That she will continue to sing
to them and give them more of her songs through out the ages, but only if they
will continue to sing her songs as long as there is one whale alive. Their job
was to remind all the other creatures of her love for them through the Whale
Song.
The next creatures she created, were the creatures of air. She created many a
beast with great wings. And she created many a tiny insect that flew fast and
busily through the air. They all had their jobs, to create foods, to pollinate
the plants, and to hunt. But none were greater than the Dragons.
The Goddess bestowed upon the Dragons, a great burden. She knew their powerful
souls and shoulders could carry it. They were the keepers of wisdom. She taught
them how the universe worked, and why everything had many purposes. She taught
them about Karma, reincarnation, and the meaning of life. She gave them all of
this wisdom to hold, until others were ready to understand. And then the dragons
were to guide them through these lessons.
The Goddess then started to create all the creatures of the land. From the
tiniest worms digging through the dirt, to the mightiest of the lions and apes.
She made sure that each animal of the land kept in line with the circle of life.
And there were many great and wondrous creatures. But there was one creature,
not the greatest, but the most special, that the Goddess chose to give her gift.
The Unicorn, was her most special of all the creatures. It’s majestic main, and
sparkling horn, proved its magickal presence. To this amazing creature, the
Goddess bestowed the gift of innocence. Innocence of belief in what you can’t
see, innocence of hope without proof, and love without reason. The unicorns
accepted these gifts gladly, for they knew their importance.
Finally the Dark Goddess looked at all that she had done. She saw the beauty and
magic in every single creature she created. She was apart of all of them. And
yet, she wasn�t satisfied. There was something missing. She realized that though
all her creatures were beautiful and had purpose, that there was a need for one
more creature to be granted guardianship over all of them. So she created a
creature that resembled herself. This creature would be able to give birth, feed
her daughters of her own body, and would teach them their whole lives. This was
woman! She encompassed all that the Goddess was as the mother.
Then the Dark Goddess pulled apart another creature from the woman, and this she
called man. Man would be the other part of the Dark Goddess, who protects, and
kills when necessary, to take care of woman and her children. And to these two
creatures, she bestowed upon them the responsibility of taking care of the
entire world. It would be their job, and their children’s job, and every
generation from here on, to take care of every creature great and small. To take
care of every plant, and keep the world safe from destruction. And their helpers
would be the three great beasts, the Whale, the Dragon, and the Unicorn. They
would be the human’s guides and teacher to help them through out the centuries.
As the Goddess stepped back and looked at her creations, their beauty awed her.
The Dark Goddess was pleased with her children.

This is probably one of the biggest controversies in Paganism and Christianity.
Can you be both a Christian and a Witch?? Yes! of course you can! Sheesh, there
really aren’t any rules out there saying what you can and can not believe!!!
Though there are plenty of people who would LIKE there to be rules about
spirituality and religion, the fact is, there isn’t!

So, the question remains, how can someone be a Christian Witch? Aren’t they two
diabolically different religions?

Of course this all depends on the person’s definition of each of these
religions. That should go without saying. But it should also go without saying
that religion and spirituality are totally private and individual! But that is
beside the point of this article.

What is a witch, pagan, Wiccan? There are more definitions of these words than
there are of Christians! But basically the tenets of Witchcraft, Paganism and
Wicca are the belief that everything in nature is Divine including ourselves.
There are those who believe in one God or Goddess, there are those who believe
in many, and there are those who believe in none (or that all Gods are really
one God). But there is no hard and fast rule about who, what, or how to believe
in Divinity, except that all things are a part of that Divinity. You’d think
that magic is another tenet, but it’s not really. Most Witches, Pagans and
Wiccans use magick as a way of communicating with the Divine, but certainly not
all of them do. That is a personal decision. Most pagans don’t believe in Satan,
and none worship him as their God! But this is also a personal choice, not a
rule. So basically this is what witchcraft, paganism and Wicca are… yes
there’s a lot more too them, but most of it depends on what tradition you belong
to, or what the individual believes.

So how does Christianity fit in with Witchcraft and Paganism? Doesn’t one of the
ten commandments say not to worship false gods or other gods? Well, first of
all, if you’re going to be a “Christian”, lets talk about the only “rule” that
matters in Christianity. Jesus and the blessing. To be a Christian, you have to
believe in Christ as the son of God (or *A* son of God, hehe). That belief, is
the blessing that gives you “ever lasting life”. Living by the law of the bible
doesn’t give it to you, because the Law is set up for you to LOSE!! “Those who
live by the law, will be judged by the law, and ALL WILL FALL SHORT”. Period,
end of discussion. Don’t try to be a “good Christian”, don’t worry about
sinning, cuz you really can’t stop sinning! (all of this according to the bible)
You’ve got this blessing, this special gift of belief and that’s the only thing
that matters. So does it matter if you disobey every single commandment?? Of
course not! Because you can’t expect to be alive and not sin! No this doesn’t
mean go out and be a horrible person, it means that you can’t expect yourself to
be perfect!! And if these laws are the only thing keeping you from committing
crimes, and from being a truly horrible and evil person, you’re not going to be
able to keep up the charade for very long anyway!

So, ok.. the two basics of the so called “opposing” beliefs are “All things in
nature are part of the Divine” and “Belief in Jesus as the Son of God”. hmmm…
they don’t seem so opposing anymore do they?? yes there is a lot more to these
two religions, but these are the basics of them.. the very foundations. I could
go on about the similarities between them, but I just wanted to state how they
are NOT contradictory in nature, and that it’s very easy to see how you can be
both a Christian and a Witch. I’ll probably write about more specific things in
another article. But I think this is a good start.

I was inspired to write this because of so many people talking about how
Christmas has become so commercialized and that everyone forgets the “true
meaning of Christmas”. What *IS* the true meaning of Christmas? Well if you
listen to Linus from peanuts, and many other people, they would say that it is
about the birth of Jesus and celebrating his birth.

ummmm.. sorry to burst everyone’s bubble but WRONG! First off Jesus was not born
in December. Most accounts have him born in late September early October… but
that isn’t a hard fact. Secondly it’s not when the 3 wise men came to see Jesus
either! Jesus wasn’t a baby when they saw him, he was at LEAST 3 years old!! It
took them at least three years to travel from their lands to where Jesus was in
Bethlehem… and they were ASTROLOGERS!! hehe.. so the whole thing of Christmas
being too commercialized and getting away from the “true” meaning of Christmas
is a bunch of bunk!

Christmas is the christianized version of another old pagan holy day, Yule, or
midwinter! The Winter Solstice, which is Dec. 21-23, depending on the year.
Everything that we do on Christmas, including the myth of Jesus’ birth, comes
from Old Pagan ways.

In almost all pre-Christian cultures, they celebrated the birth of the God
during Yule. They put up trees for decoration, and Santa is the Original “jolly
old *ELF*” which was a winter spirit! So we are celebrating Christmas like it
was supposed to be celebrated.. with Santa, with Trees, and giving to others.

Oh, and the reason for always having a huge feast at Yule was because this was
to bring all the villagers together, to remind each other that winter won’t
reign forever. To be merry through the dark days of the year! Yule was the
longest night, and there fore was the last night of the dark days. From that day
forward the days would get longer and warmer and new life would spring from the
dead earth. Reminding us that there is a cycle to life, and that nothing stays
gone and dark forever.