| wicca and its life | by Luxas for everyone |
What
is Wicca or Witchcraft? When we get asked that question we answer it
in a variety of ways, depending on just what the person is actually
asking:* The Craft is a polythesistic, nature based religion that
generally gives much more precendence to the Goddess (thea) than the
God. Sometimes Wicca will spell Goddess with a capital g but god in
lower case. That's one answer.* The Wiccacraft is a religion where all
are priestesses and priests. No one is in authority over you, or wants
it. That's another answer.* The Wiccacraft is a religion where for
every twelve witches, you get thirteen opinions on any subject.* Wicca/n
see "witches" both males and female. A male witch was never a"warlock"
(perish the word!)* The Wiccacraft is split up into many separate
movements, each with a truth.* The Wiccacraft is a religion that has no
central authority, no central dogma, no central organization, no total
agreement on basic tenants.* Wiccacraft is a unique religion. We don't
"worship" anything. in part that is false, because they share a personal
goddess/god as their innerself...We "celebrate" on the cycles of the
Sun and Moon (Sabbats and Esbats).The Sun cycles are the Quarter and
Cross-Quarter holidays. The Quarters are the Equinoxes and the
Solstices and the cross quarter days are the holidays that fall
approximately half way between the quarters. These celebrations are
called the SABBATS. There are eight Sabbats they think the
witch celebrates: Yule, Imbolc, Eostara, Beltaine, Litha, Lammas, Mabon,
Samhain. Other religions, classified as Pagan sometimes celebrated
several of thes eholidays. (lol) They also have celebrations unique and
peculiar to their religion wicca does. These festivals are called "The
Wheel of the Year" and they symbolize the continuity of the world and
time. The sabbats are important to them. They symbolize there
dependence on the land, adependence that many city dwellers have
forgotten. These festivals (more renian then witch) are often
celebrated in larger communities, all the wiccan covens of a
geographical area getting together to celebrate. The wiccan covens
celebrate the moon cycles. These are called ESBATS. Each wiccan coven
picks it's celebration time according to how they wish to work. There
are Waxing Moon wicca covens, Full moon wicca covens, Waning moon wicca
covens and Dark Moon wicca covens. Any coven is a small usually a
gathering of individuals (2 to 15 is the usual number) that meets
regularly onthe moon cycle. Often they are very close friends.
Wiccan/Witch Covens have a very variable cycle. Some gather once for a
specific reason and never again. Others stay viable for many years and
even go into generations. There are some very long-lived covens in the
California Bay Area and the Massachusetts area. A Circle is a gathering
of members of different covens and people who are solitairy. Circles
gather on a regular schedule, but don't have a regular attendance.
Instead, a circle serves as across-pollinating discussion group where
all can share their experiences and traditions.Witches/wicca/n don't go
looking for converts no cove does. We don't want them. No one can
"convert" to Witchcraft. Wiccacraft is a state of mind and a path
through life. however Witchcraft is much more. Though both can be
learned, it "Wicca" can only be learned by those who are ready to change
their patristic, authoritarian models to the newer, consensual based
models.Wiccacraft is a very cozy home and trying to be a community
centered religion. New people who still tread the old path destroy the
sense of closeness that we all treasure. People who are witches, are
witches but not wicca/n. People who are really ready to live the Wiccan
life will find that they are as said above. When the time is right for
the witch/wicca/n to find wicca/n-folk they will see one of the many
posters, journals or books that are on display in just about every
bookstore in America. Some people call them and complain about how hard
it is to find a wicca/n. they just laugh good-naturedly. Witches know
that when they are meant to find us, they will. wiccan is saddly just
54 years of pen manship, "so say it the books (lol) "It has nothing to
do with superstition of psychic powers or any odd-ball concept like
that. Simply, if a person is busy with too many tasks, clues that are
present all around them will be discarded orignored from information
overload. Integrating into a new religious community is hard. A person
can't do that and half-a-dozen other things at once. Once they are
ready, time-wise and emotionally, they will suddenly see that sign about
"women'sspirituality" or "A Waxing Moon Circle" or the book or
newsletter that they've (wicca/n) passed by millions of times
before.Wica shares by several truisms or rules. The greatest is known
as theWiccan Rede: "Eight words the Wiccan Rede Fulfill; An ye harm
none, do as ye will.""An ye harm none." Translated into modern English:
As long as what you do harms none. Well, what does NONE mean? How
about, no one in our church, or of our race, on our planet, in the
universe. Well, clearly this rede calls for a judgement call. Wicca/ns
don't have comfortable rules to abide or ignore. We examine our
actionsand try to make sure that the harm isn't there As I say it is a
judgement call. "Do as you will?" What is will? It is not want, but
will. It is the Ego vs the Id. In effect will isn't, "I want some
chocolates because I'm feeling shitty." It is, "I will myself to be
whole, fit and productive."Other of wicca "pieces of wisdom" include:* A
ban on accepting money for instructing in the Craft.( not true)* A ban
on identifying other members of the Craft (this is truee to some
degree).* Respect for the aged.* A ban on touching another person's
wiccacraft tools (sacred objects).* Respect for everybody's personal,
physical, and emotional space (Once again only held by a few). Belief as
in "faith is not a part of the Wiccacraft. Belief implies the need to
take something as true on no rational evidence. In the Wiccacraft we do
not "believe" in Goddess and God or in Apollo or Helios or Demeter or
Hecate (yes they do). The words are symbols that key our conscious and
unconscious to the reality of our cyclical life. It isn't necessary to
"believe" in Mabon, the Harvest Home. Fall Equinox is a reality and so
is the major harvest. To say, at Yule, that the sun king is born,
implies no mystical belief that somewhere a Goddess or woman is giving
birth to a mystical child. It is a statement that the nights have
reached their longest extent and from now until Summer Solstice we as
wicca/n shall see the sun more each day.Wiccans in general feel that the
earth is a fragile eco-system that should be supported in many ways.
they are often involved as citizens in nuclear banning movements,
vegetarianism, organic farming, trying to bring consumerism down, trying
to strive for a society that is not as hierarchical as the one we live
in now.They look for voluntary cooperation and consensus more than
anything else.Wicca/ncraft is a religion that has no established dogma,
no avatars, no prophets, no "holy writ handed down from on high"
or"divinely inspired (so say it the rede)". We have no centralized
organization and no way to control who calls themselves witches( Other
then the king and Queen of Wiccacraft, and the Council of Wiccacraft in
the early 80's, no defunked). Marion, a goodfriend in the South once
said, "A witch is as good as her word."In the patristic Western
religions prayers are offered up to a God for favors, healings, good
fortune, and not uncommonly for bad fortune to befall those identified
as enemies. In the Witch and perhaps wiccacraft we do not pray to a
Goddess or God. We do a series of different kinds of work known as
spellcasting to help ourselves (witches can/ wiccan's try).
When wicca has problems we need to identify what the problem is and the
possible solution in our minds and souls by the use of many stimuli that
will help us remember what our "will" was in this particular problem.
Things we use vary from candles to be lit, oils made with scents, stones
to remind us, flower beds, clothes, kerchiefs, paintings, poems, songs,
(the tools) anything that can trigger our consciousand subconscious to
deal adequately with problems that come up in daily life. A Brief
History of the Craft (not Wicca) WitchCraft covens seem to have existed
during the burning times (the catholic witch hunts from 1300-1600), but
whether all those burned, hanged, stoned, drowned and etc. (varying from
100,000 documented cases to 9 million estimated cases), were witches is
adebatable point. The new "Wicca" mythos say that we are descended
from the ancient Goddess worshippping peoples whose religion got pushed
underground by the Christians circa 500 ce. This may be true(LoL it
isn't true, but it is impossible to prove If the Goddess's priestess did
indeed survive in the form of goody-wives
and herb-women,
their religion must have been carefully concealed and cautiously passed
on in an oral form (now we get into witch fokelore, not wicca
history).Those who are wiccan's personally think that though there were
indeed pagan traces left all over and incorporated into christianity,
this doesn't necessarily mean that they were Goddess worshippping pagan
traces. Patristic paganity had taken over the Goddess worshippping
people for more than 1500 years by the start of christianity.Modernly
(christian dotrines was older then that lol), somewhere in 1940 an
English civil servant with a penchant for whipping and bondage, Gerald
Gardener, got himself"initiated" into a "New Forest" coven in England. A
long-time witch Sybil Leek, from the New Forest who didn't particularly
appreciate Gerald, confirms it. Once Gardner had his hands on the
rituals Old Dorothy taught him, he decided that they were fragmentary
and needed to be reconstructed. And here we have an odd little
problem. Gardner had worked in a Ritual Magician's lodge with Aleister
Crowley, a long-time family acquaintance of Sybil Leek's. Crowley was a
consumate showman bent on shocking the public. Sybil was always sad
about him, feeling that he had strayed from the true path of the new
Forest Wicca/ncraft, but he was apparently born to one of the
hereditary modern witch families of England. In spite of this, his
Ritual Lodge was based on his interpretations of the Magical Lodge of
the Golden Dawn, a tradition started in 1890.Old Dorothy handed to her
neophyte (A term used in ritual magic not in witchcraft, until later
on), Gardener, treasured and cared for rituals that she and her coven
had preserved for ages past.
(A kitchen witches
book) Gardener decided that the rituals were fragmentary and hired
Crowley to "reconstruct" them. A very public Witchcraft movement was
started by this and later turned Wiccan. Gardener published and got
onto TV a lot in the fifties and sixties. Alex Saunders who managed to
steal one of his books of shadows and start his own Craft (which any who
have magical knowing, knows was half assed in its designs (but thats
what you get when you don't study)current, was know nto the TV media in
England as "The King of Witches. "These Wiccan Craft currents were very
hierarchical, male dominated (though token bows were given to the
women), secretive, and until very recently totally heterosexual. They
work on the ritual magic image of the sexes being opposite and use this
thought form to create images of electrical generators from sexual
tension between male and female ( Actually it is an ancient art of
charging, but not in the sex way, that was more of a concentration of
exchange like to diffrent poles of information). Gardnerian Wiccan's
circled nude, used their cords totie initiates and scourge them as part
of the initiation. There are no orgies however. The nudity was to
encourage the "magic"which was thought to be inhibited by the robes.
Present dayGardnerians mostly circle robed (to me more accepted to the
public) .Other witchcrafting (wiccancraft models) currents are the
Alexandrian, similar to Gardnerian.The Dianic, a non-patristic oriented
spirituality, birthed byMorgan Fairchild, encouraged by Z Budapest (a
hereditary witch/wiccan from Eastern Europe) and Marion Weinstein. The
Fairie, a highlyeclectic movement and the Radical Fairies, a Gay men's
grouping. Also we have the eclectic people who study religious
archeologyand arrive at a synthesis that speaks to the modern day
wiccawitch in a modern context. The biggest of these is called NROOGD
(New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn) and the solitaries,
people who are calling themselves witches but belong to no group.We feel
a large percentage of human beings have a very strong need for a
spiritual experience. Each human is different, however. In our
expressions of religion those who try witch tend to vary greatly. Thus
we have many religions extant today in America and the World. People
must find the religion that fits their souls. For Sun Bear and
Salmon,this religion is the religion of Wicca, (Witchcraft has been just
the title they borrowed like tea...) LoL.
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| Occult | by Luxas for everyone |
Here
are various texts relating to esoteric and occult beliefs. Although
miniscule in comparison to even the smallest of the world religions, or
even of the Neopagan community with which they are often incorrectly
grouped, these groups have a huge presence on the Internet. This page
archives some of the best material in this category.
Some
of these texts should be taken very seriously; others are completely
farcical; we leave it up to the reader to decide which is which.
| Occult and Tantra Art |  | |
| The word tantra itself is derived from the verbal root "tan," meaning "to weave." Many things are interwoven on the tantric path, including the lives of men and women. | |
| From: http://www.exoticindiaart.com | |
| Dictionary of the Occult | | |
| The indispensable reference book - over 240 pages - from Wordsworth: including a comprehensive glossary of terms, phrases and key historical figures. Future World affiliate. | | |
| From: http://www.supertips.com |
Ever wonder where the grey area comes
from, well now you will see...
The
kabalah(q/c) has been defined by its many diffrent links or globes that
cover the dynamics of design, each culture has this linking to life and
magic or design called pattern....
The
dynamic of life comes from the desires of spirit or knowing, The main
purpose of being one in Wisdom/magic, this chain can conform,
and
bind.... all designed or ancient natures, this is one of the 3 basic
works of understand of the self and patterns of selves....Christianieals
hope to unlock and own the truth of magic, cause they who are rightous
gather the wisdom and life of god, ie eternity, this is true, but just
got to love the riddles, they get you in the end with your own
words...and even they aren't imune....
Satanism,
or culture of disnature, they are not, however they don't have virtures
either only the need to understand the basics of themself's using
satanism ie Satan as their label is their way of overcoming the fear to
be themself and even bring attention to their lives, often the same in
any religion of naming, it is to set aside them from the rest and to
evoke any method to feel empowered....
Those that know all the 19 lessons or so called double gates the 9
9+9
is 18, 8+1 is 9 meaning a hidden lesson , the 10 promise 9+1 but
besides the math many don't even know his ie satans working non
name....Natas , satanic writings as i learned is sled latin and
backwards french, for those that know of the works.....this is the
key....
anton and crowley missed or hidden.....Whatever....
( order and chaos are but fashions to the nature of magic ) all who known the old way know this......
Karma/Dogma
and the workings of the Earthly cultures are but 3 folded, one ritual
control and massage the ego of the weak minded moses wantabes and
mohomet on the mountain guru enlightenment finders,and as in all
cultures i truthfully can't say one is better then another i can only
say that wisdom is attained through the forms of transition and this is
due to diffrent forms of spirital energy, inwaves or pillar like truths
one bread to the masses, is just one bread....
but a feast of breads with one taste that's reality.....
Enjoying your bread....
The
lady is the workings of much indiffrences but she yield much in the way
of truth, first no rede will ever stick to the balance of a witches
truthful nature,next nor will the revenge and vengence so bothare but
play'sof the novels...... next she is known in text bible and other as
the "Artificer" and those that know of her gain friendship with God is
quite a statement by solomon.......Women of the world and bible have
been treated like property and not with a soul, ie eve,lilith and
diana,and others, but power has been in the blood of women from the
begining of known history, Emperess of China, the Philipeans, and even
pompei
and
even Germany had a female general, Cleopratra and the egyptian cluture
is one of the oldest but women didn't have power there, that is alot of
talk...... but like most things feminist have their own plotting,
Heck even dianic design had male consorts, I love time......
When
all is accounted Egyptian and Alexandrian city states are recorded as
the houses of magic's schooling, and to a point this is true,
Book of thoth
Book of AmonRa
Bookof Horus and even Sheth book.......
but
like most advanced societies,they had not a scolarly view but a
personal view , so the secrets of the sand return to it or does it... In
my learning i have found the essential part to the rebuilding of things
await in the direct sight of the wisened heart.... meaning it is like a
beautiful picture, there....in your mind and heart, And those that fail
to see this are but dust like the others.....
bread is your wisdom, you take it to your judgement and beyond
red/green/yellow pick a color????
Some
answers are written in stone, and some in flesh but reality is reality,
question the dawn and it arrives, question the night and it does as
well no matter the question or answer it will arrive,and when it comes
to magic live the circle, because having land is owning dirt but sharing
your bread gives you a better bakers secret....Occult, Druid and other
learned that at the price of water and blood, Secrets of the tree
persons, no i am not talking about little people,I'm talking about the
heart of those who learned live and learn as the wise oak.....
hope you remember the wisdom of Merlin, even if he wasn't a druid...
"In
a cup you see the world" and in the sea you lose it" as the sun touches
on the sea, shall you walk on water" Lets see those hopeful books teach
you this......
Even
a Wizard must start somewhere, yes you do have a teacher and great
secrets and lessons, but eventhe most wise and powerful visit on the
House.....What is the house you might say.....???
Well
to put it simply it isthe place where all the patterns are recorded and
magic is quite literally the language all who visit and stay speak,
some
code or wording,you say.....like a club, no in this place no one talks
they think.......the words beyond mere telepathy it is one universal
mind, but only ones who meet the 7 ways to the door will ever enter,
sort of a test....as us wizards do all the time, only our test are much
more well life active.... Well see you in the house........
| Pagan | by Luxas for everyone |
From
prehistoric times man has sought to worship powers of nature, or
symbols representing those powers, or idols representing those symbols.
In vulgar minds they become debased superstitions, and seem to come into
competition with the worship of the one True God.
2. The
five names mentioned in lxxi. 23 represent some of the oldest Pagan
cults, before the Flood as well as after the Flood, though the names
themselves are in the form in which they were worshipped by local Arab
tribes. The names of the tribes have been preserved to us by the
Commentators, but they are of no more than archæological interest to us
now. But the names of the false gods are interesting to us from the
point of view of comparative religion, as, under one form or another,
such cults still exist in countries which have not accepted the Gospel
of Unity, as they have always existed since man turned from his Maker
and Sustainer to the worship of created things or invented fancies.
3. The names of the five false gods and the symbols under which they were represented were as follows:--
Pagan god
Shape.
Quality represented
1. Wadd
Man
Manly Power.
2. Suwâ`,
Woman
Mutability, Beauty.
3. Yagûth
Lion (or Bull)
Brute Strength.
4. Ya`ûq
Horse
Swiftness.
5. Nasr
Eagle, or Vulture, or Falcon.
Sharp Sight, Insight.
It
is not clear whether these names are to be connected with true Arabic
verbal roots or are merely Arabicised forms of names derived from
foreign cults, such as those of Babylonia or Assyria, the region of
Noah's Flood. The latter supposition is probable. Even in the case of
Wadd (Affection, Love) and Nasr (Eagle), which are good Arabic words, it
is doubtful whether they are not, in this connection, translations or
corruptions of words denoting foreign cults.
4. In studying
ancient comparative mythologies we must never forget the following
facts. (1) Men's ideas of God always tend to be anthropomorphic. The
qualities which they admire they transfer to their godhead. (2) But fear
in primitive man also leads to the transfer of anything mysterious or
imagined to be injurious, to the Pantheon. Such things have to be
placated in order that they may not injure man. Thus in popular Hinduism
the goddess of small-pox, which causes terror over an ignorant
countryside, has to be worshipped, placated, or appeased with sacrifice.
(3) This leads to the worship of animals noxious to man, such as
serpent-worship, which
{p. 1620}
has prevailed and
still prevails in many primitive areas. In ancient Egyptian mythology
the Crocodile (so common in the Nile), the Dog, the Bull, and the Ibis
were worshipped both literally and symbolically. See Appendix V, p. 409.
(4) But as men's knowledge grows, and they observe the wonderful
heavenly bodies and their motions, they begin to feel their sublimity,
beauty and mystery, and they transfer their worship to the heavenly
bodies. The first great astronomers in the ancient world were the
Babylonians and Chaldæans. Among them was Abraham's homeland. The
allegory of Abraham (vi, 74-82 and notes) points to the importance of
the cult of the worship of heavenly bodies and the fallacy in them. "It
is those who believe, and confuse not their beliefs with wrong-that are
truly in security, for they are on right guidance" (vi. 82). The Sabæan
worship of heavenly bodies in Arabia had probably its source in Chaldæa
(see last paragraph of n. 76 to ii. 62). (5) A further refined step in
Paganism is to worship abstractions, to treat concrete things as symbols
of abstract qualities which they represent. For example, the planet
Saturn with its slow motion was treated as phlegmatic and evil. The
planet Mars with its fiery red light was treated as betokening war and
havoc and evil, and so on. Jupiter, with its magnificent golden light,
was treated as lucky and benignant to any who came tinder its influence.
Venus became the symbol and the goddess of carnal love. The Pagan Arabs
erected Time (Dahr) into a deity, existing from eternity to eternity,
and dispensing good and ill fortune to men. The ancient Ægean religion
treated the vital principle in the same way, as spontaneous and eternal,
and traces of this are found in many religions, ancient and modern. (6)
The next step was to reincarnate as it were these qualities in beings
of flesh and blood, with lives, feelings, and passions like those of
ordinary men and women, and to fill up a confused Pantheon with gods and
goddesses that quarrelled, hated, loved, were jealous, and suffered or
enjoyed life like human beings. In such a Pantheon there was room for
demi-gods and real human heroes that were worshipped as gods. The Greek
poets and artists were past masters in carrying out this process, under
cover of which they discussed profound human problems, with great power.
They made religion dramatic. While they gained in humanism, they lost
the purer spiritual conceptions which lift the divine world far above
the futilities and crimes of this life. Hierarchical Christianity has
suffered from this inheritance of the Greek tradition. (7) Where there
was a commingling of peoples and cultures, several of these ideas and
processes got mixed up together. Gods and goddesses of different origins
were identified one with another, e.g. Artemis, the chaste virgin
huntress goddess of the Greek Pantheon, was identified with Diana of the
Romans, Diana of the Ephesians (representing the teeming life of
nature), and Selene the cold moon-goddess. Similarly Diana was
identified with the Egyptian Isis, and Diana's twin-brother Apollo (the
sun) with the Egyptian Osiris. Forces of nature, animals, trees,
qualities, astronomical bodies, and various other factors got mixed up
together, and formed a shapeless medley of superstitions, which are all
condemned by Islam.
5. To revert to the worship of the
heavenly bodies. The countless fixed stars in the firmament occupied
always the same relative positions in the heavens, and did not impress
the imagination of the ancients like the objects which stood out vividly
with mysterious laws of relative motion. A few individual stars did
attract the worshippers' attention; e.g. Sirius the Dog-star, the
brightest fixed star in the heavens, with a bluish tinge in its light,
and Algol the variable star, being Beta of the constellation
{p. 1621}
Perseus,
whose variations can be perceived by the naked eye in two or three
nights, became connected with many legends, myths, and superstitions. It
is probably Sirius that is referred to as the fixed star in the Parable
of Abraham (vi. 76). With regard to the fixed stars in their myriads,
the astronomers turned their fancy to devising Groups or Constellations.
But the moving "stars", or planets, each with its own individual laws
of motion, stood out to them personified, each with a motion and
therefore will or influence of its own. As they knew and understood
them, they were seven in number, viz.: (1) and (2) the moon and the Sun,
the two objects which most closely and indubitably influence the tides,
the temperatures, and the life on our planet; (3) and (4) the two inner
planets, Mercury and Venus, which are morning and evening stars, and
never travel far from the sun; and (5), (6), and (7) Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn, the outer planets, whose elongations from the sun on the
ecliptic can be as wide as possible. The number seven became itself a
mystic number, as explained in n. 5526 to lxv. 12.
6. It will
be noticed that the sun and the moon and the five planets got
identified each with a living deity, god or goddess, with
characteristics and qualities of its own. The solar myth was a myth of
very fruitful vitality, and got mixed up with many other myths and
ideas. In late Roman religion it appears in the story of Apollo, the
sun-god of light and learning and of manly beauty, twin brother to Diana
the moon. goddess. In ancient Egypt it appears in the myth of Horus,
the falcon-eyed, or of Ra or Rè, the Eye, which sees all things.
Further, the eagle, or falcon, or hawk, became itself identified with
the sun, with its piercing light. The sun myth mixes itself up with the
myth of the Nile and with the cycle of legends connected with Isis and
Osiris, who were subsequently identified with the moon and the sun
divinities. In Babylon the name Shamash (Arabic, Shams) proclaims the
glory of the sun-god corresponding to the old Sumerian Utu or Babbar,
while the hymns to Sûrya (the sun) in the Rig-Veda and the cult of
Mithra in Persia proclaim the dominance of sun-worship.
7.
Moon-worship was equally popular in various forms. I have already
referred to the classical legends of Apollo and Diana, twin brother and
sister, representing the sun and the moon. The Egyptian Khonsu,
traversing the sky in a boat, referred to the moon, and the moon legends
also got mixed up with those about the god of magic, Thoth, and the
Ibis. In the Vedic religion of India the moon-god was Soma, the lord of
the planets, and the name was also applied to the juice which was the
drink of the gods. It may be noted that the moon was a male divinity in
ancient India; it was also a male divinity in ancient Semitic religion,
and the Arabic word for the moon (qamar) is of the masculine gender. On
the other hand, the Arabic word for the sun (shams) is of the feminine
gender. The Pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the sun as a goddess and
the moon as a god.
8. Of the five planets, perhaps Venus as
the evening star and the morning star alternately impressed itself most
on the imagination of astro-mythology. This planet was in different
places considered both male and female. In the Bible (Isaiah, xiv. 12),
the words "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" are
understood to refer to the Morning Star in the first instance, and by
analogy to the King of Babylon. The Fathers of the Christian Church, on
the other hand, transferred the name Lucifer to Satan, the power of
evil. Mercury is a less conspicuous planet, and was looked upon as a
child in the family, the father and mother being the moon and the sun,
or the sun
{p. 1621}
continued on the next page....
continued on the next page....
| pagan 2 | by Luxas for everyone |
and
the moon (according to the sex attributed to these divinities), or else
either the sun or the moon was the father and Venus the mother (the
sexes being inter-changeable in the myths). Of the three outer planets,
Jupiter is the most conspicuous: indeed, after the sun and the moon, it
is the most conspicuous object in the heavens, and was reputed to be
beneficent and to bestow good fortune. The sun and the moon being
considered in a class apart, Jupiter was considered the father of the
planets, and possibly his worship got occasionally mixed tip with that
of the sun. Mars and Saturn, as has already been stated, were considered
malevolent planets, to be feared for the mischief that they might do;
for the Pagan Pantheons worshipped powers both of good and evil.
From
prehistoric times man has sought to worship powers of nature, or
symbols representing those powers, or idols representing those symbols.
In vulgar minds they become debased superstitions, and seem to come into
competition with the worship of the one True God.2. The five names
mentioned in lxxi. 23 represent some of the oldest Pagan cults, before
the Flood as well as after the Flood, though the names themselves are in
the form in which they were worshipped by local Arab tribes. The names
of the tribes have been preserved to us by the Commentators, but they
are of no more than archæological interest to us now. But the names of
the false gods are interesting to us from the point of view of
comparative religion, as, under one form or another, such cults still
exist in countries which have not accepted the Gospel of Unity, as they
have always existed since man turned from his Maker and Sustainer to the
worship of created things or invented fancies.3. The names of the five
false gods and the symbols under which they were represented were as
follows:--
Pagan god Shape. Quality represented
1. Wadd Man Manly Power.
2. Suwâ`, Woman Mutability, Beauty.
3. Yagûth Lion (or Bull) Brute Strength.
4. Ya`ûq Horse Swiftness.
5. Nasr Eagle, or Vulture, or Falcon. Sharp Sight, Insight.
Pagan god Shape. Quality represented
1. Wadd Man Manly Power.
2. Suwâ`, Woman Mutability, Beauty.
3. Yagûth Lion (or Bull) Brute Strength.
4. Ya`ûq Horse Swiftness.
5. Nasr Eagle, or Vulture, or Falcon. Sharp Sight, Insight.
It
is not clear whether these names are to be connected with true Arabic
verbal roots or are merely Arabicised forms of names derived from
foreign cults, such as those of Babylonia or Assyria, the region of
Noah's Flood. The latter supposition is probable. Even in the case of
Wadd (Affection, Love) and Nasr (Eagle), which are good Arabic words, it
is doubtful whether they are not, in this connection, translations or
corruptions of words denoting foreign cults.4. In studying ancient
comparative mythologies we must never forget the following facts. (1)
Men's ideas of God always tend to be anthropomorphic. The qualities
which they admire they transfer to their godhead. (2) But fear in
primitive man also leads to the transfer of anything mysterious or
imagined to be injurious, to the Pantheon. Such things have to be
placated in order that they may not injure man. Thus in popular Hinduism
the goddess of small-pox, which causes terror over an ignorant
countryside, has to be worshipped, placated, or appeased with sacrifice.
(3) This leads to the worship of animals noxious to man, such as
serpent-worship, which{p. 1620}has prevailed and still prevails in many
primitive areas. In ancient Egyptian mythology the Crocodile (so common
in the Nile), the Dog, the Bull, and the Ibis were worshipped both
literally and symbolically. See Appendix V, p. 409. (4) But as men's
knowledge grows, and they observe the wonderful heavenly bodies and
their motions, they begin to feel their sublimity, beauty and mystery,
and they transfer their worship to the heavenly bodies. The first great
astronomers in the ancient world were the Babylonians and Chaldæans.
Among them was Abraham's homeland. The allegory of Abraham (vi, 74-82
and notes) points to the importance of the cult of the worship of
heavenly bodies and the fallacy in them. "It is those who believe, and
confuse not their beliefs with wrong-that are truly in security, for
they are on right guidance" (vi. 82). The Sabæan worship of heavenly
bodies in Arabia had probably its source in Chaldæa (see last paragraph
of n. 76 to ii. 62). (5) A further refined step in Paganism is to
worship abstractions, to treat concrete things as symbols of abstract
qualities which they represent. For example, the planet Saturn with its
slow motion was treated as phlegmatic and evil. The planet Mars with its
fiery red light was treated as betokening war and havoc and evil, and
so on. Jupiter, with its magnificent golden light, was treated as lucky
and benignant to any who came tinder its influence. Venus became the
symbol and the goddess of carnal love. The Pagan Arabs erected Time
(Dahr) into a deity, existing from eternity to eternity, and dispensing
good and ill fortune to men. The ancient Ægean religion treated the
vital principle in the same way, as spontaneous and eternal, and traces
of this are found in many religions, ancient and modern. (6) The next
step was to reincarnate as it were these qualities in beings of flesh
and blood, with lives, feelings, and passions like those of ordinary men
and women, and to fill up a confused Pantheon with gods and goddesses
that quarrelled, hated, loved, were jealous, and suffered or enjoyed
life like human beings. In such a Pantheon there was room for demi-gods
and real human heroes that were worshipped as gods. The Greek poets and
artists were past masters in carrying out this process, under cover of
which they discussed profound human problems, with great power. They
made religion dramatic. While they gained in humanism, they lost the
purer spiritual conceptions which lift the divine world far above the
futilities and crimes of this life. Hierarchical Christianity has
suffered from this inheritance of the Greek tradition. (7) Where there
was a commingling of peoples and cultures, several of these ideas and
processes got mixed up together. Gods and goddesses of different origins
were identified one with another, e.g. Artemis, the chaste virgin
huntress goddess of the Greek Pantheon, was identified with Diana of the
Romans, Diana of the Ephesians (representing the teeming life of
nature), and Selene the cold moon-goddess. Similarly Diana was
identified with the Egyptian Isis, and Diana's twin-brother Apollo (the
sun) with the Egyptian Osiris. Forces of nature, animals, trees,
qualities, astronomical bodies, and various other factors got mixed up
together, and formed a shapeless medley of superstitions, which are all
condemned by Islam.5. To revert to the worship of the heavenly bodies.
The countless fixed stars in the firmament occupied always the same
relative positions in the heavens, and did not impress the imagination
of the ancients like the objects which stood out vividly with mysterious
laws of relative motion. A few individual stars did attract the
worshippers' attention; e.g. Sirius the Dog-star, the brightest fixed
star in the heavens, with a bluish tinge in its light, and Algol the
variable star, being Beta of the constellation{p. 1621}Perseus, whose
variations can be perceived by the naked eye in two or three nights,
became connected with many legends, myths, and superstitions. It is
probably Sirius that is referred to as the fixed star in the Parable of
Abraham (vi. 76). With regard to the fixed stars in their myriads, the
astronomers turned their fancy to devising Groups or Constellations. But
the moving "stars", or planets, each with its own individual laws of
motion, stood out to them personified, each with a motion and therefore
will or influence of its own. As they knew and understood them, they
were seven in number, viz.: (1) and (2) the moon and the Sun, the two
objects which most closely and indubitably influence the tides, the
temperatures, and the life on our planet; (3) and (4) the two inner
planets, Mercury and Venus, which are morning and evening stars, and
never travel far from the sun; and (5), (6), and (7) Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn, the outer planets, whose elongations from the sun on the
ecliptic can be as wide as possible. The number seven became itself a
mystic number, as explained in n. 5526 to lxv. 12.6. It will be noticed
that the sun and the moon and the five planets got identified each with a
living deity, god or goddess, with characteristics and qualities of its
own. The solar myth was a myth of very fruitful vitality, and got mixed
up with many other myths and ideas. In late Roman religion it appears
in the story of Apollo, the sun-god of light and learning and of manly
beauty, twin brother to Diana the moon. goddess. In ancient Egypt it
appears in the myth of Horus, the falcon-eyed, or of Ra or Rè, the Eye,
which sees all things. Further, the eagle, or falcon, or hawk, became
itself identified with the sun, with its piercing light. The sun myth
mixes itself up with the myth of the Nile and with the cycle of legends
connected with Isis and Osiris, who were subsequently identified with
the moon and the sun divinities. In Babylon the name Shamash (Arabic,
Shams) proclaims the glory of the sun-god corresponding to the old
Sumerian Utu or Babbar, while the hymns to Sûrya (the sun) in the
Rig-Veda and the cult of Mithra in Persia proclaim the dominance of
sun-worship.7. Moon-worship was equally popular in various forms. I have
already referred to the classical legends of Apollo and Diana, twin
brother and sister, representing the sun and the moon. The Egyptian
Khonsu, traversing the sky in a boat, referred to the moon, and the moon
legends also got mixed up with those about the god of magic, Thoth, and
the Ibis. In the Vedic religion of India the moon-god was Soma, the
lord of the planets, and the name was also applied to the juice which
was the drink of the gods. It may be noted that the moon was a male
divinity in ancient India; it was also a male divinity in ancient
Semitic religion, and the Arabic word for the moon (qamar) is of the
masculine gender. On the other hand, the Arabic word for the sun (shams)
is of the feminine gender. The Pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the
sun as a goddess and the moon as a god.8. Of the five planets, perhaps
Venus as the evening star and the morning star alternately impressed
itself most on the imagination of astro-mythology. This planet was in
different places considered both male and female. In the Bible (Isaiah,
xiv. 12), the words "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the
morning!" are understood to refer to the Morning Star in the first
instance, and by analogy to the King of Babylon. The Fathers of the
Christian Church, on the other hand, transferred the name Lucifer to
Satan, the power of evil. Mercury is a less conspicuous planet, and was
looked upon as a child in the family, the father and mother being the
moon and the sun, or the sun{p. 1621}and the moon (according to the sex
attributed to these divinities), or else either the sun or the moon was
the father and Venus the mother (the sexes being inter-changeable in the
myths). Of the three outer planets, Jupiter is the most conspicuous:
indeed, after the sun and the moon, it is the most conspicuous object in
the heavens, and was reputed to be beneficent and to bestow good
fortune. The sun and the moon being considered in a class apart, Jupiter
was considered the father of the planets, and possibly his worship got
occasionally mixed tip with that of the sun. Mars and Saturn, as has
already been stated, were considered malevolent planets, to be feared
for the mischief that they might do; for the Pagan Pantheons worshipped
powers both of good and evil.
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