The myths perpetuated by the media, the churches, and well Hollywood has a lot to answer for too. Shows such as Supernatural and American Horror Story are among my favorites that I watch almost "religiously" (pardon the pun) weekly!! But they DO employ very ample poetic license and they do NOT represent what Paganism is all about. They wouldn't be great shows if they DID represent the truth of Paganism which is in real life rather boring - unless you are a Pagan!!
Christians have long perpetuated Pagan myths, especially that of witchcraft, even in this 21st century. They claim that witches are devil worshippers, which in itself is a myth because Pagans does not believe in the devil. Belief in the devil, the personification of evil, is a purely Christian/Islam phenomenon. Islam is indeed the offshoot of Christianity, all of Sharia law are found in the Christian bible and promoted in the bible as appropriate means of law and discipline. So anyway, how can a witch worship the devil if they don't even believe in him.
However another more damaging myth is that witches sacrifices babies and use their blood in their rituals. The church, mostly the fundamentalists and evangelical types which are indeed very common, preaches this kind of myth, and that Halloween is their high holy day in which poor unfortunate babies are sacrificed. During the same such sermon, the pastor in his high religious fervor declares that witches should be burnt at the stake, this to the cheers and clapping of 95% of the congregation. This is just not 2nd hand information. I WAS THERE!!! I HEARD IT WITH MY OWN EARS!! And I was of the 5% who did NOT cheer. It was utterly disgusting, and was one of the reasons why I sought to find out more about Paganism and befriend witches and other Pagans. They are very nice people thankyou very much. You couldn't pick them out in any normal crowd. The chances are high that if you visit a mall or any public place with people, you will pass by and even interact with witches and other Pagans. And to clear another myth, male witches are NOT called "warlocks". The term "witch" applies to both male and female members of the Wiccan religion. And 99% of them abide by the fundamental law of "harm none", they are often environmentalists, some are vegetarians, and they respect all other religions - hardly the type who would sacrifice babies.
For much of Christian history from the creation of the religion in the 4th century, they believed the "blood libel" of Jews. This stems from a passage in the Christian bible referring to the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. The Roman governor Pilate had wanted to release Jesus, and so as part of Passover traditions, the Romans would offer to release one of the Jewish prisoners, the crowd would determine who to release. On this occasion, the choice would be between Jesus and the convicted murderer Barabbas. According to the Christian bible, the Jewish crowd overwhelmingly chose Barabbas thus sealing the fate of Jesus. The Scripture in question is found in Matthew 27:25, referring to Jesus....
"Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children."
This was enough to declare open season on Jews by the church, all branches of the church, Catholic, Protestants, and Orthodox, from the 4th century. Indeed every pogrom against Jews in these last 1700 years has been at the hands of the Christian church. Adolf Hitler was a devout Catholic blessed by Pope Pius XII.
Another myth soon arose in the Christian church, that is, during Passover the Jews would kidnap Christian babies, murder them, and use their blood in the baking of the matza that Jews uses in their Passover celebrations. The scorch marks on the matza slices were said to be the blood of these babies. This myth was preached and perpetuated by the Christian church up to the 1960s. Therefore, any of us in their 40s and over, the church perpetuated this myth within our lifetimes. And while some churches have since renounced this myth, not all of them have done so, many churches still have this belief on their books as their official doctrine - it is just not talked about anymore. Indeed in this so-called "enlightened" 21st century, it is fashionable to support the Jews, and indeed plenty of Christians organisations have popped up to support the Jews. Many churches have "Friends of the Jews" groups, and many seeks to redress the past persecutions of Jews by the Church.
However nothing has really changed. The "blood libel" is now transferred to Pagans, mainly witches. So instead of Jews, they now preach that WITCHES kills babies, sacrifices them, and uses their blood in their rituals. And they promote Halloween as the witches high holy day in which babies are sacrificed. So one lie has been transferred to another lie. As a point of interest, one of the reasons why Christians persecuted Jews through the ages was because they thought Jews were witches - because they use the lunar calendar, Jewish holidays usually fell on Full Moons and occasionally a New Moon, and Rabbis are usually dressed in long black robes and they wear long beards - the stereotype pictures of wizards.
So just what are the facts. "Paganism" simply means "from the earth" and refers to a spirituality that reveres the environment, the ecosystems, the natural wonders, as well as the sun, moon and other bodies of the universe, rather than a single Divine entity. So indeed all indigenous faiths, such as the Aboriginal Dreamtime, are Pagan. But for the purpose of this piece, to simply things a bit, I will refer to Pagans as those of European traditions, that includes Wicca, Druidism, Celts and other such faiths. They are all pretty well similar in their basic beliefs.
Halloween is in fact a Pagan holiday, one of the eight Pagan holidays of the solar or Roman calendar year, these holidays which celebrates the seasons and the motion of the Sun through the year. Two of the holidays falls on the Solstices, two other holidays on the Equinoxes, and the other four holidays at the midway points between the Solstices and Equinoxes, and for convenience, are celebrated on the nearest 1st of the month - those holidays marks the start of the four seasons.
One such holiday is Samhain. This holiday falls midway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, and is said to be the start of winter. The Astronomical day of the holiday is around 7 November, but for convenience it is often celebrated on the 1st day of November. A major part of this holiday revolves around the belief that family and ancestral members of the family who have passed away, they are given access from the underworld to walk this planet, and they often visit the living family members. Indeed, on the night before Samhain, families often leaves an empty spot at the dinner table in case one of these spirits pays them a visit. There is nothing "spooky" about this, it was just accepted as a part of life. Pagans converses with the spirits of the dead on this day.
Then came along the Christians, and they have a habit of adopting Pagan holidays and incorporating their own doctrines into such holidays. Christmas (Yule) and Easter (Ostara) are two well known examples of this practice. Samhain is a less well known example, the Christians adopted this holiday as All Saints Day, and it is when Christians are encouraged to pray to the spirits of dead Saints. This is mainly a Catholic holiday as Protestants tends not to encourage this kind of practice, nevertheless, it IS an example of another Pagan holiday being adopted by Christians.
All Saints Day is also given the term "All Hallows Day". Therefore the night prior to this day is given the term "All Hallows Eve" - Halloween!!!! So this wonderful holiday is nothing more than the eve of Samhain, and there are no "devil worship" nor " sacrifice of babies" involved.
To be sure, many of the Halloween does stem from ancient Celtic and other pre-Christian European traditions. The "trick and treat" stemmed from the practice of ancient Pagans leaving gifts for these spirits. And the wearing of costumes stems from the practice of protection. Not all of these spirits from the underworld are exactly peace loving friendly spirits. A few are rather less than friendly. So in order to protect themselves from a possible visit by such a spirit, the family members wear disguises on that night.
Last but not least..... here in the Southern Hemisphere, we Pagans/Wiccans does not actually celebrate Samhain at this time, we actually celebrate Beltane. Southern Hemisphere Pagans celebrates their holidays at opposite times of the year to remain in synch with the opposite seasons. Beltane is regarded as the start of summer. Well it came a bit early this year, it was just a smidge below 100 degrees today!! Nevertheless, we will be celebrating Beltane on Friday while our Northern Hemisphere brothers and sisters will be celebrating Samhain.
Nevertheless, since the commercialisation of Halloween have well and truly reached Australia, I will have my scant Halloween decorations around, and a supply of candy ready for the neighborhood kids coming around in their wonderful costumes.
Now in keeping with the Halloween theme, I play one of my favorite songs ever, I just LOVE this song so much, I also LOVE the musical production attached to the song, it actually seems to mirror my own life in some ways!!!!.... and I think this is one of the best versions of the song ever!!!!! ENJOY!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment