Now, now, Freddy, you know very well that I do not sacrifice goats!! Nor do I believe in any particular pagan gods or goddesses, and I am not a practicing witch, either. Celtic witchcraft, also known as wicca, is thousands of years old, however, and any serious study of Irish history would reveal its underpinnings there. I am not sure what I feel about modern paganism, but it certainly is harmless. Is there something wrong with finding a belief system which makes sense to the individual? Isn't this what the early Christians did, also? So I do find the charge that modern paganism is 'invented' quite pointless. So was Christianity!! It is particularly poignant that most Christians do not follow the teachings of Christ, for whom I have enormous respect, at all. As I have said many times here, religious freedom is a much more important concept to me than my own spiritual beliefs, and any belief system that consoles someone certainly is creating some benefit in that person's life, and I would be the last person to suggest that anyone change their beliefs based on anything I say.
I do feel a strong connection to creative, nurturing feminine energy which has at times in history made men so afraid of female power and knowledge that they have held women down, and back. To me the goddess movement is positive in that it reintroduces this reverence for women and tells the truth about what happened to them--herstory!!!
I do not hate Catholics--my father and my husband are Catholic--nor do I hate Protestants. I am not very fond of bigots, idiots, or junkyard dogs, however. I do think that the effects of organized religions on history and politics can be quite damaging, and need to be reexamined, so that destructive patterns are not repeated. In order to do this, I think the fact that many--we could debate the numbers forever--women were systematically killed in Europe by Christians in the late Middle Ages, over a period of about 150 years. I don't think this is something that most people are aware of yet, and I think it is very important to get the word out. I wonder why this is so very threatening to some men!!
Here is a poem from Christ's book, 'Rebirth of the Goddess'. Is there something wrong with the sentiments expressed in the poem? I think it is very soothing, very healing.
Evrynome--A Story of Creation
Chris Lavdas
Long, long in the past, far, far in the future,
At that point, before the beginning, after the end,
Where time and space do not exist,
Where all colors and forms are lost in the blackness of void,
There was a heavy vast silence,
A profound eternal motionlessness,
And nothingness and everything were the same.
And then Evrynome, Gaia, Goddess of a thousand names,
Mother of all,
Sighed.
And the sound of her breath echoed pleasingly in her ears.
As if it were a foreseeing
And yet as if it were remembrance,
She heard summer breezes ruffling tall green grasses,
And winter hurricanes howling through deep valleys,
And the pounding of the sea,
And the calling voices of all creation.
And so Evrynome, Gaia, Goddess of a thousand names,
Mother of all,
Pursed her lips and whistled for the wind.
Then slowly, smoothly, with perfect sensuality
She rose up from the timeless bed of her infinite rest
And caught up the wind
In her cupped hands,
In her streaming hair,
In the billows of her skirts,
And in the warm secret places of her body,
And she danced.
She danced delicately, she danced frenziedly,
She danced in staccato rhythm and liquid movement,
She danced with pure precision and orgiastic abandon,
She danced gloriously,
She danced holding the wind in her close embrace,
She danced the love and the joy of creation.
She danced and she danced.
And from the arch of her foot leapt the circles of time,
And from the curve of her spine, the spirals of life,
Day and night,
Black and white,
Absorption, reflection,
Birth, death, resurrection.
And as ecstasy grew, as the beat increased,
The wind blew wild and her belly swelled round.
And from the rivers of her sweat, oceans flowed,
And with each heave of her breast, mountains rose.
And when she threw back her hair and opened her hands,
Life teemed around her and harmony reigned.
Creation now danced in her perfect time
And she smiled. |
