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Neopagan God

To: alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.misc,alt.religion.all-worlds,alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan,alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna,alt.satanism,alt.mythology
From: "Kwaw" 
Subject: Re: Neopagan God (was paganism: question about the male half)
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 16:01:30 GMT

Delila  wrote in message
news:38B6F94F.E8C75436@gateway.net...
>
>   Before christianity, Europeans worshipped a Goddess,

The phrase 'Europeans worshipped a Goddess' suggests a homogenous set of
religious beliefs and practices across Europe that is not consistent with
the known facts.  Beliefs and practices varied widely among the many tribes
and peoples then inhabiting the continent.  In the British Isles alone there
were major differences between the religious practices and beliefs of the
Gaelic and Brythonic Celts.  All that can be said for certain of the
pre-christian religions of Europe is that they were polytheistic; that they
worshipped a plethora of gods and goddesses.  The most important of the
Celtic Goddesses appear on the whole to have been a bloodthirsty lot
associated mainly with warriors.  Certainly Gods and Goddesses both demanded
votif offerings and sacrifices.

In Ireland different Goddesses were associated with various districts, Macha
to Ulster for example, and to have been associated with sovereignty; the
inauguration of a King included a ceremony of 'sacred marriage' to the
Goddess of the district.  This seems to have been specific to the Celts of
Ireland however and is not neccesarily representative of the beliefs of
other Celtic tribes; it wasn't the case among the Brythonic Celts for
example.

>who was known
> under various names in different locales.

There is no proof that pre-christian peoples considered their many different
God/dessess to be the same, but worshipped under different names.  This is
to apply a modern viewpoint onto the past.  The popular conception seems to
have been to view all deities as distinct and separate individuals;  this
seems to have been as extreme as considering even Mars the healer and Mars
the Sower for example as being separate - not different aspects of the one
deity.

> the old Goddess who was usually
> revered in three stages, like the moon: Virgin, mother, crone.

Aleister Crowley was first to associate the ''threefold nature of the moon"
with Artemis or Diana as the Virgin, Persophone as the woman in the
fulfillment of life and Hecate the Crone (Moonchild, 1929).  It was Graves
in 'The White Goddess' who fully conceived and developed the concept of the
Triple Goddess as Maiden, Mother and Crone.  It is a modern concept with no
exact parallell in pre-christian religions.  The closest is that often three
god/desses are often associated together; for example Morrigan, Medb and
Macha as warrior goddesses; the three Crones; the Metramones (three mothers)
or the three hooded spirits.  However, these are all seen as separate beings
and not as aspects of the one;  also they seem to be brought together
through a shared function or type, ie as Mothers, or Warriors, or Crones,
etc and not to represent stages of a cycle.

Kwaw
Honour light, love, liberty and life and do what thou wilt.

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