Path: typhoon.sonic.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.new-york.net!newsfeed.nyc.globix.net!netnews.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.skycache.com!news-hub.cableinet.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!nnrp3.clara.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Kwaw" Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.misc,alt.religion.all-worlds,alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan,alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna,alt.satanism,alt.mythology References: <896r1e$4ua@bolt.sonic.net> <38B6F94F.E8C75436@gateway.net> Subject: Re: Neopagan God (was paganism: question about the male half) Lines: 57 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 Message-ID: Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 16:01:30 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.8.88.74 X-Complaints-To: abuse@clara.net X-Trace: nnrp3.clara.net 951580890 195.8.88.74 (Sat, 26 Feb 2000 16:01:30 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 16:01:30 GMT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:21514 talk.religion.misc:309591 alt.religion.all-worlds:20020 alt.religion.wicca:280682 alt.pagan:262307 alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna:4116 alt.satanism:140863 alt.mythology:57390 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.