“When you fall of the horse just dust yourself off and get back on”
I am not being trivial again, I have a point.
I don’t get back on the hors I launch an epic inquisition into why I fell of the hors before finding a new hors
Now I have to be honest this isn’t Texas and I am running the hell out of horses.
I am a committed student of history and I have, above all, learnt that while history has the potential to strengthen a nation it can most defiantly destroy an individuals believes.
I am one of those individuals.
I only see the destruction as enlightenment.
I grew up a Christian with an enquiring mind so much so that the “having faith” was not an answer. The Dutch reform church failed miserably in answering my questions, the apostolic almost had me but in the end I turned to the written words of history and science and fact gave faith a royal hiding.
I rethought my spiritual believes and in the end was drawn to what is loosely termed Eclectic paganism. I don’t believe in gods, rather in energies and attributes within ourselves I believe in nature and the power it has over man kind.
Where heaven was reincarnation filled the void, and where prayer was meditation came.
I was especially drawn to the fact that no sex was held lord of the other and woman were given their rightful respect.
A lot of my inspiration was drawn from the romantic figures of Celtic and Gaelic gods.
The stories of Morgan and Diana and the wise Merlin.
And when I say romantic I am mean romanticized. One of the largest growing religions in the world is wicca, they are peaceful and accepting and may in fact be misleading.
You will be taught that there are different paths, witch craft, Shamanism and Druidism.
And the gods have positive and negative traits.
Now this is where my dilemma comes in
I am currently reading a book about the mythology of the ancient Celts
In this book the Druids are animated as no less power hungry and manipulative as the Vatican and the people as barbarians who honored their Gods by human sacrifice.
Not he caring country people they are seen as today
However at the same time the book also notes that the lore of the ancient Britons Celts and Gael was handed down by verbal stories and that some of the only written material we have on them are the observations of Caesar during their campaigns in Brittan.
Most of these manuscripts were written by Monks of the Christian order they were trying to enforce upon the British natives.
Now I ask you!
The verbal folk lore is most definitely badly distorted as it is thousands of years old
And the written material is questionable given the religious climate of the time.
What do we believe.
Personally I am happy with my nameless way of life right now, this is only because ignorance is bliss and I often prefer being right to being happy, but if anybody has some form of info to add please do
13 comments:
The problem with any religion throughout history and in current times, is not the religion itself, but the people who prescribe to that religion. Religion itself is not a bad thing.
Even in the case of the Druids, the religion is great, but there must have been people following the religion who did horrible act, in the name of the religion, must like Christians did.
i have found that religion should be just personal... when you mix in other people and a venue/place of worship...the chances are that it's not going to work...find peace in your heart and follow your gut...
Well, all evidence does point towards the Celts performing human sacrifice. Such as the sacrifice of their king at a certain time during his reign, so that the fields grow.
Or the sacrifice of the last person to arrive for a battle.
These are the things that have strong evidence, and I wouldn't be suprised if the druids were heavily political. However the actions of the druids in the actual mythology are usually either beneficient, or in the same style as the grand vizier stereotype.
From Boston, we have three separate religions:
Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics (interestingly, you mention the Celts in your blog).
There's a fourth religion, the Bruins, but they've been sucking for a long time (not unlike most Catholic priests).
As a general rule of thumb, based on these religions, it's best to spread yourself out across multiple paths...as not only do you benefit from all religions, but you guarantee that you have a religion to follow during another religion's off-season.
Just a tip.
You're welcome.
Be happy in your individual beliefs and let whatever happened in the past stay there. The times were different, you are trying to interpret the past in a different language, looking for nuance when the language had words meaning different things.
Read some Zen philosophy to add to your thinking. "Zen Flesh; Zen Bones" is an excellent collection and you can also get a lot from reading "Tao Te Ching" often called 'The Way' and a prescription for an excellent way to live.
Ultimately, these are very personal decisions. Go for it.
Hope this helps a little.
Monty
Glugster: I couldnt agree more. I recently shocked a beuty queen by saying that world peace is impossible because human beings are incapable of it
People are the problem with most things.
Sweetass: do you really have a sweet a sweet ass... just kidding... I have a problem with personal I am too opinionated I talk I get crucified I fight. but otherwise I am happy.
Rabbit: So you see what my issue is I cant perscribe to a religion that sacrifice people
Moooooog: In our house we also have three religions The colts (yes my roomie is the oly south-african that watches football) The springboks and Mclearin
CEO: I am googling Zen right now thanks for your input
Believe what you feel. Eyes can play tricks on you. So can people. But your intuition will allways be right.
Dont mix gods with the institutions that promote them.
I know there is something more. More than just us. I've cursed these so called gods many times, and they allways seemed to fuck me up in return, hehehe.
But you're not following the Celtic religion which sacrificed people. You're taking the ideas which make sense to you, and which you like, and using those. That doesn't make you in any way associated with the people who performed those sacrifices.
And remember, if you're looking for a religion in which no one has ever been sacrificed, killed, martyred or in some other way had their life ended by the religion you're pretty much out of luck.
You know better than those druids did. They did what they were doing for the greater good, or at least what they believed was the greater good. It doesn't make them evil, it makes them practical.
Your only other option is to invent your own religion completely out of whole cloth.
Fisrtly... I'll never even get close to a horse :)
Okay yes time has twisted all the storry's told in those times. It's the same in christianity, wiccan, Celtic wiccan and all the rest. Yes druids were baberians as you said, sacrifizes were made and most could have been human.
As far as my record goes the Celts didn't do human sarcrifizes but there were a group of celts that did offer animals to there "gods" but they were traiding under a deferent name than Celtic Wiccans. You cant really point them out by celts as there were more than one kind of Celts. The real Celtic Wiccans are endangered as there a min of them left.
Witch Craft in the other hand. It's not like most ppl see it. Don't think doing witch craft and or wizzardtry that you are David Copperfield. But also in the day of witch craft our beloving country's main religion were the ppl doing all the murdering even tho they learn you not to and it wasn't really for the facts that we learn.
Wiccan now are more just a relaxed religion and it has been turned in so many way's that you cant really call it wiccan any more but also going more to the pengan side.
But the facts are. There are no religion that haven't changed and there are no religion that haven't had some evil in it. There are many story's going around, some true some not.
I will never say anybody's religion bad and I grand to believe what they will. As long as they don't expect me to follow. What I have been riased to believe and what I have learned that will be the last religion I'll ever go back to.
Lee hope you find your peace, I know I did and I'm proud of it. Althou we are much a like when it comes to this topic.
I'm just happy you're thinking about it. How many people are content to live an existence in which they accept what others have taught them without question?
Blech.
Fish: "dont mix gods with the instittutions that creat them" Now that is a quote to keep.
Rabbit: while I realize that, I think I am completely to hung up on finding the original religion in its purest form. while on the other hand I know that there are no such things as holy devines that people invent them in their eternal search for guidance, they want to be told that what they are doing is right.
Gremmie:Haha Just for the record everybody Grem is scared of horses
History tels us that three perdominant "clans" in ancient britain were the aboriginey, the bayton and the Celst. they say that the latter two fled from Gaul.
however the term WICCA is very young it originated in the 70's coined by garner for the first time apparantly.
I agree that Witch craft is nothing like the hollywood version of it and I get completely pissed of when people are narrow minded enough to think that witches murder and drink blood.
The reason I have never called myself a witch is because I have not perfomed ritual magic.
either way I am happy with what I have.
I just want to know the truth, I dont care if there is evil, I just want the truth sothat when faced with an arguement I am right from the get go
Val:I was pest in school, I got kicked uot of History once for correcting the teacher.
I almost never accept things specially when it comes to history and religion, I practically have a whole library on the subject.
i won't even attempt to contribute- i'm torn at the moment...
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