HISTORY

The term "Pagan" comes from the Latin paganus, which appears to have originally meant "country dweller," "villager," or "hick." The members of the Roman army seem to have used it to mean "civilian." When Christianity took over the Empire and continued it under new management, the word took on the idea of "one who is not a soldier of Christ." Today, the word means "atheist" or "devil worshipper" to many devout monotheists. But those who call themselves Pagan use it differently; as a general term for native, natural and polytheistic religions, and their members. The following definitions have been coined in recent years in order to keep the various polytheological and historical distinctions clear:

"Paleopaganism" refers to the original tribal faiths of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania and Australia, where and when they were (or are) still practiced as intact belief systems. Of the so-called "Great Religions of the World," Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto fall under this category. "Mesopaganism" is the word used for those religions founded as attempts to recreate, revive or continue what their founders thought of as the (usually European) Paleopagan ways of their ancestors (or predecessors), but which were heavily influenced (accidentally, deliberately or involuntarily) by the monotheistic and/or dualistic worldviews of Judiasm, Christianity and/or Islam. Examples of Mesopagan belief systems would include the Masonic Druids, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, Crowleyianity, and the many Afro-American faiths (Voudoun, Macumba, etc.).

"Neopaganism" refers to those religions created since 1940 or so that have attempted to blend what their founders perceived as the best aspects of different types of Paleopaganism with modern "Aquarian Age" ideals, while eliminating as much as possible of the traditional western dualism. Examples of these would be Gardnerism, Feminist Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, Saxon Wicca, and the Egyptian pagan Religons. So let's look at the state of Paleopaganism in World prior to the arrival of Christianity.

GODDESS RELIGIONS IN THE OLD WORLD

Gravettian-Aurignacian Cultures (25000 BC-15000 BC)

The Upper-Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have been found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the religion of the Goddess as it emerged in the later Neolithic Age of the Near East.There have been numerous studies of Paleolithic cultures, explorations of sites occupied by these people, and the apparent rites connected with the disposal of their dead. In these Upper-Paleolithic societies, the concept of the creator of all human life may have been formulated by the clan's image of women, who were their mostancient primal ancestors.It is believed that the mother was regarded as the sole parent of children in this culture.

Ancestor worship appears to have been the basis of sacred rituals and ancestry is believed to have been reckoned through the matriline. The beginnings of Roman religion were based on survivals of the Etruscan culture and ancestor worship was the earliest form of religion in Rome. Even today, the Jewish people determine who is and is not a Jew through the matriline

The most tangible evidence supporting the theory that these cultures worshipped a Goddess is the numerous sculptures of women found throughout most of Europe and the Near East. Some of these sculptures date as far back as 25,000 BC. These small female figurines, made of stone, bone, and clay, most of which are seemingly pregnant, have been found throughout the widespread Gravettian-Aurignacian sites in areas as far apart as Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia. These sites and figurines appear to span a period of at least 10,000 years. Johannes Maringer, in his book 'The Gods of Prehistoric Man' says- "It appears highly probable then that the female figurines were idols of a Great Mother cult, practiced by the non-nomadic Aurignacian mammoth hunters who inhabited the immense Eurasian territories that extended from Southern France to Lake Baikal in Siberia." It was from this Lake Baikal area in Siberia that tribes are believed to have migrated across a great land bridge to North America about this time period, and formed the nucleus of what was to become the race of American Indians. This tends to support the observation that European witchcraft and American Indian shamanism have similar roots.

Western Civilization began in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley, where it traveled into Palestine and Greece. From Greece civilization traveled to Rome, and as the Roman Empire grew it spread to Spain, France, Germany and England.

It's important to remember that a lot of history happened in Europe before anyone got around to writing it down. Around 4000 B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era") the tribes that spoke Proto-Indo-European began to migrate away from their original homeland, which was probably the territory around the northwest shores of the Black Sea. Some went southeast and founded the Armenian, Iranian and Indic cultures. Others went south to Anatolia and Palestine, and became known as Hittites and Mitanni.

Those who went southwest to the Balkans became Thracians and Greeks. Others who went west and north established the Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Baltic cultures. All this migrating around took many centuries and involved a lot of bloodshed. Previous inhabitants of a given piece of territory had to be persuaded, usually at swordpoint, to let the newcomers in and there went the neighborhood!

The pre-Indo-European cultures in Europe (which were not necessarily ("peaceful matriarchies") were all still in the late Neolithic ("New Stone Age") cultural era, with only stone axes, spears and knives with which to defend themselves. The invaders had bronze weapons and armor with which to fight, plus bronze axes with which to clear the great forests that covered the continent, bronze plows to till the soil, etc. The impact of this superior technology can be judged by the fact that, by the time of the Roman Empire, nearly every language spoken in Europe (except Basque, Lappish and Finnish) was a member of the Western branch of Indo-European. Everything west of the Urals was pretty much dominated by a loosely interlinked conglomeration of related cultures, each of which was a mixture of the new culture and that of the previous holders of its territory.

MESOPOTAMIA ( 3500 BC - 539 BC )

Mesopotamia ("the land between the rivers") is the name used to describe the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the southern area of which is mostly lowlying swampland and marshes.This is where recorded human history begins. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was believed that the garden of Eden was located here the area. The fertile lands of Mesopotamia lie between the desert and the mountains.

The northern part has regular rainfall while the southern part, stretching downto the Arabian Gulf, suffers dry scorching summers from May to October. There are few natural resources, the land is unprotected by natural frontiers this means that the area is open to invasion on the east, northeast and southwest this resulted in waves of invasions, the repeated influx of new peoples. But the soil here is easily tillable and that was the crucial thing to ancient peoples fighting over tracts of this arable land caused advanced techniques of battle to emerge early in this area the Mesopotamians later used the battle techniques which they learned here to subjugate other peoples civilization was also enhanced in this area because of the need for a strong centralized government to supervise and organize irrigation; this was an early impetus to the building of strongly centralized cities and this, in turn, aided the development of civilization so in an area only about the size of Massachusetts, all of these great civilizations arose:

Sumerians - In what is now the southern part of Iraq, Sumer existed as one of the world's first civilizations.first traces are ca. 3500 B.C. they were a blending of the Semitic tribes from the north with the indigenous, aboriginal population. This people is of obscure origin but is believed to have been an Asianic people. Between 2800 and 2400 BC the city-states of Sumer were at their strongest and wealthiest.

The Goddess was worshipped under various names which were epithets, or characterizing phrases, such as 'Queen of Heaven' and 'Lady of the High Places'. The name of the city or town that She was the patroness for, was often attached to Her title making Her name even more specific. An example of this is the temple erected about 3000 BC in the city-state of Uruk which was dedicated to the Queen of Heaven of Erech. This city was made a major power and rival to its sister city Ur by Gilgamesh's son.

Akkadians - a people living further north in Mesopotamia the Akkadians were a completely Semitic people the Akkadians succeeded the Sumerians in the third millenium B.C. About 2350 BC an ambitious king, named Sargon, attacked Sumer, and made it part of his huge Empire. His capitol of Agade gave us the name by which Sargons empire is known, the Akkadian Empire. The Akkadian Empire was the first successful attempt to unite a huge area under the rule of one man. It eventually gained supremacy in about 1900 BC and gradually superseded the Summerians as the cultural and political leaders of the region.

Babylonians - an outgrowth of the Sumerians a new Semitic people [the Amorites] invaded Mesopotamia, established itself as the ruling dynasty in the area and took control of the remnants of the Sumerian/Akkadian civilization because the southern portions of the Tigris and Euphrates were silting up, the Amorites moved the capital of the region north from Sumer to Babylon in 1850 B.C. from here, the name of the people is derived. King Hammurabi [flourished ca. 1750 B.C.] was a Babylonian, his law code codified the eye for an eye style of justice. The Akkadian language of the Babylonians became the international language of the Near East, just as French would become the language of diplomacy thousands of years later. The new Babylonian culture incorporated the Sumerian religion, and the Sumerian language was adopted as the language of the liturgy much as Latin is used as the language of liturgy for Roman Catholics. The sumerian Goddess, under the names Inanna, Eriskegan and Irnini, evolved into the great Babylonian Goddess Ishtar.

Anatolia - which is also called Asia Minor, is a broad peninsula jutting westward from the Asian continent itself. To the north lies the Black Sea, to the south the easternmost part of the Mediterranean. At the entrance to the Black Sea are the Dardanelles and it is here that Asia comes closest to the continent of Europe. Not surprisingly, Anatolia has always been the main link between the Orient and the Occident.

In Neolithic Anatolia (present day Turkey) the Great Goddess was worshiped in the shrines of Catal Huyuk around 6500 BC. Anatolia was invaded sometime before 2000 BC by the Indo-Europeans and a group of them settled in a part of Anatolia known as Hatti. The invaders and local people came to be known collectively as the Hittites. Approximately 1600 BC Babylon was sacked by an Indo-European people known as the Hittites who came from Anatolia, off to the northwest. During the confusion that ensued, the Kassites seized the throne of Babylon and ruled peacefully for 400 years. Ishtar's power waned as the Babylonians were influenced by the warlike Hittites and Her temples were taken over by a male-dominated priesthood, which called the Goddess Tiamat and wrote stories of how their god Marduk had killed Her in the struggle for control of the region. Most of the references to the Goddess in the literature and texts of Anatolia alluded to the older Hattian deities despite the fact that the only records allowed to survive were written after the conquest of Anatolia by the Indo-Europeans.

One of the most important female deities to survive was the Sun Goddess Arinna. After the conquest she was assigned a husband who was symbolized as a storm god. At the time of the Hittite invasions of other lands, many of the people who were Goddess-worshippers may have fled to the west. The renowned temple of the Goddess in the city of Ephesus was the target of the apostle Paul's zealous missionary efforts (Acts 19:27). This temple remained active until 380 AD.

Assyria - In the centuries following 1103 BC the Assyrians rose to power and expanded into most of Mesopotamia from their homeland which lay between the cities of Asher and Nineveh on the Tigrus River. The most famous capital of the Assyrians was at Nineveh in 728 B.C., the Assyrians conquered Babylon and most of the surrounding region. In the eighth century, the Assyrians conquered most of Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia and had invaded Egypt as far as Thebes (Luxor) before the Egyptians drove them back.

Looking to legitimize their new empire, they 'married' their god Asher to Ishtar, whose followers had secretly kept Her worship alive. The joining of Ashur with Ishtar produced a son named Ninurta, and this is the first formally recorded triad of Goddess, Consort, and Divine Child in the Near East. From 631 to 539 BC much inter-city warfare occurred as the Assyrian empire fell apart. In 539 BC Nabonius, the last king of Babylonia, surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia who was busy building the greatest empire ever attempted.

It was believed that the pharaohs, kings, etc. all imbued some power of the gods, and even the slightest movement they made would cause an action to occur. It was believed that a picture, or statue also carried the spirit of the person. This is one of the reasons that they were carried from place to place, and also explains why you see so many pictures and statues of these persons with their hands straight to their sides.

In the Bible, we find reference to "The Tower of Babel" or The Ziggurat in Genesis 11. "Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (Babylonia) and settled there. They said to each other, `Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar. Then they said, `Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.' But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said,`If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.'" It goes on to say that the tower was never finished. In other references, we find that the "Tower" was in fact finished, and that it was a tower that represented the "stages" between earth and heaven (not a tower stretching to the heaven in the literal sense.) From this reference, it was a tower built in steps.

For the first time, numbers expressed the world order. A legend depicts Pythagoras traveling to Babylon where he is taught the mystery of numbers, their magical significance and power. The seven steps often appear in magical philosophy. The seven steps are: stones, fire, plants, animals, man, the starry heavens, and the angels. Starting with the study of stones, the man of wisdom will attain higher and higher degrees of knowledge, until he will be able to apprehend the sublime, and the eternal. Through ascending these steps, a man would attain the knowledge of God, whose name is at the eighth degree, the threshold of God's heavenly dwelling.

The square was also a "mystical" symbol in these times, and though divided into seven, was still respected. This correlated the old tradition of a fourfold world being reconciled with the seven heavens of later times. It is thought that here was the start to numerology, but for this to have developed to the point where they had taken into consideration the square as the fourfold world, it would have had to have developed prior to this.

PERSIA (3000 - 331 BC)

Throughout its early history Iran was often invaded by nomadic peoples. Some came through the Elbruz mountains east of the Caspian Sea. Others, like the Medes and Persians, entered Iran through the Caucasus mountains in the Northwest. By the 9th century BC the most powerful group in Iran was the Medes, who kept the Persians as their servants. In 612 BC the Medes, together with the Babylonians, captured Nineveh, Ashur, and Kalhu, which were in the heart of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrian empire collapsed and its vast territories were divided between the Medes and the Babylonians. About 550 BC the king of the Persians led a revolt against the Medes and from that point on the Persians, led by their King Cyrus the Great, ruled over Iran.

Cyrus captured Babylon and gained control of the whole former Babylonian empire. Virtually all of western Asia was now under Persian rule. The next two kings extended Persian rule to Egypt in the south and to the borders of India in the east. Egypt revolted later and won its independence for a short time, but was forced back into the empire just in time to be part of the prize won by Alexander the Great of Macedonia when he conquered the Persian empire in 331 BC.

Chaldea once again, an outgrowth of the Babylonians the new Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, whom Daniel encounters in the Old Testament, threw off the Assyrian rule in about 600 B.C. the Chaldeans thus caused the overthrow of Assyria and helped to make Babylon a major power again Nebuchadnezzar also exiled the Jews from Palestine to Babylon: this is what is known as the Babylonian captivity the Chaldeans were the developers of astrology Unlike the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, who believed that all was done with either the favor or lack thereof of the Gods, the Chaldean star religion taught that luck and disaster were no chance events, but were controlled from the heavenly bodies (planets/stars) which send good and bad according to mathematical laws.

It was their belief that man was incapable of fighting the will of the planet divinities. Though, the more this system evolved, the more the wise men read ethical values into man's fate. The will of the stars was not completely separate from man's behaviors. The stars were important, but not omnipotent in deciding man's fate. It was believed that the star Sirius would carry messages to the higher gods and he returned to announce their will.

Around the 7th Century B.C. Zoroaster, the Median prophet was preaching the doctrines that evil could be avoided and defeated. He brought about the principles of the good and evil spirits. Below, we will look at the beliefs and influences of this man's life which created the religion named after him. The first of the belief structure had to do with Ormazd (Ahura- Mazda) king of light, and his twin brother Ahriman (Anro-Mainyu) prince of darkness. Zoroaster brought about the belief in the "holy war" (that between good and evil.) In this faith, the archangels (the spirits of Divine Wisdom, Righteousness, Dominion, Devotion, Totality, and Salvation) and the demons (the spirits of Anarchy, Apostasy, Presumption, Destruction, Decay, and Fury) were constantly at battle with one another. The archangels were controled by Ormazd and the demons by Ahriman.

This religion had it's belief that in the end, Ormazd and his demons would prevail, but until then, Ormazd would keep the world safe. It is interesting that the last of the demons (the demon of Fury) holds such a hard and fast thought that it was incorporated into the Hebrew and Christian belief structure. The last archdemon's name is Aeshma Daeva also know to the Hebrews as Ashmadai and to Christians as Asmodeus. Asmodeus was the "chief of the fourth hierarchy of evil demons", called "the avengers of wickedness, crimes and misdeeds." He appears with three heads, a bull's, human, and a ram. He has goose feet, and a snake's tail. To appear more frightening, he also exhales fire and rides upon a dragon of hell. It is said that Asmodeus is not to be feared. When you say to him: "In truth thou art Asmodeus," he will give you a wonderful ring. He will teach you geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and mechanics. When questioned, he answers truthfully.

The other demons tempt people away from the true worship of Amazda. They are Paromaiti - Arrogance, Mitox - The Falsely Spoken Word, Zaurvan - Decrepitude, Akatasa - Meddlesomeness, Vereno - Lust. Much of the current day Christian beliefs were taken from this man's religion. (That of good and evil forces, the redemption, the "savior" factor, etc.)

EGYPT (3100 to 30 BC)

In contrast to all of these shifts of power in Mesopotamia, Egypt was a very stable country. the stability of Egypt caused it to resist innovations in art and literature consequently, even in antiquity Egypt was known as a nation of great conservativism and hoary antiquity indeed, to modern eyes, Egyptian art seems to change very little from 3200 to 525 B.C. (when Egypt was conquered by the Persian king Cambyses) "In Egypt the forms of excellence were long since fixed and patterns of them displayed in the temples. No painter or artist is allowed to innovate on the traditional forms or invent new ones. To this day, no alteration is allowed none at all. Their works of art are painted or molded in the same forms which they had 10,000 years ago. Egypt is a hot, desert land divided by the fertile valley of the Nile river. Hardly any rain falls there and the summers are scorching hot. Even today, most of Egypt is arid desert. The Cultivation, a strip of land on each side of the Nile river, is one of the most fertile stretches of land in the world. Although the Cultivation is only 12 1/2 miles wide, it runs for about 620 miles from Aswan in the south to the broad farmlands of the delta where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean.

In prehistoric Egypt, the Goddess held sway in Upper Egypt (the south) as Nekhebt and She was depicted in the form of a vulture. The people of Lower Egypt, including the northern delta region, worshipped the Goddess as Ua Zit (Great Serpent) and depictions of Her show Her as a cobra. From about 3000 BC onward the Goddess was said to have existed when nothing else had been created. She was known as Nut, Net, or Nit which was probably derived from Nekhebt. According to Egyptian mythology, it was the Goddess who first put Ra, the sun god, in the sky.

Other texts of Egypt tell of the Goddess as Hathor in this role as creatrix of existence, explaining that She took form as a serpent at the time. In Egypt the concept of the Goddess always remained vital. Eventually the Goddess evolved into a more composite Goddess known as Isis. Isis (Au Set) incorporated the aspects of both Ua Zit and Hathor. Isis was also closely associated with the Goddess as Nut, who was mythologically recorded as Her Mother; in paintings Isis wears the wings of Nekhebt.

Isis was also associated with another triad which included Her husband, Osiris, and their son Horus. Isis' cult was introduced into Rome and the last temple of Isis was closed in 394 AD by Theodosios. From here, let us move on to Egypt where we will look at other mystical symbols and more history of magic and the craft.

The Sphinx was a mythological creature with lion's body and human head, an important image in Egyptian and Greek art and legend. The word sphinx was derived by Greek grammarians from the verb sphingein (to bind or squeeze), but the etymology is not related to the legend and is dubious. The winged sphinx of Boeotian Thebes, the most famous in legend, was said to have terrorized the people by demanding the answer to a riddle. If the person answered incorrectly, he or she was eaten by the sphinx. It is said that Oedipus answered properly where upon the sphinx killed herself. The earliest and most famous example in art is the colossal Sphinx at Giza, Egypt. It dates from the reign of King Khafre (4th king of 4th dynasty; c. 2550 b.c.) The Sphinx did not occur in Mesopotamia until around 1500 b.c. when it was imported from the Levant. In appearance, the Asian sphinx differed from its Egyptian model mostly in the addition of wings to the leonine body. This feature continued through its history in Asia and the Greek world.

Another version of the sphinx was that of the female. This appeared in the 15th century b.c. on seals, ivories and metalworkings. They were portrayed in the sitting position usually with one paw raised. Frequently, they were seen with a lion, griffin or another sphinx. The appearance of the sphinx on temples and the like eventually lead to a possible interpretation of the sphinx as a protective symbol as well as a philosophical one.

The Sphinx rests at the foot of the 3 pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkure. It talons stretch over the city of the dead as it guards its secrets. The myth goes that a prince who later became Thutmose IV, took a nap in the shadow of the half-submerged Sphinx. As he slept, the Sun-god whom the Sphinx represents, appeared to him in a dream. Speaking to him as a son, he told the prince that he would succeed to the throne and enjoy a long and happy reign. He urged the prince to have the Sphinx cleared of the sand.

In his book on Isis and Osiris, Plutarch (A.D. 45-126) says that the Sphinx symbolizes the secret of occult wisdom, though Plutarch never unveiled the mysteries of the Sphinx. It is said that the magic of the Sphinx lies within the thousands of hands that chiseled at the rock. The thoughts of countless generations dwell in it.

CRETE

The Aegean Sea is an area of the Mediterranean, lying between the mainland of Greece and the western coast of Anatolia. The Aegean Sea is dotted with a great number of mountainous islands and the largest of these is Crete, which is just about 60 miles southeast of Greece. Crete was the society that is most repeatedly thought to have been matrilineal and possibly matriarchal from Neolithic times to the Dorian invasion.

Reverance of the double headed ax as a symbol of the Mother Goddess and a reverence for the sexual vitality of bulls were two notable aspects of Crete's early culture. Bull leaping is thought to have been the origin of Spain's bullfighting, although in Crete the bull was never harmed. After viewing the artifacts and murals at Knossos, the Archaeological Museum at Iraklion and other museums in Crete, there is little doubt that the principal sacred being on Crete for several millenia was the Goddess and that women acted as Her clergy.

CANAAN (8000 - 300 BC)

The biblical land of Canaan, the 'land of milk and honey' was an area about 90 miles wide running north and south along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. In modern times the region includes the states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and part of Syria. The area made up of Jordan and Israel used to be known as Palestine.

Images of the Goddess, some dating back as far as 7000 BC, offer silent testimony to the most ancient worship of the Queen of Heaven in the land that is most often remembered today as the homeland of Judaism and Christianity. In exploring the influence and importance of the worship of the Goddess in Canaan in biblical times, we find that as Ashtoreth, Asherah, Astarte, Attoret, Anath, or simply as Elat or Baalat, she was the principal deity of such great Canaanite cities as Tyre, Sidon, Ascalon, Beth Anath, Aphaca, Byblos, and Ashtoreth Karnaim.

In Egypt, the Hebrews had known the worship of the Goddess as Isis or Hathor. For four generations they had been living in a land where women held a very high status and the matrilineal descent system continued to function at most periods. Judging from the number of Hebrews who emerged from Egypt in the Exodus, as compared with the family of the the twelve sons who supposedly entered it four generations earlier, it seems likely that a great number of those Hebrews known as Israelites may actually have been Egyptians, Canaanites, Semitic nomads and other Goddess-worshipping peoples who had joined together in Egypt.

Archaeological records and artifacts reveal that the religion of the Goddess still flourished in many of the cities of Canaan even after the Hebrews invaded it and claimed it as their own on the authority that their god had given it to them. And just to the east, all most at their doorstep was Babylon, where the temples of Ishtar were still going strong.

As Hebrews became a part of this nation, there is much evidence to show where the Hebrews of the time, and the pagans lived peacefully together. In theology, the differences between early Christians, Gnostics (members - often Christian - of dualistic sects of the 2nd century a.d.), and pagan Hermetists were slight. In the large Gnostic library discovered at Naj'Hammadi, in upper Egypt, in 1945, Hermetic writings were found side by side with Christian Gnostic texts. The doctrine of the soul taught in Gnostic communities was almost identical to that taught in the mysteries: the soul emanated from the Father, fell into the body, and had to return to its former home.

The doctrinal similarity is exemplified in the case of the pagan writer and philosopher Synesius. When the people of Cyrene wanted the most able man of the city to be their bishop, they chose Synesius, a pagan. He was able to accept the election without sacrificing his intellectual honesty. In his pagan period, he wrote hymns that follow the fire theology of the Chaldean Oracles. Later he wrote hymns to Christ. The doctrine is almost identical.

The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. After a short period of toleration, the pagan religions were prohibited. The property of the pagan gods was confiscated, and the temples were destroyed. The metal from which Constantine's gold pieces were coined was taken from the pagan temple treasuries.

The main pagan "strong holds" were Rome and Alexandria. In Rome, the old aristocracy clung to the mysteries and in Alexandria the pagan Neoplatonist philosophers expounded the mystery doctrines. In 394, the opposition of the Roman aristocracy was crushed in the battle at the Frigidus River (modern stream of Vipacco, Italy and stream of Vipava, Yugoslavia).

According to the Christian theologian Origen, Christianity's development during the time of the Roman Empire was part of the divine plan. The whole Mediterranean world was united by the Romans, and the conditions for missionary work were more favorable than ever before. He explains the similarities as natural considering the cultures etc. The mystery religions and Christianity had many features in common. Some examples of this are found in their time of preparation prior to initiation, and periods of fasting. Their were pilgrimages, and new names for the new brethren. Few of the early Christian "congregations" would be called orthodox according to later more modern standards.

Though for many years, the pagan "churches" of this area tried to bring about a unity among their "doctrines", beliefs, and practices to raise support for their practices, the Christian philosophies and doctrines were so organized and strong that this fell as well. Little did they know that a couple hundred miles away, peoples were still worshipping in pagan temples.

EUROPE

The largest group of cultures north of the Roman borders was that of the Celts, and the second largest that of the Germans (some scholars consider the Germans to be so closely related culturally to the Celts as to be practically a subset, at least in archeological terms). Thanks to the work of Georges Dumezil, James Duran and others, we are beginning to have a clear idea of the social, political, magical and religious functions of the priestly "class" in Indo-European Paleopaganism. I use the word "class" deliberately, for the Western Indo-European cultures seem to have been built on the same fundamental social pattern as that with which we are familiar in Vedic India: clergy, warriors, and providers (farmers, craftspeople, traders, herders, etc.). In fact, it appears that a close to exact correspondance can be made between the religious, political and social functions originally performed by a Latin flamen, a Celtic draoi, or a Vedic brahman.

The Indo-European clergy basically included the entire intelligensia of their cultures: poets, musicians, historians, astrono- mers, genealogists, judges, diviners, and of course, leaders and supervisors of religious rituals. Officially, they ranked immediately below the local tribal chieftains or "kings" and above the warriors. However, since the kings were quasi-religious figures, usually inaugurated by the clergy, and often dominated by them, it was frequently a tossup as to who was in charge in any given tribe. The clergy were exempt from taxation and military service, and in some cultures are said to have spent decades in specialized training. They seem to have been responsible for all public religious rituals (private ones were run by the heads of each household). Public ceremonies were most often held in fenced groves of sacred trees. These were usually of birch, yew, and oak (or ash where oaks were rare), depending upon the subset of deities or ancestors being addressed, as well as the specific occasion.

Various members of the priestly caste would be responsible for music, recitation of prayers, sacrifices, divination from the flames of the ritual fire or the entrails of the sacrificial animals, and other minor ritual duties. Senior members of the caste ("the" Druids, "the" brahmans or "the" flamens as such) would be responsible for making sure that the rites were done exactly according to tradition. Without such supervision, public rituals were generally impossible; thus Caesar's comment that all public Gaulish sacrifices required a Druid to be present.

There are definite indications that the Indo-European clergy held certain polytheological and mystical opinions in common, although only the vaguest outlines are known at this point. There was a belief in reincarnation (with time spent between lives in an Other World very similar to the Earthly one), in the symbolic sacredness of particular trees, in the continuing relationship between mortals, ancestors and deities, and naturally in the standard laws of magic.

There was an ascetic tradition of the sort that developed into the various types of yoga in India, complete with the Pagan equivelent of monasteries and convents. There was also, I believe, a European "tantric" tradition of sex and drug magic, although it's possible that this was mostly the native shamanic traditions being absorbed and transmuted.

Only the western Celtic clergy (the Druids) seem to have had any sort of organized intertribal communications network. Most of the rest of the clergy seem to have kept to their own local tribes. Among the Germanic peoples, the priestly class had weakened by the early centuries of the Common Era to the point where the majority of ritual work was done by the heads of households. We don't know whether or not any but the highest ranking clergy were full-time priests and priestesses. At the height of the Celtic cultures, training for the clergy was said to take twenty years of hard work, which would not have left much time or energy for developing other careers.

Among the Scandinavians, there seem to have been priests and priestesses (godar, gydjur) who lived in small temples and occasionally toured the countryside with statues of their patron/matron deities, whom they were considered to be "married" to. In the rest of the Germanic, Slavic and Baltic cultures, however, many of the clergy may have worked part-time, a common custom in many tribal societies.

It's also common for such cultures to have full- or part-time healers, who may use herbs, hypnosis, psychology, massage, magic and other techniques. Frequently they will also have diviners and weather predictors (or controllers). Midwives, almost always female, are also standard and, as mentioned above, there is usually a priestess or priest working at least part-time.

What causes confusion, especially when dealing with extinct cultures, is that different tribes combine these offices into different people. At the opening of the Common Era, European Paleopaganism consisted of three interwoven layers: firstly, the original pre-Indo-European religions (which were of course also the results of several millenia of religious evolution and cultural conquests); secondly, the proto-Indo-European belief system held by the speakers before they began their migrations; and thirdly, the full scale "high religions" of the developed Indo-European cultures. Disentangling these various layers is going to take a very long time, if indeed it will ever be actually possible.

The successful genocide campaigns waged against the Druids and their colleagues are complex enough to warrent a separate discussion. Suffice it to say that by the time of the seventh century B.C., Druidism had been either destroyed or driven completely underground throughout Europe. In parts of Wales and Ireland, fragments of Druidism seem to have survived in disguise through the institutions of the Celtic Church and of the Bards and Poets.

Some of these survivals, along with a great deal of speculation and a few outright forgeries, combined to inspire the Masonic/Rosicrucian fraternities of the 1700's. These groups have perpetuated these fragments to this very day, augmenting them with a great deal of folkloric and other research. These would seem to most Americans to be the only sources of information about Druidism. However, research done by Russian and Eastern European folklorists, anthropologists and musicologists among the Baltic peoples of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia indicates that Paleopagan traditions may have survived in small villages, hidden in the woods and swamps, even into the current century! Some of these villages still had people dressing up in long white robes and going out to sacred groves to do ceremonies, as recently as World War One! Iron Curtin social scientists interviewed the local clergy, recorded the ceremonies and songs, and otherwise made a thorough study of their "quaint traditions" preparatory to turning them all into good Marxists.

Ironically enough, some of the oldest "fossils" of preserved Indo-European traditions seem to have been kept by Finno-Ugric peoples such as the Cheremis. Most of this research has been published in a variety of Soviet academic books and journals, and has never been translated into English. This material, when combined with the Vedic and Old Irish sources, along with some of the writings of Dumezil (and others) that are not yet in English, may give us most of the missing links necessary to reconstruct Paleo-pagan European Druidism.

The veneration of trees goes far back into the history of man. It was not until Christianity converted the Lithuanians toward the close of the 14th century that tree veneration was thought to be in the past. The truth is, whereas they are not worshiped, they are still honored by society today in the burning of the Yule log, May Day bonfires, Kissing under the Mistletoe, and the ever famous Christmas tree. The veneration of the oak tree or god appears to have been universal by all branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Both Greeks and Italians associated the tree with their highest god, Zeus or Jupiter, the divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder. Possibly one of the oldest and most famous sanctuaries in Greece was that of Dodona, where Zeus was revered in the oracular oak. The thunderstorms which are said to rage at Dodona more frequently than anywhere else in Europe, would render the spot a fitting home for the god whose voice was heard alike in the rustling of the oak leaves and in the crash of thunder. Zeus and Jupiter both were gods of thunder and rain, and to both the oak tree were sacred.

To the Celts or Druids, their worship was conducted in oak groves. The Celtic conquerors, who settled in Asia in the third century b. c., appear to have carried with them the veneration of the oak to their new home. In the heart of Asia Minor, the Galatian senate met in a place which bore the Celtic name of Drynemetum, "the sacred oak grove" or "the temple of the oak."

In Germany, we find that the veneration for sacred groves seems to have held the foremost place. According to Grimm, the chief of their holy trees was the oak. Again, here we find that it is dedicated to the god of thunder, Donar or Thunar, the equivalent of the Norse Thor. Among the Slavs, the oak tree was sacred to the thunder god Perun. Among the Lithuanians, the oak tree was sacred to Perkunas or Perkuns, the god of thunder and rain.

The Christmas tree, usually a balsam or douglas fir, was decorated with lights and ornaments as a part of Christmas festivities. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as a symbol of eternal life was an old custom of the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree veneration, common among the pagan Europeans, survived after their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime. It survived in the custom observed in Germany, of placing a Yule tree inside the house in the midwinter holidays.

I realize that I sould touch on the inquisition and such, however, I think that it is common knowledge that the document used to persecute those involved was written by the Friars within the Catholic Church at the time. The document, The Malleus Maleficarum, was a document designed to bring about fear within the Christian community, and more power to the church. What is not widely realized is that the majority of the persons that were either burned, drowned, or hung were not witches, but Protestants within the Christian church. (The ones that were Protesting the Catholic church.)

"When we cease to change, we cease to grow. When we cease to grow, life ends."

Sources

Bibliography The Golden Bough - Frazer, Sir James George, Macmillan Publishing Co., NY, NY c 1922

Witchcraft The Old Religion - Martello Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend

The History of Witchcraft - Russell, Jeffrey B., c 1980 Encyclopedia Britanica - 1986

The Holy Bible (New International Version)

Under the Spell of the Zodiac - Mark Graubard

Alchemy: Origin or Origins? - H. J. Sheppard, AMBIX, July 1970

Magic, Supernaturalism, and Religion - Seligmann c 1948

The Sprial Dance - Starhawk

The Witch's Bible - Janet and Stewart Farrar

Plus all my teachers and the information I have gathered on the BBS' and the internet!