Am I a pagan?
There is something slightly ridiculous in writing about your thoughts to perfect strangers. At the same time it is also refreshing because there aren’t any prejudices or preconcepts about the writer. It is like shouting your thoughts to the world, plus the opportunity of having a wolf howling you back in reply.
I have been fascinated by paganism since reading about the emperor Julian. Disenchanted by the religious contrasts between christian arians and trinitarians in the early 4th century, this young man decided to restore the primacy of paganism against christianism. Obviously it was an incredible effort and a battle lost from the start: at that time the majority of the Mediterranean was already solidly Christian and the wealth of the bishops greatly exceeded the one of pagan cults. In a sad and Marxist fashion, were resources and numbers count more than the will of an individual, his efforts were destined to failure. Last roman emperor since Marcus Aurelius to conquer part of Persia he fell victim of a Christian conspiracy and died poisoned.
The history of Julian reflected many of the values that I highly consider. The challenge of one man and his beliefs against a system solidly resting on economic and public approval basis. The possibility of imagining something completely new and at the same time incredibly old, and the will and strength necessary to impose it against skeptics and timeserving weaklings. And mostly, the refusal of christianism as a religion and a philosophy of peace.
I believe that paganism, with his infinite pantheon of gods each pertinent to a different people, represented the ultimate tolerant system of cult. Each population, each ethnicity built a system of deities according to their inner cultural and spiritual needs. In paganism as a whole, there is no conception of a right or a wrong vision of god, but uniquely the acceptance of differences and the application of the principle “suum cuique”, to each its own. Paganism is a religious system not based on relativism, but on the objectivity of the differences between the spirituality and culture of different people.
And yet the jewish religions of the book managed to destroy this religious system. From a world based on what was fundamentally religious tolerance we shifted into a system based on the absolutist belief of one’s rightness. Each religious system provides a moral code and an answer to the very human fear of death. What will be of me after I’ll die? The religions of the book have a very peculiar way of addressing this issue.
According to Judaism you are saved only if a jew by birth. Non jews can also be saved following the so called “noachian” principles, but they will never be part of the elected people born to worship and properly understand the god. Conversions are not accepted out of the most tolerant reformed Synagogues. Basically an ethnic centered religion with an extreme inherent superiority complex.
According to christianism you can be saved if you accept its truth and embrace its beliefs. And you are free to do so. Yet, if you don’t accept christianism, you are condemned. Basically a more open version of judaism: you are free to join us, but if you don’t than sorry: you are screwed.
Islam, the last born of the jewish religions is like the classical young brother in a numerous family: obliged to be noisy and violent as a cry for attention. If you are not muslim, well you have to convert otherwise I’ll cut your throat or I’ll impose over you life conditions such that you’ll eventually convert. The so called “Islamic tolerance” was based on a system of economic and political discrimination for non muslims. When you’ll eventually join Islam, than you are saved.
Anti monotheism is easy to define and explain. What creates me the most problems is finding a positive Pagan attitude. What I mean is: what is to be a pagan? What can I read? Out of wiccan or witchery gigs, were can I find some alive Hellenism, or Celtic cults, or? How can I find out what I really believe in?
Am I only a nihilist and and agnostic or is there somewhere something I can believe in?
I have been fascinated by paganism since reading about the emperor Julian. Disenchanted by the religious contrasts between christian arians and trinitarians in the early 4th century, this young man decided to restore the primacy of paganism against christianism. Obviously it was an incredible effort and a battle lost from the start: at that time the majority of the Mediterranean was already solidly Christian and the wealth of the bishops greatly exceeded the one of pagan cults. In a sad and Marxist fashion, were resources and numbers count more than the will of an individual, his efforts were destined to failure. Last roman emperor since Marcus Aurelius to conquer part of Persia he fell victim of a Christian conspiracy and died poisoned.
The history of Julian reflected many of the values that I highly consider. The challenge of one man and his beliefs against a system solidly resting on economic and public approval basis. The possibility of imagining something completely new and at the same time incredibly old, and the will and strength necessary to impose it against skeptics and timeserving weaklings. And mostly, the refusal of christianism as a religion and a philosophy of peace.
I believe that paganism, with his infinite pantheon of gods each pertinent to a different people, represented the ultimate tolerant system of cult. Each population, each ethnicity built a system of deities according to their inner cultural and spiritual needs. In paganism as a whole, there is no conception of a right or a wrong vision of god, but uniquely the acceptance of differences and the application of the principle “suum cuique”, to each its own. Paganism is a religious system not based on relativism, but on the objectivity of the differences between the spirituality and culture of different people.
And yet the jewish religions of the book managed to destroy this religious system. From a world based on what was fundamentally religious tolerance we shifted into a system based on the absolutist belief of one’s rightness. Each religious system provides a moral code and an answer to the very human fear of death. What will be of me after I’ll die? The religions of the book have a very peculiar way of addressing this issue.
According to Judaism you are saved only if a jew by birth. Non jews can also be saved following the so called “noachian” principles, but they will never be part of the elected people born to worship and properly understand the god. Conversions are not accepted out of the most tolerant reformed Synagogues. Basically an ethnic centered religion with an extreme inherent superiority complex.
According to christianism you can be saved if you accept its truth and embrace its beliefs. And you are free to do so. Yet, if you don’t accept christianism, you are condemned. Basically a more open version of judaism: you are free to join us, but if you don’t than sorry: you are screwed.
Islam, the last born of the jewish religions is like the classical young brother in a numerous family: obliged to be noisy and violent as a cry for attention. If you are not muslim, well you have to convert otherwise I’ll cut your throat or I’ll impose over you life conditions such that you’ll eventually convert. The so called “Islamic tolerance” was based on a system of economic and political discrimination for non muslims. When you’ll eventually join Islam, than you are saved.
Anti monotheism is easy to define and explain. What creates me the most problems is finding a positive Pagan attitude. What I mean is: what is to be a pagan? What can I read? Out of wiccan or witchery gigs, were can I find some alive Hellenism, or Celtic cults, or? How can I find out what I really believe in?
Am I only a nihilist and and agnostic or is there somewhere something I can believe in?