Sunday, April 24, 2011

Goddess is Goodness

It is widely understood in religious theology that "God is Good", no doubt why our words for the two are so obviously similar. Many tenets of Christianity also strongly suggests that "God is everything" in fact the Latin definition of "catholic" is "Universal, all inclusive." This makes perfect sense as any religious theology must at least claim to be universal, if it can't explain everything it must be missing something. So the glaring contradiction between being "Good" and being "All" is apparent, if you are everything you are both "Good" and "Bad", or dare I say it "Evil." But the Christian "God" has some external demigod-like enemy super villain named Satan. If God were describing all of this to his therapist he would quickly receive the diagnosis of "Bipolar." And who knows, maybe he has been medicated over the past 2000 years of the Age of Pisces. That would explain an awful lot.

Is it possible that the "Devil" is just God when he's in a bad mood? Looking through his behavior as portrayed in the old and new testaments it's hard not to at least consider the possibility. The word "devil" is semantically related to the words "deviate", "devious", and "deviant." So how can a universal, all inclusive religious theology be deviated from? It's like a rule with one enormous exception, one that undermines any attempt at universality. It is natural to divide the world into duality; masculine and feminine, inner and outer, above and below. What set's one up for disaster is in identifying solely with one half and demonizing the other half. Even if the intentions are "good" the results are mixed and the world seems somehow much too "evil" for our liking. Christianity's' obsession with the "Devil" is an eternal war in the spiritual plane, the only chance for resolution is the illusion of vanquishing evil once and for all.

Paganism is actually universal, all inclusive, with no exceptions. For pagans, the duality of masculine and feminine is enough, there is good and bad in everything. We don't need devils, our gods and goddesses can be mischievous, which is rarely as cruel as the Christian God reportedly was to his devout follower Job. On this day Christians observe "Easter", from the word "Oestara" the pagan celebration of the vernal equinox. It's entirely possible that 2000 years ago "Easter" originally fell on or near the vernal equinox in the same way that "Christmas" falls near the winter solstice. It is widely understood that Christian officials at the time were developing "Holidays" in their quest to convert the pagans in the countryside and all over Europe. The word "Pagan" comes from the Classic Latin "Pagani" which translates to country dweller, or farmer. Christianity was a largely urban affair and when they sent their missionaries out into the country side they met with considerable resistance from the farmers.

It was one thing to get people in the cities of the Roman empire to give up their old gods and goddesses for one really great guy named Jehovah, but the farmers actually needed their gods and goddesses and all of the rites and rituals that kept them in tune with the seasons. The tenacity of the people in holding fast to their ways and customs is the true original motivation behind the two most prominent Christian holidays, or Holy days. Pagans gave Christmas the trees and gifts, and they gave Easter the eggs and bunnies. If the Catholic church did not incorporate these elements of pagan ritual, they might very well have failed to convert pagans to Christianity over time. For pagans Oestara, the vernal equinox was a very important time, the snow had melted and the farming season could begin. Whereas the polarity of light and dark was represented in the summer and winter solstices, the equinoxes represent balance of opposites. Perhaps it is this ancient balance that must be resurrected to end the war between "good" and "evil" on the spiritual plane.

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