Mythology

I'm not to sure where to put this but here it goes......

When and why did worship of the 'old' gods stop? Are there still practioners today?

Have you never heard of the District of Coumbia? Molech? Look up Bohemian Grove, or some ariel photos of the DC area, you might be suprised at what you find lurking around.

It never stopped, the old gods ahve only become the new god. Religion has shifted many ways since the worship of the sun and the moon.

Originally posted by ferretman


When and why did worship of the 'old' gods stop? Are there still practioners today?

for several thousands of years, a great attrition has occurred
as the patriarchial monotheists seek to continue the
'universal flood' and drown out all us Pagans and Gnostics
and Shaman souls...i think the Austrailian Abiginories
the Native Americans in sync with Spirit & DreamTime
are still hanging on.............
between us and the Eastern Philosophies the planet and
Gaia are still in a fashion of balance- - -but the current
Zionist-Christian-Islamic perplexity might just tilt us too far!

That 'new God' script is hell bent on a Armadeggon Catastrophe
and there's about 4 billion 'believers' trying to make his prophecy
become a reality.

Originally posted by ferretman
I'm not to sure where to put this but here it goes......

When and why did worship of the 'old' gods stop? Are there still practioners today?

There wasn't a definitive stopping date, though there was (in Europe) a time when it could be said that no one worshipped the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, or Etruscian gods.

Remember, though, that Europe isn't "everything." In India, the worship of the "old gods" never actually stopped. In Japan, Shintoism is alive and well. Among the tribal peoples around the world, their original gods are still worshipped in spite of missionaries (or are blended with the deity of whoever's evangelizing them.)

In some of the backwater places of Europe (northern Europe), belief in the old gods still existed and it certainly was strong in the British isles until around 500 AD. The Aztecs continued to worship their gods (and so did the other people of Central America and South America) even after the Conquistadores came. There are still areas of Mexico that aren't Christian but follow an older faith.

Current paganism is a revival of the old worship, brought back to life during the spiritualist phase of the late 1800's, early 1900's. Much of it is based on the Christian religion and religious practices of that time period (particularly the aspect of the chief deity of whatever -- most deities loved blood sacrifices similar to the practices sanctioned in the Old Testament) and some is based heavily on popular fantasy themes of that time period.

The Pagan reconstructionist groups of today (Asatru, Celtic Reconstructionism, Khemetic, etc) do a lot of scholarly research to put together as much of the old faith as they can document and trim out the Victorian era romantic elements and the Frankly Foo-Foo Material.

Many of the old gods became 'new saints'. St Briget, for instance. She was originally the goddess Brigett, worshipped in Ireland and Scandanavia. When the Catholic Church began making inroads, they co opted the old gods. Brigett became Saint Briget. So a chioe wasn't forced between people's traditions, and the new religion

Originally posted by GrandCourtJester
Many of the old gods became 'new saints'. St Briget, for instance.

Did you actually read through a good 7 pages of a thread to read one of my posts? I'm flattered.

Seriously, I'm only pointing some similar viewpoints in a marginally related thread to this one.

There probably are a few scattered practitioners of the ancient pagan rituals but they "stopped" during the fourteenth century in the Baltic regions, which was the last area to be Christianized.

Religious 'crossover' is obvious. Adam and Eve seem to parrallel Isis and Osiris. Mary with Jesus seems a repetition of Isis and Horus. The famous "Tarot Deck" of the Gypsies, whose name derives from "Egypt", contains, in it's Major Arcana, 22 cards. The same number of chapters in the Book of Revelations. It begins with "The Creator", and ends with "The World", made new, and descending from the sky with a triumphant shout, like the prophetic 'New Jeruslaem'. Some Tarot scholars say that the cards originated in Ancient Egypt. In fact it has been suggested the the jews picked up much of their religious ideas from Egypt.

An even more interesting idea is that moses himself was Egyptian, instead of jewish. It has also been pointed out the the name Moses is of Egyptian origon, not jewish, and probably derives from "Ra Mo Sis", or "Tut Mo Sis". Hence Moses - "Mo Sis". Remember that he possessed the same 'magician's staff' as the priests, when he confronted them in the famous contest of magic.

Moses may well have been the half brother of the famous Ramasis 2. Egyptain royal families consisted of many wives, concubines, and many, many half brothers which were potential pharohs, and rivals.

Princelings who were members of the royal family, and half brothers to the No 1 heir, often became priests. It was a nice official position, and a cushy job for them. it also answers the question as to why Moses wold've gotten into trouble for killing. As a member of the royal family, a little matter of killing an over seer shouldn't have gotten him into trouble. Yet as a high priest, their may have been ritual tabboos against killing. hence the violation of tabboo may have been a serious problem for him, enough for an insecure half brother/crown prince to stir things up against him. It would also explain Moses apparent familairity with 'magic'(St Paul says that moses was well versed in all the ancient lore of Egypt).

So when the dung hits the fan, he organizes a 'slave revolt'. Consolidating a 'power base' among the disinfranchised 'down and outers'. At a later date, it becomes nessecary to 'judaise' Moses, and he becomes merely an adoptee into the Pharonic family. Politics never changes, and there's nothing new under the sun.

So the line between old gods and new religion isn't so clear. This may well be what the Kabballa is about, the secret meaning of the Bible, 'encripted' into the Pentatuch, by Moses.








[edit on 24-7-2005 by GrandCourtJester]

There is no way to be sure when paganism came to an end in Europe, since even when an area could be considered 'Catholicised' pagan practices continued in secret, people continued to leave iron under beds when women gave birth and so on.

As for worship of ancient Greek gods, a community in Pakistan that traces its roots back to Alexander the Great continues to worship the same Gods as alexander!

The RCC has indeed co-opted the pagan gods. The romans had a minor god for just about every occupation and every day of the year. the RCC has filled in the blanks...while making mary into the queen of heaven, and peter's 'throne' is now under a sunburst of the sungod. The wheel of ishtar and baal dominate st peters basillica, and the obelisk is dead center.

They never stopped. They continue today.

Easter comes from the name Ishtar, and is determined by 'lunar' cycles. thats why it's a 'floating' holidays. More paganism??

I love that the God haters like to stop at points of history that make their God first. Go back far enough but not too far and all the worlds "CREATOR GOD" stories are just that but man's 'destroyer gods' are fine to believe in.