Downloaded by Starsong, 70670,3014. Distribution unlimited. No copyright claimed. Do as you will with it. Hope it holds something for my pagan brothers and sisters. Will welcome comments and discussion. PAGAN AMERICA It seems that many pagans live in a virtual shadowland that exists somewhere between their public and private lives. It is understandable that few people will invite the stigma of public ridicule, especially in such a socially conscious environment as modern America. This tends to impart a certain secrecy to paganism. Let's face it, one of the fundamental tenets of the pagan religion tends to require a certain amount of privacy. Much of the bad press pagans endure is directly related to this secrecy. There is, however, an historical analogy to the current events surrounding religion in our country today. Long before the utter dissolution of the Roman Empire, paganism was the prevalent religion in the world. In the world of that time religion was purely eclectic. Temples and shrines were numerous for the worship any of the multitudinous deities. The first centuries of the Anno Dominie where a time of great political and social turmoil. The world was changing. The Emperors of Rome were coming to and consolidating their power. Christianity started and began to flourish. The establishment of imperial rule over Rome was the culmination of long standing social unrest within the republic. The century before Julius Caesar's ascension to power was punctuated by a great civil war wherein the very fabric of Roman social life was threatened. Events of such magnitude are the direct indicators of the underlying social problems in any historical analysis. Rome was still quaking from the reverberation of this civil war when newly acquired Athens decided to revolt (-88) and slaves, led by Spartacus, revolted in -71. Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judea fell to Roman general Pompey in 64 BCE. Christianity came at roughly the same time as Augustan rule began the freezing of Roman borders, creating the Pax Romana. During this time Judea was the location of continuous unrest eventually leading to the dispersion of the Jews. Early Christianity was dispersed along with the Hebrew people. Christianity gradually became accepted and in 313 AD was adopted as the Roman state religion by Constantine the First. The next few centuries marked its absorption of the roman state and by 1000 AD the persecutions of the pagan population began in earnest. This marked the Dark Ages and the Inquisition. The renaissance began a great philosophy of thought encompassing the idea of the common man. The settlers of the New World were essentially renegade Europeans seeking religious freedom or material gratification. The settlement of the American colonies set into motion a chain of events which led to the modern American state. Since religious tolerance was one of the fundamental aspects of our forebears it was inevitably included in the laws of our country. The first amendment guaranties the rights of the American citizenry to religious freedom. The expansion of America could was not accomplished without the absorption of many diverse societies and all the ethnic religious beliefs and traditions of these societies had to be honored. It also stands to reason that any faith could exist, even one of an entirely American descent. America developed in much the same way as Rome. Technology has, of course, sped things up quite a bit. By every definition available to us for historical analysis, we have reached the pinnacle of classic civilization, reached by the same formula that all great societies have at their foundations. The conquest of the American west and immigration of great masses of people to populate it is analogous to the occupation of Europe and Africa by Rome. The immigrations were adherent to acceptance of ethnic beliefs. So it was with Rome, which incorporated all the religions of its provinces. Paganism is the strictest definition of what American society has become in the late twentieth century. A look at any yellow pages entry under churches will reveal a diversity of religions in our country. In order for a civilization to reach the state we now have, all these multitudinous religions must live in harmony. We are now reaching a greater perception of this fundamental element in the formula of empire. Religious diversification is independently growing in spite of manifest moral-majority, governmental reform. Sounds like paganism to me.