From: Mickey Sikes Area: Metaphysical To: Paul Seymour 19 Oct 94 08:03:54 Subject: Re: Love & Ethics UpdReq I thorougly enjoyed this post and it answered many questions for me. I am not of the Wiccan tradition.. Can't really categorize my current belief system except as maybe part Buddhist/part New Ageish... At any rate, with my limited knowledge of Wicca, I had often wondered how Karma worked with the casting of ANY spells. I have seen Karma work enough in my life to know it to be a "truth" at least for me and if spells do in fact manipulate nature to one's will, I wondered how the practioner avoided the return swing of the pendulum. After reading your post, I have a better feel for the answer. Thank you for the time and effect you took in posting this enlightening message. 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: The Bard Area: Metaphysical To: All 19 Aug 94 08:01:42 Subject: Halloween UpdReq HALLOWEEN: MYTHS, MONSTERS AND DEVILS (revised) by W.J. Bethancourt III (c) copyright 1994 W.J. Bethancourt III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MATTHEW 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. LUKE 11:39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. LUKE 11:41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Every year, right around Halloween, we are treated to an outpouring of what can only be described as "scare" literature telling us all about how the holiday is 'satanic' and evil, and should not be celebrated by Christians. These opinions are backed up with some rather unusual, and very frightening, fantasies masquerading as historical facts. This article is -not- intended to address whether or not Satan exists, nor to show that 'witches' are all nice, grainola-eating vegetarians and tree- huggers who wouldn't harm a fly, nor is it an attack on Fundamentalist Christianity, but rather to discuss some of the so-called 'facts' offered in some of the anti-Halloween publications. Let's look at four such tracts circulating around the computer nets: "Halloween Oct. 31: What's It All About?", by someone named Sylvan Margadonna, Mrs. Gloria Phillips' "Halloween: What It Is From A Christian Perspective" (Bay View Church, P.O. Box 9277, Mobile, AL 36691), and two anonymous tracts, here identified as "Tract 1" and "Tract 2." I have not corrected transcription errors in either of these tracts. They are exactly as received. Margadonna: Halloween (the name) means the evening before All Hallows or All Saints' Day, which is Nov. 1. All Saints' Day is observed by Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans, to honor all the saints in Heaven, whether known or unknown. The day also used to be called Hallowmass from Old English word hallow, meaning sanctify. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is, with all solemnity, considered one of the most important observances of the church year. It is a day on which all Catholics are obliged to attend Mass. It is preceded by a vigil of preparation on the evening of Oct.31. And it is this vigil, All Hallows' Eve or Halloween, that is the most widely known feature of the observance. This is true, though Margadonna's linking the Church vigil to the current American celebration (in the light of what is said later) seems to me to show a possible agenda of anti-Catholicism, (and a mild quibble over the use of the word "Old English," as OE is more the language of "Beowulf" than Chaucer or Shakespeare.) Even so, the tracts tend to very quickly degenerate into myth and pseudo-factual statements that cannot be backed up by hard data. Margadonna: However, Halloween is really of DRUIDIC origin. Most of the customs connected with the day are remnants of ancient "religious" beliefs and celebrations of the New Year, first of the Druids and then of the Romans who conquered them. Margadonna: For the Celtic tribes who followed the religion of the Druids and lived in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Britan, Nov. 1 was New Years Day. It was also a joint festival honoring their Sun "god" and "Samhain", the lord of the dead. Phillips: In 834 A.D. Gregory IV extended the feast for all the church and it became known as All Saint's Day, still remembering the dead. Samhain, a Druid god of the dead was honored at Halloween in Britain, France, Germany and the Celtic countries. Samhain called together all wicked souls who died within the past year and that were destined to inhabit animals. Tract 2: It was the Druid's belief that on the eve of this festival, Saman called together the wicked souls that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals. They were released in the form of ghosts, spirits, witches or elves. Tract 1: Halloween is a rite with pagan, demonic roots. The Celtic people who lived over 2,000 years ago, feared the evening of October 31st more than any other day of the year. It was the eve of the Lord of the Dead. To celebrate, the people built bonfires, wore masks and costumes in order to prepare for the arrival of spirits. Fire rituals and divination were part of their celebration. Pagan priests even offered human and animal sacrifices. Tract 2: The American celebration rests upon Scottish and Irish folk customs which can be traced, in a direct line, from pre-Christian time. Although Halloween has become a night of celebration to many, its beginnings were otherwise. The earliest Halloween celebrations were held by the Druids in honor of Saman, lord of the dead, whose festival fell on November 1. The Druids were an 'oral' tradition; they didn't write down their teachings. Unfortunately, most of what we have on them from pre-Christian times was written by their mortal enemies: the Roman Empire. To take what the Romans said about the Druids as fact is rather like taking what the Romans said about Christians as fact. (Athenagoras, in 176 CE, writes a whole tome to repudiate the accusations of atheism, cannibalism and lust directed by the Romans at the Christians). The attempt to associate Hindu-like reincarnation beliefs with Druidic beliefs has no basis in fact. We know that the Celts believed in an afterlife, as they would do things like promise to pay debts "in the next life," but there is no evidence of a belief in reincarnation (coming back to this world, as an animal, insect or human, not another life in Heaven or wherever) as such. The link with Irish customs is ephemeral (to say the least!) as the Romans never conquered, nor even invaded, Ireland. There is no Roman overlay on Irish folklore and myth before the advent of Christianity. Had Halloween come to America from France (Ancient Gaul), whose Celtic culture was thoroughly Romanized, I might have bought into this connection, but it is a fact that Halloween came from Ireland. There was no Roman occupation in Ireland, therefore (and archaeology bears this out) there was no Roman culture in Ireland, so it follows that there can be no credible Romano-Pagan connection with Irish pagan beliefs. This is significant for Scotland also, as the inhabitants of Scotland at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain were the Picts (a generic term for a confederation of different tribes.) They were not conquered by the Romans either; Hadrian's and Trajan's Walls mark the limit of Roman conquest in Britain. The people that we know as "Scots" (the word "Scot" orignally meant "Irishman") are actually an amalgamation of Norse, Pict and Irish that happened well after the Romans left Britain. As for "Samhain" being the 'lord of the dead,' this is a gross fallacy that seems to have been perpetuated in the late 18th and 19th centuries CE. I have found it in Higgins (first published in 1827, and trying to prove the Druids emigrated to Ireland from India!) where he quotes a Col. Charles Vallency (later a General, who was trying to prove that the Irish were decended from the inhabitants of Armenia!!!) Higgins also refers to an author named "Pictet," who gives this name as that of a god, associating the word with "sabhan," (which word I cannot find in any Gaelic dictionary at my 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: The Bard Area: Metaphysical To: All 19 Aug 94 08:04:32 Subject: Hallows 2 UpdReq word with "sabhan," (which word I cannot find in any Gaelic dictionary at my disposal) and trying for a connection with "Bal-sab," to prove a Sun god and Biblical association. Bostwick (originally published in 1894) associates "Samhuin" with the Moon, but translates "Samhain" correctly, though he tries to derive the roots of Gaelic and Erse from Latin. He refers to a book named "Bards" by a person only identified as "Walker" as his reference. I have not been able to locate this work, nor Col. Vallency's ("Collectanaea de Rebus Hibernicis" circa 1770 in 6 volumes.) With modern research, archaeology and the study of the Indo-European migrations, these conclusions can be seen as the complete errors they were, (though further research into proto-Gaelic is still going on, and may yet hold some surprises.) All of this may be connected with the "British Israelite" sort of thing so popular then, when British antiquaries were trying to connect the Druids of the British Isles with Biblical nations and races, Freemasonry, the "religion of Noah," "Helio-Arkites," and many other fanciful blind-alleys. Some of the more luminous (?) names of this movement were William Stukeley, Edward Williams (who called himself "Iolo Morganwg" and can be viewed as one of the classic British cranks, forging documents right and left to back up his theories), John Williams ab Ithel, Owen Morgan (who called himself "Morgan O. Morgan"), the epic-forger James MacPherson (he wrote the "Ossian" stuff), Edward Davies, the aforementioned Godfrey Higgins and James Bostwick, and others. It rather reminds one of the Mormon identification of the indigenous populations of North America with the Lost Tribes of Israel, or the Blacks with the descendants of Cain. Seumas MacManus, in his book "The Story Of The Irish Race," quotes a source only identified as "O'Halloran" as identifying "Samain" with the Moon, though later he correctly translates the word as "Hallowday," (and includes the three days before and after in the name) in connection with the supposed first Irish Parliament at Tara under Cormac, and as the occasion for Fairs at Muiremne. Hardly the appropriate time to hold such festive occasions, if these tracts are to be believed! I should also quote a well-known Wiccan, "Rowan Moonstone" (pseud.): "There is no such deity as "Samhain, Druid god of the dead"!!! The word Samhain means summer's end. (Sam + Fuin = Samhain). The "Great God Sam" myth seems to have come from Col. Vallency's books in the 1770s before the reliable translations of the extant Celtic literary works and before the archaeological excavations." Ms. Moonstone further comments: "I've spent several years trying to trace the "Great God Samhain" and I have YET to find seminal sources for the same. The first reference seems to be from Col. Vallency in the 1700s and then Lady Wilde in her book "Mystic Charms and Superstitions" advances the "Samhain, lord of the dead" theory. Vallency, of course was before the work done on Celtic religion in either literature or archaeology. Wilde, on the other hand, gives NO references in her book, claiming it to be first-hand field work. (NOT!) I have no problems to Christians being theologically opposed to Samhain. What I absolutely refuse to tolerate is sloppy and improper scholarship!" In more current books in print I have only found "Samhain" named as the 'lord of the dead' in Claudia DeLys' book on American superstitions (see my bibliography below) and I find it interesting that both these tracts seem to reproduce, almost word-for-word, what Ms. DeLys has to say on the subject relating to 'Samhain, lord of the dead' and about Halloween in general. Looking thru Maclennan, we find that the (Scots) Gaelic "Samhuinn" (pronounced in Scotland as "SAV-im") is translated as "Hallowtide; the Feast of All Souls" and is the same word as Erse (Irish Gaelic) "Samhain" (pronounced "SEW-ain (sort of!)" in Erse), Early Irish "Samfhuin" (also found as "samuin" and "samain") and has the possible Old Celtic root of "samani-." Herity/Eogan also mention "Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain" as holidays of the Iron Age Irish. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd (British) and Arawn (Welsh.) I have not found any Irish "lord of death" as such, and neither have I located any Gaulish (French Celtic) god's name, if any. Lugh would be the nearest thing to a sun-god of the Celts, and even that association is a bit tenuous. Bear in mind also that the Celtic "Lord of the Underworld" was -not- considered to be anything similar to the Judeo-Christian Satan, (we are, after all, dealing with an entirely different mythos here!) but rather something different, and -not- an evil anti-God. (I will not address the issue of the various Horned Gods of Western European paganism being Satan. The concept of "God and His adversary" seems to have had no place in pre-Christian Celtic mythology.) "Samhain" is the name of the holiday. There is no evidence of any god or demon named "Samhain," "Samain," "Sam Hane," or however you want to vary the spelling. The association of "ghosts, spirits, witches (and) elves" in Tract 2 is also interesting, as it betrays the author's lack of knowledge of Irish folklore. Ghosts, spirits and witches were regarded by the post-Christian Irish as evil indeed, but elves had a rather unique position in Irish folklore as being neither of Heaven or of Hell. They were not regarded as evil so much as very different and very dangerous to mess with. There is a differentiation made between "good" and "bad" elves/fairies in the "seelie court" and the "unseelie court." Insofar as the -ancient- Celtic attitude towards the four items mentioned there is no hard evidence. Margadonna's usage of the phrase "ancient 'religious' beliefs," implying that ancient religions were not really "real" religions, is also interesting. If they weren't "real" religions, what were they? They may not have been Christianity, they may have been wrong, but they were still "real" religions. Tract 2: It was the Celts who chose the date of October 31 as their New Year's Eve and who originally intended it as a celebration of everything wicked, evil and/or dead. Also during their celebration they would gather around the campfire, and offer their animals, their crops, and sometimes themselves as a sacrifice. And yet again we see statements being made that are not supported by available hard evidence. I fail to see how a "celebration of everything wicked, evil and/or dead" would be made the occasion for the beginning of a new yearly cycle and for feasting, parliaments and formal games as recorded by MacManus. A culture-wide Celtic celebration or honoring of Evil would certainly be something that cultural anthropologists would jump on, since it would require hundreds of tribes/clans in several separated geographical areas to be doing something that no other major human culture has ever done, that is, to define Evil and Good, and conciously celebrate Evil. Such a culture would not be expected to adopt Christianity as quickly and easily, not to mention as strongly, as the Celtic peoples did, would it? Besides, there is some evidence that the Samhain holiday would actually occur (in the modern Gregorian calendar) on November 11 (Martinmas), which is regarded as "Old Samhain" in some Celtic countries. The ballad "The Wife Of Usher's Well" (Child #79) could provide some clues towards this. Phillips: This celebration of the dead honored the god of the dead on this particular night. Margadonna: The Celts believed that the sinful souls of those who had died during 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: The Bard Area: Metaphysical To: All 19 Aug 94 08:06:40 Subject: Hallows 3 UpdReq the year had been relegated to the bodies of animals. Through gifts and sacrifices their sins could be expiated and their souls freed, to claim a "heavenly" reward. Samhain was the one who did the judging and decreed in what form their existence was to continue, whether in the body of an animal here on earth or in a human body in "heaven". Once again, we have information on Druidic beliefs that I have seen nowhere else, save in unsupported theories in publications of the 18th and 19th centuries, and no references are given by Margadonna. And the mysterious god 'Samhain' pops up again. The "gifts and sacrifices" bit sounds suspiciously like a dig at the Roman Catholic Purgatory dogma with no justification from extant knowledge of Celtic religion. Margadonna: Therefore it was common for horses to be sacrificed since they were sacred to the Sun god. There were also human sacrifices. Men, mostly criminals, were put in wicker thatched cages and were set on fire by the Druid priests. The human sacrifices were prohibited by the Roman conquerors. However, horses were still being sacrificed as late as A.D. 400. The -only- reference to Celtic human sacrifice as described is from Julius Caesar in his wonderful justification of "why we have to conquer these people." Remember that the Romans, with some justification, regarded the Celts as the ultimate enemy. And considering the Celts periodically invaded Italy (and sacked Rome several times) during Roman history there is certainly some justification for their attitude. Caesar was also drumming up popular support for his wars in Gaul against the Gallic tribes and the Germans. Ol' Julius was writing propaganda to make himself look like the bringer of civilization to the benighted savages, and reads rather like the writings of similar American military men in the mid-1800's CE discussing the Indian Wars, or the Boers talking about South African Blacks. Ross/Robbins make a good case for Lindow Man being a Druid voluntary sacrifice about 65 CE, but that was not by burning, and was a single man. There is general agreement that the Celts did in fact practice human sacrifice, but then, most cultures at that stage of development did. Even the Romans had, at the time of Julius Caesar, only recently abandoned human sacrifice. Frankly, for the point at hand, it winds up being moot. We still sacrifice humans, 'mostly criminals,' but we call it the "death penalty." The culling of animals was a usual practice at this time with rural peoples. Most medieval illuminated calendars show such things; do we then conclude that medieval European peasants 'sacrificed' animals every Fall? Or that the "in kind" offerings to the Church (animals, food and labor rather than money) were 'sacrifices?' Horses were sacred to the goddesses Rhiannon (Welsh) and Epona (Gaulish), and the last recorded horse sacrifice, as part of the coronation of an Irish petty King in the 12th cent. CE, at Tyrconnell, was recorded by Geraldus Cambrensis in his "Topography of Ireland." Such horse veneration was apparently connected with the sea-god in some way, and -may- be older in the British Isles than the Celtic peoples themselves. Margadonna: And throughout the Middle Ages, in Europe, black cats were thrown into fires, in wicker cages, because they were thought to be friends of witches or even witches transformed. Tract 2: The Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britain, also believed that the cat was sacred because cats once had been human beings but were changed as a punishment for evil deeds. From these Druidic beliefs come the present-day use of witches, ghosts, and cats in Halloween activities. Phillips: The Samhain celebration used nuts, apples, skeletons, witches and black cats. Divination and auguries were practiced as well as magic to seek answers for the future. Black cats were considered to be reincarnated beings with the ability to divine the future. During this festival supernatural beings terrified the populace. Even today witchcraft practitioners declare October 31st as the most conducive time to practice their arts. Tract 1: (Cat and Witch): Both symbols obviously relate to witchcraft. Druids believed the black cats were reincarnated human beings. Tract 2: The celebration remained much the same after the Romans conquered the Celts around 43 A.D. The Romans, however, added a ceremony honoring their goddess of fruit and trees, thus the association with apples, and the custom of bobbing for them. What do the superstious practices of medieval Christians have to do with the ancient Celts? Domestic cats were apparently not introduced to Northern Europe until post-Julius Caesar, and didn't really "catch on" until after 1050 CE. And with (I repeat) no Roman occupation of Ireland, we should not expect cats to figure very much in their pre-Christian myths .... and they don't. There is a marked -lack- of cats, as a matter of fact. We -do- find cats as one of the attributes of the Norse goddess Freya, but that's not a culture that brought us Halloween, and may be a later interpolation by the medieval chroniclers of the myths of the Old Norse. We also find a wild cat in Scotland, but it is not known whether it is a long-feral domestic, or a native breed. What with all this about cats being "demonic," I am surprised that I have not seen tracts calling on people to get rid of their pet cats! In addition, the throwing of cats into a bonfire was a folk custom of one or two towns in France, not a custom of medieval Europe as a whole, and still less a general custom in Ireland. And once more we have a listing of supposed Druidic practices that cannot be backed up by research: the supposition that Romano-Pagan practices were grafted onto a people that Rome never conquered (the Irish), and another attempted link with the Hindu reincarnation belief. Insofar as "witchcraft practitioners" and Oct. 31 .... I guess that would depend on who you talk to. The books on Wicca that I have read show it as a time to honor and remember the dead, and not any better than any other time to perform "magic," other than perhaps divination of the future. It -is- regarded as a time when the "veil between the worlds" is "thinner" than normal, however. Satanists might be another story, and it would be well to mark the difference between the two. Most modern Pagans seem to dislike Satanists just as strongly as Christians do, and to equate them as the same will only close the Pagans' ears to the Christian message. Margadonna: In an effort to suppress and offset this pre-existing paganism, Pope Gregory III, around A.D. 735, made Nov.1 All Saints' Day. About 100 years later Pope Gregory IV, still trying to put an end to the pagan customs associated with the day, decreed that the day was to be a universal church observance of the "highest" rank. Phillips: The Christian church tried to eliminate the Druid celebration by offering All Saint's Day as a substitute. As Christianity spread over Europe and the British Isles, it attempted to replace the pre- existing pagan cult worship of Apollo, Diana or Ymir, but to no avail. Yup. Just like Christmas, and several other customs and traditions of Christianity, many pagan holidays and customs were absorbed and -changed- by the Church. The operative word here is "changed." The customs and traditions are no longer pagan, being "made new" in Jesus. (As one major example, December 25th was the supposed birthday of Mithra, who was supposedly born of a virgin, and visited by Magi! Incidentally, the word "Magus" is the singular 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: The Bard Area: Metaphysical To: All 19 Aug 94 08:08:42 Subject: Hallows 4 UpdReq of "Magi," it means "Zoroastrian priest," and is the root of our word "Magician.") All Saint's (Hallows) Day was first introduced in the 7th cent. CE, and was originally on 13 May. It was changed to 1 November by Pope Gregory III. "Apollo" was a Graeco-Roman god. "Diana" was pretty much Graeco-Roman too (though there was quite a little "ecumenical" movement to identify Diana with the other primary goddesses in the Roman/Greek/Middle Eastern pantheons) while "Ymir" was in the Norse pantheon, but -not- worshipped like the Aesir and Vanir (Thor, Odin, Frey, ect.) were. Why the implication that these gods continued to be worshipped (Margaret Murray's thesis of the underground survival of Mother Goddess/Horned God paganism is clearly cut from whole cloth) in the face of all available evidence is unclear to me. And how in the world do they tie in with Irish Catholics bringing the Halloween holiday to America? Or even Irish paganism? Does Roman Catholicism have "secret rites" that we don't know about? I don't think so. Phillips: The custom of Halloween is traced to the Druid festival of the dead. Then the Roman Pantheon was built by Emperor Hadrian in 100 A.D. as a temple to the goddess Cybele and other Roman deities. It became the principle place of worship. Roman pagans prayed for the dead. Rome was captured and the Pantheon fell into disrepair. Emperor Phocas captured Rome and gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV in 609. He reconsecrated it to the Virgin Mary and resumed using the temple to pray for the dead, only now it was "Christianized", as men added the unscriptural teaching of purgatory. Hadrian became Emperor in 117 CE. In 100 CE Trajan was the Emperor of Rome. The Pantheon of Rome was begun by the Emperor Agrippa in 27 BCE, and Hadrian's involvement was merely a rebuilding. Boniface IV reigned from 608-615 CE. Phocas (of Byzantium) from 602-610 CE. The Church of the Virgin Mary and All Martyrs (it's proper re-naming) was dedicated in 609 CE. Guess we have to holler 'Shame!' at those early Christians for taking over available, unused space, and saving some of the Roman art treasures into the bargain. Further, any research at all will show that Cybele was -not- a goddess of the dead! Better go after St. Peter's in Rome, too. It was built over a graveyard, of all things, located outside ancient Rome. The juxtaposition of so-called Druidic beliefs and the Bishop of Rome (aka: the Pope) is rather confusing. How does it apply to the matter under discussion? Do we see more of an anti-Catholic agenda? Margadonna: Halloween was not widely observed, in America, during the first few hundred years of settlement. However, when the potato famine in the 1840s in Ireland, brought thousands of Irishman to America, they in turn brought the custom with them. Now our children have taken over this "holiday", making it an occasion to dress in costumes, carve "jack-o'-lanterns", go "trick-or-treating" and share ghost stories. Not many realize that these customs have their own origins in various ancient Halloween/New Year festivals. Brought to America by the devout, militantly Catholic Irish .... quite a piece of evidence this .... but for what? Perhaps more anti-Catholic bias is showing here? And how these tracts connect Roman paganism with Irish paganism is still a mystery to me, since (I repeat) Ireland was never conquered by the Romans. Tract 1: (Trick or Treat): The Druids went from house to house asking for a contribution to their demonic worship celebration. If a person didn't give, their trick was to kill him. The people feared the phrase "trick or Treat." Tract 2: The Pagans believed that on one night of the year, souls of the dead returned to their original homes. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living. To exorcise these ghosts (that is, to free yourself from an evil spirit) you would have to set out food, (give the demons a treat) and provide shelter for them by the night. If you didn't, they would "trick" you by casting a spell on you or hurting you. Tract 1: The Druids wore masks, skulls and costumes, even offered human sacrifices on October 31st, to ward off evil spirits. Margadonna: The custom of going door to door begging for candy, apples and pennies while masked and dressed in grotesque or outlandish costumes goes back to the pagan New Year feast. There was an ancient Celtic practice on Halloween, of groups of peasents going from house to house, asking for money to buy food for the feast; and demanding fatted calves and black sheep be prepared for the occasion. These "contributions" were requested in the name of Muck Olla, a Druid deity. Prosperity was assured liberal givers and threats were voiced against those who were stingy. Then, at the feast itself, the ghosts, that were thought to throng all around were greeted with a banquet table. At the end of the feast, the masked and costumed villagers, representing the souls of the dead paraded to the outskirts of town leading the ghosts away. Phillips: Trick-or-Treat came from and ancient Druid practice. Prosperity was promised to all who were generous donors, and tricks to all who refused during the Irish Druid event of trick-or-treat. The contributions demanded were in the name of Muck Olla, an early Druid deity. Very nice, and totally misleading! First of all, there is no documentation for "Muck Olla" being a 'Druid deity.' None. It is apparently a 'boogy-man' type of mythical figure in Yorkshire, which is in England, not Scotland or Ireland. It is quite common for local residents of Britain to ascribe the origins of old folk customs, or old monuments or whatever, to "the Druids." Taking this as fact is poor scholarship indeed. Second of all, the customs described may be simply survivals of 'Morris Dancers' and 'Mummers,' which appear several times through the year, and more than probably date back to pagan times, but which now are thoroughly Christianized indeed, using a player representing St. George, and other Christian symbols and characters. These dancers appear in England, but not Ireland or Scotland. The masked guisers, in horrific masks, would seem to be to scare off the demons, or to represent the souls of the dead. (At least, that's what most anthropological sources for such acts in other human cultures at the same or similar stage of development show.) Third, we -do- find a "trick-or-treat" custom in rural Scotland on and before the turn of the century in 1900, but this was at Hogmany (January 1, New Year's Day) at not on All Hallow's Eve. The "Carmina Gaedelica" shows that curses were invoked on homes that didn't treat their holiday visitors. Fourth, the Celtic New Year and the Roman New Year were not the same. The Celtic New Year was indeed Nov. 1, but the Roman was on April 22, (and the Medieval Christian tended to fall on Easter.) Fifth, the major domestic animals of the pagan Irish were the pig and cow, not the sheep. Sheep were not introduced into Scotland as a whole until the Highland Clearances of the mid-1800s, though they did exist as a domestic animal in Ireland by circa 800 BCE, and were found on the west coast of Scotland in small numbers. We can infer, from the fact that wool and sheep are so seldom mentioned in the pre-Christian Irish poems and so forth (in comparison to linen, silk, cattle and pigs) that sheep were probably not considered all that valuble. They certainly had no supernatural connotations, like pigs and cattle did. King Cormac MacArt is represented as being a shepherd in one 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: Paul Seymour Area: Metaphysical To: ALL 6 Oct 94 16:49:22 Subject: "Chumpion" (1 of 7) UpdReq Article 5171 of alt.pagan: Newsgroups: alt.pagan Path: usa.net!csn!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio- state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.ess .harris.com!jabba.ess.harris.com!bstafford.ess.harris.com!bstafford From: Baird Stafford Subject: The CHAMPION (Long - 42K!) Message-ID: X-Xxmessage-Id: X-Xxdate: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 18:44:40 GMT Sender: usenet@jabba.ess.harris.com (Usenet News Feed) Nntp-Posting-Host: bstafford.ess.harris.com Organization: none X-Newsreader: Nuntius Version 1.2 Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 18:45:43 GMT Lines: 960 This is the complete text of those articles in _The CHAMPION_ which deal with neo-Paganism in general and Wicca specifically. I thought, originally, that I had the complete text of the jeremiad, but discovered (thank the Lady!) that I was mistaken; I am not the slowest typist in the world, but even so this labor required six and a half hours, total. I have tried to present the text as accurately as I could. My notes are in square brackets; where square brackets surround a question mark my hard-copy is so blurred or blotted that I could not make out precisely what it said, and the information preceding the [?] is my best guess. Asterisks at the beginning and end of a line indicates bold-face type; asterisks only at the beginning of a line or paragraph replace bullets in the original. A single underline before and after a phrase, _thus_, indicates italics in the original. (These are pretty standard conventions on the 'Net.) None of this is my opinion; it is a copy of a newsletter or pamphlet which is apparently being circulated amongst the doctor-killers of America to try to whip up further religious fervor for their cause. I perceive it as a clear and present danger not only to pro-choice forces, but also to all neo-Pagans, everywhere, of all sects: note that the tract uses "Wicca" and "neo-Pagan" interchangeably and without any effort to discriminate among us. I have proofread the post to the best of my ability but may still have generated some typos not in the original. For these, I apologize. Blessed be, Baird BEGIN TEXT: [Cover page:] The CHAMPION *Proclaiming Christ's Victorious Kingdom throughout the World* Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1994 *Child Sacrifice in the New Age* The growing cult of witches and America's abortion industry: Is there a link? *How the Church can resist witchcraft in overcoming the abortion holocaust* [First page:] *America's Abortion Industry and the Growing Cult of Witches* by Jay Rogers and Lonny Salberg MELBOURNE, Florida - Patricia Baird-Windle, founder and executive director of Aware Woman Center for Choice, has been in the national media spotlight recently. A featured guest on _Good Morning America_ and the subject of a _Rolling Stone_ magazine article, she has gained notoriety through being portrayed as the embattled owner of Brevard County, Florida's only abortion clinic. _Rolling Stone_ portrayed Windle as a suffering saint and "one of the most persecuted women in America." Local pro-lifers were painted as a movement led "almost entirely by white men" who "fit the Son of Sam profile."(1) Media coverage hasn't been exactly unbiased. In resisting the abortion industry in the state of Florida, some local pro-life activists have repeatedly come across statements from residents in the Melbourne area, linking Patricia Baird-Windle to witchcraft. Area pro-lifers claim that Windle had stated: "You practice your religion and let me practice mine." When asked what her religion was, Windle is alleged to have remarked: "My religion is a holy ritual of child sacrifice." If comments made by Windle were off-the-cuff, then most people would dismiss these allegations as the "hysteria of the religious right." However, further investigative research has shown that there is a strong connection between the Aware Woman abortion clinic and a cult of witches called Wicca. As we view the ties between the Wiccan organization and the abortion industry, the conclusion will become obvious: The promotion of abortion is not just a political issue for members of Wicca, it is part of a religious agenda - the religion of Wicca and child sacrifice. *Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida* The city of Melbourne is just one example of the growing national connection between the abortion industry and the religion of witchcraft. An employee of Aware Woman, Veronica Jordan, and a former employee, [the name is blacked out on my copy], are two of the six founding directors of a registered non-profit religious corporation known as the Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida (WRCF). The WRCF lists a post office box in Orlando as its principal address, and is attempting to network witches' covens throughout central Florida. One group working closely with WRCF is the Church of the Iron Oak. They meet weekly for "Wiccan Ways," a teaching seminar at 1220 East Prospect Street, Melbourne, and for rituals in a backyard of a dead end street at 2027 Mattison Drive NE, Palm Bay. Air, Fire, Water & Earth, a New Age book shop at 795 S. Wickham Road, West Melbourne, functions as another meeting place for local Wiccans. Activities of the WRCF have taken place at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Melbourne. Practicing witches in Melbourne are also members of Project Response (a homosexual/AIDS activist group) and South Brevard National Organization of Women (NOW). They are politically active, own profitable businesses, and universally support abortion on demand in America. A newsletter published eight times a year, _Open Circle_, informs area "Witches and Pagans" about upcoming events and describes the activities of Church of the Iron Oak. Veronica Jordan's post office box (P.O. Box 060192, Palm Bay, FL 32906) is the mailing address for _Open Circle_. The editors take pseudonyms - "Lord Shelandera," "Dahud," and "Lady Rowana" - the supposed names of pagan gods and goddesses. {File continued next msg} 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718