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A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
Thanks to the domestic religion, the family was a small organized body; a little society, which had its chief and its government. Nothing in modern society can give us an idea of this paternal authority. In primitive antiquity the father is not alone the strong man, the protector who has power to commend obedience; he is the priest, he is heir to the hearth, the continuator of the ancestors, the parent stock of the descendants, the depositary of the mysterious rites of the worship, and of the sacred formulas of prayer. The whole religion resides in him.
Numa de Coulanges
^ Don’t share this to Wiccans, guys. Those ladies have high blood pressure as is.
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One of my teachers used to say that Paganism will have to bring magic back into the world which requirs the abandonment of science and, yes, most of modern comforts too. But keep in mind that people used to live much healthier, happier lives back before the industrial revolution. Modernity primarily solves the problems it creates. No modernity-no problems.
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I went out of my way to confirm all of the above with the man himself, so I am definitely not putting my words in anyone’s mouth here.
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Coming soon: Is PIE perennialism a bad conspiracy theory?
Will be based on a conversation I’ve had with a perennial syncretist.
Will soon delve into the topic of Zoroastrian influence on philosophy and christianity. It won’t be as deep of a dive as my friend Pagan Revivalism has recently had, but I do have some interesting academic works on the topic worthy of translation.
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No thoughtful person should be ignorant of the fact that the road to the gods never starts from "powers," whether we call them "magical" or dress them up in theological terminology.
To do otherwise is to be guilty of applying the concept of evolution in an entirely meaningless way. This rift is barely covered over by a name as futile and yet as pretentious as "Vegetation deity." After all, what we describe by this name is nothing else but a pretext to account for the fact of growth—some thing just as abstract and lifeless as the concept of growth itself.
W.F.Otto
^ Please, make sure not to miss this
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Ram
Albin Brunovsky
Night in the Moor by Frantisek Kozics
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Psyche with Cerberus, c. 1899
Paul-Alfred Parent de Curzon
The gods were, in a sense, literally present in their sanctuaries. Greeks constantly, in documents and contexts of very different kinds, referred to what we would call a statue of a particular god simply by that god’s name; in representations on vases of scenes set in temples, it is often unclear whether we are looking at a statue or at an actual god. To be sure, they knew that statues were made by craftsmen from physical materials; and plain statements that statues are gods, or that gods are statues, are not to be found. Nonetheless, they constantly behaved and spoke as if their statues were gods: when a statue of Dionysus was brought in procession to the theater at the start of the Athenian Dionysia, this was not a “representation of the bringing in of Dionysus” but quite simply “the bringing in of Dionysus”; and so on in numerous other cases.
R.Parker
A bit further on the text again equates Thor himself and the idol.
The king spoke with his allied Kolbeinn so that the farmers did not notice: “If it happens during my speech that they look away from their god, then strike him a blow the hardest you can with your cudgel.”
Then they saw a great multitude of farmers coming to the assembly and carrying between them a huge image of a person, adorned with gold and silver. And when the farmers that were at the assembly saw that, then they all leapt up and bowed down to this monstrosity. After that it was placed in the middle of the assembly field. On one side sat the farmers, on the other the king and his men. After that Dala-Guðbrandr stood up and said:
‘Where is your God now, king? I think that now that he is carrying the beard on his chin rather low, and it looks to me as if your bragging and that of the horned chap that you call bishop and sits there next to you is less than yesterday, for now our god is come, who rules all things, and is looking at you with keen eyes, and I see that you are now frightened and scarcely dare raise your eyes. Now put aside your superstition and believe in our god, who has you entirely at his mercy.
In Olafs saga helga chapters 112–113 (a part of Heimskringla) Snorri tells a story about a christian king Olafr Haraldsson and a Pagan chieftain Guðbrandr which indicates the same treatment of idols as Gods as the accounts of Slavic christianization above.
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Besides, it was the same with the paternal as with the marital authority; its principle and condition were the domestic worship. A son born of concubinage was not placed under the authority of the father. Between his father and himself there existed no community of religion; there was nothing, therefore, that conferred authority upon the one and commanded obedience of the other. Paternity, of itself, gave the father no rights.
Numa de Coulanges
Woman in Greek and Roman law
She could never have a hearth of her own; she was never the chief of a worship. At Rome she received the title of mater familial; but she lost this if her husband died. Never having a sacred fire which belonged to her, she had nothing of what gave authority in the house. She never commanded; she was never even free, or mistress of herself. She was always near the hearth of another, repeating the prayer of another; for all the acts of religious life she needed a superior, and for all the acts of civil life a guardian.
As a girl, she is under her father's control; if her father dies, she is governed by her brothers; married, she is under the guardianship of her husband.
Numa de Coulanges
Why would one believe scientists when they talk about the PIE theory, yet ignore the same scientists when they say that Gods don’t exist?
PIE perennialism is an attempt to rewrite Paganism to accommodate a modern scientific theory by using odd excuses such as Gods not caring what people believe and not keeping in touch for generations since the first contact.
One final note. The guy said he’d stop believing in PIE perennialism if some new scientific theory went against it. Shows that to PIE bros science is more important than religious traditions.
Is PIE perennialism a bad conspiracy theory?
After a chat with a PIE syncretist who claims to be a Pagan I have established core elements of PIE belief.
A perennialist believes that: 1.Gods exist. 2. Gods used to interact with people in pre-history. 3.Gods stopped interacting with people. 4. Prehistoric belief got twisted when forgetful humans turned it into Paganism as we know it. 5. All Pagan traditions are based on a misunderstanding of the original ways and Gods, but it’s not bad, just wrong. 5. Paganism can be fixed by using PIE theory to reconstruct the original belief.
He claims that only lucky few actually met the Gods. They sadly left no texts, songs or depictions of the real, original Gods so all Pagan societies kept on living in ignorance for centuries. Entire civilizations built on bad memory and reinterpreting the original tradition into different, local forms.
Paganism is strengthening the future with the wisdom of the past
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Christian use of the term demon as an insult for is inspired by Zoroaster’s heresy
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Epic illustrations for The Tale of Igor’s Campaign by Georgi Yakutovich
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○ The Persian Connection ○
In 13 minutes, join us for one of the most anticipated shows we have done on this channel.
This show will take you back to the origins of axiality, showing exactly what it is, how it spread, why it is important and how to overcome it.
This is a show you will not want to miss, only on Pagan Revivalism channel!
Here's the link to the show and we look forward to seeing you all there live!
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Bridge
Albin Brunovsky
With these examples from three different pre-christian religions one sees a common concept of God=God’s statue. But we still can’t say if every statue/godpole/idol/figurine was seen as the God in wooden/stone/metal etc flesh at all time.
Obviously, there were many statues of the same deity venerated at the same time. Maybe only the biggest and most glorious of statues were treated as Gods themselves? Hard to say. If only we could ask the ancients directly about things like that. Alas, all we can do is be as accurate as possible which means that modern Pagans should start treating idols with even more reverence since they are, at least somewhat, inhabited by the Gods even when not actively prayed to.
Now on to the Greeks, who also, seemingly, considered Gods and their idols/statues as one and the same
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Note, again, how Guðbrandr refers to the idol his men brought as his god who is come now and is looking at his christian adversaries. Would a Pagan chief like Guðbrandr talk of a mere hollow piece of wood in such way?
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When they had all gathered there, Guðbrandr stood up and stated that a man called Óláfr had come to Lóar and he wanted to preach to them a faith different from what they have had previously. This man also suggested that they must break all their gods to bits (brjóta goð . . . ọll í sundr), since his god was much greater and mightier than their deities. When the farmers heard this they suggested that Þórr should be taken out from the sanctuary (berum út Þór ór hofi) in order to scare the king when he was approaching.
Here breaking the idols of the Gods is seen as the same as breaking the Gods themselves. And an idol of Thor being taken out of the temple is described as moving Thor himself, rather than a symbolic piece of wood.
What’s interesting in those accounts is that they show how idols were seen not just as vessels for the Gods to inhabit on special occasions (which is the most common belief today), but rather actual physical forms of the Gods. Hence the humiliating vandalism and mentions of the idols talking and moving.
This, of course, brings up some difficult questions. Was it indeed believed that every idol of a deity is inhabited by that deity all the time? Does he/she switch places? The sources don’t go in much detail and (so far) it seems impossible to solve the matter once and for all.
Slavic Pagans were not the only ones who treated idols/statues as literal Gods. Same belief is found among Greek and Germanic tribes.