Wiccan Holy-Days
Posted by owner on July 22, 2009Neopagan faiths at root are nature religions. Recurring events, such as the summer and winter solstices and the Spring and Fall Equinox are important markers of nature’s recurring patterns. Like the old pagan faiths, these markers along with four others are celebrated as holidays [holy days] by Wiccans and other neopagan “paths.”
Together the eight holidays celebrated by neopagans make up the “wheel of the year,” a wheel that seems to roll on forever, endlessly repeating the annual cycle, providing stability and security to the individual. Unlike Christians, who view history as moving on a course initiated by God in Creation and moving toward a culmination at history’s end, to neopagans the universe seems to be without beginning and without end.
The wheel of the neopagan year begins in the late fall. Following is a list of the holidays, with their dates.
Samhain Oct 31 Rooted in a Gaelic festival for the dead
Yule Dec 21 [winter solstice] Originally a Germanic winter festival
Imbolc Feb 2 A Gaelic festival at the first signs of spring
Ostara Mar 21 [spring Equinox] Named for the Germanic goddess of new life, Eostre Beltain May 1 From a Gaelic fertility festival.
Letha Jun 21 [summer solstice] The supernatural and natural world are closest.
Lughnasadh Jul 31 Day honoring the god Lugh for the harvest.
Mabon Sep 21 [Fall Equinox] The pagan Thanksgiving after the second harvest.
The origin of the neopagan holy days in old paganism is clear in both the names and the significance of each holiday. Each of these days has its rituals and ceremonies in Wicca and neopaganism,many of which involve worship of the deity whose name is reflected in the name of the holiday or in its origin.
A closer look at Ostara
If we take a closer look at just one of these wiccan sabats, we realize that neopagan “paths” are not a closer orientation to nature, but are in fact religions.
One website discussing Ostare confuses this reality when the writer comments, “Many modern Wiccans and neopagans celebrate Ostara as a time of renewal and rebirth. Take some time to celebrate the new life that surrounds you in nature–walk in park, lay in the grass, hike through a forest. As you do so, observe all the new things beginning around you–plants, flowers, insects, birds. Meditate upon the ever-moving wheel of the year, and celebrate the change of seasons.”
Ostara is also celebrated by gathering to worship the goddess Eostar. For instance, another website suggests celebrating the Ostara sabbat with a “short devotional” honoring the beginnings of spring. One of these designed for the instruction of children, goes:
Welcome, welcome, warm fresh earth!
Today we celebrate rebirth!
Blowing wind, rising sun,
Bringing the spring to everyone!
Rabbits hopping, chicks in the nest,
Spring is the season we love the best!
Celebrate the green of the earth with me,
Happy Ostara, and blessed be!
Yet another website gives directions for holding a “rebirthing ritual” for Ostara, which includes setting up an Ostara altar, and includes ritual words for the person acting as high priest as well as the other participants to recite. The following ritual includes the use of candles, sprinkled water, and wrapping participants in a black sheet from which they emerge {reborn. This is followed up with a healing ritual that involves the use of magick. The website suggests that the ritual may be performed “skyclad” [nude] if the participants are comfortable with this.
In 1998 a religious service honoring the goddess Eostar was performed at the Unitarian/Universalist Church of Fort Lauderdale, FL. on March 15, and that ritual is also available on the Web. We shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Folk Rock music for Ostara can be downloaded from MySpace Music.
How should we respond?
Today in the United States many are taking neopagan paths. I’ve noted before that there are some 150 different “paths” that can be identified as neopagan, with Wicca probably the best known. At least three factors contribute to the growth of these religions.
1. The assumption by many that there is truth, but not absolute truth. What truth there is is both subjective and personal. Anyone’s experience is thus valid, and what is true for another person may but need not be true for me. It follows that I can only discover “my” truth by experimenting . . . so it’s all right for me to experiment with the views promoted in neo-pagan faiths.
2. Tolerance is the ultimate value. Tolerance is so important a value that I must be willing to give up my right to make distinctions in favor of acceptance of another person’s actions and beliefs. It would be intolerant of me to suggest, must less strongly assert, that those involved in neopagan faiths are in danger of trafficking with demons, or that belief in the gods and goddesses of the neopagans guarantees eternal damnation.
3. Ignorance is the third factor that contributes to the growth of neopagan religions. Unfortunately, very little is being done to counter the ignorance Wicca and neopaganism which characterize many who identify themselves as Christians, to say nothing of members of the other faith tribes that Barna identified in his The Seven Faith Tribes.
It would be helpful if pastors and others would speak out on the issues of absolute truth and the limitations on tolerance. It would be very helpful if we could have some bold teaching on angels and demons, and the spiritual warfare that is taking place around us.
But even if Christian leaders continue to ignore these issues, there’s no reason that we as individuals should. We can examine our own commitment to God’s truth, and reject the timidity that an insistence on tolerance as the expense of truth produces. And we can make sure that we learn all we can about the neopagan beliefs that are infesting our society and share what we learn with others. And be prepared for spiritual warfare.
What people aren’t realizeing is these Pagan Holidays have been intregrated into Chirstianity as well. Allot of the Holidays are being celebrated by Chirstians under a different name as if disguiseing what it really is there celebrating. I.E Samhain A.K.A Halloween, Ostara A.K.A Easter, Yule A.K.A Christmas. I’m sure you get the drift… I get pretty tired of Chirstains claiming there takeing the high road and there better than pagans but celebrate all these Holidays almost the same ways Pagans do. I lived many years as a pagan after years of reading and studying the bible and being confused on how come none of these Holidays are even in the bible at all but were adopted by the Catholic Church and spread amongst other religions as they broke off in an attempt to not lose followers, I.E money.. I do have trust in the bible, but I do not have trust in MAN who seems to try to preach about the words in it and don’t have this knowledge of our past in his arsinal of information, therefore how can any man of faith help me when he knows less than I do between right and wrong?
Indica, of course you are on target with your comments about the incorporation of pagan holidays into Christianity. The enemy is active and subtle; would you expect any less than such infiltration?
I have a small ancient coin collection. One of my Roman coins bears a religious title for the Roman Emperor the head of the Roman pagan religion–borrowed from Babylonian religious origins, Pontifex Maximus. It is the title for the head of that pagan religion. Emperors tried to appeal to a broad range of constituent religious forces in the empire as part of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), which, beside military might, included the tactic of support for various religions. The Pontifex Maximus was literally a “builder of bridges” between religious beliefs systems. The later emperors also were worshiped as gods.
When the political center of the empire shifted to the east, leaving the Roman Catholic Church to deal with the impending barbarian invasion threat, the religious title, Pontifex Maximus, came with the job. To this day the Pope bears the title, often shortened to simply, Pontiff. One Pope, Leo, was even so bold as to claim to be god on earth.
By legalizing and elevating Christianity to not only one of many religions, but to the primary state religion of the empire under Emperor Constantine, a little “tactful” compromise was inevitable given the history of Rome. The army was baptized on a single day with a march through the river. They came out wet calling themselves Christians, but ignorant to its meaning other than that that is what the Emperor’s orders said they now were. For the church to even try to make them real Christians was a daunting task.
Pagan temples confiscated and given to the church contained idols. The church was not allowed to destroy these works of art, so these too became “baptized” into the so called “saints.” (According to the New Testament, all believers are “saints.”) Look closely and you can still see the thunderbolt in “the apostle Peter’s” hand (formerly the hand of Zeus) in the Vatican.
A compromise to appeal to the sun worshiping Mythraites converted the Sabbath into worship on Sunday (“the venerable day of the sun”). The excuse was given that it was because of the resurrection. This was not so. At first many Christians kept both days in order to comply, then laws forbidding the keeping of the Sabbath from Friday evening through Saturday evening were gradually introduced and enforced and turned into days of fasting to embitter people against that day.
Christmas too, as you mentioned, was a compromise (Christ being born somewhere around late October of 4 BC.). So also were many other pagan holidays incorporated and “Christianized” in vain attempts to win over the new, but ignorant, “converts” via edict or law as the state religion mandated citizens to be.
Eventually, the origins were forgotten even by the Church itself and no attempt to undo the harm was made. Even the 10 commandments in the Roman Catholic catechism were changed to match practice. God’s unchangeable Law of Exodus 20, literally written in stone by the finger of God, was trampled underfoot with the Papal claim that the Pontiff/Pope had the power to change anything he wanted. Thus, the second commandment against making and worshiping images was removed entirely, the fourth commandment became the third and shortened and changed from the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday (the 1st day of the week). In order to not have only nine commandments the last one about not coveting was split into two parts and viola, there were ten again.
So much more could be said about the theological changes, the distortions of the character of God, the inquisition and other evils of the Church centering around, as you pointed out, “money,” but also power and national and international intrigues. Eventually the Pope became the king maker, more powerful than the emperors and eventually replacing the emperor.
This is why the reformation, the revolt against the errors of the fallen so called Christianity that plagued the church, finally took its stand. Unfortunately, so much error had infused the religion by then it would take centuries to find and overcome some of them. As you can see, the errors are not all out yet. It was all part of Satan’s evilly brilliant though horrid plan.
If you want to see the big picture with most of the details check out the old book, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. There you can see what demondope is all about, pulling back the curtain to see behind the scenes and the devil’s often repetitive (how little human nature changes; how little need for anything more than slight variations for evil to often gain the advantage) plans. But the book does not leave the reader in despair. It looks to God’s glorious plan for the final victory as revealed in prophecy. As Revelation 12:12 points out, the enemy of souls knows his defeat is at hand, “…the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
The book is available free on-line from the author’s estate at:
http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc.asp
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