Hello Everyone
Another year, another Halloween. An American Trick or Treat custom that tried to make light of the horrors, fears and terrors of ghouls, spirits and return of the dead. Some people were afraid of even that, pretending to be out when the Trick or Treaters came around. But it didn’t used to be like that. Years ago – pre-Christian, that is, – Halloween used to be one of the major festivals of the year, a time of religious piety and uplifting thoughts, before it became synonymous with nasties!
As Christianity spread, rather than just relying on evangelism, it used tried and tested methods to dominate the preexisting religion. Usually, the new religion came with a conquering army, so as the victorious country succeeded in their take over then the existing old religion’s gods had proved to be inadequate to the task of defending the host nation. They must have been weaker than the new country’s gods, so for everybody’s sake leave the old and embrace the new. One example of this is Elijah battling with the old religion of the philistine priests of Baal, or the Christian Evangelism sweeping over the African continent in the wake of Imperialism. In England, Morris Men have been laughed at and the old religion declared as really nothing more than superstition.
If that proved insufficient, then the action hotted up. If the practices and ideas of the old religion were proving too stubborn to eradicate then they are incorporated into the new. The propaganda or spin was that “you almost got it right, but in fact we also have these same ideas and gods but in a new and improved form”. Hence festivals such as Christmas, Easter and so many of the Saint’s days were reinvented, whilst the worship sites were rededicated to the new improved version of ‘god’. That was just good psychology.
If all of that did not work, then the last trick was to call the old religion evil. Not only was it not strong enough to defend the old nation, not only were the practices old fashioned and slightly askew, but in reality the old gods had enslaved ‘you’, not letting you grow and stand up for what you really think and can do. They were EVIL and to be shunned and fought against. Hence there was not Satanism until Christianity. Hence the image of the Devil is that of the Goat or Horned One, the Baal or Pan of earlier religions. Fear is a very effective weapon in the domination armoury. As a consequence, look at the ‘taboo-est’ of the present religion and you will probably find the most sacred of the previous old religion!
That was the case for the major festival of Halloween.
The usual updates are there. There is Planting by the Moon and Astrology for Healers and Therapists.
Hope you had a blessed Halloween
John
