This blog is inspired by (and thus dedicated to) a friend of mine. I'm not going to name her because that would be embarrassing but she's a Pagan of the Wiccan style and a hard-working young woman in the caring professions who is utterly devoted to her children.
She has, though, come in for some criticism for her use of certain narcotics and sex-magick in her magickal and religious practice. I love her to bits - most people do -but there's a small and vociferous minority who find her and her methods and philosophies offensive because they are "Left-Hand Path".
Disclaimer: Any non-Pagan or non-occultist reading this is likely to find it a wee bit confusing. Sorry! If you do need anything translating please ask.
Left-Hand Path
What do we mean when we talk about the Left- and Right-Hand Paths of magick? As a simple Pagan boy back in the '80s, who had read his share of Dennis Wheatley novels as a kid, the answer was pretty straightforward - good and evil! A Left-Hand Path magician would hurt and use people for their own ends. They would command demons, perform sacrifices and cause destruction. Proper sensationalist stuff.
Many people still believe this and judge accordingly. Certain activities, though, are classed as Left-Hand Path, regardless of whether they are destructive or harmful, and then condemned outright.
It can be argued, because words change their meanings over time, that a word or term means what people believe it to mean at any particular moment. A look at the history of the word "nice" is quite revealing in this regard. Equally a look at the origins of Left- and Right-Hand Paths is very enlightening.
The terms originate in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra and were first applied to Western Occultism by the famous Mme. Blavatsky back in the late 19th Century.
To give a general gist: Right-Hand practices can be considered the slow and safe way to Divinity - prayer, meditation, strict adherence to moral codes with the aim of (in Christian terms) "sitting at the right hand of God".
Left-Hand practices go direct - they are the methods which, occasionally dangerously, speed things up. The ingestion of certain mind-altering substances and sexual magickal acts are commonly used. They use real-world rather than symbolic methods and, most importantly, consider the practitioner to be potentially God themselves. A good description I've read describes the difference thus: ". . . the Great Rite performed symbolically using chalice and athame is a right-hand ritual. When the High Priest and High Priestess perform the Union by actually having sex, it is a left-hand ritual."
Magick
When we perform a Magickal act we're are looking at the multiverse in a different way from normal. We have to. We have to consider that there is an unseen force which we can be aware of and manipulate. During our normal lives this force is usually not noticed and we have to tune in in order to become aware of it.
Crowley defined Magick as causing changes in accordance with will, (such as the healing of an injury or the removal of an obstacle) but that's only a small part of the whole thing. What we are really changing using Magickal practices is ourselves. We change our awareness. We change it temporarily during a circle in order to be deliberately aware of the force we're tuning into and manipulating. In changing our awareness and perception of the multiverse we change ourselves into creatures with a wider perception.
And what is this force into which we tune? Mana, chi, the Holy Spirit, the "force", the True Will? By whatever name it's known it is our direct link to divinity, to Heaven, Samadhi, Yoga, enlightenment. By widening our perceptions we become more godlike, and the more we do it the more divine we become. The modern Pagan does this in very old-fashioned ways, such as invocation - which makes one divine by identification with the divine.
SEX!
How do you feel when sexually aroused? Do you feel "normal"? No, neither do I.
Sex is a great way of altering our awareness of the universe. The best method for most people appears to be loving sex with an absolutely equal partner - you open up yourselves and each other together. During orgasm the human being has an experience like no other and when two people do that together they join in a manner not possible by any other method. They literally know, for a moment, how it feels to be divine.
Yet, this is not the only way. The alteration of awareness via sexual methods can be done solo or even in large groups, via orgasm or the suppression of orgasm, or even via the various "kinks" which work so well for some people. Frankly from my own point of view, as long as everybody's happy doing what they're doing then whatever floats your boat is great. Go for it!
From a Western magickal perspective there is also another sexual road to divinity, to tuning in - the afterglow.
Here's a note to all men who get up, give it a wipe and then ring for a taxi - you're an idiot!
Awareness during afterglow whilst cuddling your partner/partners/simply enjoying it, is exactly the same as the awareness deliberately attempted during a circle. During afterglow we are automatically tuned-in, no longer a small, separate creature and instinctively aware of what Buddhists spend years of meditation trying to achieve.
DRUGS!
I'm not going to suggest here that people should use illegal and possibly dangerous substances. In fact, for legal reasons I'd like to declare this section on drugs entirely theoretical. Don't try this at home kiddies!
Okay, that's that out of the way!
I have a very limited experience of narcotics, so I'm happy to listen to experts on the subject. One of those experts is William Burroughs who considered opiates to be bad, and frankly he should know. So I'll say right now, stay away from opiates. Opiates include heroin, cocaine, opium, "smack" and so on.
There are certain other substances, however, which appear to have rather positive effects, both in the long and short terms. They also appear to have almost no addictive effects. These are the hallucinogens.
As I've said over and over already, magick is about changing yourself by means of changing your awareness, which is what hallucinogens do. Some people call them entheogens, which is lovely Greek(ish) word -literally within-god-create! They make you like a god inside.
In my own experience I have tried only one entheogen (unless you count kava-kava which was a bit pants), the psilocybe semilanceata or Liberty Cap/magic mushroom. In all honesty, it was great! It altered my perceptions so that I could see with ease all that I imagined and allowed me to look at the world in a completely different manner. Should I try it again I shall do so in a deliberately ritualised environment to heighten the experience yet further and to tune in even deeper.
This is exactly what shamans have been doing across the whole world for the whole of human existence! In other words, altering one's awareness has been magickal practice forever and the use of a substance to aid that change is one common, nay normal, method.
I'm not sure about marijuana simply because I don't like it. Personally I find it a vile substance and can't see the appeal. Different strokes for different folks!
There is one drug I would definitely not recommend - tobacco. Having spent most of my adult life addicted to the bloody stuff, and only having broken that addiction about 5 years ago I can honestly say that there is absolutely no good in tobacco whatsoever.
There is one mind-altering substance which is commonly used by millions on a regular basis. So commonly, in fact, that few consider it a drug at all. It's even used by people who disapprove of "drugs". It's legal, it's relatively cheap and it's incredibly dangerous. You've probably worked out by now that I'm talking about alcohol.
I deliberately use alcohol for what I consider its intended purpose - to get drunk. I'm not an habitual drinker (although there's always a danger of that) and so don't drink except for the effect. If I don't want to get drunk, I simply don't drink! To me this is a form of worship. A night drinking and dancing is my Bacchanale and I dedicate it to Dionysos as soon as I step through the door.
Paganism.
One of the wonderful things about Paganism is its immediacy. You don't need a priest to talk to the gods for you, you can do it yourself. You don't separate your worship to a specific day, your life becomes worship through the alteration of your awareness. You can even join with a spirit or deity so that they can speak through you and the two become one.
These are precisely the aims of the so-called Left-Hand Path!
By that definition, the whole of Paganism is Left-Hand Path, but does that mean that Paganism is also evil?
Bloody stupid question! Of course it doesn't!
It's about time we got rid of such simplistic definitions as Left- and Right-Hand Path. They don't help anybody. The vast majority of us use methods which combine elements of both definitions and therefore make a mockery of the whole concept. We're human beings and, as such, simple black/white categorisations are inadequate, belittling and frankly, bollocks!
If someone uses sexual magick to harm another person then they're not Left-Hand Path. They're bastards!
Similarly, if someone uses sexual magick to heal another person they're not Right-Hand Path, or Left- either. They're sexual healers, and probably an amazing shag too!
We need to get beyond petty moralisations and over-simplified definitions and open ourselves up to a whole multiverse of infinite possibilities. We are potential gods, and whatever methods we use to achieve that realisation for ourselves are the "good" ones.
An it harm none, do what you will.
Love,
Seán
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Showing posts with label Paganism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paganism. Show all posts
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Monday, 18 August 2008
Jesus Was A Pagan
Not even a question- a definite statement! But, it's going to take a lot of explaining!
I'm writing this in response to the comments on the last blog between Pegasus and myself. My friend Pegasus could best be described as a multi-faith kabbalist scholar and mystic, and so this essay is dedicated to him. I'm also considering sending this to another friend, Revd. Phil Edwards, who is a relatively high-ranking CoE minister and head of a local university's multi-faith chaplaincy - because I'd value his opinions.
Please note that I'm not a biblical scholar, I'm a Pagan who knows his mythology, so I may get some things wrong. If I do, please tell me. I welcome correction.
Hell, if nothing else it makes a change from all the sex-obsessed stuff I've been writing lately!
Warning!
In the highly unlikely event that this blog is being read by a fundamentalist Christian who believes that every word in the Bible is literal truth - stop reading now! You are going to find the rest of this essay very offensive indeed. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Where I'm Coming From
The chance of finding a Pagan who was brought up that way, and especially one of my sort of age, is rare. Most of us were brought up either Christian or secular, and adopted Paganism when we eventually found it. In my own case my parents were not religious, but I was sent to church Infant and Junior schools. I would probably have been sent to secular schools, but there weren't any - so I was brainwashed! (I don't use that term lightly)
Later, and in common with other young Pagans, I rejected the church outright. The problem with doing this is that Jesus tends to get rejected along with it, and a study of Jesus reads like a text-book version of the life of a Solar Hero or Corn God. It's a pattern which repeats with variations all over Europe, the Middle East and probably the rest of the world.
I still reject the authority of the church, but throwing Jesus out with it brings to mind visions of babies and bathwater!
The Life of Jesus
There are two Jesuses (if that's the correct plural). The first is a Jewish human being, political activist and preacher born sometime around 4AD, the son of a carpenter and his wife. The second is the mythological Jesus whose story is told in the Bible.
Are they not one and the same? Well, sort of! The two blend, one into the other and back again.
We must remember that what we read in the Bible is not a diary. The earliest gospel (Mark) was written around 70AD, roughly 40 years after Jesus' death and immediately after a civil war in Palestine. Memories change and writings are alterable. Even the writings we have aren't complete. There were many "gospels" rejected by the early church and others only recently discovered
Early Christianity was promulgated by Paul of Tarsus. I don't know his reasons for doing so, but what he put forward seems tailor-made to appeal to the Pagan peoples he encountered by virtue of the similarities between his own hero and the pre-existent local gods. It was even common at the time (as often happens in India nowadays) for people to accept Jesus alongside their own gods because he fitted in so well!
Suspicious? So am I. It does seem awfully convenient that the one-and-only-God's one-and-only-Son should be so similar to, say Adonis, Hercules, Balder, Lugh, Dionysos, Cú Chulainn, Krishna and a great deal of others.
The salient points of Jesus' life, which we'll look at in more detail can be broken up as follows:
The Miraculous Birth
Jesus was special even before he was born. Paternally he was of the House of David, ie. Jewish royalty (Luke 3:23-31). That's a fascinating claim considering Jewish birth is passed through the maternal line.
The most well-known story, of course, is the virgin birth. The story states that Mary was visited by God in the guise of a spirit who impregnated her. She then gave birth to the infant Jesus without ever having had sexual relations with her husband. There are arguments that "virgin" meant an unmarried woman - one who had never subjugated herself to a man. These are interesting but, as we'll see, unnecessary. The miraculous birth by non-human paternity is necessary and very, very important. So is the early threat to his life by Herod
It should also be noted that Jesus had to be born at Bethlehem, which translates as House of Bread. In other words a centre of the worship of a Corn God.
Okay, let's compare:
Dionysos is the child of a human woman, Semele and the God, Zeus. His half-brother Hercules also has a human mother Alcmene. Lleu Llaw Gyffes has no known father, his mother produces him "by accident" when proving her maidenhood. Merlin is the child of a human woman and a "demon", while King Arthur's conception is brought about by an act of magic which also indirectly causes the death of his father. Adonis/Tammuz has a birth shrouded in mystery, his mother is turned into a myrrh tree, but who his father is is anybody's guess.
The story of Osiris is long and complicated but one could boil it down to the idea that he becomes his own father - the ultimate in magical rebirth!
Most of these characters are royal in descent, particularly on the human side and definitely divine on the paternal side. Their "human" fathers, where they exist at all, take little part in their upbringing. Lleu is brought up by his uncle Gwydion; Dionysos spends his childhood with the Hyades and his granny, Rhea. The youthful Merlin is the "child with no father" and in turn brings up the young Arthur. The lack of a father figure goes right back to ancient, matriarchal (and unprovable except by extrapolation) tribal society where paternity is highly uncertain. The most important male role-model in a young boy's life was usually his uncle. This pattern was kept as a tradition amongst Celtic peoples right up into Roman times and beyond.
They were often hidden away as children to protect them from a specific danger. In the case of Dionysos, his stepmother, Hera is the one after him. The same goes for Hercules. The baby Adonis is hidden in a box for his own protection, as is Lleu (and a few others were too - qv. Perseus)
Miraculous Childhood Feats
Only one gospel features an early childhood feat for Jesus. Luke 2 tells us about his being found teaching in the temple at the age of 12. It's surprising that only one gospel mentions it, but not surprising that it is mentioned. The proof of divinity by means of a miraculous act is an important part of the overall pattern.
The child Merlin divines two underground dragons which are preventing a castle being built and, almost coincidentally, predicts a major war. Hercules strangles snakes while in his cradle and Dionysos shape-shifts to avoid the Titans who are going to dismember him. Lleu learns all the perfections of humanity to become Llaw Gyffes (a long story!) and the Irish hero Cú Chulainn fights and kills a vicious guard dog with his bare hands.
Period of Withdrawal (Initiation)
Between the birth of Jesus and his 30th year, except the one event mention in Luke, there is no record. Many people have theorised about what he did during these missing years, without any real result. The mythological pattern works well though.
Most of our Corn Gods and Solar Heroes have some kind of missing period which they spend learning, training or coming to terms with the reality of their own existence as demi-gods. Merlin famously becomes insane and lives in the forest among the animals. Dionysos disappears to Phrygia to be trained by Rhea. Arthur's upbringing by Merlin is as much a period of training as any other and Cú Chulainn's training in the arts of love and war by Scatha are in the same vein.
Adonis spends his youth hidden by Persephone, the Goddess of Death, who doesn't want to give him back to the world.
The moment of Jesus' initiation is obviously his baptism by John, after which he spends a period of purification before starting his ministry.
This pattern reverberates through Arthur's pulling the sword from the stone (as Siegfried does from the branstock) and his drawing together of his court, Lleu's finally being given a name and arms by his mother and the beginning of his kingship and with Dionysos, who is struck with madness by Hera but cured by Rhea who sends him out on his own ministry.
Ministry: A Life of Miraculous Acts.
The miracles of Jesus are too many to name in any detail here. Most people know about turning water into wine, driving out demons and raising the dead. Miraculous behaviour is definitely not restricted to Jesus, though.
Hercules has his 12 labours, Merlin has his multiple acts of magic, Dionysos has his ministry of the vine which covers umpteen different myths and a great deal of land! Krishna picks up mountains and Cú Chulainn defends Ulster
Betrayal and Sacrificial Death
By far the most significant points of a Corn God or Solar Hero's story are his birth and his death. His death usually contains three significant aspects: it is unnatural, it is entered into fatalistically and it is brought about by a betrayal.
The story of Jesus has these points well covered via Judas and the crucifixion, even though the Koran and a few others, insist on Jesus' survival. That's a consideration for another time, but it can be said that to be accepted (ie. fit the pattern) Jesus had to be betrayed and sacrificed.
King Arthur is betrayed by his son/nephew Mordred to his death, although he is also earlier betrayed by his wife, Guinevere and best friend, Lancelot. I could go on about the merging and splitting of the myth but we'll be getting off the point.
Merlin is betrayed by Nimue but doesn't die, he's imprisoned forever instead. Adonis is betrayed by Aphrodite in favour of Ares who kills him in the form of a boar. Dionysos is torn to pieces at a very young age by his stepmother's cohorts, but stuck back together later, like Osiris.
Cú Chulainn kills his brother/lover Ferdiad at the behest of Queen Maedbh, interestingly reversing the pattern, although he is later killed by Lugaid after being forced to break a taboo by an old woman.
My favourite version is of Lleu Llaw Gyffes who is betrayed by his lover, Blodeuedd into giving away the secret of how he can be killed. This she gives to her lover, Gronw Pebr, who kills him according to the given formula. For a biblical scholar, it's a bit like the Samson and Delilah story.
It's unusual, but not unknown, for a male to be the betrayer in any of the myths, but the killer is always male and can be seen to represent the "dark twin" of the hero. Arthur has Mordred, Lleu has Gronw Pebr, Jesus has Pilate.
There is a Norse god of light, Baldur who fits the pattern very precisely. His name is Baldur, he is betrayed by his Cousin Loki - in the form of a giantess - and is killed by his brother, the blind god of darkness, Hod.
Finally - Resurrection
After three days Jesus rises again, appears some important people and then ascends to heaven. Funnily enough, he's not the only one, although usually the Solar Hero is promised to rise again rather than actually doing it.
Merlin isn't dead, he's trapped (symbolically dead) awaiting release and King Arthur is taken to Avalon on the point of death in order to return when the country needs him. Baldur will be reborn to begin the world anew after the Ragnarok.
Other heroes don't have a specifically promised rebirth, but their story begins again every Winter Solstice - the traditional birthday of all Solar Heroes.
To conclude:
The tangling of the historical Jesus and the mythological, Solar Hero/Corn God pattern is inextricable, and so it should be. The church's denial of all that came before was a simple claim to political power by means of propaganda and Jesus' Pagan origins were deliberately forgotten. It's easier to control the minds and hearts of the masses if your god is the only one rather than one of many.
The question now remains whether the Pagans can accept Jesus as a demi-god (rather than a threat) equal to Krishna, Merlin, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and a great deal of others I've not mentioned? Similarly, will modern Christians be able to accept that Jesus is not alone, but is one among many as the earliest followers believed.
It's quite common for Pagans to follow one or two patron Gods (no prizes for guessing who does that!) whilst acknowledging all the others. Is it possible for anyone else?
Love,
Seán
I'm writing this in response to the comments on the last blog between Pegasus and myself. My friend Pegasus could best be described as a multi-faith kabbalist scholar and mystic, and so this essay is dedicated to him. I'm also considering sending this to another friend, Revd. Phil Edwards, who is a relatively high-ranking CoE minister and head of a local university's multi-faith chaplaincy - because I'd value his opinions.
Please note that I'm not a biblical scholar, I'm a Pagan who knows his mythology, so I may get some things wrong. If I do, please tell me. I welcome correction.
Hell, if nothing else it makes a change from all the sex-obsessed stuff I've been writing lately!
Warning!
In the highly unlikely event that this blog is being read by a fundamentalist Christian who believes that every word in the Bible is literal truth - stop reading now! You are going to find the rest of this essay very offensive indeed. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Where I'm Coming From
The chance of finding a Pagan who was brought up that way, and especially one of my sort of age, is rare. Most of us were brought up either Christian or secular, and adopted Paganism when we eventually found it. In my own case my parents were not religious, but I was sent to church Infant and Junior schools. I would probably have been sent to secular schools, but there weren't any - so I was brainwashed! (I don't use that term lightly)
Later, and in common with other young Pagans, I rejected the church outright. The problem with doing this is that Jesus tends to get rejected along with it, and a study of Jesus reads like a text-book version of the life of a Solar Hero or Corn God. It's a pattern which repeats with variations all over Europe, the Middle East and probably the rest of the world.
I still reject the authority of the church, but throwing Jesus out with it brings to mind visions of babies and bathwater!
The Life of Jesus
There are two Jesuses (if that's the correct plural). The first is a Jewish human being, political activist and preacher born sometime around 4AD, the son of a carpenter and his wife. The second is the mythological Jesus whose story is told in the Bible.
Are they not one and the same? Well, sort of! The two blend, one into the other and back again.
We must remember that what we read in the Bible is not a diary. The earliest gospel (Mark) was written around 70AD, roughly 40 years after Jesus' death and immediately after a civil war in Palestine. Memories change and writings are alterable. Even the writings we have aren't complete. There were many "gospels" rejected by the early church and others only recently discovered
Early Christianity was promulgated by Paul of Tarsus. I don't know his reasons for doing so, but what he put forward seems tailor-made to appeal to the Pagan peoples he encountered by virtue of the similarities between his own hero and the pre-existent local gods. It was even common at the time (as often happens in India nowadays) for people to accept Jesus alongside their own gods because he fitted in so well!
Suspicious? So am I. It does seem awfully convenient that the one-and-only-God's one-and-only-Son should be so similar to, say Adonis, Hercules, Balder, Lugh, Dionysos, Cú Chulainn, Krishna and a great deal of others.
The salient points of Jesus' life, which we'll look at in more detail can be broken up as follows:
- Miraculous Birth (and relative unimportance of a human father)
- Miraculous Childhood Feats
- Period of Withdrawal (Initiation)
- Ministry: A Life of Miraculous Acts
- Betrayal and Sacrificial Death
- Resurrection
The Miraculous Birth
Jesus was special even before he was born. Paternally he was of the House of David, ie. Jewish royalty (Luke 3:23-31). That's a fascinating claim considering Jewish birth is passed through the maternal line.
The most well-known story, of course, is the virgin birth. The story states that Mary was visited by God in the guise of a spirit who impregnated her. She then gave birth to the infant Jesus without ever having had sexual relations with her husband. There are arguments that "virgin" meant an unmarried woman - one who had never subjugated herself to a man. These are interesting but, as we'll see, unnecessary. The miraculous birth by non-human paternity is necessary and very, very important. So is the early threat to his life by Herod
It should also be noted that Jesus had to be born at Bethlehem, which translates as House of Bread. In other words a centre of the worship of a Corn God.
Okay, let's compare:
Dionysos is the child of a human woman, Semele and the God, Zeus. His half-brother Hercules also has a human mother Alcmene. Lleu Llaw Gyffes has no known father, his mother produces him "by accident" when proving her maidenhood. Merlin is the child of a human woman and a "demon", while King Arthur's conception is brought about by an act of magic which also indirectly causes the death of his father. Adonis/Tammuz has a birth shrouded in mystery, his mother is turned into a myrrh tree, but who his father is is anybody's guess.
The story of Osiris is long and complicated but one could boil it down to the idea that he becomes his own father - the ultimate in magical rebirth!
Most of these characters are royal in descent, particularly on the human side and definitely divine on the paternal side. Their "human" fathers, where they exist at all, take little part in their upbringing. Lleu is brought up by his uncle Gwydion; Dionysos spends his childhood with the Hyades and his granny, Rhea. The youthful Merlin is the "child with no father" and in turn brings up the young Arthur. The lack of a father figure goes right back to ancient, matriarchal (and unprovable except by extrapolation) tribal society where paternity is highly uncertain. The most important male role-model in a young boy's life was usually his uncle. This pattern was kept as a tradition amongst Celtic peoples right up into Roman times and beyond.
They were often hidden away as children to protect them from a specific danger. In the case of Dionysos, his stepmother, Hera is the one after him. The same goes for Hercules. The baby Adonis is hidden in a box for his own protection, as is Lleu (and a few others were too - qv. Perseus)
Miraculous Childhood Feats
Only one gospel features an early childhood feat for Jesus. Luke 2 tells us about his being found teaching in the temple at the age of 12. It's surprising that only one gospel mentions it, but not surprising that it is mentioned. The proof of divinity by means of a miraculous act is an important part of the overall pattern.
The child Merlin divines two underground dragons which are preventing a castle being built and, almost coincidentally, predicts a major war. Hercules strangles snakes while in his cradle and Dionysos shape-shifts to avoid the Titans who are going to dismember him. Lleu learns all the perfections of humanity to become Llaw Gyffes (a long story!) and the Irish hero Cú Chulainn fights and kills a vicious guard dog with his bare hands.
Period of Withdrawal (Initiation)
Between the birth of Jesus and his 30th year, except the one event mention in Luke, there is no record. Many people have theorised about what he did during these missing years, without any real result. The mythological pattern works well though.
Most of our Corn Gods and Solar Heroes have some kind of missing period which they spend learning, training or coming to terms with the reality of their own existence as demi-gods. Merlin famously becomes insane and lives in the forest among the animals. Dionysos disappears to Phrygia to be trained by Rhea. Arthur's upbringing by Merlin is as much a period of training as any other and Cú Chulainn's training in the arts of love and war by Scatha are in the same vein.
Adonis spends his youth hidden by Persephone, the Goddess of Death, who doesn't want to give him back to the world.
The moment of Jesus' initiation is obviously his baptism by John, after which he spends a period of purification before starting his ministry.
This pattern reverberates through Arthur's pulling the sword from the stone (as Siegfried does from the branstock) and his drawing together of his court, Lleu's finally being given a name and arms by his mother and the beginning of his kingship and with Dionysos, who is struck with madness by Hera but cured by Rhea who sends him out on his own ministry.
Ministry: A Life of Miraculous Acts.
The miracles of Jesus are too many to name in any detail here. Most people know about turning water into wine, driving out demons and raising the dead. Miraculous behaviour is definitely not restricted to Jesus, though.
Hercules has his 12 labours, Merlin has his multiple acts of magic, Dionysos has his ministry of the vine which covers umpteen different myths and a great deal of land! Krishna picks up mountains and Cú Chulainn defends Ulster
Betrayal and Sacrificial Death
By far the most significant points of a Corn God or Solar Hero's story are his birth and his death. His death usually contains three significant aspects: it is unnatural, it is entered into fatalistically and it is brought about by a betrayal.
The story of Jesus has these points well covered via Judas and the crucifixion, even though the Koran and a few others, insist on Jesus' survival. That's a consideration for another time, but it can be said that to be accepted (ie. fit the pattern) Jesus had to be betrayed and sacrificed.
King Arthur is betrayed by his son/nephew Mordred to his death, although he is also earlier betrayed by his wife, Guinevere and best friend, Lancelot. I could go on about the merging and splitting of the myth but we'll be getting off the point.
Merlin is betrayed by Nimue but doesn't die, he's imprisoned forever instead. Adonis is betrayed by Aphrodite in favour of Ares who kills him in the form of a boar. Dionysos is torn to pieces at a very young age by his stepmother's cohorts, but stuck back together later, like Osiris.
Cú Chulainn kills his brother/lover Ferdiad at the behest of Queen Maedbh, interestingly reversing the pattern, although he is later killed by Lugaid after being forced to break a taboo by an old woman.
My favourite version is of Lleu Llaw Gyffes who is betrayed by his lover, Blodeuedd into giving away the secret of how he can be killed. This she gives to her lover, Gronw Pebr, who kills him according to the given formula. For a biblical scholar, it's a bit like the Samson and Delilah story.
It's unusual, but not unknown, for a male to be the betrayer in any of the myths, but the killer is always male and can be seen to represent the "dark twin" of the hero. Arthur has Mordred, Lleu has Gronw Pebr, Jesus has Pilate.
There is a Norse god of light, Baldur who fits the pattern very precisely. His name is Baldur, he is betrayed by his Cousin Loki - in the form of a giantess - and is killed by his brother, the blind god of darkness, Hod.
Finally - Resurrection
After three days Jesus rises again, appears some important people and then ascends to heaven. Funnily enough, he's not the only one, although usually the Solar Hero is promised to rise again rather than actually doing it.
Merlin isn't dead, he's trapped (symbolically dead) awaiting release and King Arthur is taken to Avalon on the point of death in order to return when the country needs him. Baldur will be reborn to begin the world anew after the Ragnarok.
Other heroes don't have a specifically promised rebirth, but their story begins again every Winter Solstice - the traditional birthday of all Solar Heroes.
To conclude:
The tangling of the historical Jesus and the mythological, Solar Hero/Corn God pattern is inextricable, and so it should be. The church's denial of all that came before was a simple claim to political power by means of propaganda and Jesus' Pagan origins were deliberately forgotten. It's easier to control the minds and hearts of the masses if your god is the only one rather than one of many.
The question now remains whether the Pagans can accept Jesus as a demi-god (rather than a threat) equal to Krishna, Merlin, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and a great deal of others I've not mentioned? Similarly, will modern Christians be able to accept that Jesus is not alone, but is one among many as the earliest followers believed.
It's quite common for Pagans to follow one or two patron Gods (no prizes for guessing who does that!) whilst acknowledging all the others. Is it possible for anyone else?
Love,
Seán
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