A work of particular interest to CR has been recently posted to Sacred-Texts.com: Survivals in Belief Among the Celts, by George Henderson, [1911].

This long out-of-print book, graciously loaned to sacred-texts for scanning by a reader from their personal library, reviews the extensive literature on survivals of pre-Christian beliefs in the Celtic area. It covers customs from Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany, and relates them to other traditional cultures world-wide. This is a work of scholarship, and cites from authoritative literature, including many now hard to obtain sources, and several short texts in the original Gaelic. Among the fascinating topics covered are the evil eye, geis (taboos), doppelgangers, beliefs relating to animals and shape-shifting, lustration, second-sight, and healing rituals. Of particular interest is the discussion of pagan elements in the Carmina Gadelica.

Published at Glasgow university, it focuses on the traditions of Scotland and Ireland. It is because of works like this that we should support Sacred-Texts. There really is no other sourse like it out there. Consider buying their CD soon.

Jason Pitzl-Waters recently posted about the “Freedom to Harass Us” case in Grand Rapids Michagan. There, a group of Christian evangelists invaded a Pagan Pride day festival, harassed its participants, even surrounded a little girl and drove her to tears, according to one commenter on Pitzl-Waters’ site. The implications of the court case are pretty serious, as Pitzl-Waters explains:

If Ickes, the Street Preachers Fellowship, and the Alliance Defense Fund were to win this case, Christian groups in Grand Rapids would be allowed to set up next to Pagan events with no prior warning and “evangelize” (ie harass and intimidate) as much as they wanted. Of course it would also allow for any group to set up next to another in a public park so long as they didn’t physically attack them. So the Klan would be able to “peacefully” set up next to a Martin Luther King day celebration, and neo-Nazis could send their “message” to a Jewish festival so long as they don’t use electronic amplification.

While some free speech absolutists would agree to such a proposition, such a reality would create a larger “chilling effect” than preventing opposing groups to pounce on an already permitted public event. It would mean that no group could use a public space without fear of that event being disrupted by the “free speech” of their idealogical opponents.

This recent event underscores the need for a nation-wide association of Pagans trained in security. Maybe some of the ugliness could have been prevented. If not, it could have been recorded for the use of the defendants in the pending lawsuit.

In the forums, we are working on forming just such an organization. For more information, visit this thread in the “Warrior Path” folder.

The Pagan & Christian Moot sadly announced yesterday that Kev, an admin of their forums, had passed away. There is now a permanant memoriam to him at the Moot, which I invite all who knew and respected him to visit and pay their respects.

I did not know Kev well, but I liked him. His writing was full of gentle and humorous wisdom I always enjoyed. One contribution of his to the moot was his advice to Pagans and to Christians about how to approach each other. I would like to share that with you here, so you can know a little bit about the kind of person Kev was, and to spread his useful advice as widely as I can:

A Guide to Understanding Pagans

When you converse with pagans, it might help to keep these few points in mind:

They do not worship the Devil, sacrifice babies or animals or seek to overthrow the Church.

Do not preach to them, accept that they do not follow Christ, but in their own way are as spiritual as you.

Do not tell them they are going to Hell, coz they don’t believe in it, nor do they feel they need to be saved.

Do not tell them their gods are false, or they might tell you the same; quoting the Bible as proof to them is like quoting Grimm’s Fairy Tales to you.

Try to understand that they see the world in a different way, and do not necessarily believe it was created for them.

Prepare to accept that a lot of what you have heard about paganism is probably wrong; approach them with an open mind.

Pagans do not want to lure you away from your faith, but they are normally quite happy to tell you about theirs, if you ask.

There are many different faiths under the term pagan, do not think they are all the same; the ways of one may well contradict the ways of another.

Remember it is better to ask them to explain their faith than it is to tell them why it is wrong.

Do not lay past troubles at their feet; the Romans stopped feeding your brethren to the lions a long time ago, and if Vikings had raided any monasteries recently you can be sure it would have made the news.

Remember that for all the differences you have much in common: you both are proud of your faith and wish to defend it, you both share a belief in a greater power, you both follow laws; whether written, common or self defined.

A Guide to Understanding Christians

When you converse with Christians, it might help to keep these few points in mind:

They worship God and generally believe that Goodness is the creative norm. Evil is a twisting of Good. Just as you cannot have ‘bentness’ without have ’straightness’ first, so also it is not possible to have evil without having goodness. This isn’t polarisation, but broken-ness, or possibly deliberate harm.

Their God is different from yours, but because they cannot accept yours, do not let this stop you from respecting theirs.

It is a Christian’s duty to spread the word of their God, it’s not a personal attack on your beliefs; some of the stories can be quite enjoyable too.

The message of Christ is of love and forgiveness; some of them may forget this occasionally, don’t let the behaviour of the few cloud your view of the majority.

Try to bear in mind the Bible’s message is carried in both parable and fact; if some Christians are unsure which is which do not scold them unless you are prepared to read the book yourself to explain it to them.

Try to understand that they see the world in a different way, and believe that it was all created by their God.

Prepare to accept that a lot of what you have heard about Christians is probably one sided; approach them with an open mind.

Do not lay past troubles at their feet; its very unlikely you will encounter someone who was alive during the ‘Burning Times’ or the Crusades.

There are many different paths that call themselves Christian, do not think they are all the same; the ways of one may well contradict the ways of another.

Remember it is better to ask them to explain their faith than it is to tell them why it is wrong.

Remember that for all the differences you have much in common: you both are proud of your faith and wish to defend it, you both share a belief in a greater power, you both follow laws; whether written, common or self defined.

It is when good people like Kev pass away that I am reminded of how important it is to live a good life. To do so is the best way to honor the memory of those who have gone before us and given of theirselves to us.

For some bone-headed reason, I thought it would be a good idea to put our forums on a freebie site. Things were buzzing pretty well, and it looked like the forums will be successful, so we decided to move to a paid site where we have more control, better speed, etc.

Come join us at http://www.cypressnemeton.org/forum

I am pleased to announce the official unveiling of our new Guidance forum and introduce the guides who have graciously offered to help people out.

The Guidance forum is a private place for those who are curious about neo-pagan philosophy and spirituality but do not want to ask questions out in the open, and want straight answers from friendly, knowledgable folks without “flaming” and abuse or other embarrassment. You don’t have to consider yourself a pagan or actually want to become one. You might just be curious. Or you might be seeking help on a new spiritual path and feel overwhelmed by all that is out there.

I’ve been there, and I am still relatively new to neo-paganism. I wish there was something like this when I started. Here, you don’t have to worry about asking a “stupid” questions or what others might think about your even being curious about “taboo” subjects.

The guidance forum is not about proselytizing. Nobody here is out to convince anyone of anything. Nobody will be arguing about “which path is better” or “which Witch is really Witch.” It’s about lending a hand, presenting alternatives in a non-judgmental way, and pointing people to resources they may want to look at. Where you go with that and what you do with it is up to you.

There is a high degree of privacy offered. The forum can only be viewed by participants and guides, not the general public. Those participating in it are obliged not to divulge anything private there, but it needs to be noted that this privacy cannot be made perfect. If a participant prefers, we can set up a sub-forum just for them, where only they and guides can see, thus offering even stronger privacy.

We currently have four Guides who have graciously volunteered to help out, and we are very fortunate to have such pillars in the community willing to participate.

Cern is a neo-shaman in London who represents the Pagan Federation in interfaith matters there. He has been involved in neo-paganism for 20 years and administers the Pagan and Christian Moot, a forum for interfaith dialogue.

Durthorin lives in Atlanta, Georgia and has also been involved in Paganism for about 20 years. He is a traditional Wiccan but spent some time exploring Reclaiming Witchcraft and Native American Shamanism.

Wormheart is a Danish Asatruar, practicing since the mid nineties, and has been active in the Danish Asatruar community since ’98. He has been on the board of leadership of the official Danish Asatruar community Forn Sidr for the last three years and is in charge of the Blótlaug-fellowship.

Dragon is a Druid-level member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the leading member of the Highland Oak Nemeton there, and has been a contributing writer on my blog since its inception. Actually, most of the best articles there are by him.

I think these four individuals can offer the newcomer a wide range of perspectives and wise and mature guidance. I am very grateful to them, and I hope others will find their wisdom as valuable as I have. If you are interested in participating in the Guidance forum, mention it in a post, or send Elie or Fiacharrey a PM and we will set it up for you.