Hail To The Unconquered Sun!

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  December 25, 2009 — 8 Comments

Due to family obligations I won’t be blogging today, but I’ll be back tomorrow with my regular daily dose of modern Pagan-related news and commentary. In the meantime I wish a very happy holiday season to you all, and a very happy birthday to Jesus of Nazareth, Mithras, Carlos Castenada, Sol Invictus, Robert Ripley, and Annie Lennox among many others.


Sol Invictus

Happy Holidays! Back tomorrow.

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Jason Pitzl-Waters

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  • Dr. Phil

    Don't know if you saw me post this in LJ the other day (and if you did and weren't interested, that's fine, but anyway…)

    http://www.irishcentral.com/travel/Why-Im-a-pagan…

    This article has absolutely NOTHING to do with being pagan in Ireland at Christmas; it's all about the effects of the Irish Catholic Church's clerical sex abuse scandal. And while that's a really important issue, and the article does cover it, the basic premise–and the title–is so entirely and completely flawed that it's extremely counter-productive.

    I commented on the article, and I said it's no surprise that the author, being Catholic educated, makes the mistake of thinking that "pagan," "atheist" and "agnostic" are synonymous, when what he really is is a non-practicing Christian, or a vocal critic or skeptic, all of which are very different from being "pagan" and the other things…

    I remember, on several occasions, dealing with non-hostile people who were friends of mine, who were non-religious, but Catholic educated (as about 95% of people in the Republic of Ireland were, and still are), who was confused on why–being pagan–I would "worship the false gods." On one occasion where this occurred, I laughed and said "To many of us, they're not false!" I don't know if the theological point made any headway, and a crowded pub at night isn't the best place for a theological discussion (though probably the only one where most discussions of that, and any other, type occur in Ireland these days, since most other traditional venues of discourse are either not used or no longer exist there), but anyway…

    And you may want to re-post something that Erynn Laurie posted on the 24th, about a United Airlines employee harassing a disabled pagan veteran and trying to proselytize…

    But, apart from all that, have a wonderful break! ;)

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/thewildhunt Jason Pitzl-Waters

      Thanks for the heads-up Phil, but just FYI, I don't get alerts when someone comments on the LJ syndication feed. So I only read the comments there sporadically at best.

  • http://eclipsology.blogspot.com Robin Edgar

    Interesting crown Sol Invictus has there.

    Of course Sol Invictus being Roman and all perhaps I should use the Latin word *corona*. . .

  • Black Lotus

    December 25th is also Sir Isaac Newton's birthday. I know an awful lot of self-identified Atheists and Agnostics who see Newton as a non-believer's Saint. Pagans, of course,don't recognize such a thing as "false gods." Now that the Longest Night is over (in the Northern Hemisphere), let's enjoy the day by day waxing of the light. To quote Charlie Murphey's chant, "Light is returning/ Even though this is the darkest hour/ No one can hold back the Dawn…"

    • http://eclipsology.blogspot.com Robin Edgar

      "I know an awful lot of self-identified Atheists and Agnostics who see Newton as a non-believer's Saint."

      Yes I find that quite hilarious.

      After all Sir Isaac Newton was actually quite the "religious nutcase" in *their* books, at least in so far as the "fundamentalist atheists" go. . .

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Teaa Tea

        Yes, Newton was extremely religious, practicing his own heretical form of Christianity. He was also deeply involved in alchemy and occultism. He translated the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismetigus, among other things. Very interesting man.

        • http://eclipsology.blogspot.com Robin Edgar

          Yes, it is precisely Newton's deep involvement in alchemy and "occultism", perhaps more politely mysticism*, that I am referring to. It is exactly this kind of "extreme" religiousness or indeed "religiousity" that would get Sir Isaac Newton marginalized and demonized as a "religious nutcase" by *some* of the hardline atheists numbered amongst the many scientists who hold up Sir Isaac Newton as a "non-believer's Saint" to use Black Lotus' words. It is funny how hardline atheists conveniently forget that a lot of the "pioneer" scientists were *also* quite religious people.

          * Not that *we* have any problem with words like occult and occultism.

  • http://www.blackrosecoven.com/?q=node TeNosce

    Newton was quite the mystic, I thought. :)

    The church really didn't approve of his alchemy studies. Someone told me he was rumored to have turned lead to gold, and was said to have created a homunculus. Doesn't sound like an atheist to me, but I could be wrong.