Ojuice5001

Absolutely. That was especially true of the Middle East; I'd point to Baal and Marduk before Jupiter and Thor.

It's clear that the story of the world has layers upon layers like an onion.

Dharma

Don't forget the Pharoah of Egypt and their Gods....totally pissed off at Moses whom they raised and in turn betrayed them, perhaps all the rulers who persecuted them are reincarnations of the Pharoah? ...


Generally not a good idea to call other people's Gods, sages and priests "heathen" -- that's akin to sacrilege and they'll come after you...

Philippe*

Yes, of course, and we can add the geographical and time data. Gods evolved with people : concepts, rituals, myths. The major problem is that except for greek, roman, and germanic to some extent there is almost nothing, the vast part of the cultural heritage has been lost after the advent of christianity, and often it was the monks who wrote about this suject assimilating pagan gods and mythological creatures with demons. It is rather difficult to make objective theological studies.

Philippe

Dharma

Greek, Germanic and Roman? That's quite a lot of material to figure out the religion...
One might say the current state of most religions, including Hinduism, is perverted...some even claim that the true meaning of Hinduism was lost due to invasions...however, Hindus bound together, the yogis and brahmins released, translated and transliterated all the documents and together the Hindus are reviving much of the lost teachings...where there's a will there's a way...

This also happened to the Jews, who upon being scattered lost much of the Hebrew scholarship, and later tried to figure out their religion, under this confusion came the horrible idea of monotheism, which current Jewish scholars are finding to be in fact, an incorrect interpretation of the Bible. 1)Yahweh seems to be the union of two dieties with the original God Yah.
2)Jacob and Esau might be two dieties akin to the Egyptian Horus and Seth which have very similar stories...

That's 4 Gods already, Abraham and Moses are both referred to as "Elohim"...6 Gods and counting...


However this new scholarship will always be challenged by fanatics who will insist that they have the ONE TRUE GOD...

Philippe*

Concerning the revival of paganism or religion, I leave this to the scholars and those who want. I have spent quite a long time to study spiritualities and religions and now I for one am in Integral Yoga from Sri Aurobindo, and my vision of the Divine is the SatChitAnanda of the Vedanta, I am a kind of monotheist as I believe in Ishvara/Brahman who is indescribable in all his aspects, I prefer bhakti directly to the Supreme than through not always "clear" gods.

Philippe

Dharma

The "brahman" is in no way a separate TRIBAL ("THE GOD OF ISRAEL") Judgemental God and cannot be described as "monotheistic" in the biblical or the traditional sense in which monotheism is described currently...Brahman is never separate from you...you are it, tat twam asi, that you are...you just don't know it...Brahman has no judgement and is UNIVERSAL and does not discriminate or is owned by any one group of people...it is a state of being and oneness.

You might call it monotheism simply in the sense that there"is" One but that conceptualizes it ... but perhaps Brahman might be "NoTHEISM"...it is beyond conceptualization of the mind.

the revival of paganism is simply the revival of ancestral traditions...helps ground people very important for religion, from there on they can attain to "brahman"...most pagan traditions were in fact "monotheistic" in the sense that they believed that there was one underlying force in all of creation.

Philippe*

...and such is my vision of the Absolute. To each person, his way. There is not just one truth, way and life. Personnally, I am not especially interested in formal religion, there is some good, for me I find it generally too limited but I understand very well that it can be helpful for some.

Philippe

Barefoot Bree

Would that more people felt the same way as you, Phillippe*, instead of blindly following along whoever is most charismatic, like the sheep they are..... But that's a rant for another topic.

I wish you well on your journey of self-discovery. Keep us posted!

Philippe*

Thank you Barefoot Bree, I wish you all the best too

Here is a little piece of music

Philippe

Armagh444

Actually, a surprising amount has survived from Celtic cultures as well - primarily from Ireland and Wales. It's primarily moderated through the transcriptions of early Christian monks, so one needs to be rather cautious about drawing conclusions (the amount of pseudo-Celtic drek produced by certain elements of the neo-Pagan movement doesn't help matters either). That being given, some remarkable work has been done over the last 20-30 years, both by Celtic Studies and Indo-European Studies scholars.