(Original author unknown.)

"Gates of Dawn" (original artist unknown, please contact us if you know!)

PAGANUS, EXANIMO
A rebuke, and an invitation

I am a Pagan.
It comes from the Latin, ‘PAGANUS’.
It means simply, “country dweller”,
One who lives close to the Earth,
In harmony with nature, and her cycles of seasons and weather.

I am NOT a be-deviled worshipper of Satan,
Which to me is a demonized construct of the early Christian Church fathers,
An entity who is younger by eons than the Divine Spirit
Who quickens the life of my body
And animates the Universe itself.

I am NOT a godless person, devoid of spirituality, ethics, or moral feeling.
I am NOT a worshipper of “created things”.
I am NOT a “weirdo” who labels myself “religious”,
While having no real depth to my so-called spirituality–
Despite the contrary and zealous assertions of those
Who would force feed me their interpretations of Biblical doctrine
Like bitter castor oil “for my own good.”

No, in fact I connect with the Sacred, with the Divine
Immanent in all things, and I do not worship their material presence alone.
When the Sacred within me communes with the Divine within you,
That Truth and ancient Dance leaves little room for evil, hatred, and intolerance.
Though I daily encounter many who seem more than willing
To assail me with their own loathing, fear, and rejection
Of what they do not understand,
All in the name of One who preached only
Acceptance, compassion, tolerance, and understanding.

For me the Divine can be Goddess,
The Maiden Huntress of forest, field, and hill
The Eternal Mother, whose natural bounty and blessings surround us,
The Ancient Crone who imparts wisdom of ages and healing lore.

For me the Divine can be God,
The Lord of the Dance, the Animals, the Hunt
The Sacred King, whose cyclic end
Renews and rebirths the Land and its people
The Ancient Sage, the Wise Old Man
Who beckons us to greater spiritual understanding.
I am a Pagan.
I honor the earth and the Divine within it.
I decry those practices
Which lead to and perpetuate its devastation and exploitation.

I listen to the ancient music,
Whose strains are yet audible in my modern songs.
It calls me to dance,
With the drumbeat, the pulse of the Earth itself.
My ancestors live again through me.
I follow the Old Ways, and those lost Mysteries surface again,
With new significance for modernity.

I care little if you choose to do as I do.
But talk to me if you will,
If you would understand me and what I represent.
For know this well:
The Old Ways are indeed returning,
And many of us are hearing the call
To follow these ancient Paths once again,
For the answers they provide to questions which burn in our souls.
Some of us have kept these traditions alive in our own families
With varying degrees of secrecy and success.
Others learn from the remnants found in old stories and poems,
And incorporate those remnants into entirely new practices.

Our numbers grow, though we do not proselytize.
Whatever you choose to do, we will not simply go away,
Whether you wish it so or not.
But talk to me if you will.
Let us share our stories with each other
And see what happens next.

The original “David’s Hymn,” attributed to Jim Reeves, has been covered countless times.  One of my favorite versions is a very humble acoustic guitar solo by Jeff Buckley, which can be found here.)

(By the way, for the Bible Geeks, the original version references the story of King David’s downfall by having an affair with, and eventually impregnating, Bathsheba. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, which was made all the more inconvenent by Uriah being not only a good friend, but also off at war. Since Uriah would not leave the front lines to return home so they could conceal the illegitimacy of the pregnancy, King David made sure Uriah would be killed in war, and took his wife to be the latest in his string of many wives.  While all too human, this displeased the Lord, and eventually lead to David’s downfall. )
(2 Samuel 11)

This was passed to me along with a great deal of church folklore and wisdom from Kyrellus several years ago. It still rings as powerful and true as it did when it was written, although the original author has long since been lost.

I ask you, the next time you see the classically mass-marketed “green hag” witch, pause and remember when that may have been real… and why.

Halloween Witch

Each year they parade her about,
the traditional Halloween Witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair,
a toothless mouth beneath her deformed nose.
Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw’
protracting from a bent and twisted torso
that lurches about on wobbly legs.

Most think this abject image
to be the creation of a prejudiced mind
or merely a Halloween caricature.
I disagree,
I believe this to be how Witches were really seen.

Consider that most Witches:
were women,
were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the
secrecy of darkness
to be presented by light of day
as a confessed Witch.

Few if any saw a frightened normal looking woman
being dragged into a secret room filled with
instruments of torture,
to be questioned until she confessed to anything suggested to her
and to give names or what ever would stop the questions.
Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world
as a self-proclaimed Witch.

As the Witch was paraded through town
en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned
or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love
all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body
the jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.
The face bruised and broken by countless blows
bore a hue of sickly green.
The once warm and loving smile gone
replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums
that leers beneath a battered disfigured nose.
The disheveled hair conceals
bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence
cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses.
Broken twisted hands clutched the wagon for support,

fractured fingers with nails torn away
locked like groping claws to steady her broken body.
All semblance of humanity gone
this was truly a demon,
a bride of Satan,
a Witch.

I revere this Halloween Crone
and hold her sacred above all.
I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of
the dark side of  man.
Each year I shed tears of respect
when the mundane exhibit their symbol of Christian love.

The season of Gateways and Babylon
Author: Temple Sorcery
Posted to The Witches’ Voice  October 12th. 2008

Above image from Temple Sorcery

In the course of the natural man’s life, there is only change. Recurrent natural events as demonstrated in the annual rounds of the sun and the phases of the moon, the sequence of day and night, were familiar to men before words. When in observance of these cycles, as it has been understood, 6 being the number associated with Man, 7 being the number associated with perfection brings us to a complete cycle of 13. Thirteen thus becomes the complete cycle of one year, which equates to the illumination and perfection of man. Here we find one significant indication of what time is, the Perfection of Man!

In the ancient times many names exist for the triad of divinity in which some have used as a symbol there of depicting either the pyramid or a triangle. The Egyptian figure of Khons, which meant “to chase” was known in ancient times to be the son of Maut or the Goddess Mother. She was also depicted as Venus and her son Cupid. In that way even Valentines Day brings a new meaning. Valentine derives from the Latin word ‘valor’ so essentially Venus’s son was none other than “Cupid the Mighty.”

It is also important to note in those times that Khons was the “God of Hidden Counsels,” and “Concealer of Secrets.” To the Romans, Saturn the “God of Mysteries” whose name was used in Rome to signify “The Hidden One” was also known to be the father of Khons or Khonso as he was also called. Saturn was also known by the name Amoun, which is “The Hidden God.”

In Latin “Consus,” is translated as “god of horse races or those who produce the horse.” The primitive Centaur depicted in the Ancient Babylon Temple was a representation of Kronos or Saturn, “The Father or King of the Gods.” The first king of Babylon was known as the “Centaur of Babylon,” and was none other than the Nimrod the Mighty hunter ill depicted in biblical versions. It is interesting to note that Nimrod, “The spotted one,” as he was referred to or, “The mighty hunter,” was regarded identical to the Greek and Roman Bacchus the “The Bewailed” or “Lamented One” who was symbolized by Nebrod “The Spotted Fawn.” Bacchus was regarded as the same Phoenician and Assyrian Tammuz and Tammuz was regarded as the same as Adonis who was also regarded as the famous “Huntsman,” for whose death Venus is fabled to have made many bitter lamentations. The women of Egypt, as the Phoenician and Assyrian women, the women of Greece and Rome wept for “The bewailed, “or “Lamented one.”

Nimrod was reputed to have been ripped to pieces and his flesh boiled and eaten by giants. Jupiter, the King of the Gods, was so excited by the cruelty of the deed; he turned his thunderous wrath to the titans. Nimrod after having only his heart snatched away and preserved by Minerva and by a new regeneration was restored and once again “filled up the number of the gods.” It is noteworthy to point out that Orion also was torn to pieces in a similar fashion then was translated to the stars. Was it to “fill up the number of the stars (gods?) This brings to mind Crowley’s axiom “Every Man and Woman is a Star.”

The sacred heart depicted in Catholic terms begins to take on a new light here. “The Sacred Heart,” being one of the sacred symbols of Osiris born again, or the Chaldean “Sacred Bel” (or heart) is none other than the lamented mighty one of Babylon. As the Catholics have parked their Vatican upon our ancestral pagan holy place so have they also parked their truth upon ours! Who then is the cornerstone of their church?

We find that the word Bab-ilu or Bab-ilii in ancient semantic actually translates to the meaning of “Gate of God.” The Babylonian tower and pagan empire begins to take on a more true meaning. As we come once again to the observance of Samhain the season of gateways, it is understood that not only does this mark the last harvest of the year in terms of our ancestors, it also marks the 3 day portal to the future and the past, but also has reference to the thinning of the veil or a gateway from the realm of the living to that of the dead. As we make our observances and meditations let us not forget the “Sacred Heart” or to invoke the Hidden God within us, so that each of us complete the number of the Gods (Stars) . For just as the heart of the son, of the Hidden God was preserved we search ever inwardly for the hidden god within.

May this and every Samhain be a path well lit to the inner mysteries of the god and goddess within each of you. May Amoun, “The Hidden God,” who is also the father of the “Hidden Gods,” light your path to wisdom for just as in ancient times the gateway is within you and our Pagan Babylonian Empire still shines in ether from within.

As the winds of time changes,
So do the lives of the living,
For as the voice of your spirit
Is carried on the howling winds of deep night
The eyes from the abyss return their gaze unseen
And shall ever more gaze upon thee
So are the footsteps at the dead quite of night
And at the cold crisp night do they smite
Look into my eyes what do you see
Who is that dancing in the gaze of thee
What is the drumbeat of a far off sound
That echoes in your ears with a deep dark pound,
What is the whisper that we all can hear
When all if far off and none are near
Loud is the whispered shriek of the Nightman’s call,
Where is sleep and where is wake
Does sleep time being at daylight break
From the hand of the man the sands do fall
One by one until none at all
Until it is time to begin it all again
Being the first to burst from that silent sea
As from the lips of a babe you hear the old man call
The Old Man lives in me

As Above So Below,
As Within So Without

Thoth3G
Alternately
..::.. ALV