![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It Is Worth Remembering . . .
Oct. 30th, 2030 11:58 am. . . how very old the Old Religion is. It is far older than the "religions of the Book." Far older than the concept of a devil or a personified evil. It is older than the Stone Circles of Europe. Older than Britain's rivers. Older than the Court of Don and the Children of Danu. Older than Hecate. Older than Isis and Osiris. Older than An and Ki. Older than the Vedas. Older, in fact, than the Great Flood told in stories around the whole world. Older than the last Ice Age. I am a Witch, so I mean these things in a religious, spiritual, symbolic sense, not in an academic or strictly historical sense. If you are seeking the Old Religion, it is helpful to get into the spirit of what I am trying to convey.
"The gods of the witches are the oldest gods of all. They are the same as those divinities that were real to the men of the Old Stone Age, who painted them upon the walls of their sacred caves. Churchmen and other writers who denounced witchcraft and the witches' heathenish practices, have described in their books two deities whom, they say, the witches worshipped in place of the Christian god. These are a horned figure, part human and part beast, who sat enthroned at the Sabbats, dimly lighted by the flames of the ritual bonfire, while the witches danced around him; also, by his side, a beautiful naked girl, who was regarded as the Queen of the Sabbat, probably because she represented and impersonated Diana, the goddess of the moon, or her daughter Aradia. Both of these central figures of the worship who were actually human beings, masked in the case of the horned god figure, sometimes led the wild and orgiastic dances at certain stated and traditional times of the year, seasonal festivals which were so old that no one could remember the beginning of them. Such are the central features of the witches' worship, attested to by innumerable hostile witnesses. Both of these divinities, the horned god and the naked goddess, can be found among the cave paintings and carvings of our prehistoric ancestors in Western Europe."
-- Doreen Valiente, The Old Gods, Chapter 1, Witchcraft for Tomorrow
When the Masters of Wisdom gathered together to create the Tarot, it was easy to determine which symbols would represent the earliest human religious impulses. You can see it for yourself, if you know how to read the Tarot. The first two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Horned God. The next two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Great Goddess. It is only the fifth Major Arcana card, The Emperor, that begins the Zodiac cards, with Aries. Before we knew the patterns of the Heavens, we knew ourselves, and knew that we were shaped in the image of something greater.
*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.
* Copyright to Coven Rochester
"The gods of the witches are the oldest gods of all. They are the same as those divinities that were real to the men of the Old Stone Age, who painted them upon the walls of their sacred caves. Churchmen and other writers who denounced witchcraft and the witches' heathenish practices, have described in their books two deities whom, they say, the witches worshipped in place of the Christian god. These are a horned figure, part human and part beast, who sat enthroned at the Sabbats, dimly lighted by the flames of the ritual bonfire, while the witches danced around him; also, by his side, a beautiful naked girl, who was regarded as the Queen of the Sabbat, probably because she represented and impersonated Diana, the goddess of the moon, or her daughter Aradia. Both of these central figures of the worship who were actually human beings, masked in the case of the horned god figure, sometimes led the wild and orgiastic dances at certain stated and traditional times of the year, seasonal festivals which were so old that no one could remember the beginning of them. Such are the central features of the witches' worship, attested to by innumerable hostile witnesses. Both of these divinities, the horned god and the naked goddess, can be found among the cave paintings and carvings of our prehistoric ancestors in Western Europe."
-- Doreen Valiente, The Old Gods, Chapter 1, Witchcraft for Tomorrow
When the Masters of Wisdom gathered together to create the Tarot, it was easy to determine which symbols would represent the earliest human religious impulses. You can see it for yourself, if you know how to read the Tarot. The first two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Horned God. The next two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Great Goddess. It is only the fifth Major Arcana card, The Emperor, that begins the Zodiac cards, with Aries. Before we knew the patterns of the Heavens, we knew ourselves, and knew that we were shaped in the image of something greater.
*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.
* Copyright to Coven Rochester
