* Astronomy

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RE: Pagans

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Druids

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RE: Pagans

Blobrana · L

A sign that paganism has come of age is that there are now lapsed pagans - heretics who resort to scientific explanations for phenomena formerly attributed to the supernatural.
For centuries, Christianity, Judaism and Islam were regarded as the marks of civilisation in Western Europe as they supplanted the beliefs of ancient civilisations. But these beliefs never disappeared. Even in the City of London, with nearly 50 churches in one square mile, the ancient guardians - the giants Gog and Magog - housed at Guildhall, are carried in procession in the annual Lord Mayors Show as they have been since the reign of Henry V.
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Pagan police officers in England and Wales can take time off on religious holidays like Halloween and the Summer Solstice, the Home Office said Thursday. The days off will be deducted from officers' annual vacation time.

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Founder of bardic druids honoured
Some will argue as to whether Iolo Morganwg was a fantasist, or a genius and champion for Wales.
But one thing is certain, in 1792, the stonemason from the Vale of Glamorgan presided over the first gathering of the Welsh bardic order, the Gorsedd.
Now, after years of campaigning a plaque in his honour has been unveiled at Primrose Hill in London.

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A team of archaeologists found an ancient wooden building serving for cult purposes from 9th century during the exploration of military machinery on the grounds of the first Bulgarian capital Pliska.

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Evidence of pagan rituals involving swans and other birds in the Cornish countryside in the 17th century has been uncovered by archaeologists.
Since 2003, 35 pits at the site in a valley near Truro have been excavated containing swan pelts, dead magpies, unhatched eggs, quartz pebbles, human hair, fingernails and part of an iron cauldron.
The finds have been dated to the 1640s, a period of turmoil in England when Cromwellian Puritans destroyed any links to pre-Christian pagan England. It was also a period when witchcraft attracted the death sentence.

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Be prepared for an outbreak of paganism among Britain's six-year-olds following our report today that a north London primary school allowed a mother to take her child out of lessons to attend a midsummer solstice festival.
She argued that this was a religious festival and, after all, people had time off for festivals of other religions.

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Two powers ruled nature and their designs conditioned human life: the god of the firmament, "Ost" or "Ortzi" - equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter, the Greek Zeus or the Germanic Thor, and "Ilargia", the moon, a feminine force which emerged from the world of hidden things.
"Ost" and "Eguzki", the light of the sun, belonged to the day, to the earth, since it was from the earth that the sun rose and to the earth that it returned every day. "Ilargia" though, belonged to the world of the deceased, of souls, to the hidden side of existence and nature. The Basques are very closely in touch with the moon and its cycles, and this figure appears in numerous myths, rites and legends.
The female divinity of the ancient Basques was "Mari", the lady or gentlewoman who lived in the caves which reach deep down to the centre of the earth. Although she could take on different forms, she showed herself as a breathtakingly beautiful woman, and moved from one mountain to the next crossing the sky like a fireball. Any area which holds itself in esteem will have a model of the dwelling of Mari placed on its highest peak, for example the mountains of Gorbea, Anboto, Aketegi or the Aralar range.

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