I have not lived an upright and respectable life AS a Pagan (although I was solitary and few knew) for most of the years of my life, accepting various accusations from others who were ill informed and misguided, at best, to wind up associated with a bunch of Pagans who appear to have no moral or ethical compass! I will, therefore, not allow my hard-won reputation or my example to others on the outside to be sullied or even destroyed by association with those who seem to believe that they can do anything they wish to do just because they call themselves Pagan.

I have held my life to a certain rational and ethical standard and I will not lower that standard just to associate with certain groups or so-called “friends”. If I were to do so then those on the outside (the non-Pagans) would have perfect justification for insinuating that I and all other Pagans lack moral and ethical foundation.

There are many in the Pagan universe who are obviously still seeking, and that is a good thing. In fact, I submit that a person should always continue to seek no matter how much they have already learned. However, there are many seekers who also claim to have already come to certain Knowledge and set themselves up as authorities who can teach others. I have found that some of these people simply have not fully developed their moral and/or ethical standards, not to mention the fact that they have really not yet arrived at the level of Knowledge that would allow them to be an effective teacher or leader.

This is exactly the same dilemma, by the way, that the Christian apostle, Paul, faced when he went about interacting with those of the new faith as an evangelist. This was especially acute with reference to the Korinthian church, whom he termed as still “babes” needing milk rather than meat. They thought of themselves as having already arrived at Knowledge, but he saw that they were in error. Because of the dichotomy between what they thought they were and what they truly were, their example to others both within and without the faith was poor. Frankly, I actually used to feel somewhat sorry for the Korinthian church, believing that Paul had been a bit too hard on them. But now, having experienced a similar situation among some groups of Pagans as well as some individual Pagans, I see more clearly what Paul had to face and I have actually developed a newly found respect for for what Paul was trying to do among them. No, Paul was not always right, but he was right in this.

In life, it really doesn’t get any easier to take a moral and ethical stand no matter how many times one has had to do so in the past, in the face of temptations presented by others. It is especially difficult to take such a stance in opposition to some whom one calls “friends” and whom one actually cares about. But one has to also remember that, for the sake of one’s own soul, one MUST take such a stand. The few who do not do so in any given group can cause the whole to degenerate. The longer those who infect the whole remain within any group, the more they tend to become representative of said group, especially to those on the outside looking in. So, if they leave said group, it is more likely than not a good thing rather than a bad thing. In the same way, those who uphold high standards must leave any group that does not adhere to those standards. Otherwise, one loses credibility.

Paul was trying to create some level of consistency within Christianity and that is something that, I submit, we Pagans also need – something that actually existed in ancient times, but something that we lack today. This idea that anyone’s experience is just as valid as that of anyone else is simply not rational. The idea that one thinks one can teach others based solely on one’s own personal experience does not really fly. Too many seem to want to assert themselves over good and consistent teaching. This is not a plea, as it might seem, for orthodoxy. It is rather a plea for consistency.

One of the first faults of Christianity was that they set certain people up as authorities so that it became understood that whatever they said, no matter how bizarre it might have been and no matter how it may have conflicted with the teaching of another, it was accepted as authoritative. And we are often presently engaging in the very same sin.

Many years ago when I was still a Christian, mentored by my local preacher, I would fill in at various churches in the region when asked by them to do so. I felt as if I was doing a service to my church and these local congregations. But, to my sadness, the church hierarchy at a certain point forbade me to continue doing any preaching in their churches until I received further college education. In the end I had little choice since they threatened to take my mentor’s credentials away from him if he continued to support my work. I really had little choice in the matter and any choice I might have made contrary to their decision would have been wrong.

Yes, I said it would have been wrong. I later came to understand, with proper education, that these authorities were RIGHT and I had been wrong. It was really that simple. It would have been unacceptable for them to have proceeded otherwise, accepting just any rogue preacher without proper training and education and the credentials to prove it spouting any sort of teaching to their congregations. They required consistency and they were right to require it.

Contrary to what some apparently believe, our deities also do not espouse inconsistency and/or chaos. Their precepts are well-known among us – things such as moderation, reason, logic, etc. We do well if we follow these precepts at all times and also teach others to do the same. To do otherwise is to oppose the deities and to invite chaos as our standard. There are standards that MUST be adhered to in any group or organization. Effective leadership requires adherence to said standards.

As an example, I have friends who created their own Asatru group, in part, because they were sickened by other said groups that seemed to espouse some level of racism. My friends could not accept this.

If any given group or organization relaxes or negates its standards for anyone then they have done a disservice to the whole. If I negate my personal standards for any reason in favor of anyone else then I have done a disservice to myself, not to mention that other person, for no favor was really done toward that person.

At this point I have made the decision to leave certain groups that I have found questionable at best. But I will still remain a part of United Hellenismos Association because it is striving toward some level of consistency with reasonable standards. But I will NOT be seen as espousing the types of things that some of these other groups apparently espouse. Nor will I contribute to it. I will not sacrifice my hard-won integrity for these groups.

See, my integrity has been hard-won, sometimes at the price of standing firmly against those who have accused me of deeds that they could not, and often did not even try to, prove in any way. I have already sacrificed much in so doing. Why would I do otherwise now? That would negate the value or all that I have already done and all that I have sacrificed in so doing all along the way. One can readily see that many politicians at this time are sacrificing their own very integrity to support one candidate or another. It is very sad to watch. This in and of itself demonstrates how much their own integrity means to them – not very much.

I cannot and will not condone, directly or tacitly, the calling up of “evil” forces for any purpose whatsoever. Not by way of Ouija boards or by any other means, as some apparently have recently done. Those who participate in such think that they should be allowed to do just anything they want and it should be OK with the gods and with nature. That is highly hubristic and the deities will take them down for this sin!

Ancient Greece and Roma were not quagmires of superstition so it is wrong for us to create organizations based on superstition and conjecture and claim that we are following a Greco-Roman path. Such is bringing into being something that would have been unacceptable to the ancients. So, I say, some of us need to do a bit of soul-searching asking ourselves if we are really about Greco-Roman ideals or not. If not, then why are we in such an organization in the first place? There is a standard that we should all adhere to. That is the ancient standard. One finds it in writings such as that of the philosophers as well as the oracular statements that are still extant. One can also find it in the myths and other writings as well as the histories. All of these must be properly read and interpreted so that they will be properly understood. Scholarly writings of modern times are helpful toward this goal.

So, one simply cannot claim to have been “god-taught” and expect to properly teach and lead others to proper understanding of things. How many discussions have I had with others about any given subject and their response was “well, that’s your interpretation” (or worse)? Yes, indeed, it IS my interpretation based on my education AND my many years of experience. But I dare not respond this way anymore for fear of giving someone a coronary! Some simply cannot let a given issue go, wishing to argue and debate almost into infinity! This ought not to be because I can promise that such was not very much tolerated in the schools of philosophy, etc., in the ancient world. But many people today wish to argue for argument’s sake.

So what says that my interpretation of things may be correct while someone else’s may be wrong? My education – much of which I have literally forgotten over the years but leaving me still with more Knowledge than most who propose to argue with me! If that sounds arrogant at least it does not descend to the level of interpretation based on few or no actual facts or evidence and/or argument based on emotion rather than reason and logic.

So, to the detractor or the argumentative person I say that I did not become a Pagan because of you and I will remain a Pagan despite you. And, yes, it IS my place to help guide those who are open to it because I am uniquely qualified to do so. But I will not argue or debate with anyone who will not utilize sound reason and logic on any subject. In fact, I prefer not to argue or debate at all based on my own personal experience, which shows me that it is unproductive and harmful to both parties. Instead, it is much better to reason together without engaging in argument or debate. In this way we CAN achieve some level of unity and espouse a reasonable, effective standard suitable to all.

Let me leave you with the fact that, when I was working to go back into the military late in life I had more than one reason for having considered it, but only one reason that ultimately mattered. That final reason was that I did not want to sit at home and comment about the war when I actually knew nothing about it. I wanted to take part in it so that I would really know what it had been all about. I didn’t want it to be said that I ran my mouth but was not willing to take part in it myself. THAT is integrity. We all need to strive for integrity in all that we say and do. To do otherwisde is an affront to the gods.

These days practically everyone on the planet is literate, at least to minimal level. This is, in part, due to religion as most religions today possess a book which they go by and which adherents are generally expected to read. Now, whereas this literacy is generally a good thing because it is good that most people are literate, this can also have inherent drawbacks too as demonstrated by history and even modern experience.

Now, whereas, historically, religions based on books or scriptures or other sacred writings have tended to only grudgingly disseminate those sacred writings to the general populace, which they generally preferred to keep illiterate so they could not read the sacred writings themselves and, thus, had to be dictated to in that regard, this was not the case with ancient Greece and, perhaps to a lesser extent, ancient Roma. So whereas the populace was kept generally illiterate in places such as Egypt (before the conquest of Alexander the Great) and in areas ruled by the Kelts and the Druids, as well as the Near East to some degree, these two brights spots of humanity (Greece and Roma) allowed and even encouraged free thought and expression, to a surprising extent, fueled by literacy. And they did so without the modem of a holy book or set of holy scriptures. Instead, this was accomplished mainly by way of written myth. And the myths were taught in schools so that children could develop understanding as well as literacy.

All of that changed in the West with the influence, centuries later, of the Protestant Reformation. Europe, having gone through several hundred years of virtual illiteracy, mainly perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church which wanted to keep the populace illiterate, had become literate anyway as a result of the Enlightenment. Thus, once Martin Luther effectively opened the door to varying religious opinions and doctrines, mainly promulgated and espoused by the uneducated populace, the door was opened to a myriad of doctrines, many not well based in sound theology. This was the natural result of giving the general populace, who were barely literate and generally uneducated, the idea that the individual should be capable of reading and interpreting holy scripture for themselves.

This, I submit, is exactly the issue that leads to extremist religious views because the unlearned or the barely educated tend to read anything, including scripture, in a literal fashion. And this illustrates the whole problem with monotheistic book-based religion in a nutshell. The danger is in allowing just anyone to read and interpret scripture which is deemed holy and god-breathed and, to some therefore, must be read and interpreted literally. This is the very reason that there has been and continues to be so much hatred and strife based upon religious beliefs.

I believe that the greater truth here, however, is that such generally cannot be done with reference to the polytheistic religions. They are simply not suited to literalist, extremist, viewpoints. That said, even with them there is a danger, as I have recently observed, that some could take their preferred polytheistic belief system a bit too “religiously”, if you will, and seek to exclude anything and anyone they deem to be “outside” of their articular belief system, not really understanding their error in so doing.

But all strict literalist interpretations are by definition errors because they fail the test of logic and reason by basically accepting the premise that there is only one way. This sort of idea is even today being espoused by some in the polytheistic community who refer to themselves as “hard polytheists”, not recognizing that others within the polytheistic community hold to belief systems that are just as valid as theirs are. So they have a natural tendency to exclude others who don’t hold exactly to their own views. These people are making a tragic mistake based upon their overall lack of understanding due, more often than not, on their own lack of solid theological training.

This expose, therefore, is meant to serve the purpose, at least in part, of bringing the polytheistic community the understanding that as many persons within the community as possible need to endeavor to be educated theologically. It is, in my view, imperative, that our community be educated about what they don’t believe just as much as what they do believe. Otherwise, they could easily fall into the trap of misunderstanding and literalism that has so divided, tainted and, therefore, ruined the monotheistic religions. A formally educated clergy is a must if polytheism is to accomplish its necessary goal of being recognized as legitimate by the wider religious community.

On this Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016, it seemed appropriate to me that I write a short statement about the true nature of the Easter holiday.  Easter really has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the supposed resurrection of Jesus although that is just about all one will hear from anyone else due to Christian influence over the centuries.  It has about as much to do with Jesus and his supposed resurrection as Sunday has to do with the idea (as some posit) that this day was named after Jesus because it is the “Lord’s day”.  The truth is that Easter is actually named after an ancient Germanic goddess known as Eostre or Ostara (who can successfully be synchronized with the ancient goddesses Ishtar and Astarte among others) just as Sunday is actually named for “The Unconquerable Sun” or Apollon-Helios.

Thus, the true meaning of Easter is NOT the physical resurrection of Jesus from the grave for it really has absolutely nothing to do with this.  Those within Christianity wish for it to be seen in this way but the truth is that this is one so-called “Christian” holiday that has been all but completely usurped by Paganism.

See, the symbols of Eostre/Ostara were the rabbit and the egg, neither of which has anything whatsoever to do with Jesus or even Christianity.  So one has to ask, then, why these symbols have been allowed to become such an important part of Christian Easter celebrations.  Some will tell you that the egg, especially, symbolizes new life, equating it with the resurrection of Jesus.  The rabbit, they are not so sure about.

The real truth, however, is that they symbolize fertility and reproduction along with reincarnation/rejuvenation.  This is how the ancient Germanic peoples would have seen these items.  In other words, the bunny rabbit was seen as a very fertile and rapidly reproducing animal and the egg was seen as a beginning, as something that appeared dead (or that had to die) from which life sprang, like a seed planted into the ground.  For even Jesus said that unless the seed is planted into the ground and dies it cannot spring forth and produce fruit.  So the egg was like a seed in their minds since it appeared dead but produced life while the rabbit symbolically kept the cycle going.

So the Christian concept of the physical resurrection of the dead has actually been usurped by these ancient symbols associated with an ancient Germanic goddess.  Thus the feminine is actually predominate in the Easter holiday.  The rabbit and the egg together represented eternal life, not by way of physical resurrection, but by way of the eternal repetition of the life-cycle.  Her worship taught exactly the same types of things that the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman Sacred Mysteries taught, the importance of the life-cycle of death, birth and life.  By way of these Sacred Mysteries the ancients understood that it was from death that life actually sprang and that death was not an evil, but was instead a good.  For without death, life could not be.

Thus, death was symbolized by the egg (equated with the seed), birth was life emanating from the egg (death), and life itself, along with fertility so that the life-cycle would continue, was symbolized by the rabbit.  It was that simple.

Happy Easter.

Today much is made, especially among politicians running for office, of our supposed “Judeo-Christian” roots and values. They want the populace to be and remain so confused about where our value systems come from that they will really never question it. Why do I state this? How could it be that our values are not really “Judeo-Christian”?

To begin with, our values derive from Western culture from ancient times and, therefore, they are properly classed as “Western” values. And by “Western” I mean anything from the areas around most of the Mediterranean and extending into Europe.

But one may state rightly that all peoples of that area in the ancient world did not hold to exactly the same values and value systems. And the detractor may attempt to paint this as some sort of racist ideology. Regardless, while the former is correct, the latter is incorrect.

One must ask what exactly are “Western” values as derived from the ancient world of our ancestors if one is to arrive at an accurate understanding of what I am talking about. The answer is both simple and profound, for even the barbarian tribes possessed and held to some of these values. They were not simply uncouth illiterate morons who had no value systems to guide them any more than the more refined Western civilizations of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were.

To understand the value systems of these ancient peoples one must study their literature, especially with reference to their various religions and their philosophies. It would be unproductive for me to get into too much detail here with reference to these subjects, so I will briefly outline the basic beliefs and values that our ancient forebears espoused and practiced. In so doing I will also draw a contrast between these values and those of the “Judeo-Christian” world.

The very foundations of Western civilization can actually be summed up in words and short phrases. These words and phrases include, but are not quite limited to, the following: reason, logic, self-control (including control of one’s emotions), discipline, pietas/fealty, magnanimity toward one’s defeated enemies, spiritual enlightenment by way of mystery (in religion), the concept of the soul, regeneration through reincarnation of the soul, the concept of time as circular (so time repeats itself), harmony with nature and the universe, variety, beauty, creativity, the exercise and use of the intellect, excellence and achievement without hubris, ambition with moderation, cultivation of individual talents and abilities, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding by way of the scientific method, physical well-being, the value of human life (humanism/human goodness), freedom/liberty, democracy (yes, this was invented by Pagans!), a matriarchal mindset which valued and sometimes elevated the feminine, and, finally, family as composed of one male, one female, and their children (the family unit being the basic foundation of all relational systems). All of these values coupled with a polytheistic religious belief system culminated in a simple freedom for all – freedom of individual conscience and the right to decide for oneself. And in making this list I am not suggesting that ancient Jews and Christians possessed none of these values themselves. On the contrary, they did. But to call what we are supposed to adhere to in our culture as “Judeo-Christian” is simply not accurate.

But these values and value systems, having been usurped by the Christians and claimed as their own, are either being at best steadily eroded and at worst totally ignored and rejected for the most part by modern society. Yes, today we actually have a sort of bastardization of these values mixed with whatever any one person or group wants to pull from the Bible or the Quran as their ultimate standard. Because of this and certain other misguided popular beliefs, we now have a world society that possesses little resemblance to any values of any previous generation as we disguise such by encapsulating it within the concept of “progress”. Thus we have a society, in general, which espouses the “values” of strict patriarchalism (with the male always dominant no matter how much lip-service the feminine is given) which requires the mastery and subjugation of nature and the feminine, nearly complete religious intolerance, near-constant warfare often over religious issues, rampant capitalistic commercialism and consumerism (thus causing unprecedented waste and pollution), progress and invention for no other reason than for the sake of sales to the “consumer” (how do you like being referred to as a “consumer” anyway as if you are only a maggot?), environmental degradation, a human population and economic system that is unsustainable by any standard, excess in all things posing as achievement, greed and perversion on a massive scale, cronyism that would make the mafias of the past look like kindergarten, tyranny not only in politics, but also in religion and other facets of society, actual discouragement of the individual and of liberty while giving lip-service to these, the needs of the state as paramount, a rejection of humanism and of human excellence thus cheapening human life, incredible hubris (everyone is so “proud” of themselves and their achievements), sex only for pleasure and gratification, the very destruction of the family unit itself, uncontrolled pollution and the eventual destruction of our very planet! All of this culminating in the sickeningly idiotic concept that “corporations are people too”.

Let’s learn from history before it is too late! Our ancient ancestors would be wailing if they were to witness what our world and its overall society has become! They would find it disgusting and would see it for what

it truly is, the result of a form of mental illness induced by “beliefs” rather than reason and understanding. Let us learn from history and finally dispense with the idea that there can be some amalgamation of monotheistic and polytheistic systems. Hellenization, instituted under Alexander the Great, DID NOT WORK! It didn’t work then and it cannot work now. It is flawed as a logical concept. It cannot be corrected or repaired. The only solution is acceptance of polytheism and its inherent “Western” value system with no disguises. Otherwise we only continue to degenerate until we destroy ourselves and out planet.

Imagine a nation in which war is always the first resort, a nation in which any insult or provocation will result in war between nations, such having dragged this nation and its military into as many as three and four wars at one time. Imagine a nation in which military service is mandatory for both males and females. Imagine a nation so paranoid that its citizens routinely carry assault weapons in public, in their vehicles, into churches and even to concerts in the name of freedom and security. Imagine a nation in which the police are equipped with the latest in military gear and equipment, including assault weapons, because the populace has shown a decided tendency to murder not only their own but also law enforcement. Imagine a nation in which the Christian religion is the de-facto “official” religion and in which Judaism is tolerated but where all other religions are marginalized and watched to see if any sort of sedition might take place among the adherents of said religions. Imagine a nation in which history is never taught in schools because, after all, kids can get their history from TV and the internet, in which school children are forced to pray in the Christian way each school day and in which children are made to take civics classes which espouse the ideals of the Judeo-Christian worldview along with the concept of the complete success of capitalism worldwide as essential goods for the entire world. Imagine a nation in which books have either been banned or they are frowned upon in favor of the internet and in which the only book that is favored is the Bible. Imagine a nation that believes in democracy but which marginalizes some within society based on their religious and political preferences. Imagine a nation in which there are only two news media stations and these stations are totally subservient to the drug industry whose advertisements they show incessantly. Imagine a nation in which the female is made to feel as if she has broken some law if she exercises her right to determine what is good for her own body. Imagine a nation in which every single citizen is tracked by use of GPS and other methods, where their phone calls are all taken and stored for potential future use and where cameras are literally everywhere so that no one can go anywhere without being seen and recorded. Imagine a nation in which every detail of one’s life is known by the government and is recorded and categorized in such a way that one’s only freedom is to choose between options presented to oneself by some government bureaucrat with no real regard to one’s intellect or true abilities. Imagine a nation in which we have finally given up all of our freedoms for the sake of security from a perceived enemy. Some of this has already happened. The rest is not very far away from us today. Take heed.

On this day, December 25, 2015, when Christians around the world are celebrating, perhaps, the holiest day of their calendar next to Easter and when everyone from the President of the United States to the Queen of England are putting out messages emphasizing peace, it just seemed appropriate to me that a more balanced message of reality be added.

The title of this blog post/message, if I have my Latin right, reads (and should read) “Against the City of God and the Sorrowful Path”.  And the title almost says it all, but should still be added to.  See, we have just endured, perhaps, one of the most hideous years in all of human history.  And I will not recount the many, many human atrocities committed over the course of this year alone here as if to read out some end of the year review because, frankly, I don’t want to be reminded in detail of the events of this year and I won’t, therefore, remind the reader of them either.  But that is not to say that these events should be forgotten because to forget them would invite repetition.  Suffice it to be said that one atrocity, if one takes the words of Jesus as written in the gospels literally, is just as bad as another.  Thus, although this will surely anger some, rejecting the needy, including fleeing refugees, is just as bad as murdering them on television and destroying their holy places.

But even that is not the main point of this blog, so I will not elaborate upon it further.  The main points of this blog are two: (1) that endorsement of political candidates by religions leaders – preachers, evangelists, etc. – is wrong and un-American and (2) that defining “evangelicals” as “social conservatives” is now politically fashionable, but completely incorrect and just as dangerous.

Now, concerning the first point, the separation of church and state (which most conservative Americans do not believe in), is a fundamental part of our national political and social structure.  It is meant to prevent exactly what we are seeing in our politics today – politicians worrying about and pandering to certain religious groups, necessarily to the exclusion of others.  It is also meant to prevent certain religious groups from wielding a kind of power in our political system.  In short, no religious group or leader should endorse or otherwise advocate for any particular political candidate and, conversely, no candidate should seek the endorsement and/or support of any religious leader or group.  But, we see that this is not adhered to anymore so that the concept is regularly skirted by politicians and religious leaders.  And, again, political conservatives don’t believe in the separation of church and state, after all.  They have no understanding that this fundamental flaw in their thinking lends to greater instability and division rather than stability and inclusion.  And, frankly, they don’t care.  They don’t care about those who would be left out or marginalized because of the fact that they are so intent upon preserving their vision of this supposed Judeo-Christian social and political system.  Their vision of the “City of God” burns so brightly that they cannot even see anything else, including those that they have been charged by their Lord to accept, help and even love.  They grudgingly believe in religious “tolerance” (in that the Christian majority is supposed to tolerate other religious groups, but not really accept them, for the most part) while they have no real concept of religious “freedom” as laid out in the First Amendment to the US Constitution.  After all, for them religious freedom only applies to, it would seem, Christians and Jews, but applies to no one else.

The second point follows directly upon the first.  The above are indeed “social conservatives”.  They are those who fully believe in rejecting and even suppressing those who hold to beliefs other than their own.  They are not, however, the same as “evangelicals” and I, for one, am rather tired of seeing the two equated in some media outlets.  Evangelical can be defined as one who seeks to adhere as strictly as possible to the tenets of the New Testament to the best of their understanding.  There is really nothing political about the concept.  I used to be an evangelical, determined not only to do the above but also to spread the message of the gospel in every way possible.  That is what evangelicals are all about.  However, they are NOT rightly equated with “social conservatives”.  There may be social conservatives among them, but that is not part of the definition of evangelical.  But today our news media and our politicians have conflated the two and often refer to them as one and the same.  Thus, certain politicians court the “evangelical vote” and seek to be endorsed by the movement’s leaders while the leaders of this movement seek certain types of candidates whom they can feel comfortable endorsing.  And, obviously, they could by no means endorse anyone who is not a Christian (or maybe someone who is Jewish) just as these politicians in no way openly seek the vote of, say, the Muslim community.  This is all a sick perversion of reality but one which the folk have generally adopted without much thought.  They have generally been lulled into complacency with reference to these points.

Let me add here that the media’s deliberate and misleading emphasis upon Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq, often referring to them as Christians from the very birthplace of Christianity, is meant to confuse the subject so that the above can be seen as legitimate.  In other words, they are making a big deal about these Christian refugees and their plight while saying nothing about certain other Christians in the Middle East, such as many Palestinians.  Yes, probably up to half of all Palestinians are Christians.  But our media does not seem to care a whit about them – those ho actually do live in the area that was the very birthplace of Christianity and who are marginalized from the greater society of Israel at best.  While they often reside in squalid, practically unlivable conditions, no one seems to be interested in their plight.

And, on that note, what of the birthplace of Christianity anyway?  You know, the place where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is located (supposedly located over the tomb of Jesus) and the place where the procession of the Via Dolorosa is performed each year at this time.  Let it be stated here that, while it is thinly possible that the Church might be located in or close to the right place, it is absolutely impossible that the Via Dolorosa is correct.  This is because Hadrian is said to have marked the spot of the tomb of Jesus with a later Roman temple to Venus and, therefore, it could actually later be found.  But as for the city – he so changed Jerusalem (also renaming it Aelia Kapitolina and settling Pagan Romans there) that it is simply no longer the city that Jesus walked in.  These are just facts.  But, please Christians, don’t let me disturb your faith with facts!

Still, I wish to end with this final fact.  As a Pagan I neither seek the support or endorsement of any religious body or person nor do I seek to endorse any.  Of course, I am not running for political office either.  But I wanted to get that out into the open because some have proposed that we Pagans should stick together politically and should, therefore, endorse and support the one sole political candidate for the US Senate who says he is a Pagan – one Augustus Sol Invictus of Florida.  In my mind, for Pagans as a group to do so would be tantamount to us doing exactly what I have written against here.  Never, in my mind, should Pagans as a group rally around a certain candidate just because he or she is a Pagan.  And, frankly, I agree with some of the criticisms that have been leveled against him by others so I don’t find him to be a particularly good candidate in any case.  This is especially the case with reference to his statements that he believes he should lead some sort of second civil war or something.  That is quite disturbing, to say the least.  No accounting, however, for those running against him here.

In the end, let me state that I am against the Christian vision of their “City of God” just as much as I am against the falsity of the Via Dolorosa and all that comes with both.  And I am equally against supporting someone who calls himself a Pagan but who appears to offer nothing of substance.  I don’t pick candidates and vote for them based upon religion and neither should anyone else.

Hekataios Amerikos is also the author of the book “Apocalypse and Armageddon, The Secret Origins of Christianity: The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First”.

Over the course of the last two weeks or so I have found myself growing increasingly appalled at much of what I have seen on the news and elsewhere.  The truth, for those who wish to see it, is that our country is drifting toward a form of fascism (an authoritarian, nationalistic movement espousing a right-wing system of government and social organization), yet many fail to realize this and those who do will scarcely acknowledge the reality of it.

Now, it is true that I am personally neither conservative nor liberal.  And I really don’t want to be too political in my blogs.  But I do have to register my sincere concern about what I am seeing.  It is not important to name certain politicians here because anyone  can watch the news or look these things up on the internet.  So they will not be named specifically here.  But when you have a series of politicians on one side of the aisle; one stating that he does not believe that a Muslim should be allowed to serve as President of the United States while claiming that such would be against our supposed Judeo-Christian values; another stating that we should only take in Christian refugees from the Middle East; another stating that he would be in favor of surveillance of “some mosques” while also suggesting that Muslims in this country should have to wear some kind of symbol so that they could be recognized by everyone else; another stating that we should have some sort of Judeo-Christian task force that would, in part, blast Christian propaganda to those in the Middle East in an effort to somehow instill them with our values; all seemingly in favor of some kind of religious litmus-test for those who seek to enter this country as refugees; and none of them wanting to allow Syrian refugees into this country even though they would be vetted multiple times before they would be allowed to enter.

All of this greatly saddens me.  This is certainly not what I served my country proudly for!  I never expected to see this here even in my wildest dreams!  But, somehow, that is perhaps exactly the problem.  See, if we were observing on the news that this was happening in some other country I am sure that most Americans would be up in arms about it and would be completely outraged, calling the governments in such countries exactly what they would be – fascist regimes.  But I, for one, do get tired of the comparisons to the Nazis during WWII.  Why?  Because, knowing history as I do, I understand that that was really not the first and only instance of this kind of thing in all of history.  But our politicians and our news media seem to fall into one of two categories, from what I have observed.  They are either people who know their religion but who know little or nothing about history, especially religious history.  Or they are people who know history, including religious history, but seem to have no depth of knowledge where religion and religious issues are concerned.  If this were not the case the politicians would not spout the idiocy they do and the news media would not ask the absurd questions that they ask.  After all, when you have one politician comparing our Supreme Court to “philosopher-kings” and another one stating that we need “more welders and less philosophers” (and one has to wonder about the latter’s command of the English language), you quickly have to realize that neither of these guys has ever studied philosophy or, if they did, they assuredly did not make very high grades in the subject.  This coupled with one intelligence official who, quite early on, as an answer to why people turn to terrorism stated “Something goes astray”.  “Really?  Is that your answer?”, I thought.

Recently I posted the following to Facebook: “There is so much bothering me right now it is hard to put into words. We are presently hurtling toward perhaps the darkest time in all of human history. Those who are willing to listen to reason already know. Those who don’t want to listen to reason prefer to dwell in their own ignorance thinking that some god is going to bail them out and end the world. I have, frankly, about given up trying to get through to people. The ignorant will have their way, it seems, no matter what. It is truly hard for me to believe that so much intransigent ignorance exists in a so-called modern, highly-educated society. Let me at least say this, the way to fight ignorance is not with even more ignorance. It is with knowledge.”

And this comment along with the above leaves us with one burning question, which many still haven’t figured out: “How is this happening in THIS country?”  After all, the First Amendment to the US Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.

One would think that this would be enough, that it would be so straight-forward that no one could miss it.  But, sadly, that is not the case.  See, in recent times people have begun to see this as stating that Christians and maybe also Jews have the right to religious freedom, but others may be excluded from this.  I have debated people who thought exactly that way and it is sickening.

By the same token, I used to think almost that way myself, long ago.  So I know how they think and I understand where they are coming from and they are simply unable to see that they are WRONG.  They don’t understand enough about either religion or history to see any other point of view, no matter how smart they may be.  Of course, with preachers every Sunday feeding them with misconceptions about the horrible Romans persecuting the poor, inoffensive, defenseless Christians and ignoring that the European Dark Ages ever even happened, how can they know any better unless they study history for themselves?  Yes, they are fed all of this mumbo-jumbo and led to believe that Christians were the only people in all of history who have been persecuted to any extent and that our founding fathers came here so that Christians could have freedom of religion and get away from all others in other parts of the world.  Then when a certain VA hospital bans Christmas trees until a backlash ensues – well, that just feeds right into what they already believe.  Never mind that the Christmas tree has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with Christianity….  Frankly, every year Pagans laugh at the fact that Christians have such consternation over the Christmas tree and manger scenes and the like, all of which come directly from ancient Paganism just like, by the way, their supposed “Judeo-Christian” democracy itself does.

But the greater point to this blog post is that, whatever one may think, it really can get uglier than this, even here in the US.  What we are all witnessing is only a step or two at the most away from the institution of a fascist regime right here!  Those who think it can’t happen here are fooling themselves just as all others in the past have done.  No one in any country ever wants to believe that it can happen in their country.

But, again, I am not going to point to Germany or Italy or Japan as an example from history because, for me, that has simply been done so many times that I doubt that many people really pay attention to it anymore, sad as that statement may be.  Let me first state something that few know, but something that is easily checked.  It was during the fourth century CE that both the New Testament (in the Roman Empire) and the Zoroastrian Avesta (in the Sassanid Empire) were finally codified.  In both cases this codification took place under the watch and supervision of tyrannical, fascist, repressive regimes.  Why did this take place?  Because the leaders of these separate and competing regimes wanted a means by which they could solidify the masses in support of their pogroms.  And in the west, in the Roman Empire, the people who first suffered the most because of this were the Hellenes (Greeks) and the Jews.  If you don’t believe me, just read the Theodosian laws.  It was an age during which people were routinely dragged from their homes and families and sent to mines or, yes, even a death camp and during which some of the greatest architectural treasures of the ancient world were destroyed by the order of the emperor.  It was an age during which people were tortured to death for their religious beliefs and when children could be forcibly taken away from Pagan or Jewish parents and re-educated according to the dictates of the regime!  But your preacher will never tell you anything about this and the church has never acknowledged that it even happened.

Oh, but Christianity hasn’t done anything like this in 400 years, they will say!  Apparently they think that this absolves Christianity of the things done in its name.  No, the Greeks just lapped up Christianity like it was going out of style!  After all, the apostle Paul converted them according to the book of Acts, didn’t he?  Actually, NO.  Very few converted until they were forced to do so in the fourth century.  That is simply a fact.  Oh, but didn’t the Roman Empire become Christian easily due to the persuasion and preaching of the apostles and saints?  Actually, NO.  That really didn’t happen until our Germanic ancestors were converted to Christianity and persuaded by monks that it was their duty to invade and take over the Roman Empire in the name of Christianity.  So these monks turned our ancestors into terrorists and this was all sanctioned by the beloved St. Augustine in his “The City of God Against the Pagans”.  Read it!

Finally, the news media keep questioning why it could be that Muslims who are not particularly observant of their religion could turn to terrorism and commit such heinous acts as those seen in several places in the world over the past couple of weeks.  The answer is so very simple for one who knows religion, philosophy and history intimately.  It is because someone has convinced them that if they perpetrate such acts their holy book states that they will become martyrs and be absolved of all of their sins.  Terrorists are created by those with sinister motives.  That is borne out by history.  Fascist regimes, on the other hand, are created by those who will stand back and do or say nothing against them.

Please visit and follow my blog page at Pagan Voices Almanac.

Hi.  I am Hekataios Pindaros Amerikos and this blog spot is Pagan Voices Almanac.  Today I introduce both.  I am a Pagan, a philosopher, a veteran, and an author.  This blog spot is not primarily about promoting my book, but I do believe that my book is an essential element toward greater understanding.  It is entitled “Apocalypse and Armageddon, the Secret Origins of Christianity: The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First“.  As one may suspect by this title, I was once a fundamentalist Christian and I am well-educated in that venue.  My book not only elaborates on the earliest, formative history of what became Christianity (the history that the powers-that-be do not want the general public to know about in detail), bringing out the brutal truth based upon fact, not faith or belief, it is also a catharsis, of sorts, for me bringing out in historical terms why I am no longer a Christian.  In short, it is my belief that if one knows the real history then it should test one’s faith.  For those who can read it and retain their faith, more power to them, for this book is not about beating up on Christianity, but about telling the truth based upon cold, hard facts.  For those who cannot, like me, we sense that there must be some other truth or way to truth, then.  I personally find that truth or truths by way of ancient western philosophy and religion.  Our ancestors were so much more than we tend to give them credit for.  They were not stupid brutes who needed help from aliens to crawl up the evolutionary chain!  And, essentially, I want their voices to be heard here through myself and other bloggers.

That said, this blog site is not yet completely functional as I am learning how to use it myself.  Once it is fully active, there will be two main rules for anyone who wishes to post or comment here.  First, if you are a hater or hatemonger (and you already know whether you are or not), then you are not welcome to post here.  I will have no sympathy for anyone posting hateful material toward any other person here or toward any religion.  We may not all agree on everything and, in fact, I am sure that we won’t.  But attacks on people and their religion will simply not be tolerated here.  Second, no racist materials or statements will be allowed.  Period.  Both men and women as well as all races and cultures are welcome to express their views as long as they adhere to these rules.

My ultimate aim with this blog is to work toward the creation of an on-line Pagan magazine that, I hope, will be unique, but not too much unlike others already out there.  It is my objective that it work toward greater understanding between religions so that, ultimately, modern Paganism may be recognized and respected as a legitimate religion, which, today, it generally is not.  I am about dispelling the myths associated with Paganism and bringing out what Paganism is really all about.  We have been painted as perverse, immoral, etc. for too long.  This must change.  It is truly time for this to happen.