I guess I'll just join the group since everytime I post it shws up on the side anyway. Good night all I have to shut it down till the sun comes back. (We have solar)
Please read my whole comment before disregarding.
I was taught that pagans were people that worshiped false gods. Coming from a Biblical standpoint I guess that would include any religion/faith besides Christians.
But then many branches of Christian religions even think other branches are pagan for teaching what they personally belief to be false doctrine...twisting of the scriptures. Very complicated stuff.
I think there is allot to be said about what others have mentioned as far as nature and being with their horse as being spiritual experiences. I feel that sense too.
I'm not comfortable calling myself a pagan. For me that term brings thoughts of evil spirits and witchcraft and spells, etc.
What are you thinking of changing the name of your group to?
I do agree that the Christian Horse Gals needed to be balanced out. The term just seems divisive. Maybe I read too much into it? Oh, I could go on and on with this subject as it does perplex me. I do have issue with anyone that thinks their religion makes them superior to another. Not to say that is what was meant here by the Chrisitian Group. There has been many wrong things done in the name of Christianity. I guess I'd just like to focus on the idea that "God is love" rather then trying to seperate people with titles...
"Well", to add a bit of humor to this, "this is a very deep subject"......Very old joke....Anyone else remember that joke? I heard it first around 1967.
The word pagan is from the Latin word paganus:
adj. "rural; rustic; of the country."
noun. "country dweller; villager"
It was originally used to describe country dwellers, who were outside the sphere of the "civilized" church. It is unsure exactly how the word took on the meaning "non-Christian" in general. Since the life of rural people was so tied to nature, and thus impacted the type of faith practiced, it would be a natural transition for the word to eventually encompass all people practicing the non-Christian, nature-based religious practices of rural folk. There are other social constructs of the time that may have also played a role in the evolution of the word pagan.
The association of the word Pagan with 'witch-craft and spells' is a relatively recent occurrence that grew out of the development of Neo-Pagan spirituality, some groups of which focus on the occult and 'magick'. These groups are quite different from the folk religions of rural areas that originally spawned the word pagan. The term pagan is now used to describe many quite diverse religious groups... basically a catch-all for non-Christian religion. It also has been taken on by specific groups as a title for their faith (a specific 'capital P' Pagan vs. generic pagan kind of dichotomy). Not all pagans incorporate occultism into their spirituality.
In the end... pagan has become a very complicated word.
Well this is certainly a popular and entertaining group. I never gave the christian group a second glance just because I'm not here to talk about that. I have no desire to prove any point to anyone on the subject.
It is though very balancing to have this on the opposite spectrum, just so no-one feels left out. although what are yall gonna talk about? How your horse has alternative religious views too?
I remeber the joke. Shows my age, doesn't it?
It seems that often in human history, that the deities of defeated peoples become demons in the conqueror's mythology, sources of all evil, undesirable thoughts, and resistance to "authority". This has happened often. Since many of the conquered peoples in history were not literate, as we think of the term, there are no original sources to go back to when one wants to correct the conqueror's propaganda. The ones who were literate (the South American native civilizations for example) just get their records and "books" burnt as the confused meanderings of ignorant heathen who just have to learn the "truth". A lot of history has been destroyed this way. So convenient for the conquerors.
As the ruling classes of history know, if you repeat a story long enough it becomes a new "truth".
I understand what you feel, I used to think the same way. Anything and any system can be used to promote heavily anti-social attitudes--lets call it evil, no matter what gods, demons, avatars, enlightened, etc., etc., are involved. For example, just listen to extreme Protestant preachers from any era, talking about the Catholic religion.
Modern American paganism is a rather broad "religion", and yes, it is full of dieties of the conquered. It can be a deeply personal philosophy in which one explores all the variations of spiritual practices developed by humans, or it can be an extravagant, showy and emotion laden ego-trip with which certain people use to become rich, or anywhere in between just like any other religion.
I personally would be upset if pagan was taken out of this group's name. Why? Because paganism can be an alternate path to the extremely authoritarian and hierarchal system we now live under. In my life human perceptions of horses, what they are, how to interact with them, have changed dramatically. Part (but not all) of the reason is because of the rise of modern paganism., which, if the truth be told, is probably a completely different religious system than our conquered ancestors practiced.
And when I say conquered peoples I am including a lot of our European ancestors. People forget that, if we are not descended from the historic upper class, that Europe went through several waves of conquest, and it is quite possible that many of our ancestors were slaves of the Romans, (or Celts, or the Germanic tribes, etc..) It took Europeans literally thousands of years to learn to how to be nasty enough to conquer other continent's civilizations by themselves. I am not saying that early Europeans lived in harmony in a proverbial garden of Eden (hey, they had slaves.)
I hope you stay part of this group Shirley. We need other viewpoints so we do not become too silly.
I do not think that my religion (though it is really more of a non-religion) makes me superior to anyone else.
Don't forget the Vikings. They made slaves out of a LOT of Europeans to work the farms while the Viking men went raiding. This was after most of Western Europe had changed to serfdom.
My son just reminded me that earlier than that the Romans were industrial enslavers and exploiters of slave labor in their farms and manufacturies until the end of the Empire. They used them against their own common people like illegal immigrants are used today, using only slaves instead of the free people because they could do whatever they wanted with the slaves.