PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com

An old boyfriend of mine actually became pagan because of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

His mom never read any of the “literature” that they dropped off for her, but he did. It talked about paganism a lot.

Don't dye Easter eggs, they're pagan, it said. Don't have a Christmas tree, it's pagan. Don't celebrate Halloween, it's pagan.

“This pagan stuff sounds pretty good,” he thought.

The single most fascinating chapter in Michael Dowden's book European Paganism is the one titled “The Christian Pagan.”

Back before Hebrew became the First Language of monotheism, it was a fine old pagan language in its own right, with words (for example) for “standing stone” (matsevá) and “stone circle” (gilgál).

The Hebrew word that usually gets translated “idol” is 'elíl. Scholardom has generally read this word as a cacophemism based on the root √ ' L L (alef-lamed-lamed) meaning “weak.” This even though words similar to 'elil occur in other Semitic languages—for example in Sabaean, the South Semitic language of the Arabian kingdom of “Sheba”—in religious contexts as well.

It occurs to me, however, to wonder if the derivation from “weak” is really the correct one. Hebrew (like its sister Semitic languages) has a pattern of word-creation called “reduplication,” in which the second part of the word is repeated; reduplicated words are usually diminutives. Hence, kélev, “dog” becomes k'lavláv, “puppy”; qatán, “little” becomes q'tantán, “teensy.”

I wonder if 'elil is the same. 'El = god. 'Elil = “little god.”

I'd gone down to the clearing to make the morning offering to the stang.

But the stang wasn't there.

(It turned out later that the stang's keeper had moved it, but that doesn't really enter into this story.)

Now, it's always best to offer towards: in this case, towards an icon.

Well, I had the offerings and it was the time of offering, so I made the usual offerings and said the usual prayers to the Invisible Stang instead: to the stang that wasn't there.

Of course, every visible stang—and every icon—is (shall we say) overlain by the invisible stang anyway (or should be, at least).

 They have mouths, but cannot speak.

So wrote a dyspeptic 7^th century Hebrew poet concerning the so-called “idols” of the pagans.

But of course (as anyone who has ever actually lived with one for very long can tell you), he was wrong.

It's a terrible dilemma.

These holy images body forth Those that we love and honor.

And the Breakers are coming: those who hate and fear the beauty that we love.

So what do you do?

The archaeological record makes it clear. Time and again the old pagans chose to lay their holy images in the womb of all-protecting Earth.

Hoping, perhaps, as they did so that a time might come when the power of the breakers would itself be broken.

Hoping that some day, once again, as of old, the Mother of Gods would bring forth.

The Sif doll seated on the harvested wheat. This is a Lithuanian doll that I bought in an amber shop along with some amber in 1989. Shortly after I dedicated part of my garden to Sif last year, I was walking past the display of folk art in my house where I used to display this doll and it called to me to dedicate it to Sif. So I did a dedication ritual, which I related in my post A Doll for Sif. I moved the doll to my Spiritual Souvenir display, which is kind of a wall altar.

I almost always make, remake, or repurpose things to dedicate rather than buying things new for that purpose. I feel that conserving resources is part of how I live as a heathen.

They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.

So wrote an anonymous Hebrew poet, probably in the 7^th c. BCE, speaking of what he would have called 'elilim, “idols.”

Of course he misses the point.

As anyone who actually lives with idols (for want of a better word) can tell you, they actually do speak and they do see; their interaction with their—um, worshipers—is subtle but undeniable. But perhaps that's a little too conceptually non-literal for your average dyspeptic 7th century Yahwist.

Likewise beyond his comprehension was the fact that the idol's obvious limitations are precisely part of the shining truth that it embodies.