CDR: Re: Treatment of subjugated people (and bagpipes)

[A. Melon]

ocorrain at esatclear.ie wrote:

> It's very easy, from a post-religious
> perspective, to be nostalgic about paganism, since we understand almost
> nothing of it. Neo-pagan movements are generally comic, not in their
> internal ideas, but in the notion that they are somehow recapturing 
> an old religion, a religion without scriptures or documents or a 
> continuous tradition.


   Humph, said the camel... indeed!

   Nonsense, says religionmonger. You obviously haven't researched the
pagan world to much depth. Druids, for instance, have a strong, clear
line going way back, as do Wiccans. Because of persecution by the 
God-damned church, they spent a long time underground, but there's never
been a time when they weren't active and working. *You* understand 
nothing of it, and never will unless you could somehow convince some
group to initiate you, which is unlikely. 
  Scriptures and documents, dear one, play no part in earth and goddess 
centered religions. Shamans, for instance, are called personally by their
spirits, taught by the same, etc., and it's all very much a personalized 
experience. Experiential religions have no need of scripture -- that's the
bailiwick of the later, false, paternalistic, religions of the dominator
cultures.