northernmysteries:The helmet found at Sutton Hoo, which many historians believe may have belonged to

northernmysteries:The helmet found at Sutton Hoo, which many historians believe may have belonged to Rædwald.Reigning between 599 and 624 was Raedwald, son of Tytil. He was the third king of East Anglia, and was also the Bretwalda, supreme king of Southumbria, England south of the River Humber.Raedwald was reigning in the time when the Roman Catholic Church began to send missionaries into England. When the Church sent priests into East Anglia to compel the people to give up their ancestral religion, many people were baptized forcibly, and then counted by the Church as Christians. However, compelling people by law to be baptized or even to attend church on a Sunday did not make anyone believe in the Christian religion, or care in any way about what the priests were preaching. Consequently, where they were not suppressed, Pagan traditions continued.In most places, the Pagans were not expelled ruthlessly from their places of worship, as later monkish scribes sometimes claimed. A few Christian priests, foreigners among a suspicious and conservative peasantry, did not have the power to conduct a cultural revolution, and had to proceed cautiously. Neither were the shrines and sanctuaries of their ancestral faith. So, in many places, where the Pagans behaved themselves, the Christian priests conducted their rituals in places where Pagan deities were honoured, and where Pagan deities were honoured, and where Pagan worship continued.The supremely tolerant Pagan polytheism of the Anglians could easily absorb a few Mediterranean divinities without a second thought, so in many cases, and over a long period, Christian images were added to Pagan shrines, or Pagan images were given another interpretation as saints or prophets. The East Anglian king Raedwald, who had been initiated into Christianity in Kent, had a personal shrine in which he worshipped both Pagan and Christian deities. In Raedwald’s temple were Pagan and Christian altars. In the pluralistic tradition of Paganism, this is in no way strange. Pagan pantheons are always able to absorb further divinities, as happened in Germanic religion, where the newer deities of order and mastery, the Aesir, were added to the older nature deities, the Vanir. In the Pagan understanding of religion, all deities have their place within the wider pantheon of the gods, and it is possible for a single individual to be initiated into a number of different mysteries. So when a Pagan was baptized, he or she did not see this as a renunciation of the gods, but initiation into another cultus.Taken from Nigel Pennick’s Secrets of East Anglian Magic, pp. 14-15 Text bolded for emphasis. I think this is important for young people of pagan, polytheistic or Reconstructionist persuasion to remember, especially when made to attend Christian worship by their parents. If you reframe Christianity as your first initiation, it puts you in a better position to learn what you can from it, instead of resenting every moment you are exposed to it. You might spend some time online before you go to church, researching topics like Christianity’s similarities to other Mystery cults, the impact of ancient Roman ritual and architecture on Christian worship, or the influence of pagan philosophy on Christian moral teaching. It’s worthwhile to learn about the children of divinities in different pantheons, and compare and contrast what you discover with the life of Jesus. This sort of study will give you abundant food for thought when you must attend church services.In short, your first Mystery cult can enrich your subsequent experience in pagan and polytheistic worship. Whatever path(s) you choose to follow, may you be blessed! -- source link

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