Browse 346 quotes about Paganism.
“Whoever were the inventors of such tales, whether fact or fiction, or facts concerning others and fictitiously attributed to Jove, words fail to express what a low opinion these fable-mongers must have formed of human nature to assume that men could endure such lies with patience.”
Source: City of God
“I am protected by energy you are not prepared
to deal with”
“People who are seeking emotional support find it in the craft because instead of looking to a savior or prophet, we are taught to save ourselves.”
Source: Walk Your Path: A Magical Awakening
“When you’re outnumbered by trees your perspective shifts.”
Source: Walk Your Path: A Magical Awakening
“You say we worship the sun; so do you.”
“I suppose he never gets blisters, then,” Scot murmured, then looked up and said, “And in truth, one of the reasons that I’d rather retain my code and my religion is that my gods are flawed and hypocritical. They get blisters—metaphorically. Thor wrangles with rage and Loki with jealousy. The only perfect god, Baldr, was killed for his perfection, which of course proves that pure perfection is an imperfection, or . . .” Scot hesitated, “something like that.” Even he felt that he could have summed that up better.
“There’s pagan wisdom for you,” Gawain scoffed in derision. “Perfection is imperfect and imperfection is preferable. It’s circular logic.”
Scot rolled his eyes, rubbing his ankle. “Paganism (as you condescendingly call my faith) is circular. Your Christianity tries to make everything into a straight line… in order for your world to make sense, everything must have a start and an end. In any case, your king is cut from the same cloth as your Christ—both are like Baldr, too good to last for long—either you are blind or he is a liar. Real people and gods struggle to be their best and fail.”
Source: Three Days and Two Knights
“When one studies the history of terrestrial religions, it soon becomes clear that so-called primitive peoples everywhere shared a belief in the divinity of the earth. In other words, Goddess worship was universal—until the dawn of the monotheistic, paternalistic religions.”
Source: Cali the Destroyer
“the Great Vaccination — the vaccination against the stupidity of the intelligentsia.”
“Everyone looks for the first snowdrop as proof that our part of the earth is once more turning towards the sun, but folklore maintains that we should be wary of bringing them into the house before St Valentine’s Day, as any unmarried females could well remain spinsters!”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“Eventually, there comes a time when the simple accumulation of knowledge and training isn't sufficient on its own. You must begin applying all that knowledge you've gained into practice.”
Source: Mastering Magick: A Course in Spellcasting for the Psychic Witch
“What we do internally affects the world around us and the world around us affects our inner world. With this notion, nothing is separate, and our inner and outer worlds are intricately tied to one another.”
Source: Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation
“a gathering of women and men linking hands in a circle. The full, bright circle of the Moon rising bone-white above them.
The group lifted their joined hands to the sky, reaching for the Moon. “O Lady of the Mirror and the Scythe. She who walks the paths both seen and unseen – finding that which is known, that which is yet to be known.”
In unison, they turned to face the eastern horizon. “O Lady of the Sun,” they called. May you nourish us within your warmth, nourish the valley and the forest. We praise you now, as you shine on your sister Moon: retrieving her from her wanderings into the world of the unborn and of the dead.”
Source: Lahana
“the great ones are everywhere. The Sky, the Earth, the Sun and Moon – we shall never be beyond their sight. The rivers shall always be the tributaries of the one river, Aysana the Great Mother.”
Source: Lahana
“Plants are the ultimate symbols of life.”
Source: Walk Your Path: A Magical Awakening
“Whether you believe in one God or several, there’s a saying that higher powers never abandon us. We abandon them… But they’re always here, waiting for us to come crawling back like a regretful lover.”
Source: Secret Society of Kings, Witches and Spirits
“A ritual provides an allegorical mirror in which the balance created in ceremony can reflect on our inner state.”
Source: The Art of Ritual: Creating and Performing Ceremonies for Growth and Change
“The veil between the worlds, the seen and unseen, is thinnest on Halloween.”
Source: The Dream Haunters
“Humanity passed from a world of tolerant pagan polytheism to the black and white duality of Christianity. Something was either on the side of God, salvation, and goodness or on the side of the devil, evil and perdition. The tolerance, logic, rationality, and knowledge of natural phenomena that were an integral part of the Classical world were manipulated by the Church in favor of the supernatural, the mysterious, and faith in providence.”
“Whether used for the self or in service to others, the runes
continually
reflect the collective in the individual, the unknown in
the known, and the personal embodiment of the unknowable in All
Things—the aspect of mystery in Nature that we also embody.”
Source: Runic Book of Days: A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
“The Old Norse cosmology gives us the awareness that while lightness may bring enlightenment, it is the darkness that initiates
change.”
Source: Runic Book of Days: A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
“The idea that our cosmology continues to change as we evolve in our spiritual studies and that we play a role in intentionally shaping it lies at the heart of the runes; thus, they are our deepest instruction for creating the self.”
Source: Runic Book of Days: A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
“What makes control actually powerful is knowing what to do with it.”
Source: Runic Book of Days: A Guide to Living the Annual Cycle of Rune Magick
“The Golden Rule applies to everyone, not just the living.”
Source: Walk Your Path: A Magical Awakening
“Valholl contained 540 doors. From each there emerged simultaneously 800 warriors who spent their days fighting one another, but the dead and wounded found their lives and health restored every evening. They then dined together, eating the flesh of the wild boar Saehrimnir, which always grew back, and drinking the mead served them by the Valkyries. This would continue until the Twilight of the Powers (Ragnarok), which Wagner immortalized under the name of Twilight of the Gods. At this time, three cocks would crow in Hel; the wolf Fenris would become free; the earth would convulse; Yggdrasil the World Tree would tremble; the sun and moon would vanish; the stars would go out; the Midgard Serpent would leave the sea; the giants would set sail on Naglfar; Surt, the fire giant, would advance by rain-bow; and, at the sides of the gods, the Unique Warriors would engage in their ultimate battle, a combat that would culminate with the conflagration of the world.”
Source: The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind
“The formidable combined forces of Judeo-Christianity and modern science have never succeeded in wiping out pagan astrology, nor will they ever. Astrology supplies what is missing in the west's official moral and intellectual codes. Astrology is the oldest organised art form of sexual personae. Waging war on astrology, the medieval and Renaissance Church promulgated the distortion that astrology is fatalism, a flouting of God's Providence and the necessity for moral struggle. But the predictive part of astrology is less important than its psychology, which three thousand years of continuous practise have given a phenomenal subtlety. Astrology does insist on self-discipline and self-transformation. Judging astrology by those vague sun-sign columns in the daily paper is like judging Christianity by a smudged shop window of black-velvet day-glo paintings of the Good Shepherd.”
Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
“Fear and superstition were not the tools of witches but rather the tools of those who persecuted them.”
Source: Gods of the Flesh: A Skeptic's Journey Through Sex, Politics and Religion
“I know I’m not the more experienced investigator here,” Stacey said, “but I’m going to go way out on a limb and say the haunting of this estate could be related to this underground death-god temple full of human skulls.”
Source: The Lodge
“I am the trees and the flowers you step on. Iam the earth you walk on, the water you drink, the animals you kill. I am the mountains and the never-ending sea. I am here and everywhere else, now and forever. I am Everything.”
Source: When the Spring Comes
“The Socialists have found good the equality, and bad the inequality. Good the servants and bad the tyrants. I crossed the threshold of good and evil in order to live my life intensely. I live today and can not await tomorrow. The wait is of peoples and of humanity, so could not be my affair.”
Source: The Collected Writings of Renzo Novatore
“I should add, however, that, particularly on the occasion of Samhain, bonfires were lit with the express intention of scaring away the demonic forces of winter, and we know that, at Bealltainn in Scotland, offerings of baked custard were made within the last hundred and seventy years to the eponymous spirits of wild animals which were particularly prone to prey upon the flocks - the eagle, the crow, and the fox, among others. Indeed, at these seasons all supernatural beings were held in peculiar dread. It seems by no means improbable that these circumstances reveal conditions arising out of a later solar pagan worship in respect of which the cult of fairy was relatively greatly more ancient, and perhaps held to be somewhat inimical.”
Source: British Fairy Origins
“If we turn now to such vestiges of cult as are associated otherwise than with time and season, we discover a definite recognition of the survival of these nearly a century ago. Keightley, the old fairy mythologist, who did such yeoman service in the collection of much valuable elfin lore, says, as long ago as 1850, when referring to the confused nature of his subject: 'Indeed it could not well be otherwise, when we recollect that all these beings (the larger and greater fairies) once formed part of ancient and exploded systems of religion and that it is chiefly in the traditions of the peasantry that their memorial has been preserved.”
Source: British Fairy Origins
“The gods and goddesses are not relics chiseled in stone. Whisper their names and you will find what time has not forgotten.”
“Yahweh is an amalgamation and embodiment of all chief pagan deities.”
Source: Hallowed Be Thy Name
“It is probable, as Anthony Faulkes suggests, that the pagan religion was never systematically understood by those who practiced it. Different areas of Scandinavia worshipped different gods at different times in the pre-Christian era; the localized nature of cults and rituals produced neither dogma nor sacred texts, as far as we know. Rather pre-Christian religion was 'a disorganized body of conflicting traditions that was probably never reduced in heathen times to a consistent orthodoxy such as Snorri attempts to present'.”
Source: The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes
“Under the Roman Empire, barbarians were the rural trash of their day. The word "pagan" is derived from the Latin pagus, meaning "country", and Romans used it disparagingly to describe country dwellers. Likewise, "heathen" originally meant those rural types who lived under cover of the heath. Both "pagan" and "heathen" are thus ancient verbal ancestors of "hillbilly.”
“When Christmas started in the fourth century, right in the middle of three Roman winter festivals, it was, from its very first moments, a winter party with Christian meanings added on top.”
Source: Christmas: A Candid History
“The festival of the summer solstice speaks of love and light, of freedom and generosity of spirit. It is a beautiful time of year where vibrant flowers whisper to us with scented breath, forests and woodlands hang heavy in the summer’s heat and our souls become enchanted with midsummer magic.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“We too can begin a new life, one that brings satisfaction and enrichment, whether this is by singing, dancing, running through the waves, walking barefoot on the grass or making love under the stars. Perhaps your dreams are greater than this, or perhaps more conservative, but whatever they are, Beltane is a wonderful time for expressing who you truly are.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“The summer solstice is a time for strength and vitality for action and movement.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“There is a delightful story which tells of Eostre finding an injured bird on the ground and, in order to save its life, she transformed it into a hare. The transformation however was incomplete and, although the bird looked like a hare, it still retained the ability to lay eggs. Regardless of this slight mishap, the hare was so grateful for the goddess saving her life that on Eostre’s festival the hare would lay eggs, decorate them and leave them as a token of thanks. In Germany today, many young children still believe that their Easter eggs are laid and delivered by the Easter hare.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“I would like to invite you to savour every moment of this experiential journey. Feel the energies of the earth, listen to them calling on the wind, whispering their secrets and beckoning you to explore their mysteries.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“The festival of the spring equinox speaks of freshness and youth, of excitement and endless possibilities. Nature begins to quicken and early flowers open to the warmth of the strengthening sun, bringing the colours of lemon and yellow into our lives on the wings of a March wind.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“The word ‘equinox’ simply means ‘of equal length’ and refers to the twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness at this point in the year. It was originally thought to stem from two Latin words aequus meaning equal and nox meaning night. The word ‘Vernal’, as this equinox is often called, is derived from the Latin word vernus meaning ‘of spring’.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“Tea was the order of the day, neat for the hardened drinker or containing a tot of whiskey for those who liked it watered down! Throughout the afternoon, the wonderful aroma of rosemary wafted throughout the cottage and I later discovered that Mrs Darley sprinkled the dried herb on her grill pan and, with the grill on a low heat, it scented the whole cottage, bringing a feeling of warmth and security to us all.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“I nodded, appreciating the wisdom of her words.‘Yellow is the colour of early spring,’ she said, ‘just look at your garden!’ She gestured towards the borders, which were full of primulas, crocuses and daffodils. ‘The most cheerful of colours,’ she continued, ‘almost reflective in its nature and it is of course the colour of the mind.’
‘That’s why we surround ourselves with it!’ laughed Phyllis, ‘in the hope that its properties will rub off.’‘Nonsense dear,’ said Mrs Darley dismissively, ‘Yellow light simply encourages us to think more positively. It lifts our spirits and raises our self-esteem in time for summer.’I immediately made a mental note to surround myself with the colour of the season and, like Phyllis, hoped that some of its properties would rub off on me.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“Legend has it that during the festival of Eostre, all fires had to be extinguished in the Goddess’ honour and could only be relit from a sacred flame in the centre of the village. The new fire was seen as a symbol of sacredness and purity, something which everyone wanted to bring into their homes at such a lovely time of year when everything was fresh and new.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“Strange as it may seem, the association of eggs and bunnies at Easter time are actually connected and, to discover more, we must once again turn our attention to the Saxon fertility Goddess, Eostre.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“The Green Man has also become synonymous with Cernunnos, the Celtic horned God, often portrayed in Celtic art as part man, part stag, who roams the greenwood wild and free. He is a character of strength and power, but often sadly mistaken for the devil by the Christian fraternity due to his horned appearance.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“The farm labourers employed to harvest the corn often displayed a real fear of cutting the last sheaf, due to the fact that they felt they were slaying the spirit of the corn.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year
“In truth, however, only four of the festivals celebrated by today’s followers of the seasonal wheel can definitely be attributed to the Irish and Scottish Celts, these being the quarter festivals of Imbolc, Lughnasadh, Beltane and Samhain, with the latter two being of the greatest importance.”
Source: Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality and Traditions of the Year