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Paganism Quotes

Browse 346 quotes about Paganism.

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Paganism Quotes

“The ancients could communicate with the gods in two ways. First, it was (and is) possible to go into a trance and visit the gods in their celestial retreats, as the great shamans have always done. More easily, and less dangerously, they could let the gods speak through code, that is, divination, using dice, entrails, bird patterns, yarrow sticks, cards.”

WayFirstsTwoDoneSpeakBirdSticksPatternsCommunicateCardsCodeRetreatTwo WaysPaganismCelestialDiceTrance
Author:Rachel Pollack
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“The Goddess is the Encircler, the Ground of Being; the God is That-Which-Is-Brought-Forth, her mirror image, her other pole. She is the earth; He is the grain. She is the all encompassing sky; He is the sun, her fireball. She is the Wheel; He is the traveler. He is the sacrifice of life to death that life may go on. She is the Mother and Destroyer; He is all that is born and is destroyed.”

MayEarthMotherBornSunSacrificeSkyGoes OnMirrorsDestroyedWheelsGoddessGrainTravelerPaganismDestroyersMirror Image
Author:Starhawk
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“The Gods and Goddesses of myth, legend and fairy tale represent archetypes, real potencies and potentialities deep within the psyche, which, when allowed to flower permit us to be more fully human.”

HumansRealFlowerMythTalesFairyPermitLegendsFairy TaleGoddessPaganismDeep WithinArchetypePotencyGods And Goddesses
Book:Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
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“The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. ... It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived.”

LongSeemsPoliticalNaturalReligiousSpaceRecordsFashionFlowerHabitEuropeBritishChristmasDawnCustomsSurvivedFestivalsPaganismPaganFestivitiesGreeneryMidwinter
Book:Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain
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“In 325 A.D., the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to unify Rome under a single religion ... Historians still marvel at the brilliance with which Constantine converted the sun-worshipping pagans to Christianity. By fusing pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties.”

KindStillsChristianPartyChristianitySunGrowingTraditionDecidedSymbolsRitualHistorianRomeAcceptableBrillianceEmperorPaganismPaganHybridConstantineRoman EmperorEmperor Constantine
Author:Dan Brown
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“The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos ... The pre-Christian God Mithras ... had his birthday celebrated on December 25 ... Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans ... Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagans' veneration of the day of the sun ... To this day, most churchgoers attend services on Sunday morning with no idea that they are there on account of the pagan sun god's weekly tribute- Sunday.”

IdeasChristianChristianityMorningSunHolyAccountsNo IdeaSundayThis DaySaturdayHonoredStolenPaganismTributePaganDecemberSabbathEgyptianSunday MorningHalosVenerationDiskConstantineChristian GodHoly DaysSun God
Author:Dan Brown
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“God warned Israel, "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it" (Ex. 20:25). To pollute something is to make it ordinary. God insists that any approach crafted by human ingenuity will produce a worship system just like all the pagan systems in the world. In other words, it will be common or profane - just like everyone else's paganism.”

IfsWorldHumansCommonProduceApproachWorshipOrdinaryToolsStonesIsraelLiftsExesAltarsPaganismPaganIngenuityProfane
Author:Max Anders
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“Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer, Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities.”

MenWayLightActionSpiritualChristianityVisionMankindPossibilityDivineBuddhismPerfectionAimCharityIslamNobleFaithfulHeightHinduismDevotedWiserJudaismDivine LovePaganism
Book:The Supramental Manifestation, and Other Writings
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“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt.”

WellsHas BeensSaidCharacterActionChristianEvilMoralityNegativeIdealsPositive AtheismPursuitReactionsInnocenceProtestPassivePaganismEnergeticAbstinenceWell SaidChristian Morality
Author:John Stuart Mill
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“Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, 'fertility cults,' we might consider the religions of today as strange in that they seem to associate shame and even sin with the very process of conceiving new human life. Perhaps centuries from now scholars and historians will be classifying them as 'sterility cults.”

HumansSeemsMightTodayProcessSinCenturyAcceptanceStrangeCallingShameSexualityHuman LifeHistorianScholarAssociatesCultPaganismPaganFertilityConceivingClassifying
Book:When God Was A Woman
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“Paganism is that view of life which finds the highest goal of human existence in the healthy and harmonious and joyous development of existing human faculties. Very different is the Christian ideal. Paganism is optimistic with regard to unaided human nature, whereas Christianity is the religion of the broken heart.”

HumansHeartDifferentChristianGoalViewsExistenceChristianityHuman NatureBrokenDevelopmentHealthyHighestIdealsRegardOptimisticFacultyJoyousPaganismHarmoniousHuman Existence
Book:Christianity and Liberalism
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“The voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.”

GodSpiritSpiritualityVoiceWaterNatureHeardSweetFlowerBirdHearingBreathingIndianNativeNative AmericanPaganismPaganRippleAmerican IndianGreat SpiritNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomSpiritual NatureAmerican SpiritNative American ProverbsTweety Bird
Book:American Indian Stories
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“I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”

MenWorldHas BeensI CanTodayFormPoliticalSocialCausesDealsOpinionStudyProgressRelationRegardIslamConvictionAbsurdTendenciesVisiblePrincipalPaganismMuhammadQuranDecadenceMuslim WorldPolytheism
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.”

IfsWorldLifeInspirationalChildrenSpiritReligionVoiceWaterNaturalWonderHeardSweetFlowerBirdGardenBreathingIndianNativeDogmaNative AmericanPaganismPaganAmerican IndianGreat SpiritNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomSpiritual NatureAmerican SpiritExcursionsNative American Proverbs
Author:Zitkala-Sa
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