Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 2 Number 2 (2005):35-56 ISSN: 1941-8167
SYMBOLICALLY FORESHADOWED: THE GOSPEL AND THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR John Smulo, Bill Stewart & Steven Hallam (illustrator)
The Gospel and Modern Myths “In Africa and Asia Christians are especially concerned with the question of how the Christian faith relates to other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism,� writes Antonie Wessels, Professor of Missiology and Religious Studies, Free University of Amsterdam, in a recent essay. He begins by telling of his endeavours to understand the interaction between the gospel and nonEuropean cultures, especially Islam in the Middle East, and that he was particularly concerned with the portrayal and perception of Jesus in these cultures. But he goes on to observe that,
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“European Christians, however, do not often ask themselves the question of how things stand in terms of the relation of their own Christian faith to the pre-Christian European religions. This latter question has come to interest me over the last couple of years. I was inspired to investigate this by a remark of Mircea Eliade, who said somewhere that the secret of the success of the early Christianization of Europe is related to the fact that the church managed to connect with the myths and stories of Europe. This led me to study the early Christianization of Europe, but nevertheless always keep at the back of my mind the following questions: might the history of the fairly successful original Christianization of Europe contain lessons for rendering the gospel in the deChristianized, secularized Europe of today? Can we learn from the interaction between gospel and myths in the past how to build a bridge between the gospel and the ‘modern myths’ and stories of today? Can the inculturations of the past be compared to possible inculturations in the present?” [1] Wessels concludes that, “Attempts to Christianize Western Europe were at times ‘against culture’, when Christians adopted understandings and methods which sought to eradicate prior cultural expressions. But the more profound efforts to Christianize the West involved a ‘transformation of culture’ by inculturating the Christian faith in the societies’ matrix of myths which thereby served as vehicles for the Christian message.” [2] The most significant “modern myth” in the worldview of Neo-Paganism, a stream of which is Witchcraft, is the “Wheel of the Year.” The Wheel may be said in many respects to represent attempts to rediscover the preChristian European past. The origins of the Wheel are attributed to solar and agricultural festivals among European Pagans, particularly the Celts. Questions of the historical validity of this “rediscovery” of the past, [3] and of the “cultural consumption of history,” [4] are important issues but they are not the issues we are concerned with here. Joanne Pearson notes concerning the history of the rituals celebrated in the Wheel that, “there is no irrefutable evidence for it. […] The calendar is most likely an academic construction dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but nevertheless the Wheel of the Year is now of profound importance to Paganism.” [5] Moreover, it has been described by some adherents to the Wiccan tradition of Witchcraft (Witches are often called Wiccans in the USA) as “one of the principal keys to understanding the religion.” [6] The profound importance of celebrating the Wheel is that it keeps Pagans in touch with nature, which, as Paganism is a nature-based
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religion in which it is believed that “divinity is inseparable from nature and that deity is immanent in nature,” [7] is fundamentally an act of worship. Because deity is (invisibly) immanent in nature, despite being nature-based, Pagans believe that, “The tangible visible world is only one aspect of reality. There are other dimensions that are equally real, although less solid. Myths and metaphors are maps to other dimensions.” [8] In other words, for Pagans and Witches myth points to a greater reality in the spiritual world. It is not only our belief but also our experience that these myths and metaphors can be utilised as maps to the Christian dimension: to Jesus as the ultimate spiritual reality. In Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson have stated the approach this way: “what is so symbolically foreshadowed in the Wiccan wheel might be fulfilled in Christ.” [9] Our method, therefore, involves what missiologists often refer to as the practice of incarnational mission. Clifford and Johnson, recall Paul’s missionary model to be “all things to all people” (1 Corinthians 9:16-22). They conclude: “The concept of incarnational mission is grounded both in Scripture and the history of Christian mission.” [10] Our starting point is that, “New Age spirituality can be understood as a distinct culture with its own cosmologies, spiritual myths and symbols and a spiritual language that gives seekers an attractive vision of who they are and who they might become. As a culture in its own right, New Age spirituality constitutes a mission field, we must necessarily begin considering how we will present the unchanging good news of Jesus Christ.” [11] From this starting point we are attempting here what might be best described (in Wessels’ terms) as a “comparative inculturation.” The basis of the comparison is a “redemptive analogy.” Readers who are familiar with the Don Richardson’s missionary account Peace Child will recognise his use of this term and concept, and need to bring the same mind here. Richardson sought a redemptive analogy in the Sawi culture of Irian Jaya. [12] He considered that God has been preparing the tribe for the gospel through their own religion and culture which Christ fulfilled: the redemptive analogy to the work of Christ being found in their custom of the peace child. “Among the Sawi, every demonstration of friendship was suspect except one. If a man would actually give his own son to his enemies, that man could be trusted! That, and that alone, was a proof of goodwill no shadow of cynicism could discredit.
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And everyone who laid his hand on the given son was bound not to work violence against those who gave him, nor to employ the waness bind for their destruction. The little bell clanged again, and this time it caught my attention. I perceived its message and gasped! This was the key we had been praying for!” [13] Richardson was inspired by biblical examples such the Gospel of John’s use of the Greek logos (Word) concept in contextualizing the incarnation of Jesus (John 1:1-3, 14). The logos concept, it should be emphasised, was not a biblical concept but a pagan idea when it was utilised in John’s Gospel! “The Apostle takes an expression already in use by thinkers seeking to find God’s connection with the world and applies it to Jesus as the articulation of the invisible God.” [14] The Gospel and the Wheel of the Year Myth The Wheel of the Year myth is our redemptive analogy. Some Christian readers may, however, be concerned about the use of a fictional (we prefer mythological) story. The Bible contains numerous stories which are fictional. Jesus’ many parables are foremost among them. Anthony Thiselton reminds us that this was the strategy of the prophet Nathan “when he was called to the sensitive and potentially dangerous task of confronting King David with an accusation and a rebuke concerning his adulterous conduct with Bathsheba and his manipulation of the death of her husband, Uriah (2 Sam. 12:1-15).” He also identifies several advantages of this strategy, which are relevant to our comparative use of the Wheel myth: “The conscious choice to tell a fictional story to project a ‘possible world’ for David’s imagination accomplished several things: (1) it avoided initial confrontation by approaching the issue ‘from behind’ by indirect discourse; (2) it operated not simply at the cognitive and conceptual level, but harnessed resources of deeper sympathy, indignation, and righteous anger; (3) it provoked David into an active response that simultaneously evoked selfknowledge, understanding, and proposal for action; and (4) it achieved a transformation of stance and deconstruction of prior attitudes, as well as a renewed re-appropriation of a moral tradition.” [15] While our goal is not to condemn but to commend, we seek to avoid initial confrontation, to appeal to Pagan sympathies, to provoke an active
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response, and to deconstruct prior attitudes about Jesus and the Gospels where relevant. Our approach assumes that telling the history of Jesus by way of a comparison with the Pagan mythology enables that history to demonstrate that what is mythological in the Wheel of the Year was already historical in the Gospels. Journalist Charlotte Allen, author of The Human Christ, recently wrote—with reference to details from the myth identified below: “I am hardly the first to notice that Wicca bears a striking resemblance to another religion—one that also tells of a dying and rising god, that venerates a figure who is both virgin and mother, that keeps, in its own way, the seasonal ‘feasts of the Wheel,’ that uses chalices and candles and sacred poetry in its rituals. Practicing Wicca is a way to have Christianity, without, well, the burdens of Christianity.” [16] By intentionally inculturating the gospel through a comparison with the Wheel myth, we hope to open a dialogue, moving beyond the burdens of Christianity to the benefits of Christ. This, we believe, was the strategy of Paul in Athens when confronted with the altar inscribed, “To an unknown God.” “Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you,” he declared (Acts 17:23). This text is of fundamental methodological importance for us. We note a recent comment by scholars from the London Bible College: “It is something of a surprise to Christians today that when Paul gave his speech to the Athenians on Mars Hill, he did not quote scripture to them.” [17] Many Pagans and Witches, it will also surprise many Christians to learn, are favorably disposed to Jesus (but not necessarily Christianity or the church!). Some Witches even lay claim to Jesus. Fiona Horne, like many Witches, rejected her parents “Catholicism, (strait) laced,” she believes, “with all the shortcomings of a patriarchal mind-set.” [18] Yet on the first page of her handbook for teenage witches, Life’s a Witch, she tells inquirer Amelia: “As I wrote in my first book Witch—A Personal Journey, I dig Jesus! I went on to say that, ‘if he was around today, with his values of tolerance, acceptance, respect for Nature and fellow people, he’d be a Witch!’” [19] Albeit provocatively, Horne nevertheless emphasises that the most likely point of fruitful future dialogue between Witches and Christians is revisiting the historical figure of Jesus. Anatha Wolfkeepe, an Australian practitioner of “Pagan Christianity,” even writes of Jesus’ death being “foreshadowed” in old nature religion! “In the early days of Christianity, Jesus was readily accepted by many members of the Old Religion as a manifestation of
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their own eternal God. With His apostles, He was leader of a coven of thirteen. In His parables of agricultural and pastoral imagery, Jesus expressed the language of the Fertility Mysteries, and in His miracles he proved himself to be a magickal healer and a powerful Spirit of Plenty, turning water into wine and causing the sea to ‘be fruitful and multiply’. His sacrificial death was foreshadowed, announced, willingly accepted and was in every detail identical to the most ancient patterns of the old nature religion.” [20] How, then, may the Wheel of the Year function as a redemptive analogy? How is the gospel “foreshadowed” in the Wheel? There are many versions of the Wheel of the Year myth and many NeoPagans and Witches choose to personalise the story. Our version is based primarily on now Los Angeles-based Australian Witch Fiona Horne, and the San Francisco-based American Witch Starhawk. [21] Starhawk, for example, in her enormously influential (post)modern Witchcraft manual The Spiral Dance (1979), gives this summary of her version of the myth: “The rituals of the eight solar holidays, the Sabbats, are derived from the myth of the Wheel of the Year. The Goddess reveals her threefold aspects: As Maiden, She is the virgin patroness of birth and initiation; as Nymph, She is the sexual temptress, lover, siren, seductress; as Crone, She is the dark face of life, which demands death and sacrifice. The God is son, brother, lover, who becomes his own father: the eternal sacrifice eternally reborn into new life. […] [Many variations of the myth] present the God as split into rival Twins embodying his two aspects. The Star Son, Lord of the Waxing Year, vies with his brother the Serpent for the love of the Goddess. On the Summer Solstice, they battle, and the Dark Serpent defeats the Light and supplants him in the Goddess’s favour, only to be Himself defeated at Midwinter, when the Waxing year is reborn.” [22] The various analogies between this myth and the gospel have been formally explained by John Smulo in an essay co-authored with Philip Johnson. [23] Our initial use of the Wheel has involved the development of a web site. The text and Steven Hallam’s illustrations used on our site are included below to demonstrate our approach. Obviously neither the cross references to scripture texts (the “sacred writings”), nor the endnotes to the following section are included on the website. It should be emphasised that this is a preliminary draft version only. It is “under
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construction” and has been used principally to receive critical feedback from Pagans and Christians, although the final illustration, “The Wheel and the Tree,” has been used at the Mind*Body*Spirit festival in Sydney in May and November 2002. As the sabbats of the Wheel of the Year are related to astronomical and agricultural events, there is reference in the description to the length of days, and seasonal plants and colours associated with the rituals of the sabbats. Readers are referred to Pagan texts on the Wheel (endnote 21) for further information. To interpret the story Christian readers may also need to “translate” the Pagan vocabulary of “earth, sky and underworld” into “earth, heaven and hell.” The Wheel of the Year and the Tree of Life Pagans observe eight religious festivals called “sabbats” during the year as part of the cyclical Wheel of the Year. A sabbat is one of the eight major annual religious holidays or seasonal festivals. Parallel to each of the eight sabbats is a story or myth that begins with the first sabbat and progresses until the eighth sabbat. At the beginning of each year the sabbats and myth repeat in a cycle. Witch Fiona Horne comments that, “It is worth mentioning here that as the Wheel is a sacred Mystery it does not function within the parameters of linear time.” [24] A strict chronology of events should not, therefore, be expected. It’s even more important to understand what is meant by the story of the Wheel of the Year. Witch Starhawk explains that, “Myth is the telling of the collective story about what really happens in the spiritual counterpart of the physical world.” [25] In other words myth points to a greater reality in the spiritual world. The Wheel of the Year myth is cyclical. It begins and ends yearly. Thus there is never a completion or fulfilment of the myth, only an “eternal return.” [26] What we would like you to consider is that the Wheel of the Year myth or story contains symbols that find their reality and fulfilment historically. Let us explain by exploring the sabbats or festivals in the Wheel of the Year and explaining the symbols. During the first sabbat or festival, Samhain, the Pagan story tells of the Goddess being impregnated in the union of the earth Goddess and the sky God. The sacred writings also speak of a union, the union of the Divine and the human. As we follow the wheel by viewing the cards for each sabbat we will look at the intersection of these stories. We will ask
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if the sacred writings can point us to the fulfilment of the Pagan story of the Wheel and how this might transform our lives?
YULE or WINTER SOLSTICE 20-23 June (Southern Hemisphere); 20-23 December (Northern Hemisphere) It is the longest night of the year. In the sky of black, with a hint of red, only a single star is visible shining above the Yule tree standing on a hill in the centre. Below the tree a mother has just given birth to a child. Yule is a time of promise. In the Pagan story of Yule we are told that it is the time of the birth of the Sun God. This is the divine Child of Promise, a child of hope, also known as the divine Sun of Righteousness. Our sacred writings also refer to an awaited child. They say that a “sun of righteousness” or “sun of justice” will rise when the child comes (Malachi 4:2; compare Luke 1:78-79). The sun, therefore, appears above the child in the Yule card illustration. We ask whether the fulfilment of the Yule story may be seen in the historical birth of this divine Child of Promise (Matthew 1:18-22)? To one side three astrologers are standing. One points to the star, another towards the mother and child, while the third kneels to present gifts. This image tells us that there were people in those times from other spiritual traditions who looked to the sky for divine signs. Those astrologers, believing it to be such a sign, followed a star to the find the child and see the fulfilment of this divine promise (Matthew 2:1-12). Yule is thus the beginning of the keeping of the promise of the divine child. The Wheel turns to a time of initiation. Are there new things that you want initiated in your life? What scores do you need to settle, what debts
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should be paid off? What must you lose to bring about these changes? This leads us to Imbolc, a time of growth in identity and maturity.
IMBOLC or BRIGID or CANDLEMAS 1 August (Southern Hemisphere); 2 February (Northern Hemisphere) On the Imbolc card we see that darkness is beginning to decline. The sky is deep blue. The child’s mother stands facing an angel who has appeared before her. This illustration draws on the Imbolc theme of the Goddess as virgin. We are asked to consider whether the historical fulfilment of this story has actually taken place when the God-Bearer, the mother of the divine Child, is promised this birth by an angel of the Divine (Luke 1:26-38). As this is a birth brought about by the Spirit of the Divine, it is a union of the human and the Divine (John 1:14). A youth, the divine Sun of Righteousness, stands before a group of spiritual teachers. The Child is here shown teaching the teachers, thus demonstrating growth in wisdom and maturity, and possessing the ability to reveal divine mysteries (Luke 2:42-52; 4:16-30). An altar is standing in the centre decorated with a single white flower. The white flower is a symbol of cleansing which we may seek through initiation to a new life of wisdom following the divine Child. We turn now to a time of harmony. Are there things in our lives that prevent harmony? What are the things that bind us? We turn to Ostara.
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OSTARA (EOSTRE) or SPRING EQUINOX 20-23 September (Southern Hemisphere); 20-23 March (Northern Hemisphere) Yellow day and purple night now stand equal in the sky, with the sun and moon on each side. In the centre is the hill with an opening to a tomb. The Yule tree still stands on the hill over the tomb. The hill is covered in wildflowers. Before there can be harmony, however, the combination of light and dark in the sky reminds us that our own existence—as well as the world we live in—are marked by both light and dark, good and evil, often leading to death. Ostara, we are told, is a time of recalling the victory of light over dark, when the Goddess and God went into the underworld. The sacred writings tell us that the divine Child, called “the light of the world” (John 8:12), went into the world of death (1 Peter 3:18-22). This was to bring about the victory of light (John 1:3-5). On the Ostara card a group of women are preparing the body of the Sun Child for burial. The wildflowers form a colourful canopy over a dark underworld where the face of shadowy figure with a sinister smile is just visible. This is the Dark Lord who seeks to tempt the divine Child off the path of justice and righteousness (Matthew 4:1-11). He personifies evil and reminds us of the serious consequences of evil, even death. We are also called to consider the things that bind us. What temptations do we give in to? Why can’t we seem to put actions that hurt others and ourselves entirely behind us? How will that happen? It is a good time to ask ourselves how well the relationships in our lives are functioning? How do we want them to be? Are there relationships we need mended or restored? Does our relationship with the Divine need to be mended or restored? The Wheel turns to the festival of Beltane, a time of purification.
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BELTANE 31 October (Southern Hemisphere); 30 April (Northern Hemisphere) On the card we see that white light is ascending as the red-tinged darkness recedes. A group of people gather in clearing in the forest. The Sun Child in a purple robe stands at the centre joining with his mother and eleven other people, all clasping hands in a circle. In the Pagan story this festival celebrates the sexual union of the Goddess and the God. The sacred writings speak to us of the intimate relationship the Divine seeks to share with all people who embrace the love of the divine Child. It is symbolically described as a marriage with the people called the “Bride of the Divine� (Isaiah 54:5-7; Hosea 2:16-20; Matthew 22:2-14; Ephesians 5:25-32), here pictured with the divine Child in a circle symbolising unity. This sacred union, the writings say, is celebrated on the earth and in the skies, and will be purified in a future fulfilment of the relationship which is pictured as a wedding feast (Revelation 19:7). If our relationships with the Divine, the world, and each other, are not like this, what do we personally need changed? The light is ascending at the festival of Beltane and we will soon reach the longest day of sun: Litha. The festival of Litha is a time of change. Will we seek the change we need to stand in the fullness of light? Can we accept that change involves the death of the past?
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LITHA or SUMMER SOLSTICE 20-23 September (Southern Hemisphere); 20-23 June (Northern Hemisphere) It is the longest day. The sky is bright yellow and the fields are green, but also growing thorns in many places. The Yule tree is again pictured at the centre standing on the hill above the tomb. One the tree can be seen the image of the divine Sun of Righteousness, but his face is covered in blood and his head bearing a laurel of thorns. At Litha, according to the story, the Sun God is killed by the Dark Lord. The sacred writings tell us that the divine Child was also put to death by being nailed to a tree (Matthew 27:45-56; John 19:16-37). We see in the picture the suffering which the Sun of Righteousness experienced. We can see why this history meets the description of Litha as a time of “blood and thorn,� and that in the sacred writings it is a time of death. Before the tree stand his mother and a group of women weeping. Further away a group of soldiers stand. Another group of men can just been seen hiding in a forest in the background. The sacred writings tell us that in this sad event the men who followed the Sun of Righteousness ran away to hide. The women, including his mother, stood by him when the soldiers, also men, put him to death (Matthew 27:55-56). Sadly the role of these women has usually been forgotten, as has the initial cowardice of his male followers (Matthew 26:56, 69-75). It reminds us that the Sun of Righteousness is waiting and wanting to welcome all people of all races, female and male, and from whatever situation in life we may be found (Galatians 3:28). In the trees the shadowy face of the dark figure can be seen. The Dark Lord delights in death, and perhaps saw this as the victory of darkness over light. But death can bring about change leading to new life, and, as
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we have seen, the sacred writings see this as the victory of light over darkness. Do we seek freedom from the pattern of good and evil in our lives, and from the cycle of life and death? The light is declining as the Wheel turns to the festival of Lughnasadh, a time of sacrifice. Is the light to remain in our lives? How?
LUGHNASADH or LAMMAS 2 February (Southern Hemisphere); 1 August (Northern Hemisphere) Light has begun to decline again. The sky is orange and gold. An altar with purple altar cloth stands at the centre. Upon it stands a single loaf of bread and a cup of wine. Around the altar a group of twelve people are standing in a circle and at the table stands the Sun of Righteousness. In the Pagan story Lughnasadh celebrates the death of the Sun King for life. The God is symbolically eaten as bread. The sacred writings tell us that the Sun of Righteousness declared to his followers that his death was a sacrifice to bring about new life (John 12:24-25). He encouraged them to often share a meal together in which they ate bread to symbolise the death of his body on the tree, and to drink wine to symbolise the spilling of his blood. This meal was to help them remember the sacrifice (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23). In the foreground some seeds are sprouting. Berries are also growing around the altar. These can serve to remind us of this new life, and that it
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is intended to apply not only to us but to the whole earth (Romans 8:1825). They also tell us that a harvest is coming . . . The Mabon festival is the time of harvest. It is a time of hope. What do we hope will be the “harvest” of our lives: darkness or light, life or death?
MABON or AUTUMN EQUINOX 20-23 March (Southern Hemisphere); 20-23 September (Northern Hemisphere) Red light and dark brown sky again stand equal. In the foreground a field of wheat and corn is ripening. In the field the group of twelve are looking toward the sky. To the other side stand another group of people; many are carrying weapons in their hands. The Pagan story of the harvest is paralleled in the sacred writings’ references to a future harvest where the Divine will embrace those who embraced the Child and call to account those who have rejected this embrace, choosing to dance to other tunes (Matthew 13:30; Revelation 14:15-16). Thus the two groups are symbolised in this picture, as well the role of the divine Child as harvester, hence the sickle in his hands. In the sky the divine Sun of Righteousness ascends towards the sun, carrying his sickle. In the story, the Sun King also travels to the undying lands, or the “Land of Youth” in Celtic mythology. The sacred writings affirm this story to be true of the Sun of Righteousness who, having risen from death—“the firstborn of the dead,” (Colossians 1:18) travelled to prepare a place for his followers and will return to “harvest” the people of the Divine. This is the hope the divine Child offers.
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The Wheel of the Year has turned full circle as we return to the festival of Samhain. Will the circle continue to turn or can we seek a new beginning offering re-birth from the cycle of ever-battling light and darkness, good and evil, life and death? Samhain symbolises a time of rebirth.
SAMHAIN or HALLOWEEN, the DAY OF THE DEAD 30 April (Southern Hemisphere); 31 October (Northern Hemisphere) Darkness is ascending once again. The red darkness seems to overpower the white light. In the foreground, however, various fruit trees are growing. Will life always be a battle of light and darkness? The fruit trees remind us of the fruit of the harvest? Will we choose to be among the fruit? The tomb can be seen beneath the Yule tree and below it the dark underworld. However, the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb is still rolled away and from it people are walking in two groups. Those brightly dressed are carrying in the harvest of grain and driving a flock of sheep, and those darkly clad are carrying weapons and driving a flock of goats. We are reminded here of the sacrificial death of the Sun of Righteousness leading to new life. The tomb leading to the underworld is empty. Samhain is the time when, according to the Pagan story, the gates of life and death are opened for both the living and the dead, as has already happened according to the sacred writings (Matthew 27:52-53; John 11), and will happen again at the end of time (John 5:25-30; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Here we see the harvest of people from every time and place. Those who have chosen to embrace the Divine and have joined in the fruits of the harvest (the Sun
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of Righteousness symbolised them by referring to them as the sheep) come out of the tomb together those who rejected the “light of the world” (referred to as the goats) and a share in the harvest (Matthew 25:31-46).
THE WHEEL AND THE TREE The final card illustrates the intersection of the myth of the Wheel of the Year and the history of the Tree of Life which, we believe, is the fulfilment of the Wheel. You can see the body of a woman dancing over the circular world symbolised by the four elements which symbolically constitute the visible world: “fire,” “air,” “earth,” and “water”; each identified by a candle, a feather, salt and a cup. The woman is in front of the Tree which covers the earth centring its circle but also branching out beyond it. If you look closely at her body you will see that she is about to give birth to a child: the divine Child of Promise who is also the Sun of Righteousness. The intersection of the Wheel and the Tree symbolise the intersection of a circle and a cross, as in the shape of a Celtic cross. [27] The Wheel may stand for the circle of the world and its cycle of seasons, as well as the cycle of light and darkness, and the battle of opposing forces of good and evil. We are told that, “The center of the circle is the point of transformation. It corresponds to pure essence, to timelessness, to transparent light, to the power to go, to move, change, transform.” [28] The intersection of the Wheel and the Tree centres the world at the point where the divine Child is to be born. If you look closely you may notice that the body of the Sun Child is in the shape of a pentagram, a five-pointed star, which has many symbolic correspondences. The points of the pentagram may correspond to the
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four elements of fire, air, earth, water, and the fifth invisible element, “spirit.” They may also be symbolic of a person with each of their limbs outstretched symbolising the four elements, reminding us that we are made from the earth. The head indicates the “fifth element,” or “quintessence” (its Latin name). The other elements come from the fifth element to which, therefore, the world itself owes its existence. The intersection of the Wheel and the Tree centres the world at the point where the divine Child is to be born. This intersection also points us to the Child as the source of the fifth element, “spirit,” and suggests to us that it is the divine Child who has made us spiritual beings and from whom we may receive the divine Spirit who gives the power to transform our lives (John 16:4-15; 20:22). The pentagram is often set within a circle, and is then called a pentacle. Here it is set within the circle or wheel of the world and its seasons which, Pagan writers say, “can represent the wheel of life, the encircling of the divine, or the union of the material and spiritual realms.” [29] This suggests to us that the divine Child who, being the fruit of divine and human union joins the material and spiritual realms, is both the encircling of the Divine and the one who offers life. He “became flesh and lived among us,” the sacred writings say (John 1:14). The shaping of the Child’s body as a pentagram also foreshadows his future life, for the position of a human body represented by the pentagram resembles the body of someone put to death on a tree. This Child of Promise was born into the real world and grew up to die on the Tree of Life [30] to offer the sacrificial death of his divine self that triumphs over darkness, leads us to the re-birth of new life, and finally to the harvest of the undying lands. It has been written that, “The essential teaching of the myth is connected with the concept of sacrifice.” And, “For both women and men, the God is also the Dying God—as such his death is always in service of the life force.” [31] The sacred writings say: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The writings tell us that the Sun of Righteousness was named Yeshua (meaning, “The Divine liberates”), or, in English, Jesus. The history of Yeshua which fulfils the poetry of the myth is told in the four sacred writings named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We invite you to read them in a new light and consider whether this Yeshua was indeed the
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divine Child of Promise in the flesh, who lived among us as the Sun of Righteousness? What does this mean for us? Again it has been written that, “This is the myth: […] We each become the Hanged One: the herb hung up to dry, the carcass, hung to cure, the Hanged Man of the Tarot, whose meaning is the sacrifice that allows one to move on to a new level of being.” [32] Our sacred writings ask us, “Do you not know that all of us who have been initiated into Jesus were initiated into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by initiation into death, so that, just as Jesus was raised from the dead, by the glory of God, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:3-5). “Sabbats are also a time for the Witch to look within, to reassess the lifepath taken so far, and to reaffirm the directions she or he wishes to take in the future.” [33] Do you see the fulfilment of the Pagan story in the history of Yeshua the Sun of Righteousness, the divine Child of Promise? Do you see the mystery of beginning and ending revealed in it? Would you like to share in light’s victory over dark? Would you like to celebrate new life from death by sharing in the death and new life of the Sun of Righteousness? Would you join together with us in symbolically eating the Sun of Righteousness as bread and wine to symbolise acceptance of this new life? End Notes: [1]
Antonie Wessels, “Comparative Inculturations,” in The Origin of Christendom in the West, Alan Kreider (ed), Edinburgh & New York: Clark, 2001, 337-355 (338). Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was Professor of the History of Religions in the University of Chicago from 1958-1986.
[2]
Wessels, “Comparative Inculturations,” 337 (abstract).
[3]
That the origins of Neo-Paganism are entirely fictional is argued by Michael York, “Invented Culture/Invented Religion: The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism,” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 3/1, 1999, 135-146. It is more accurate, we believe, to recognise these beliefs, in common with many other new/alternative spiritualities (once termed the “New Age”) as a synthesis of various premodern, modern and postmodern beliefs and practices: see Lars Johansson, “New Age—a synthesis of the premodern, modern and
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postmodern,” in Faith and Modernity, Philip Sampson, Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden (eds), Oxford: Regnum, 1994, 208-251. [4]
See, for example, Adam Possamai, “Cultural Consumption of History and Popular Culture in Alternative Spiritualities,” Journal of Consumer Culture 2/2, 2002, 197-218.
[5]
Joanne Pearson, “Introduction,” in Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age, Joanne Pearson (ed), Religion Today: Tradition, Modernity and Change 5, Milton Keynes: The Open University & Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002, 1-12 (5). For a careful and comprehensive historical study of the ritual year, both Pagan and Christian, see Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. With the exception of Beltane, Hutton’s assessment was an “almost total absence of concrete evidence concerning pre-Christian seasonal rituals in the British Isles” (218).
[6]
Matthew Phillips & Julia Phillips, The Witches of Oz, Berks, UK: Capall Bann, 1994, 65.
[7]
Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today, rev. & exp. edn, Boston: Beacon Press, [1979] 1986, 25.
[8]
Starhawk (Miriam Simos), Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987, 25; cited in Jone Salomonsen, Enchanted Feminism: Ritual, Gender among the Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco, Religion and Gender, London & New York: Routledge, 2002, 137.
[9]
Ross Clifford & Philip Johnson, Jesus and the Gods of the New Age: Communicating Christ in Today’s Spiritual Supermarket, Oxford: Lion, 2001, 54. By noting “parallels” between the gospel and the Wheel myth we are not suggesting that there are not significant differences: see, Clifford & Johnson, Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, 161. On “mythic apologetics,” see Philip Johnson, “Apologetics and Myths: Signs of Salvation in Postmodernity,” Lutheran Theological Journal 32/2, July 1998, 62-72.
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[10] Clifford & Johnson, Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, 26. [11] Clifford & Johnson, Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, 23. [12] See Don Richardson, Peace Child, 3rd edn, Ventura, CA: Regal, [1974] 1976, 170-219. This method is developed in Don Richardson, “Redemptive Analogy,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 3rd edn, Ralph P. Winter & Steven C. Hawthorne (eds), Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, [1981] 1999, 397-403. Here Richardson asserts that, “The New Testament approach is to communicate by way of redemptive analogy” (397), and that, “Outside of scripture, it appears that God’s general revelation is the source of redemptive analogies worldwide (see Ps 19:1-4 and John 1:9)” (397). [13] Richardson, Peace Child, 206 (original emphasis). [14] Boyce W. Blackwelder, Light from the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, [1958] 1976, 41. [15] Roger Lundin, Clarence Walhout & Anthony C. Thiselton, The Promise of Hermeneutics, Grand Rapids, MI & Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans, 1999, 164. [16] Charlotte Allen, “The Scholars and the Goddess,” <electronic document> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/allen.htm (accessed 8/12/2001). [17] London Bible College authors, Church Life & Today’s World: Not Conformed but Transformed, Queensway: Scripture Union, 2002, 17. [18] Fiona Horne, “Fiona Horne in Her Own Words,” RollingStone 552, September 1998, 62. [19] Fiona Horne, Life’s a Witch! A Handbook for Teen Witches, Sydney, Random House Australia, 2000, 1. [20] Anatha Wolfkeepe, “Jesus is One of Us,” WitchCraft 12, 1999, 4145 (42). [21] See Fiona Horne, Witch: A Personal Journey, Sydney: Random House Australia, 1998, 77-82; and, Starhawk (Miriam Simos), The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, [1979] 20th
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anniversary edn, 1999, 197-213. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 235, declares that, “Myths in the Craft are not graven in stone.” For another version by T. Thorn Coyle, see Starhawk, M. Macha NightMare & The Reclaiming Collective, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997, 1619. Other books on the Wheel include Gail Duff, Seasons of the Witch: Celebrating the Eight Wiccan Festivals of the Year, Berkeley, CA: Ulysses, 2003; Janet & Stewart Farrar, Eight Sabbats for Witches, London: Robert Hale, 1981; Edain McCoy, The Sabbats: A New Approach to Living the Old Ways, Llewellyn’s World Religion and Magick, St Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2001; and Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days: A Guide to the Festivals, Traditions, and Sacred Days of the Year, Rochester, VT: Destiny, 2001; Shelley Rabinovitch & James Lewis, The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism, New York: Citadel, 2002. For an example of the adaptation of the Wheel of the Year for use in Christian liturgy, see Richard E. Kuykendall, Liturgies of the Earth, Prescott, AZ: Educational Ministries, 1992. [22] Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 53. The internal references in this quote are to James Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 2 vols, 1890, 2nd edn, 3 vols. 1900; and Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, 1948. In his “Editorial Introduction” to the 4th edition of The White Goddess (London: Faber & Faber, 1997, xi), Grevel Lindop summarised the roles of Frazer and Graves in popularising the key elements of the myth: “The Golden Bough had demonstrated that a wide range of primitive religions centred on a divine king, a man who represented a dying god of vegetable fertility and who either killed his predecessor, reigning until killed in his turn, or else was sacrificed at the end of a year’s kingship. Grave’s contribution was to supply the missing female part in this drama: to suggest that originally the god-king was important not for his own sake, but because he married the goddess-queen; and that whilst kings might come and go, the queen or goddess endured.” Whilst, from a purely historical perspective, Frazer’s thesis of a widespread myth of the sacrifice of the year king which paralleled the death and resurrection of Christ has been discredited by later anthropology which demonstrated that similar myths often have dissimilar origins, from a missiological perspective, the
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parallels in the modern myth generated by Frazer’s thesis provide the basis for our redemptive analogy. [23] Philip Johnson and John Smulo, “Reaching Wiccan and Mother Goddess Devotees,” Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost, John W. Morehead (eds.), Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach, Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2004, 209-225. [24] Horne, Witch, 79. [25] Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 235. [26] See Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return, trans. Willard R. Trask, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, [1949] 1954. [27] This association was derived from Loren Wilkinson’s articles, “Circles and the Cross: Reflections on Neo-paganism, Postmodernity, and Celtic Christianity,” Crux 32/4, December 1996, 15-30; repr. Evangelical Review of Theology 22/1, January 1998, 28-47; and “The Bewitching Charms of Neopaganism,” Christianity Today, 15 November 1999, 55-63. [28] Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 93. [29] Joyce & River Higginbotham, Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centred Religions, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2002, 233. [30] The term “Tree of Life” was adopted from the title of H.J. Massingham’s book, The Tree of Life, London: Chapman & Hall, 1943 (cited in Wilkinson, “Circles and the Cross,” 30, n. 15); which we have been unable to obtain. [31] Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 53 & 131. [32] Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 126. [33] Melissa Deitz & Laeticia Valverde, “A Witch’s Calendar,” in WitchCraft Beginner’s Guide to Wicca & Magick, Christine Froebel (ed), Alexandria, NSW: FTP Magazines, n.d., 61-67 (61).
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