Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods
MATTHEW BRUNWASSER IN TRICHORO, GREECE
IN THE shadow of Mount Olympus the toga-clad worshippers sway to the beating of a drum as the bearded man leading the ceremony throws a pinch of grain into a torch, then circles his hand above the flames.
While the group, dressed in yellow, red and blue robes, may appear to be taking part in some bewildering historical re-enactment, they are members a growing pagan movement dedicated to resurrecting the religion and way of life of ancient Greece.
The pagans have gathered in a meadow near the sacred mountain where their ancestors believed the gods lived and held court to perform a naming ceremony for a nine-month-old boy, Nikoforos Xanthopoulos.
The bearded man officiating, Tryphon Olympios, 58, from Skliva in southern Greece, was a philosophy professor at Stockholm University for 25 years.
"May he be worthy of being Greek" Olympios calls out.
"Worthy," the crowd roars in response.
Leaders of the "return of the Hellenes" movement say they have 2,000 "hard-core" practising followers, about 5,000 who travel to Mount Olympus, 100km southwest of the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, for the annual celebration, and 100,000 "sympathisers" who support their ideas.
The colourful Hellenes are viewed with interest by many in Greek society but largely ridiculed by the media. Yet their unsuccessful efforts to be recognised as an "official" Greek religion highlight Greece’s intolerance of the expression of non-Christian religions.
Olympios - now his legal name - is one of the founders of the revival. He first attracted national media attention when he publicly married his wife in an ancient ceremony in 1987.
"We want to take the world view, concepts, ideas, religion and values of the ancient Greeks, the founders of western civilisation, and adapt them to today," Olympios explained. "The Greek way is to establish a scientific society. Christianity today is hostile to science."
The Hellenes have dozens of websites and books on ancient history, culture and ideas. Ancient Greek language courses and unofficial associations are popping up throughout the country. They also hold ancient ceremonies for weddings and funerals, although only the rites of Greek Orthodox Christian clergy are legally recognised.
"We think of Carl Sagan as a Greek, and all the people in the world who love knowledge and don’t hate others," said Giannis Psomiadis, 48, a medical doctor at the naming ceremony. "We wouldn’t have Socrates or Plato without polytheism."
One of the group’s followers is Cornelia Buschbeck. The 32-year-old from Chemnitz, in the former East Germany, was wearing a white T-shirt showing a picture of a bust of Zeus.
She started teaching herself Greek at 15, and later obtained university degrees in Greek and archeology. She moved to Thessaloniki eight years ago.
"It’s a religion from here," said Buschbeck, placing a hand on her heart, "rather than here," pointing to her head.
Buschbeck explained that Hellenes do not worship the pantheon of 12 gods as deities. Rather, each god represents a natural phenomena or human value.
The movement appeals to many different tastes: for some it provides an intellectually satisfying philosophy, for others an antidote to the Greek Church’s political power, New Age reverence for the ancient or something exotic for the curiosity-seeker.
However, the movement has also attracted a small number of more sinister followers; right-wing nationalists who believe their anti-Semitic views are reflected in its rejection of the Judeo-Christian religion.
Meanwhile, the Hellenes are viewed with disdain by the Greek Orthodox Church.
About 200 yards from the meadow where the naming ceremony was being held, a small crowd filed out of a stone Christian church, following a baptism. When the priest was asked for comment, he responded with hostility: "I have only one word to say about them: idolaters."
The Hellenes still mourn the end of their civilisation in the 4th Century AD, when Christians representing the new official religion of the Roman Empire began destroying their temples, statues and libraries.
"The Greek Orthodox Christian Church is still at the scene of the crime," said Vlassis Rassias, a human resources manager at a bank, who writes books about ancient Greek history. The 44-year-old is indignant that the Greek Orthodox Church today builds new churches at every site where an ancient temple is uncovered.
One group of Hellenes, led by Panaghiotis Marinis, from the Committee for the Recognition of the Greek Religion Dodecatheon, applied two years ago for the movement to be officially recognised. The Greek government has still to make a decision on the application and, without official recognition, the group cannot build temples, have an office, or hold public ceremonies.
"We are the only religion in the world not allowed to visit our sacred sites," said Marinis. He intends to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if the Greek government does not act.
According to the US State Department’s 2002 human rights report on Greece: "Laws restrictive of freedom of speech remained in force, and some legal restrictions and administrative obstacles on freedom of religion persisted."
Making Greek society more tolerant will not be easy. According to official figures, 98% of Greeks are Greek Orthodox Christians. And Hellenes report occasional harassment. During one ceremony at a lake near Mount Olympus, Buschbeck recalls, the local Greek Orthodox Christian Bishop and some monks led a group of 100 people to the other side of the lake to oppose them. The Bishop shouted at them through a megaphone, and played cloister music through a PA system to drown out their ceremony.
"The Bishop said they would have to throw a cross in the lake to cleanse it of us," Buschbeck said. When the Hellenes complained to police, they were told it would be better that they leave, rather than have a stand-off with the Bishop.
At the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs, Konstantinos Kontogiannis, general director of the religion directorate, claimed recognition of the movement was being considered "at the highest levels". But he added:
"We might love Manchester United, but we can’t say it’s a religion."
TiLeiOhMaleas
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 8:05 pm) Reply
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
LoL thats kind of weird,
True Hellene ,if you can, keep posting the recent stories about these pagans, want to follow this story.
ISKANDERAZEM
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 8:07 pm) Reply
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
<<<One group of Hellenes, led by Panaghiotis Marinis, from the Committee for the Recognition of the Greek Religion Dodecatheon, applied two years ago for the movement to be officially recognised>>>
If Greeks are not allowed to practice this religion how would Albanians?
I suppose the answer to this group would be to come and practice it in Albania, amongst the true believers of ZEUS.
And of course hoping that Greek nationalists wouldn't be there to do their dirty work.
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
Maybe we are the freaks...ever stop to think about that...2000 years of brainwashing,,crusefixtions stories of a burning Hell a devil with horns, intimidations, thank the jews for that!
Pyrrhus The Molossian
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 8:10 pm) Reply
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
as iskander says, the true followers of Ze are in mount Tomorrus, in Albania of course, on the Summers' Day on 23 of March tens of thousands of worshipers climb the mountain for inspiration, reflection and philosophy, meeting the priestesses at the sacred grounds to ask for guidamce and the help of the fates,
AMEN
TiLeiOhMaleas
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 8:12 pm) Reply
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
Why dont they just go to the Oracle of Delphi
Or climb Mount Olympus, or go to the Acropolis and see all those surviving statues of gods and places of worship.
Its easier for Pagans to worship something that is actualy before them and that ahs survived, rather than worshipping nothing which probably never existed.
Illyrius
Unregistered User
(10/4/03 8:13 pm) Reply
Re: Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
" Why dont they just go to the Oracle of Delphi "
Or they could just ask Jesus, Moses or Mohammed (or any other character from SEMITIC religions or sects) to appear before them since we all know how often something like that happens. Why in a world would one even doubt beauties of dogmatic Semitic religions.
" Or climb Mount Olympus, or go to the Acropolis and see all those surviving statues of gods and places of worship."
Or perhaps remember a highly civilized act of Christians burning of Delphi over a millennium and a half ago right after they 'declared' Hellenic Gods will not return .
" Its easier for Pagans to worship something that is actualy before them and that has survived, rather than worshipping nothing which probably never existed. "
Exactly, add to that warshipping THEIR HELLENIC GODS as opposed to semitic fairy tales. On top of that Hellenic Religion is VASTLY more colorful, complex (as any story about Gods should be) and interesting than semitic ones (which have a cold, almost demonic, feel to them), more realistic for it doesnt view faulty Humans as most 'sacred' to Gods and even made in 'gods image' (but rather as almost a mistake that barely deserves their time of day unless earned).
Lets not forget semitic dogma that makes a human almost ashamed to be human and always asking to be forgiven by a everloving God that will otherwise sent you to Hell for you to burn for eternity. Hellenic Tartarus is imagined as a cold place, almos a void, but NOT one where people are TORTURED for eternity for disobeying the everloving God (the very God that loves all). Does a story get more hypocritical than that or should I also add to the story an idea of a monotheistic religions with multiple acters with Godlike powers (according to evertrusting book).
For, is our heart so fragile and delicate to see the world from a perspective that might not be human?
Ancient and free Hellenic (the very one that created civilization) one wasnt and they certainly arent to be made fun of for no civilization before or after have ever surpassed their mind and especially not the ones driven by semitic dogma which is alergic to a different (not to say opposing) opinion from their own.
If ever there was a truer religion for Hellenic Haimos it was and it remains as only the Hellenic one, the only true Hellenic one.
Semitic religions were custom made for Semites and only Semites who mainly live in dogma driven states (where opposition is nonexistent and spells a death sentence) while Europe has been freeing itself from its shackles since the days of Napoleon while now most of its populace is free to think with their own head (something that was unimaginable when Christianity ran supreme and unabated in middle ages when 99% of Europeans were ILLITERATE and the only literate ones were, you guessed it, higher church officials).
Story doesn't end there but even in non-Semitic Turkey and Iran, slowly but surely, shackles of Semitic dogma are being rejected for it was never meant to belong there while another factor for disintegration of Semitic shackles is BEING LITERATE AND EDUCATED (an ultimate penicillin).
ps: renaissance existed not because of Semitic dogma but in spite of Semitic dogma and it represented the ancient Hellenic and Roman free spirit coming back to life even after centuries of dogmatic darkness.
Hindus, the last of the Pagans?
Hindus, the last of the Pagans?
What is called paganism, heathenism, and polytheism is in fact the Natural religion of humanity. In areas where it has survived the onslaught of anti-human ideologies with their ego gods, it has retained its self-respecting name. In Japan it is Shinto, in Taiwan Confucianism And Taoism, and in India as Hinduism.
When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constatantine, the natural humanistic beliefs were proscribed. With the spread of Christianity after the fall of Rome, the story was the same across Europe, the Maghreb and the former Roman Middle East. The high philosophy of the Greeks, the ancient beliefs of ancient nations like the Armenians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Celts, Teutones, Norse, Slavs, and last of all, right up to the thirteenth century, the Lithuanians, fell to the rapacious jaws of iconoclastic and dogmatic Christianity. Under both the dominant Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, manifestations of the natural religion was condemned as sorcery, Satanism, and witchcraft. The incineration of heretics at the stake replaced the pluralism which had been the standard of classicalist Europe under Celtic, Roman and Greek cultures. Schism and reformation brought no respite. The Russian Orthodox church became perhaps the most backward and regressive of all Christian sects. Protestants saw veneration of icons and celebration of life as remnants of paganism which had to be stamped out. The Catholic multinational machine became even more zealous. Yet this could not stem rationalism which stemmed from the Renaissance, a rediscovery of the classical past. Christ now paled in the shadow of a resurrected Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Pythagoras. Voltaire saw that Confucianism made Chinese civilization every much as valid as Europe but without the inflexible dogmatism that made science a slave to the accursed one, the Church. Thomas Jefferson pondered whether the Christian deity was a god or a devil. It was these rationalist ideas, which fuelled The industrial revolution, made western states the most powerful, brought ideas of democracy and free thought, as well as toleration of pluralism in personal belief. It had nothing to do with Christianity, which now sought refuge in opposition or mutated form, seeking allies with Fascists, National Socialists, and Marxists, people for whom the very idea of personal belief was a complete anathema.
In Europe today Christianity presents a different face, of compassion, equality, multiculturalism, and interfaith pluralism. But this has not been the case throughout history. It is not even the case now in India. While the fundamentalist Christian propaganda machine, losing souls it once considered its private property in Europe, pumps out the blatant untruth of Hindus as Nazis, fundamentalists, and satanic followers in India, it is forgotten just how much damage Christianity did to the paganism of Europe. How many were burnt at the stake or killed by some other means? How many were forcibly converted by zealous crusaders like Charlemagne? How many temples were desecrated and turned into churches for the one ego god? How many Pagan festivals were reincarnated as Christianity such as Christmas itself? Yet this is happening in India right now. In the northeast Christian inspired terrorists are wiping out the indigenous Hindus. Pope John Paul II has said that the future harvest lies in India, and that Hinduism should be annihilated where it contradicts the teaching of the church, which means that it will be annihilated per'se, just as paganism was in Europe. The pagans of Europe who have been told they must have nothing to do with the Hindu Nazis of India should ask themselves if they should believe an ideology which threw Europe under its dogmatic boot for almost two millennia, and yet now cries wolf in the face of resistance in India, the last refuge of what it calls paganism. The propaganda machine pumps out a stream of stories that Hindu Nazis are persecuting Christians. But is it never asked just exactly what Christians are doing converting Hindus in India by? fraud, force or bribery, desecrating Hindus shrines, and demanding heroic status for criminals like Francis Xavier. How quickly the Inquisition of Goa has been forgotten. If paganism is to be revived and flourish as it once did, the pagans of Europe needs to ask themselves this, Should they keep calling themselves by the term pagan, an insulting subjective term invented by the close-minded church? Second, should they not have sympathy for the Hindus of India, who are suffering the same fate that their like minded spiritual brethren did in Europe centuries of Europe? India is the spiritual mother of natural religion. Without India the natural beliefs of humanity can never be fully realised. Can the pagans of Europe thus sit back and let happen in India what they have taken almost two thousand years to throw off themselves? These are not issues for the next few years, but ideas long overdue for now. It must be understood that a renewed fundamentalist church in India would threaten the physical existence of neo-pagans of Europe. The battle between rationalism and dogmatism is not yet over. www.hinduhumanrights.org/hindupagans.htm
Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods !!!
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