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Post by earthworks on Oct 11, 2016 6:29:49 GMT -6
The Romans abandoned them and their empire fell. The Greeks abandoned them and they were overrun by the Turks. They abandoned the Gods and the Gods abandoned them. We must not make the same mistake.
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sasswolf
Newbie
Posts: 15
Pronouns: They
Religion: Reclaiming witch, Gallo-Brittonic polytheist
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Post by sasswolf on Oct 11, 2016 7:23:11 GMT -6
Equally, the Druids were massacred on Anglesey without ever, so far as we know, abandoning their deities or their people. Not that I have any intention of abandoning my gods and goddesses, of course. Was this prompted by anything in particular?
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Redfaery
Junior Member
Posts: 72 
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Religion: Buddhist Polytheism
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Post by Redfaery on Oct 11, 2016 18:35:55 GMT -6
And many cultures in Asia and Africa never abandoned their gods at all, but still suffered immensely under Western colonialism.
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Post by earthworks on Oct 12, 2016 6:43:48 GMT -6
Equally, the Druids were massacred on Anglesey without ever, so far as we know, abandoning their deities or their people. Not that I have any intention of abandoning my gods and goddesses, of course. Was this prompted by anything in particular? My main interest is with the Greco-Roman Gods and I feel that the Huns invasion of the Roman Empire and the invasion of Greece by the Turks was the beginning of the end of the worship of the ancient Gods. I know that the situation is much better for the Nordic Gods with the active Odinist Fellowship and other groups in Northern Europe but the Greco-Roman Gods need our help if they are to be treated with the reverence they once had. |
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Post by earthworks on Oct 13, 2016 6:34:20 GMT -6
I believe the Odinists use the feeling ecstasy, as a way of becoming at one with their Gods. The Greek Gods use beauty to get the same result. I like using both to obtain rapture and joy. We can read all about this in the novel "Death in Ecstasy" where we are taken to The House of the Sacred Flame, where ecstasy is the gateway to the Gods.
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Post by Allec on Oct 13, 2016 13:55:30 GMT -6
Are you familiar with LABRYS, Earthworks? They are a Hellenic (Greek) Polytheist group founded in Greece. I think they are doing a great job of making sure that the Greek Gods are not forgotten in their worship  |
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Post by earthworks on Oct 14, 2016 6:40:29 GMT -6
Are you familiar with LABRYS, Earthworks? They are a Hellenic (Greek) Polytheist group founded in Greece. I think they are doing a great job of making sure that the Greek Gods are not forgotten in their worship No, but thanks for the link. I believe that ecstasy is best achieved in groups rather than just one person, so the site could be interesting. |
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Post by hildeburh on Nov 18, 2016 4:24:47 GMT -6
The Romans and Visigoths engaged the Huns at the battle Chalons in 441, whilst this battle was inconclusive the defeat of Atilla was a serious setback for the Huns. The Huns continued to harry Rome, but eventually the Huns withdrew from Europe, which created a vacuum leading to a mass migratory expansion by Germanic tribes (Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandels) into the Roman Empire, leading to the sack of Rome by the Goths.
The Roman Empire and its religion was in decline long before it was sacked by the Goths or harried by the Huns, Rome's decline was multi-factoral; in effect a perfect storm of internal political instability, military weakness, corruption, bankruptcy, invasion and importation of conflicting religious ideas. Rome imploded internally, the Huns were one of many factors that lead to the fall of Rome and that is the nature of empires.......they rise and fall.
"The situation is much better for the Nordic Gods". How? The ancient Germanic folkways were an oral tradition, we have nothing that has not been written from the perspective of outsides (eg.Tacitus) or that has not been sanitised, reinterpreted or frankly made up by Xtrian authors. At least the Greeks and Romans left written accounts of their gods and forms of worship which can be used by modern pagans to reconstruct a practice.
Please do not use the term Odinist to represent Germanic neopaganism in general, or as a term to represent the many other practices that form our diverse community. Odinists are a right wing group with a specific history and philosophy, which is highly folkist and racially charged, most of us seek to distance ourselves from their folkish rhetoric.
Ecstasy is not a primary characteristic, or even seconday characteristics, of Odinist groups and ecstastic practises are most certainly not best experienced in groups, unless you discount the entire human history of shamanic ecstasy and trance.
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