We stayed over with my in-laws last night. I hate going there for many reasons, but this one has been on my mind: I don't really care how someone chooses to decorate their home, after all it's for them to look at every day, not me. I do take issue with judgmental people who think their sex death and rebirth cult is better than yours. I have my child with me in this place and honestly, I shelter him from unpleasant things, like violence. This is mostly led my him: He hates conflict. He hates when characters in a movie or tv show are mean to each other with words, let alone fisticuffs. He won't watch Night at the Museum 2, not just because it's a crappy movie, but because they argue and chase each other and are mean. I've tried to talk him through it and use it as an example of how not to solve a problem or how to defend yourself, but he wants no part of it. There, I've gotten that out of the way so you can stop judging me now for being an overprotective Mom. ;)
All over this house we stayed in last night, are crucifixes. Not just the cross, these include the guy hanging dead with blood dripping down his face and arms and feet and side. I've previously explained Jesus as the Christian version of other sacrificial kings like The Green Man, or the lord of the grain who gives his spirit to feed us, or any other number of deities who have held that role. That's a general concept, but this is very specific kind of violent imagery we're talking about now.
Of all the lore the lifted from the other cults of their day, the Christians took that particular one (the deity sacrificed for his people) and went literal with it. Seriously, do you have to have the most graphic version of this concept hanging around? (no pun intended. ok, maybe it was.). So what do I do? What do I tell my son when he sees the dead, bleeding, torture victim hanging around the house? Why should I be forced into this conversation now, especially when I know how it would upset him.
Several years ago, the last time we were at their house, he asked who the statue of the girl was. My sister in law, who has no children, immediately said "The Virgin Mary." I said "That's a version of the Mother Goddess, see she's dressed like Isis?" I took my sister in law aside and told her plainly: "We don't talk about sex, he's not old enough to understand the word 'virgin' so I will answer any questions he has, about both sex and religion." Is the word that big a deal? Maybe not, but I think any mother would get defensive if a virtual stranger started talking to their toddler about sexual terms. At least I do. That's for parents to discuss.
So this whole thing has me thinking tonight, why is this sex and death and violence cult better than all of the others to its followers? Because it's theirs? Because it was beaten into them over generations of persecution? Because they deny it's a sex and death cult? They might not be having the sex, but the fact that there is so much focus on the Virgin and Virginity-as-holy makes it sex-focused. I just remembered being told as a kid that only men are supposed to wear Jesus actually on the cross, but was never told why. Not like I asked to wear one, I was too busy asking why the crossbar was so high because it should be in the middle for balance.
These are the same people who are quick to tsk-tsk magic or Witchcraft, or freak out about a story in the paper involving alleged Santeria practitioners (which it almost never is truly about them anyway) and animal sacrifice. And yet these are the same people with a dead man mounted on a tree whose blood and flesh they ritually eat on a weekly basis. And these are the same people who, at first, refused to attend our Pagan wedding ceremony because we were invoking a Goddess and saying different words than they're used to. At least we weren't practicing cannibalism in the ceremony. Ahem. When they didn't get the attention or concessions they wanted, they showed up. They also had to stfu when my husband's Aunt, a nun and the sweetest, kindest woman you could ever hope to know, said she'd be there with bells on and with the blessing of her Priest because "we do interfaith things all the time, and this is a wedding so it's even more wonderful!" <3
I'd like to think I'm over that incident since it was more than a decade ago, but when these things happen, it comes up all over again. My Grandmother always counseled "forgive, but never forget." Is that possible? I've forgiven them for it, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stand them for all of these years. However, when faced with these kinds of questions, I will never forget how they acted, or sheer hypocrisy of it all or their sociopath-like capacity to compartmentalize what they do and believe vs what someone else might do and believe.
So what do I do? Tonight I just made a dash for it. We're in a hotel instead of staying with them. Tomorrow? We're supposed to go visit. He hasn't asked yet. If he asks, what do I say? I'll let you know if it happens. I'll let you know of Hubby steps up to the plate. He's the ignore it and it goes away type. I've tried ignoring them for years and it hasn't worked yet! lol
To the new folks following along, hi, I've promised to keep the ranting to only as often as I need to. ;) Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on track with actual magickal postings. I posted recently about how I am called to, or inspired to write certain posts. I had so much to pick from tonight, but the Powers That Be pointed me in this direction. You can't see the time lapse in my writing, but sometimes it takes me hours to get something posted because I stop and read something, or search for a quote or picture. Well now it makes sense. A half hour later, I have two more books on my google book list and a quote from one of them. It an atheistish tract, arguing against Christianity, but it makes every point I like to make about its origin. The christian cult is genetically modified Paganism. Looks like some folks were talking about this over 135 years ago, they just didn't have my catch-phrase ;)
"Like Christ, and like Adonis and Attis, Osiris and Dionysus also suffer and die and rise again. To become one with them is the mystical passion of their worshippers. They are all alike in that their mysteries give immortality. From Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic keys of heaven and hell and assumes the function of the virgin-born Saoshyant, the destroyer of the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach, and the Egyptian Khousu, he is the Mediator; like Khousu, Horus and Merodach, he is one of a trinity, like Horus he is grouped with a Divine Mother; like Khousu he is joined to the Logos; and like Merodach he is associated with the Holy Spirit, one of whose symbols is fire."
"In fundamentals, therefore, Christism is but Paganism reshaped. It is only the economic and doctrinal evolution of the system-the first determined by Jewish practice and Roman environment, the second by Greek thought-that constitutes new phenomena in religious history."Pagan Christs by J.M. Robertson
Make that three books. Should I post an updated book list at the top of every month? I'm currently rereading The Kane Chronicles, not as good as the Percy Jackson series, but an interesting take on Egyptian lore!
PS: While in the National Museum, we entered a room that had a gigantic quartz in front of me and natural, unworked copper on the wall to my right. I felt some really nasty energy and had to dash out of that room as fast as possible. I thought it might have been the quartz (which needs a good cleansing, btw) As soon as I got out, I turned around and saw that it was the room with the Hope Diamond. I wanted to shower off that horrid energy. Bleah. Can this country please get rid of that nasty thing? kthx!
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