The Bible Belt's Occult Beliefs (Smile)
69The Birthday Cake, A Pagan Tradition
Pagan Roots of Christian Behaviors as Observed in the Midwestern USA
Christians who want to be publicly known as righteous (in spite of Matthew 6:1) will loudly declare that trick-or-treating, yoga, astrology, tattoos, and other things are "not Christian" or "of the devil" -- seeming unaware of their own occult beliefs and practices. Some Christian habits often have surprising non-Christian roots, including these Bible-Belt superstitions and beliefs:
Angels. A nearby shop sells angel figurines, paintings, jewelry, switchplates, coffee mugs, angel everything; even a little stone cat with wings, to mark the grave of a pet ($110). Belief in unseen and beneficent beings is popular worldwide. Angels appear in both the Old and New Testaments, but without a shred of hard evidence as to their existence, faith alone must serve as evidence (Hebrews 11:1), just as other people's faiths serve as their evidence. Billy Graham wrote a book titled Angels: God's Secret Agents, but angels are most frequently employed by believers, usually as bodyguards and guides. Having an angel on your shoulder is an Islamic belief.
Wishing Wells. Godly women often buy for their gardens usually nonfunctional and waterless scale models of old-fashioned covered wells -- in the hope that the presence of the thing, and the ritual sacrifice of a coin or two, will make their wishes come true. Tossing coins into water to call up magic is an ancient pagan practice.
Decorated Cakes. Christians often make elaborately decorated cakes on special occasions, including sacred occasions; they are thought to attract good fortune. Egyptian paintings from the time of King Rameses show decorated cakes and breads. Cake as we know it -- dense, sweet and leavened not with yeast but with baking powder or soda -- does not appear until the 19th century, but special sweet yeast cakes and breads were offered by the Greeks to their gods and served at pagan Roman weddings. The relatively recent American practice of smearing wedding cake on your new spouse's face comes from India, where it is done to encourage prosperity. On your birthday cake an extra candle to "grow on" ensures you another year of life. And don't forget to make a wish!
St. Joseph Sells Your House. Desperate to sell property, Christians of all kinds, churchgoers and not, will often locate a small statue of St. Joseph and bury it head down in the yard, believing it will attract a buyer (as it often does). You can buy kits for this on amazon.com.
The Holy Spirit. A rockin' Christian band announced that The Holy Spirit would arrive at the stadium at 8 o'clock sharp. Please. Only in fiction does anybody, of any religion, have spirits at their beck and call. "Spirit" comes from the word for "breath." Breath, or Atman, is basic to both Buddhism and Hinduism; thus its tie with yoga. Tell the critics of yoga that it appears to be true in all religions, including Christianity, that breath is very important.
Revivals. These tribal events aim to stir up enough divine energy for miracles to manifest. Moaning, crying, faints and fits, and speaking in tongues, often manifest as well.
Speaking in Tongues: Of all the many gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12), which include healing and the teaching of wisdom, this is the easiest to do and the easiest to fake, and thus the most common and easiest to believe in. The Letter goes on to say tongues are overrated (1 Corinthians 14:1-25) and not very useful if they can't be understood. Those "tongues" are no better than the babbling of the pagan priestess of the same era, at the Oracle of Delphi, not far from Corinth. She, however, had a squad of interpreters.
Native American Lore: There is no white Christian American home that does not have a dream-catcher, or a plaque inscribed with "Grant that I may not criticize a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins," or an image of Kokopelli or an Indian brave at prayer, or a kachina doll or Mexican "trouble dolls," a totem pole, a Navajo blanket, or some turquoise (which proves that the Earth and Sky were once lovers) -- or at least reverence for the spirituality of Native Americans who were not into Jesus at all. Even among the stricter Christian church people, powwows, vision quests, talking sticks and sweat lodges increasingly seem like very good and reasonable ideas.
How delightful that Christians and non-Christians can find commonality on so many levels! Maybe we are not as different as we thought.
Sylvia Sky, experienced astrologer, monitors 70-plus online horoscope sites for quality and accuracy. Read more of her columns at hubpages.com. Copyright 2010 by Sylvia Sky.
More Articles
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (7)
- Funny (3)
- Awesome (3)
- Beautiful (1)
- Interesting (2)
I LOVED this!
hi
very interesting hub
cheers Tony
Yup, lots of pagan based stuff here, borrowed by Christians. Spring solstice for Easter?
As a Christian I enjoyed your hub. Just because a practise has its roots in a non christian idea or system does not make it Evil or Satanic. I for one am not giving up decorated cakes. Also I think Dream catchers are pretty.
As for Angels and the Holy Spirit these ideas were
stolen from the Hebrew God, i.e. The God of Abraham.
The idea of the Angel on your shoulder may be Islamic but Angels were mentioned in the Old Testament which pre-dates the Koran by Centuries.
Very intereasting but i beg to differ on a few things. Yes alot of holiday traditions that christians celebrate have some sort of pagan root. but also on research you can find where there are counters to that. I doubt God will be sending people to hell do to decorated cakes. they didnt really even celebrate birthdays in bibical times, they more so stages of life and deaths. Angels are mentioned throughout the entre Bible you can refer to itand physical proof is available the salt remains of sodom and gamorah were found angels were sent to destroy it remember?. also God judges hearts of man their intentions and such matter the commandments state thou shalt not have any false gods. thou shalt not have any graven images. (idols that you pray too) on that note the joesph statue would be a pagan practice cause you are using it as a form of idol to bring about luck which is a pagan practice. also it states that looking to the stars for answers is witch craft meaning horoscopes and such. We were given commandments to follow but God is the judge everything depends on the individual thoughts,intent and such. The holy spirit is a being a "helper" it is a part of God left on earth to help guide us. Tongues is a very indepth subject Gifts are distributed through the holy spirit at Gods will, not everyone has it also it states satan has a counter for all them so i dont see the relevance in what was said.statues of angels dont make someone unrighteous its the same as the symbol of the cross . someone worshipping the image or idol that is the difference.
Very awesome Hub! Voted Up! Keep up the good work!
Interesting hub. As an atheist I am amused at a lot of so called christian celebrations that are really rooted in pagan practices. Also, the celebration of passover, which is one of the bibles bloodiest celebration appallals me. If indeed the angel of death killed the children of people that didn't have a certain mark above their doorway, there is nothing to be celebrated there. The bible is just filled with death, destruction, torture, killing, mayhem, and people just love it!
As a Christian I found this hub quite interesting and made me smile. There is so many similarities. Did you also know that church bells at one point had different tones and rang in certain ways? Some call it sound therapy. Praying the rosary can be considered chanting. Making the cross is similar to energy healing, have you ever stopped to see what chakras are involved in making the cross? Some Catholic churches still burn sage, some Catholic Priest's, do not like it when the "common man" burns sage. Is it an ego thing or fear of the inexperienced? We are not to worship idols yet how many Saints do we have that many have kneeled to? So one is... a St. Michael, , similar to... Greek mythology, God of war, Ares. The list is endless. As Christians we are taught that we can call on the Holy Spirit to guide us, isn't that the same as calling on Athena for wisdom? There are books out there that advise us, and show us similarities. I will try to find some again. I enjoyed reading them as a teenager. Many of us Christians are aware of the similarities, and not offended at all. I Mind you I speak for myself, not all Christians. I find sometime traditions very comforting, especially in times of stress. Be careful, if you over do it you could have OCD. LOL Loved your hub!
greengypsywolf1 19 months ago
Very informative article. Although a lot of Christians dont like to speak of it a good part of their holidays, celebrations, and religous practices were blatantly stolen from pagan traditions to make conversion easier.
I say it in such a way because these commonalities are not coincident, but a theological form of robbery.
We are seeing more people come to realize this truth, and therefore see an increase of people seeking out the older religions that spawned what Christianity has become today.
It is my beleif that Christianity will be phased out (Dont get all self rightous on me Christians; they were thousands upon thousands of world religions before you, and there was a very long period where no one ever spoke of your judeo/christian God let alone worshipped him)and aspects of it will be used to convert people to the next hot ticket religion, allowing Karma to even things out once again.