tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post967838663629719968..comments2024-01-26T09:10:10.248-07:00Comments on Trey Capnerhurst's Blog: Witch Heritage 101: European Aborignals or When Witch haters joke about anti-Witch filmsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-68834568515371748042013-03-21T19:24:25.577-06:002013-03-21T19:24:25.577-06:00"KNOWLTON in Dorset has a 12th century church..."KNOWLTON in Dorset has a 12th century church set within a huge 4000-year-old earthen henge. This was no accident but a deliberate act on the part of the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory showed his approval of this policy in a letter to the Abbot Mellitus who was in Britain in A.D. 601.<br /><br />“I have long been considering in my own mind concerning the matter of the English people; to wit, that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let water be consecrated and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed there. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more freely resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. And because they are used to slaughter many oxen in sacrifice to devils, some solemnity must be given them in exchange for this, as that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they should build themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which havebeen turned to that use from being temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer animals to the Devil, but kill cattle and glorify God in their feast, and return thanks to the Giver of all things for their abundance; to the end that, whilst some outward gratifications are retained, they may the more easily consent to the inward joys. For there is no doubt that it is impossible to cut off every thing at once from their rude natures; because he who endeavours to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or steps, and not by leaps. Thus the Lord made Himself known to the people of Israel in Egypt; and yet He allowed them the use, in His own worship, of the sacrifices which they were wont to offer to the Devil, commanding them in His sacrifice to kill animals, to the end that, with changed hearts, they might lay aside one part of the sacrifice, whilst they retained another; and although the animals were the same as those which they were wont to offer, they should offer them to the true God, and not to idols; and thus they would no longer be the same sacrifices.”<br /><br />This process of syncresis can be viewed either an instance of an older culture losing out to a new one or as part of a broader cultural evolution in which an older belief gradually melded into another."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-15470045124273494892013-03-20T21:23:50.546-06:002013-03-20T21:23:50.546-06:00A few fiction books, often science fiction, can be...A few fiction books, often science fiction, can be useful re-visionings of our past or future. Some of my favourite fiction teaching books are the <br />Flat Earth series by Tanith Lee http://www.amazon.com/Deliriums-Mistress-Novel-Earth-Series/dp/0886771358 ,<br />The Chronicles of Tonor series by Elizabeth A Lynn http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Tornor-The-Northern-Girl/dp/0441007279/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_7 , The Word for World is Forest by Le Guin, http://www.amazon.ca/Word-World-Forest-Ursula-Guin/dp/0765324644<br />and one of the best feminist utopias, The Wanderground http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_wanderground.html?id=HbpaAAAAMAAJ <br /><br />Thanks for the suggestion!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626580781769379881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7560032271749992180.post-71814775050379260492013-03-20T20:16:22.110-06:002013-03-20T20:16:22.110-06:00Read the version on Witch's Voice and I though...Read the version on Witch's Voice and I thought you might appreciate this book suggestion. Grave Mercy by R. L. LaFevers is a novel about a young woman who goes to stay in the convent of St. Mortain. Later in book it becomes clear that it is a convent such as the one at Kildare that you mention, one that was pagan but converted to a christian model. It turns out that they turn the women accepted into the Convent into holy assassins doing the will of their God, or Saint. Very good read and an interesting fictitious example of that kind of convent. <br />http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9565548-grave-mercy?auto_login_attempted=trueSarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10574420165069255516noreply@blogger.com