The Pagan religions date back about
25,000 years ago, to the Paleolithic
age. This is when the god of hunting and
the goddess of fertility first appeared.
Magic then was used to direct the
hunting and
to ensure the fertility of
the women.
The basic chore then was to gather food
for the villages. If no food grew then
chances were that the village would
perish.
The fundamental concerns of the people
at this time were to hunt, grow food and
reproduce. The men of the village would
act out the hunt to get into the right
frame of mind. Some men would dress as
the animal that they were to hunt. The
leader of the village would dress as an
overseer(or a God).
He would guide as a parent would over
the enacted hunt and decide when the
hunt was a success. When doing so he
would be dressed in animal skins and
wear horns atop his head. By having a
god oversee their hunt, they were given
faith that all would go as planned.
This is the same god recognized by many
Pagans. He is best known as the Horned
God.
Another concern of the time was
reproduction; not only reproduction of
the people of the village but also the
healthy growth of their harvests.
Some call the goddess of fertility
Diana, while others call her Athena.
They prayed to the goddess to make their
harvest bountiful.
The gods soon took on familiar
representations of the sky. The male
aspect was represented by the sun for
the fertilization he provides for the
womb (the Earth).
The goddess was given the form of the
moon. The great god ruled the day and
the long summer seasons.
The goddess ruled the night and the
winter seasons.
Wicca was the name ordinally given to
the priesthood, which by 500 BCE
(before
common era) had begun developing rituals
and festivals.
Sabbats, or holidays, were celebrated
during the Wheel of the year . The
Turning of the Wheel of the year was the
movement from birth to death to rebirth
(one year and a day).
The Coming of the New Religion
Soon, the ways of the common people came
into conflict with a new religion,
Christianity.
Christian priests began asserting that
witchcraft was a pact made with the
devil. They turned the Pagans' beloved
god into their own Satan, saying it was
obvious that they worshiped the devil
because one of the gods that they did
worship was half man and half goat.
Many old ways were adopted in an attempt
to gain the liking of the people who
followed the Old Religion.
The Egyptian trinity of Isis, Orris, and
Harirs became Mary, God and Jesus.
Jesus was born around the late summer or
early fall.
The church of Rome moved the celebration
of his birth and declared December 25
the "true" date of his birth. December
25 also falls very close to the Old
Religion's celebration of the Winter
Solstice — the birth of the sun. Winter
Solstice falls around December 22.
An attempt at mass conversion was made
by Pope Gregory the Great. He believed
that one way to get people to go to
Christian churches was to build them on
the sites of the Old Religion's meeting
places.