In these, the last moments of the second millenia, our race has learned much about ourselves. In the last two hundred years we have possibly learned more than ever before. But then, perhaps not.
We will never, most likely, know all of the wisdom of our ancestors. Of the Romans, Greeks and Hebrews we know a great deal. The various cultures of the East Asian land mass we are familiar with as well. But what of pre-Christian Europe? Or the America's before the conquistedores? The only accounts we have of these lands were written by the conquerors. Generals, like Julius Caesar, were probably the most objective in their writings, but as outsiders, they would have seen little of the people's beliefs and wisdom.
The journals and manuscripts of the Christian monks are, for the most part, to be held with even wider cynicism. To these men the old Gods were the worst sort of demons. Some had a primitive understanding of the concept that what is different is not, per se, evil; but that undestanding did not set aside their belief in their "one True God" in the least.
These are, however, most of what we have to work with, excepting a few long-running hereditary Druid and Witch lines (whose information has also, most likely, been altered slightly from the original through the various retellings it would obviously need to go through before it was finally written down.)
It is unfortunate that some of what we do know about these lost cultures can be rather disturbing. Credible archaologists tell us that some of Ireland's Druids did in fact practice human sacrifice, though opinions on scale and victim profiles vary. Also it has rescently been confirmed that the Maya practiced ritual cannibalism, as well as, possible the Anasazi of New Mexico.
Our pre-Christian ancestors were not the "Noble Savages" they were believed to be in the nineteenth century, nor where they any more perfect than we. Yes, many of them did live closer to the earth than we, but the average lifs span was at best in the forties and many of them held the lives of thier elders, their neighbors, and in some cases even their children, as inconsequential. Our modern "civilization" gives us certain advantages that they did not have, such as computers to learn with. Our children at the ages of twelve or thirteen understand mathematical equations undreamed of by many past groups.
Even taking these negatives into consideration, we have much to learn from the past, much that this modern God "science" is but now discovering. Using herbs to heal the sick, the value of ritual in th mental healing and maintainance arts, even the power of suggestion are all parts of scence and medicine today.
Many of us live in the past, relying on barely remembered sins and glories to give meaning to our modern beliefs. We must, however, remember that the past is just tyhat, the past. The Old Ones are dead and we are their heirs. If we learn from thier mistakes as well as thier accomplishments, and continue to add our blood and sweat to the fold, we may one day accomplish that ultimate achievement that they never lived to see: Understanding and mastery of ourselves.
Where Next?
