Before diving into your favourite chocolate Easter Egg have you ever taken a moment to wonder where Easter Eggs actually originate from? And no, I'm not talking about your nearest supermarket selling a mass production of chocolate Easter gifts but rather the origin of Easter and why we give Easter Eggs as gifts to one another?

Easter is commonly believed to be a Christian festival where the death of Jesus is remembered and His resurrection is celebrated, however delve a bit deeper into the history of Easter and we discover an earlier association with pagan rituals and the pagan rights of spring. The name Easter comes from a pagan figure called Eastre (or Eostre) who was celebrated as the goddess of spring by the Saxons of Northern Europe. A festival called Eastre was held during the spring equinox by the Saxons to honour her. The goddess Eastre's earthly symbol was the rabbit, which was also known as a symbol of fertility.

When the Saxons came to Britain in the 5th century they brought this Eastre festival which included re-birth and fertility rituals involving eggs, chicks and rabbits with them. Christianity gradually replaced the indigenous religion of the English Saxons around the 7th and 8th centuries and the Saxons began celebrating the death and the resurrection of Jesus. The death and resurrection took place at the feast of Passover in the Jewish calendar which coincided with Eostre, so that's what the early church in Britain called the celebration, Eostre or Easter in modern English.

As well as adopting the pagan festival of Eostre, the Egg, representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times, was also adopted as part of the early Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the 'resurrection' or re-birth of Jesus after His death on the cross. In the UK and Europe, the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated, a practice still carried on in many parts of the world today. As time passed by, the first chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France in the early 1800's and soon spread to the rest of Europe. The first chocolate eggs were solid and they were soon followed by hollow eggs.  By the 20th Century, the moulded Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter gift of choice in the UK and many parts of Europe, and by the 1960's it was well established worldwide.

Today you can find almost any Easter Egg of your choice, from the first mass-produced chocolate Easter Egg manufacturer Cadbury to your favourite organic Easter Egg chocolate gifts. So no matter what your chocolate Easter Egg preference or beliefs of the origins of Easter are, we can all agree that Easter is a time to celebrate and enjoy the festivities that surround this weekend.

Christmas is a conundrum for most people. It's like a rich, octogenarian uncle. You love him, he's insanely funny and provocative, he gives you really nice presents and just might leave you an Italian villa in his will. But he needs to be taken to the bathroom regularly, requires a lot of attention, is opinionated and makes you absolutely crazy when you have to take him to a fancy cocktail party because you never know when he'll pass gas or say something really outrageous, both of which he does loudly.

On the one hand, we all have some gleeful anticipation of the season - the silly and heart-warming movies and TV specials, the decorations, kids singing carols at the mall and all those paid days off. And on the other hand, many of us dread the pressure and pace of Christmas cards, shopping, the crowds, and ultimately (gulp) the obligatory family gatherings.

This social psychosis complicates the season enough, but when you add in the rhetoric from the religious community The War on Christmas, Jesus is the Reason for the Season, etc. you introduce even deeper layers of self-condemnation and anxiety. What to do, what to do?

A good starting point is to unravel the multi-layered hairball of traditions and religious implications that have come to define Christmas. Like most of our modern heritage, there's more to this kaleidoscopic than meets the eye. Once we can see what all is going on, then maybe we can bring some sanity and fun to the celebration of it.

The History of Christmas. Actually, we're talking about the History of the Winter Solstice celebrations, which date back over 4000 years. Most of our "Christmas traditions" were originally rituals celebrated centuries before Christ was born. The giving of gifts, carnivals, parades, carolers going from house to house, holiday feasts, and church performances can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians (1500 BC).

Persians, Babylonians, Scandinavians, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians all had elaborate rituals that were celebrated at the Winter Solstice intended to pay tribute to the mythological importance of the sun and to the perennial cycles of nature. But, don't be too quick to dismiss the ancient traditions as being simply pagan rituals. In fact, they were VERY spiritually oriented.

It is true that the peoples that populated what is now the Middle East 3000 years before Christ were polytheistic they had numerous gods. But they were also VERY religious. A large part of their culture was focused on seeking to learn the will of the gods, and the early Winter Solstice traditions reflected that focus. The Romans decked the halls with holly and candles as a tribute to one of their most powerful gods, Apollo. The Scandinavians built huge bonfires and held feasts that lasted for days as a way to help their sun-god defeat the power of darkness. These bonfires and feasts are the beginnings of our famous "Yule" log - the "12 days of Yuletide" was a lengthy ceremony which heralded the power of their gods over the domain of evil.

These beautiful ceremonies and ancient traditions all sought to do what our modern Christian traditions now do celebrate the dominion of the supernatural forces of the cosmos over the earthly world of man. They sought to honor their gods, and sometimes even assist them, in the ongoing battle over darkness.

So, Who Put The "Christ" In Christmas In the First Place? Well, now, that's an interesting, and not fully complete, historical detective story. The most popular conclusion by archeologists, biblical scholars and anthropologists, is that the pagan traditions were co-opted by the early Christian Church. In the first three hundred years after the death of Christ, there was no prescribed "feast" for the occasion of Christ's birth. This was partly because no one actually knew when or where Christ was born and partly because the major Christian celebration was the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Some local monasteries and churches had their own "birthday" celebrations at different times of the year, but it wasn't until the mid-4th Century AD that Christ's birth became an official celebration, complete with a specific date.

Why did it happen then? Getting the diverse peoples of the Roman empire to reject their historical religions and raucous merriment in favor of the official religion of Christianity (so decreed in 350 AD) was no easy matter. Grudgingly, but inevitably, the church accepted the perennial revelry of its diverse citizenry (pagan though it was) and wisely decided to include those celebrations for their own agenda. In what many historians consider to be a stroke of public relations genius, in 320 AD, Pope Julius I proclaimed that the pagan celebration of the December 25th "Festival of the Sun" (Natalis Invicti, i.e. "The Nativity" ) would henceforth also celebrate the Birth of Christ - ta da! Enter the Official Birth Day of Christ.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia The Advent, by 402 AD the "Feast of the Birth of Christ" (the new interpretation of The Nativity) was practiced through out the Holy Roman Empire. The Nativity scene itself (you know, the livestock, the stable, etc.) didn't emerge for another 800 years. In 1223, St Francis of Assisi originated the manger scene based on his interpretation of some little-known ecclesiastical customs. Somewhere around this time, the donkey that Mary rode to Bethlehem emerged as a character in the Nativity.

But, from its inception, there was dissension within the Church about Christmas celebrations. For centuries, many conservative church leaders condemned the revelry and aggressively criticized the endorsement of the sun-worshippers traditions. When the Orthodox pilgrims migrated to the Americas in 1620, Christmas revelry and symbolism were outlawed. Back in England in 1645, Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans succeeded in outlawing "the heathen traditions" of Christmas celebrations throughout England. When Charles II returned to the English throne in 1660, he restored the popular holiday, but the custom had only scattered endorsement throughout the American colonies. After the Revolutionary War, many English customs, including the celebration of Christmas, fell out of favor entirely and didn't begin to re-emerge in the United State until the 1800s.

When Americans did finally begin to embrace Christmas as a family holiday, old customs were unearthed. In the next 100 years, Americans built a Christmas tradition all their own that included pieces of many other customs, including decorating trees, sending holiday cards, gift-giving and the early Christian traditions and stories. In 1836, Alabama became the first state in the US to declare Christmas a legal holiday, but it wasn't until 1907 that Oklahoma finally joined the club and became the last state to do so. Christmas was declared an official US holiday in 1870. The first "official" use of Christmas decorations to lure in shoppers was at a NYC department store in 1900.

So what does that mean today? Basically, it means that there is no historical "truth" to any of the familiar observations we've come to embrace, whether we're talking about the pagan celebrations or the religious ones. They are all made up. Not much sense in fighting, or fretting, over any of them if you ask me.

No One Has Taken The Christ Out Of Christmas. He's still there if you want Him to be, but it never has been His private domain. What's the problem? The Church snaked on the pagans to begin with, and it was a pretty successful strategy. Today, more people around the world practice the Christian traditions than ever before. Isn't that enough? Remember, the Romans tried for about 1,000 years to make Christmas a purely Christian holiday and all they did was divide and antagonize the millions of people for whom it means something different. Don't make the mistake that old Cromwell made. Go ahead and have it your way, it's a beautiful tradition. But, let everyone else enjoy it their way.

Yes, Christmas Is Also About the Money. And for those who shake their heads with disgust about the commercialization of it, you guys need a quick reality check. Christmas shopping is the single most significant economic cycle in America. Hundreds of thousands of businesses rely on if for their very existence. From a commercial health point of view, if it didn't already exist, someone would need to invent it. The money that gets spent around Christmas, for everything from twinkley little lights to airline tickets and pretty new cars is the fuel that keeps our economy plugging along all year. Forget the new homes, it's the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars spent at Christmas that keep America economically strong.

Christmas has a huge positive impact on other aspects of our culture. People are nicer and more tolerant. There have been truces and cease fire's called during times of war for the sake of Christmas. More than half the charitable donations collected for ALL organizations in the US roll in during the Christmas season. Yes, I know, some of that has to do with end of year tax breaks, but it also has to do with Salvation Army red kettles, angle trees, and Goodwill donations. It's a time of year when people feel a greater sense of social conscience and charitable organizations benefit from that feeling of good will. Too bad we don't pony up all year through the way we do at Christmas.

What's wrong with people paying more attention to each other, or with being delighted by the decorations and the music? Let's cover our yards with blow up Santas and mechanical reindeer. Let's turn our living rooms into little magical wonderlands of jolly old elves and candles and angels. Maybe if we spent more time getting in touch with the kid in ourselves we wouldn't have so much interest in polluting the planet and killing people who have different political or religious views than we do. Who cares why we have this expanded consciousness of good will? Whether it comes from a belief in a particular God (or gods) or whether it is simply a willingness to open ourselves up to the most benevolent parts of our nature, what difference does it make? IT'S ALL MADE UP! Anything that elevates man's humanity to man is a GOOD thing, no matter where it comes from!

Now, about that family stuff. I know it can be a pain in the ass. But, you know what? At some core level, we all long for a connection to our roots and our past. Is it so much to ask of ourselves to set aside our electro-media-stimulus-fast paced-gotta-pay-the-rent-on-the-beach-condo-somebody-please-entertain-me addiction to the very things that destroy the peace and harmony in our lives? C'mon, you've got 364 other days that you can obsess over getting ahead and being good enough and worrying about every little ounce you put on this year. You can afford to spend a fraction of your oh-so-important agenda getting in touch with your bloodline. Even if they're all intolerable ass-holes, so what? Practice forgiveness and acceptance.

If you don't want to send Christmas cards, don't. The mailman will love you. The way I see it, anyone who keeps a check-list of who sent Christmas cards and then makes some kind of judgment about it needs to get a real life. And as for all that pressure to buy gifts… GET OVER IT! It isn't going to kill you to get off your butt and think about other peoples delight. And speaking of butts, it isn't going to kill you to stop kissing those of people you don't really want to buy gifts for but do. Buy gifts for people you want to buy them for and be as generous as you want to be. If you don't want to buy a gift, don't. Sometimes it may be appropriate to make some type of gesture, but there are LOTS of things you can do other than buy the latest electronic gadget or such. Flowers, plants, candy or fruit work great. And you can always make a donation to YOUR favorite charity in the other person's name. The No. 1 Rule is to have fun with your gift buying and put some personal thought into it. The No. 2 Rule is NO SUFFERING ALLOWED! (By the way, if you happen to think that books make a nice Christmas gift, then I've got a great one for you. Check out my book at "Your MEGAgiNormous Rules .)

The "Time" Complaint. Not enough time, too much to do, blah, blah, blah. Look here, if you don't have enough time to have fun at Christmas you're just confused about what's important. I'm pretty sure that when you're lying on your deathbed one of the things you WON'T be saying is "Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office and less time enjoying Christmas." There are 525,600 minutes in a year, only about 1500 of which get devoted to really enjoying Christmas. What, are you crazy? Surely you can fit your hectic life into the other 524,000 minutes.

Christmas is too big to be confined to any single ideology. It belongs to all people and to all of history. It has endured for thousands of years because it brings people together and celebrates hope and renewal. It's an excellent time of year that gives us permission to transcend our normal petty natures. We get to be kind and gentle, and care about others and do little things that let those others know we care. We get to have fun, darn it! What, your life is so full of fun you can't stand anymore?

Stop fretting over what you perceive is wrong with it. It's just stupid to turn it into a conflict or some type of litmus test that only serves to divide us. Take what you like from it and leave the rest. And let others enjoy it in their own way. There's something for everyone in Christmas. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year, it we just allow it to be. Have a holly jolly one!

I don't know if you are anything like me... But when I go to church I come away wondering what God truly thinks of it. I mean... I thought church was supposed to be a place where the focus was on Christ. Instead I find that preachers are more interested in trying to make people feel good, teaching them that God wants them to have an abundance of everything that this world has to offer. They teach us that if we give them lots of money then God will give us lots of money. And as for their preaching... Well, it seems that the gospel according to Paul suits their needs more than the Gospel of Christ does.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many pagan traditions celebrated within the church?

Have you ever wondered about Christmas? The supposed Christian celebration of the birth of Christ? Serious scholars of the bible will tell you that Christ wasn't born any where near December 25th. Roman pagans celebrated December 25th as the birth of their 'god' of light, Mithra. Other pagan 'gods' born on Dec. 25th are: Hercules the son of Zeus (Greeks); Bacchus, 'god' of wine (Romans); Adonis, 'god' of Greeks, and 'god' Freyr of Greek-Roman pagans.

And what about Easter? Look up the word "Easter" in Webster's dictionary. You will find: "AS. (Anglo-Saxon), from name of an old Teuton goddess of spring". The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter." The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the Sun god, whose worship is denounced in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.

There are many other Christian traditions that have deep roots in paganism that I won't go into here.

I was under the impression that Christ and His disciples taught all men everywhere to repent. Yet when you go to church you wouldn't think so. "Just say this prayer and you'll be saved" they tell us. "There is no need to repent, Christ paid the penalty for your sins".

The truth is... Two seperate and distint churches formed and developed after the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

1. The Nazarenes: The origal disciples of Yehoshua the Christ.

We know a little about the Nazarenes from Jewish Rabbinic writings, but the more important description of them, although negative, can be found in the writings of the Early "Church Fathers". You see, just as now, the Nazarenes were misunderstood and hated by both the "Church" and Pharisaic Judaism. The fourth century "Church Father" Jerome, described the Nazarenes as "those who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the Old Law" (Jerome; On. Is. 8:14).

Another fourth century Church Father, Epiphanius, gave a more detailed description of how the Netzarim were viewed:

"We shall now especially consider heretics who... call themselves Nazarenes; they are mainly Jews and nothing else. They make use not only of the New Testament, but they also use in a way the Old Testament of the Jews; for they do not forbid the books of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings... so that they are approved of by the Jews, from whom the Nazarenes do not differ in anything, and they profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews, except they believe in [Messiah]... They preach that there is but one [Elohim], and his son [Yahshua the Messiah]. But they are very learned in the Hebrew language; for they, like the Jews, read the whole Law, then the Prophets... They differ from the Jews because they believe in Messiah, and from the Christians in that they are to this day bound to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, the Sabbath, and other ceremonies." (Epiphanius; Panarion 29; translated from the Greek).

Although it's hard for some to accept, the fact is that those being described here were the direct disciples and followers of Yehoshua (Jesus). So obviously, this is what He taught! These are the direct followers of Yehoshua, and yet there are so many who claim to be his followers and who follow a different Gospel, teachings of someone other than those of Yehoshua from Nazareth. There is evidence that the Nazarene Sect continued to exist until at least the 13th century. The writings of the Catholic teacher, Bonacursus, entitled "Against the Heretics," refer to the Nazarenes, who were also called "Pasagini." Bonacursus wrote:

"Let those who are not yet acquainted with them, please note how perverse their belief and doctrine are. First, they teach that we should obey the Law of Moses according to the letter - the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the Church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church."

2. Pauline (Roman) Christianity: A term used to refer a branch of Early Christianity associated with the beliefs and doctrines espoused by Paul the Apostle through his writings. Paul's writings and teachings are radically different from the original teachings of Jesus documented in the canonical gospels, early Acts and the rest of the New Testament, such as the Epistle of James.

Proponents of the perceived Pauline distinctive include Marcion of Sinope, the 2nd century theologian who asserted that Paul was the only apostle who had rightly understood the new message of salvation as delivered by Christ. Opponents of the same era include the Ebionites and Nazarenes, who rejected Paul for teaching against the Law.

The doctrine of 'saved by faith' found in the writings of Paul is radically different from that found elsewhere in the New Testament, nonetheless his influence came to predominate.

Paul's supporters, as a distinct group, had an undue influence on the formation of the canon of scripture, and certain bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome, influenced the debates by which the dogmatic formulations known as the Creeds came to be produced, thus ensuring a Pauline interpretation of the gospel. The thesis is founded on the differences between the views of Paul and the church in Jerusalem revealed in his letters, and also between the picture of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles and his own writings, such that the essential Jewish or Old Testament character of the faith is said to have been lost. It has arguably been given impetus by the growth in importance of Evangelical Christianity, most especially in the United States, which rely very much on certain of Paul's writings, in particular the Epistle to the Romans.

The theological aspect is the claim that Paul transmuted Jesus the Jewish Messiah into the universal (in a wider meaning "catholic") Saviour.

Christianity today is based more on the doctrine of Paul than it is on the doctrine of Christ.

My origianal question was... Do I Need To Go To Church To Be A Christian...?

Well... Considering the history of the Pauline Roman Church...

- The Dark Ages

The period from 426 A.D. to 1628 A.D. is called the "Dark Ages."

With the establishment of the new Catholic temporal power a bloody persecution began. Loyal, New Testament churches, by whatever name they were called, were hunted and hounded to the utmost limit by this new Catholic power.

The now established Catholic Church began a war of extermination upon all who opposed her.

It is reliably reported that 50,000,000 died of persecution during the Dark Ages.

During the bloody times of persecution, as Catholicism tried to exterminate the true churches, many of the false doctrines of the Catholic church of today began to take place.

- The Inquisition 1198-1700

The Inquisition was instituted by Pope Innocent lII and perfected under Pope Gregory IX. It was a "Church Court" established by the popes for the trying and punishing of "heretics" ... a heretic being anyone who did not agree with Roman Catholicism. The lnquisition lasted for 500 years and was a time of indescribable horror.

- Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was a Pauline Christian. You will find it in Mein Kampf.- "Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work."

Hitler said it again at a Nazi Christmas celebration in 1926: "Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews . . . The work that Christ started but could not finish, I--Adolf Hitler--will conclude."

In a Reichstag speech in 1938, Hitler again echoed the religious origins of his crusade. "I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work. "

Hitler regarded himself as a Catholic until he died. "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so," he told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals, in 1941.

There was really no reason for Hitler to doubt his good standing as a Catholic. The Catholic press In Germany was eager to curry his favor, and the princes of the Catholic Church never asked for his excommunication. Religions encourage their followers to hold authority in unquestioning respect; this is what makes devout religionists such wonderful dupes for dictators.

Historically, all modern forms of Christianity stem from the Pauline Roman Catholicism.

Given the church track record I would have to say that we would do well to heed the voice from heaven that John heard in revelation 18:

4And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

My advice...? Just stick to the teachings of Christ... And you can't go wrong.

Commercial activities during Christmas today are often decried as making
the season too materialistic. This has caused comments that the religious aspect
of Christmas is so overlooked and overshadowed that its celebration seems to be
purely pagan. But today's comparisons aren't the first there has been some link
between Christmas and pagan celebrations. As a religious, church leaders
instituted Christmas during winter because that time of year was a popular for
the celebrations of many pagan festivals. The hope was that Christmas would also
become a holiday that would gain much popularity.
 Long before the birth of Jesus Christ, people in various parts of Europe would
celebrate light and birth in the darkest days of winter. The winter solstice,
when the harshest part of winter was over, was a time of celebration for many
peoples because they would look forward to more hours of sunlight during the
longer days ahead.

http://www.christmas.moneybizhome.com
 The Norse in Scandinavia celebrated Yule from the winter solstice on
December 21 through to January. Men brought home logs that were lighted and a
feast would take place until the log was completely burned. Each spark from the
fire was believed to represent a new pig or calf to be born in the coming new
year.
The pagan god Oden was honored by Germans during the mid-winter holiday. Oden
inspired great fear in the Germans who believed that Oden traveled at nights
through the sky to observe people and make a decision about who would perish or
prosper in life. This belief caused most people to stay inside during the
period.
 In Rome it was the god of agriculture, Saturn, who was honored in a
holiday called Saturnalia. It was a holiday that started during the week that
led up to the winter solstice and continued for a month with hedonistic
celebrations. There was plenty of food and drink and the normal social class
rules of who had privilege and power in Roman society were totally disregarded
as everyone participated in the festivities. Some Romans also had a feast called
Juvenalia to honor children and the birthday of the sun god Mithra was sometimes
celebrated by the upper classes.
 In the early years of the start of Christianity the main holiday was
Easter. It was in the 4th Century that church officials made a decision to have
the birth of Jesus celebrated as a holiday and Pope Julius I chose December 25
as the day of Jesus' birth. The holiday, which was first called the Feast of the
Nativity, spread to England by the end of the 6th Century and to Scandinavia by
the end of the 8th Century.
Church leaders achieved the goal of having Christmas celebrations, including
attendance at church, become popular during the winter solstice, but they were
unable to control other pagan-like celebrations during Christmas. Believers
would attend church on Christmas and then participate later in raucous and
drunken celebrations. But by the Middle Ages, from around the  5th to the 16th
Century, Christianity had outgrown paganism as a religion.
 The celebration of Christmas in Europe changed in the early 17th Century
when Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans gained power in England in 1645. To remove
decadent behavior from the society, Cromwell cancelled Christmas as the Puritans
noted that the Bible doesn't mention any date for Jesus' birth. The lack of this
information and specific Biblical references to Christmas is also cited by
religious groups like Jehovah Witnesses as the reason they don't observe or
participate in Christmas. Christmas celebrations returned in England around 1649
when Charles II was restored to the throne.
 Christmas wasn't a holiday in early America because the Pilgrims who came
to America had even stricter beliefs than Cromwell and the Puritans. Christmas
celebrations were even forbidden in Boston from 1659 to 1681. During the same
time however, settlers in Jamestown in Virginia were reported to have enjoyed
Christmas. 
After the American Revolution Christmas again lost popularity and it wasn't
until June 26, 1870 that Christmas was declared a federal holiday. Christmas in
the United States gained popularity as a holiday period during the 19th Century.
Christmas celebrations also changed at that time to be more family-centered
rather than being carnival-like.

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Good King Wenceslas was a diamond of a human being indeed, in the short time he enjoyed the throne of Bohemia. He shared his new Christian joy with his people, and his desire to have Bohemia join with the new Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne and become a part of a renewed, larger border free Europe. This in 912.

However, his mother who was still a pagan was not amused. She saw the pagan ways special to Bohemia for many centuries as having to give in to a larger central government far away near Brussels today- do you hear that irony in the historic wind?- led by the great new convert to Christian beliefs and education, Charlemagne.

Gone would be the local ways and customs and giving in to a central authority was not for our ways. So Wenceslas banished his mother from the kingdom, her allies brought forward his pagan brother Boleslav, by most accounts a violent fool, who began to make impossible demands of new King Wenceslas. He wanted a stone castle on low ground at the confluence of two rivers: even the King lived in a wooden castle in 912.

Soon, most cowardly by Boleslav and his men in front of a church door, Wenceslas was cut dead. The pagans had won, and Bohemia stayed ignorant and outside the civilization that Christian monks brought to all around.

So much so that the beloved grandmother of young Prince Wenceslas, St. Ludmila, who had been strangled by Wenceslas' own pagan mother, and Wenceslas himself were adored and enshrined in the hearts and souls of the good people of Bohemia. Within a century converts of good King Wenceslas dared to come forth.

Soon the pagans lost control of the ceremonies, and most of all the hearts of the people. Saint Ludmila and her grand son Good King Wenceslas were very good indeed, and when they looked down on the feast of Stephen, every where he looked around the frost was deep and even.

And as empires lift and fade after great men die too soon, the mists of time blended over this first greater out of the dark ages attempts to bring about a border less market free Europe. It has been a way from 912 to today, and there have been some terrible bumps and off ramp crashes, but here we are.

Well done, great visionaries. Burn in Hell, Boleslav. God and St. Peter willing, I hope to see you inside Heaven at Christmas, Wenceslas: can they arrange frost that crunches deep and crisp and even? We will see. But the question what if reamins in front of us so open to vision.

What if Wenceslav had not turned his back on the treacherous brother and his thugs, and believe his hand on the church door would stop them from killing him?

What if Charlemagne had been aware of the treachery in the court of his dear new friend Wenceslas and sent soldiers of Christ to prevent these pagans from allowing Europe to spread east as it has only managed now.

That was 912, and today in 2008 we can say it is a good thing, long overdue, could have saved hundred of millions of lives in wars, but seems to be happening now.A diamond of an idea, so long overdue.

Curiosity without the lack of desire to learn often results in misinformation. This is why so many of the world's cultures are misrepresented and plagued by myth. Many of the world's religions and religious communities are also in a constant fight to clear the names of their religion from the fictitious claims that have tarnished their reputation. The ignorance of people towards the life, culture, customs, history, and religion of the natives of North America is one such example. For centuries, the natives of this land have been religiously oppressed and disrespected in various forms for the better lack of understanding of who they are and what they believe and value. Their way of life is simple and pure and concerns their mental well being as a community through a better connection with their surroundings. The Indians of the subarctic and Canadian north regions have for many centuries, through oppression and religious and cultural intolerance, practiced and held firmly on to Pagan and Shamanic beliefs to form a rich bond with nature, their inner souls, and their Gods.

The Natives of North America have seen their religion, language, customs, and culture oppressed by the white man who arrived on their land centuries ago. These people who enjoyed and cherished the land that gave them so much have always been treated as second class citizens, and not until recently did the Canadian Government acknowledge the “immense toll of suffering still being felt in the native population resulting from cultural loss, separation from families, and victimization through physical and sexual abuse” ( Niezen, 2000, p. 86). The mis-portrayal of their culture is an ongoing problem. Many, still today, see natives, their culture and religion, as a threat to their civilized society. Since early colonization by Europeans they have seen the Natives “...as living in a state of savagery that was a danger to their health, prosperity, and salvation.” ( Niezen, 2000, p. 86).

To the early settlers of North America the native traditions held no value and was seen as primitive savagery, and “indeed, getting drunk and killing Indians was sport to most settlers...who maintained that to kill an Indian was the same as killing a bear or a buffalo.” (Mann, 2005, p. 5) The Natives had developed rich traditions and had no interest in European religions, especially Christianity who they were beginning to see as “a main prop of genocide” (Mann, 2005, p. 150). They were beginning to see vast differences between the religion of worshiping and thanking nature and multiple Gods and Christian values and beliefs. The Christians slaughtered the Indians opportunistically both in the North and South. An example came in the fall of 1864: Colonel Chivington, who was also a Methodist minister carried out a bloody massacre on the Cheyenne people. His men killed hundreds of peace loving Natives because he believed their extinction to be beneficial to his country (Monnett, 1999, p. 8). It may have been different if men like these took the time to understand the Native way of life and religion. They were taught that the natives practiced simple and meaningless religions such as Paganism and that it was their uncivilized approach that was to blame (Beecher, 1962, p. 1). They would either have to assimilate or be rendered extinct because Paganism and Shamansim was considered evil.

As mentioned, even today the religions and rituals practiced by the Natives is not clearly understood. Many North American natives are essentially pagans. They are polytheistic, finding it more compatible with their beliefs and their ancestral way of life. Polytheism is the belief that multiple Gods have ruled the earth since the beginning. Some cultures, perhaps even the early Athabaskans, gave these Gods names and identities. They worshiped and prayed to them for their good fortunes and asked for help in times of desperation and drought. The early natives of North America, like the Pagans of ancient times, have maintained the strong belief in polytheism. In fact they each in some form believe that “no one Deity can express the totality of the Divine” (Peters, 1990, p. 77). They not only believe that there are multiple Gods, each perhaps ruling one aspect of the earth, they also believe in pantheism, or the belief that the Gods are everywhere in nature and within their bodies. Different tribes have valued different aspects of such a way of organized belief; however, most do believe in somewhat similar things. For instance, dancing and praying to the Sun God is common. Unique rituals that they practice to bring in the good spirits and fight off the bad ones is also pretty common among the different tribes (Stutley, 2002, p. 2).

Pagans and Shamans share many similarities and have been popular examples among the natives of the subarctic region throughout history. It can be argued that the Shamanic belief system was developed from their way of life. It may have been an essential belief system for the survival of their people. Regardless of such theories, it is obvious that the Shamanic Inuit have a deep admiration and respect for their environment. Many natives believe that at the beginning humans and animals were the same and could morph back and forth between either form. They believe that throughout time they made a full separation in to two different types of entities. This, then, essentially supports their point that humans and their animal friends need to have a profound admiration of each other and protect each other's way of life. According to Venables and Vecsey:

This curious, unitary view of human and animal genesis prevails throughout the Canadian Subarctic...both men [Athapaskans in general] and animals . . . possessed essentially the same characteristics' when the world was new...'In the beginning of the world, before humans were formed, all animals existed grouped under 'tribes' of their kinds who could talk like men, and were even covered with the same protection.'...acknowledging that after the passage of untold generations the two were still, after all, spiritually akin.

It is easier to see that the Athapaskan natives took their surroundings very seriously and respected their animal brothers. This sheds some light in to the natural progression to the Shamanic belief systems that they developed over time.

Furthermore, Shamanism is a religion that has had many variations. It has been around for centuries and has been encountered all over the world. In recent centuries, up to the present day however, it has been misunderstood, especially by conservative Christians who see it as the “devil dance”, devil worship, and even heresy (Macdonald, 2002, p. 52). Shamanism is a beautiful religion and one that is relatively simple and peacefully practiced by the natives of the north. According to Stutley, Shamanism is more complex than other centrally-organized religions and is hard to study because of its many various forms. However, she goes on to mention that all Shamanism have three common aspects: (1) belief in the existence of a world of spirits, mostly in animal form that are capable of acting on human beings. The shaman is required to control or cooperate with these good and bad spirits for the benefit of his community. (2) The inducing of trance by ecstatic singing, dancing and drumming, when the shaman's spirit leaves his or her body and enters the supernatural world. (3) The shaman treats some diseases, usually those of a psychosomatic nature, as well as helping the clan members to overcome their various difficulties and problems.

Firstly, the spirit world, as mentioned, is essential to the Shamans of the Subarctic region. The Shaman believes strongly that every object on earth, living or not, has some form of spirit connection. However, the important thing for the Shaman is to be connected with the right spirits and fend of the evil ones. For example, “Hunters seek animal guardians who can bestow success in the hunt; warriors seek specialized powers to enhance their war shields and weapons” (Andrews, 1998, p. 196). Furthermore, some Shamans are believed to have a profound connection with the spirit world. Some even go as far as believing that Shamans, as healers or medicine-men of their communities, not only have the ability to call upon the spirit world but to become powerful animal spirits themselves (Jakobsen, 1999, p. 1). In addition to this, many Shamans believe that the human to spirit connection manifests itself deeply in dreams. They believe that many of the answers to life's problems can be aided by the spirits around them through the power of dreams. It has been, therefore, a common belief that sickness and disease are due to an imbalance of spirits, or the work of bad spirits haunting the person (Mowszowski, 2001, p. 14).

Furthermore, the Shaman is seen by some as a necessity in linking the spirit world with our physical world. At some point the power of the Shaman, then, became that of “mediator between spirits and human beings (Lewis, 2003, p. 41). The Shaman would use his power to bring the people of the tribes closer and in harmony with the spirit world. To others in various tribes, Shamanism is a way of reducing the stress and fear of the unknown. Often, in times of stress, hunger, and chaos the Shamanic belief system is relied upon to reduce tension, stress. Essentially, as Jobsen puts it: “The shaman's role is to reduce the fear of these forces and establish a balance in society as a whole...often the shaman is the only one who can travel to the spirits because he knows the way” (Jacobsen, 1999, p. 2). At times of total concentration and connectedness some Shamans believe that they can enter the spirit world and “go into battle with the malevolent spirits of the dead, thought to be the cause of illness and death...” (Furst, 1996, p. 20) They also believed that things from one world had effects in the other. For example, Mowszowski also notes that some Shamans believed that rain was a manifestation of bloodshed of animal spirits in the spirit world (Mowszowski, 2001, p.14).

Naturally, we must admit that the Shamanic aspect of trance and meditation is profoundly interesting. Many Natives, along with the people of other regions, have throughout time, held on to their belief that the soul has the ability to detach from their physical body. They believed that the only thing that they really had in their possession was the physical flesh. After a deep trance, they believed that they gained the ability to send of their soul to the spirit world. In return for their soul flying off, a spirit from nature would enter their body and take over. Still other practitioners believed that a “shaman's body can be concurrently occupied by several ghosts or spirits as well as by his own spirit or soul” (Ross, 1997, p. 211). The Native shamans grasped on to this type of notion and made it an important part of their life and culture. Every part of their daily life began to have a connection to the spirit world as it not only gave them a sense of meaning and purpose but a very magical and romantic explanation of their surroundings.

However, it must also be noted that the establishment of the trance state is not only a means to build a connection to the spirit world or communicate with the Gods. The achievement of a trance state was always important for the enjoyment of a heightened awareness, or ecstasy (Lewis, 2003, p. 43). It helped the Shaman achieve total peace and tranquility and be a part of nature. This then helps us understand the Shamanic Indian's passion for “natural” highs. They have through time developed a complex understanding of nature's trance-inducing drugs, especially the hallucinogens like Peyote and wild, or magic, mushrooms. They were an important part of the Native Indian's religious rituals and ceremonies and helped them achieve a heightened awareness. As Schaefer describes in her book, People of the Peyote, “...the divine peyote cactus...stands at the center of the shaman's universe...It functions as ally, protector, and facilitator of the ecstatic trance in which the specialists in the sacred interact directly with the gods and seek their advice” (Plotkin, 1990, p. 9). The natives found that the trance state induced a dream-like event which helped them find answers to their problems. They believed that the solutions to many of their problems were hidden deep in their dreams. Therefore, the use of these chemicals was vital to their overall health and survival.

The Shaman way of life was indisputably essential for the over all health of their community. A huge part of their belief system consists of the fact that the Shaman religion or way of life gives them the power to heal. Through their use of connectedness with nature and the communication with the spirit world and Gods, as well as their rich understanding of the vast body of organisms in their surrounding environment, they became effective healers. Shaman medicine men have been popularized in modern times and have been turned in to almost mythical figures. Many see them as witch doctors whose healing powers parallel that of the priest who performs exorcisms. However, many of this holds no merit. While it is true that Shamans have historically performed exorcisms, they have also played a major role in keeping the physical and mental health of their communities in good shape. Specifically, many Shamans used their role and prestige in their community to help mentally-ill Indians heal and integrate them back in to their society. Their understanding of medicine and mental processes was integral to this. As Ross describes: “...the shaman and the mythology shared by him and the patient alter physiological processes through the control of mental processes, dissolving the boundary between self and other and offering reintegration to the patient (Vecsey, 1980, p. 38). It is also not uncommon for a Shaman, or medicine man, to know well over a hundred plant species capable of healing numerous diseases and infections. This knowledge had been passed down to the natives, generation to generation, and used effectively to cure. At some point traditions became suppressed by the ideas brought in by the settlers and modern medicine began to replace the Shamanic way of traditional healing.

We can, therefore, see that the Native religion is vastly different than what the media and governments have portrayed over time. The natives of many regions, and specifically those of the subarctic for our purposes, have found Shamanism as vital to their survival and over health and well being. Shamanism and similar faiths provide a way for the subarctic natives to hold a close bond with their environment. Furthermore, it has given the natives the foundation to build technologies and develop methods and tools to better understand life. The Shamans have had a simple life style that preaches a deep connection with the Spirit world and the use of the spirits, Gods, and their environment to understand their purpose, their brothers, and to find healing potential in their way of life and religious practice.

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