Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Pagan Roots in America


 
The first North American settlers migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge approximately 15,000 or more years ago.  Others settlers migrated up from South America through Central America.  Some, such as the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture and state-level societies.  After European explorers and traders made the first contacts, the native population declined due to various reasons including diseases, intermarriage and violence.

With the colonization of Georgia in 1732, the thirteen colonies that would become the United States of America were established.  All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism.  With extremely high birth rates, low death rates and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly.  Relatively small local Native American populations were eclipsed.  The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty.
 
However, most of the Founding Fathers were religious radicals who didn't even belong to a conventional church.  Thomas Jefferson cut up the Bible to his own liking, and shared gibes about the absurdity of Orthodox Christian doctrines with John Adams, a fellow Unitarian.  Ben Franklin was a follower of Deism, an Enlightenment philosophy that is close to Agnosticism.  James Madison, the architect of the Constitution's separation of church and state, penned a famous protest against a Virginia state tax to support Christian clergy.  George Washington was a Freemason — a devout member of a mystical order that traces its Spiritual roots to magic.   

The American Revolutionary War was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power.  The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament and the conflict escalated into war.  The Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, on July 4, 1776, proclaiming that humanity is created equal in their inalienable rights.

 

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.  Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, carnivals, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions and ceremonies.

The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the Thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states and no longer a part of the British Empire.  Instead they formed a new nation — the United States of America (US or USA).
 
Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown.  Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution.  George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution.  The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

The federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820 cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, along with the slave population.  The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism.  In the North it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism; in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.  Freedom of religion is also closely associated with separation of church and state, a concept advocated by Founding Fathers.  Christianity is by far the most common religion practiced.  After Christianity, Unaffiliated and Judaism are the next largest religious affiliations in the USA.

Witches have been hanged.  News reports debate having the Ten Commandments posted on their doors.  Native Americans have been removed from their homes.  "In God we trust" has appeared on most US coins since 1864 and on paper currency since 1957.  During the early 2010's many lawsuits based on religious freedom resulted from conflicts between employees of conservative religious schools and the employer.  The Supreme Court has ruled that companies with strong religious ties can be exempt from Affordable Care Act requirements.
 
Many Americans generally believe that their Constitution guarantees their freedom to worship as they please.  It is sadly not always the case.  Ancient Americans came to this country seeking many things including religious freedom.  It is a battle that continues today for Wicca, Islam, Amish, Native Americanism and more.

 

Yet the Pagan Roots in America still run deep.  Let's look at the Declaration of Independence words directly: "...among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...".  Thomas Jefferson thought of himself as a scientist more than he did a politician.  Consider that the 'Laws of Nature' describe a materialist viewpoint, many times referred to as Newton's Laws in the years following Newton's discovery of the laws of gravity, light and calculus mathematics.  And Jefferson intended 'Nature's God,' not to refer to the personal God of Christianity, but of a physical God of Nature and the laws of physics.  In 1809 Jefferson wrote, "Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight."  Jefferson thought of Nature as God.

To continue with words in the Declaration: "... that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...".  The Declaration echoes John Locke's idea that in the 'state of nature,' all human beings lived free and equal.  The idea that 'all men are created equal' goes against Biblical doctrine.  The Bible supports inequality with a top down hierarchy: God-priest-man-woman-beast.  Moreover the word 'Creator' describes a Deistic term in the 1700s.

What about the Constitution of the United States?  The Constitution uses words like "Senate," "Justice," "Liberty" which describe Greek and Roman concepts, all of them Pagan, not to mention that our very concept of democracy came from the Pagan Greeks.
 
There are also several buildings mirrored after Pagan sites.  They were not built from ideas of Temple of Solomon or Cathedral architecture from the Holy Ages.  The Greek Parthenon and the Roman Pantheon have served as the template for many USA buildings.  The Supreme Court Building, the Second Bank of the United States and the Lincoln Memorial, for example, took their design from the Parthenon, a religious Greek temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena.  

The Pantheon with its majestic dome has influenced the design of many government buildings including the Jefferson Memorial and the USA Capitol building.  In fact the word 'Capitol' comes from the name of an ancient temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.

What is on the top of the USA Capitol building?  A cross?  A menorah?  A figure of the Immaculate Mary?  No.  We find the Pagan Statue of Freedom.  Twelve stars surround the headdress of the Statue of Freedom which represents the Zodiac, an ancient Pagan astrological concept.  And her headdress holds feathers sacred to Native Americans.  And don't forget what we find standing in the entrance of the USA Capitol building?  A statue tribute to the God Mars, the Roman God of war and agriculture.

The most famous of the American depictions, the Statue of Liberty, was a gift from France to the United States in honour of America's 100th birthday.  The head of Lady Liberty's statue wears a crown with solar rays, a monument to the Sun God Helios that once stood astride a Greek harbour.  The torch Liberty holds in her right up stretched hand is the Flame of Freedom and underneath her feet are broken chains representing overcoming tyranny and enslavement.  The tablet Liberty holds in her left hand is inscribed with July 4, the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the USA as a nation.  Her flowing gown and body is similar in design to depictions of Goddess Libertas in Ancient Rome.
 
Our Justice system also derived from Pagan Greek and Roman concepts.  Courthouses throughout America honor the Lady of Justice with statues.  Justitia, a Roman Goddess of justice symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice or favor.  Sculptors often portray her as evenly balancing both scales, a sword and wearing a blindfold.

 

The intent of our most influential American Founding Fathers constructed our country based on Ancient ideals.  The first political document, the Declaration of American Independence, describes Nature's God, a Deist concept; not the God of Jesus, Moses or Mohammed.  The United States Constitution reflects an exclusion of religion with no reference to a Judeo-Christian God at all.

Early American currency symbols reflect Pagan Gods and Goddesses with references to the Goddess of Liberty, Goddess of Justice, Minerva and Hercules.  None of the early American currency used the motto 'In God We Trust.'  American buildings reflect Ancient Greek and Roman Pagan architectural design with many references to Pagan Gods.  The days of the week and months all use Pagan terms.

America has become a mixing pot.  There are uses for the word 'Lord', a common dating method.  There are statues of Moses, Confucius and Solon on the Supreme Court.  Most modern currency holds images of presidents.  But if anyone points to the Ten Commandments, the Pledge of Allegiance, or the word 'God' on a coin, and tries to claim America as Christian, give them a lesson about our Pagan Roots.

Happy Birthday America!

 


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." ~ The Declaration of the Thirteen United States 1776

 




 




 

 


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