Mathilda wonders whether swearing soul-friendship with a Pagan would upset the Virgin.
"Rudi didn't say that no Aspect of the Lady would cry about people swearing friendship; it wouldn't be tactful." (p. 186)
But he does tell her that, in Ireland, people continued to swear the oath after they had become Christians. The tame Church of the Protectorate would probably oppose this friendship between heirs on merely political grounds.
Rudi has two bases for ecumenism: tact and the phrase, "the Lady." Wiccans say "Lady." Christians say "Our Lady." If everyone avoids the word "Goddess," then it might be possible to agree on Aspects of the Lady?
I am convinced that there is a reality that is described by myths and that we can see truth in each others' myths. When I visit a Church Hall where there are posters about God and sin, I think of oneness and alienation.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course there will be times when Christians and pagans agree to strike bargains, enter into contracts, take oaths, etc. And I agree a Christian will need to accept that a pagan will swear by what he believes to be true and sacred. My only reservation being that I don't believe Our Lady to be any kind of aspect or avatar of a pagan goddess. Because I don't believe any pagan gods are REAL.
With that understood, to prevent any misunderstanding, I would have no objection to a Christian invoking the Names of Our Lord and his Mother in agreements made with a pagan. And I would accept a pagan's oath when he swears by his "Lady" (even if I don't believe that "Lady" is real).
Sean
Sean:
But we Americans have always followed several pagan gods. To wit:
"Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there was Status, whose symbols were many, and who rode in the great chariot Cadillac, which was almost a god itself. And there was Atombomb, the dread destroyer, who would some day come to end the world."
— *Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen*, H. Beam Piper, 1965
Kaor, DAVID!
Ha, amusingly put! I'm reminded of Poul Anderson's sardonic "fictional" essay "Bullwich's Mythology," listing and describing the gods worshiped by the "ancient" Americans. Gods like Buro, Atomika, Toolsmith, Keen, Bunni, etc.
Sean
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