For All Gods Are One God...

[cedar_grove]

At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee named Nazereth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

And when the angel had come to her, he said, "Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women."

And when she had heard him, she was troubled at his words.

--Luke 1: 27-28

Like Artemis, she is a virgin whose role includes motherhood; she is an apt successor to the nymph of the greenwood as the one to whom this day is dedicated.

I've been asked before now how I got on teaching in a Catholic school as a pagan. I have to say the above fact - the subsumation of Artemis under the guise of Mary - is in part what made it eminently easy.

I think unlike any other branch Christianity, it is the Catholic's veneration of Mary, that made it easier - for me at least. I mean, forgetting all of the other things, except perhaps the ritual involved in mass... I mean don't really go into the whole confession and absolution thing... but the whole thing with Mary - there was something there that spoke to me.

I used to have to attend mass with the children as part of my duties. And I didn't mind so much... loved the singing (a lot of the children's mass was sung, and say what you like about religion, but the music involved is often beautiful), and wasn't averse to going to receive the deacon's blessing. To me all paths lead inevitably to the same truth, it's just the way we get there that's different. The reason I mention mass is that on more than one occasion, I was moved to tears by a sense of divinity that came over me while I was in the church. No, I'm not saying I was 'touched,' or 'found' by God, just that, whether it was simply that particular church, or maybe just the energies of all the children joined in common 'communion' that was overwhelming (in a beautiful way) to one with my sensitivities.

That wasn't the only spiritual 'experience' I had while in the church there - nor was it the most profound - that would have to be the time I did actually feel some invisible presence touch me. I had just returned to my place after the 'blessing' and felt a touch on my shoulder, so I turned to speak with the teacher behind me, whom I assumed was trying to attract my attention. It had not been her, she said, and honestly I trust her word. She's not the kind of person to be a 'prankster' or anything of the like. So I turned back around, and the touch was there again... sure and steady, and that time I felt the power of it - familiar and strong... though even today I hesitate to 'name' it, since labelling something confines it; constricts it... and I'm not prepared to do that.