Followed by a Moonshadow

by guest blogger, BroKen

Many years ago now, I was driving home from work when the moon appeared to me in a gap between trees. It was a full moon, huge on the horizon and extremely bright. There was a layer of cloud along the bottom of the moon which, as the light shone through, became as bright as the moon itself. It looked as if the moon was rising up out of a pool of cloud, and clouds were flowing off the moon back down into the pool. Or perhaps it was that some invisible hands were forming the moon out of the glowing band of cloud stretched across the horizon. The vision jumped out from behind the trees for only a few seconds and then it hid itself again.

I had heard words like “slack-jawed” or the phrase “their mouth fell open” used to describe awe, but it had never happened to me before, or since. It happened then. My face muscles involuntarily relaxed as I kept driving home and my mind began to process what I had just seen. Words like those in the paragraph above came to me and then I noticed that there were tears in my eyes. That shocked me. What kind of man cries at the moon? I began to analyze what I was experiencing. Dissecting an emotion, even an intense one, usually kills it. That is what my analysis did here.

When I got home I sat on the front porch and looked at the moon. It was still full and bright but no longer quite as large, and the clouds had moved on. I told myself, “I understand the pagans. If I didn't know the Creator; the Artist who made the image I had seen, I think I would worship the Moon.”

Do you know pagans? They are all around us. We are rapidly becoming, if we haven't already become one, a pagan culture. Do you know what a pagan is? A pagan is one who worships an experience like I describe above, or worships the object in that experience.

There are many awe-inducing sources. Mountains, Rivers, Animals, Trees, Sex and Drugs, Money and Power are just a few. Even Human Beings themselves, as individuals or a whole Tribe, can captivate and transfix our Mind, Soul and Body.

Those awe-inducing sources are, well, awesome gifts. But an awesome gift can be dangerous. Since we are so starved for the Divine in our fallen world and unable to experience God directly, those transcendent experiences threaten to replace Him in the minds, hearts and lives of many. That is why one of the first commandments is to make no image of God. God is Holy, that is, wholly other; different from anything experienced.

Even in church more and more people ignore the still small voice following instead the noisy pagan “gods”. It helps to know what they are doing in order to remind them that the Giver is even more awesome than the gift.

Comments

[Zoe]

Oh, my, are you going after the pagans now, Ken?

But which pagans are you referring to here?

the Ethnologists, Neo pagans, Polytheists, Heathens, Historical pagans, Classical antiquity pagans, Late antiquity pagans,

which ones specifically are you referring to?

[BroKen]

No, I'm not "going after" pagans here. That comes in the next post! :)

Here I was trying to honor the memory of those ancient pagans while pointing to a modern trend. It is the modern trend that concerns me. My definition above ("A pagan is one who worships an experience like I describe above, or worships the object in that experience.") should indicate who I mean. If not, the next post might clarify.

[Zoe]

Well I was hoping you werent lumping all pagan ideologies into one group.

[BroKen]

I am using the term "pagan" to describe a prevalent human pattern of thought expressed historically by the groups you referenced and today by many who do call themselves pagan and many who would never do so. I would call them pagan if they fit the definition I give. So, yeah, I am lumping a bunch of stuff together. That is what words do.

Check out the latest post, Pagan is as pagan does.

[Zoe]

I would still enjoy to see some pagans challenge your assertions.

Since they do have the freedom to do that without any harsher judgement than your own opinion.

[Zoe]

From what I have known since my childhood the term 'pagan' has a latin origin for peasants,
or outsiders to the Christian faith, or non converts.

So it does mean in your context, an outsider.

[BroKen]

"Since they (pagans) do have the freedom to do that (challenge my assertions) without any harsher judgement than your own opinion." I don't understand. I welcome challenges to assertions. What harsh judgement? What do you mean? I am confused.

Zoe, "pagan" means in the context of this post, "...one who worships an experience like I describe above, or worships the object in that experience."