Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning | Page 7

Going
backwards in Time, the two next chapters (iv and v) deal with
Totem-sacraments and Magic, perhaps the earliest forms of religion.
And these four lead on (in chapters vi to xi) to the consideration of rites
and creeds common to Paganism and Christianity. XII and xiii deal
especially with the evolution of Christianity itself; xiv and xv explain
the inner Meaning of the whole process from the beginning; and xvi
and xvii look to the Future.
The appendix on the doctrines of the Upanishads may, I hope, serve to
give an idea, intimate even though inadequate, of the third Stage--that
which follows on the stage of self-consciousness; and to portray the
mental attitudes which are characteristic of that stage. Here in this third
stage, it would seem, one comes upon the real FACTS of the inner
life--in contradistinction to the fancies and figments of the second stage;
and so one reaches the final point of conjunction between Science and
Religion.

II. SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS
To the ordinary public--notwithstanding the immense amount of work
which has of late been done on this subject-- the connection between
Paganism and Christianity still seems rather remote. Indeed the
common notion is that Christianity was really a miraculous
interposition into and dislocation of the old order of the world; and that
the pagan gods (as in Milton's Hymn on the Nativity) fled away in
dismay before the sign of the Cross, and at the sound of the name of
Jesus. Doubtless this was a view much encouraged by the early Church

itself--if only to enhance its own authority and importance; yet, as is
well known to every student, it is quite misleading and contrary to fact.
The main Christian doctrines and festivals, besides a great mass of
affiliated legend and ceremonial, are really quite directly derived from,
and related to, preceding Nature worships; and it has only been by a
good deal of deliberate mystification and falsification that this
derivation has been kept out of sight.
In these Nature-worships there may be discerned three fairly
independent streams of religious or quasi-religious enthusiasm: (1) that
connected with the phenomena of the heavens, the movements of the
Sun, planets and stars, and the awe and wonderment they excited; (2)
that connected with the seasons and the very important matter of the
growth of vegetation and food on the Earth; and (3) that connected with
the mysteries of Sex and reproduction. It is obvious that these three
streams would mingle and interfuse with each other a good deal; but as
far as they were separable the first would tend to create Solar heroes
and Sun-myths; the second Vegetation-gods and personifications of
Nature and the earth-life; while the third would throw its glamour over
the other two and contribute to the projection of deities or demons
worshipped with all sorts of sexual and phallic rites. All three systems
of course have their special rites and times and ceremonies; but, as, I
say, the rites and ceremonies of one system would rarely be found pure
and unmixed with those. belonging to the two others. The whole
subject is a very large one; but for reasons given in the Introduction I
shall in this and the following chapter--while not ignoring phases (2)
and (3)--lay most stress on phase (1) of the question before us.
At the time of the life or recorded appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, and
for some centuries before, the Mediterranean and neighboring world
had been the scene of a vast number of pagan creeds and rituals. There
were Temples without end dedicated to gods like Apollo or Dionysus
among the Greeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the
Persians, Adonis and Attis in Syria and Phrygia, Osiris and Isis and
Horus in Egypt, Baal and Astarte among the Babylonians and
Carthaginians, and so forth. Societies, large or small, united believers
and the devout in the service or ceremonials connected with their
respective deities, and in the creeds which they confessed concerning
these deities. And an extraordinarily interesting fact, for us, is that

notwithstanding great geographical distances and racial differences
between the adherents of these various cults, as well as differences in
the details of their services, the general outlines of their creeds and
ceremonials were--if not identical--so markedly similar as we find
them.
I cannot of course go at length into these different cults, but I may say
roughly that of all or nearly all the deities above-mentioned it was said
and believed that:
(1) They were born on or very near our Christmas Day.
(2) They were born of a Virgin-Mother.
(3) And in a Cave or Underground Chamber.
(4) They led a life of toil for Mankind.
(5) And were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator,
Savior, Deliverer.
(6) They were