readoldthings

Introduction

Welcome to a new feature of this blog, which I'm calling The Christian Wheel of the Year.

Over the last few decades, it's become very popular in pagan and occult circles to celebrate the turning seasons with magical practices, prayers, rituals and the like. Like much of modern paganism, these practices aren't new, and they also aren't re-creations of the actual practices of ancient paganism, most of which are lost to us. In reality they are derivative of the practices of traditional, sacramental Christianity, as it evolved over the centuries from the late classical era to our present day. If you look at the best known "pagan" seasonal cycle, the Wiccan 8-Fold Wheel of the Year, it's easy to see that every last festival on its calendar derives from the practices of Christian-- and, in particular, Catholic-- Europe. Western Christianity, meanwhile, has in many cases completely abandoned its own tradition, and Christians often believe the falsehood that their own traditions actually are pagan!

Now, it needs to be said immediately that this does not invalidate the Wiccan Wheel of the Year or its Heathen or Druidic siblings as as a spiritual practice for pagans. Not at all! Spiritual practices are rooted in the world of Myth, which is quite a different thing from the world of History; as such, it is commonly the case that a particular practice's "real" origin is different from the one that it claims. Traditions around the origin of spiritual practices should be treated as myths, not histories-- that is to say, as stories about the true nature of reality, meant to shape our minds and our habits in the physical world.

All that said, the fact is that there is a great longing in the modern world for traditional Christianity as it truly is-- neither disguising itself as paganism, nor abandoning its traditions in order to become a kind of bland chaplaincy for the Modern world. This need is being addressed by the Traditional Catholic movement, by the spread of Eastern Orthodox churches (who never abandoned their past) in the Western world, and the re-discovery of the great traditions by Protestants. But I have a strong sense-- and it's the sense that informs this blog-- that this need is also being felt by people who do not accept the traditional theologies of the Christian churches, even at their best. There is a group of people out there in the world who find more spiritual sustenance in Alan Watts, Dion Fortune or Eliphas Levi than Von Balthasar or John Henry Newman-- while at the same time also finding far more spiritual sustenance in the Rosary, the Tridentine Mass and the church cycle of fasts and feasts than in scrying the Tarot, casting Wiccan circles or worshiping pagan deities.

This is written with such people in mind. Starting today, the first day of Advent, I'm going to go through the Christian Wheel of the Year, discussing traditional fasts and feasts, saints' days, customs and seasonal cycles-- but always interpreted through the lens of the Esoteric tradition. Each post will discuss the feast or or feast in question, suggest an esoteric interpretation, and provide notes for practice, including prayer and meditation. I'll also include some ideas for Christian ritual practice, including the first outline of a system of Christian magic that probably wouldn't even get you into trouble in the most orthodox of churches.

Sound good? If so, welcome aboard!