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the other people, or how i learned to stop worring and love the Bible

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Blog Posts of Note: *Magic, Witches and the Bible *A brief History of Wicca *Wicca 101 part 1 *Wicca 101 part 2 *Spells and the Modern Witch *Do Witches Worship Satan? *Religious View *Interview with a Witch *A Witch's Story of Creation *One Definition of the Divine *I am a Witch * Original Sin, from a Witches point of View *Why a Witch Could care less about Harry Potter *Satan is not my Sidekick *The other people: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Bible

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the other people, or how i learned to stop worring and love the Bible

03.21.05 (6:14 pm) [edit]

WARNING this blog may seriously offend some readers. If you choose to continue reading, please do so with an open mind. If you read this, you do so by your own volition and though no fault of mine, may be forced to change your misconceptions of Witches.

If after reading this you feel a sudden urge to preach contrary bible verses at me, please do not waste your time. Your energy would be better spent in a Christian act of Charity, such as feeding the homeless children in your city, sorting your winter clothes and giving them to a shelter, or just loving your neighbour. REMEMBER I warned you.

I read a story similar to this on another website somewhere. Rather than just repost, I rewrote. I don’t necessarily believe this story, but it’s defiantly interesting to think about.

The mission, of course, it to save my heathen soul by turning me on to "The Word of the Lord" - the Bible

"But none of that applies to me. I don’t need salvation because I am not tarnished by original sin. I am of the Other People."

A Bible Story

I read the bible, I find it fascinating, there are amazing the stories within this book, and Song of Solomon is damn sexy. I do know the bible, I have a copy of it on my book shelf and I read online versions, to get different translations. The best site for that is crosswalk.com, and the following passages are lifted from that site using the The Douay-Rheims Bible.

Genesis 1: 26 And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. 27 And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.
29 And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: 30 And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done.

Take note, there is no mention of Adam, Eve or Eden. That comes in the next chapter. So here we see a Plural God –note the use of ‘let US make man in OUR image’, either the Queen Mum or a Pantheon of God’s created these men. (but we’ll discuss THAT in another post) And these people are to spread out, fill the earth and live everywhere. Again I must stress there is no Eden yet.

Genesis 2: 1 So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
Genesis 2: 7 And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
8 And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed. 9 And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Since were looking at a time line here, it is safe to say that this slimy man was created on the eighth day when God also created Eden. This is of course where the dispute will arise. That’s okay, because we already know that humans were made before this and are spreading out as God is resting. Now we see Eden, and the man God creates to put in this little zoo.

Genesis 2: 15 And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.
16 And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: 17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. 18 And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.

So he took one man -who was alone in Eden- God says so himself, and drops him like Survivor into paradise. We know what happens next, God creates Woman out of a rib bone of Adam and we have Eve.

Genesis 3: 2 And the woman answered him [sepent], saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. 4 And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. 5 For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.

They eat the fruit as we know, but God doesn’t kill them as He said He would, He shows mercy (and that he’s a big fat liar) and bans then from the garden, posting chubby cherubim’s at the gate with flaming swords.

I like the serpent’s line, you shall be as Gods, you will be God like, you’ll know what is right and wrong and basically have no need for God anymore, because you can figure it all out yourself. You’re in his image, now you have the same intelligence! That’s kinda a cool thought to ponder. (careful, don’t hurt yourself)

How did God figure out what Adam and Eve had done? Why, they were suddenly ashamed of being naked. It hasn’t bothered them before, and now they hide in the bushes.

Moving right a long…

So God banishes them where they toil, get blisters and they have a couple of kids who squabble and one kills the other.

Now here’s the tricky part. After Cain kills Abel, he is banished. Cain is alone and he lives alone, until Genesis 4: 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and brought forth Henoch: and he built a city, and called the name thereof by the name of his son Henoch.

Where the heck did she come from? The name of the place isn’t mentioned in this version of the Bible, in others as in the New American Standard, the place is called Land of Nod, east of Eden. (And Henoch is called Enoch.)

This wife was never in Eden, she isn’t a child of Adam and Eve. She is “the Other people” created before Adam was put in his zoo, ah garden. She and all the people that are around to fill up a city are a part of the first group, those that were created and send out to ‘be fruitful and multiply.
Why does this matter? God very clearly imposed Original Sin on Adam and Eve for eating of the Tree of Knowledge.

Genesis 3: 16 To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.

And yet also, very clearly there are people wandering around Nod-land who are without this sin. God didn’t curse them. And yes the God of the old testament is a big meanie and He could curse them by proxy or prorate it back to his first people. This could possibly be true, but it’s my thought that if He was going to that He’d make a big show of it, like His waterworks with Noah, He would have down so and we’d read all about THAT in His book too.

It’s easy at this point to say that all the descendants are cursed because of the blood line of Cain, or from Adam’s other son Seth (Gen 5:4) but what about all those people living in the city of Henoch who didn’t marry into this cursed family? What of them?
The Bible is the story of lineage, that of Adam and Eve's descendants and their special relationship with their particular God. It can be said that those who are not of Semitic descent do not share the curse, because they are not of that line.

Many of them are Cain's wife's people, or Seth's wife's people, or some other people across the river and over that hill. They are the Other People, called pagans and to which the Bible continues to reference. "learn not the ways of the Pagans..." (Jer 10:2)
"You must not behave as they do in Egypt where once you lived; you must not behave as they do in Canaan where I am taking you. You must not follow their laws." (Lev 18:3) God, this God in the Bible, is clearly not the god of the Pagans.

Yet in a weird twisted irony that continues to astound and confound me, he created us too?

I’m a witch, a pagan, a whatever the heck you want to label me. My family blood is so Scottish/Irish/(spend-two -seconds-in-the-sun-and-g et-burned) that is hurts, we are not descendants of Semitic peoples and so theoretically, we don’t share this blood curse.
Granted I can’t prove that more than about ten generations back.

Nevertheless, I’m also writing this buck naked with no fear of God seeing me as such, which we remember was a big shameful part of the whole thing. So I’m shrugging my naked shoulders and going to bed with my equally naked husband, it’s a funky story, and I’m sure I’ll be bombarded by dozens of Bible quotes proving me wrong. Again, I’m shrugging my naked shoulders. It’s just a story.

Good night. And remember I warned you!

posted by: SupremeAnna (reply)
post date: 03.21.05 (6:40 pm)

to each his/her own pov

posted by: Longshot (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (7:09 am)

FM,
The first couple of chapters of Genesis is actually two stories. The Adam & Eve story was written first and chapter one was written later. Most serious Biblical scholars look for the theology in these two stories rather than trying to reconcile them. The problem is that most Christians do take them literally. This is very problematic. The stories were never intended to be taken literally! Thus, when we do try to read between the lines we can come up with some very screwy answers.
Are ther any myths in your tradition that might be similar?

posted by: Fairmoon (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (11:26 am)

Reply to: Longshot
A agree that the stories aren't meant to be literal. just as the story i wrote isn't meant to be literal either, just a story.

I didn't realize that chapter one came second. It's kinda cool to know.

As for stories in my trad there is one called Aradia the gospel of Witches.

it can be read at sacredtexts http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/aradia/index.htm

it's an interesting read. again not something to take literally. :)

FM

posted by: Fairmoon (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (3:23 pm)

Reply to: Godsmack
eh? i don't get it...

posted by: surrogate (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (4:05 pm)

wait till you get to Leviticus... now there's some Old Testament excitment.

posted by: Fairmoon (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (4:07 pm)

Reply to: surrogate
Woohoo!! can't wait. I've heard a good potion of the bible, but not Leviticus, I've enjoyed the prophets.

posted by: BareKnuckleBxer (reply)
post date: 03.22.05 (4:45 pm)

you have some interesting points and i respect them but i'm afraid that i must disagree

Demystifying Misconceptions This Blog chronicles the journey of one woman as she attempts to define her faith and place in the universe. I'm a geeky sort of Fae most of the time Blog Posts of Note: *Christian and Wiccan at The Same Time *A Walk with Jesus’ Mom *Finding God in Wicca *Universal Myth and Personal Myth- Definitions in Consensus Reality The Matrix: Systems Healing and Thinking, an Introduction *Magic, Witches and the Bible *A brief History of Wicca *Wicca 101 part 1 *Wicca 101 part 2 *Spells and the Modern Witch *Do Witches Worship Satan? *Religious View *Interview with a Witch *A Witch's Story of Creation *One Definition of the Divine *I am a Witch * Original Sin, from a Witches point of View *Why a Witch Could care less about Harry Potter *Satan is not my Sidekick *The other people: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Bible