Are Witches "Pagan?"

by Michael Szul on 2008-06-03 09:00:44
tags: gnosticism, jordan stratford, pagan, paganism, witchcraft

Some readers of Key 64 might already be aware of the works of Father Jordan Stratford. For those of you who aren't, Stratford is a very pragmatic religious writer and Gnostic Catholic priest, who has gained quite an amount of notoriety in the Gnostic and occult circles online. His book, Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing, is one of the few Gnostic books to move away from the academic "knowing" and into the experiential "knowing" that embodies the very nature of Gnosticism.

Father Stratford recently took a look at the ideas of witchcraft and paganism in relation to each other on his blog:

"Modern Gnosticism really begins at the end of the 18th century as disaffected Roman and Anglo-Catholic clergy explore and embrace occultism, usually with a syncretic aesthetic of Freemasonry, Alchemy, and Catharism. These are the first individuals since Clement of Alexandria to identify themselves as Gnostics. Among them are the Johannites of 1804. We must bear in mind that the pieces on the board at this point are not only highly educated, literate figures but also literary figures – writers, clergymen, and academics. The Romantics are the paragons of their identification; the poet as hero, as sacrificial victim."

You can find the whole article here. Part 2 can be found here.

submit to blinklist submit to del.icio.us submit to digg diigo it submit to disinfo submit to fark submit to furl submit to google bookmarks submit to ma.gnolia Add to Mixx! submit to newsvine submit to propeller submit to reddit submit to simpy submit to spurl submit to stumble upon submit to tailrank submit to yahoo bookmarks

Comments

Login or register to post a comment.