Pagansim

I decided to take this course as a tie in to the Master of Wiccan Studies course I took a few years ago. When I reviewed the comments on the message board, Rev. Lucinda Parker recommended three courses that are tied together. Wicca, Paganism and Druidism. Therefore, I did a bit of research on the net. Here's what I found on the religioustolerence.org website: According to a passage in a Wikipedia essay on Druidry (now deleted): "Modern Druidism (a.k.a. Modern Druidry) is a continuation of the 18th-century revival and is thus thought to have some, though not many, connections to the Ancient Religion. Modern Druidism has two strands, the cultural and the religious. Cultural Druids hold a competition of poetry, literature and music known as the Eisteddfod amongst the Celtic peoples (Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Breton, etc). Modern religious Druidry is a form of Neopaganism built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and later, plus the relatively sparse Roman and early medieval sources." Overall, this Paganism course was interesting and a good tie-in to Wicca. A real eye opener for me was "The Great Rite", a ceremony that is very detailed in this course. When reading about the Great Rite I was amazed at the similarities to the symbolism of the Catholic mass and the Great Rite ceremony. The symbols of the goddesses body being the alter, the alter cloth, the challis, and the overall ritual can be directly tied to the Catholic communion ceremony. Since my field of study is now centered on the old earth religions, it always amazes me when I find these direct ritual similarities, especially when the Hollywood versions of the old religions, with a few modern exceptions, usually attach evil and Satan worship to anything having to do with Whichcraft, Paganism, etc. We all know that this is completely false. There is no link whatesoever between the old religions and anything to do with evil. It is quite the contrary. This course has re-confirmed for me that a natural and common sense approach to religion is a much more pleasant experience than the old traditional fear systems. This was a very enjoyable course and I highly recommend it to any Wiccans who are seeking more details and information on Wiccan rituals. Robert Pelot Orleans, Ontario ******************************* The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar