Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, other than miracles, oracles, prophets, devils, ect.

Not really. Let me go grab the ULTIMATE SUMMARY OF RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS: The Idiots guide to World Religions.(Seriously, it has detailed summarys that make sense of many religions. I use it when I don't feel like running over and grabbing the Bhagvad-Gita or the Koran and doing some hard studing.)

Wait.... I can't find it. Ummm.... I'll be back soon with your answer.

I'd check any of the links in this guild's linklist under the topics Gnosticism and Mormon Mysticism. There's alot of information there. Also, try talking to Eteponge about early Christianity. He knows alot about it. wink

As far as later mysticism or witchcraft in Christianity, It seems that during the conversion of Europe, Christianity and Catholicism specifically adopted many Pagan customs in hopes of gaining more Pagan converts. The most obvious examples are holidays.

Easter = Ostara, the day on which the Goddess Eostra was worshipped using fertility rites. (These ferlitily rites also explain why bunnies and eggs are symbols of the holiday.)

Christmas = Yule, the day on which the Pagan god was said to be reborn and begin life anew. It's pretty curious that both Yule and Christmas celebrate the birth of a god. In truth, there is no accurate way to determine the date of Jesus's birth, so, to gain converts, why not make it the same day as other gods?

Halloween = Samhain. This is one holiday that I believe was fully Pagan before Christians adopted it. And if you don't think Halloween is a Christian holiday, look at it this way. Halloween literally means All Hallow's Eve, which is the day before All Saints Day (or All Hallow's Day.) The next day is All Soul's Day. If there's a day to honour all dead saints, there has to be a day to honour all dead Christians in general. They placed these days on these dates because Samhain has always been a time to honour the dead.

And other ways in which the Church was influenced by Paganism has to do with saints. When Christianity first began to spread, many local dieties were turned into saints by local pastors in hopes that people would go to church if they were still able to worship their gods. Some examples of Pagan gods-turned Christian saints would be Saint Bridgit (the Goddess Brigid) or Saint Cern (the old God Kernunnos).

On this same topic, Pagan gods were also turned into devils. Both the Goat and the Deer were held in high reguard by Pagans as they provided life for the people by providing food. These two animals were held in such high reguard that some Pagan gods were even part deer or part goat and had horns on their heads. During the conversion, the Church claimed that these "horned gods" were evil and were of the devil. This is how we came to see the modern image of the devil as a horned figure.

Also another reason many historians believe Christmas was celebrated in December is that when Constantine adopted Christianity he still practiced the Roman pagan Religion. Around mid Decembe rin ancient Paganistic Rome they celebrated Saturnalia which is dedicated to Saturn. Since Constantine wouldn't celebrate paganism openly many theorize that this is why he celebrated in December and it was held around that time later by the church to stamp out Saturnalia period so more would be focused on Christianity and not Paganism.

I believe the Christians adopted some of the others too - and a lot of the persecution of witches was based on the Christian/Pagan rivalry. Since Pagans (generally speaking) were often well-versed on herbal remedies, these were considered works of the devil (and god created them... ironic, no?). So begins the Black Cat superstition.