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Asatru, Christianity, coexist, coexist sticker, Heathen, Heathenism, Islam, judaism, Magic, Norse, Pagan, Paganism, Rants, Religion
So, I’m sure pretty one is aware of those Coexist and Tolerance Stickers that seem to be slapped all over everyone’s car. The things are rather ubiquitous among the Pagan and New Age crowd, as well as those I suppose could be considered politically left (a pair of categories that has overlapped in some rather bad ways as of late). It seems you can’t turn around without being told to coexist and get along.
Well, frankly, I hate those things. Not just because none of the Heathen symbols ever get put on there. Ever seen one with Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir or the Valknut or anything else? Nope, never. Hel, you’re lucky on half of them if you get a pentagram on there.
But guess which ones you always see on there. The Star of David, the Cross, and the Islamic Moon. Yep. The three religions in the world with the absolute worst track record of coexistence there is. Even when they got along with each other (which was a rare event in and of itself) that never stopped them from working to wipe out everyone who wasn’t a “People of the Book.”
In most of them it works like this. The Moon for Islam, the Hippie Peace symbol, an e decorated with the symbols for male and female, the Star of David, an i which if you’re lucky has a symbol for Paganism in a size much smaller than everything else, the Yin/Yang, and the Cross. The two biggest monotheistic religions, and everything else trapped inside, dominated by the faiths of Abraham.
No wonder they don’t dare put a symbol of the Heathens in there, it would likely start laying about with mighty fury.
Now, I understand the value of tolerance and getting along. My path and the rest of Paganism has benefited greatly from those ideas. But I wonder when that reaches it’s limit. People might be saying we’re near the end of the “War on Terror” be we are far from the end of the war of ideologies. Christianity and Islam haven’t stopped going at it since they were created, against both each other and against everyone else. The only reason the Jews stopped was because the Roman Empire got tired of them ruining the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) and wiped out their entire country and forbid them to return. And as it’s been in the news, the highly religious Jews are working to start it up all over again, with the harassing of women about their dress. But in regards to Christianity and Islam, there’s been nothing and no one to make them stop.
And all three of them want magic and paganism wiped out. They say their god is the only god. That is a fundamental truth of their religion. They cannot agree to coexist with the belief that there are multiple gods or no gods, because to do so would make their very foundation a lie. We already see it everyday.
This is something we should all think about.
Maybe they don’t have any of the Norse symbols in those bumper stickers A: Because they wouldn’t fit any of the letters of ‘coexist’ except maybe O. And B: Because the Norse religion already does a pretty good job of coexisting with everyone else and doesn’t need to be reminded to ‘coexist’ yest the rest of the religions in those stickers do. Just something to ‘think about’
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They don’t have any of the major pagan branches on there, just the pentagram. I found one with “RESPECT” as the epithet and it actually had an ankh on it. I couldn’t say if it had any Heathen symbology on it. Here’s another one I found and again, I can’t say if there are Heathen symbols there but I like this one better than the Abrahamic-ified versions.
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Yeah, nothing obviously heathen in that. They never do 😛
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I could get behind “Coexist” if everyone actually did so equally. As it is, I don’t see that. I never set out to be a loud voice in the crowd. But that’s what I’m becoming. “You don’t have to like me but you damn sure better step out of my space and let me do my thing because I am more than willing to extend the same courtesy” just isn’t as catchy, I guess.
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I have a T-Shirt that says Coexist, but it’s written out with video game console typography. Haha. I wouldn’t wear the religious one…
In all seriousness though it’s a shame that something like that is even needed and even more so that it can’t include heathenism. Recently I was reading about how Germanic paganism existed peacefully alongside the imported Roman religion and that even foreign Gods could be found incorporated into heathen religion. It’s an interesting and neglected part of history that really influences me now.
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From my bitter experience, the only 2 “Pagan”religions which need to co-exist with all other “Pagan” Paths are the Neo Druids and Wicca. I have worked, abet a long time ago with a Runic Warrior, talking about 20 years, and I never have had a problem with anyone who followed any of the Northern Traditions. This is why no Heathen imagery is shown, because you People of the North are already doing, and you have been from day one.
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