Random and inconsistent snippets from an unstructured mind. My truth may not be your truth. A fact is a fact only by standing on it.
It can't fall down, there is nothing holding it up...
Except some sort of capitalist exploitation. The writer is a 3rd generation Indigenous Australian. Not, i might add, Aboriginal - two different concepts.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
revisiting ancient fears
If I use the word "sinister", what is your first thought?
Being cursed with a knowledge of etymology with a smattering of Latin and less Greek, I think of sinister as something to do with lefthandedness, and pagan as something to do with being a peasant, or someone living on the land, worshipping nature-gods possibly and not the fearsome Christian or Jewish ones.
Have always been fascinated by the way our perceptions and understanding of words change over time. Yup, "dexter" and "sinister" are Latin for "right" and "left". Am not really sure how "sinister" became associated with "dark", "foreboding", "mysterious" .. or "wrong", but am guessing that it has something to do with the persistent negative "spin" put on it by the Roman church.
It persists today in politics, where the "Right" are always right (positive, upstanding, correct), and the "Left" are somehow "wrong" (dark, devious, mysterious).
Total crap, of course, but there is a subliminal "negative" connotation attached to being accused of "being on the Left", or "Left-wing".
"heretic" is another one given "bad press" and means, more or less, "school of thought" or "someone who learns".
.. and a "pagan" is a rustic, or someone who lives in the countryside. Some sources give it as "outside the walls of Rome".
7 comments:
"If I use the word "sinister", what is your first thought?"
G. W. Bush
"What is your understanding of the word "pagan"?"
I guess you mean other than as it's described in a dictionary. I don't like the way they state it.
Pagan: The living spirit of the living planet. Hey, I just also described God/Goddess.
Actually, maybe that is a word that should just go away, I don't know its origins but I suspect that it was made up by some christian idiot.
Being cursed with a knowledge of etymology with a smattering of Latin and less Greek, I think of sinister as something to do with lefthandedness, and pagan as something to do with being a peasant, or someone living on the land, worshipping nature-gods possibly and not the fearsome Christian or Jewish ones.
Have always been fascinated by the way our perceptions and understanding of words change over time. Yup, "dexter" and "sinister" are Latin for "right" and "left". Am not really sure how "sinister" became associated with "dark", "foreboding", "mysterious" .. or "wrong", but am guessing that it has something to do with the persistent negative "spin" put on it by the Roman church.
It persists today in politics, where the "Right" are always right (positive, upstanding, correct), and the "Left" are somehow "wrong" (dark, devious, mysterious).
Total crap, of course, but there is a subliminal "negative" connotation attached to being accused of "being on the Left", or "Left-wing".
"heretic" is another one given "bad press" and means, more or less, "school of thought" or "someone who learns".
.. and a "pagan" is a rustic, or someone who lives in the countryside. Some sources give it as "outside the walls of Rome".
"and a "pagan" is a rustic, or someone who lives in the countryside. Some sources give it as "outside the walls of Rome."
Ya nailed it.
Hugs.
I'm a proud sinister pagan. Left-handed, born in the Appalachian mountains, way outside the walls of Rome.
Great pair of words for examination, Davo!
Anne, I also hear the words and "beliefs" of "mainstream Protestants".
Protest against what? Papism?
Anyone who still believes that Yeshua ben Yoseph is a "God", or miraculously "resurrected himself" is still in the Thrall of Roman Empire Mythology.
Oh, yes, his words are valid, as are those of Gautama, 300 years prior.
And now we have the words of Mohammed .. 600 years AFTER Yeshua.
I despair, truly despair.
Anne, 'tis one of the reasons that I love your quirky, brilliant, look at the whole catastrophe of pompous "political" religiousity.
Love..
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