PAGAN & CHRISTIAN CREEDS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING

By EDWARD CARPENTER




"The different religions being lame attempts to represent under
various guises this one root-fact of the central universal life,
men have at all times clung to the religious creeds and rituals
and ceremonials as symbolising in some rude way the redemption
and fulfilment of their own most intimate natures--and this
whether consciously understanding the interpretations, or whether
(as most often) only doing so in an unconscious or quite
subconscious way."
The Drama of Love and Death, p. 96.



CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTORY
II. SOLAR MYTHS AND CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS
III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC
IV. TOTEM-SACRAMENTS AND EUCHARISTS
V. FOOD AND VEGETATION MAGIC
VI. MAGICIANS, KINGS AND GODS
VII. RITES OF EXPIATION AND REDEMPTION
VIII. PAGAN INITIATIONS AND THE SECOND BIRTH
IX. MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE