In my local Maine Pagan group, someone asked today why Wiccans sometimes take the word "church" instead of "coven" to describe themselves. Here, according to Maine's own raven_starsong3, is the surprising answer:
"Pagan groups in general are taking the title of Church for two reasons. First, they may be trying to achieve mainstream and/or legal recognition as a body equal to a Christian or other religion's church.______________________
"Second, the word 'church' is actually a Romanized version of the Celtic word 'circe' which is what the Pagans in the British Isles called their groups.
Circe means a circle or group practicing religion as a community. The Celts pronounced it KER'ka, but the Romans pronounced it CHER'cha and took it back to Rome where it became associated with the Christian religion.
There is a movement to 'take the word back.'"
Thnx to blueheron for the foto; go HERE to see more.
4 comments:
Wow! Awesome, church is the Celtic circle!
We need to wrestle that word back out of male YAJ clergy mouths..
Any connection to the name Kirke, the fiery priestess-goddess, daughter of the sun from the Greek myths?
"Any connection to the name Kirke, the fiery priestess-goddess, daughter of the sun from the Greek myths?" Good question, AnnaPerenna. I wondered that myself.
And Kirk is the Scottish name for church... no great leap of the imagination required to make the connection there.
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