Description of Event
This two-hour discussion invites participants to explore the deep presence of pagan and pre-Christian traditions woven into contemporary Christianity, especially within Catholicism. Drawing on my recent three month pilgrimage through Spain, France, England, and Ireland, we will show how ancient sites, rituals and symbols continue to echo through Christian practice today. Together, we will consider:
•How Catholic feast days and rituals carry echoes of older seasonal and fertility rites.
•How sacred landscapes and holy wells bridge pagan reverence for nature with Christian devotion.
•How saints such as Brigid and Mary Magdalene embody archetypes far older than Christianity.
•How mystics like Saint Teresa of Avila absorbed and transformed pre-Christian wisdom into the Christian mystical path.
Jeremy “Sunny” Johnson-LeMieux has a lifelong interest in world culture, religion and history. Raised Protestant he also attended Catholic Church and studied Peruvian Shamanism with his father. He is a Kriyaban through the Self Realization Fellowship and a yoga and meditation teacher through the Golden Lotus Yoga Teachers Association which was first taught at the Detroit Institute of Arts by Yogacharya Oliver Black. Sunny also studied Islamic mysticism and took the Shahada from a Palestinian Imam in 2019. He recently spent three months in Western Europe visiting ancient sites associated with local Pre-Christian customs, the various goddesses, female saints like Saint Teresa of Avila, Mary Magdalene and Saint Brigid of Ireland. He is also a professional artist who was published in the UK in Rastafari HeART Books 1, 2 and 3. He teaches figure art and art history at the Northville Art House and leads various lectures and workshops across Metro Detroit. You can see more of his offerings at jahsunnyarts.com
This conversation is an invitation to see Christianity not as a break from the past but as a living tapestry woven with threads of earlier traditions, where the sacred feminine, the cycles of nature, and the wisdom of the ancestors continue to shine through.
$15-$25 donation. Cash, Venmo @Jahsunny, Paypal @jahsunnyarts.com