Pagan Roots and Sacred Continuities: Pre-Christian Culture in Contemporary Christianity

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.

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.