One Witch's Perspective

There is a question that has quietly accompanied me throughout much of my spiritual journey. It first emerged during long evenings spent reading mythology, archaeology, comparative religion, and the sacred writings of civilizations that flourished thousands of years before Christianity. It is a simple question, yet one that carries remarkable weight:

Where did these ideas come from?

For many years, I questioned the stories I was taught about religion, particularly Christianity because of my early upbringing. Every faith, whether inherited through family or discovered later in life, comes with a history that is already written for us. We are often told where our beliefs begin, who first taught them, and why they matter. Yet history has a remarkable way of inviting us to ask another question—one that can be both unsettling and liberating.

What came before?

As my studies deepened, I found myself surrounded by books that stretched across nearly five thousand years of human civilization. Egyptian funerary texts carved into the walls of pyramids stood beside the hymns attributed to Zarathustra in ancient Persia. The dialogues of Plato and the philosophies of Aristotle shared shelf space with the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Hermetic writings of Hellenistic Egypt, and countless archaeological discoveries that continue to reshape our understanding of the ancient world.

At first glance, these civilizations appeared to have little in common. They were separated by geography, language, politics, and centuries of history. Yet the more I read, the more I began to recognize familiar themes emerging across cultures. People everywhere asked remarkably similar questions. What happens after death? Does the soul survive? Why does evil exist? Is there a divine order governing the universe? Can humanity become closer to the Divine through wisdom, virtue, or spiritual transformation?

What surprised me most was not that these questions existed. Human beings have always searched for meaning. What surprised me was how often the answers shared striking similarities while still remaining uniquely shaped by each culture's own experiences and worldview.

As a witch, I have found that one of the greatest gifts my spiritual path has offered me is permission to ask difficult questions without fear. Witchcraft has never required me to choose between faith and knowledge. Instead, it has encouraged me to approach both with reverence. Curiosity is not the enemy of spirituality; it is one of its greatest companions. Every ritual, every season of the Wheel of the Year, and every moment spent in nature reminds me that wisdom is discovered through observation, reflection, and experience rather than unquestioning acceptance.

Because of that perspective, history has become just as sacred to me as ritual.

The purpose of this essay is not to diminish Christianity or to challenge the sincerity of those who practice it. Nor is it intended to argue that Christianity is somehow "less true" because many of its beliefs have earlier parallels in older civilizations. Every religion develops within history. None emerge in complete isolation from the cultures surrounding them. Judaism itself evolved over many centuries as Israel encountered Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. Christianity grew from Jewish traditions while taking shape within the philosophical, political, and religious landscape of the Greco-Roman world. Islam would later emerge from many of these same historical currents.

Recognizing these historical connections does not make any religion false.

Rather, it reminds us that religions are living traditions. They inherit ideas, reinterpret symbols, respond to new circumstances, and preserve older wisdom while expressing it in new ways. This process is not unique to Christianity; it is part of the story of nearly every spiritual tradition humanity has ever known.

Throughout this series, I invite you to walk beside me—not as opponents defending competing religions, but as fellow students of history. Together we will examine ancient Egypt and its concepts of divine judgment, resurrection, and eternal life centuries before the New Testament. We will travel to Persia to explore the teachings of Zarathustra and the emergence of cosmic dualism, angels, demons, and a final judgment. We will sit with Plato as he reflects upon the immortality of the soul and humanity's pursuit of ultimate truth. We will return to Jerusalem during the Second Temple period to watch Jewish theology evolve under the influence of surrounding cultures before the birth of Christianity.

Along the way, we will ask difficult questions. Did Christianity inherit ideas from older traditions? When do similarities suggest direct historical influence, and when do they simply reflect humanity's universal search for meaning? How do religions preserve ancient wisdom while reshaping it for new generations? Most importantly, if countless civilizations have sought the Divine throughout history, could each have preserved a fragment of a much larger story?

As a witch, I have never believed that wisdom belongs exclusively to one religion, one people, or one civilization. The forest does not speak with a single voice. Every tree contributes to the song. Every river carries water from a different source, yet they all eventually flow toward the same sea. Perhaps humanity's spiritual traditions are much the same.

The deeper I have ventured into the world's sacred literature, the less interested I have become in determining which religion possesses the whole truth. Instead, I have become fascinated by the journey truth itself has taken—how ideas are born, exchanged, transformed, challenged, forgotten, rediscovered, and preserved across thousands of years of human history.

That journey has not weakened my spirituality.

It has made it richer.

If the Divine has been whispering to humanity since the dawn of civilization, then perhaps our greatest act of reverence is not defending one tradition against another. Perhaps it is learning to recognize those whispers wherever they appear and allowing history itself to become another sacred text from which we can learn.

Primary Sources

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (trans. Raymond O. Faulkner)
The Pyramid Texts (trans. James P. Allen)
The Coffin Texts (trans. R. O. Faulkner)
The Hebrew Bible (NRSVue or JPS Translation)
The New Testament (NRSVue)
The Avesta (Sacred Books of the East)
Plato, Phaedo
Plato, Republic
Plato, Timaeus
Aristotle, Metaphysics
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Nag Hammadi Library

Secondary Sources

Jan Assmann, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt
John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament
Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God
James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God
Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Karen Armstrong, A History of God
Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas
Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, God: An Anatomy

Connect

Reach out with questions or insights. luciddreamer@covenradiantmoon.org

https://naiadea.atabook.org/

Bright Blessings!
As Above, So Below

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