A good friend of mine who lives very far away contacted me yesterday and said that she would be spending tonight with some of her "metaphysical" friends in a beautiful lakeside setting celebrating the Summer Solstice.

I wasn't quite sure if she meant that her friends are a metaphysical figment of her imagination or what, but I immediately envisioned a lively, primitive and mysterious pagan ritual that would take place around a huge fire under the moonlight.

Since I've never attended a Summer Solstice event, I don't actually know what goes on at one of these. Perhaps my friend and her neo-pagan companions will just get into a big hot tub and simply enjoy each other's presence as our sun, this most ancient Sol, prepares to make yet another journey across the Earth and settle--for the briefest moment--over the Tropic of Cancer, thereby radiating its life-giving energy to the farthest northern reaches of its third child.

And I thought...how wonderful it is for people to gather for such an event and know that similar gatherings have been taking place all over the earth since the dawn of prehistory when human beings first associated the sun with life itself.

Living as far north as we do here in Wisconsin, the sun holds a powerful place in our minds, since for so many months of the year, it is little more than a phantom, mocking us with the promise of its enveloping warmth, yet never able to release the icy, death-like grip of winter.

We seldom hear about this important astrophysical event; the Summer Solstice. I guess this is because, as Christians, we've been indoctrinated since early on to despise and fear any ideas that aren't part of the official dogma of the Church.

Yet, the irony is that many of our sacredly-held ideas as Christians came directly from the so-called pagan religions that preceded Christianity and Judaism--or which lived alongside it until the brutal Inquisition wiped out all but small vestiges of them in both Europe and the New World.

According to the article on Paganism and Christianity in Wikipedia, "three layers of pagan influence on the Christian Church have been proposed:"

1. Influence on the New Testament narrative and doctrine itself. This is mainly located in Hellenistic mystery religions such as Mithraism, partly inspired by Ancient Egyptian religion, as well as the mythology of the Old Testament, but Buddhism is also named as a possible influence.
   
   
2. Influence on Christian dogma in Late Antiquity, that is, the doctrine of the Church Fathers in the 4th and 5th century, the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds, including the questions of the Trinity and Christology. A strong influence here was Roman imperial cult, Hellenistic philosophy, notably Neoplatonism, and Gnosticism. Christological disputes continued to dominate Christian theology well into the Early Middle Ages, down to the Third Council of Constantinople of AD 680.
   
   
3. Influences of pagan religions Christianized in the Early Middle Ages. This includes Germanic paganism, Celtic paganism, Slavic paganism and folk religion in general.

To counter yet validate these ideas, websites abound that warn Christian believers about the pagan origins of some of our most revered holidays (holy days) and religious customs.

This page on a website called godkind.org represents the extreme antipathy towards Christmas, Easter and, of course, Halloween that arises from the refusal of Christianity to acknowledge the common spiritual and psychological ideas it shares with --and indeed borrows from pagan religions for its own conventions and cultural milieu.

One of the more fascinating ideas proposed is that Jesus himself studied Buddhist philosophy and teaching.

In an excellent article on http://www.thezensite.com, James M. Hanson, an expert in Buddhist-Christian Studies starts off with this provocative question:

Was Jesus a Buddhist? Certainly he was many things--Jew, prophet, healer, moralist, revolutionary, by his own admission the Messiah, and for most Christians the Son of God and redeemer of their sins. And there is convincing evidence that he was also a Buddhist. The evidence follows two independent lines--the first is historical, and the second is textual. Historical evidence indicates that Jesus was well acquainted with Buddhism. If Jesus did not go to India, then at least India went to Judea and Jesus. The real historical question is not if he studied Buddhism, but where and how much he studied Buddhism, especially during his so-called "lost years."

Historical accounts aside, many textual analyses indicate striking similarities between what was said by Jesus and by Buddha and between the prophetic legend of Jesus and ancient Buddhist texts. The conclusion is that, although not identifying himself as a Buddhist for good reasons, Jesus spoke like a Buddhist. The similarities are so striking that, even if no historical evidence existed, we can suspect that Jesus studied Buddhist teachings and that the prophecy and legend of Jesus was derived from Buddhist stories.

This scholarly analysis of the question of Jesus' Buddhist background is fascinating; especially in contrast to how far from Jesus/Buddha's core ideas Christian theology has strayed, in my opinion.

Even if one is unwilling to accept that Jesus could be influenced by such an Oriental philosophy, there is still no doubt as to how little influence Jesus' original ideas have had on the Church's subsequent politically-charged theological and moral teachings--and more importantly, his influence on those who call themselves Christian.

Back to the joyous pagan event that will be celebrated by many around the world tonight and at dawn tomorrow.

While the joy and anticipation of a natural world that will soon be at the peak of vibrancy and fecundity has been lost to most of us who exist far-removed from the source of this abundant life, it is good to know that there are still souls in our world who have not forgotten Nature nor the source of all life on earth: our magnificent sun.

So whether my friend dances around a fire tonight or simply enjoys the company of her friends in a warm and sensuous hot tub, I will be thinking of her as well as my two daughters who are also very far away; with one in Texas and one in the midst of a 10-day Vippassana Meditation retreat near Chennai, India.

As I thought of them this morning, the words of the beautiful song, "Somewhere Out There" came to my mind. This song won the Grammy Award in 1988 as Song of the Year and was written for the delightful movie, "An American Tail", a surprisingly powerful and moving animated story about a "Russian-Jewish" mouse in the 1880's who must leave his home to move to New York.

One evening, sad and lonely, he looks up into the sky and realizes how much he misses his beloved sister, who still remains in Russia. While the song in the movie is a sweet lament of a little homesick mouse, the sentiment is universal and very, very human.

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

Image from 4 Witches Occult Shop