Following Christ Beyond the Church Walls
There is a little church at the end of an old country road.
Its bell rings on Sunday morning. Candles flicker inside. An old Bible rests upon the lectern, and sunlight streams through stained glass windows.
But outside those walls, another sacred world awaits.
The wind moves through ancient trees.
The Moon rises.
Stars appear.
Wildflowers push through the earth.
Somewhere beyond the hill stands an ancient circle of stones.
And perhaps, as we step beyond the church door and begin walking towards them, we discover something unexpected.
Jesus has not disappeared.
Perhaps He has been walking beside us all along.
✝️ 🌿 ⭐
Where Does Jesus Fit Into ChristoPaganism?
This may be one of the first questions someone asks when encountering ChristoPaganism.
If we practise magick, celebrate the seasons, use Tarot, honour nature or explore relationships with Gods and Goddesses, where does Jesus belong?
For many ChristoPagans, the answer is beautifully simple:
Jesus remains at the heart of the path.
ChristoPaganism does not necessarily mean abandoning Christianity and replacing it with Paganism.
Nor does it require us to pretend that Christianity and the many Pagan traditions throughout history are all identical.
They are not.
Instead, ChristoPaganism provides a spiritual space in which someone may continue loving and following Christ while also exploring sacred wisdom beyond conventional Christian boundaries.
For some of us, that can feel like coming home.
Returning to the Teachings of Jesus
✝️ Christianity has accumulated nearly two thousand years of institutions, denominations, doctrines, traditions and disagreements.
But beneath all that history stands a teacher walking the dusty roads of ancient Judea.
Jesus.
And when we return to His teachings, one message appears again and again:
Love.
When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus placed love at the centre:
Love God.
Love thy neighbour as thyself.
Those words can become a compass for the ChristoPagan traveller.
Before asking whether a spiritual practice fits neatly inside somebody else's religious category, perhaps we might first ask:
Does this lead me towards greater love?
Does it make me kinder?
More compassionate?
More forgiving?
More willing to help someone who is hurting?
More respectful of another person's dignity?
More conscious of the sacredness of life?
If our spirituality produces hatred, cruelty and superiority, something has gone terribly wrong—regardless of the religious label attached to it.
Jesus Beyond the Church Walls
🌿 There can be tremendous beauty within churches.
Sacred music.
Candles.
Prayer.
Community.
Stained glass.
Scripture.
Ritual.
Generations of people gathering in the same place to seek God.
ChristoPaganism does not require us to reject any of that.
But neither must we believe that the Divine stops at the church door.
Jesus Himself frequently taught outdoors.
Upon hillsides.
Beside the sea.
Along roads.
Within gardens.
In boats.
Among ordinary people going about ordinary lives.
Perhaps we sometimes become so focused upon sacred buildings that we forget how much of the Gospel happens beneath the open sky.
The ChristoPagan path invites us outside again.
Into the forest.
Onto the beach.
Beneath the Moon.
Under the stars.
Beside the fire.
And there we may discover that prayer feels every bit as sacred as it did inside a church.
Christ and Creation
☀️🌙 There is something profoundly spiritual about standing beneath a vast night sky.
We are tiny creatures upon a small world circling one star amongst billions.
And yet we are here.
We love.
We dream.
We create.
We ask questions.
We look towards the heavens and wonder about the Divine.
For the ChristoPagan, nature can become a sacred meeting place.
The changing seasons teach us about birth, growth, harvest, death and renewal.
The Moon teaches us about cycles.
Winter reminds us to rest.
Spring teaches us to begin again.
The Sun gives warmth and life.
The Earth provides the food beneath our feet.
Seeing holiness within creation need not diminish our love for Christ.
It may deepen it.
Perhaps caring for the Earth can itself become an act of gratitude towards the Divine.
Jesus at the Sacred Table
Imagine a ChristoPagan altar.
An open Bible rests upon it.
Beside it stands a cross.
A candle burns.
There are crystals gathered from the Earth.
Perhaps a Tarot deck waits nearby.
There might be representations of Hecate, Apollo, Aphrodite or another deity with whom we feel a spiritual connection.
Flowers honour the season.
Incense rises slowly through the candlelight.
Some Christians would be uncomfortable with such an altar.
We should be honest about that.
ChristoPagan practice sits outside many traditional Christian teachings, particularly when it includes magick, divination or relationships with other deities.
But ChristoPagans themselves hold different understandings of these practices and of the Divine.
For the person walking this path, the question becomes one of conscience, study, prayer and discernment.
We do not need to hide from difficult theological questions.
Neither do we need fear to answer them for us.
Jesus, Gods & Goddesses
🌙 One of the more challenging questions concerns how Jesus relates to the Gods and Goddesses encountered within Pagan traditions.
There is no universal ChristoPagan answer.
Some ChristoPagans may understand God as the ultimate Divine reality while seeing Gods and Goddesses as manifestations, faces or expressions of that mystery.
Others may regard individual deities as distinct spiritual beings.
Some may approach ancient deities primarily through mythology, symbolism and archetype.
Others may develop devotional relationships with them.
And some ChristoPagans may not work with other deities at all.
What matters is that we approach these traditions with respect, knowledge and humility.
We should not pretend that Apollo was secretly Jesus, or that Aphrodite was merely another name for Mary.
Different traditions have their own histories.
Respecting difference does not prevent us from discovering spiritual resonance between them.
What About Magick?
⭐ Magick is another area where ChristoPaganism may move beyond conventional Christianity.
But what do we actually mean by magick?
For many modern practitioners, magick is not about commanding supernatural forces to satisfy every passing desire.
It may be something much quieter.
Lighting a candle with intention.
Blessing a home.
Using herbs symbolically within ritual.
Meditating with a crystal.
Drawing Tarot cards for reflection.
Creating sacred space.
Offering protection prayers.
Marking the turning seasons.
Setting intentions for healing, courage, abundance or change.
The ChristoPagan approach we explore here at Hugs Across The Cosmos places one principle above spiritual power:
Love.
If our magick seeks to manipulate, dominate or harm another person, we should question it.
Power needs ethics.
And Christ's commandment to love our neighbour provides a powerful standard by which to examine our intentions.
Jesus and Those on the Outside
🏳️🌈 One of the things I find most compelling about Jesus is how frequently His stories bring Him into contact with people on the edges.
People others judged.
People others avoided.
People considered religiously unacceptable.
Again and again, Jesus crosses boundaries.
That matters deeply to the ChristoPagan path we are building here.
Hugs Across The Cosmos is a safe and welcoming space for the LGBT+ community.
No person should be required to hide who they are in order to receive love.
No loving couple should be treated as less worthy of dignity.
No trans person should be told that their existence places them beyond compassion.
No spiritual seeker should be humiliated simply because their journey looks different from somebody else's.
We will not agree upon everything.
We do not need to.
But we can choose kindness.
We can choose dignity.
We can choose welcome.
We can choose love.
A Simple ChristoPagan Prayer to Christ
Jesus, teacher and companion,
walk beside me upon this winding path.
When I am certain,
teach me humility.
When I am uncertain,
give me courage to keep seeking.
When religion becomes fear,
bring me back to love.
When spirituality becomes pride,
bring me back to service.
Help me recognise the Divine
within the sanctuary and beneath the stars,
within Scripture and within creation,
within the familiar and within the mysterious.
May my prayer be sincere.
May my magick cause no harm.
May my heart remain open.
May those whom others reject find welcome beside me.
And wherever this path may lead,
may I never walk so far in search of mystery
that I forget the simple command to love.
Blessed be. Amen.
Following Christ Beyond the Church Walls
✝️⭐ Perhaps walking the ChristoPagan path does not require us to choose between a church and a stone circle.
Perhaps the deeper question is:
Who are we becoming as we walk between them?
Are we becoming kinder?
More compassionate?
More curious?
More forgiving?
More willing to defend those who are excluded?
More aware of the Earth beneath our feet?
More grateful for this strange and beautiful life?
If so, perhaps something sacred is happening.
There may be days when we pray before a cross.
There may be nights when we stand beneath the full Moon.
We may read the words of Jesus.
We may study the ancient Gods and Goddesses.
We may light candles.
Lay Tarot cards.
Celebrate the seasons.
Practise magick.
Sing hymns.
Walk through forests.
And ask questions for which we may never find perfect answers.
But through all of it, one light can remain before us:
Love God.
Love thy neighbour.
Love thyself.
And perhaps Christ is much less concerned with whether we found Him inside the building or beneath an ancient tree than with what we do with the love we find there.
So step beyond the church doors.
Walk into the sunlight.
Feel the Earth beneath thy feet.
Look towards the Moon and stars.
There is an enormous sacred world waiting beyond the walls.
And perhaps, somewhere along that winding path, we shall hear familiar footsteps beside us.