"Blessings"

[Wilcox, Rose (ZB5646)]

Hi, Allen, I appreciate the OED info.


<<
This, of course, is no proof of "Blessings" being necessarily Christian or
pagan, and I personally have never received a letter from anyone which
closed with "Blessings, [signature] John Doe." But I think the history of
the word, at least as represented by the editors of the 1970s ed of the
OED (only one I have at home) doesn't preclude use by pagans--if there is
definitive proof of its use by pagans, I'll leave that to more competent
authorities. The KJV is surely too recent. The OED has citations from
Gospel translations more than 600 years earlier. There are no cites from
pagan literature, and how much of such literature exists, I do not know.
Used by pagans? Well, maybe ... but I'd need a piece of evidence.
>>

I was looking also for citations of Christian or other modern usage as a
closing for letters or emails.  I do have access to a fair amount of
neo-pagan usage of the term.  I was hoping that a fair amount of people here
would attest to either having seen or used the phrase as a closing or not.

As far as the historical claim, there is a big problem in neo-pagan
citations of history.  Since there is a lack of written history of paganism
and many neo-pagan books have quoted poor research from earlier authors with
little or no correction, neo-pagans fervently embrace a number of historical
misconceptions about the Inquisition (such as an inflated number of deaths
of witches) and about pre-history (such as a view of an ancient world pagan
religion).  As a practicing neo-pagan, I try to spread the word of truth and
refute these myths when I can, but this one, having no evidence is
difficult.  Perhaps all I can say is a blunt "there is no evidence of that".


I hate to see more barriers put up between neo-pagans and other religions
based on falsehoods on the neo-pagans part.

Thanks for the quotes and I'll pass them along.

Rosie Wilcox