Page 37
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The page tries to hold pagan force and Christian suffering together, imagining human life as passing through the wounds of Christ while still carrying older ritual energies.
It feels like theological compression. The scan-confirmed handwritten 'with' makes the ending read like an inserted hinge between looking at the cross and making its sign.
A creed that pits embodied force against the instruments of crucifixion: 'Arms held more powerful than the iron in the nails', so the faithful 'go through the holes of Christ'. The title 'Pegan Except For Christ' (author's spelling) declares a paganism with a single Christian exception, and the cross stands 'never amended' - unrevised, beyond correction. The handwritten 'with', set on its own line, hinges into the closing ritual, 'Making the sign of the cross, and our holy ghost', so old physical power and inherited rite are fused. Source spelling 'Pegan' is kept as written.