So I got to thinking recently.....I'm sure you have all discovered this is a dangerous pool for me to swim in......and I have this tendency to link... 2 Comments
So recently one of my old posts got ressurrected and tossed around :
http://noblepagan.com/wicca-86/sacred_space_your_altar-2776/
It was a... 7 Comments
Okay so here I am a practioner of Wicca for 17 years. A lot of you already know that though. This does NOT mean that I am the most Wiccany or Witchy... 9 Comments
After sharing The Spiritual Component of Autism (Pantheon) and reading the discussions that followed, I got to thinking about how medication effects... 4 Comments
Well, by "spelled out" I'm refering to the Bible. I mean, a huge chunk of what they are supposed to believe is right there in black & white. Now granted, they do their own interpretaton (some are more liberal, and then there are the crazy fundies (cough*FredPhelps*cough), but they all have the central focus of the Bible to start with.
I know, I know, there's a couple of different versions of the Bible, but again at least it's a handbook--gives them a premise from which they draw from.
Pagans have the internet ....we have to research this and that, then research what we've researched and then research that some more. It's not just one source that we derive our beliefs, but a huge conglomoration of information that we seek.
Did that make sense? I'm thinking way faster than I'm typing today...
Makes total sense.
And I think that is where we luck out though.
The internet pretty straight forward (even if a lot of it is garbage like how to turn your ex into a toad).
The bible though.....zheet. It's like a choose your own adventure book in some areas.
Now mind you I am na well versed in the bible so I may come off somewha igna'nt.
I have read bits n pieces of it ( one person advised I read some of Corinthians one time) and yeah. I could get three different morals of the stories from one passage.
So even though their religion is like ten thousand years old ( or whatever) the down side is all the boozheet in translation from generation to generation and change to change to go on , so what SHOULD be fairly straightforward seems rather convoluted.
We on the other hand don't have anything "concrete" from a millenia ago.
We have theories, oral traditions, and feelings which really in the long run simplifies things ( I think).
O heavens.....Mickey Mouse Club is on right now....and I hate the hotdog song...
I think that the reason some folks think the Bible is the absolute authority and completely true is that it's, well, written. I mean, there aren't a whole lot of holy scripts just laying around, and I suppose there's a mentality that "Hey ours is actually written! Here's the proof that it's all true!" Just an opinion, but I don't want to take 1 book and base my entire faith system around it.
Like I've said ad neaseum, I love to read, learn and research. It keeps me "on my toes" towards my faith and others, too.
If I based my belief systems off of 1 website, for example, how well rounded (and informationally correct) could those beliefs be?
Not bashing, mind you, this is all my opinion.....
My thought process is quite simply that when one relies on someone else to tell you how you feel, think and believe ... well ... at that point you are no longer an individual. You become a unique thing ... just like everyone else. A drone if you will.
One of the reasons I feel that paganism as a whole is, generally (there are quacks and religious extremists in EVERY religion), full of intelligent, thoughtful and well rounded / moral people is that we tend to never take things at face value. We dissect, we analyze, we process everything that is put in front of us. We do not accept what we are told we are to believe, feel and think. We question everything, and in the long run that is was differentiates us. All the rest, while important on the individual level, is the same fluff that every other religion and belief structure has (An it harm none Vs. Do unto others for example).
My thought process is quite simply that when one relies on someone else to tell you how you feel, think and believe ... well ... at that point you are no longer an individual. You become a unique thing ... just like everyone else. A drone if you will.
One of the reasons I feel that paganism as a whole is, generally (there are quacks and religious extremists in EVERY religion), full of intelligent, thoughtful and well rounded / moral people is that we tend to never take things at face value. We dissect, we analyze, we process everything that is put in front of us. We do not accept what we are told we are to belief, feel and think. We question everything, and in the long run that is was differentiates us. All the rest, while important on the individual level, is the same fluff that every other religion and belief structure has (An it harm none Vs. Do unto others for example).
*steps off soapbox and goes back to his hole*
See there? You just summed up in 1 post what I've taken 4 blathering posts to say. You da bomb!
*puts horns back on head*
*breaks out brimstone pinstriped suit and a monocle*
Well true. People who run around basing what they believe in off of something someone else told them to believe in are drones.
I think that more or less then sums up the mass of humanity regardless of your path.
How many people blather on at each Corner in a circle because their HP told them too?
How many people argue about which incense to use in a ritual because the usual HP is sick and you have a fill in? In that case you got say two seperate groups arguing against each other because of what one person per group commanded.
My present path...well, for the last twenty years I've been interested in paganism, but I've kind've been on the outside looking in....more than happy to discuss the concepts and lightly study a number of subjects, but I never really got into performing rituals and revering any particular god. I felt I could not call myself pagan until I actually went thru the motions of being one. I originally felt a draw towards Haern/Cernunnos, or some other amorphous horned deity I could not put a name to. It was about two years ago that I settled on the gods of the Egyptians, with a specific emphasis towards Khnum, a god of creativity and creation (and some other things I'll not get into). I also decided, since I wasn't getting assistance from the various "magical" books I had purchased over the years, I decided to focus on a study of Egyptian history. And I can tell you, that opened doors for me, because I was able to better link the symbolism with the purpose of such symbolism, and how the gods in their present and past incarnations were seen by the ancient Egyptians, and the peoples who came after them and adopted variations of that religion.
My feeling is that the better I understand something, the closer I am to deity.
Recently, I've been calling myself a Kemetic Pagan, but sometimes the term kemetic is associated with being a traditionalist, and while that is a worthy goal, I don't feel I'm far along enough in my present path to decide whether I'll wind up following a more traditionalist path or an eccletic one. Who knows, I could become a Wiccan of the Tameran persuasion.
Well ifn you do na feel knowledgeable enough you could always call yourself Kemetic Pagan In Training
That would be right up there with being a Ritual Free Diet Pagan right?
I jest.
Seriously it just a label though.
I remember when I was in my 4th year of studying Wicca ( it was more like year 2 because year 1 found me shortly after pregs with kid number 2 ). Anyways I came across a book by Priestess Amber K. It is called True Magick and it is one of those "how to be a real wiccan" type of books.
Okay that woman is a purist.
No sugar.
No caffeine.
No meat.
No alcohol.
No synthetic materials.
No nicotine.
I like soda ( caffeine AND sugar together egads!)
i ADORE pork!
I like to drink from time to time
I think lycra and spandex are COOL
I smoked at the time
So you can see I was in despair to think that because I was na some hemp wearing, tree huggin hippy that I would never be Wiccan enough to be Wiccan.
Meh. It just a label.
You may never become a traditionalist. You may never know all there is to know about your path. That is okay though. Knowledge and certificates or such is na what makes you who you are on the path you choose to walk. It's what is in your heart ( sincerity), as well as what you have learned ( knowledge) and how you apply it ( communal wisdom).
Re: Roll Call! 
....we have to research this and that, then research what we've researched and then research that some more. It's not just one source that we derive our beliefs, but a huge conglomoration of information that we seek.
).
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