A brand new blog called Pagan Prompts is proposing to offer questions to inspire comments and blog posts. The first one is
What makes you a Pagan?
I think this is a good subject to think about on a regular basis. Sometimes I get the impression that Pagan is just a label to state that you don't agree with Christianity. While that may be true, hopefully there is more to our Pagan beliefs than what we don't want.
My list starts with that idea, but goes on to bigger and better things...
I reject the God of Abraham. I don't say he doesn't exist, I just don't want anything to do with him.
I do believe that we share this planet and the universe with many deities and spirits and life forces that we don't understand.
I do believe that some of these deities and spirits are available for communication with us, on a hit and miss basis. I believe that being in tune with the natural cycles of the earth and being part of them, instead of trying to remove ourselves from them, is the key to this communication.
I do believe in magick and I don't believe that it is some sort of hocus pocus, I think that science is getting close and will someday explain how it works.
What about you? What makes you a pagan?
I was very lucky to grow up on an island, submerged in and surrounded by Acadia National Park. I spent hours of my childhood in the forest, meadows, beaches and marshes exploring; often alone. I the stillness I knew I wasn't really alone. It would have torn my soul to accept that there weren't sylphs in the water, and fairies in the forest. It would have been a denial of the truth, and it would have been a denial of the truth of the unseen. I had a series of out of body experiences when I was about four, so I knew I wasn't just my body. We all went to church most of my childhood until one day my mother said she got more spiritually out of a walk in the woods than she ever got from an hour in church. I had to agree, and that was the beginning of the break between religion and I. I would go back once in a while with a friend, but more and more what I heard there made me angry, until I quit all together. When I was around 10 I picked up a book on astrology, and started thinking about witchcraft. I decided that I believed there was a science, regular scientists weren't aware of yet that would validate magic, and there is though they still aren't ready to admit it yet. Art influenced me. I felt Froud was painting the unseen beings I had always felt, and I was inspired to create my own art. Anyway, since those days I have just studied, watched for guidance from whoever it is that helps people like me, practiced, and studied. My definition of God is getting pretty broad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that, Lily. That was wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYes, science is getting closer everyday. The articles I've been reading lately in my Scientific Am. or Discover subscriptions may as well have been drummed out of someone's BOS!
ReplyDeleteoops! I just accidentally deleted Sunfire's comment (Pagan Prompts). Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteI have always seen and felt the presance of sprits (peoples souls) and have seen them more so as I've grown up. I also have a huge spiritualist family line (from both sides) so I guess it was more fate that I became a witch.
ReplyDeletelife, nature, being a woman, knowing my divinity.......wow.huge question xx
ReplyDeleteI'm working on my Resolution a few days early, and I wanted to check and make sure I replied here... Seems I did and it got deleted... darn. Oh well. Glad to have you join us at Pagan Blog Prompts - I'll be wandering through your blog to see some of the other responses too.
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