Sister, thank you for being so open. Can you please give me a short idea of what a Pagan believes? I used to clean house for a couple who were Buddist, they were the niceiest people ever. I will say I did get a little freaked out when I walked into his room of worship. I had never seen anything like that. Now it wasn't anything bad just a small altar with some things on it and a prayer rug. How does you mom feel about your choice of beliefs? I was just wondering. Not trying to be disrepectful at all just curious. Thank you again for being so open about you life......
Paganism means different things to different people. We follow some sort of Deity, though some see that Deity in everything (these people are pantheistic). Others believe in several Deities (these people are polytheistic). Paganism is generally a nature religion, in that we see our spirituality manifested within the seasons, the sun and moon, the tides, animals, plants, landscapes, etc. Some of us pratice magick. Some of us practice divination (Tarot, Runes, reading tea leaves, interpreting dreams, etc).
There are many different forms of Paganism. For example, some people only follow the Goddess, while other follow both the God and the Goddess. Some people call their Deities by particular names (Odhinn, Bast, Lugh, Diana, etc), while others may simply call them the Lord and Lady or the God and Goddess. We also follow certain holidays (called Sabbats) and phases of the moon (Esbats). They may have different dates and names, depending on a person's particular beliefs. Here are the holy days for us: Samhain (October 31. This is equivalent to New Year's Day to us), Yule (December 21, the winter solstice), Imbolc (February 2), Ostara (March 21, sprinq equinox), Beltane (May 1), Midsummer (June 21, summer solstice), Lughnasadh (August 1), and Mabon (September 21, fall equinox).
We follow the Rede which states: An ye harm none, do what thou wilt. What this is saying is to do what you want to do, as long as you are harming no one, including yourself. So before you do something ask yourself if you are harming anyone by what you are doing. Are you harming yourself? Are you harming the environment? Is what you are about to do for the good of all? We also follow the the Threefold Law, which states that whatever you do, for good or ill, will come back to you threefold. I have seen this at work in my own life and within the lives of others. When it comes to sex we follow the Charge of the Goddess, part of which says, "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." This goes along with the Rede: are what you about to do sexually the right thing to do? Will it cause harm to you or your partner?
So what do I believe? I follow an eclectic path. I want to honor the Deities of my ancestors, so I follow Celtic Paganism and Asatru (where I follow my Germanic ancestors' Deities). One day I want to study Slavic Paganism so that I can follow the Deities of my ancient Polish ancestors. My patrons are Cernunnos (the Celtic Horned God), Rhiannon (the Horse Goddess), Brighid (the Irish Goddess of creativity), Wotan (the German God of wisdom, war, poetry, etc) and Freia (the German Goddess of sex, love, war, cats, etc).
My mother doesn't have a problem with my being a Pagan. She herself hasn't stepped foot into a church since I was born, and that's been almost 50 years now. She knows that she isn't going to try to sway me to become a Catholic.
You're quite welcome, kichen diva! I don't mind sharing personal things about myself when people, like yourself, are polite and respectful and are sincere in their questions. Most of the people here at iVillage are like that, I've discovered, so that makes it easier for me to open up to people here.
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Paganism means different things to different people. We follow some sort of Deity, though some see that Deity in everything (these people are pantheistic). Others believe in several Deities (these people are polytheistic). Paganism is generally a nature religion, in that we see our spirituality manifested within the seasons, the sun and moon, the tides, animals, plants, landscapes, etc. Some of us pratice magick. Some of us practice divination (Tarot, Runes, reading tea leaves, interpreting dreams, etc).
There are many different forms of Paganism. For example, some people only follow the Goddess, while other follow both the God and the Goddess. Some people call their Deities by particular names (Odhinn, Bast, Lugh, Diana, etc), while others may simply call them the Lord and Lady or the God and Goddess. We also follow certain holidays (called Sabbats) and phases of the moon (Esbats). They may have different dates and names, depending on a person's particular beliefs. Here are the holy days for us: Samhain (October 31. This is equivalent to New Year's Day to us), Yule (December 21, the winter solstice), Imbolc (February 2), Ostara (March 21, sprinq equinox), Beltane (May 1), Midsummer (June 21, summer solstice), Lughnasadh (August 1), and Mabon (September 21, fall equinox).
We follow the Rede which states: An ye harm none, do what thou wilt. What this is saying is to do what you want to do, as long as you are harming no one, including yourself. So before you do something ask yourself if you are harming anyone by what you are doing. Are you harming yourself? Are you harming the environment? Is what you are about to do for the good of all? We also follow the the Threefold Law, which states that whatever you do, for good or ill, will come back to you threefold. I have seen this at work in my own life and within the lives of others. When it comes to sex we follow the Charge of the Goddess, part of which says, "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." This goes along with the Rede: are what you about to do sexually the right thing to do? Will it cause harm to you or your partner?
So what do I believe? I follow an eclectic path. I want to honor the Deities of my ancestors, so I follow Celtic Paganism and Asatru (where I follow my Germanic ancestors' Deities). One day I want to study Slavic Paganism so that I can follow the Deities of my ancient Polish ancestors. My patrons are Cernunnos (the Celtic Horned God), Rhiannon (the Horse Goddess), Brighid (the Irish Goddess of creativity), Wotan (the German God of wisdom, war, poetry, etc) and Freia (the German Goddess of sex, love, war, cats, etc).
My mother doesn't have a problem with my being a Pagan. She herself hasn't stepped foot into a church since I was born, and that's been almost 50 years now. She knows that she isn't going to try to sway me to become a Catholic.
Do you consider yourself an intuitive person?
I thank you all for being so open and for all your replies!
I do not know if it is intuition, or just from life experiences. I can perdict my boss and the people in
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