Pagan gathering grounds

[SugarfootWillie 383]

@@Carl Poppa,

 

Yo you and I have a strikingly similar understanding of magick. I've been using science to help me understand how energy moves with the prospect of being more capable of helping brothers and sisters out on a mental level.

[Carl Poppa 464]

@@SugarfootWillie I have always felt that there are some mysteries that science can still help us to understand that have yet to be fully explained. It's a bit silly to assume we have a firm comprehension about the way the whole world works, after all. So I wish you luck. I'd certainly be interested to hear what conclusions you reach.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Carl Poppa

[Midnight Scribbler 1,705]

@@Carl Poppa, 

My thoughts exactly. I've always had a great interest in science for all the fringes of the unknown they are always attempting to shed light upon. If we took someone from Victoria era England, and gave them a smart phone, they'd probably assume it was some form of sorcery. (Even I'm not so sure myself) lol

 

Given another 100 years into the future, we might consider whatever lies ahead to be near unfathomable, let alone possible if we were to somehow magically witness it through the veil of time and space.

[Thuja 3,659]

Hello all!  I'm very new to the path and I'm still trying to figure out what works for me.  I think I'm going to try looking for other pagans in my area that can help guide me along.

[Sphinx-Ara 3,569]

Eclectic Wiccan here I kinda take some things from Levayan Satanism too but not too much, most of my beliefs are centered around Wicca

 

A blessed Yuletide/Winter Solstice (though it's currently summer for me) to everyone

[Blackshirt Brony 415]

Hello all!  I'm very new to the path and I'm still trying to figure out what works for me.  I think I'm going to try looking for other pagans in my area that can help guide me along.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

It might help if you consider the basics first. What do you believe about God, afterlife, ritual, etc?

 

Also try researching traditions that correspond to your ethnic background.

 

Eclectic Wiccan here I kinda take some things from Levayan Satanism too but not too much, most of my beliefs are centered around Wicca

 

A blessed Yuletide/Winter Solstice (though it's currently summer for me) to everyone

 

Merry Christmas!

 

I have a lot of respect for Wicca. It's a sort of sister tradition to Thelema (Crowley had a strong influence on Gardner).

 

Is there any particular pantheon or deity you sense a connection with?

[Sphinx-Ara 3,569]

@@Blackshirt Brony,

 

I feel a very strong connection to Bridgett and to Pan.. I know it may seem strange but I know I am the illegitimate daughter of those two. Because of which, I am under constant attack but mother has given me multiple layers of protection. I dunno if that makes sense, but this my connection to the Goddess and God. Bridgett often watches over me in my dreams as a black and white cat.

[AaronMk 280]

Who is /Yellow Shaman/ here?

[Thuja 3,659]

Merry Christmas!

 

It might help if you consider the basics first. What do you believe about God, afterlife, ritual, etc?

 

Also try researching traditions that correspond to your ethnic background.

 

Merry christmas~!

 

I do believe there is a god and/or goddess out there somewhere but my belief in a god or gods is always changing.  I was raised with some native american beliefs but not many since my family was disconnected from it due to residential school so I'm trying to mostly incorporate whatever I learn with my beliefs and most traditions are passed around orally so it's harder to learn about them because of some things that are going on right now.  So I don't really know much about traditions or ritual.  I'm pretty open to just about everything, I'm just trying to learn what I can.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Thuja

[Laurel 43]

Well i don't have a fond belief in many Gods. But i do wish i could have the patience to know. I just don't want to read dozens of books on the ways of the occult. But sounds fun.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Laurel

[Glacies Frost 428]

I'm a Wiccan of the Correllian Tradition of Wicca. It's more or less like any other kind of Wicca you will find, though there are some slight differences that exist between this tradition and others. The Tradition itself focuses heavily on spirituality, and uses magic as a tool to increase the connection to the spiritual primarily, though of course spells for even the most mundane things can be and are still used. 

 

The two big focuses of Correlianism for our Third Degree Priesthood seem to be the ability to perform an Oracle (Spiritual Mediumship is considered a required skill for all Third Degree Clergy), and the use of the ritual practice known as Soul Retrieval... Soul Retrieval is basically dealing with energy blockages in the soul to better develop oneself spiritually and free up subconscious attention that would perhaps be better spent on the present and future than on the past.

 

I'd be more than happy to go into more detail upon request, but I think this is a decent enough place to stop.

[AaronMk 280]

>tfw you will never become so hardcore in war that you're deified after death

>you will never by synctretically married into several religions as a result

>you will never appear before a zen master as a spoopy ghost and learn the ways of the Buddha and become a spirit guarding the monasteries.

 

Such is Guan Yu.

[King Sejong 859]

   Does shamanism count? I have been with Chinese shamanism for decades now, after visiting Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, there was something about shamanism that attracted me, like living in peace with humanity and nature. I was born in the year of the fire tiger, at the moment of yang, the light, which gives me a lot of energy and spirit to do more, for myself and for my family, in addition to shamanism, I am also a Taoist and Confucian, as I try to find ways to create balance and harmony; wisdom and knowledge, for those willing to learn, to try to express their logic and emotions better than they ever had. This is what spirituality means to me, leaving nature to its design, at the same time, learn to appreciate your own nature, and how to interact with the environment peacefully, furthermore, to live in harmony with human diversity, it would be boring if we were all the same, as if we were bees or ants, we have to be free to express our unique personalities, which is what shamanism is to me, the freedom to gain wisdom from live on earth, including from humanity itself, just as Lao Tsu and Confucius have been try to tell us.  

Edited December 27, 2016 by King Sejong

[Midnight Scribbler 1,705]

@@AaronMk, 

 

None of those things really matter to me personally, though saying that seems to me that you're aiming to start arguments, which is not the intent of this thread. You can't make claims like that when it comes to religious beliefs, and you don't know who you're talking to when you say that sort of thing. For instance, if one of the members here happened to be in the military, and did do battle. That person might feel entitled to say they've earned that right in the end by their own beliefs. Who are you to say any different? Making absolute statements about something subjective is bound to be torn down by mere difference in perspectives.

 

 

@@King Sejong, 

I do have a fondness for the i-Ching fortune system. I've found it to be eerily accurate in almost every case I've used it in. Though I can't say i've looked too deeply into Chinese and Japanese beliefs. I know small amounts of things on that front, and they do interest me, but there's a lot to take in of course. I do agree on most things you said, though I can't say I agree on everyone being unique, but that's just my opinion. I see humanity much like a hive of bees when I look from a removed perspective outside of our planet's confines. We do all have unique experiences, no doubt there, everyone has their own personal universe going on in their minds. Inherently though, I don't believe we're different enough to really stand apart from one another to any great degree. I see a common mind within us all, with varying degrees of specialty, fitting into our niches in society as needed. Just as the bees in a hive become the role the hive requires of them. Without thought or will perhaps, though I cannot claim to know that about humans. Just a perspective of mine. In a way, I see it as being much more close to natural in a way. To me, no matter what humanity does, it's all just a complex act of nature on some level.

[Glacies Frost 428]

@@AaronMk, 

 

None of those things really matter to me personally, though saying that seems to me that you're aiming to start arguments, which is not the intent of this thread. You can't make claims like that when it comes to religious beliefs, and you don't know who you're talking to when you say that sort of thing. For instance, if one of the members here happened to be in the military, and did do battle. That person might feel entitled to say they've earned that right in the end by their own beliefs. Who are you to say any different? Making absolute statements about something subjective is bound to be torn down by mere difference in perspectives.

 

 

@@King Sejong, 

 

I do have a fondness for the i-Ching fortune system. I've found it to be eerily accurate in almost every case I've used it in. Though I can't say i've looked too deeply into Chinese and Japanese beliefs. I know small amounts of things on that front, and they do interest me, but there's a lot to take in of course. I do agree on most things you said, though I can't say I agree on everyone being unique, but that's just my opinion. I see humanity much like a hive of bees when I look from a removed perspective outside of our planet's confines. We do all have unique experiences, no doubt there, everyone has their own personal universe going on in their minds. Inherently though, I don't believe we're different enough to really stand apart from one another to any great degree. I see a common mind within us all, with varying degrees of specialty, fitting into our niches in society as needed. Just as the bees in a hive become the role the hive requires of them. Without thought or will perhaps, though I cannot claim to know that about humans. Just a perspective of mine. In a way, I see it as being much more close to natural in a way. To me, no matter what humanity does, it's all just a complex act of nature on some level.

 

You'll brook no arguments from me on that one, friend. Everything is derived from nature, thus natural, at least in my eyes.

[Johnny1226 14,674]

I myself tend to follow the more chaotic aspect of creation and while I believe there is a god my belief is that he is an architect and scholar who has little influence in the actual universe as a whole after shaping it in my opinion there are two forces that govern the universe gods first creations order and chaos and it is my belief that the actions of the beings in the universe mortal and otherwise give them an affinity for one side or the other and both sides are constantly in conflict with eachother in an eternal struggle for dominance this is only a small bit of my beliefs but it gives a general idea to my views of the universe as a whole.

[AaronMk 280]

@@AaronMk, 

 

None of those things really matter to me personally, though saying that seems to me that you're aiming to start arguments, which is not the intent of this thread. You can't make claims like that when it comes to religious beliefs, and you don't know who you're talking to when you say that sort of thing. For instance, if one of the members here happened to be in the military, and did do battle. That person might feel entitled to say they've earned that right in the end by their own beliefs. Who are you to say any different? Making absolute statements about something subjective is bound to be torn down by mere difference in perspectives.

 

 

Paganism isn't exclusive to only Wicca, fam a lam. And given 'pagan' is or was a catch-all term for anyone not being of the Judaic faiths - Jewish, Christian, Islam - then "You can't make claims like that when it comes to religious beliefs" is kind of incorrect in of itself, since it ignores the broad range of religious traditions in present or past cultures. Namely as it applies to the Marquis Zhuangmou.

 

And so: let's explore for the sake of topical discussion.

 

Guan Yu was a general in the army of Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. His character his regarded being a man of great loyalty. After his death, the Sui dynasty in recognition of his talents and his qualities, in particular to his stories as it pertains to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Since then, Guan Yu (as Guāndì or Guāngōng) has been revered as the Chinese god of righteousness and brotherhood. He's not strictly the War God, but he is a notable general who did some pretty kick-ass war craft for his time and is revered for that.

 

He isn't exclusive to Chinese paganism either, and he's pretty involved in eastern religion as it applies to Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism where he has his own duties (in the case of Buddhism, he basically converted post-mortem when his ghost appeared before a Zen master and then on he defend the temple and the dharma).

 

This sort of thing isn't particularly unheard of. Gaius Octavia Augustus and Julius Caesar both were deified after their deaths by the Roman state and honored as gods.

 

While this represents an extreme idea of venerating living people as gods post-death ancestral veneration is highly revered in Asia and Africa, so it isn't much of a stretch that powerful figures such as Guan Yu can become deities in their own right. And so: what's not to say under the voodoo and Chinese precepts that an ancestor who was a soldier, or a presently living person who was a soldier and then dies, is incable or interceding on someone's life to grant some form of protection or blessing?

[Midnight Scribbler 1,705]

@@AaronMk, 
For starters, I'm not wiccan, you're making assumptions now, as well as arguing over my point without taking it into consideration. What I was trying to convey is that you can't tell others what to believe. There are only rules if you choose for there to be rules with beliefs. Everything is subjective to the individual on this topic.

That said, I do appreciate your knowledge for Chinese lore, that character sounds pretty awesome. Reminds me a bit of The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. Deification of mortals was also a major theme in Norse paganism. Their high god, Odin rose from mortality through personal sacrifice, but he began as a wandering mortal just like many who lived in Norway and Sweden at the time those religions were being actively passed down the family tree. For me, it's all about the ancient Celtic/Norse stuff. Partly because I just love their knotwork and traditional stories, but also my family descends from a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, and from Germany.

[CheeryFox 23,821]

I'm not much on labeling - but I do follow Hekate and the moonlit path. 

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

Their high god, Odin rose from mortality through personal sacrifice, but he began as a wandering mortal just like many who lived in Norway and Sweden at the time those religions were being actively passed down the family tree. 

Would you mind if I asked for your sources on that?

[AaronMk 280]

@@AaronMk, 

For starters, I'm not wiccan, you're making assumptions now, as well as arguing over my point without taking it into consideration. What I was trying to convey is that you can't tell others what to believe. There are only rules if you choose for there to be rules with beliefs. Everything is subjective to the individual on this topic.

 

Yet without a little assertion on the point - or memery - then whatever point gets lost in weak-wristed politeness that loses what could be discussed beyond self-affirming hand shaking.

 

This thread has in it, by virtue of its broad topicality, the potential of being like a sort of Akbar's Ibadat Khana.

 

[Midnight Scribbler 1,705]

@@Yamet, 

 

Well, you could read the poetic edda. There's a couple books related to that as well, but Wikipedia does a fair job of abbreviating much of that. I'll see if I can find the titles, its been a while since I read them tbh.

 

@@AaronMk, 

There's a difference between assertion and calling politeness "limp wristed" That's just plain rude. If you want debate, go look in the debate pit, but this is not the place.

 

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

Well, you could read the poetic edda. 

But doesn't that claim that Odin was born a god?

Edited December 28, 2016 by Yamet

[Midnight Scribbler 1,705]

@@Yamet, 

 

I don't really remember that. But again, it's been a long time since I've read it. I remember he gave his eye to drink from the well of wisdom, and spent 9? nights impaled on the tree Yggdrasil by his own spear, where he learned the futhark runes. But I was under the impression that his godhood was earned, I may be mistaken though.

[Laurel 43]

May Princess Celestia guide your path forever and ever ^^