Official Pagan Thread!

[Rusty Hills Farm]

The book made an interesting point about which I wanted to ask all your opinions. The writers state that some religions believe "That there is something wrong with you and you need our beliefs and practices to fix it."(pg 198) According to the authors, Pagans don't necessarily see humans as broken. "People are born with all the potential skills they need to make moral and ethical judgments."

Coming from a Christian background, that appears earth shaking to me. LOL So I am spending time just thinking about this idea and what it means.

Do any of you agree with this? Do you disagree?

I do NOT believe that the sins of the parents stain the child, which is basically what this notion says. I don't believe we are "broken" or "damaged" or "corrupt". That happens much later--every time we don't listen to our own small voice that tells us right from wrong. I do believe that what is "right" for one person can easily be "wrong" for another, which is why we have to trust our own small voice and not let it be overridden by others' big mouths and opinions. We are directly connected to our Creator--we don't need any "interpreters" wedging themselves between us and "HIM". Of course this also means we actually have to use our own brains, something many people are afraid to do. (BTW I also think "HE" is both sexes or neither, and not male or female. It's just that saying "HIM" or "HER" sounds more personal than "IT"--just my own personal hangup!)


Rusty​

 

[Ladyhawke1]

You know, I love all the camaraderie and the back and forth give and take going on here. There seems to be many dedicated and sincere souls seeking some way to light their paths. There is more than one path to explore in finding that illumination.

You know, the Australian Aborigines have forty thousand years of an uninterrupted culture. Their belief is that all living things are but a different manifestation of a single life force. So all must be respected.

However, this subject will never come to its true enlightenment without the history of humankind being explored. Where did we come from and how did we get here, and who set the up the rules? It cannot be ignored, it made us who we are, and some of it isn’t pretty.

One question I am asking is ….Are we headed for another dark age. Words have meaning. String them together and you get information. Information gives you a purpose and a direction.

To some, words are dangerous and so they must be forbidden. In the “dark ages”, it was against the law to read the Bible. However, if you were of the clergy or the moneyed class it was of no consequence. However, to be poor and to be discovered knowing how to read meant death.

Personally, I like to stimulate thought. To be stagnate and static in one’s beliefs is as to be dead.

 

[deb1]

I am one of those weird people who don't see the world as getting worse. All time periods had their good and bad qualities. Our time period is no different. I don't really see us as heading toward another dark age, if anything right now is the best time to be a woman or minority. That doesn't mean that we live in a perfect time period, far from it, just that I would not want to go backwards in time.

I used to wonder why Eve was not more celibrated in the Bible. After all, in a way, she brought knowledge and rational thought into the world. Yeah, I know that isn't how theologians view the creation story. LOL

 

[Kansaseq]

"We are directly connected to our Creator--we don't need any "interpreters" wedging themselves between us and "HIM". Of course this also means we actually have to use our own brains, something many people are afraid to do. (BTW I also think "HE" is both sexes or neither, and not male or female. It's just that saying "HIM" or "HER" sounds more personal than "IT"--just my own personal hangup!)" Rust Hills Farm



I completely agree. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school for the first 8 years, and had it shoved down my throat. I don't go to church, and don't believe I need an 'interpreter' to talk to God. I also don't think I need to visit a certain building to pay my respects. All I have to do is step outside, or take notice in a beautiful place, or appreciate a beautiful horse, etc, and pay my respects.Heck, you could be in a shed and do it. And though I am FAR from the person I want to be, I don't need someone else telling me I'm a sinner, and what I need to do to be a better person.



And though I'll always retain some basic Catholic core beliefs, I am faaaaaaar from traditional in my thinking. I don't even think my current set of beliefs would easily fit into one category, and that's ok.
I'm really enjoying this thread.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:

I read the post 40 times. Stunning! Beautiful! Well said Feathersnuggles!

For me the above paragraph is a substantial truth. Part of the foundation of the path to enlightenment.

It reads like a paragraph out of my favorite book.. (The one that does not have written words, that exists within .......)


ON

Thanks, ON, for your very kind words. I'm certainly not much enlightened. My resistence is strong and my separated thoughts still have a powerful grip on me. I only sometimes taste the perfection of truly Who I Am. And it's a path, like you said, existing within.

A quote in the book I'm reading, "God Against the Gods", is taken from "A Chronicle of the Last Pagans," by Pierre Chuvin:

"What does it matter by which wisdom each of us arrives at truth?" muses Symmachus, a pagan prefect of the fourth century. "It is not possible that only one road leads to so sublime a mystery."

Rock on, Symmachus!​

 

[deb1]

Quote:
Rock on, Symmachus!

I agree with that quote.

Amazing that a fourth century pagan had similar thoughts to me.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Quote:
And we have LOTS in common too!!

(I'm surprised they didn't kick us out wanting the table back!)

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Quote:
Absolutely the way I feel. I have always thought it was a little suspiscious that a religion claiming to have THE TRUTH needed to work so hard to convert everyone else. I feel privaleged to have helped guide friends of mine through periods of personal growth and spritual discovery, as well as growing alongside others whose awakenings and mine were all but simultaneous. But in all of this, I felt my place was to support, to discuss, to share, but NEVER to push. I never insisted I was right, only spoke of what I beleieved. No one I know is on quite the same path, none of us have quite the same beliefs though there are many areas of overlap. I think the most important thing is discovering what you believe simply because you feel its right, not because someone else told you it was or that you were broken or eveil if you didn't believe it.

 

[deb1]

I just wanted to say taht the books that I ordered came in the mail today. God Against The Gods was one of them. What an interesting book!

 

[feathersnuggles]

Deb1, I'm almost done reading it ... an eye-opening book, for me! He also writes well, IMO. And he documents his sources, which I like.

I must thank you, too...because you mentioned this book in the Solstice & Yule thread and your post prompted me to write down the title and check it out of the library. Now, I'm thinking about buying the book. So, THANKS!!!