Why Wicca (or whatever)

"Yowie" wrote in message
...

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG (it was
supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I found
myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if I wanted to.
They won't let me!

Yowie

Yowie wrote:
"Yowie" wrote in message
...

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG
(it was supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I
found myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if
I wanted to. They won't let me!

Yowie

I'm not a practicing Wiccan... more of a pagan in that while I believe there
are higher forces beyond our control, I certainly don't believe all the
dogma set forth by most "organized religions" and that includes regular
rituals in Wicca. I light candles and have an alter of sorts.

I was exposed to Buddhism, Hinduism and Moslems as a child. My parents
didn't take me to church paste age 6 because they didn't go, either. But
they were Methodists. Huh... very dull, dry religion if you ask me. Ask me
to become Amish. LOL (sorry, not making fun of the Amish)

But as for the 'accepted' religions, as an adult I've encountered mostly the
"do as I say, not as I do" type stuff. Granted, I live in the U.S. where
evangalism is rampant. To make it worse, the Southern U.S. where Baptists
(Bible Belters) rule.

I remember one day getting a knock on my door. A man and his son stood
there. "Hi", they said, "We would like to invite you to attend {such and
such} Baptist church!"

Well, I didn't want to offend them by saying I don't go to church, so I
said, oh, sorry, I already have a church. Like pit bulls, they dug in!
"Oh, do you go to Bellevue Baptist?" No.... "{such-and-such} Baptist? No.
They looked puzzled and I finally said "I am *not* a Baptist."

I kid you not, they backed away from my door. It was like I'd slapped them
in the face with a fish. It was like they were envisioning me having to
hire an exorcist, or wait! Maybe I was Catholic! EEEEK!

I just had to laugh, it was too funny.

I find "god" (or the goddess) in everything around me. In the leaves that
spring on the trees in the spring. Flowers that bloom. In the birds and
little critters like squirrels and chipmonk and oppossums that come home to
nest and create a home around where I live. Life renewing itself. That is
"god", IMO. And I celebrate it.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Yowie wrote:
"Yowie" wrote in message
...

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG
(it was supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I
found myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if
I wanted to. They won't let me!

Yowie

I'm not a practicing Wiccan... more of a pagan in that while I believe
there
are higher forces beyond our control, I certainly don't believe all the
dogma set forth by most "organized religions" and that includes regular
rituals in Wicca. I light candles and have an alter of sorts.

I was exposed to Buddhism, Hinduism and Moslems as a child. My parents
didn't take me to church paste age 6 because they didn't go, either. But
they were Methodists. Huh... very dull, dry religion if you ask me. Ask
me
to become Amish. LOL (sorry, not making fun of the Amish)

But as for the 'accepted' religions, as an adult I've encountered mostly
the
"do as I say, not as I do" type stuff. Granted, I live in the U.S. where
evangalism is rampant. To make it worse, the Southern U.S. where Baptists
(Bible Belters) rule.

I remember one day getting a knock on my door. A man and his son stood
there. "Hi", they said, "We would like to invite you to attend {such and
such} Baptist church!"

Well, I didn't want to offend them by saying I don't go to church, so I
said, oh, sorry, I already have a church. Like pit bulls, they dug in!
"Oh, do you go to Bellevue Baptist?" No.... "{such-and-such} Baptist?
No.
They looked puzzled and I finally said "I am *not* a Baptist."

I kid you not, they backed away from my door. It was like I'd slapped
them
in the face with a fish. It was like they were envisioning me having to
hire an exorcist, or wait! Maybe I was Catholic! EEEEK!

I just had to laugh, it was too funny.

I find "god" (or the goddess) in everything around me. In the leaves that
spring on the trees in the spring. Flowers that bloom. In the birds and
little critters like squirrels and chipmonk and oppossums that come home
to
nest and create a home around where I live. Life renewing itself. That
is
"god", IMO. And I celebrate it.

LOL!

A woman I used to know (a senior citizen) told about the time someone
knocked on her door. When she opened it, they said, "Have you been saved?"
She responded, "I don't know, and neither do you."

Joy

Yoj wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Yowie wrote:
"Yowie" wrote in message
...

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG
(it was supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I
found myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even
if
I wanted to. They won't let me!

Yowie

I remember one day getting a knock on my door. A man and his son
stood there. "Hi", they said, "We would like to invite you to
attend {such and such} Baptist church!"

Well, I didn't want to offend them by saying I don't go to church,
so I said, oh, sorry, I already have a church. Like pit bulls, they
dug in! "Oh, do you go to Bellevue Baptist?" No....
"{such-and-such} Baptist? No. They looked puzzled and I finally said
"I am *not* a Baptist."

I kid you not, they backed away from my door. It was like I'd
slapped them in the face with a fish. It was like they were
envisioning me having to hire an exorcist, or wait! Maybe I was
Catholic! EEEEK!

I just had to laugh, it was too funny.

I find "god" (or the goddess) in everything around me. In the
leaves that spring on the trees in the spring. Flowers that bloom.
In the birds and little critters like squirrels and chipmonk and
oppossums that come home to nest and create a home around where I
live. Life renewing itself. That is "god", IMO. And I celebrate
it.

LOL!

A woman I used to know (a senior citizen) told about the time someone
knocked on her door. When she opened it, they said, "Have you been
saved?" She responded, "I don't know, and neither do you."

Joy

The best answer I ever heard to, "Have you found the Lord?" was "Gee, I
didn't know he was lost. If I see him, I'll be sure to call you."

Jill

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG (it was
supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I found
myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if I wanted to.
They won't let me!

Yowie

I was brought up Catholic and found Protestant faith in my late teens. The
teachings of the churches I attended never felt quite "all there". Sure,
the teachings were popular and widely held, but they never felt quite
right.

When I was in my 30's I stumbled upon a book that was a gentle
introduction to Wicca. When I got just a few pages in, I realized "wow,
this stuff finally feels RIGHT!". I then began the solitary practice of
Wicca.

A few years and much study later I realized that while it felt a lot more
right than what I had been exposed to before, it still wasn't a perfect
fit. I spent a good while pondering my own deeply-held beliefs, and
decided that I'm basically a celtic pagan. Not too far removed from Wicca.

Dan

On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 15:42:14 +1100, "Yowie"
wrote:

"Yowie" wrote in message
...

Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG (it was
supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I found
myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if I wanted to.
They won't let me!

Yowie

Well, I was raised Episcopalian, and it was back in the days when they
first started being very liberal over here in the US. Surprised I
didn't stick with it.

But I just never "got" Christianity. It just never made sense to me,
or grabbed my heart. When I was a kid, going to church was something
we just did every Sunday. My spirituality was kindled more by laying
on the ground watching ants on a lazy afternoon, or going to a local
Indian burial mound and sitting atop it, feeling connected with the
earth and sky, life and death.

In my 30s I found a book on womens' spirituality, which had a couple
of pieces by Starhawk. Nothing I read had ever hit me as so true.
And I realized I was a Wiccan/pagan/Solitary/Eclectic/whatever. But
mostly Wiccan.

Looking back on my childhood, it seems to me I was *always*
Wiccan/Pagan; it just took me awhile to find the name for it.

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....mmer/index.htm (genealogy)
http://www.movieanimals.bravehost.com/ (The Violence Against
Animals in Movies Website)

I may as well answer this too, since I started it :-)

I like Jill's LLL identity of "Episcopagan". Like many others here, i was
raised in a vaguely christian household, went to church every sunday with my
father (not my mother) and then one day we just stopped going. Turns out my
father had had a large falling out with the congregation over a matter of
what to do about a young woman who had prophetic dreams - he was of the
opinion that as she was a fine upstanding Christian they must be a gift from
God, and the rest of the congregation was of the opinion it was fromt he
Devil and kicked her out of the church. But I didn't know that at the time -
we just went from church goers to athiests.

Still, I have a childlike trust int he idea of "God".

In my mid teens I got involved in the Anglican church via the social things
it had on, and went on to some pretty fundamentalist pentecostal stuff. But
whilst I liked being close to God, I didn't like what others were saying
about HIm/Her/It/Them and very much objected to some of the things that they
were doing in "His Name".

I dropped out of church, ditched the ex, met Joel and went to a roleplaying
convention where I got really really sick. We were staying in one great big
dormitory with our roleplaying club and everyone else was at the convention
and I was left alone with nothign to do. The only book was Scott
Cunningham's Wicca, A guide to the solitary practioner. Being a book junkie,
I decided to read it, even though I had great reservations at the time.

Most of it made sense.Not all, but most. IIt took quite a few more years
before I slowly came to the conclusion that whilst the core of my
understanding about "God" is Christian, the whole patriachal church thing
always grated, and the Wiccan way of celebrating, of having a balance of
male & female and a basic belief in the magical nature of the world was a
better fit. Most recently, I've been looking into Quakerism (not the Amish,
they're different). The make alot of sense to me too.

I guess I"ll always be "seeking". The subject fascinates me, and I'm amazed
that there are so many people out there with such a diverse range of
beliefs. I always wonder whether they're experiences the same phenomenon as
me, but have interpretted differently, or have been raised ina culture sot
hat they see it through different filters, or that another person's
experience of "God" is indeed a different and seperate thing from my
expereinces with what I call "God" - or even whether this whole "god" thing
is a strange chemically induced delusion from an old redundant part of the
brain or "God spot".

And thanks for the total lack of flames int his thread.

Yowie

I've been really interested reading all your posts, I love hearing about all
your journeys as me and my husband are kind of figuring that stuff out right
now. I was raised in a quite flexible Christian family, he was raised in an
extremely strict don't-look-at-women-in-togs christian family. We are
Christian-ish but don't regularly go to church. I do believe that the Bible
is true, but I am hesitant to accept people's interpretations of it. some
bits are inconclusive and seemingly contradictory, but I feel that's part of
the whole mystery of the thing, and us trying to figure out the meaning just
means we put our own interpretation on it and try to force others to believe
it as truth. when I hit a bit I don't agree with in how it seems at first, i
ask God/whatever he's called. I do believe in all the Jesus stuff, and as
Jesus is a very against the establishment personality, he and I get on quite
well. I disagree with most christians, so i don't talk to them much, just
smile and look young and say things about my babies, that works usually. But
essentially I believe connection with God is the most important thing, that
God wants, and that God is feminine as well asmasculine, (that's in the
bible too, the church just ignores those bits), and we are all under his
guidance and he's looking after us all. so that criticizing someone else's
position is wrong, as they are on their way to their destiny which God is
closely involved with, in His way, not my way. I am using 'he' only because
of the stupid restrictions of the english language. I found the
masculinization of God to be a huge problem, and felt that God was god for
men, and not interested in women, until i realized that was a lie invented
by men. God/jesus showed many feminine characteristics, esp. jesus in male
oriented Israel, and God spent a lot of time talking to women. So I find God
in nature, in my children, when I'm washing up, and essentially he/she is a
loving, interesting personality who i don't really understand but am getting
to know. And it helps to have a friend. I am steering clear of all
constructed religions ATM, as I'm not sure any are right, but they are all
convinced they are. All I'm certain of is that a Creator/supernatural being
exists, who is interested in us, and Jesus did come to earth, and die and
was raised from the dead etc etc except i think a lot more possibly happened
there than the bible records. So I guess I'm still on the finding out bit of
the journey, and am excited to continue to find out.

has anyone read CS Lewis's narnia series? cos he explains pretty much waht
i believ throughout the entire book, and one bit esp. In the final book, the
last battle, they are all in the 'afterworld' type place, and there is
someone there from another culture and religion, and the children ask Aslan
why he is there, and he basically says, even when he was loving the 'other
god' he was loving me. and that sums up my previous other post. If you
haven't read those books, read them before you see the movie! Even if it is
a children's book, it's one of the most beautiful and true series I've read
yet.
"Yowie" wrote in message
...
I may as well answer this too, since I started it :-)

I like Jill's LLL identity of "Episcopagan". Like many others here, i was
raised in a vaguely christian household, went to church every sunday with
my
father (not my mother) and then one day we just stopped going. Turns out
my
father had had a large falling out with the congregation over a matter of
what to do about a young woman who had prophetic dreams - he was of the
opinion that as she was a fine upstanding Christian they must be a gift
from
God, and the rest of the congregation was of the opinion it was fromt he
Devil and kicked her out of the church. But I didn't know that at the
time -
we just went from church goers to athiests.

Still, I have a childlike trust int he idea of "God".

In my mid teens I got involved in the Anglican church via the social
things
it had on, and went on to some pretty fundamentalist pentecostal stuff.
But
whilst I liked being close to God, I didn't like what others were saying
about HIm/Her/It/Them and very much objected to some of the things that
they
were doing in "His Name".

I dropped out of church, ditched the ex, met Joel and went to a
roleplaying
convention where I got really really sick. We were staying in one great
big
dormitory with our roleplaying club and everyone else was at the
convention
and I was left alone with nothign to do. The only book was Scott
Cunningham's Wicca, A guide to the solitary practioner. Being a book
junkie,
I decided to read it, even though I had great reservations at the time.

Most of it made sense.Not all, but most. IIt took quite a few more years
before I slowly came to the conclusion that whilst the core of my
understanding about "God" is Christian, the whole patriachal church thing
always grated, and the Wiccan way of celebrating, of having a balance of
male & female and a basic belief in the magical nature of the world was a
better fit. Most recently, I've been looking into Quakerism (not the
Amish,
they're different). The make alot of sense to me too.

I guess I"ll always be "seeking". The subject fascinates me, and I'm
amazed
that there are so many people out there with such a diverse range of
beliefs. I always wonder whether they're experiences the same phenomenon
as
me, but have interpretted differently, or have been raised ina culture sot
hat they see it through different filters, or that another person's
experience of "God" is indeed a different and seperate thing from my
expereinces with what I call "God" - or even whether this whole "god"
thing
is a strange chemically induced delusion from an old redundant part of the
brain or "God spot".

And thanks for the total lack of flames int his thread.

Yowie

Well said meeee
"meee" wrote in message
...


I've been really interested reading all your posts, I love hearing about
all
your journeys as me and my husband are kind of figuring that stuff out
right
now. I was raised in a quite flexible Christian family, he was raised in
an
extremely strict don't-look-at-women-in-togs christian family. We are
Christian-ish but don't regularly go to church. I do believe that the
Bible
is true, but I am hesitant to accept people's interpretations of it. some
bits are inconclusive and seemingly contradictory, but I feel that's part
of
the whole mystery of the thing, and us trying to figure out the meaning
just
means we put our own interpretation on it and try to force others to
believe
it as truth. when I hit a bit I don't agree with in how it seems at first,
i
ask God/whatever he's called. I do believe in all the Jesus stuff, and as
Jesus is a very against the establishment personality, he and I get on
quite
well. I disagree with most christians, so i don't talk to them much, just
smile and look young and say things about my babies, that works usually.
But
essentially I believe connection with God is the most important thing,
that
God wants, and that God is feminine as well asmasculine, (that's in the
bible too, the church just ignores those bits), and we are all under his
guidance and he's looking after us all. so that criticizing someone else's
position is wrong, as they are on their way to their destiny which God is
closely involved with, in His way, not my way. I am using 'he' only
because
of the stupid restrictions of the english language. I found the
masculinization of God to be a huge problem, and felt that God was god
for
men, and not interested in women, until i realized that was a lie invented
by men. God/jesus showed many feminine characteristics, esp. jesus in male
oriented Israel, and God spent a lot of time talking to women. So I find
God
in nature, in my children, when I'm washing up, and essentially he/she is
a
loving, interesting personality who i don't really understand but am
getting
to know. And it helps to have a friend. I am steering clear of all
constructed religions ATM, as I'm not sure any are right, but they are all
convinced they are. All I'm certain of is that a Creator/supernatural
being
exists, who is interested in us, and Jesus did come to earth, and die and
was raised from the dead etc etc except i think a lot more possibly
happened
there than the bible records. So I guess I'm still on the finding out bit
of
the journey, and am excited to continue to find out.