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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 |
#2
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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 |
#3
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
"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 |
#4
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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 |
#5
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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 |
#6
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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) |
#7
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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 |
#8
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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. |
#9
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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 |
#10
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Why Wicca (or whatever)
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. |
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