Why are you pagans?

Well I was wondering why you have chosen paganism and I'm not interested in starting any debate, just hear your reasons for following this way of life?
Is it that you a) believe it as truth or b) like its way of life or perhap both?

 

Truth is in the eye of the beholder

 

You never really answered the question.

 

Why am I pagan, why the hell not.

Short answer; it just makes sense, with regards how I see the world and live my life.
The general morality, perception of nature, empowerment of women etc appeal to me and I haven't really found those in other religions (have spent a long time looking). It gives a lot of freedom, and simple enjoyment of life.
Having become I'm a lot more content, tolerant, and basically appreciative of life and nature. There's also great comfort in belief of God/Goddess, an after life and such.

The lifestyle appeals, in a way, but I was pretty much living like that and have little interaction with other pagans. So it probably doesn't make much diffrence.

I don't shape my ideas to fit around an organised/established philosophy. Just following my own instincts and understanding when looking at it then see what if anything works for me. Will try to question everything, which is easy enough to do without the dogma.

So I'm happy to create my spirituality; which is probably a mess of so many influences...
Celtic paganism (or modern interpretation thereof): That's my heritage, so it feels right and appeals.
Christianity: just grew up with that cultural background, and do admire Jesus.
Eastern religions: I studied Buddhism and realised (by coincidence) that I lived by a lot of the ethics already and the ideas made sense.
Wicca: err I guess, having read so much about it.
Humanism: my own family's beliefs/practises, gotta love primary socialisation.

Just go with Pagan as a label, it's the most accurate and simple enough to use. Far easier than explaining the above every time.

 

Because the sky is blue and the grass is green.

 

It's what I believe.

Some people believe that God is everything.
The same people think it a blasphemy to consider everything God.

Go figure.

Listen, matey peeps, I call a chair a chair and you call it al-something or other (don't speak Arabic). Both of us can calm down and admit yeah, for all intents and purposes it's a chair, and the difference in the two words is cultural. Ditto shoes. We wear rubber soled or leather soled shoes with a certain designed shape. The Dutch wear wooden clogs and you guys wear those funny shoes with the curly toes. I don't say "those are NOT shoes!" I say OK, your shoes are different.

What's the difference, then, between calling God Allah, Krsna, Thor, Yahweh etc?

 

As a general rule, and in my experience:
Pagans don't judge.
Pagans don't hate.
Pagans don't destroy.
Pagans don't aspire.
Pagans don't preach.
And most important,
Pagans don't recruit.

 

Zoomie, replace all of the "pagans" in
that statement with "Wiccans" or "Neo-pagan"

Thats a slightly inaccurate generalization of
pagans, but several of those things have happened
in past.

The Roman pagans hated, hell one of the Roman goddesses
hated.

The Roman pagans judged.

Several pagan tribes did lots of
destroying.

VIkings
Celts
Goths
VANDELS (now synanomous with destroy)
Arians

I could go on

not sure what you mean by dont aspire

Pagans do preach, not all, but some.
The Druids preached, the Romans
preached, the Priests of Ba'al preached.

Pagans dont recruit, but they do
conqure others and forced their
gods on them, at least some did.

But newer ideas, ie Wicca and
the neopagan movement, have
adopted those type of ideals.


And as to why I am pagan...
cause my ancestors were pagan,
and I was born from my gods,
and my Great Mother.

Why am I pagan? Because i was born.

 

Brother Heron, I know I tend to make a lot of my Celtic ancestry, and quote a lot of history, but that was then and this is now. Prefixes like "Neo" and labels like "Modern" mean little to me. The Pagans I spoke of would include all in our tuath, me included. I stand by my earlier statements. That is what being a Pagan means to me. It is who I am and why I am.

As for "aspire" we really don't wish to be any more than we already are. No one wants to run for office, no one wants to be famous or wealthy. We have no leadership, we each lead equally by concensus. We are who we are and we love ourselves and each other as we are and simply wish to continue. In that, we are unchanged since Vercingetorix challenged Augustus two thousand years ago. Without the cattle-raids and bloodshed, of course. That only happens in August.

Edit: You're teasing me, knowing how I feel about Rome as a Celt, right?

 

Im sure we are on the same page when it comes to Rome my friend.

Though I disagree on some of your points, I'm not holding that
against you, because thats not how I am.

I am Welsh and Scots, and very devoted to Father Baelenous.

Slainte!

 

because I felt there was something missing when I was christian, but now that I've kinda combined the two I feel spriritually whole.

 

Because the other religions I explored left me wanting more. It's not so much a choice on a conscious level as finding a belief system that seems coherent to me personally. I look around me in the world and find it an incredibly complex place where things vie against one another, violently so at times. If I say "God is Love" then how do I reconcile this idea with a category five huricane that kills thousands or with the lioness munching on a half dead gazelle on the African savanah? God is Love?

My answer is that yes, God is love; I call her Aphrodite. Another God is merciless conflict. Still another is the fury that drives change in the cosmos and so on. Looking around me I see that there are many people, many trees, many planets , many stars. I see no reason there shouldn't be many gods; you never get just one of any species.

I also believe in personal accountability for my actions; in it's most consertive forms, Christianity holds accountable the six billion people living today plus all those who have died since we appeared on the planet, for the sin of one woman eating a piece fruit. As far my personal sins, I need to learn from them and grow through my experience of my mistakes; I do not need a tortured son of a god to attone for me. The Gods should be able to forgive just fine without that.

Futher I do not believe that the Gods fundamentally change which undermines my ability to place faith in the New Testament.

(Keep in mind the Greek Myths are not to the Hellenic Polytheists what the Bible is to the fundlementalist Christians. We understand our myths as symbolic representations of timeless truths.)

In the doctrines of Pythagoras and the Neoplatonists I find much merit, the basic idea that it is through introspection, living a self aware life and striving for the ideals of balance and moderation that we achieve a kind of apotheosis, an awakening of the true self which is in someway part of the Gods themselves. In that sense we are Ariadne on asleep on the beach awaiting the arrival of her Lord.

Nevertheless as mortals it is important to act as mortals. We are not to immulate the Gods. Kindergartners and lawyers are both humans (well, in theory lawyers are human) but they play by vastly differnt rules. Likewise just because our nature is that of the Gods doesn't mean we're ready to assume that role. "Know yourself" is the Delphic Axiom but it means to know what you are, your place in the great scheme of things, rather than a call for navel gazing.

I do not think my faith is the only one that is correct; that's another idea I disagree with in whatever religion it crops up in. I think the Powers-that-Be involve themselves in our lives regardless of what we call them or how we frame our exeriences of the divine. Hindu, Christian, Jew or what have you, we are all chosen.

The Ancient Greek religion, which spanned millenia, is one articulation of one group of peoples experience of the divine and I prefer to explore that more deeply rather than draw randomly from many cultures. In this respect, this is a personal choice I make.

Lastly I like the fact that my faith doesn't pretend to have all the answers. We don't believe that God signed a book deal with King James publishing. In somethings, we simply don't know for sure. It is this room for speculation in Hellenismos that allowed the Greeks to lay the bedrock for the Western Sciences, from Astronomy to Zoology. I respect the power to say 'We don't know.'

 

Hellenic Pagan here. We got our butts kicked early on.

 

I call myself pagan for lack of a more appropriate label. I fully accept my christian recent roots, and my Norse, Celt, etc, elder roots. I see no conflict! Perhaps "pantheist" is a better descriptor.

There are so many different beliefs under the umbrella of paganism. There is no reason a pagan cannot be monotheistic. There is absolutely no reason why a pagan can not believe the "God is Love" For me God/Goddess is another word for Love. God/Goddess is not a being, but rather it is the essence of existence or the force that lest be. One common Sufi phrase that really works for me translates as "Nothing exists except for God" All of existence is part of God/Goddess.

The Vedic tradition is essentially monotheistic, yet recognizes many aspects of the divine. Shiva, Vishnu, Kali, Shakti, Krishna, all are one and many at the same time. This is not so different from the xtian trinity. I approach the entire world's pantheon in the same way. Thou art God!

If you can not recognize a hurricane or a predator as aspects of divine love, then your perspective is too narrow. You are to close to the issue to see these events in a balanced way. I can see the love in Kali energy as much as i can in Green Tara, Allah, or Aphrodite. What appears good or bad to an individual may look quite different from the perspective of Gaia or Nut.

Life and death, predator and prey, growth and compost, all are lovely aspects of this divine creation.

PS: I celebrate every hurricane, it is good for the natural ecosystems affected.

More Love!
Less Fear!

Jim

 

Firelip, as a monotheistic pagan, christian i guess, do you
worship the god of Moses? or the Great Creator?

Just wondering.

 

Good question...

I follow a pagan religion because...

....well, because i appreciate what has been given to me, freely given......and i choose to show that appreciation through love and respect....

 

For me, it was like opening a door and saying its about fucking time things made sense.


It is about getting back to the basics. It all just makes sense as a Pagan.

 

Well i became pagan when I was 12,i even remeber chanting for rain to come when i was 7 years old or so (at the time i didnt relize what i was doing),it jsut seemed natural to me and it was somthing that i belived in,still do to

 

because i love nature, but i dont need to explain myself to u, so i will go no further,

 

Why is it that most pagans wont explain?
He asked just to know, you make it sound
so tense.

Like "I don't have to explain to you!"

Stand up for you beliefs by, god forbid,
explaining them. How can people understand
if you are so defensive.

Hell, i'd like to know what you believe,
from your "Wiccan or Christian" thread,
it seems to be an ever changing enigma.