Pagan

[Bit]

Welcome to Pagan, a thread to discuss all forms of Nature spirituality, the occult and paranormal, alternative spiritualities, psychic phenomena, Wicca, Shamanism, Animism, Eclecticism, and whatever else wanders through our minds.

Samhain has just passed, and Hallowtide--those three days of celebrating the Ancestors, both far removed and most recent--and now the Wheel of the Year turns forward. In Celtic culture this is the New Year, and what could be more appropriate than a new beginning at the start of a new year? Come in, sit down, get comfy--and let's talk.

[Bit]

An introduction--Hello! I'm Cath, screen name Bit; I answer to both but prefer Cath.

I'm an Eclectic Pagan. My family has Christian roots that go back hundreds if not at least a thousand years; it was hard to buck that, but Christianity just didn't fit me. I couldn't force myself to accept it, yanno? I just could not believe it. And when I finally discovered a book called When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone, I was shocked, astonished that I could have not recognized myself for so many years: I have always been Pagan. I grew up Pagan, despite my family's indoctrination. I have always seen the living world around me and known its Spirit.

My first steps into the world of acknowledged Paganism came through the Women's Spirituality Movement, through the Feminist Movement, and through books about both women's spirituality and Wicca, especially Dianne Stein's books and Starhawk's books. It took me a while, but I finally realized that although Wicca speaks deeply to me on many levels, I really don't feel comfortable in any one religion. I came to understand myself as an Eclectic Pagan, drawing what works for me from every spiritual source I could to craft a tradition, a way of life, that is intimately my own. Along the way, I explored the roots of Christianity and Judaism, the roots of Paganism, some Shamanic traditions, Buddhism, and even Humanism.

I am amused to tell you that after all that exploring, a large part of my inspiration, ethics, and philosophies come from none of those, but from science fiction and fantasy novels. I guess that's where all the "like minds" migrated to, since there was no room for them in the established institutional traditions!

As a Pagan Priestess, I work mostly with the Goddesses, but as an Eclectic Pagan, I pretty much speak to everyone and everything around me. I always seek to feel connected to the Land wherever I live, and to honor those who have lived here before me as well as those who share it with me now.

My primary psychic skill is Empathy. It's been hard, growing up an Empath in a skeptical world, and I still struggle with believing in myself sometimes.

So how about you? What kind of Path have you followed to get where you are today? What skills and talents have you wrestled with, what explorations have you made, to become who you are today? Who has inspired you along the way?

Let's talk!

[Andrew, Jr.]

When my sister was diagnosed with skin cancer, it took my breath away. She was the only one who I could talk too. I converted to organized religion (Roman Catholic) hoping that God would spare her life. She still died.

I have always been spiritual. Not into Wiccan, or Pagan. Just hoping and praying to God that my decisions and my responsibilites in life were the right ones for me.

I know that you played a huge role in my top surgery nightmare, Cath. It is something that I will never forget. I think that we are all connected in some way or another.

Life is a gift. We all have different gifts to share, and to hold out our hands and help each other. Some will, some won't. Some have different motives that are less than admirable. But like my Grandmother always said, the dirt always comes out in the wash.

[Mitmo01]

glad to be here, im an eclectic person but i truly believe in the goddess and all her forms. Im interested in all spirtuality but pagan and heathen is what is in my soul. hello to everyone

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Andrew}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Hello and welcome!

Andrew, darlin, it doesn't work to bargain with God when someone is sick, and I truly don't think He would hold you to the that conversion if you find it doesn't work for you. It's so hard to know what will help when someone we love is dying, and people tell us all kinds of things, "do this" or "do that," and if it doesn't work? They tell us WE didn't have enough faith.

I say bullhockey. That's just absolute bunk.

People die for all kinds of reasons, and sometimes it's because their bodies wear out. Sometimes it's because they give up. Sometimes it's because they're needed on the next part of their life journey.

I personally believe in reincarnation... I mean HECK, if I cannot bear to waste a perfectly good paper bag, how could God bear to waste a perfectly good soul, right? So I believe that sometimes when people die young, it's because they have to be in place when it's time to be born again to their next set of parents.

A friend of mine has a brand new granddaughter and she was in danger of H1N1 because her sisters caught it, so I prayed for her. Later I asked how she was and my friend said all three girls were fine, healthy again---and sent me pictures of the grandbaby.

My father looked out of that baby's eyes and said hello to me.

Nothing will ever shake my belief in reincarnation again; I have seen it for myself.

So it might be that your sister, after some time spent with God, will be coming back for another turn at life. It might even be that you will be given a chance to know who and where she is. For now, she's safe with God and doesn't want you to worry--she sends her love and she's sorry for the pain you're enduring.

[Bit]

Originally Posted by Mitmo01

Im interested in all spirtuality but pagan and heathen is what is in my soul. hello to everyone

Hello, Mitmo, and welcome! It's very nice to have you here.

Someone once said to me, "I'm pagan to my toenails" and I've always thought that just about sums it up.

[Andrew, Jr.]

Cath,

I understand what you said. It just hurts my heart and soul - if that makes sense. She was such an amazing woman, and the one who I could talk too. So her death just devistated me.

People say the worst things when it comes to death. I agree. I had someone tell me that I wasn't a good person, and that is why Jo got sick. She had to pay the price for my sins. Unbelieveable. That by far was the worst, most rotten thing ever.

I too believe in reincarnation. I have witnessed it myself. When I had a seen a picture taken of a newborn nephew, my dead uncle was in the background. No mistaking it. The hair on the back of my head do stand right up just thinking about it.

Something very strange happened recently at my home. I witnessed a black fog or cloud come out of no where. It traveled from my front lawn to my front porch then fast than anything I have seen, it went off my porch and disappeared. I have no clue as to what that was. Do you have any ideas?

[friskyfemme]

Originally Posted by Bit

Welcome to Pagan, a thread to discuss all forms of Nature spirituality, the occult and paranormal, alternative spiritualities, psychic phenomena, Wicca, Shamanism, Animism, Eclecticism, and whatever else wanders through our minds.

Samhain has just passed, and Hallowtide--those three days of celebrating the Ancestors, both far removed and most recent--and now the Wheel of the Year turns forward. In Celtic culture this is the New Year, and what could be more appropriate than a new beginning at the start of a new year? Come in, sit down, get comfy--and let's talk.

I am an eclectic individual in all areas of my life including my spiritual belief system. Some may think that this means I have no conviction. However, I have come to see the value in each belief, each thought, and each action of each individual. Without the diversity, we are stagnant. Being stagnant equals nothingness (to me). I have built my own traditions, ceremonies, and life practices based on different established ones and ones I have grown within. My standard life practice is 'treat others as you want to be treated' (segway of all belief systems). I believe in the strength of my 'spirit' as my blueprint for this life and the connection to preceding and future lives of mine. I believe in the ability of 'self-healing'. In the same breath, I acknowlege the lack of humanity's ability (vast generalization) to embrace it, which renders it useless. My Vision (of my Healing ability and my Path with regard to it) was revealed to me for the first time during meditation in 1994. It has unfolded and continues to unfold each day since.

I have come to understand it doesn't matter what you perceive the Great One is God/gods, Goddess/goddesses, Great Spirit, Higher Power, Universal Power, etc... What is important is how is grows you a person, how it urges you to care about yourself and others, and whether or not these actions increase goodness or diminish it. I do not prescribe to my Great One vs your Great One but rather the combination of each equals Greatness. 'All for One and One for All' has taken on a whole new meaning!

[Bit]

Hi FriskyFemme, welcome to Pagan! Thank you for sharing your beliefs with us!

[Stoney]

DARK GODDESS
By Amanda A. Leonard




Black Candles ,Heavy Incense.
Black dress for a mourning rite.
Dark...
....So dark before Dawn.
The Bones of Many Snap Beneath my Feet
The sweet smoky essence of Death
Surrounds my head like an adorning crown.
Inhale deeply.....
Fragrance so alluringly pungent
it sickens me
I embrace it.
I am one with all .
I am both Creator and Destroyer
Beginning
End
Beginning again.
Like the circle
unending

I face my shadow, my dark reflection.
I absorb all the power it offers.
With acceptance,reverence,and anticipation ,
I allow the melding of spirits to transpire.
Dark and Powerful .
My immunity to false realities created
claiming hope for things achieved
at the end of this pointless game.
Lies and deception.
Vision is reality
my quest is mine alone.
My rules,
are the rules I myself have chosen.
My fears
Are only the fears I have decided to entertain
In this space of transition
The light and dark are neither.
Only what I may accept
that they may be.
For I will not limit my power.
Slavery
I will accept no ones rules but my own.
For the rules are mine alone.
For this is my game and
always has been since the
Beginning
The end
The Beginning
I AM DARK GODDESS


Just felt like sharing a little.....

[Stoney]

I am A Witch
by Amanda Leonard


First of all I proudly claim my identity as a Witch with no hesitation.
It is who I am , one of the most powerful parts of who I am.
It is the Goddess in me.
It is the healer and the teacher,
It is the old wise womyn and the young beautiful maiden.
It is the nurturing Mother,
A protector and a fighter.
It is my vision, my quest, my path, and my purpose.
It is my highest fulfillment.
I am a Proud Witch.
Not only am I proud witch, but also a proud Womon, I am a proud, determined, strong
and passionate Lesbian Witch,
A womon who loves womyn.
A womon that appreciates the beauty she sees in all womyn,
Yes I am a fearless, in your face, loud, proud, lesbian witch In a man's world.
I am also a psychic , I have been since I was young.
I would have dreams of being a witch........ along ago in a far away place.
I could distantly recall the shelves in my cottage filled with herbal tinctures and majikal
concoctions
I could so easily imagine the sensation of the cool dirt floors on my feet
The aroma of lavendar and sage could send me into a day dream of my garden boxes
Of herbs, and the soaps, and salves I would make from them.
I could sense my closeness to all living things and I swear mother earth would call out
to me and I would often crave the feel of digging with bare hands deep into her cool
moist soil.
For reasons I couldnt explain my mind held information about majik and things which I
had never studied
I knew majikal chants from off the top of my head....
and I would hum tunes I knew well but couldnt recall why that was.
I sometimes before I would fall asleep for the night, the strangely familiar celtic
melodies of an ancient past would set the stage for a regression to a lifetime once
lived.

Yes I am a Womon, a Proud Witch and I have lived that life many times.
For reasons I am constantly reminded of, I have once again chosen this life as a
Womon,
a Witch,
a Healer,
a Teacher
a Mother and a Child,
a Sister and a Friend,
a Protector and a Spellcaster,
a Conjurer and a Hexer,
a Reader and a Psychic,
a Medium and a Channel,
an Energy mover and a Shapeshifter,
a Shaman and a Sage,
an Exorcist and a Creator
A Priestess and a Goddess.
It is My rite to claim this to be so.
It is my wish to use my power to the highest good of all.
It is my vow to harm none which are innocent.
It is My desire to excell in all aspects of Majik and the craft and to never end my
study of majik and manifestation.
It is my destiny to live and die in this life as a Witch
And maybe the next ... and the next.... and the next.....
I am a proud Witch.
My strength Lies within this fact.

[Bit]

Merry meet, Stoney! Thank you for sharing with us!

Forgive me, y'all, my mind is not on Pagan things--although it did occur to me this morning that Gryph was under attack, psychically, so I suppose my mind is never NOT on Pagan things, lol....but mostly my mind is on things like housebreaking a pup (9 weeks old; two months to go before he has reliable control, oy vey) and dealing with Winter.

The pup is a familiar, btw. He's one of the wounded healers, has a broken hip and is only just now learning to walk on four feet again. Being a baby, he does too much and then pays for it in pain, so we do our best to keep him down and quiet a LOT.

I know this dog is going to be strong. I dunno who will teach him; the cats teach each other, yanno? But Lady is only a healer in an instinctively loving way, is not an actual familiar and so cannot teach him to travel. I suspect Gryph will have to teach him in dreamwork.

Bubba, Travel Cat par excellence, is HIGHLY OFFENDED. Oy. *eyeroll*

[Mitmo01]

Hello everyone...long time no talk

Bit I hope your pup recovers from his injury...my lovely Diego RIP--had his leg broken when he was a kitten and when he recovered you never even knew that he had been injured...the bodys ability for resilience is amazing..

Im feeling kind of in a schaudenfreude mood in these dark cold days, I suppose it has a lot to do with the weather and i always seem to forget that my mind is my biggest strength....that manifestation of our own power comes from within not outside...something so simple yet its a slippery concept for me


but i want to wish everyone well and happy holidays in the dark time...

im much more of a lurker than an author but i always enjoy this thread and the magnificent people who remain.....

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{mitmo}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Hello hon. I'm sorry--you posted here when I wasn't posting much anywhere and couldn't seem to catch up--sorry for the delay in answering you!

I think you're probably going to grieve for Diego for a while. And then, it's a hard time of year to lose anyone you love, yanno? Be kind to yourself, darlin.

Has Diego come back to visit?

Thanks for asking about Trooper! He's learning to use his back legs together and has started jumping... omg... I was all set for this long stretched-out recovery timeline and here it's only two and a half weeks and he runs faster than I can catch him, he goes up and down stairs by himself, he's potty-trained himself (although we sometimes miss his signals, and he doesn't have much capacity for holding it yet), he plays constantly--he'd rather play than eat!--and he jumps up on his hind legs.

If this dog were healthy I would NEVER be able to keep up with him.

We cannot tell yet how much he already knows (as a Familiar). I was practicing some quiet drumming last night and was going to do a guided meditation with Gryph, but the pup set up such a howl we finally had to let him out of the crate. He stayed in Gryph's lap for a long time; but even after I gave up on the drum, every time I started the meditation again, he would immediately start licking Gryph's face. We don't know whether he needed to be part of the work or he just needed to be out of the crate.

He seems amazingly well tuned to voice commands, responds appropriately almost every time to the tone of voice even if he doesn't know the words. I think he's picking up on our mental images--just like the day I met him, looked at him and thought "what happened to you, puppy?!" and immediately saw the kick and felt the impact.

Psychic boy.

We're working now on controlling the teeth. He's learning that even though Daddy Gryph is patient and willing to cut him lots of slack, Mama Cath is a bitch of an Alpha and has a rule: teeth on human skin is immediately and severely punished by crating, NO treat.

I will NOT lose a Familiar at two or three or even five years old because he bit someone, I just will NOT. And believe me, although the vet was kind and officially labeled him a lab mix, anyone who knows dogs will know that is a pit bull head and pit bull jaws. We can't afford to take any chances at all. Now, while he's still small enough to smoosh into the crate, we have to teach him this lesson about teeth.

And soon I guess we have to get a bigger crate. *sheepish smile*

[Mitmo01]

Hi Bit so glad to hear that the pup is responding to your training, i believe that animals come into "Our Lives" not us into thiers...all of my beloved felines found me and im eternally grateful for their presence...my Bronwen that i have had for 10 years dissapered 3 weeks ago and has not returned...I think she is a hostage somewhere and im hoping she is being taken care of properly...she apparently decided that she wanted to wander and that is how she came into my life so i take comfort in the fact that not only is she intelligent but shes also autonomous and the universe willing will return hopefully...

It was heartbreaking to go to the humane society because i just wanted to take all of them home with us....My beloved Diego has not visited but I know in my heart that he will. A very good friend of mine is doing an egyptian ritual for him and that takes 70 days so he is in good company with all of his guardians as they prepare him for Bastet and her companions.....I miss him everyday but know he is in his happy hunting grounds with all of the stalking and hunting he could want...


Your Pup sounds like quite the Psychic and how exciting for you and Gryph to have a familiar like him...I bet he is going to get stronger and stronger with each day and those teeth and gums are probably just hurting a bit and its in his nature with want to chew probably lol but he is being structured by responsible loving humans and lucky him that he is soooo loved by you two.

No need for any apologies at all, i always enjoy your thoughts and words and your kindness

I hope that you and yours are safe and well this yule season
and all of the animals are safe and sound...: )

[chefjenn]

Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell;
Spirituality is for those who have already been there.

[Bit]

Merry meet! And everyone is welcome, thank you all for stopping by!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Magic}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Darlin I am always SO GLAD to reconnect with you! I look forward to your contributions!

Massive, I don't think you've offended anyone. I suspect most of us share your basic attitude of "live and let live."

chefjenn, I used to have a fridge magnet that said that! The only thing I would add? "And Shamanism is for those who aren't afraid to go back" lol!!

So, did anyone attend local Beltane celebrations?

[*Magic_and_Silk*]

{{{{BIT}}}}

Actually, I was fortunate enough to attend a small Beltane circle with some very close friends. It was kind of Beltane / Birthday celebration, which was awesome!

I am fortunate to have such friends...and that includes all of you here.

[Camo Eagle]

Memorial Day SALUTE to all my Pagan Brothers & Sisters that have or are still serving. To the surviving Families as well.

http://www.circlesanctuary.org/ministries/military/

Merry Meet everyone. I am really new to this site so please excuse my lack of expertise for a little while. I am Wiccan and have been for many years, though I am still learning everyday. I was so happy to find a Pagan thread here. I look forward to getting to know everyone. Have a great Thursday. ~Bright Blessings