Ok, this will probably open up a whole can of worms. I consider myself an eclectic pagan, that is, I research and what I feel to be true, is true for me. Not one specific set of ideals, like a whole of christianity and whatnot.

Is any one else Pagan or have questions about Paganism in general (there are a lot of different types just like a lot of different types of christians and different types of catholics ,etc.)

Feel free to ask questions, comments, thoughts, anything else. No need to flame though, we are all, afterall, civilized, yes?

I'm not pagan, I'm an agnostic.

Both my parents are pagan though, we used to wake up at sunrise to do an earth healing ritual. (I'm not sure how it was spelled, but the name of the ritual was pronounced 'agni hotra' and it came from India.)

I've studied wicca, and a few other paths of paganism, but can you go into detail and describe what eclectic paganism is?

What are your beliefs about gods/goddesses? Do you have a pantheon? How does that work for you?

One question, Who/What do you worship, cause im gonna say this straight out, i don't see any sanity in someone who worsphis teh devil or anything evil.

@Dragonpaladin: While I can't speak for all Satanists, most people who worship Satan don't see him as evil.

Forgive me if I was unclear. Her eis a more dictionary-esque definition.

Somebody who is eclectic, selects from various doctrines, methods or styles those parts she considers the best. The word also denotes a whole, constructed from pieces obtained from various sources.


You do not have to worship anyone or anything, unlike any other religion. Just knowing that there are higher things (not neccessarily gods) out there is enough for me. I respect those spiritual beings, I just don't feel like I owe them my allegiance or anything. And no, I do not worship satan. some say that satan is only a conjuration of the mind, others say it is a purely christian concept, and others believe in him completely. I have known satan worshipers, have even gone to more then one of their rituals for my research. They are not evil people nor is what they do inherantly evil. yes they are calling upon what is currently in our theology an "evil" being, but that doesn't make him so.

If you call on anything to harm another person or animal, that makes you evil, not what you're calling on.

I have no pantheon, no gods or goddesses, merely abide myself with the energy around me and within to take care of myself and those close to me.

Chaos - that sounds like myself!

I like what I see around me and believe there are energies and such that we cannot see, only feel.

I've taken pieces of Egyptian religion, wiccan and paganism an mixed it all together to make my own beliefs.

I don't believe in one god (Christian), but I do like some things from Buddhism.

I think more people should investigate religion and ask questions of it and themselves. We need less organised religion and more people making their own and decideing what is best for themselves :)

I have to absolutely agree. Less having ideas shoved down our throats and more people choosing what to believe in, if it ends up being only parts. That is what it means to be an individual, to make up your own mind.

Exactly!

Slightly idealistic - but if you look at every major war that has occured - organised religion is in the reasons behind why the war happened.

Its the biggest excuse to attack someone else - because their ideas don't agree with yours.

And because its in the name of god - You get the support, because if its for God then it has to be right.

Blergh!

Ahh, sad but true. If they ahv e"god" on their side, they think they're more likely to win. But if everyone has "god" on their side...who ends up losing? mm...everyone. Not gonna go into a whole war is bad spiel. There is always gonna be violence and war, human nature and all that. Take it from someone who was a soldier and has gone to iraq, war sucks. But, I don't wanan get into all that. Just gonna stick to the real topic.

I suppose I am slightly idealistic though.

Everyone on Menewsha is civilised :D

I think Paganism is a really nice religion :) I have a book on my shelf called "Teenage Survival Guide", it was written by a Pagan called Marina Baker. She talks about saving water, caring for the planet, spells, charms, rituals and tips on love and health too. I find really intresting to read :)

Pagans are just like everyone else. We're as normal as anyone, if anyone at all can be considered "normal". We're as much a variety in temperments as our backgrounds allow us to be. But then, thats getting more into nature/nurture stuff, again off topic. Blah..I can't stay on topic..or did I just make this too wide? 8)

Right now I can say I follow X religion bcuz religion it's the last thing I've been thinking lately. But I used to follow a path like yours (Chaosvariable & Lass).

Since I was little I was taken to different kinds of churchs and to tell you the truth I never cared about any of them. I always questiond what they said. Why should it be the way they where telling us it was. But then I read an article on a magazing about a girl who was being harrased at her school bcuz she was wiccan (about 7 years ago) and I starded to do some reaserch. I do belive in many of the things I studied. But RL has been up side down for sometime.

Eclectic paganism reminds me of Chaos Magic, where you take 'the bits that work' from other rituals and practices, and mash it together to create rituals and spells freeform, on the fly.

Originally Posted by Celria

@Dragonpaladin: While I can't speak for all Satanists, most people who worship Satan don't see him as evil.

I find it hard to Believe that the 'Devil' can be found as good in some peoples eyes XD

Originally Posted by dragonpaladin

I find it hard to Believe that the 'Devil' can be found as good in some peoples eyes XD

I think you should read "The Satanic Bible" actually and to see what people mean when the Devil is really not evil.

Satanism is more of a belief in one's self and the power one has and thinking of one as there own God and being stronger through it. While most Satanist do not actually worship the "Devil" per say.

before bashing something, it is always a good idea to actually study it first.

I really can not say what my beliefs are right now.

I grew up in a very Christian home and still live in one. This making bringing any ideas of anything not Christian and not believing in the Bible and Jesus as the one true way "evil" and to be condemmed to hell.

Now while my actual beliefs are far different than my family's I often do not talk to them about, just because of how I know it will greatly upset my grandparents. My mother never really cared.

I've taken bits and pieces from different books and religions of old. But over all I really never classified my beliefs. I would go more Agnostic right now.

I believe in something higher, wether it be one god or mutliple or no gods. There is, I dare say it, something or at least it feels like there is something. Now my problem with this, is it what I have been raised to believe and that exist strongly in my community and culture, that because of this deep belief there is something, or is it because there is something that we actually believe in it?

Originally Posted by AkashaHeartilly

I think you should read "The Satanic Bible" actually and to see what people mean when the Devil is really not evil.

Satanism is more of a belief in one's self and the power one has and thinking of one as there own God and being stronger through it. While most Satanist do not actually worship the "Devil" per say.

before bashing something, it is always a good idea to actually study it first.

Im not bashing anyting, Im just Poking aund LMAO

I thought I was a pagan for a couple of years while I was a teenager. It was quite interesting, with rich and varied traditions. Turned out I wasn't one in the end though.

I think technically I come under the category of agnostic. But I'm not sure.

I read the book - the satanic witch. It was hilarious!! Some of the points and practices were quite interesting, but the views hel by the author were really amusing!

I was brought up in a Christian hoe, and was dragged to church every Sunday morning. I found the services boring and the Sunday School was just another place to be bullied and ignored. So looking into it myself I didn't get it. None of it made sense to me and I didn't like the way some people interpreted the Bible.

So for a while I was an atheist - I didn't believe in everything or anything. Then we started doing different religions in RE at school, and soe of the things I learnt were really interesting and rang true inside me.

So I started hunting aound myself, looking into religions old and new. From all of them I picked what I thought was right and made my own beliefs. :)

I guess most of it is from ancient Egypt. For soe reason their pantheon seeed most real to me. However on my keys there is a St Martin keyring, that seems to have followed me wherever I've gone in my life. So after a few years of it popping up randomly - i stuck him on my keys. No idea who he was or what he did, but he seems to want to be around me :P

well, im not against it. i dont really know anything about it!! im not really against any religion, actually. im an agnostic christian (not the churchy christian, but one that just belives in the teaches of jesus, without knows if any thing really exists)....but yeah. im all for everything :3

I grew up in a Catholic family, in a place where everyone in the country was Catholic and everyone went to Church on Sundays, celebrated Christmas for Jesus Christ, and all that good stuff. I myself, however, am not as devoted to my family religion as my family. ^^; I believe I'm more agnostic than Catholic.

Yes, I agree! Religion shouldn't be forced down our throats-- it should be something you discover on your own; something you believe in with all your heart. ^^

Paganism... It sounds really interesting! I should look into it. O: But now... I don't understand why my parents accuse people who aren't Catholic as 'Pagans' who believe in the devil! owo; Isn't that wrong?

Technically by the dictionary anyone who isn't Jewish, Islamic or Christian is pagan. (I.e anyone who doesn't follow the 'one true god' is a pagan.)

The bible says something to the effect that all other religions are created by the devil to fool man, so if you believe that all who don't beleive in the 'true god' are pagans, and you believe only you have the one true god, I guess it makes sense to call any other religion pagan.

Most people who self define as pagans see it very differently though of course.

Evil:

• morally bad or wrong; "evil purposes"; "an evil influence"; "evil deeds"
• morally objectionable behavior
• having the nature of vice
• that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune; "the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"- Shakespeare
• tending to cause great harm
• the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice; "attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world"
• malefic: having or exerting a malignant influence; "malevolent stars"; "a malefic force"

But yet, at the same time, isn't it merely a matter of perspective what is evil. Evil is truly a moral understanding. What is morally repugnant to one, can see natural to another. Depending on where we were raised, with what ideals, things come naturally to us. It is when we seek to harm another lifeform that we become evil. But even that isn't a full definition.

For then that would make Christians and Muslims as well as Catholics, evil as well, for they seek to destroy or at least deny that anyone but themselves have any relevance. So how indeed do we define evil? Can we truly?

My apologies if this subject is dead, but it is of great interest to me.

I believe that picking and choosing different things from different religions that make sense to you is good and necessary for some people, as long as you don't pretend to be one or the other.
You can choose certain rules from Christianity, and certain ones from the Jewish tradition, and some Hindu things as well, but if you claim to be Christian then there's a problem. I went to a Catholic school and it always bothered me when these kids would say they were Catholic and do mass and such but then turn around and say things that were wrong with the religion and what they don't believe about it. It in general gives the religion a loose feel and a bad image. If you don't agree, then you need another way of life to define yourself under, or don't define yourself at all. (This isn't a direct critisism to the person who created the board, it's simply taking his statement of his way of life and expanding on my views, and in a way, he is the positive side of this argument that I have made that I agree with)

I myself believe in a balance principle where for good to exist evil must exist. Humans themselves have the ability to tread the line and choose which side they wish to be a part of. Yeah I am sure there is a diety of some sort... but being an all powerful being they do a poor job helping mankind that is for sure. This is where I have a beef with christianity. An all knowing... forgiving... all mighty powerful God lets his people suffer in such ways it makes no sense. The premise of Shiva makes more sense and I am not into Hinduism. At least then you know your God will turn his back on you because it is a cycle of destruction and rebirth.
I am not attacking christians... I just get annoyed with the ideals of how a God can be two-faced and that is ok. (Either that or people wrote the Bible incorrectly and he was upfront about the matter. )