Any Pagans out there?

There are a number of Christian chats out there but I can't find any of my sisters and brothers in faith! I would love to hear how all you heathens out there perhaps integrate your faith with your healthy lifestyle.

I'm a follower of the older Celtic faiths. I really like how this faith deals with the balance in all aspects of life eg; human and nature, body and soul, man and woman, God and Goddess. Looking at life this way really helps me deal with the day to day when I realize that even if I have a really bad day I will eventually have a great day to make up for it. Just my thoughts:)

I would love to here your take on life and all its Mysteries.

Red Raven 

hi! i tired to start a thread about this a while back and it kinda died out! i like to call myself an eclectic pagan, but basically i just march to my own drummer i guess. the earth is my god/goddess, i believe we are all connected, i believe in the duality in everything. i indentify a lot with wicca, but i don't believe in the god/goddess as deities, instead i feel that there is a force connecting us all. i was raised catholic but i always knew it wasn't really me. i had way too many doubts. sometimes i envy people who can be raised in a certain religion and just go along with it with conviction, like my parents. 

Hi.  We're bad witches. LOL!  Not bad as in evil, just bad as in we don't do it very well.  We realized we were pagans when we got married and were looking for someone to perform the wedding spritiually but more open.  We stumbled upon a wiccan priest and priestess and yes, understood that we had been pagan all along.  We went to some learning coven meetings for about a year and then broke off on our own as the coven was not really what we were looking for.  Unfortunately, work, family, life has prevented us from finding a group that we really feel like we mesh and belong with and our Sabbat celebrations really only fall on the main ones that the rest of the world celebrates as well (even if they don't know it and call it by a different name.)  SO... we really need to pick it up a notch and be better witches.  I'm hoping that now that our last baby is over 1 year old, we'll find more time in our lives to do this.

I TOTALLY see this being incorporated into keeping this lifestyle!!  Buying organics that are better for the land, making sure the animals and land that contribute to the foods we eat are well treated and natural, all of it makes me feel closer to Mother Earth.  I love going to farmer's markets and eating seasonal foods.  Our kids have a little garden going and we just got our first harvest of 12 green beans! LOL!  But still, Mother Earth provides and it is good for us!  Plus, being more active, using less electricity and gas and finding ourselves outside more.  And THEN - for me - being a mother and a woman and treating my body better and being in better shape makes ME feel more like a goddess and makes me respect myself more, as well as feeling like I'm setting a better example of 'mother' to my kids.

There was this thunderstorm the other day and it finally rained, which we really needed.  My 3 year old was scared of the thunder but we talked about how the lightening and thunder were hugs and kisses from mother earth and father sun.  How the rain was coming to give the plants (like our garden) the water they needed to grow strong.  She seemed to like that.

It's nice to see another pagan!

-Robyn

robyn- That's awesome that youre starting to guide your children in your new found faith. Unfortunately many parents (pagan and non pagan) sometimes overlook nurturing their children in all ways not just in body and mind. We always have to be conscious of our soul and the souls around us because without them we are nothing.

jules- It's a shame that your previous thread died out. It seems like the only people that can get fired up about religion are the Christians, atheists, and the agnostics!

Come on Pagans show me that passion and fire that I KNOW you have!!

i think it's because we pagans are above pushing our beliefs on others. i'll state mine, but i'm not going to try to change anyones mind. i am sad for people who hate or discriminate against others because of their religions.

robyn, i love that you are raising little pagans. i am looking forward to raising children free of the catholic guilt and fear of "hell" that i was raised with.

Here we are again, we were on the last thread that died out. I remember your names. I don't want to push my belief on anyone but I have to be very careful of what I say to anyone else here on the Bible belt. I really have to hide it. If asked I say I'm muliti -denom. since I embrace  many things.  When I've said to others they look at me like I'm the devil and want to fight with me about it and  I don't want to justify myself to them and I don't want them pushing their beliefs on me. I was raised Catholic also jules,(guilt,guilt) raised on it. I  moved away to episcopalian  then to Baptist and now to what I believe myself. This is where I'm comfortable, I'm probably closer to wicca. People in my town tell me there is a group that meets here and say all kinds of things about them and I've tried to explain what they are doing but doesn't work so I celebrate my myself. I probably would have really bad reprocessions at work, in our little Baptist community. If this thread ends we can also add each other to our friends list. P.S. I could not tell my aunts. mom, sister, what I believe but my husband and children know.

Wow! This thread really does die fast!!

Hello? Is everyone out dancing naked around a bonfire somewhere?

AND NOBODY TOLD ME??!!

We have our own little group and have ceremonies on the sabats. I hesitate to say coven because it's five of us and we really just build our celebration around what feels right at the time. We also use that day as an excuse to start drinking at 11:00 am on random Sundays.

Oh.... Hi Gypsierose!

I know how you feel, my Dad is a deacon and my Mom is a Sunday school teacher and Southern Baptist to boot! It's hard to (as we say in the Pagan community) come out of the Broom Closet!

v850434 , Bonfire dance isn't this week. Everyone is probably working. I'm off till next week.

Lol, come out of the Broom closet. I have a broom a friend gave me it's made of sticks, sit on front porch. It's used to sweep the neg. out of the house.  edit spell.

LOL gypsie. Just let me know when! I'm always up for a primal romp around the fire and howling at the moon!!

We keep this up and people are really going to be afraid of us. If they realized we are really gentle souls.

We are gentle! Just not genteel!! lol!!

Hello Spirochete!!

I must be pretty lucky to live in MN.  We're totally out of the broom closet.  I mean, it isn't the first thing I say to new people I meet, but most people don't go around saying "Hi, I'm Beth, I'm a Lutheran." either.  I tell work I'm not coming in for the Sabbats (at least, the ones we actually celebrate) and I make snide comments to the prostelitizers in the building.  I've also had my son put in a different school because of the "God Bless America" sign in the office of his old one.  (Ya, public school.)  In the beginning, my mom used to roll her eyes at me but she's much better now.  She claims she is Lutheran.  She's not - she's pagan.  She just doesn't know it.  She raised me with her own beliefs well though.  Femanism, acceptance, open mind, open heart, Earth lover, living green, peace, love, recycling, life is sacred, respect diversity and all cultures - ya - she's a total pagan.

Hey, anyone know where to buy a May Pole for our back yard?  I started looking back in April but i couldn't find one. 

Let's see... what Sabbat is coming up here... Sep 21st... is that Lugnasad or however that is spelled?  See, that's one of the odd ones out that we don't really do anything for.  We do celebrate the fall by going to an apple orchard and that is generally around that time.  Mmmm apple orchard. :)

Well, we did just pass the full moon.  Maybe for the new moon?

Haha what kind of shitty Wiccan misspells Sabbats (me)

Mabon is coming up, crack open the beers

robyn-

It's actually cheaper to make one(MayPole). Just go to lowes or home depot and buy one of the wooden closet poles. Then you can decorate it any way you like! You can also go to a fabric store to buy the ribbon. You can always find really pretty colors around that time of year!

Lughnasad was the 1st of August. But I think Mabon is next I'm not Wiccan so I don't celebrate it.

Spiro- Can you tell me about the 4 other Sabbats other than the main ones-Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasad?

Heh well I could but I'd have to look them up. I've been with my group for about four years now and I still have to look them up every single year. So terrible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Yea r 

Cheat sheet!