Wicca / Pagan

Hi

Is anyone on here a wiccan or a pagan ( sorry if they are the same thing!) I'm interested in finding out more but dont know where to start. Can anyone help me?

kelly, people get defensive because of how they were raised with religion. You're attacking their very core a lot of times. Many people would list their religion as the #1 thing that defines them.

Hi there. :)

I consider myself a pagan and proud of it although I never fell into any of the groups recognised by the pagan society at my college.  I mostly take pieces of all of them that I believe in most and I found that they tie in together fairly well.  But when pressed I usually give my spirituality the title of Amerindian Druid.

I also love the duality in life, and I just find it an easy way to respect that duality by just using the naming conventions of god and goddess. ;)

Also, as a book that was reccommended to me was Drawing Down the Moon by Margot (?) Adler.  (I can't really remember the author's name, but that was the title.)  I've read parts, and it presents an interesting discussion about neopaganism.

*BUMP!*

seeing the multiple christian threads popping up, i thought i'd give this a bump to see if there are any other pagans out there on CC!

There are a lot of Christian threads, which is great for the Christians. I could go off in a lot of tangents here, starting with how not being a good Christian is a huge insult in the US. Well, I hope I'm a pretty crappy Christian since I'm really not one.

I'm atheist, but when I was at school I looked into the pagan religion.

The earlier posts indicating that this thread could be deleted made me so angry, so what if this subject offends people, their idea that I'm going to "burn for eternity" because I do not believe in their God could offend me, but I would never want their posts deleted because they have the right to express their beliefs.

I hope this thread keeps going, it would be nice for there to be a range of communities on this site

i think it is great for the christians to have their own threads,  i don't want this thread to become them though, it's about pagans. 

so i went blueberry picking over the weekend, it was so nice (even though the crop was kinda sparse) i was all by myself out there in the big field with birds flapping around out of the bushes. it was so peaceful AND i was getting something to eat that is healthy for me (even though i did plan to make a pie but just didn't have the patience to pick that many haha!). anybody else do anything nice and nature related over the weekend? 

if you go to amazon.com you can look into the wicca books they have there. scott cunningham 's book - the first i bought


i think it gets a bad rep from getting confused with black magic.
wicca is white magic and meant to harm none.
black magic is for selfish purposes and harm.

and whatever you do comes back to you.
thats something that crosses the board in all religions.

theology is a very interesting thing to study to compare standards of truth that meet across the board.

links:
http://www.wicca.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca



 

As an actual moderator, I can promise that so long as y'all can behave and this thread doesn't devolve into inflamatory language or flames, this thread won't be deleted :)

HK, Volunteer Mod and ex-Pagan ;)

thanks HK! cause if this thread got deleted...well lets just say i might have to come for you...and i KNOW where you chat...dun dun dunnn

Just curious, can someone give a "in a nutshell" over view of the difference between wiccan/pagen and christianity? Are there ppl who follow the wiccan/pagen "way" who believe in God and Jesus? I am a christian to my very soul, I just very NON judgementally (Man, is that even a word?) wondered?

carie, i believe that there are people who try to mix the two. personally i don't, but if that is what works for them, that's great. i think a lot of pagans believe in a god and a goddess. the whole duality thing. male/female, light/dark, sun/moon. some pagans believe in multiple gods, some believe in none.

for me, it makes no sense that god would be a man alone, when woman are the ones who give birth, but cannot do so without a man. i personally don't believe there is some man in the sky controlling the planet.

i don't believe that jesus was divine. i think that is the view of most pagans (not that i can speak for others!) most pagans also don't believe in the devil, so all that devil worshipper stuff you hear is a bunch of hooey.

to me the earth is a living thing, and it is my god/goddess/deity. you've probably heard about magik practiced by wiccans. some people are frightened by the idea, thinking it has to be evil. really, it is no different than prayer to your god. it's just a different way to send your energy out to the higher power you believe in order to do good. i'm probably not the one to be explaining this since i haven't even chosen my path yet, but i'm trying! hope i didn't confuse you! 

You didn't, and thank you for the insight! I plan to stick with christianity, but it sounds like wiccan/ paggen may not be the frightening, horror filled evil ppl make it out to be. Just maybe a different viewpoint.

I dont believe God is a man in the sky, but a light in our hearts. And I dont believe this higher power is "controlling the planet", so much as guiding those who desire to find their destiny on earth. I also believe in eternal life in heaven, though I could never begin to claim to know what that entails! I am certain it is GLORIOUS though! Funny, the your beliefs and mine seem very similar.
Again, I very much appreciate your open explanation of what you believe wiccan/paggen (ism?) to be!

Be happy and "do good", ya know!?
P.S. So interesting to know that you dont believe in the devil when I think most ppl's fear is that it is a religion based on devil worship!

So, a question. :)

Once upon a time, I, too, had "To Ride A Silver Broomstick", but I kinda found the book to be a little.. um... fluffy. Light and Goodness and Brightness for all sort of thing.

What's YOUR opinion of Silver Ravenwolf?

Carie if only all Christians were as open minded as you. Our beliefs really aren't all that different in a lot of ways! and believe me, i never doubted that you'd stick with christianity :)

Thanks Jules, I am a work in progress, thats for sure! Being Non-judgemental and Open Minded is something I am really working on at all times!
Have a really great week!

Yes, I am Wiccan/Pagan. I am also Order Of The Golden Dawn and Ordo Illuminatus. I am not ashamed of who or what I am. I am what the Gods have made me. Nothing more, nothing less.

strongman, why would you even consider the fact you should be ashamed?? Everyone should be proud of their faith

i agree spiro, but there is also the fact that pagans aren't acccepted by a lot of society. for example, i don't think i'd feel comfortable wearing a pentacle necklace to the office. it's sad really, but i'd rather avoid the people either snickering because they think it's silly, or thinking it's something it's not (devil worship).

i think a lot of people from other faiths think paganism is silly. the mentality is "how could you believe THAT?!" because they have had it drilled into them that their faith is right, and because they do have the majority. little do they know i'm thinking the same thing about their faith.  

Well, my sister is a Wiccan and I am a pagan, although I take a little from this place and that.  If I can, I will get my sister on here to talk, she's had a tough time with people because she is open about what she believes. 

kittensmom- If it's ok, can my sister e-mail you?  I'm sure that she can help out a lot.

I was raised Catholic, did 8 years hard time in a Catholic school LOL then went to a Baptist church to find God.  After many many years of not feeling like anything really fit well, I came back to my original being and now I don't believe in any church.

 I believe that God is neither masculine nor feminine and that humans portray it that way because it is easier for us to understand if there is a face or gender put to it all.  My biggest problem with both Catholic and Baptist teachings is Hell, I don't believe that my creator would doom me to hell because I didn't get it right here on earth.  I do believe honestly, that here on earth is hell and we are all here to learn from being here and to teach beyond here.  I totally believe that energy is what you have inside you to use to further yourself and those you teach toward the other side and a smoother running here on earth.  I commune with nature as my church and don't have a snowballs chance in a fire pit of explaining what religion or belief it is except to say I believe that the better  you live your life toward yourself and others the happier you will be and the less tragic your passing will be to yourself and the people around you because you know it only gets better from here.

Take care and thank God/Goddess/Universe we can have this discussion without anger and hatred except from those so closed off they only hear themselves speak.