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So...what flavor of pagan are you?

Started by rite_of_inversion, October 12, 2010, 08:03:09 PM

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JungianZoe

The simplest answer?  All over the place.  ;D  I don't subscribe to any particular path except for my own and what I feel works.  Even my biological heritage is a mix of German, English (came to America on the Mayflower), Irish, and Cherokee.  As such, I don't feel drawn to any particular pantheon or belief system.

Guess you could say that's about as generic as you can get, but still highly individualized.
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Shang

Quote from: Lynn Gabriel on October 12, 2010, 08:09:55 PM
I don't have a set belief.  I guess you would say I'm a mix of Egyptian (think Anubis) and Christianity (think Catholic) in belief system.  It's really hard for me to explain in a way that makes sense.

And now I have a name for my main belief system:  Kemetic.  This is the religion of Ancient Egypt and it's what I primarily follow, though I have been influenced by various other beliefs.
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Rachel Bellefountaine

Wiccan, with an emphasis on Greek and Norse gods.






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Greenwick

Celtic, with an emphasis on Welsh deities.  (If you are interested in them, check out a series of old tales called The Mabinogian.)  I also attend a Unitarian Universalist Church.

As for Buddhism being pagan, I don't think it is antithetical to Paganism, though Buddhism itself I wouldn't consider pagan.  Awhile back I was at a cross roads as to whether I should pursue more of a Buddhist path or a pagan path.  I was planning on joining a monastery, so the decision was actually necessary to make.  While I was looking, I found someone who had created a Celtic Buddhist path.  This is their website - http://www.celticbuddhism.org/

As other people have said, Buddhism meshes together with local traditions.  Had Buddhism come to Europe before Christianity, it would most likely have incorporated deities like Bridgit and Arianrhod with the teachings of the Buddha.  Look at how Christian and European pagan faiths meshed.  Despite forced conversion (which is a very complex topic), older pagan ideals always persisted.
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AmaLynn

Well, I have a personal "path" that I follow centered around kind of like a table-ish structure. Deities are from the Egyptian pantheon, though I have yet to find a non-local deity of water in it (If any of you guys could help with that it'd be wonderful).

Now the table-ish structure. The basic concept is that five ideals, or pillars/legs supporting the table or top, which consist of wisdom, fire, earth, water, and air, supporting a table/top made up of a triple-goddess of wisdom thing, primarily the one the Sekhmet and Hathor fall into (I can't think of the third one off the top of my head, so if you guys don't know the third one, I'll post it when I find it again). Because Sekhmet is related to both fire and willpower-gone-rampant/lack-of-willpower-ish, her position in the structure changes depending on the ritual purpose she is being called on to assist with. Finally, atop the entire thing, sit two chairs, one for the God (Osiris), and one for the Goddess (Isis).

Aside from the major deities of the path, the other major emphasis is on natural magicks.

Finally, when doing a ritual in the outdoors (one way natural magicks get into my normal pattern of rituals), as each deity/piece of the structure is invoked, the physical representation is placed on the altair, thus constructing the entire table-thing. Because the quarters are part of the structure, there is no "calling the quarters", simply an "invoking of the columns."

The rest is much more complex, and there isn't enough room here for me to fully describe it without trying to pull my hair out.
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Miniar




"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell" - Nietzsche
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FairyGirl

Girls rule, boys drool.
If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.
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AmaLynn

O.O Navi has returned! We're doomed!
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Chermarie

Witchy poo nature lover, that's me!
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silverarrow

I'm Wiccan. My Goddess is Artemis and my God Apollo. I've been happier than I've been in years since I dropped Christianity and started practicing Wicca :) I love it
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grrl1nside

Definitely pagan. I would say that I am solitary or maybe best to say family based. I connect with the rhythm and spirit of nature. You know, feel the trees, the wind, shiver of a stream. I am eclectic in that I mix Norse (although I connect with many, it is hard not to appreciate the shape shifting of Loki...) with aspects of Celtic spirituality and First Nations through chats with the Spirit Bear although I wouldn't say that I've settled. In some respects, my spiritual transition mirrors this gender shift. Some of my earlier attractions are moving as I move. I love the notion of the faces of the Goddess in Wicca and it is a strong attraction to me. I'll be interested in seeing how my answer to this would change say in a year or two time...
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SilvermanUK

QuoteBuddhism is pagan in the original, pejorative sense of the word, i.e. non-Christian/Jewish. But it's non-theistic (in the sense of belief in a creator god).

Although it would also be considered to not be paganism because its not god based, the term paganism has a wide meaning, and can be argued many times over, about what belong's under its umbrella.

That being said... I am a Druid.  :)
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OrderOfOriah

Synergistic Neo-Shaman, Order of Oriah

eclectic in the style of a Chaos Mage, relying most heavily upon intuition and personal revelations and supplimenting with indigenous traditions of my choosing from all corners of the globe.

All paths will eventually lead to the divine, but the quickest and most rewarding is the one you blaze though the rugged wilderness
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The Passage

More or less Christian, as a student of Christ, but the funny truth is that the Church would consider my Christian way of life as pagan heresy. I do have a great reverence for stories involving ancient Gods of old, however, or rather their unaltered versions. Specifically the Gods of ancient Greece (even though I like their names better in Latin!!). Very interesting things can be learned from those stories.
"Magic is just science we don't understand yet." - Arthur C. Clarke
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cynthialee

Then you should be aware that the Christ Myth has many striking paralels with the Hercules Myth.
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tsu 'The art of War'
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OrderOfOriah

yeah, my favorite part is when jesus killed the hydra!
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cynthialee

Quote from: OrderOfOriah on October 29, 2011, 10:12:22 PM
yeah, my favorite part is when jesus killed the hydra!
Why would you take a serious conversation and turn it into a comedy fest?
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tsu 'The art of War'
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OrderOfOriah

Quote from: cynthialee on October 29, 2011, 10:34:23 PM
Why would you take a serious conversation and turn it into a comedy fest?

because you did first
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The Passage

Quote from: cynthialee on October 29, 2011, 09:30:35 PM
Then you should be aware that the Christ Myth has many striking paralels with the Hercules Myth.

Well, I'm not Joseph Campbell. So, I don't actively seek out similarities between mythological stories - that is to say that it's really not my job - but I do recognize some of the overlying themes from Catholicism to "pagan religions" that it was essentially based upon. Many of the old Gods, old festivals, "pagan" holidays, events, were absorbed into Catholicism. I'm not here to debate, though, I just came here to share what I practice and share the fact that my "practice" would be considered pagan by even the Church itself. Jesus' true teachings, his true way of life, is most likely lost to us now -- years of convolution, forced silence, and rewriting of history has muddled that.

But, hey, what do I know? I'm still a teenager, a snotty little kid! ;)
"Magic is just science we don't understand yet." - Arthur C. Clarke
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Chloe

I am a "Natural Scientism-ist" ( lol ) who, in advocating postgenderism and of predominately "lucky" social/economic/genetic decent ( a Jesuit priestly class educated, "PanAm world" denomination of non-drinking Irish Catholic persuasion ), believes HYDROGEN is God much like the ancient Egyptians studied and worshiped their sun god called "Ra".

Let's consider for a moment those qualities and characteristics of "A Supreme Being" that virtually all otherwise Ignorantly False Religions universally accept and indeed take for granted: 

Hydrogen is:

1) All Powerful, from which all other "energy force" comes.

2)Simplest, most basic of all "elements" as far as we can know

3)Is Material Originator of All, from which all other things are Combined

4)Plentiful, Universal, most abundant everywhere yet is not evident, does not occur "naturally" in "pure form" for us to "directly experience" on this, our increasingly sick planet, at all

5)Promotes Life and Purpose, seemingly out of Nothing but Warmth and Light for all

6 and 7) More SECRET qualities (known only to a special, privileged few! )

8)Is ultimate answer to sustainability problems, the "salvation" of the "select few" inclusive of "all" but, because we humans are inherently lazy beings who can never agree on anything that requires any real PHYSICAL EFFORT or SACRIFICE in the least, is also constant source of opinionated argument over which We Shall Fight, Kill and Die if truly needs be!
"But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend be two people!
"Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!"
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