So...what flavor of pagan are you?

[OrderOfOriah]

if hydrogen is god then where does that leave protons neutrons and electrons?

[Embla]

When I'm really pagan pagan, Im kind of really structured in a pantheon with a few friends from outside that group and try to be as traditional / recon as I can stomach.

When I'm not so pagan, im agnostic/atheist/, but still pagan as I'm still a pagan in the broadest sense of the word of being of non-Abhramic faith and still with a pagan (pre-christian mythology influenced) view of the world.

I probably wouldn't be the first "agnostic pagan" or "atheist pagan" out there.

Anyway, so much for me trying to be silly .

[ApproachingMars]

I was hardcore Kemetic for a long time (I was Kemetic Orthodox as well).  After I left that I'm now eclectic with a gay men's focus.  Still heavily influenced by Kemetic/Egyptian thought.  I honor some Germanic and Greek Gods, too.

[schism]

i find it really difficult to define my beliefs in specific terms, since they're so eclectic and personal.  throw in some hindu ideas, shamanism, taoism, chaos magic, quantum mechanics and reality-shaping, with a great deal of respect for and acknowledgement of a whole bunch of pantheons without specific invocation, and my own spiritual experiences... you get the idea.  all that is.  it's all good. 

[foosnark]

I was hardcore Kemetic for a long time (I was Kemetic Orthodox as well).  After I left that I'm now eclectic with a gay men's focus.  Still heavily influenced by Kemetic/Egyptian thought.  I honor some Germanic and Greek Gods, too.

OHAI!  Small world.  I don't venture out of the Androgyne section very often, but was reading some stuff lately that made me curious about peoples' spirituality here.

Anyway, I am Kemetic Orthodox, a former ordained priest in fact.  I've been uninvolving myself from the temple a bit, and was honestly never really into Egypt itself beyond learning the cultural context of the religion... but my love for Seshat remains.  My religion helped me figure out my gender; I spent a lot of time asking myself tough questions in shrine, and my Parent deity pointed out that my gender was a liminal, border-dwelling thing (much like She is).

I was previously a solitary Celtic pagan of sorts.  I like bits of Taoism, Feri, Chaos Magic, Discordianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto but not enough of any one of those to take the whole package.  I have some personal beliefs leaning heavily toward animism and pantheism, and half-formed theories deity and spirit and our own consciousness (including gender identity) are all emergent phenomena that challenge simplistic ideas of what is "real."

[kerrianne]

I'm primarily Intuitive. I wasn't raised with spirituality of any sort (other than with the bottle) so I tend to duck anything that seems too ritualistic or organized. But I am starting to become more attuned to ritual (although again mine are primarily intuitive and impulsive still) as I get older and my spirit cries for growth. I've also taken note that many more "serious" (not really the right word - dedicated? I dunno) Pagan folk have entered my life, powerfully, and I am curious as to what paths they are showing me.

But in the end, what I know is that my soul knows exactly what is going on and it's a journey to remember and come full circle.

[Chloe]

I'm a rational "constitutionalist" . . . who thinks any kind of "central moral authority" is bad bad bad. I worship the solar panel (lol) god "Ra" who is the be all, answer to everything ( Egyptian?) and to say that Jesus "redeemed us", died for our "salvation" is a pure cop-out that absolves, prevents us from indeed doing and dying for "the right thing" ourselves!

I am not a "wretch" who cannot take responsibility for one's own actions and decisions; do not subscribe to "stealth" am proud of who I AM !

( Kids took me to "Hooters" for birthday dinner last night - when i walked into the men's room a very handsome half-drunk guy turned and glanced saying " ma'am you've made a wrong turn? " I'm determined to find a "normal guy" who can accept me as is!)

[Edge]

I'm not sure I would count as a pagan since I don't exactly practice anything and I didn't get to choose my beliefs.
I believe in all the pantheons. I do not believe in any of the creation stories. I believe in "deities," but I consider them to be faeries (faeries in this case meaning supernatural beings) and feel uncomfortable with the idea of "worship." I believe in the otherworld.

[Rising_Angel]

Buddhism is NOT a pagan religion.

Actually, Buddhism is one of the religions that established the need to create the term paganism.  Specifically, Paganism was given as a moniker referring to religions that were polytheistic or indigenous.  Later Ethnologists adapted the term to refer to religions that involved shamanism, polytheism, animism or pantheism, and specifically in reference to historical or traditional faiths.  It was only in the late 20th century, in fact, that the term paganism was adopted to refer to the increasing number of new religious movements that Wicca was a part of.

It's a good thing Buddhism is a pagan faith too ... thanks to Buddhists and Taoists, the pagan faith was legitimized on government documents and recognized as a religion without having to prove itself in order to benefit from state funding.  Because of that, we are able to have places of worship sponsored by the government, and our clergy (like myself) are able to legally apply for funding in order to create places of worship that aren't backyards, basements, and backrooms.

We tend to be very reactionary and protective of the term "Pagan" because a great many of us have sacrificed much for our faith.  However, we often forget that we are using the terminology of the same society that stamped out the old faiths to begin with, and therefor the term is not "ours."  Nor should it be, for our faith is larger than something that can be quantified by convenient labels and sterile terms.

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".

I've always thought that what we term "science" is merely a religion whose followers don't have a lot of Faith.  Most scientific work relies upon a foundation made of "Theories" - those things that are taken to be fact until disproved, but not (in themselves) proven.  They are repeatable to a sufficient degree to accept as common and thus factual, yet they are not the end of the debate.  There are "Laws" that are taken to be infallible, yet they also can be overturned if some later fact serves to break them.

To me, this is no different that believing in a deity, it just takes much less (and more) effort to believe.  While Faith is an almost bottomless resource for the faithful, it is a carefully rationed thing for the secular.

To the point of the actual post, I am High Priest (yea, I have issues coming soon) of an eclectic circle of the Ouroboran trad.


(edited for grammar fail)

[ShadeOfGray]

I don't like labeling my beliefs, but if I had to I would say I'm pagan. I don't worship anything, I just use ritual meditation to help connect to my divine self. Not as often as I would like though.

Damn x-bawx... distracting me from my spirituality.

[Shang]

OHAI!  Small world.  I don't venture out of the Androgyne section very often, but was reading some stuff lately that made me curious about peoples' spirituality here.

Anyway, I am Kemetic Orthodox, a former ordained priest in fact.  I've been uninvolving myself from the temple a bit, and was honestly never really into Egypt itself beyond learning the cultural context of the religion... but my love for Seshat remains.  My religion helped me figure out my gender; I spent a lot of time asking myself tough questions in shrine, and my Parent deity pointed out that my gender was a liminal, border-dwelling thing (much like She is).

I was previously a solitary Celtic pagan of sorts.  I like bits of Taoism, Feri, Chaos Magic, Discordianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto but not enough of any one of those to take the whole package.  I have some personal beliefs leaning heavily toward animism and pantheism, and half-formed theories deity and spirit and our own consciousness (including gender identity) are all emergent phenomena that challenge simplistic ideas of what is "real."

Pretty neat to see more Kemetic oriented people running around.  I was heavily into Kemeticism, but I get "called" from other pantheons [I can't think of a better word than "called"] so the gods I actively focus on change every so often though each god stays stuck in my person gnosis and spirituality. 


The longest running god is Anubis, who I've felt drawn to since I was 7 or 8 [I can pinpoint exactly when it happened because I was at Girl Scouts and we were making barbie doll mummies], but only actively worshiping since I was 21 [so about 3 years now]. 


But the major pantheon, other then Egyptian, that I have always adored is the one of the British Isles.  The gods are primarily Arawn, Cailleach Bheur, and Rhiannon, but my spiritual practices more resemble that of the paganism from that area [or at least the new pagan practices that are based (loosely) off of older pagan practices]. 


I'm quite careful to not mix rituals to different gods of different pantheons, or even in the same pantheon, and each god has a place on my altar (at least the following gods do:  Anubis, Cailleach Bheur, Rhiannon, and Poseidon.  Arawn is about to get his own, but it's hard to find anything with white hounds that have red ears and I haven't had time to paint anything. 


I toyed with Celtic-based Wicca, but I don't know anymore.  I'm not all that good with anything that has a sort of official feel to it.  It just flips me out.

[curiousandconsideringit]

I would have to say that I am pagan only because I am of the idea that everyone and everything is connected to the same energy field out there and that it is basically intelligent energy that keeps us talking, animals doing their thing, bugs crawling, plants growing, and so on so on. I think that the after life is pretty much just your energy spreading and flowing to other living creatures randomly as needed to keep a balance in the universe.

[anjaq]

I cannot define a box to put me in when it comes to my spirituality but I guess I do have some experiences that told me a couple of things that are at the center of my belief for now. One is that there is actually something out there that is not scientific alone. I know that in a way all life is one but then it is of course not (I am a woman 40000 years ago as I am right here etc). Trees and other beings can talk, obviously the world is alive and sentient, but I dont speak their language yet and I hate being at a party where everyone speaks Chinese and I dont so for the moment I dont go there unless I have time to open up to learn. Intuition is a great thing. It often helped me. If I look for something - the car keys, some item in the house, a store that sells sunlotion or flavoured milk - often it works to close eyes, ask for it and then point towards it - and be amazed at how often it really is in that area Only works when I am having a good connection to the universe though, otherwise, I get nothing.
How does it relate to trans? In a practical sense, an event like not passing to someone drains energy - big time - no energy = no connection and nothing works. In a holistic sense I think being trans has given me abilities that others do not have - to look at how people behave and understand them even if others dont (even other pagans). At least I think that is what is happening. Probably because I know that while I really like the female energy in me better, I also know that not all energy is gendered and I have some male energy as well which overall makes me, I believe, a good observer of people. I know that transpeople in original societies often were regarded as spiritual people or even as good candidates for shamans in some. I think this is interesting and want to learn more about this topic, though I dont think I really want to be a shaman. Too much work - But I'd like for sure to know how to listen, see, talk and feel some things that are not part of the perception of the majority of people in these days.

And actually one reason I joined this forum is because spirits connected to rocks told me that I have to do a couple of things for purification and healing and getting that whole trans issue straightened out and back on track was to me part of that

[Keira J]

I'm odd, I do have a vague link to the Norse gods but some other beliefs I have picked up along the way from various sources amalgamating in an eclectic mixture of beliefs. Basically....I'm Wiccan with undertones from lots of other religions. Thats why I love this religion

[Kaori.T.A.K.Diioia]

When I was younger I never really pictured the same "god" everyone around me and took till i was about 15 to realise The deity in my head was of kemetic origin.  So that is my particular form of paganism, However I believe in general that there is one set of deities and they all want us to be good loving people who are kind to each other and the earth and animals etc. And the rest is human interpretation.

[Shaina]

I'm chocolate flavored

Just kidding sorry I couldn't help myself! I don't identify as pagan but I've been able to learn a lot about Wicca from a student group of practitioners at my school. It was amazing how much misinformation I'd received growing up. Looking forward to learning more though...

[Northern Jane]

My practice for most of my life has been along Native lines. Having grown up in the east, the eastern woodlands people (Iroquois) were the first place I found acceptance and peace while the Christian church was telling me I was "wrong" and was a sinner simply for who I was so 'the Native Way' became my spiritual home. I tried to integrate my beliefs with the church again later in life but it didn't work.

Having lived in the west for the last 30 years my Iroquoian spirituality has become mixed with that of the Plains People though I have kept to myself pretty much for the past 20 years in an effort to avoid "native politics" and the expropriation of Native spirituality by the 'new age spiritualists'.

I have lived my life by the values of 'the Native Way' and it is a good way to live. I have no regrets for anything I have done on the Road.

[anjaq]

Thats great Jane! I am a bit sad there is little authentic traditions here in Germany and what was there was abused to bits by the dark times around 1933 (Heck people comment about someone havoing a Triskele tattoed on his arm and were wondering if he was a nazi - sooo annoying). America still has living traditions and thats great even though it is a bit weird as a person of European descent to follow these, some indians dont seem to like that but I had some great experiences with indian rituals that people from America did at gatherings in Europe. Very powerful.
Did you learn some things about how transpeople were treated and respected in the indian cultures you are into? I heard of "twospirit" concepts but not much and it was a bit vague with some people claiming it is a reather recent concept. i am interested in that topic a lot but could find little reliable and easy to read material on that. I am sure that traditional and spiritual cultures did not shun people that are trans, many seem to even have seen it as a feat in some way. I am interested in these traditional cultures and how they related to trans issues, socially but also physically - they obviouls did not have SRS but did they do other things that helped along? If you know anything, I'd be glad to hear, Jane.

[Amelia Pond]

I'm a Kemetic Pagan though I formerly practiced Wicca but didn't feel it was right for me.

Amy

[Lo]

Dang, yeah, so many Kemetics. :0

I'm what I call a post-recon/feral polytheist that works with several Yucatec and Mexica deities in their related cultural context. I do a lot of other stuff too, though; much of it pretty idiosyncratic and wouldn't make sense at first glance. I don't consider myself pagan, but it's a useful shorthand for explaining my path outside of the community. :V