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Wiccanism / paganism
I've heard about Wicca and Paganism and I think it's the right path for me. They worship nature, believe in the soul, etc. I am a little confused though. They have these rituals and I don't understand, and I've heard about a God and Godess within the religion (Wicca in particular). I've heard so many things, I only really have the basic idea. There's this pagan account on Instagram who talks about so many things and it all seems wonderful I just need a good explanation. Can someone explain the religions to me?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
I come from a Christian background and that is a big part of helping to explain what Paganism is. In christianity, I had grown spiritually beyond the confines of their beliefs, too many things labels evil and satanic that God himself had other ideas about revealing to me. One thing I never understood is if we were made in Gods image, and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all He's, then where's the part of God that has the female aspects that mortal females have??
I had other questions as well that church leaders couldn't answer. Eventually I met some pagan people after God told me that Reincarnation is for real, not a fairy tale as the church teaches. That began my exploration guided of course of God.
I and ex hubby got in with a group of people who met often at peoples homes or for picnics during nice weather for pot lucks to just have the fellowship. What I heard prompted me to check out a book somebody suggested I read. I cant remember the title but it was about the similarities of paganism vs christianity. It goes over how the Christian churches were being established in areas where there was no teaching of Christianity yet, the people of the land never having heard of Christ or christianity before. To make their beliefs more palatable they adppted some of the practices, rituals of pagans to make it more comfortable for them to convert. The word Pagan back then actually meant 'the unchurched people' so this would be everyone, the farmers, those who lived in little villages, from kids to elderly, etc.
Heres another important to me piece of info I discovered in that book.
In 325, Constantine who was now converted from roman to Christian started the Council of Nicea, which was the first general conference of the Christian church. The Council of Nicea took it upon themselves to decide what went into the Bible,what didn't, and what changes they might make to it to support the way they wanted beliefs to go.
Remember it was a mans society even more then than it still is now. Women had even less rights and were considered property. Still it came as a shock to me to hear that before the council of Nicea messed with it, the Holy Spirit used to be called a 'She' not a He. That put a different twist on everything I knew. I always felt I could connect with Jesus, but not so much his Father. But the Holy Spirit is what worked with me closest to nurture and help me grow in my beliefs, the same nurturing and other qualities of an earthly Mother. So when I was finally invited by these people to attend rituals, one being the festival of Lughnassad and later a simple weekly held Druid meeting in someones backyard, I saw so many familiarities with what I knew from my church background. I also heard them refer to God and Goddess or Lord and Lady for the deity. And it finally made sense to me. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the Lord and Lady, at least in my mind they are. And the Goddess that one hears many pagans refer to, is actually the Holy Spirit by another name to me, it is the same entity that did that close walk with me during my church years, training me to trust and grow spiritually. I also used to be on a prayer team at church. Now I saw pagans, some of them Wiccan, some druid or solitary practitioners, all getting real answers to their versions of prayers. It still including laying on of hands for some as with the pentecostals, but one difference, is that they believe that God/Goddess does is not an angry vengeful God who sometimes wants his children to suffer from disease for example. So their prayers did not include, 'if it be Gods will to heal this person." Nope. Any spellwork was only the use of common articles they use in a ritual while focusing their intent for what they sak to have happen. AS long as it doesnt involve the free will of others, there would be answers to prayers/spells. I know of more healed now in pagan circles than in all my years at church. During the time I was attending both church and pagan events, I was again shocked when the church was asked to gather outdoors one SUnday to pray over the property we rented from the school district to hold our church servicses. The pastor and elders wanted to buy but the school board didn't want to sell. So it ends up they began a prayer like, "God, make terrible things happen to the school board until they decide to sell this property to us." That is not Godly. That is not the prayer and spells of White magick , but Black Magick. Wishing evil on someone because you aren't getting your way? That is Black magick and that sealed it for me. I no longer felt I belonged among the Christians. My personal faith had grown beyond where they were at.
I myself am more of a solitary practitioner. I know Wiccans and though I feel I am a witch, I am also a daughter of the Goddess and God, or Holy Spirit and Jesus. Since I acknowledge God the Father and Jesus, I suppose one could say I have some Christian beliefs in me, but lets just say its enlightened beliefs. I am growing spiritually even more in the time since I left the church 13 years ago. I didn't make this change as a young person or on a whim but as a person in my 40s with a lot of questioning of god and asking for confirmations that I was going the right way for me.
Instead of writing a longer explanation, I went looking for a good one already on the net to give you a link. Found an essay a high schooler wrote back in 2002 and other than some typos, it well covers much of what you want to know. Here it is:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
I don't know who you have been hearing the pieces you know so far but it would be good to question each little bit and go slowly. Only do what seems right to you. Spirituality is meant to be a personal walk and relationship with our creator in a way where we are able to connect for where we are at level wise in our growth. One can't expect a kindergartner to know what a college grad does. And then there are so many different schools and ways to teach some subjects like the new math vs what I was taught. Its the same for the constructs of different religious beliefs. I personally don't rely as heavily upon the scaffolding and constructs, or doctrines and beliefs, rituals of even paganism now, as my goal is to have just that one on one relationship with Goddess and God, learning straight from them, asking what I can do for them and following thru.
If you'd like to ask any more questions of me, I'd be glad to try to answer them. But I suggest you do a web search for pagan groups in your city and at least begin chatting on line with them and seeing if there are any open circles to attend and sometimes its even more informal, just gathering at coffee shops to make friends with those of similar beliefs and of all levels of experience from just starting to many years or a life time of it. A good place to try to find such a group might be Meetup.com where the different meetups listed are based on your city or close to your zip code area. Explore the site, each major tab will lead to many other tabs labeled things like New Age, New Mommies groups, Board games, meditation, etc. You might find pagan groups listed under New Age or under coffee shop talk groups...you never know, so explore it fully.
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