Curious

I'm not Wiccan, more of a pantheist. I think all religions have a common root. I think the Christian concept of heaven as being with (or part of) God works just fine with being part of part of the all-knowing, all-powerful "positive energy", or being at one with mother earth. I believe in healing energy like Reiki, and my husband is a shaman.

Because of commonalities, I have no problem with expressing my beliefs in terms of Catholicism (the original Christianity). On the other hand I have been to a "pagan" or "goddess" gathering more recently than a Christian one.

Tina

Wow... what a surprise and some things to think about. Thanks for posting that link.

I found that *very* interesting.

Such a gathering sounds... I don't know... secretive and other-worldly. But since you described your beliefs having common ground with Catholicism, are the ceremonies that different from each other?

My home religion wasn't Catholicism, but the area in which I live now is predominantly Catholic and I've recently attended Catholic service for the first time. I found there were some similarities to the services I was used to, but at the same time the experience was very different.

I love that site. :) I think my test came out as 99% neo pagan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's a good point. The rituals of Catholicism seem secretive and other-worldly to me, for instance! I think many of the rituals of any religion would seem that way to one who has never witnessed them before. I once heard a guy (and mind you, I am NOT saying I agree with him, okay?) describe Christians as "a blood-drinking cult".......the partaking of wine as Christ's blood, who died for their sins.

yes, same here. Much to my surprise it came out exactly how I would have characterized my religious beliefs.

Maren Tropical seeds - Job's Tears Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

Secretive? I don't see that. Esoteric is more like it. It's like looking at the etymology of words instead of looking at just the meaning of words. And as for ceremonies, they've always seemed insignificant to me, even the ones I've grown up with.

Ceremonies and rituals are valuable though, for bonding through common experience. And I know there is comfort in going to any Catholic church and finding services to be consistent. Even at the Ukrainian Catholic (not even Roman Catholic) church near the Hungarian border where my son's wedding mass was in Hungarian, Ukrainian, a little Russian, and just the vows (repeated) in English.

My husband has done magic, and shamanic journeying and healing by hooking up to Universal Energy. Also being a conduit for energy, as in practicing Reiki. And then there's the practice of asking "The Universe" for something, and getting it in some form or other. Of course, one of the big things in that sort of energy work, is recognizing what you get. Also understanding the difference between healing and curing. My Depression is pretty much healed because I can live in harmony with it, but it hasn't been cured; it is still disabling.

One of the things that helped convince me of commonalities about after life, was a description of the Jewish concept of Hell. It described it as a loss of connection to God and self and even to yourself. (Loss of connection to self is one definition of Depression). Conversely, definitions of "Heaven" describe being with God. "With" and "of" commonly or archaically mean "part of". The Mormons believe one ultimately works their way up to "being" God. And in Eastern religions one advanced to becoming part of God/everything. In Christian academics, God is "omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent". That is, all knowing, all powerful, and existing everywhere -- a pretty good description of Universal Energy.

They say that the more you know about your spirituality, the more you believe in God and the less you believe in religion.

Tina

This is exactly correct. The ritual of Communion, involves the "miracle" of changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. It's not just a symbolic change, it is a literal and miraculous change.

By the way, cannibalism has long been a method of cementing community among the participants, and also of taking the qualities of another person's spirit -- or animal's spirit, for that matter.

Tina

"Dr. Sooz" wrote

Tina said: "They say that the more you know about your spirituality, the more you believe in God and the less you believe in religion."

so true!!!! and one of my favorite bumperstickers is "My Karma ran over my Dogma"

Exactly.

*LOL* I can see how that happened. When people keep themselves ignorant out of fear anything goes. Imagination is a powerful thing.

My results were very enlightening. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, I'm an Orthodox Quaker. Now I guess it's time for me to go search for my real parents. ;)

Thank you for providing the better word. "Esoteric" is what I was searching for. After I subscribed and was reading thru old posts I came upon the one by the web mistress of the "Covenant of the Flaming Star", and was browsing the site when I saw there would be a ceremony (?) to celebrate Samhain that I thought was closed to the public. Upon further examination I saw I was wrong. There were only no cameras or audio equipment and a limited admission time of one hour.

I have to admit I'm curious as to what these ceremonies are like and would like to go to one to observe because truthfully, they sound like the kind of solemn, thoughtful, peaceful event I would like to take part in.

True, gathering in faith is comforting. As people of faith we all recognize a higher power, higher force, even if there are little differences in the way we define and experience it. Now that I think of it, every person being an individual and all experiencing things in a different way, the definitions and manifestations of our higher power are endless.

Fascinating.

I'm familiar with depression, unfortunately, and I sympathize.

Well, I'm set back a bit after reading that. Slightly shocked. I grew up knowing the Christian definition of Hell as a place of punishment and pain, and accepted it as such literally. As an adult I've matured in my way of thinking, now knowing there are worse things than physical pain, and so my own definition of Hell has advanced to "a state of being separated forever from God", and that just within the past few years. To see my own thoughts, which I haven't shared with anyone else, written down by a stranger is a bit odd. No, it's a lot odd. :) But it also tells me I must be going in the right direction.

Awe-inspiring how it's all seamlessly connected.

Completely agree. The more I mature spiritually, the less faith I have in mankind and its ability to teach me and the more I have in God. Although I realize it's a necessary part of faith, churches and their ceremonies almost seem to get to get in the way of that. I'm beginning to believe church exists in part to test my self-discipline.

absolutely...

Kandice, it was no great surprise, but mine came out 100% neo-pagan, followed by Mahayna Buddhism at 99%. Interesting site, to be sure.

And that's fine for you as a modern human but there was a time that the "Mother" was the main object of worship. Merlin Stone's book discusses the historical worship of women and/or the feminine divine and/or the Great Mother.

I checked on "Women's History of the World" before I posted and it is available. So is Merlin Stone's book And so is "Harlot".

- Sandy

This reminds me of something else that makes me hot under the collar. My DH, for reasons totally mysterious to me, loves the late night radio program that is all ghost stories, conspiracy theories, sasquatch sightings and other stuff. Before Halloween there was an episode of the radio program where some fellow calls up and says that he saw some people pass him on the road (in a vehicle) who looked like weird Amish-types and had the unmitigated gall not to look at him as they passed but rather continued to look straight ahead. He then took the gargantuan leap of "logic" to connect these people with a _rumor_ that there had been babies killed and cannabilized in the area.

I mean, come on!! Sheesh!

What really cracks me up though is that the ancient Romans were terrified of early Christians because they believed that they, the Christians, killed and cannabilized babies. It is one of the most repulsive and recurrent themes of "them versus us" in human history. Can you imagine being a pretty regular kind of ancient Roman and suddenly there are these people around whose religion requires them to drink the blood and eat the body of the guy they supposedly worship? (Can you grok that? )

Anyways, I had to yell at the radio program in disgust.

- Sandy

It's also a great way to ensure weird diseases infiltrate said community.

There was a documentary about just such a thing and while I can't find the title of the documentary there is a book (I haven't read it) called "The Trembling Mountain: A Personal Account of Kuru, Cannibals, and Mad Cow Disease" by Ron Klitzman.

- Sandy

I agree absolutely. I think ceremonies and ritual are critical to human mental health. I like the work being done in a field called neurotheology that tests the activity in the brain during spiritual experiences. It seems that regardless of religious persuasion human brains are active in the same areas. I think this is wonderful! To me it means that the playing field is totally level regardless of what "ball" you're playing with. How great would the world be if everyone recognized that whatever way a person chose to access their spirituality it was equally valid.

- Sandy