Welcome to UK Pagan

I’ve posted a link (in links) to a BBC article in today’s news just to illustrate a bit of the colourful side of Paganism.

 Perhaps it will do something to balance my prosaic take on the subject.

i know little of Witchcraft but I enjoyed the article and like her approach.

 

Edited October 30 by Moonsmith

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It's as good a position as any and better than quite a few.

 

9 hours ago, Ellinas said:

Stonehugger, I think, recently said he had headed in that direction

Yes, it was in Nettle's "Who are your deities?" thread. I said "I seem to have become an atheist. That was never my plan, but here I am." Veggiedancer later said it better than me - "I don’t exactly believe in deities as such. I think they come from  our minds. Archetypes, ways of identify or characterising the spirit/ magic/ life or whatever it is we sense around us. Ways our minds try to explain the unexplainable to us???"

I’m probably second guessing Nettle wrongly but it wasn’t all that long ago that you would have read posts about alters, magic, Shamanism, spells etc. I think it was either Teatimetreat or Drachenfach that had a hex on her handbag and her car.  When the car was stolen it crashed and the thief was caught.

I agree and would very much like to see more of the colourful side of Paganism back here. 

Quite right Ellinas.  I do not understand how anyone can claim to be Pantheist (or even pantheist) and atheist at the same time even though the most prominent Pantheists do exactly that.  As I’ve said elsewhere: why can’t they call themselves Panists.  The prefix “pan” means everything and everywhere as in “pandemic”.  The god’s name arose from the adjective so it wouldn’t necessarily mean a devotee of Pan.

pee ess - it may be worth mentioning that there are a vast number of belief groups under the umbrella word Paganism.  Druids Witches, Polytheist and Shaman are only a small part of what the greater picture of Paganism depicts. Dunno and don’t care are probably the biggest groups.

Edited October 29 by Moonsmith

All the above, plus the impression of a preponderance of atheism is currently, as well as historically, inaccurate.  Certainly, I am no atheist.  I believe MS rejects the term as applicable to himself.  Stonehugger, I think, recently said he had headed in that direction, but I've not seen the other resident atheists for a while.

However, our ideas of deity are not the same, necessarily.

I talk to birds, usually crows. I also talk to the wind and trees (not normally out loud!) I have only been able to journey with my totem in trance though, maintaining a dialogue while in normal consciousness is a fleeting communication rather than a conversation. 

I have always had a problem with the dichotomy between the teachings of Christ - love, forgiveness, charity etc, and the practices of the Church. For this, and other more personal reasons I do not feel comfortable in church today, while still in agreement with the message of love and peace. So while I don't identify as a Christian, I can still accept Christ as a teacher - as I also would accept Buddha, or find myself in agreement with Hindu sages. Wisdom is not confined to any particular set of beliefs or culture. Like a dandelion in the cracks of the pavement, it will out and thrive despite all we do to try to control it. 

But to return to the OP. I was in my teens when I began questioning the Church, and 20 when I was first initiated into Paganism. That was nearly 40 years ago now, but I'm still learning and evolving. 

MS is right, both in his assessment that we are each the best and only authority on our own beliefs, and that in the past we had a very diverse set of members. But new points of view are always welcome, no matter whether fully formed or more intuitively grasping. I would argue that no matter how much we learn over however long; we are all still intuitively grasping at conclusions which remain just out of reach. Someone else putting their thoughts into words might just be the missing link in a logic train that helps shed light on our own understanding. 

Over the past 40 odd years my own Pagan beliefs have been adapted, added to and changed. I was taught very early on the premise that All Gods are One God, and all Goddesses are One Goddess. This has stuck with me. I suppose I think of deities as archetypes while also being powerful entities in their own right. Which are all facets of the Source which is beyond my understanding, which is why I think of them as discrete personalities. The Welsh Pantheon and Coelbren are the keys or touchstones or framework that I am familiar with and feel drawn to. It helps me to understand, in the same way that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life helps me get my head around the different realms and states of being. 

If that sounds contradictory and unnecessarily complicated, that's ok. I accept my understanding is imperfect. Yours will no doubt differ, and will be right for you based on your experience and intuition.