Pagans?

[BrandiK]

Are there any pagans out there in recovery land?

[BrandiK]

LOL Guess not!

[historyteach]

Perhaps if you described what you mean by Pagan?
I know some wiccans in recovery.
But, what's your definition of a Pagan?
Is it polytheism? Belief in many gods?

Hope this helps. Are you pagan?
Respectfully sharing views here is wonderful, and I think it helps us all.

Shalom!

[BrandiK]

LOL It's ok. I was just trying to be general. I'm wiccan (more on the traditional side), but belong to several 'pagan in recovery' boards. Always looking for like minded buddies is all, and those boards do not have constant activity like this one. I see some thing a little differently then many in the progam (AA) because of my faith...still works, just a little different. Thought it would be nice to compair some notes w/ someone.

(edit...my typing has always been poor, but lately it's just plain old bad. Had to correct it while it was in my brain to do so)

[windysan]

i'm pretty much a clueless agnostic. i reckon that don't count as pagan.

[Zencat]

Hi Brandi

I do consider myself somewhat of a Pagan. I have reverence for the earth and all that is upon it. I use ritual as a way to formalize my appreciation for life. I go to as many Pow Wows as I can. I feel more real at a Pow Wow. I connect more readily to the Goddess.

I am grateful for being at peace with myself.

Blessed be, Zencat.

[Sugah]

I have a real pagan streak in me, Brandi. I do believe in a cosmic consciousness, but nothing turns me on, lights me up, more than nature.

I snapped this on my way inside tonight, and I'm telling you, it damned near made me cry. Every conceivable emotion was exuding from our sleeping cherry tree:



One of my favorite meditations involves envisioning my feet take root in the earth. Do you have any rituals, practices, habits to aid in....manifestation of your spiritual beliefs?

Peace & Love,
Sugah

[BrandiK]

I didn't even realize there were responses to this post! How fun

I have never been to a POW WOW. Heard a few things, but that is about as close as I've come. Love to try it out someday though!

Ritual is my basic form of practice, honoring the Earth and the Moon and all Her cycles. Been working with my group for over a decade now.

My recent practice, as far as my recovery goes, is opening back up. I meditate every night, but instead of visualizing anything (what I normally do) I just let my mind go blank and only see my energy opening, broadening. One thing my drinking held me back from is my intuitive connection with life and nature.

I was pretty shocked to realize that my connection to Her and nature in general was so depleted. With group, tapping into that energy was easy. But alone ... it became harder and harder to reach. I found I was too ashamed to ask for help and support on a personal level, and so had blocked that out as a practice. Stopped doing anything privatly

Do any of you (agnostics included) work a step program? I had a hard time in the beginning reading because 'god' was always outside of the self, out side of existence. When the Goddess called me back, or answered my prayer, she did it via the Charge in a dream, reminded me that She is always within me, within everything. That seeking outside myself was for naught if I could not find her within.

I have since broadened my reading to include pagan recovery books and littiture, and joined a few online pagan support groups. I cant even express how much it has helped me.

How does it work for you? Do you find you need to reword here or there to incorrperate your beliefs? Do you express your beliefs in meetings? I am pretty generic, HP, no he or she in reffering to my HP, which is fine. I think it should all be generic personally. But sometimes a preachy person will come in and I feel a little out of place. Esp. if they see my van. I am pretty 'out of the broom closet' in my bumperstickers alone lol (it's my other addiction) and I worry here and there about peoples reactions. Some people take life far to seriously.

(that picture is beautiful. I have been moved to tears on many occasions by the beauty of the world around me)

[Emmet Wolf]

I figure the most masculine man you can think of -- God is a lot more masculine than that, and also the most feminine woman you can think of -- God is a lot more feminine than that...

God must be the ultimate source of both masculinity and feminity, because that's where OUR personalities come from...

My approach is basically Christian Mysticism, (I was raised Methodist) so I am pretty much ignernt of Paganism; I guess it is only natural that my AA girlfriend knows more about "the Goddess" and has been into Wicca and stuff (raised Catholic); we both like Tibetan Book of The Dead -- I also like Bhagavadh Gita.

Between us a bunch of different approaches to HP are there, most important thought is to stay clean and sober TODAY.

[Sugah]

I'm with you on the internal search, Brandi. In the Atheists in AA?? thread on the Secular Connections board, I posted a little of what I've come to believe outside of or in conjunction with established schools of spiritual thought. (posts 159, 162, 164...page 7 -- I couldn't figure out how to link the posts directly. Sorry!) The nature element, for me, is harder to characterize. I believe in the connectedness, the symbiosis, the beauty and necessity of polar opposites....many things that, unless I go on for pages and pages, I couldn't even properly allude to. I don't really hold a concept of evil, but more (like that movie made a few years ago) "the absence of good."

In practice, I don't have complicated rituals, but I do like the process of emptying myself in meditation and opening myself to be filled. I understand you, I think, when you talk about the difficulty in making connections alone. For me, it's very often the same thing that keeps me from writing, even when I want to write. For me, and this goes along with the steps, I feel, it involves a surrender to the unconscious mind or the higher consciousness. I get "stuck" in my lower consciousness, get comfortable, and though I feel called, I don't always want to follow. When I surrender in meditation or writing (which is just meditation in action for me), I find I have access to things that I consciously did not know existed within me.

Re: rituals again: candles, scent, soothing atmosphere, creative visualization, mindful prayer.

Great thread, Brandi!

Peace & Love,
Sugah

[BrandiK]

Hey there Been a busy weekend. I'm going to read this and catch up today. Looking forward to going back and reading those threads.

[BrandiK]

I am having trouble collecting thoughts to respond; kids dont allow much time for this thought lately.

I guess I could go everywhere. I believe in energy, and to me that energy is Goddess. But that energy is also every other belief, every other thing, life, death, nature, etc.

So, Goddess would be within me, as wall as with out. She is everywhere. I have always believed all beliefs spring from the same foundation, and the divine (for lack of a better word) is too big to fit into any one description.

It always astounds me how many people try to convert me. I can honestly say I have had an attempted conversion to almost everything outside Buddhism and hinduism- is that the correct term? Hinduism? Seems wrong somehow .. (though I have a friend that loves to turn everything into a lesson/lecture on Buddha).

The athiests portion I can not comment on, as it is an area I have no intimate knowldege of. Though I have had attempted converstions to that way of thinking too lol I thought about responding over there, the conversation is fantastic, I could totally get into the science behind the universe, energy ... but honestly, not for my time frame right now.

As I see it, you move through what is called to you/through you, what you need to make it work. I know I found the Goddess through AA (and that was very accepted) when I was in the program as a teenager. I didn't know about Wicca, about any Goddess faith. And since I first started, Wicca itself seems to have morphed into something almost all together different. Everything evolves.

I find it no coincidence that I grew up with no positive father figure, and thus found no comfort in a patriarical faith; I found what I needed in a way that was acceptable to me. She is not out there somewhere, she is in here, in me. In every face I see. We don't say Thou Art Goddess for no reason.
I tried traditional churches, I tried very hard. But I would just sit in there and cry. I had no connection, no matter hard I tried. I did not know about any Goddess centered faith at 15, and so this was an amazing experiance for me. Looking now, as an adult, I see that it is only natural for there to be Goddess centered faiths through out the world and through out history. But at 15, it was a whole other world and thought that opened up to me.

I don't know, the screaming kids and getting up for their food/wants has completly drained my brain of my original thought. That has happened so many times in attempting to type a response ... so I am just going to post and it is what it is. LOL Maybe my point is threaded through here some where ... I think I was trying to respond to too much. Sorry for the ramble.


I can say that I spoke with my sponsor last night. I told her first off I was pagan, just leaving it at pagan because many dont know much beyond that term. But I wanted that out before hand. She was accepting, and together we'll go through both the big book and 12 by 12, as well as my pagan recovery book and compair how it works, do both. I am pretty excited about that.

[BrandiK]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6285397.stm

12 Gods of the Greek Patheaon Live Again!

[OI138KACY]

Hello Brandi
I am an Asatru...or Odinist. I read and study alot of Theology in general but am very interested in Nature and its funny happenings. I read alot on Pagan/Wiccan beliefs and practices. Well just thought I would say "Hello"...I am new here and always looking to make an honest friend!! Have a good day!!

[BrandiK]

Hi ya My time online has beenlimited these days ... though my IM's go off a great deal lol But if you ever want to chat feel free to PM me. I check the site often (I need it) but can't read as much as I like.

Nice to meet you!

[historyteach]

Brandi;
I just read the article on the Greek pantheon.
I'm going to bring it into school. I'm teaching Greek history. It'll be interesting to see what the students say about it.

Shalom!

[LeftBehind]

Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is a more accurate definition for the modern Pagans who constitute movements and seek to practice beliefs which are very diverse ranging widely from duotheism to polytheism, and even monotheistic and other paradigms. Many Neopagans I have talked to practice a spirituality that is entirely modern in origin, while others attempt to reconstruct or revive culturally historic Pagan and indigenous belief systems often from the little remaining information that remains on them.

I enjoyed reading the chronicles of Augustine which followed his intellectual, moral, and spiritual pilgrimage from paganism to Christianity. Not that I agreed with everything he wrote of course. Not even.