Paganism and You: Where do you stand?

[TerminalAddiction]

Hi all, I had a general question for you, but first here is some background.

I'm a Roman Catholic - proud of it - but I'm not here to preach the wonders of the Church, far from it. Rather, I'm here in this guild more along the lines of my interest in history. When Catholicism was brought to cultures, they assimilated their own religion into it. We see the Celtic Cross has an obvious reference to the sun/moon, the shamrock was used to represent the trinity. Vodun is another example of this, and to add to this when it was brought to the Incans and the Mayans they adapted their practices.

Now why am I here as a Historian? The old "pagan" traditions played a huge role in the formation of the world today (and the influence of the Church but that's aside to the point). They became scapegoats, victims, and even victimizers. Eventually they were pushed out to the fringes of society and recently there is a resurgence (at least openly) of Paganism; we call this Neopaganism.

I want to ask you all a few questions however relating to this. What type of "paganism" do you follow? And I use quotes because some of you may not refer to yourself as Pagans but a myriad of other terms, and you are welcome to use these. The second question I wish to ask you is how close do you think you are to how people originally worshipped your type of paganism, and if you could would you return to it? Aside from maybe the bloody sacrifice (although I've always wondered if you could do it in effigy).

Discussion is welcome, and I would love to hear from you. Please try to stick to my questions however as that is what I'm most interested in. The background was just so you know where I'm coming from. If you wish to discuss the background, please PM me.

Thank you very much for your time, I await your answers. Furthermore, I'll be asking you all a lot of questions, so be prepared and I mean no harm by them!

Thank you once again.  

[patch99329]

The incans and mayans actually converted to catholicism easier than most. The average guy in the street wasn't too pleased about daily heart plucky plucky sacrifice.
A friend of the families' parents are mayan and they live in south america and wear traditional dress and whatnot. But they are pretty devout catholic now and it's a favourite talking point of theres rolleyes (the coversion, not the catholicism xd )

Aaaanyways. I practice traditional witchcraft.
It's based on practices from hundreds of years ago but the honest truth is that nobody really knows what people used to do. Outside of perhaps family traditions. So It's more realistic to say that traditional witchcraft is based on practices from the early 1900's.
Traditional witchcraft is like an umbrella term in itself. There are hundreds of personal and family traditions out there and they all vary greatly from one another. This is perhaps because of a difference in region, or being in the country and cut off from others.

Hoped that helped a little sweatdrop I'm not so good at explaining stuff in the morning xD  

[TeaDidikai]

Myself I practice a tradition that stems from my family and it's culture.

The mythology and culture has indeed been influenced by the Church, however- there are aspects of it that were never touched due to the prohibition against the Rroma to enter places of worship etc.

Also- being a closed culture helped maintain some of the practices as well.

However, Christendom did influence my path a great deal. One of the three most precious things I have from my family is my Baba's rosary.  

[EternalHearts]

I'm an Olympianist, with Recon leanings. Also known as Hellenist, Hellenic Reconstructionist, etc.

Anyway, I use what we have been left in writing and art by the Ancient Greeks to recreate the religion within the modern time. There is a lot missing, and there are aspects we can't do today (or just aren't feasable, like huge public feasts), but I try to at least stay true to the nature of the ancients.
 

[TerminalAddiction]

Patch99329

Aaaanyways. I practice traditional witchcraft.

What does that entail?

TeaDidikai

Myself I practice a tradition that stems from my family and it's culture...The mythology and culture has indeed been influenced by the Church.

Care to elaborate? smile

EternalHearts

I'm an Olympianist...I use what we have been left in writing and art by the Ancient Greeks to recreate the religion within the modern time. There is a lot missing, and there are aspects we can't do today (or just aren't feasable, like huge public feasts)...

Ever tried to organize one? smile Could have a huge feast (read: picnic/potluck) in a park?

What does being an Olympianist with Recon leanings mean?  

[TatteredAngel]

I am an avid syncretic-- which I initially started calling myself so that people would stop pestering me for a label, but which has really become the only term I like calling myself.

I say syncretic rather than eclectic pagan (which is also syncretism) because I draw my beliefs and practices from religions that are not generally considered pagan.

Originally, I did want to do something that was close to older practice, but as I researched and matured, I realized that my comfort zone is really not in trying to match ancients of any sort. So my practice is not really like anybody's original. Not only is it hodgepodge, it relies heavily on new worldviews as well as old ones. I wouldn't try to mirror ancient practice, because culturally I am certainly not the same as ancient practitioners. They and I would have very different understandings and very different cultural practices, which rely heavily upon a time and place. This isn't to say some things can't be the same, and a lot of what I practice has historical basis, but I adapt it for my contemporary culture.  

[TeaDidikai]

TerminalAddiction

TeaDidikai

Myself I practice a tradition that stems from my family and it's culture...The mythology and culture has indeed been influenced by the Church.

Care to elaborate? smile

Depending on who you talk to I am named after a Saint or an "avatar" of a goddess.

I plan to attend the festival in Southern France one day.

Baptism is a sacred act.

A good deal of the spiritual Rroma folklore resembles Middle Eastern theology (likely due to the time spent in the area).

I own several rosaries- including my Baba's.  

[Fiddlers Green]

As far as influences...
We hosted the early Hebrews, and even funded many of their projects.
However, it came back to bite us in the @$$ when one of their successor faiths brought carnage and ruin to us, nearly exterminating our faith, and leading us to either lie, or go into exile.

As far as Christianity being related to us...
Three of our great Magi went forth, to attend the new incarnation of our god of Light, Life and Love. He later honoured us with a visit, in the years of his young adulthood.

I am a follower of the faith that eventually gave rise to Zarathustra, and the religion that bears his name.
I have almost finished my pathways thread, so you can read more there. 3nodding  

[saint dreya]

Fiddlers Green

I have almost finished my pathways thread, so you can read more there. 3nodding

heart gee! heart

hmm, okay. the type i follow is a combination of reconstructionist and revivalist, as well as making do with what we have. we try to emulate an Indo-European religion as close to possible (in public rituals) and what we lack in studies and sources, we attempt to substitute as best as our scholarship can manage.

how close are we to the original Indo-Europeans, and their resulting cultures, in how we worship? very far, unfortunately. with the lack of unbiased observation, as well as some rituals being specifically closed and never to be spoken of, added to the fact that much that might have been recorded was destroyed, we can only guess half the time. granted, while Roman and Greek sources abound, and Slavic sources being the closest to the original without having too many outside religous influences, much of what we create has a lot of unverified personal gnosis.

if i had the ability to ascertain their true worshipping style and some of their rituals, i would love to either incorporate it in my faith, or adapt it for the modern world. my grove has even found a way to adapt blood sacrifices into worship, without the bloody robes. granted, it's a bread sacrifice, and one attending might even find it strickingly like communion in the Christian church, it works for what we need. however, when someone imaginative works on it, it can be seen as so much more!  

[Noirkaze]

EternalHearts

I'm an Olympianist...I use what we have been left in writing and art by the Ancient Greeks to recreate the religion within the modern time. There is a lot missing, and there are aspects we can't do today (or just aren't feasable, like huge public feasts)...

Ever tried to organize one? smile Could have a huge feast (read: picnic/potluck) in a park?

What does being an Olympianist with Recon leanings mean?

I too am Hellenic..well a term I recently adopted to cover my system which is based on the Ancient Greeks. This past March a friend and I held an even that was modeled after the City Dionysia which included a feast. We took this as a way to have a pot luck the most cost effective and closest I've seen to any real feast for a open community.  

[Hell Yeah Seaking]

I'm somewhat new to paganism but I've been studying it. Before it i felt that all religions where intertwined and that the same god was the god for all the different religions. My mother is Brazilian and up untill a decade ago her family and her use to practice traditional festivals and makumba which is the term for magic. Shes seen ghosts as a child, and I've seen people possessed by spirits at these festivals, Yes i have gone to a few of them. She knows someone who killed a goat at a crossroads as a part of a black magic ritual, and she wasn't supposed to look back but she did and saw a shadow devouring the goat. I feel that paganism is very open to other religions as well as part of my culture and that by being pagan i can open my eyes to some of the true workings of this universe  

[TeaDidikai]

Hell Yeah Seaking

She knows someone who killed a goat at a crossroads as a part of a black magic ritual,

Are you addressing the ethnic heritage as black, or the magic as black?  

[Hell Yeah Seaking]

TeaDidikai

Hell Yeah Seaking

She knows someone who killed a goat at a crossroads as a part of a black magic ritual,

Are you addressing the ethnic heritage as black, or the magic as black?

Although the heritage is black, I mean the magic. They dont only practice black magic though, there is a lot of good magic and when you ride the train up to Christo, a 90 ft tall statue of jesus in rio de janeiro, you see tons of shrines and places where white magic has been done  

[TeaDidikai]

Hell Yeah Seaking

TeaDidikai

Hell Yeah Seaking

She knows someone who killed a goat at a crossroads as a part of a black magic ritual,

Are you addressing the ethnic heritage as black, or the magic as black?

Although the heritage is black, I mean the magic. They dont only practice black magic though, there is a lot of good magic and when you ride the train up to Christo, a 90 ft tall statue of jesus in rio de janeiro, you see tons of shrines and places where white magic has been done

What leads you to believe that magic has a color or that something as simple as animal sacrifice places a magical act in one color or another?  

[Hell Yeah Seaking]

TeaDidikai

Hell Yeah Seaking

TeaDidikai

Hell Yeah Seaking

She knows someone who killed a goat at a crossroads as a part of a black magic ritual,

Are you addressing the ethnic heritage as black, or the magic as black?

Although the heritage is black, I mean the magic. They dont only practice black magic though, there is a lot of good magic and when you ride the train up to Christo, a 90 ft tall statue of jesus in rio de janeiro, you see tons of shrines and places where white magic has been done

What leads you to believe that magic has a color or that something as simple as animal sacrifice places a magical act in one color or another?

I use it as a term that has commonly been used. I believe that magic truly has no color. Dark and light, cold and hot, evil and good. They're are just opposites. I understand that some, such as myself, prefer night over day, and that shadow is created from light. I just wanted to use terms others could connect with