How long?

[Marrakech56]

How long have you been apart of the pagan faith?

heart Me I've been Wiccan since I was 14 (18 now) heart  

[patch99329]

You got intiated into a fertility cult at 14? eek

I've been pagan a year and a half.  

[maenad nuri]

I thought I was Wiccan at 14 -- I was utterly wrong, but I've been pagan for (********) 10 years now, and some variety of Hellenic Pagan since maybe 04? I had considered myself a Hellenic at just about the time I started Gaia.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

I've been pagan for about six years now, I would say. Following my current path for about a year and a half. I've been UU since I was very tiny.  

[TeaDidikai]

Not pagan myself. Though, linguistically, I think the concept of "the pagan faith" is a misnomer in so much that there is no unified pagan theology.  

[CuAnnan]

Marrakech56

How long have you been apart of the pagan faith?

heart Me I've been Wiccan since I was 14 (18 now) heart

Wicca is

• Orthopraxic: meaning you have to learn the workings of the religion as they are what are important as much as, if not more than, the 'beliefs' any given Wiccan tradition teaches
  
• Mystery: meaning you have to both experience and learn the mysteries from a coven/member/The Gods (be very careful if you choose option C as there are means for determining if the mysteries you have are the mysteries of Wicca)
  
• Gender opposite initiated: meaning a man must be initiated by a woman and vice versa tracing all the way back to Gerald Gardner
  
• Priesthood of the Lord and Lady of the Isles: if you don't worship those specific Gods in your capacity as a Wiccan, you are not Priests of the Lord and Lady of the Isles (who are not whatever God and Goddess you happen to pick {ie no "Bast as the Lady, Guan Yu* as the Lord" mixes here people)
  
• Fertility: Yes, fertility NOT nature. To draw a metaphor, nature is shapes. Fertility is an equilateral five dimensional hypercube with magnitude 8 cm sides. Yes, hypercubes are shapes, but they're very specific ones. Similarly, yes fertility is a part of nature but it's a very specific one.
  
• Oathbound: Meaning it is forbidden to teach the oathbound material to non-wiccans, ie you can't possibly get it in books
  
• Witchult: What it says on the tin.
  

That's Wicca.
How many can you check off?

Call yourself an ecclectic witch, you'll get a lot more respect and I won't hassle you for it.

Wicca has only been around for 50 odd years. Judaism was around for a lot longer. Look at the difference between Judaism and Christianity. Most people* would hold that they worship the same God. They have an overlap in core texts. Yet they have different names. There is more in common between Christianity and Judaism than there is between Wicca and what you practice. How can you justify your argument in that light, it's absurd.

FURTHERMORE it took thousands of years for Judaism to spawn Christianity. What you're talking about is a larger change under the same name in a shorter period of time.

Gardner's religion, his rules. Did the rules of Pauline Christianity change when Paul died? How about Judaism when Moses died. Or Islam when Mohammed died. Or Shinto, Bhuddism, Celtic worship, Solomonic magic, or any of the sixteen god billion other religions out there.  

[PurpleDragonsGems]

I've been pagan for about.....eight years now I'd say. Started out as an eccletic pagan thinking I was Wiccan, though, truthfully, I never truely felt comfortable calling myself Wiccan. Always felt like I was missing something xd Studied various pagan religions before very recently locking onto Hellenic Recon.  

[RedRoseSpiral]

I was introduced to paganism at a younger age, but it wasn't a good introduction. I grew up in a catholic household because it was my father's faith. He forced me, my mother, and brother to church every Sunday. I was told the usual BS about other religions (still do) but I never really had a negative attitude towards it. It interested me. My mother stopped going to church because she never believed in Christianity and I followed her quickly into the staying home thing. I hate church and Sunday school. Sunday school especially because I was torment by older students both on the bus and at the school itself. Nothing was ever done so it continued both at Sunday school and at my regular school until I left. Never found out the reason other than that I was weird. rolleyes


Both of us have always been attracted to the "occult", so as I got older and my mom became friends with a woman at work, we both learned things. Mom doesn't real have a path. She likes the tarot cards and getting readings and the like but doesn't have a path or religion she follows. I was a bit like her, but in the last year or so have become rather attached to Celtic Shamanism. I haven't had any formal training (working on getting the money for it) but I have gotten books endorsed by the Celtic Shaman and Society of Celtic Shamans and believe that this is the path I should follow.  

[TeaDidikai]

~Blink~ Ummm... Since the oaths of the gods of the Celts prohibit non-Celts from taking part in their theology, and since the shaman are a Northern Asian tradition, not of the Celts, how do you figure this is a good idea?  

[RedRoseSpiral]

TeaDidikai

~Blink~ Ummm... Since the oaths of the gods of the Celts prohibit non-Celts from taking part in their theology, and since the shaman are a Northern Asian tradition, not of the Celts, how do you figure this is a good idea?

I am of Celtic decent on both sides of my family. Shamanism was a bad word choice but is the closest for what I meant and is most used in what I read. It has nothing to do with the Northern Asian tradition. It has to do with the faery faith of Western Europe which in recent times has gone by the name of Celtic Shamanism.


Yeah, I know I explained badly, but I was distracted. I have a test due at midnight I'm having trouble with. stressed  

[TeaDidikai]

RedRoseSpiral

I am of Celtic decent on both sides of my family.

But having an ethnic heritage doesn't make you part of that culture. The prohibitions against non-Celts still applies.

Quote:

Shamanism was a bad word choice but is the closest for what I meant and is most used in what I read. It has nothing to do with the Northern Asian tradition. It has to do with the faery faith of Western Europe which in recent times has gone by the name of Celtic Shamanism.

This makes it sound like your suggesting there is a unified "faery faith" in Western Europe.
Is this the case or am I misunderstanding you?
What makes this similar to the role the shaman plays that it is being used as a synonym?  

[CuAnnan]

RedRoseSpiral

the Celtic Shaman and Society of Celtic Shamans

The who, now?  

[Neko_Bast]

I've been an eclectic Kitchen Witch since I was 16....so about 9 years. Known what I was doing....mabey 5 years. ^-^  

[Ulfrikr inn Hrafn]

Heilsan,

Germanic Folkway since I was born biggrin razz

Actively knowing and understanding whom I was and what I am about... erm... still working on that LOL...

Explanation for the above. I am essentially of the opinion that the day I die is the day I cease learning about my ancestral traditions (well, on Midgardr at any rate).

If we're talking since I actively started reading and delving into matters in a more serious manner, then I'm figuring 17 years.

Ver thu heil  

[Ulfrikr inn Hrafn]

CuAnnan

RedRoseSpiral

the Celtic Shaman and Society of Celtic Shamans

The who, now?

This mob:

http://www.faeryshaman.org/

Interesting site. Can't say their ethics list does much for me, but then I am a traditionalist and Germanic biggrin

Other stuff in it seems of value, even though some of the terminology makes me cringe...

Cheers