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 Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:44 pm
Ok, I'll try to make a long story short:
I have always believed in fairies, ever since I was a child. I still believe in them, probably now more than ever. But here's the conflict:
I was raised Christian. And, the first of the ten commandments says "though shall not have any other god before me." Ok, I understand and believe that. But according to ancient fairy lore, most fairies are derived from Pagan deities.
In high school I practiced paganism for a time. No conflict anymore, fairies were a normal part of my circle. Only problem was, I felt something was missing. To me, it was Jesus.
It took some doing, but I became a realized Christian again b/c of Jesus. But it really opened my heart and now I'm accepting and tolerent and love others from other beliefs.
But now I have the conflict again. I still believe in fairies and they are a part of my every day life. They are my muse, in my art and music. I've tried to ignore it and cast it away, but I feel fairy energy around me all the time. I've prayed about it to try to find the right answer. Like, is it ok to believe in fairies? Or because I'm a Christian is it wrong? And am I not really a Christian if I believe in fairies?
If anyone has opinions or knowledge for me, it is much appreciated. I don't want to deny my own heart, but I don't want to be in conflict with my beliefs, either.
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 4:13 am
Every religion has been given birth by same source. Almost every mythos there is has same base, a pillar between earth and heaven. Or a rope, or tree. Something that links us to sky. Spiritualism has started, as now days is assumed, by believing in dualistic nature of world. Everything has a spirit, even lifeless things such as rocks. To a human that lived then, 2,5 million years ago, there was nothing out of originally to see world around him or her being full of different spirits.
Humans started to develop religious and spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper Paleolithic. Even then people might have believed in afterlife, that is still strong part of many religions. People have believed in totemism and carved pictures of animals in hopes of gaining their strength and carried claws and symbols with them. Thor's hammer and Christian cross aren't far from these either.
"The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman (and by extension the earliest undisputed evidence of shamans and shamanic practices) dates back to the early Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 BC) in what is now the Czech Republic." - From Wikipedia. By that, shamanism is oldest and still existing religion in the world. American Indians practice it almost same as shamanist's here in Scandinavia. Some belief that forefathers of Sami people have gone to Northern USA when there was a bridge of ice linking two continents.
Then is the interesting part where all that previous was just interlude. There is one source to religions today and a point where those have started to grow and develop on their own. In eastern tradition we have more complex cultural differences and I have to ask someone who knows about it more than I to help if needed. Belief of afterlife, being able to lend mental or physical strength from high above and so forth. Now I can't find references to help my memory, but at late Paleolithic age and after that rise the belief of sky god. Thunder and natural forces were base for it. Human was then in total mercy of natural forces and tried pacify anger from skies. Now I'm making another cheap reference to Christianity: Pater noster, qui es in caelis: Our Father, which art in heaven...
In your point of view, there is none conflict what so ever between Christianity and belief in entities. Especially Christianity has merged to earlier religions and even taken over 'pagan' holidays. How it happens to be that Midwinter's Day is same time as Christmas, or Easter is on Equinox. Point there? There is always something older, something more raw and simple, to me even more real behind current religions. Humans have practiced spiritual rituals literally from the dawn of time.
I wouldn't be pulled down by differences on how people see things. The thought, belief itself is more important than from what book you read it. And to me, it always pins down on link between ground where we walk and sky - physical matter and soul.
(You caught me on my favorite subject.. Sorry for long and jumping text. mrgreen I'm not very academic thinker.)
Add: And what comes to Commandments. Those are written by people as a law, skeptically said to ensure that believers don't start to be too free in their thinking. Sadly, every religion is also more or less selfish.
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:39 pm
I am one who believes that religion and personal belief are two entirely different things.
Religion tends to be a group that has their own set of rules and beliefs, that if you follow them, you will get a ultimate reward or whatnot.
Personal belief is what you believe to be true in your own mind. If you believe the fairies are your muses, then it's perfectly well true.
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:55 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:40 pm
I'm not sure how much this will mean to you or if it will help you in this situation since I'm neither Christian or pagan, but I'll put it out there anyway:
In Hinduism, there are many demi-gods, and then there is God {as a gaudiya vaishnava, this would mean Vishnu}. While the existance of the demi-gods is acknowledged and they are looked upon with respect, they are not worshipped. There's a difference between belief and worship. Simply believing there are other beings or gods out there does not mean you devote yourself to them.
Some Hindus do worship the demi-gods, and though in my religion that isn't considered "wrong", it also is not thought of to be the right thing to do because everything comes from God.... the demigods may be able to grant you some type of material benefit, but only by the benediction of God. In other words, we're encouraged to devote ourselves to God instead of demi-gods so that we are going straight to the source. Additionally, the power of demi-gods are limited. To try to get every benefit from every demi-god, you would spend all day going to different temples and performing service... whereas worship of God, the source, can get you all the benefits plus benefits that demi-gods cannot grant with less effort.
With all that in mind, I take the commandment of "thou shall not have any other god before Me" to mean that your worship goes to Him and not any other god, but that doesn't mean you can't acknowledge others. This commandment may have simply been put into place for a similar reason as to why Hindus are encouraged to worship God and not the demi-gods. To take it into meaning that you can only believe in God, then just by believing in Jesus you are already disobeying.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:31 am
ThisEmptySoul I'm not sure how much this will mean to you or if it will help you in this situation since I'm neither Christian or pagan, but I'll put it out there anyway:
In Hinduism, there are many demi-gods, and then there is God {as a gaudiya vaishnava, this would mean Vishnu}. While the existance of the demi-gods is acknowledged and they are looked upon with respect, they are not worshipped. There's a difference between belief and worship. Simply believing there are other beings or gods out there does not mean you devote yourself to them.
Some Hindus do worship the demi-gods, and though in my religion that isn't considered "wrong", it also is not thought of to be the right thing to do because everything comes from God.... the demigods may be able to grant you some type of material benefit, but only by the benediction of God. In other words, we're encouraged to devote ourselves to God instead of demi-gods so that we are going straight to the source. Additionally, the power of demi-gods are limited. To try to get every benefit from every demi-god, you would spend all day going to different temples and performing service... whereas worship of God, the source, can get you all the benefits plus benefits that demi-gods cannot grant with less effort.
With all that in mind, I take the commandment of "thou shall not have any other god before Me" to mean that your worship goes to Him and not any other god, but that doesn't mean you can't acknowledge others. This commandment may have simply been put into place for a similar reason as to why Hindus are encouraged to worship God and not the demi-gods. To take it into meaning that you can only believe in God, then just by believing in Jesus you are already disobeying. Yes! Now, my opinion doesn't differ much from above, however, here's a good way to look at the commandment. 'Thou shalt have no other God before me.' Before...see that? Take it to mean that so long as you don't worship your fairies higher than God, you're alright. Take Catholicism. Look at how many Saints they have, and the fact they worship Mary over Jesus. They pray to all of these, for differing reasons, but the fact that they worship God above all means they are not breaking the commandment. Yes, I'm a Pagan who studies Theology. 'Tis fun!
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:34 am
KittyRyu 'Thou shalt have no other God before me.' Before...see that? Take it to mean that so long as you don't worship your fairies higher than God, you're alright. Take Catholicism. Look at how many Saints they have, and the fact they worship Mary over Jesus. They pray to all of these, for differing reasons, but the fact that they worship God above all means they are not breaking the commandment. I like this, it's a good way to look at it and it makes sense. In my opinion, the faery folk aren't gods, they're another species, one that specialized in magic and not science. They're closer to the earth than we are, I suppose you could call them nature spirits.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:06 pm
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:21 pm
This is a bit off topic, but to me as non-Catholic those prayers appeal very beautiful just because of their form and stating things. Of course, that is somewhat exotic religion to me that makes it even more interesting, but I also love very similar form of Nordic god and hero sagas.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:36 am
Personally, I feel that if something written by man "tells" me what I can or cannot do, it is not right to me. I do not practice any Christian ideals, tho I will not step on those who do. I think if you feel in your heart that what is said is true, go with that. If you cut out something that is/was impotant to you because you're afraid to show it, then you're going to make yourself suffer needlessly.
I'm impressed by those who have posted in here. It's beautiful to see that people have insight and do not blast you for expressing your thoughts!
Listen to your heart and your soul!
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:06 pm
Thank you to all who have posted in here so far. All of your insights are informative and different, yet you speak them with kindness.
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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:36 am
Veddhartha This is a bit off topic, but to me as non-Catholic those prayers appeal very beautiful just because of their form and stating things. Of course, that is somewhat exotic religion to me that makes it even more interesting, but I also love very similar form of Nordic god and hero sagas.
I agree completely. smile
I'm not religious, but my entire family on both sides is Catholic (my immediate family - parents and grandfather are Episcopalian, which is basically Catholic-Lite or Diet Catholic), and I was raised within the Catholic/Episcopalian tradition. I love a lot about the liturgy, even though I don't agree with the dogma of the religion. I find many of its traditions beautiful and poetic.
I'm a fan of Norse religion as well - If I had a more traditional theistic view of god (I'm a pantheist/atheist), I think Asatru would appeal to me. 3nodding
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:34 pm
Interesting piece of Irish folk lore (in shortened form):
When Lucifer rebelled against God, Michael threw him from heaven. The gates of heaven flew open, and there was a huge vortex which began to suck the angels out. God saw this and ordered the gates closed. When they were, the angels stopped falling and "woke up" (so to speak) in whatever area they found themselves: the air, the earth, the sea, etc. This is the beginning of faeries, and depending on whether or not the angel was inclined to heaven or hell when he was sucked out, depends on whether he's a good or bad faerie.
I've only read that one place, so I don't know if it's actually part of folk lore or not.
Have you ever hear or recited the Nicene Creed?
"(I) believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen..." is how it begins and deals specifically with the Person of God the Father, the equivalent of the Person spoken in the first commandment. If you believe that faeries exists, it's the same as saying that you believe that ghosts or spirits exist. Originally they were seen as gods or demi-gods, but the neither the Bible nor Christian Tradition has denounced the reality of non-corporal beings (after all, what are angels but non-corporal beings?). As long as you don't worship them, you should be fine.
But then again, I'm Christian and I believe in faeries, so I may be a little biased wink
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:05 am
Dante_de_Fenal Interesting piece of Irish folk lore (in shortened form):
When Lucifer rebelled against God, Michael threw him from heaven. The gates of heaven flew open, and there was a huge vortex which began to suck the angels out. God saw this and ordered the gates closed. When they were, the angels stopped falling and "woke up" (so to speak) in whatever area they found themselves: the air, the earth, the sea, etc. This is the beginning of faeries, and depending on whether or not the angel was inclined to heaven or hell when he was sucked out, depends on whether he's a good or bad faerie.
I've only read that one place, so I don't know if it's actually part of folk lore or not.
This is a correlation that I agree with wholeheartedly. In fact, it seems that Christianity follows a set of guidelines laid out by many religions that came before it. If you think along those lines Kisaki Kitsune-Hi, you might just be hearing angels, and your mind is interpreting them as faeries. I, myself, am a believer of a strange religious principle; all religions are right. I believe that the human mind is capable of great things, even such as creating ultimate Truth. When enough people believe in something, eventually they make it real. I've heard this called the 'thought forms theory', and I find it to be the most logical way to look at the picture.
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:55 pm
I am a Christian who has studied lots of other religions. The scripture that always comes to mind is "Test the spirits to see if they are of God..." 1 John 4:1.
I also remember the scene from the movie "Labyrinth," when Sarah is bitten by a fairy, and the little worm in the wall (or was it Hoggle?) asks her, "What did you expect?"
I'm sure that we all feel the presence of other spirits. I'm just not so sure that, even if they aren't what we think of as evil, they aren't distractions from what is true----and isn't that just as dangerous?
The first 8 verses in the book of James tells Christians that we can ask God for wisdom in anything, and that he will give it to us, if we ask with the intention of accepting his answer without double-mindedness as the truth. We can all give you our answers all day long, but as a Christian, you can ask God and get the answer for yourself.
I suspect that the presence that you feel is that of the Holy Spirit, especially since you seem to have had this awareness since you were very small. Children and stories of fairies seem to go together, and most of us are not taught that the Holy Spirit is our guide and teacher until we are older.
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