Hi, I'm having a Crisis.

[maenad nuri]

Avalon, this may sound odd, but perhaps you don't feel a connection to M. Eve, might it have something to do with her being, well, human? And you trying to worship her as a goddess?

In my worldview, I'd call it ancestor worship -- very popular the world over.

Does that sound strange?  

[TeaDidikai]

AvalonAuggie

I'm not so much looking for the gods to contact me because I don't subscribe to that kind of polytheism. Unless I directly experience interaction with them or messages from them, the "gods" exist as psychological concepts and archetypes, and humans have religion as a way of explaining and understanding the world, and acheiving peace of mind. I try to be open to signs. if Apollo makes himself known to me and tells me to worship him, I'll do it, but in the meantime I'd like to be happy in a general "having religion makes people feel better about themselves" way.

Huh... so- you don't believe they are anything more than symbols and that their influence over those who followed them is anything more than a lame tool to make mankind feel better about themselves... and you wonder why they aren't contacting you.

Right.

Have fun with that.  

[AvalonAuggie]

TeaDidikai

Huh... so- you don't believe they are anything more than symbols and that their influence over those who followed them is anything more than a lame tool to make mankind feel better about themselves... and you wonder why they aren't contacting you.

Right.

Have fun with that.

I'm not "wondering why" the gods aren't contacting me, but I suppose with the way I express myself in writing, your misinterpretation isn't unreasonable. I am not bemoaning my lack of pantheon or whining for one. My dissatisfaction and stagnation stems from difficulty in incorporating my existing beliefs into practice in my everyday life. So sorry to disappoint you.  

[TeaDidikai]

AvalonAuggie

My dissatisfaction and stagnation stems from difficulty in incorporating my existing beliefs into practice in my everyday life.

Based on what you have posted, I would say it stems more from a frustration in your style of practice and a general lack of Community. The community thing can't be helped. Paganism isn't a community, it's a scene. You claim that you wish to know that there are people who hold similar beliefs to yours so you don't feel like your faith is unreasonable and your only discription of your faith that you have provided a solid statement about is that you're an animist.

Congrats. By virtue that there is a title given to what you assert to be your faith, you aren't alone.

It looks like you're somewhere between a Pantheist and an Animist. For what it is worth, your generalizations about other people's gods and religions reminds me of Starmist's stance in the MMC thread ages ago.

You're seeking external validation for nonfalsifiable beliefs. Not to put to fine a point on it- because they are nonfalsifiable, at best from a falsifiable reference you can establish other people hold the same illusion you do.

Your frustration over practice and feelings of connection are selfinflicted. You want all the benefits of a unified faith, but don't want to put the effort into finding historical texts to base it off of because of how much reading you do for school and you haven't even gone the route of internalized faith because of your desire for a community that doesn't exist.

Quote:

So sorry to disappoint you.

No skin off my teeth. Your opening post directly attacks individuals who have what you want. It reminds me of what Deo and Fiddler say about how the "Nice" people treat the "Un-Nice" people.