Destiny vs. free will (ritual, Earth, beliefs, choice, prophecy)

[CelticRavenwolf]

Originally Posted by Mike182

welcome to the forums though! i am deffinatley no expert on the Celtic religions, though have been interested in learning about my country's elder religion for quite some time! i stole a book from a friend on Celtic Mythology which i will hopefully have time to read soon, and depending on what i think after reading that i will decide if i want to research it further or not.

have you ever heard of Ronald Hutton? he wrote some good stuff about Europe's Pagan history, you might find him an interesting read!

and i've just realised that i'm posting in your thread without actually writting about anything you posted about in your OP
mike

Thanks! So far I'm really enjoying it here! No I have not heard for Ronald Hutton, but I will be sure to look him up! I'm always interested in collecting more books on any European pagan cultures. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll write a thesis on how their beliefs are connected and have altered over time and region!

[CelticRavenwolf]

Originally Posted by Feathers in Hair

Namaste, RavenWolf, and welcome to the site! (I haven't properly replied to your intro thread, but I figured I'd make a start, at least!)

You raise some very interesting questions! I'm not sure what I believe about destiny versus free will. I have met people, though, who I feel were incarnated so that they might help others or to make the world a brighter place. A very immediate example would be in your artwork. Particularly in your beautiful rendering of 'mythological' subjects, one is reminded of the talent of a person who is able to see those things that avoid the gaze of others.

Thanks!

You raise a very interesting point, actually. That what may seen to be the obvious and beautiful to me could in fact be the the unappealing and odd to others. Likewise the things that repulse me are adored by different people. You may not have used the exact words, but your comment reminds me of the vast diversity of people, and how we each bring something unique to this world, no matter how small it may be. Though we may share similarities, be it the kind of clothes we wear or a love of mythic creatures, our differences in turn connect us to a different group of people, and so on and so forth.

Though I think that line of thought only makes my question all the more cryptic - are we who we are purely by chance, or is there a point to it? Why do I love the beauty of reptiles while my mother thinks they're ugly and gross? Why do I laugh like a child at the antics of a magpie while my sister rolls her eyes and calls me weird? I'm sure everyone has examples like that. That even the people we're raised with have very different views of the world than we do.

Pure chance? Or divine design?

[KSojourner]

Originally Posted by CelticRavenwolf

I'm always interested in collecting more books on any European pagan cultures.

If you're not going just for the Celtic pagan cultures, you should look into books on Norse Mythology, too. Here are some titles to get you started:

Norse Mythology by John Lindow
The Poetic Eddas translation by Lee Hollander
The Prose Eddas (there are various translations)

The last two books can be found online as well at Sacred Texts. The last two were written around 1200 BCE, If I remember right.

[CelticRavenwolf]

Thanks! I'll for sure look into those! I always love reading about other cultures, and I must say that aside from some general knowledge I know quite little about Norse Mythology. As it was thriving around the same time as the Celts I wouldn't be surprised if there are quite a few similarities.

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by KSojourner

The last two books can be found online as well at Sacred Texts. The last two were written around 1200 BCE, If I remember right.

Close, but Snorri wasn't around until the 13th century so I guess you were just one letter off there. It would be great if there were some manuscripts from that far back though. I'd love to see what kind of differences two and a half millenia can do.

[KSojourner]

Originally Posted by Zephyr

Close, but Snorri wasn't around until the 13th century so I guess you were just one letter off there. It would be great if there were some manuscripts from that far back though. I'd love to see what kind of differences two and a half millenia can do.

What I meant was ACE or CE, which stands for after common era. I typed it in wrong. Sorry about that.

[CelticRavenwolf]

I've never seen someone use ACE before, only CE and BCE.

[KSojourner]

Originally Posted by CelticRavenwolf

I've never seen someone use ACE before, only CE and BCE.

I've seen it used a few times, but it's really isn't common.