Ask the Penguin! (beliefs, pagan, God, religion, Wicca)

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Panda

Ok I think I get that. The stars represent the sun gods. However they are separate things as a star is purely a fusion reactor. Am I close?

I think so

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Storm

Particularly fond of any totems? I'm closest to Thunderbird, Coyote, Raven (my son's name!), and Kokopelli.

The Thunderbird does have a special place for me But also the Snake, Phoenix and Eagle as well.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Buttercup

What do your parents think of your beliefs?

I've had to "come out of the broom closet" a couple of times with my mother, sometimes I do love that selective memory But she usually says the same thing: "What about all those CCD classes I sent you to?" I was raised Catholic and I'm confirmed too. Other than that, nothing is said. I wear my pentacle necklace out with the thought that if my family wants to ask, they can; otherwise, I'm not going to make a big deal out of something that doesn't need to be.

Do your beliefs bring you peace?

They do actually. They give me another explanation for the world around me, and I love that. I can't live in a black and white world, it'd drive me nuts.

Most importantly, do you have a baby penguin I could have?

Sorry, they're not in stock right now

[mostly harmless]

You had said a while back, I think, that you were moving out of celebrating the traditional pagan holidays..do you have holidays or special days that you celebrate?
Any particular day of the week that is sacred to you? (like Sunday to many Christians)
Any particular time of the month that is sacred to you? What do you do to honor your Gods and Goddesses?

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by mostly harmless

You had said a while back, I think, that you were moving out of celebrating the traditional pagan holidays..do you have holidays or special days that you celebrate?
Any particular day of the week that is sacred to you? (like Sunday to many Christians)
Any particular time of the month that is sacred to you? What do you do to honor your Gods and Goddesses?

I celebrate some of the Wiccan sabbats, I feel they have great meaning and they mesh well with me and my beliefs. The Solstices, Equinoxes and Samhain.

Every day is special no one is greater than another in my opinion, and same with the month. I honor my patrons when I feel like I should or when I want to mostly. Sometimes I can't help feel like I need to do a ritual in honor of them, the feeling just gets over me

[Panda]

Does your beliefs make you happy?
How do you incorporate your beliefs with your day to day life?
How did you become pagan?
How have your beliefs evolved as you grew to understand more about the workings of the world as well as growing to understand yourself?

[Reverend Rick]

Originally Posted by Panda

Does your beliefs make you happy?
How do you incorporate your beliefs with your day to day life?
How did you become pagan?
How have your beliefs evolved as you grew to understand more about the workings of the world as well as growing to understand yourself?

TTT

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Panda

Does your beliefs make you happy?

They make me VERY happy I probably wouldn't be this type of pagan if they made me unhappy.

How do you incorporate your beliefs with your day to day life?

I incorporate them much like any other theist, I think. I thank the gods for a good day at work, I do some walking meditations when I have to walk home to reconnect with nature after being in an air-conditioned building. It's also hard to pick out most of the things I do like that, simply because they have been incorporated in my life, they are a part of my daily life.

How did you become pagan?

I grew up Catholic, I went to CCD (Catholic Sunday School, that most often happened on another day of the week) every year, and just sort of accepted for most of the time. Despite my Catholic education, we hardly ever went to a Mass. I remember one Easter just after my first communion we went, but then we didn't go until my older brother's confirmation 5 years after, and then my own 4 years after that.

About a year before my confirmation, I felt something was missing, I started asking those hard questions, but I kept them to myself. I forced the questions to the back of my mind and dove into Catholicism. I would have read the Bible if my family had one, so I read my Children's Bible that I got at my first communion. I wanted to believe, and as part of that, I was confirmed, and I was happy.

But that happiness didn't really last, and about a month afterwards, I took off my cross necklace. I couldn't live the lie anymore, it was insulting those I knew that really did believe. I put my necklace, my cross pins, and my various rosaries in a little treasure box and I closed it saying: "If I ever need them, they'll be here". I haven't opened it since.

I didn't know where to go from there, I was agnostic though I didn't know the term. I was drawn to polytheism and paganism, but I thought those were things of the past, living in a Catholic town can make one naive of other religions. I honestly did not know that one could practice a religion that was not Abrahamic, Buddhist, or Hindu.

Luckily, I went to college soon after, and I met someone who changed my spiritual life forever. She was one of those weird-type girls, two-toned hair, always in black and kept to herself. By that time, I also had met Guitar's Cry and the two of them had briefly dated. GC and I were walking around the campus and we found ourselves in her room (somehow...) and we three talked. She gave me some books, Scott Cunningham mostly, and I was hooked. By the time I finished reading them, I finally had a label for myself, Pagan. It didn't take much for me to convert to paganism at that point, I found most of my beliefs in those books, it was just a matter of adopting the label.

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How have your beliefs evolved as you grew to understand more about the workings of the world as well as growing to understand yourself?