Im not young anymore

I didnt just get out of high school. Im not in my freshman year in college. Im not even in college. I have no tatoos, thank goodness. Not running around for the girls. Yet, growing in the pagan faith, in my experience, feels like Im still a teen finding magic spells and playing with cards.

This is my experience not a generalization.

It seems like neopaganism and new age is highly popular among younger folks. I visited a UU church couple years back. A member wanted to set up a pagan group. Everyone, he said, complained because they wanted to make it a coven. There are procedures need to be done, papers written. Yet, they were hard pressed for something special. (Again how it came across to me)

I believe that a pagan (lack of better word; not prechristian believers) is so in touch with nature that she lives every way in accordance with it. Everything is based on the ritual workings of the earth. Magic is natural. Its nothing special.

Yet, I get a feeling that by todays definition it is.. Maybe many young people who have different beliefs under the pagan label makes me stereotype the new age stuff from the actual living as a pagan.

Nature has literally called to me my whole life. It didnt just come. My mothers interest in witchcraft influenced it. My grandmothers interesting tactics to protect our home was neat to learn from. General things like hunting with my father, fishing with my mother. I can feel my mothers energy. She is a natual born witch. Some of us are not like that.. We struggle we crawl.

I just wonder is what i am doing the way my family down south practice folk magic. I like tradition. I just dont like "new". I know Im not young and sometimes Id like to find peers who practice the Craft. What do they have to say? Our family is so secretive about our heritage and faiths. All we know is christianity.

Its something else.

This is a blogglet. Nothing special.

I too am not young anymore. Just as one needs to come to terms with atheism after abandoning old Gods, one needs to come to terms with old age also. And it is not too bad (yet). Of course, mountains are out of question now, that is a regret.

Carlita said:

I didnt just get out of high school. Im not in my freshman year in college. Im not even in college. I have no tatoos, thank goodness. Not running around for the girls. Yet, growing in the pagan faith, in my experience, feels like Im still a teen finding magic spells and playing with cards.

This is my experience not a generalization.

It seems like neopaganism and new age is highly popular among younger folks. I visited a UU church couple years back. A member wanted to set up a pagan group. Everyone, he said, complained because they wanted to make it a coven. There are procedures need to be done, papers written. Yet, they were hard pressed for something special. (Again how it came across to me)

I believe that a pagan (lack of better word; not prechristian believers) is so in touch with nature that she lives every way in accordance with it. Everything is based on the ritual workings of the earth. Magic is natural. Its nothing special.

Yet, I get a feeling that by todays definition it is.. Maybe many young people who have different beliefs under the pagan label makes me stereotype the new age stuff from the actual living as a pagan.

Nature has literally called to me my whole life. It didnt just come. My mothers interest in witchcraft influenced it. My grandmothers interesting tactics to protect our home was neat to learn from. General things like hunting with my father, fishing with my mother. I can feel my mothers energy. She is a natual born witch. Some of us are not like that.. We struggle we crawl.

I just wonder is what i am doing the way my family down south practice folk magic. I like tradition. I just dont like "new". I know Im not young and sometimes Id like to find peers who practice the Craft. What do they have to say? Our family is so secretive about our heritage and faiths. All we know is christianity.

Its something else.

This is a blogglet. Nothing special.

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Not sure this will help...not exactly sure what it is you might be asking...

For my part, (to quote the song from Gigi) "I'm so glad I'm not young anymore!"

I'm still learning, but I no longer fear what people will say or think about me--but I am still circumspect about my beliefs and practices.
I'm still learning, but I no longer hesitate to ask the questions I need to ask, and pursue the answers I need to know.
I'm still learning, and no longer find that I have to worry about being different, about being alone with the strangeness, about doing the things I'm called upon to do.
I'm still learning, and it's only in the last year that I've discovered that there is a whole literature out there, written by a variety of people, who talk about animism the way I actually experience it (and I've really only met one other person in this life who fits the bill, too! He has been helpful, but he's got his own thing going on that doesn't help me much...).
I'm still learning, but I've also learned that it's my path, not anyone else's, and I have to live it myself. The others I interact with, it's not important whether they are animists, too, or not; I enjoy them for the friends and family that they are--I don't have to worry about what they believe or practice.

Hope this helps in some way!

Thank you for your kind words.

What literature do you read? I read Pagans of the Earth (get back with author) and each persons interview about how they became or realize they were pagans and wiccans always refreshes me. People from all walks of life from Witches (Bruja I think) from Itali to spiritual sexual protestitute (using sexual gestures to build energy in ritual).

I too am anamist and never knew there is liturature about it. I thought it was something mixed in faiths.

beenherebeforeagain said:

Not sure this will help...not exactly sure what it is you might be asking...

For my part, (to quote the song from Gigi) "I'm so glad I'm not young anymore!"

I'm still learning, but I no longer fear what people will say or think about me--but I am still circumspect about my beliefs and practices.
I'm still learning, but I no longer hesitate to ask the questions I need to ask, and pursue the answers I need to know.
I'm still learning, and no longer find that I have to worry about being different, about being alone with the strangeness, about doing the things I'm called upon to do.
I'm still learning, and it's only in the last year that I've discovered that there is a whole literature out there, written by a variety of people, who talk about animism the way I actually experience it (and I've really only met one other person in this life who fits the bill, too! He has been helpful, but he's got his own thing going on that doesn't help me much...).
I'm still learning, but I've also learned that it's my path, not anyone else's, and I have to live it myself. The others I interact with, it's not important whether they are animists, too, or not; I enjoy them for the friends and family that they are--I don't have to worry about what they believe or practice.

Hope this helps in some way!

Click to expand...

I'm no kid either... 58 in <2 months. I'm discovering, learning and doing things I wish I did when I was 25 or 30. I think of my mortality. I'm not afraid of death but I often wonder what the next 20-25 years will be like, and what will I have time to do. The past 20 years seem to have whizzed by in a blur. Barring any serious disease, my family's lifespan has averaged ~80 years. Though my eldest brother will be 77 next week and only recently retired from being a school bus driver, after retiring from being a construction electrician all his adult life. I guess activity does keep you young and healthy.

Carlita said:

Thank you for your kind words.

What literature do you read? I read Pagans of the Earth (get back with author) and each persons interview about how they became or realize they were pagans and wiccans always refreshes me. People from all walks of life from Witches (Bruja I think) from Itali to spiritual sexual protestitute (using sexual gestures to build energy in ritual).

I too am anamist and never knew there is liturature about it. I thought it was something mixed in faiths.

Click to expand...

When I was young (maybe about 13-14) I read Black Elk Speaks and within a few years, a lot of other works by or about Native American culture and spirituality. Most of it resonated with me, and I heard it being discussed as shamanistic and animistic. So from that time, I thought I was an animist--except I'd then read the dictionary definition, or some of the classic sociology, psychology, comparative religion, anthropology etc., that was supposedly about animism--and found that most it did not resonate. I've come to realize that this is because the academic stuff was written by WEIRD people who were trying to shoehorn what they observed in indigenous cultures into the categories of Western Christian theology and science, or by Christians trying to dismantle the beliefs of the indigenous peoples and convert them.

Starting about three years ago, I've read a lot of Pagan works, mostly by or about Wicca and similar more-or-less organized groups, a lot of the classics of the field (such as Drawing Down the Moon). Very little of it resonates with me, although I do find it interesting. I'm just much simpler than that, and I don't do deities any more. About 18 months ago, I started making a dedicated search for information about animism again--there were hints in some of the books I was reading about Wicca that suggested that there might be something new afoot. I found a number of websites that seem to be about animism, and that led me to identify several authors writing about "the New Animism," including Graham Harvey.

While searching for articles and books at my university's library, I found that it had available an electronic version of Harvey's Handbook of Contemporary Animism, which I downloaded and have been working at for about a year now--almost done. It's not all dense reading, I've just been having to read it around a heavy workload, and I've been reading other things along the way as I note below. It's an edited collection of essays about animism by all sorts of people: researchers from different fields, indigenous and modern practitioners, artists and writers, etc. From the list of authors and citations, I've then been able to branch out to find other very valuable works, some of them in the academic literature, some in the popular. Some of it still doesn't resonate much with me, but a lot of it does--and that which doesn't usually helps illuminate what I think and feel and do anyway.

Animism I think often does mix in with other beliefs, especially the more syncretic ones, but I think it also underlies a lot of the earth-based religions--not that animism is just one thing, of course. It's a lot of different things that have some elements in common. But it's not a religion, like Christianity; instead, I think it's way of being "religious." (as my quotes below show).

I like to hear about people's experiences, too--that's what I find most useful is people's accounts of their experiences, and not so much of what they think it means or what belief system they connect it to.

Thorbjorn said:

I'm no kid either... 58 in <2 months. I'm discovering, learning and doing things I wish I did when I was 25 or 30. I think of my mortality. I'm not afraid of death but I often wonder what the next 20-25 years will be like, and what will I have time to do. The past 20 years seem to have whizzed by in a blur. Barring any serious disease, my family's lifespan has averaged ~80 years. Though my eldest brother will be 77 next week and only recently retired from being a school bus driver, after retiring from being a construction electrician all his adult life. I guess activity does keep you young and healthy.

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True. Happy birthday just in case I miss the date. Im in my mid thirties and have gone through and still going medical issues that I dont think Id have a long 100 year life spand. (I hope not, actually) I admire women I meet in their 70s walking as if they have the energy of their late 50s or so. Very free spirited. I also notice women like that have a good spiritual foundation.

I try not to tell myself Im going through my quarter life crisis. It is what it is.

Thanks.

Yes, we have to make the best of what we have. Unfortunately we tend to forget that... I do anyway.

Carlita said:

I try not to tell myself Im going through my quarter life crisis. It is what it is.

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Lol! I like that, "Quarter life crisis."

Look at you bunch of old people, just joking (though come to think of it I'm not that young anymore either... when does old age start?). Anyway - Sorry too interrupt. I just want to say that I am honored to learn from you and that I find it inspiring that you are willing to ask questions and challenge set belief systems. @Carlita @Aupmanyav @beenherebeforeagain @Thorbjorn

SpentaMaynu said:

Look at you bunch of old people, just joking (though come to think of it I'm not that young anymore either... when does old age start?). Anyway - Sorry too interrupt. I just want to say that I am honored to learn from you and that I find it inspiring that you are willing to ask questions and challenge set belief systems. @Carlita @Aupmanyav @beenherebeforeagain @Thorbjorn

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lol, and thank you. I think "old" starts when you stop seeing wondrous things every day, stop looking at the world with childlike awe, start allowing the troubles you have to keep you down, when you start to give up. I'm in my mid-50s, but feel like I'm in my middle 20s still (although the body certainly can't keep up with what I could do back then...). My dad is 90, Mom is 88, and I hope I'm at least half as spry and energetic as they are, if and when I get to be their age.

Welcome to adulthood. Should we crack a bottle of wine?

The Pagans have been outlandish in the America's since the beginning.

Before Salem, the First American Witch Hunt — History in the Headlines

It started with the Witch Trials which took place all over the colonies, not only in Salem.

Paganism was annihilated in the America's and this Land of Religious Freedom was Christianized, European Pagans suffered the worst.

Other than that, Since the 40's it's been a bit of an outcasted belief or practice.

It's not just youngsters that are drawn to Paganism, there are tired Elders out there that put up with alienation their whole life.

Christians, man.

Can I get cookies or something for this? Cookies don't suffice.

The Old Norse tried to tell the Church the Gods were also their Ancestors and they wouldn't accept it. They wanted a veritable cosmic and supernatural God to stand before them in protest, all they had was flesh and blood.