Skywalker
Newbie
Posts: 17
Pronouns: They but I don't really mind he or she either
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Post by Skywalker on Feb 2, 2015 21:53:35 GMT -6
Or whatever time it happens to be. I'm going by Skywalker here because it was the first thing that came to mind. I'm not really good at the name thing and rarely use the same name twice for different sites. It's been a while since I've been involved in any pagan communities online (or in real life) so here I am trying it again because I miss it.
On to more important things, I've pretty much been a polytheist since I could grasp the concept of gods. At church when I was told the first commandment was no gods before the Christian god, I immediately took that to mean that there were others and that it was cool to worship them if they weren't number one. Of course, asking about that got me in trouble. Eventually, I ended up being drawn to the Norse pantheon and it's been about nine years since I started considering myself a Norse pagan although I still feel like I'm new at this. There's several gods that I guess I could say I feel a connection with. Mostly Loki, but also Thor, Tyr, Sigyn, and Vidar and even Odin sometimes. Although I sometimes think it's my brother who's connected to some of those deities.
Although I'm a Norse pagan, I sometimes feel myself trying to wander to other pantheons. Mostly Finnish and sometimes Celtic or Aztec. I get more of a "screw off, you freak" vibe from those pantheons though or at least a "that's cute now go home" feel. It's like pantheon ADD. Maybe it's because I fell right into Norse and never got to explore anything else. I don't know.
Besides that, some of my hobbies include hockey, hiking, birding and other nature stuff (is mammaling a thing?), drinking, writing, sewing, gardening, annoying all my friends and family with science facts, baking, and I'm learning to play the accordion. At the moment I'm unemployed but volunteer with multiple organizations so I might be able to get a job someday. I have a degree in biology, but it's not doing me much good without experience. I used to work retail until I reached the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I'm hoping I'll be able to get a job sometime this year, but I also think I might just go to grad school. Or at least try to get in.
And I might be leaving stuff out, but I need to get ready for hockey practice.
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Post by saintfelicity on Feb 3, 2015 6:55:57 GMT -6
Hi Skywalker, welcome to the forum! I just want to quickly address a few things in your intro post that I think will help you get off on the right foot here. Re: "Pantheon ADD," we respectfully request that folks don't use mental health terms to describe things that aren't directly related to their own mental illnesses (if you have ADD, I apologize). This also frequently applies to the use of "OCD" and "bipolar" as adjectives. These are serious things for the people who deal with them, and we don't want to make light of their situation, even if it's accidental. Re: Celtic and Aztec pantheons, it's actually a common misconception that there's such thing as a "Celtic pantheon." There are actually six regions that fall under the Celtic umbrella, all with very different cultures! "Celtic" as a term really only relates to a family of languages. I explain a little more about this in this post here, which may make it a little more clear. You may have better luck once you get to know a little bit more about the cultural practices of the deity you're interested in. As far as Aztec deities, to the best of my understanding, Aztec is a closed culture. Aztec religious practices are actually still practiced today, but their religious and cultural sites are incredibly disrespected by governments and tourists alike. So out of respect, it would be best to avoid approaching them! Certainly let any of us know if you have any questions, I hope you enjoy your time here!
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Post by Allec on Feb 3, 2015 9:05:04 GMT -6
Welcome to the Forum Skywalker!
It's so awesome you volunteer. What is it tat you do?
And what position do you play in hockey?
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cass
Junior Member
Posts: 77
Pronouns: they/their
Religion: Gaelic polytheist
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Post by cass on Feb 3, 2015 13:48:21 GMT -6
welcome!
i've definitely experienced what you're describing re: feeling drawn to gods outside those you worship/work with. for me, it tends to be that i can have difficulty understanding the difference between an intense academic interest (even possibly to the level of special interest) and feeling spiritually drawn to someone. i've gotten a couple of good knocks on the head over the years for that confusion. i feel like it's probably a rather common confusion to have and one i've had to work really hard at learning to recognize. there's nothing wrong with wanting to learn about different religions and the cultures surrounding them, even most closed cultures, as long as you're respectful. but make sure you're always aware of where you stand in your interest. keep an eye out for signs from the gods that you might be overstepping their boundaries, and most importantly, listen to the people from the religions and cultures you're learning about - especially if they're part of a closed culture or one that's been affected by colonialism - their voices are the most important.
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Skywalker
Newbie
Posts: 17
Pronouns: They but I don't really mind he or she either
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Post by Skywalker on Feb 5, 2015 23:43:39 GMT -6
I probably should have mentioned that I'm part Nahua, so I don't feel like I'm overstepping boundaries, although that depends on who you ask I suppose. I know there's some people out there who would say that I'm not native enough. Which I can't really argue with since I grew up with a highly Christianized version of the myths and as far as I know, there's only one member of the family that immigrated to the US that speaks Nahuatl. I would actually love to learn the language someday.
As for the Celtic, I should know better than to lump them together. My Celtic-leaning friend lectures me on it all the time. But I'm terrible person sometimes and continuously forget. I think Gaulish is probably the term I'm looking for there, but I'm not 100% sure.
I do volunteer with three different groups. I'm at a wildlife sanctuary where I help take care of exotic mammals rescued from private ownership (it's crazy how many people think having a "pet" tiger is a good idea) and also do some public education. At a natural history museum, I help prepare vertebrate specimens for the collection. And then I also volunteer with a raptor education group where we take raptors and other animals around and do education programs with them. I'm probably going to end up leaving the sanctuary here in a few months since it's pretty far away and I'm going to try getting paying work here and I don't think I'll be able to manage three volunteer positions at the same time.
When I first started playing hockey, I was a defenseman because we had a lot of really good forwards on the team, and no defensemen. Then when I started with a different league, they just had me play wing and I was really good at it so they kept me there. Then when they realized I used to play defense, they had me play center. Then when I went to yet another league, and went back to defense with a friend who joined the league with me because we liked hanging out on the ice and being weird together. And then I went back to that second league I was in and now I'm a center again. So basically, I can play any position but goalie.
I think I don't always figure out the difference between academic and spiritual interest either. Sometimes, it's pretty clear like with Anubis, which is academic. But with some others I don't know. Maybe I am a little drawn to some other gods but that's all on my end. More like I just really admire them. But really, the Norse gods are definitely the right ones for me so I really don't know why I always feel like wandering off.
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cass
Junior Member
Posts: 77
Pronouns: they/their
Religion: Gaelic polytheist
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Post by cass on Feb 6, 2015 0:04:08 GMT -6
wow, all those volunteer jobs sound really neat! working with raptors would be such an amazing experience. i keep thinking that i should try doing some volunteer work at an animal shelter or something because i have a lot of experience with big dogs, but i should probably wait til i stop dealing with major knee pain cuz looool that wouldn't go well.
and honestly, i think that the whole academic vs spiritual interest is something a lot of us deal with. maybe it's something we'll end up talking about more hear! it would probably fit in well with discussions of discernment? who knows
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Post by Allec on Feb 6, 2015 13:14:42 GMT -6
Wow! I'm so impressed with the volunteer work you do! I get so angry at how people think keeping tigers as pets is a good idea...ugh. Or really any big wild animal. But it's wonderful you are so involved! Also, great that they had you moved around a lot in hockey. I know it musta been a pain, but I found (when I played soccer) that the best players were the ones who had been to various positions--at least once. It's useful to know how things work at every area of the game
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Post by Allec on Feb 6, 2015 13:16:40 GMT -6
Also, I've been trying to study various polytheist paths so that when I open my community center, I can help various people...It is definitely a weird area to step into, being purely academic, when I'm so use to taking the work I learn from Gaelic resources and transcribing that into my life. The first hiccup was with Konkokyo, where I really love so many aspects of it...but at the end of the day, I know I'm not someone fitted for following or even incorporating it in my religious life.
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Post by brimstonne on Feb 6, 2015 20:09:09 GMT -6
I do volunteer work at a wildlife rehab center we mostly work with raptors too
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Skywalker
Newbie
Posts: 17
Pronouns: They but I don't really mind he or she either
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Post by Skywalker on Feb 11, 2015 2:03:04 GMT -6
The raptor education program is probably my favorite place to volunteer. It's pretty amazing to get one of those birds on your glove. Or even just to feed them. Of course, that can get dangerous since some get over excited when it comes to food. I love the museum too because I get to sit in a room of smart people and instead of pointlessly arguing over really dumb things, we go and look them up or if it's a matter of opinion, we just accept that we have different opinions and it's great and sometimes I want to live there.
I don't know if I could do rehab. It'd be great to help the animals out, but for the ones that don't make it, that'd be hard. I already feel bad for many animals that come into the museum, especially when we know they'd been living with a severe injury or had been shot or some other horrible human-caused death.
I think it's pretty easy to change positions in hockey. Defensemen stay by the net in the defensive zone and up high in the offensive zone, wingers do the opposite, and centers are always down low (both defense and offense) so it wasn't too hard. And also, even if you're supposed to be one position, you could have a play where you need to be another position just because of the way things work out. Seems like in other sports, the different positions do very different things like in football. I used to use slightly different sticks for defense and offense, but once I was playing center regularly, I ended up just using one.
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