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Post by saintfelicity on Feb 9, 2015 19:48:58 GMT -6
There's obviously lots of potential ground to cover on the topic of switching from a monotheist to polytheist worldview, so I thought a great way to kick this section off a little more would be to have a more general, informal thread; if we start seeing some themes we want to dig deeper on, I'll pull them to a new thread. Something I've been struggling with lately is really latching on to Brigid and having a harder time incorporating Na Dé ocus Andé in to my practice as a group, which is the way They would have been more commonly acknowledged historically. It's really difficult to wrap my brain around! I think it's okay to an extent for now as I'm getting on my feet, but I feel like I'm denying myself a much wider experience. On the flip side, and probably no thanks to the internet, I have this conception of polytheism as something that has to be ~more communication~, and almost like the complete opposite of my Christian practice or something. So right now what I'm trying to do is open my view to the wider breadth of deities, while trying to get back in touch with the slightly more "wonderment from afar" feeling from when I was Catholic / Baptist, because it's patently unrealistic to expect to have a massive ~experience~ every single time I pray. I've seen a lot of awesome posts about this going around on Tumblr right now and this wasn't very eloquent, so I'll add more once I get a chance to reread some things, ha. So how about you guys? Are there any particular things that you're trying to unlearn / relearn with respect to monotheism and polytheism?
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Windy
Newbie
Posts: 31
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: irish polytheism
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Post by Windy on Feb 10, 2015 1:27:58 GMT -6
The biggest problem I have is how and who to worship. The only other polytheist I know is Wiccan,and she has a world view that the gods and goddesses are all the same basic energy source and that they are a part of a greater whole too big to comprehend. That doesn't really work for me, but I don't have any where else to turn on my journey. I am at the point where I want to find a pantheon, but every time I think I've found one I start to doubt myself...
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Post by saintfelicity on Feb 10, 2015 7:25:55 GMT -6
The biggest problem I have is how and who to worship. The only other polytheist I know is Wiccan,and she has a world view that the gods and goddesses are all the same basic energy source and that they are a part of a greater whole too big to comprehend. That doesn't really work for me, but I don't have any where else to turn on my journey. I am at the point where I want to find a pantheon, but every time I think I've found one I start to doubt myself... Definitely a common problem! I think that this is something that's applicable to polytheism in general, rather than just being a specific monotheism-to-polytheism transitional problem. I went ahead and started a thread to talk a little bit more about finding a tradition in the Polytheism 101 board, hopefully that will be useful to you!
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Windy
Newbie
Posts: 31
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: irish polytheism
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Post by Windy on Feb 11, 2015 9:31:19 GMT -6
That's wonderful! Thanks!!
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Post by saintfelicity on Feb 11, 2015 13:50:07 GMT -6
That's wonderful! Thanks!! No problem!
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Post by TheModernSouthernPolytheist on Feb 11, 2015 23:45:38 GMT -6
I think the biggest things I have/have had trouble shaking are the idea that I'm constantly being watched by YHWH or his angels and judged for every little thought and action and the idea of Hell in general.
For the former, I grew up Southern Baptist, so I was very much taught that YHWH sees and hears everything you even think and judges you for it, which I think is absolutely ridiculous as a concept. For example, the idea that having a lustful thought is a sin, even if one agreed that non-heterosexual non-marital sex was wrong, is so incomprehensible to me because you can't totally control your thoughts. A hot person walks by, you notice. How is that wrong? Someone's bein an ass and you momentarily wish they'd get hit by a bus, bam, sin. It just never did make sense to me, yet I can't seem to totally lose the idea that I'm forever under surveillance.
The latter is, again, one of those things so ingrained from a fire-and-brimstone Baptist upbringing that sometimes I wonder if I'll ever totally shake it. It's one of those naggin things that just sits there are rears its ugly head any time I'm having any doubts or weird headspace days.
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Post by brimstonne on Feb 12, 2015 12:11:48 GMT -6
^^ I struggled with that a lot too, fun fact thats why my url is brimstonne, because I used tumblr at first as a way to escape my mothers yelling about fires and brimstone and such. (Yay terrifying Southern Baptist upbringing!) Ill have to try to find it again, but I remember reading somewhere that hell was originally just being cast from the sight of YHWH, and that when they were converting the Greeks, they found the idea of Tartarus so terrifying that they incorporated parts of it into hell. It was one of the things that I remember reading on a not-so-reliable site when I was first starting to explore polytheism, so Im sure its probably inaccurate at some level, but it did comfort me when I was first starting. It made it so that I could come to the conclusion of the possibility of infinite Otherworlds, and that whatever we believe will happen to us, is what will happen. Which is also fairly comforting.
Honestly one of the things I struggle with most is talking to people about my religion, which is why this forum is so important to me. The church I was raised in was one of the ones that believed a woman should not be allowed to talk or ask questions in church. As a child I thought this was ridiculous, and would ask my pastor questions anyways, or answer the questions in Sunday School and the thing on Wednesday nights that I can never spell. Which got me kicked out of class quite a bit or made to go sit in the nursery since I 'was unable to understand my place in the world'. So even now a lot of times when I go to reply to something, I get the momentary panic of 'theyre gonna hate me and kick me off the site and then its gonna be horrible because Ill be so confused and just..' and it goes on and on and on.
(I know you guys would never kick someone off for talking, I mean I logically know that, its just the little anxiety baby in my head who cries constantly)
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harpinghawke
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Religion: Dedicant of Cernunnos, Road Witch
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Post by harpinghawke on Feb 12, 2015 16:35:41 GMT -6
The latter is, again, one of those things so ingrained from a fire-and-brimstone Baptist upbringing that sometimes I wonder if I'll ever totally shake it. It's one of those naggin things that just sits there are rears its ugly head any time I'm having any doubts or weird headspace days. I know it shouldn't be so surprising to me, but it's...nice that I'm not the only one who has this problem? I wasn't brought up as a Baptist, however I did have kind of a weird upbringing. Ma was a Wiccan priestess for many of my early years and suddenly switched to fire and brimstone Catholocism, and even now I'm still getting used to it. Anyway, more to the point of the thread, I sometimes have to remind myself that the gods aren't omniscient. I actually have to tell them things XD. Though, that can be nice. I have a little privacy if I need it.
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wickedlittlecritta
Full Member
A tempest in a teacup
Posts: 169
Pronouns: she/her
Religion: Gaelic polytheist
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Post by wickedlittlecritta on Feb 12, 2015 17:48:50 GMT -6
I wasn't even raised super religious (my mom was a Sunday school teacher at one point, apparently, but we stopped going to church when I was seven or so), but I still occasionally have those "I am constantly under surveillance by an omnipotent deity" thoughts. I think it's just so ingrained in American culture that it's hard not to.
The angels are spying on us >.>
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Post by saintfelicity on Feb 13, 2015 7:38:08 GMT -6
Honestly one of the things I struggle with most is talking to people about my religion, which is why this forum is so important to me. The church I was raised in was one of the ones that believed a woman should not be allowed to talk or ask questions in church. As a child I thought this was ridiculous, and would ask my pastor questions anyways, or answer the questions in Sunday School and the thing on Wednesday nights that I can never spell. Which got me kicked out of class quite a bit or made to go sit in the nursery since I 'was unable to understand my place in the world'. So even now a lot of times when I go to reply to something, I get the momentary panic of 'theyre gonna hate me and kick me off the site and then its gonna be horrible because Ill be so confused and just..' and it goes on and on and on. God like, I know it makes some kind of sick sense because that's what they believe as adults, but I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around doing that to kids. Like. That's just so impossibly awful, to make a little girl go to class but not even let her speak in it. To chime in with the rest, I definitely still have a massive problem with the omnipotent / omniscient thing. When I was first starting out, I would FREAK OUT if I was having doubting and confused thoughts, like "oh nooo they're gonna knoooooow." I've only recently had an easier time grasping it properly, I think spending more time talking to others about it helps a lot to reinforce it.
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Windy
Newbie
Posts: 31
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: irish polytheism
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Post by Windy on Feb 13, 2015 9:08:09 GMT -6
I didn't even realize that I was still thinking of the gods as omniscient! That is really going to help me. I am so glad this place exists!!
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galdrofnaumkeag
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Professional Lurker
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Religion: Germanic & Gaelic
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Post by galdrofnaumkeag on Feb 14, 2015 14:56:26 GMT -6
I didn't even realize that I was still thinking of the gods as omniscient! That is really going to help me. I am so glad this place exists!! Yup. I literally just realized that I'm bringing over omniscience too. And that 'girls cannot ask questions' thing is fucked up. I had an aunt (by marriage, now divorced) whose branch of christianity believed that females shouldn't wear pants, and had to wear only skirts. To the point that the family would get together at the lake, and my cousin Sarah would be wearing these floor length skirts that got in the way.
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Skywalker
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Post by Skywalker on Feb 16, 2015 21:32:04 GMT -6
I used to have a lot of issues with the whole omniscient thing. I guess it was a few years ago when that stopped happening. Like something just clicked and I didn't have to constantly remind myself that there's no gods watching my every move and spying on my every thought. And I also realized that they don't care all that much about whatever strange thoughts go through my head or even about many of the things that I once considered "sins." I remember when I first started out on a polytheistic path, I was really concerned with sins or not being good enough. Although I knew sin wasn't a thing, it took a long time for me to stop thinking that way. It was really freeing when I was able to stop thinking that way.
The whole "women are inferior to men" bs is one of the reasons I found myself really dissatisfied with Christianity. My family is Catholic, and although they don't outright teach that, there's so many double standards and hints and all that crap of trying to make me a "good Catholic girl" did not sit well with me. I remember them telling me that girls shouldn't be so loud or be running around like the boys.
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Post by TheModernSouthernPolytheist on Feb 17, 2015 0:17:05 GMT -6
Ugh, yes, the subordinate women thing just, ugh. I never got it. My mom raised me alone after my dad died until I was 10. Suddenly she couldn't make a decision. In reality, I now realize she was tryin to put up a unified front with my ex-step-dad, but he took advantage and would fly off and say something and she felt like she couldn't challenge him. It just blows my mind. She literally stayed in a marriage for 7 years that she knew was a mistake 3 weeks into because she'd been taught that women had to listen to men at all times.
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Post by brimstonne on Feb 17, 2015 15:13:06 GMT -6
My mom was raised in the 50s-60s so she had a lot of internalized sexism, and still cant understand why I had a problem with it. Im still working on getting her to understand that my sole purpose in life is not cleaning and cooking for my S.O. and that we like it that way. I think that its important to note that while not all churches follow the whole 'women are meant to be submissive to men' thing a lot of people left the church because of it.
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