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Post by TheModernSouthernPolytheist on Apr 1, 2015 8:46:49 GMT -6
I'll agree that a lot has to do with age. We have a tradition in Western society of age=authenticity. Even things like "respect your elders" are purely based on age. And even large religions like Christianity do it. Other than the historical truth that Christianity grew out of Judaism, one of the major reasons that modern Christianity clings so heavily to Judaism is because of Judaism's age. That age again lends legitimacy and therefore authenticity. The idea that thought can manifest reality is also actually fairly new in the Western world, lending to the problems faced in PCP. "New Thought" was a trend in the 1920s, basically that era's New Age, and even affected Christian traditions and the idea of faith healing and spiritual gifts. This scared the crap out of mainline Christianity (New Thought was largely found in Pentecostal denominations) and those dominant denominations fought against it as "tainting of the Devil." So, there's that element that has residual effects on broader Western society, too, especially in the States.
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aiwelin
Newbie
Posts: 13 
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Religion: ADF-Style Heathen
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Post by aiwelin on Apr 1, 2015 11:51:15 GMT -6
I'd like to a dress both points that seem to be coming up in the thread: how can you tell if something is real, and what makes pc paganism as legit as historical paganism?
First, the question of how to know deities are real. I'll be honest here- I don't. Not the same way I know my children are real, or the jelly beans I'm currently nomming on. But I absolutely believe they are real, 100%, because of the experiences I've had and the signs that I have received. To be clear, I've had the same kind of communication (generally through feeling presences) from pop culture deities and my Germanic Gods and Goddesses.
Secondly, what makes pc paganism as legit as historical paganism? I believe that the Gods have always been here, and they are not so much waiting to be discovered as happy to have other beings to communicate and interact with. I believe there are some who resonate more with our modern culture and may just now be revealing themselves, or perhaps they were once worshiped but have now been forgotten. My own pc practice centers on the Gods of Tolkien's mythos, the Valar; Tolkien himself said many times that his body of myth and story was more' given' than just the work of his own mind. I believe these entities spoke of their stories to him, and though it requires careful reading to separate the author's cultural bias from the truth of the deities, the same can be said for much historical Pagan literature as well.
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