Caelesti
Junior Member
Posts: 50 
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: ADF/UU, Modern American Polytheist
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Post by Caelesti on May 6, 2015 16:09:31 GMT -6
Well technically I was raised Methodist, but in a very toned down, we just go to church on Sundays and don't talk about it the rest of the week. My parents would get a deer in the headlights look if I asked them questions about religion. I got very mixed messages, like- it's ok to be religious but don't make a big deal out of it or get too emotional, or even that it was something to be somewhat ashamed or embarrassed by.
Very overtly religious people always seemed intimidating/weird/made me uncomfortable etc. growing up. The loudest ones depicted in the media were usually trying to take away someone else's rights. So even though I knew Not All Religious People/Christians Are Like That...that's the main message I got.
It wasn't til I went to college that really got the chance to more thoroughly understand Christianity and met people who were religious, but not scary about it!
In short, we talk of "recovering monotheists" but I think what's also hard is to switch from a very secularized compartmentalized keep it in your bedroom view of religion. I feel the people who were brought up observant Jews or Catholics have a bit of an edge. I've been reading articles about Muslims in Britain, and it strikes me I wonder how many of the problems are simply that people aren't used to being around overtly religious people- we have our problems here to of course, but overt displays of religion aren't considered as odd in the U.S. as they are in many countries in Europe. It's the type of religion we are less used to!
So how do other people switch out of that mindset? I think it would help simply to spend more time around people who are Religious But Not Scary! Most of the people I hang out with are fairly secular.
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wickedlittlecritta
Full Member
A tempest in a teacup
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Religion: Gaelic polytheist
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Post by wickedlittlecritta on May 6, 2015 20:27:25 GMT -6
Oh this is also something I'm struggling with. Technically my family is Christian, but I have no idea what denomination we are. I think I asked once and got the verbal equivalent of a shrug in response.
On the other hand, I don't particularly care? I have a lot of irl friends of varying religions and levels of religiousness, but it's not a subject that comes up super much. Possibly it's part of the not talking about religion much in my family growing up + unfortunate exposure to my heavy-handed Baptist neighbors, or maybe it's just me regardless, but I am generally not a fan of talking about religion as it relates to me personally with most people I know. It's mine, it's personal, and I like it that way.
The places where I think people who grew up religious have an edge are more the day-to-day incorporation of religion, which is where I get stuck a lot. I didn't grow up with it, so prayer and ritual feels really unnatural and forced to me. Usually when I do have discussions about religion, it's from an academic standpoint, so moving from theory to practice is...weird. It's all weird. Who knows, maybe talking about it more would help, since a lot of times I feel like an awkward secular impostor pretending to be a polytheist.
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Caelesti
Junior Member
Posts: 50
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: ADF/UU, Modern American Polytheist
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Post by Caelesti on May 6, 2015 20:48:17 GMT -6
I feel like an awkward secular impostor pretending to be a polytheist. LOL! Exactly how I feel! How you describe your family is what I refer to as "culturally Christian". What's weird is when people are totally wishy-washy about it but then get upset when you go join another religion or become an atheist. Fortunately that didn't happen to me. My parents no longer go to church- I now joke they worship the goddess Caffeina on Sunday mornings. And yes, like you I don't tend to discuss religion unless it just naturally arises in conversation and seems appropriate. I'm trying to think in terms of how to add religious "ingredients" into things I already do in my life. Like if you think of the prayers in the Carmina Gadelica (though they are Christian) there are all these prayers for everyday tasks- mostly ones we don't do nowadays, but we could say a hearth prayer while turning on the stove and starting a kettle boiling and such. Just wrote this- paganleft.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/creating-devotions-for-secular-events-brainstorming/ |
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ryeduck
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Religion: TBD
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Post by ryeduck on May 8, 2015 4:51:14 GMT -6
Who is this goddess Caffeina you speak of? She sounds wonderful and amazing and I'd love to get to know her.  I feel very much the same way. Growing up religious was a non-thing. When I visited my grandma she'd take me to church, but that's it. Suddenly when I was 10 or 11 my dad went back to the church and it suddenly became important for me to get baptized and have communion and go to church every week. For a while I got into it. It was all new and fresh, but after a few years I realized that I wasn't really sincere about my worship and started to falter. Now I'm trying to learn to be a polytheist, but I'm afraid it'll be the same thing. It'll be cool and new for a while and eventually I'll get bored of it and stop. It's hard to go to non-religious to religious. It always feels a bit forced and unnatural when you try to do religious things when you're not used to doing so. Also, just read your blog post Caelesti. Definitely some good suggestions!  |
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Caelesti
Junior Member
Posts: 50
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: ADF/UU, Modern American Polytheist
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Post by Caelesti on May 8, 2015 7:17:09 GMT -6
Who is this goddess Caffeina you speak of? She sounds wonderful and amazing and I'd love to get to know her. Also, just read your blog post Caelesti. Definitely some good suggestions! Re: Caffeina- well in that case it was kind of a joke, (my parents are "secular devotees" of hers) but she actually is worshiped by some people. I'll start a thread about Caffeina in the Pop Culture Polytheism section. We all know how in Paganism, things that start out as jokes have a tendency to take on a life of their own...the Gods have their own interesting senses of humor! Re: post- Thanks- that is just the brainstorming post. With the summer coming up, there's lots of public outdoor festivals of various types and I thought it would be cool to come up with ways of sanctifying them. It's like back Ye Olden Days of Greece & Rome the public festivals celebrated by entire cities were religious in nature, but they were also entertainment! |
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Post by saintfelicity on May 10, 2015 8:06:09 GMT -6
I was brought up Catholic but my family themselves were definitely "culturally Catholic." It was bizarre to me that they were so adamant about going to church weekly, but then got freaked out when I was a really enthusiastic participant in everything else. "Church extracurriculars," I guess you could call them, since I had extra responsibilities that needed me at the church on more than just Sundays, since I was an altar server / teacher / cantor / Eucharistic minister, that whole bit. I was fairly open about my day-to-day practice when I became more Evangelical, too, but I started quashing it when people told me it made them uncomfortable when I brought it up. But it's not like I was proselytizing - it was important to me and part of my day-to-day life, so it would inevitably you know, just come up in conversation about weekend plans. So I stopped mentioning my small group, Friday worship services, and Sunday services, and eventually I became atheist so I basically lost all my vocabulary for being able to talk about my practice.
I'm only now getting more comfortable talking about my practice / PRACTICING my practice around my boyfriend, who I live with, and it's been nearly a year. Forget about mentioning it to anyone else. It's a little frustrating because it's not like I want to talk about the woo-y stuff, but I know people will get thrown by it since my religion is so uncommon. But aside from being my religion it's really also my hobby, and a source for a lot of my artwork, and it's annoying to feel like I have to talk around why I did something that I want to share. Not really sure what the best thing to do there is.
Re: creating day-to-day devotions, Caelesti, I'm excited to check out your brainstorms! This is something I'm working on, too. I'm creating a little devotional exercise out of a daily sweep-and-mop, and then see if that inspires anything else.
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aondeug
Full Member
Posts: 141
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers, He/Him/His
Religion: Thai Theravada, Irish polytheism
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Post by aondeug on May 11, 2015 10:35:17 GMT -6
I don't really remember my shift from non-religious to religious. I do recall being very hesitant about identifying as Buddhist, though. To the point where I would correct people if they said I was. I wasn't prepared to make that distinction at the moment, since for me religion seems like it should be a central thing upon everything else that you are is based. Religion is serious business and especially with a religion as hard as Buddhism!
Prior to that however I can say that I did feel that other things did exist. I did believe in gods and I still believe that somewhere out there the Hellenic gods exist and are doing their thing. I may not have anything to do with them. But they were the start of this. The issue was more what I wanted and Buddhism provided what I wanted more or less? Though that question is now up in the air entirely but eh.
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Post by Allec on May 12, 2015 15:18:51 GMT -6
I'm with Aondeug in that I don't remember when my switch from being non-religious to religious happened, since I wasn't really religious until five years ago. But I was always spiritual and superstitious, even when being raised Catholic. I guess it's always been apart of me, despite the non-strict religious upbringing.
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cass
Junior Member
Posts: 77
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Religion: Gaelic polytheist
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Post by cass on May 19, 2015 3:03:37 GMT -6
this is definitely something i still deal with from time to time, sometimes things can get difficult, though at least i haven't fallen back on the whole 'well i guess maybe i can be an agnostic polytheist???' in a few years. so i guess that's an improvement. i feel like i'm always dealing with these thoughts that since all this religious stuff doesn't come naturally and easily to me, i must be doing everything wrong! it's annoying. i'll def have to give that blog post a look when i'm less tired |
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Post by saintfelicity on May 24, 2015 20:10:35 GMT -6
I feel like since the last time I posted here I've managed to... start giving myself permission to get in to my religious headspace more often? It's subtle, I know it's something that'll get stronger with practice but I've been purposefully sticking myself into it when I'm not otherwise and it's kind of sort of becoming a habit. Part of it I think is, Catholicism and the other religions I've participated in have a regimented, dedicated time so it's automatic in a way, where now I have to make the time for myself, if that makes sense.
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Post by Allec on May 25, 2015 6:55:37 GMT -6
Yeah that does make sense Ashley. I'm glad it's getting easier for you!
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Huri
Newbie
gone in the river
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Religion: Gaelic Polytheist
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Post by Huri on Jun 22, 2015 5:49:17 GMT -6
Yeah, for me it's a struggle of How Do I Pray? Am I Doing This Right? and When I Talk About It Out Loud It Sounds So Woo-y but also the biggest one, I Can't Shake The Feeling That I'm Wasting Food When I Do Offerings?!
There's also the problem of even though I was barely raised religiously, living in the Bible Belt still left an influence on "this is what religion is supposed to be". So I came in with very simplified expectations, like "you can pray for whatever, even the littlest things" and "you go to a house of worship every week". It's like I have the monotheistic background but none of the I Know How To Religion, and what I do know about religion is a polished, oversimplified version that probably isn't even correct in spots?
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Post by saintfelicity on Jul 11, 2015 7:29:05 GMT -6
Yeah, for me it's a struggle of How Do I Pray? Am I Doing This Right? and When I Talk About It Out Loud It Sounds So Woo-y but also the biggest one, I Can't Shake The Feeling That I'm Wasting Food When I Do Offerings?! REEEEEELATABLE |
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dracula
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Religion: Gaelic Polytheist (?)
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Post by dracula on Jan 25, 2016 20:44:42 GMT -6
Sorry for necroing this a bit, but this has been so incredibly relevant to me throughout my whole journey. I was raised a harsh atheist, with my only exposure to religion being my Seventh Day Adventists best (and more or less only) friends, who were very comfortable telling me all the time how I was going to hell and why and how I would suffer when I was there. So, I had a terrible view of religion from like ages four up to fourteen.
Going from extremely atheist non-spiritual to agnostic non-spiritual to agnostic practicing spiritual to cushy agnostic polytheist practicing spiritual to full blown polytheist animist has been a WEIRD time. I've had plenty of support ( and certainly no backlash) from my immediate family and friends, but it is weird to suddenly be religious when your entire social circle is atheist. It makes speaking about my practices incredibly difficult, and probably alienates them.
The most frustrating part is the slow process of shedding all the negative ideas in my mind that clung to religion for so long. I find myself feeling ashamed when praying or giving offerings, despite the happiness and satisfaction it also brings me. It is a strange experience.
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