Post by aneczyk on Feb 1, 2017 8:50:35 GMT -6
tw: Christianity, because for me seeing stuff related to that can be hard sometimes and I doubt I'm the only one
I know not all of us identify as pagans or as witches...but I do, and this is a subject that confuses me.
I still believe in Jesus Christ as a miracle worker and teacher, and Mary as his mother and a guardian spirit of women and important cultural figure from my (Catholic) childhood, and I believe in angels and saints, and all of these entities seem pretty okay with me not being Christian anymore. I've reconciled it.
And something that opened me up to polytheism/paganism is witchcraft, which for me is similar to paganism: believing in the spirits and consciousness of the universe, believing in magic, believing in the astral and faeries and ghosts and the afterlife, and interacting with these things in order to enact a goal. Belief in multiple gods is, in some ways, an extension of that and is part of my witchcraft.
And my spirituality as a witch is part of my paganism.
For me, the gods are like incredibly powerful spirits on another plane of existence, whose power is directly tied to human consciousness and creativity, as well as energy and the laws of nature. The power of the gods is a form of magic and lives within everything.
In a way, the gods are much like angels to me. Powerful, hierarchal, deserving of reverence. But there's something else in charge of them, something else that created them. They can be worshipped, revered, given offerings, prayed to...much like how some Catholics treat Mary and the saints.
As for "capital g God"...for a better word, that is magic. A sentient, living force of power, neither good nor evil, which is the driving force behind everything else in every universe that has ever existed and ever will exist. We all contain this power and can learn to manipulate it in small ways.
I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in hell, in the devil, in a messiah, in virgin births, in the Garden of Eden or the Fall of Man.
But for me, Catholicism is a culture and an ethnicity and something that does inform my values, my personality, and my religious practices today. Coupled with my belief in and spirit work with Jesus, Mary, the Angels, and the Saints, and to an extent my partial belief in the Holy Trinity, I'm similar to a Christian witch. I'm even considering going to church again, in order to learn about those things that I wouldn't have access to in the pagan community.
But I consider my religion to be a mix of Hellenic Polytheism, Catholicism, and some things from the British Isles (like belief in faeries, Samhain, and my interest in Druidry/Druidism - I'm not too clear on the difference - and the Brythonic and Gaelic pantheons). I wouldn't qualify as a Christian witch, but I believe in some things from Christianity and syncretize that with my paganism.
So...what's the line between paganism and witchcraft? What separates, say, an animist from an atheist witch? What separates a Christian witch from a christopagan? What separates a Jewish witch from an ethnically Jewish person who practices paganism and might mix that with Jewish religious beliefs?
I know not all of us identify as pagans or as witches...but I do, and this is a subject that confuses me.
I still believe in Jesus Christ as a miracle worker and teacher, and Mary as his mother and a guardian spirit of women and important cultural figure from my (Catholic) childhood, and I believe in angels and saints, and all of these entities seem pretty okay with me not being Christian anymore. I've reconciled it.
And something that opened me up to polytheism/paganism is witchcraft, which for me is similar to paganism: believing in the spirits and consciousness of the universe, believing in magic, believing in the astral and faeries and ghosts and the afterlife, and interacting with these things in order to enact a goal. Belief in multiple gods is, in some ways, an extension of that and is part of my witchcraft.
And my spirituality as a witch is part of my paganism.
For me, the gods are like incredibly powerful spirits on another plane of existence, whose power is directly tied to human consciousness and creativity, as well as energy and the laws of nature. The power of the gods is a form of magic and lives within everything.
In a way, the gods are much like angels to me. Powerful, hierarchal, deserving of reverence. But there's something else in charge of them, something else that created them. They can be worshipped, revered, given offerings, prayed to...much like how some Catholics treat Mary and the saints.
As for "capital g God"...for a better word, that is magic. A sentient, living force of power, neither good nor evil, which is the driving force behind everything else in every universe that has ever existed and ever will exist. We all contain this power and can learn to manipulate it in small ways.
I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in hell, in the devil, in a messiah, in virgin births, in the Garden of Eden or the Fall of Man.
But for me, Catholicism is a culture and an ethnicity and something that does inform my values, my personality, and my religious practices today. Coupled with my belief in and spirit work with Jesus, Mary, the Angels, and the Saints, and to an extent my partial belief in the Holy Trinity, I'm similar to a Christian witch. I'm even considering going to church again, in order to learn about those things that I wouldn't have access to in the pagan community.
But I consider my religion to be a mix of Hellenic Polytheism, Catholicism, and some things from the British Isles (like belief in faeries, Samhain, and my interest in Druidry/Druidism - I'm not too clear on the difference - and the Brythonic and Gaelic pantheons). I wouldn't qualify as a Christian witch, but I believe in some things from Christianity and syncretize that with my paganism.
So...what's the line between paganism and witchcraft? What separates, say, an animist from an atheist witch? What separates a Christian witch from a christopagan? What separates a Jewish witch from an ethnically Jewish person who practices paganism and might mix that with Jewish religious beliefs?
