nymphet_lilly
09-12-2004, 05:02 PM
Greetings
I choose to use the word Pagan to describe my spirituality. More specifically, I am Eclectic Mystical Pantheistic Cthonic Celebratory Fae Pagan, with focus on Celtic, Indian, and Greek Pantheons.
Eclectic~ meaning that I take from many and varying sources when puting together my beliefs
Mystical~ I find myself drawn to the more direct, experiential, and feeling aspects of spirituality, rather than only rational and abstract. I want an intuitive connection to creation and the Divine :o)
Pantheistic~ Deity is Immanent and Transcedent, being everywhere, and also containing everything all at once.
Cthonic~ Meaning that the deities and incarnations of the divine which I most closely relate to are of a primal, earthy, and agrarian sense, including Dionysus, Shiva, Demeter, Gaia, Epona, etc., and also that I prefer to relate to divinity through natural means, and in natural places.
Celebratory~ Nature and the Divine teach me to celebrate. Celebrate life and death, what you are and what you wish to be, celebrate colour and sound, silence and purity. Celebrate the world, from a single blade of grass or leafy bough, to the movement of the clouds, and the way the moon shine on the water. And so, I celebrate!
Fae~ I feel a special connection the the realms of Fae, and to such creatures, including dryads, faeries, gnomes, devas, spirits, naiads, and other such things. I feel that my soul may have been one of these creatures in another incarnation, and that I get memories and flashes of it from time to time. This is certinaly not to say that I am *special*, any more than someone with black hair, or long nails, or copper skin is special, and I think that more people would notice things like this if they gave them a chance.
I am a celebrant, and a sensate. I revel in the way fabric feels against my skin, I am distracted and entranced by sounds and colours, and I seem to be more observant than many people. I take pleasure in new sights, textures, and feelings as much as in thoughts, ideas, and more abstract things. I love them both!
I am a girl in body and sprit, and so I often relate better to female deities, but I do prefer a balance of the two. Just as there is a day to every night, and creation for every destruction, so there is a balance between these.
"Dionysos is a part of what Gilbert Durand calls 'night-mode' -- that is, a nocturnal consciousness associated with the moon, moisture, women, sexuality, emotions, the body and the earth...If any given culture receives only Apollonian sunshine, it dries up and dies; conversely, if it receives too much Dionysian moisture, it rots and becomes crazy...We need both Dionysos and Apollo."
-Ginette Paris, Pagan Grace
The pantheons are the cultures and deities whom I tend to relate to the best, although there are more and I do not limit myself.
To me, the word Pagan or Neo~Pagan is a classification for a large and varied group of beliefs which share a few unifying features. These would be a reverance for nature, and a likeliness to experience divinity through nature. Also, often taking inspiration, if indirectly, from more ancient, primal, or indiginous cultures and their groups of deities as more personally suiting means of approaching Divinity. Also, it means to me a very open~minded, non~dogmatic approach to spirituality. It accepts so many different types of beliefs, and that is part of the nature of it, allowing for spirituality to be a very personal thing. The variance and individuality is part what Pagan means, what it is.
I choose to use the word not only because there is a large community of people who use and agree to this definition of the word, but also because for reaons of my own, the word resonates with me. It represents, as its origins suggest, a connection with the rural country dwellers, the agrarian life, and connection to the Earth. Also, I find that it is very appropriate because of the fact that the people whom it was originally used to describe also had very individual and differing spirituality, often based on familiy deities, and local land~dwelling spirits as well as known deities. They shared the unifying feature of being close to the Earth more out of neccesity than of choice, but it was still a shared feature. They represent very well to me the amount of individual variation of belief, with the unifying factors. The word was sometimes used derogatorily, but so have the words Christian, Gay, and so many others been used.
This word, Pagan, is useful to me to describe my beliefs, although I would not use it alone to describe them if I wanted to be clearly understood. Other ways of describing spirituality have varying personal meanings and should be expanded upon as well. If, when initially asked to desribe my spirituality, I desribed it as Eclectic Pantheistic Pagan, or even only Pagan, then many people would have a good idea about the basis of my beliefs. Those who do not know of the word, of course, would not, and I would have to explain more fully anyway. But for those who do, it is a good way to establish a general idea of my spirituality. Also, having a shared word allows for a certain amount of community with people who share your fundamental beliefs, which is healthy and wonderful.
The use of this is very different than simply a "label", as in a word that is the only things which needs to be known. I wouldn't call myself a Pagan, and then never address the issue again, feeling that by giving out one word, or even a phrase, I had said enough to be fully understood. It is only a starting point, but a useful one nonetheless. Take, for example the word "tree". It describes a certain kind of thing, which contains certain properties which allow it to be recognized as a tree. There are also different categories of tree, under the more general one, such as Ash, Oak, Rowan, etc. The trees in the categories may be very different in appearance but still share features which make them a tree. And also, each individual tree is different from each other tree, even under the same category. We do not say that the word tree is useless because it can and does mean so many different things, nor are other descriptive words such as shoe, girl, idealist, or Pagan.
I understand the limitations of this word. Despite the instances in which the word is not a perfect fit, when I have a slight disagreement with others who call themselves Pagan, it still feels right to me. The word resonantes with me, and is find it to be the best general description of my spirituality. So, just in the same way that I would never simply describe myself as a girl or a human and expect people to know the intricacies of my character, I would never only use the word Pagan to describe myself. What is my sprituality, you ask? In short, Eclectic Mystical Pantheistic Cthonic Greco~Celto~Indian Celebratory Fae Revelrous Pagan. But that is only the beginning :o).
I choose to use the word Pagan to describe my spirituality. More specifically, I am Eclectic Mystical Pantheistic Cthonic Celebratory Fae Pagan, with focus on Celtic, Indian, and Greek Pantheons.
Eclectic~ meaning that I take from many and varying sources when puting together my beliefs
Mystical~ I find myself drawn to the more direct, experiential, and feeling aspects of spirituality, rather than only rational and abstract. I want an intuitive connection to creation and the Divine :o)
Pantheistic~ Deity is Immanent and Transcedent, being everywhere, and also containing everything all at once.
Cthonic~ Meaning that the deities and incarnations of the divine which I most closely relate to are of a primal, earthy, and agrarian sense, including Dionysus, Shiva, Demeter, Gaia, Epona, etc., and also that I prefer to relate to divinity through natural means, and in natural places.
Celebratory~ Nature and the Divine teach me to celebrate. Celebrate life and death, what you are and what you wish to be, celebrate colour and sound, silence and purity. Celebrate the world, from a single blade of grass or leafy bough, to the movement of the clouds, and the way the moon shine on the water. And so, I celebrate!
Fae~ I feel a special connection the the realms of Fae, and to such creatures, including dryads, faeries, gnomes, devas, spirits, naiads, and other such things. I feel that my soul may have been one of these creatures in another incarnation, and that I get memories and flashes of it from time to time. This is certinaly not to say that I am *special*, any more than someone with black hair, or long nails, or copper skin is special, and I think that more people would notice things like this if they gave them a chance.
I am a celebrant, and a sensate. I revel in the way fabric feels against my skin, I am distracted and entranced by sounds and colours, and I seem to be more observant than many people. I take pleasure in new sights, textures, and feelings as much as in thoughts, ideas, and more abstract things. I love them both!
I am a girl in body and sprit, and so I often relate better to female deities, but I do prefer a balance of the two. Just as there is a day to every night, and creation for every destruction, so there is a balance between these.
"Dionysos is a part of what Gilbert Durand calls 'night-mode' -- that is, a nocturnal consciousness associated with the moon, moisture, women, sexuality, emotions, the body and the earth...If any given culture receives only Apollonian sunshine, it dries up and dies; conversely, if it receives too much Dionysian moisture, it rots and becomes crazy...We need both Dionysos and Apollo."
-Ginette Paris, Pagan Grace
The pantheons are the cultures and deities whom I tend to relate to the best, although there are more and I do not limit myself.
To me, the word Pagan or Neo~Pagan is a classification for a large and varied group of beliefs which share a few unifying features. These would be a reverance for nature, and a likeliness to experience divinity through nature. Also, often taking inspiration, if indirectly, from more ancient, primal, or indiginous cultures and their groups of deities as more personally suiting means of approaching Divinity. Also, it means to me a very open~minded, non~dogmatic approach to spirituality. It accepts so many different types of beliefs, and that is part of the nature of it, allowing for spirituality to be a very personal thing. The variance and individuality is part what Pagan means, what it is.
I choose to use the word not only because there is a large community of people who use and agree to this definition of the word, but also because for reaons of my own, the word resonates with me. It represents, as its origins suggest, a connection with the rural country dwellers, the agrarian life, and connection to the Earth. Also, I find that it is very appropriate because of the fact that the people whom it was originally used to describe also had very individual and differing spirituality, often based on familiy deities, and local land~dwelling spirits as well as known deities. They shared the unifying feature of being close to the Earth more out of neccesity than of choice, but it was still a shared feature. They represent very well to me the amount of individual variation of belief, with the unifying factors. The word was sometimes used derogatorily, but so have the words Christian, Gay, and so many others been used.
This word, Pagan, is useful to me to describe my beliefs, although I would not use it alone to describe them if I wanted to be clearly understood. Other ways of describing spirituality have varying personal meanings and should be expanded upon as well. If, when initially asked to desribe my spirituality, I desribed it as Eclectic Pantheistic Pagan, or even only Pagan, then many people would have a good idea about the basis of my beliefs. Those who do not know of the word, of course, would not, and I would have to explain more fully anyway. But for those who do, it is a good way to establish a general idea of my spirituality. Also, having a shared word allows for a certain amount of community with people who share your fundamental beliefs, which is healthy and wonderful.
The use of this is very different than simply a "label", as in a word that is the only things which needs to be known. I wouldn't call myself a Pagan, and then never address the issue again, feeling that by giving out one word, or even a phrase, I had said enough to be fully understood. It is only a starting point, but a useful one nonetheless. Take, for example the word "tree". It describes a certain kind of thing, which contains certain properties which allow it to be recognized as a tree. There are also different categories of tree, under the more general one, such as Ash, Oak, Rowan, etc. The trees in the categories may be very different in appearance but still share features which make them a tree. And also, each individual tree is different from each other tree, even under the same category. We do not say that the word tree is useless because it can and does mean so many different things, nor are other descriptive words such as shoe, girl, idealist, or Pagan.
I understand the limitations of this word. Despite the instances in which the word is not a perfect fit, when I have a slight disagreement with others who call themselves Pagan, it still feels right to me. The word resonantes with me, and is find it to be the best general description of my spirituality. So, just in the same way that I would never simply describe myself as a girl or a human and expect people to know the intricacies of my character, I would never only use the word Pagan to describe myself. What is my sprituality, you ask? In short, Eclectic Mystical Pantheistic Cthonic Greco~Celto~Indian Celebratory Fae Revelrous Pagan. But that is only the beginning :o).