Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts

What's Your Path - Witchy Wednesday

I have spent over 25 years trying to figure out exactly what is my path.  When most people are asked about a religious path most of the time they say they are on the path they are on because they were raised that way.  I was raised as a Christian, Southern Baptist specifically.  When I was in my late 20s I was introduced to Paganism.  To me it fit me better than what I saw going on in the world of Christianity.  Up until this last year, I classified myself as a "Goddess Worshiper".  Over the last few months I have found myself less a "believer" if you will.



To me religion was created by man for two reasons.  First it was to explain things that we did not understand.  So the sun rising in the morning and the moon rising at night was obviously a race between the planets to our ancestors.  As we learned more about the world around us with new discoveries in science religion would have died off but for the power it allowed some to have over others.  This is where the mainstay of religion has roots.  Around the world those in power used things like religion to control the masses. From Kings taking the lands to Popes demanding submission religion has been the key to controlling the world.

Odin - Saga's Cottage
Artist - Loren Morris

To me, religion was intended to help us find those qualities and personify them so that we could be better people.  We could take the strength of Thor or the wisdom of Odin to help us through out days. Creating sagas about these people helped us identify with them in order to reach an ideal.  For example, for many years I followed Hecate, reaching out to her to embody her knowledge of magic and the dead.  Calling on her for justice and protection.  Pulling into myself these attributes that make her who she is so that I could become just as strong as she.  As I continued to read and grow I began to see that what my mind was telling me was exactly what I had known all along.  These gods no more walked the earth than Jesus did.  We can ask for the wisdom of Odin or the wisdom of our grandmother who raised 10 children after her husband died at 49.  We have the ability within ourselves without relying on the fears of the ancestors from our past.

One of the things that we can be sure of us the energy that we have on the planet.  From the animals that are here to the plants and waters.  Everything has energy. To me as a witch, I need to have a connection with those thing and not to some over arching being that controls everything. Just look around us. No one is in control.  We are what we are.  And we can look to use our energy to change the physical world around us.  How does that look?  How does it work?  That will be my goal over this next year.  I want to focus on improving my magic and taking control of my destiny.

There are many witches I identify with, enough though we may not share a direct path.  Some witches follow deities while others done.  Some follow the rule of three and some don't.  I will try to share videos from all different paths to show a diversity in the craft.

I'll start with this intro video from Laurie Cabot.



One of the things that directed my path was the Cosmic Skeptic on YouTube.  Here's one of his videos.  I recommend checking him out.


Pagan Blog Project 2013 - J is for Jesus


So a few months ago I got into a major tiff with a member of a Pagan Group on Facebook.  This question was posted to the group.  

What are the deities you worship?  Are they male or female?

Some of the answers to the question were very typical and nothing I didn't expect.  I tossed mine up there.  Hecate - Female.  Others posted Thor and Pan or Diana and Isis.  Then one person posted, the following response.   Jesus Christ – Male.

Really?

I was completely dumbfounded at how this was even possible.  Apparently they identified as a Pagan but were a follower of Christ.  I was confused.  Immediately I was questioning this.  How can one be a Pagan AND a follower of Christ.  Since there are several references by Jesus about Pagans specifically and those are not held in the highest regard.

Matthew 6:7
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words

Matthew 6:32
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Matthew 18:17
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

The website openbible.info lists 47 different verses that they attribute to Pagans.  Again not in a positive way. 


That being said, I can totally see how you can be a person who reads the bible and says, “Hey Jesus was a cool guy, he did cool stuff. I want to follow his philosophy.”  However, in order to be a Christian, there are very strict rules associated with it.  One of which is to believe that there is only one God, and Jesus is the son of that God.  You have to believe that he died on a cross for your sins and that through that blood sacrifice you are saved from eternal damnation.  Through that sacrifice your sins are washed away by the blood and allowed entry into the kingdom of Heaven.  
Now, I’m not one to poke at people who believe what they want to believe.  Heck I believe in an energy that flows through everything on the Earth.  I believe that energy stays present even in death and that if we listen closely enough we can channel that energy and change the physical world.  Really not too much different than what some believe prayer is.
Jon Stewart is amazing.  He said it best in the following skit.



I understand that many of the cultures adopted or incorporated aspects from Christianity into their Pagan religions after having their own beliefs “Christianized” by conquering forces.  I fail to see how one can actually be a Pagan Christian that follows Jesus.  I would think that would be akin to being a Christian Atheist.

That being said, I’m certainly not saying that you cannot say that you are that.  And my understanding of that belief system is certainly not required in order to legitimize it. 

Namaste & Blessed Be
Sosanna
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