that sounds awesome actually. Here in the United States, it's a lot harder to find that. It seems to be different branches of fairly strict Christianity. There are a few that are more welcoming - they call them "reformed" where they are more likely to accept the lgbt community.

But recent politics are driving people further and further conservative or liberal. It seems to be more tribalism to the extreme.

The Universalist Church is actually a pretty neat organization on the whole. They believe that all religions are possible and have their own validity and that we can learn from each of them. I'll go one day, I think.

Very interesting about your visions and past lives. You seem to be very connected with them.

Sometimes I wish our culture was more spiritual here. It gets a bit lonely feeling from it. But my wife is a witch too and together we are able to find some spiritual meaning.

there are a lot of doctrines that relate to christ but "christian" people here wont consider these doctrine "christian doctrines" is complicated... politics here are extremely dividing people here to 8 or 80 . in one side there is these "good people of god family and good morals " and on the other side all of the others these people dont see in the mirror in a narcistic way, all of the rejected "others".... but well, we survive and the protestants are taking over but still you can find a good spiritual temple where witches are welcomed in every city you go... my husband isnt into witchcraft but very senstive and aware of my practice, very respectful, but i guess it must be very nice to be in this path side by side with the person you love and live with, also a lot of good ritual to do by two...

yeah, it seems like a lot of today's world is becoming more and more divided.

I'm glad you found someone who supports you even if it may not be his cup of tea. My wife and I just began practicing spells together. We are currently working on a manifestation candle magic. We did a weather spell together once that worked out very well. I am grateful for sure to have someone to explore with.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Lumi here on Subeta, and a blessed Yule/Christmas/holiday season however you choose to celebrate.

Blessed Winter celebrations to you too.

Oh wow. This thread.... hard to believe no one posted in over a year. :(

Hi I used to be part of a 'pagan' forum but that died out after awhile. I am not really 'pagan' or anything really; I do not believe in any personified or anthropomorphized deities however I do think that character is what determines us to be descent, not how many gods we believe in.

In one forum I made myself a bit unpopular because I simply said that while nature is amazing it is not inherently wise or kind because you had a lot of people claiming animals did this or that because they somehow 'knew' something. An example was when a pod of dolphins had been documented attacking and killing a young dolphin..the people on the forum rationalized it by claiming they somehow 'knew' it was sick or something (a claim that was never proven) and that was why they bludgeoned their own.

I also asked them, since they felt nature was so loving, if they ever watched a nature documentary on lions and watched as a male lion, who had taken over a pride, casually hunt down little cubs and tear them to bits. Innocent little cubs...guess that ruffled a few feathers.

Then the biggest one was referring to altar items as stage props because while they may help in setting the mood they have no inherent power save for what you imagine them to have. The 'power' comes from within, you channel energies through yourself by your own effort, not a wand or stone.

I guess what made me the odd one out was that I pointed out that it is easy to chant, pray and do rituals but to alter your behavior and thinking based on the tenets of respect for nature..that is the real challenge.

I tried wicca for a bit but I couldn't force myself to believe in all these deities nor could I force myself to believe that lighting a candle does anything other than help create a mood and forcing myself to believe this or that did nothing except exhaust me so I do my own thing and focus on my thinking.

I guess the real work comes from within....

Love that little GIF of the kitty playing with the flowers. So adorable.

Hello and thank you! I think most folks here will agree with you that the real magic comes from within. Everyone has found what works best for them though, so there will always be differences of opinion. That's actually what I love best about neo-paganism, the variety and individuality of all the different practitioners. Personally I see the deities as archetypes of the forces i wish to invoke, and use their statues/images as a focusing tool, as with all the rest of my altar dressings. My husband is more of a believer in them as Gods. Whatever works, in my opinion, is what is right for that individual. So welcome! Good to see someone new!

P.S. Nature is a bitch. Respect her, or she'll chew you up and spit you out. Anyone who expects her to be kind is in for a rude awakening as soon as they get out of the relative safety of civilization.

I need to apologize, I do not mean to sound like a wet blanket..I guess I am just a bit jaded and am very skeptical which makes belief, at least for me, very difficult. Nature is what it is..a collection of systems and processes and like you said you have to respect it because we all live within its implied rules.

Humans are no different and I think this is what trips us up collectively is that you need to learn to work with the ebb and flow of nature and not against it or nature will use you like a chew toy.

My observation with 'spell work' with many people is that ritual is not enough..it is like the concept of 'Equivalent Exchange' from the anime "FullMetal Alchemist" where if you want to achieve something then you have to give something in return like energy, effort, intent and if there is no mix of the three then nothing will be forthcoming. Wishing, thinking happy thoughts and visualizing only gets you so far but the other three I mentioned are the key elements..that's how I see it.

Not at all. A certain amount of skepticism is a healthy thing to have. My grams always said that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
I personally have found that rituals, like deific imagery, candles, and athames, are tools to focus the mind. Props if you will.., the stage dressing for the mental and physical effort that you mention. If you are just waving a wand, and mouthing the words you might as well be reciting limericks in my opinion. Equivalent Exchange goes way beyond anime. The first law of thermodynamics states that the total amount of energy of this universe (or any isolated system) is always constant. To get something you have to give something, that doesn't change for magical energy any more than for electrical energy. Can't think of too many folks (who have any common sense) who'd disagree with you there.

In my personal experience or rather, observation, I have seen far too many young people get into 'the craft' because they want to be cool, dress up in 'special' garb and chant obscure stuff or speak a certain way. In short they just end up role-playing and not realizing or even completely ignoring the fact that any belief system requires an adjustment of mindset and attitude. My observation has been that many of these young people and kids engage in wicca or 'the craft' (not the mangled fraud that Crowley packaged up..more on that later) because they want to be all 'in-your-face' with their parents in retaliation for being forced into their belief system and all they end up doing is being obnoxious and getting their stuff confiscated or kicked out for their belligerence.

Also that what one calls 'magic' is the channeling of energy; there is no 'good' magic/energy or 'bad magic/energy; energy is energy. The real key is in how you use and the intention behind it. It is far more complicated than what most books care to reveal and fail to mention that in order to even do the spell work that you must first condition the mind. Kinda like preparing your body for the olympics, you can't just go out there and run or do javelin throwing and expect to win if you haven't trained and practiced, right?

Anyways...I find that once you can wade through all the fluff that many books rely on in order to get sold, the real work is done on the self first, the mind itself..introspection and confronting your own pains and mental obstacles. There is just so much more to it all than many realize. Of course maturity plays a HUGE role too and how one perceived an issue at one point will invariably change as they get a bit older.

Sorry..don't mean to sound like I am lecturing..it's just that as an adult (I am somewhat older than most here) I have obtained a different perspective over time.

I'm not in the habit of looking at the forums here, but HI, I'm paganish.

I'm also ADHDish so I hit enter way too soon. :/

Anyway, I read tarot, but like Bendy, I don't believe in deities, and the tarot cards are just pretty pieces of paper. But it's pretty magical that we can look at some squiggles and do some really heavy introspection that we can then use to change our lives or the world around us. Also, my husband surprised me with a firepit for Litha, and that was pretty great too.

Firepits are awesome. We have a small one that my SO built us not long after we got our house in 2018. Welcome to the group.... we're not nearly as active as we used to be, but I loved seeing the alert pop up in my feed! :)

This firepit is portable, and it's really well engineered. If I hadn't built the fire myself, I would have sworn it was a gas fire, but it's just clever airflow. I had my teeny tiny loose incense burner all ready to go with my little charcoal tab, and here he comes with this big ol' thing and a bag of marshmallows. He was like, "IDK if s'mores are appropriate, but...here?"

Merry Meet to all and hello I am very new here (5Days). Hope to meet new people and make new friendships. I am a coffee/tea drinker and enjoy collecting books, gems, and TY bears. I have dealt with depression and anxiety since my dad passed in 2001, it is getting better as the years pass but still gets me very bad once in a while. PS how do I ping someone and lol what is pinging all about??? Blessed Be!!!

just type @ then the persons name in the reply box afterward then start typing...like I just did

Conversely if, for example, I wanted to ping you would click the icon on top of your post that looks like a speakerphone (the gray-ish bar on top of your post has four icons) and @ Rainstorm_Witch would appear in my reply box (without the space between the @ and your name) and I can direct my comment to you in particular. This is useful if one wants to answer someones question directly and what is neat is that you should receive a alert letting you know if someone has replied to you in the same fashion.

I hope that wasn't too complicated...

no that was just perfect.... thank you kindly. Blessed Be!!!

Cool..I am glad I could help Blessed Be ❤

It is nice to see activity here. :)

Yeah..this thread has been a bit quiet.