Any Fellow Pagans?

[ElfiexElfSeeker]

To me, Paganism has always seemed so accepting of GLBT people. I was just wondering if there are other Pagans here.

I'm eclectic. My interests are rather diverse. I study Druidry, European Shamanism, Native American Traditions, Celtic Traditions, Slavic Traditions, Wicca and the Faerycraft/Faith.

My current projects have been to create a Faery House on our property, which I did yesterday. But my long term project is cataloging all the trees in my area and finding their magical properties. I want to know what plants are growing around me, because these are the ones I will be working with. Not all of them are covered by the Ogham alphabet which originated over in the UK. It's a fun albeit tedious project, but will be well worth it in the end. And saves me money of having to buy a book on trees.

My favorite type of tree is the Birch. I just think they are so beautiful. I love the bark. But I'm also partial to willows and oaks.

[Sylph]

That sounds so fascinating, unfortunately I don't believe I am Pagan...

I'm Agnostic, but more in a spiritual sense. I , like you in a way, am quite drawn to nature and believe more in the prospect of spirits[such as the faeries of Ireland] and animals and what not.

I'm not so very religious, meaning I don't worship anything really...

I prefer to believe in nature and respect it and abide by it really. Like when I die, I want to my spirit to go back into the earth or become like a spirit guide or something, because I love nature that much mile: .

I believe Rainbowmum & Fenris are Pagans... :biggrin:

By the way, I love your Avatar picture, it's so pretty mile:

[pellaz]

actually i think there are a few here and they could chime in . so to the top till they do.

[dfiant]

Odi, we have so many things in common.

I'm not Pagan, I'm also Agnost, I don't believe in 'A' god or religion, but I believe in spiritualism and am kinda parial to Budhism.

There are quiete a few Pagan's here, Odi has already mentioned 2.

[spencer]

*small wave*

I'm pretty eclectic, curiosity gets the best of me and I get immersed in a thousand different things at once, a bit overwhelming at times but always fun. I attempted to make a Faery Garden about a year ago but it failed, I don't quite remember why. Lately though I have started getting interested in the magickal properties of trees. I've been feeling crafty (lolbadpun) and gotten in to some besom making.

[fenris]

hi,

yes, we have some pagans here,)

I´m pagan since many years .. I´m ( mostly ) on the celtic way...
Interests : Herbal healing ( I own a Homepage with more then 2000 Din A 4 Sites in time ), botany, mushroms, trees....
My tree is the holm oak
Animal : Wolf
Gods and Goddesses : The great Goddes, the green man

and many ³ things more ...


Hope to read more from and about you ...

May the Light of the Goddess always lighten your ways ....

da fen

[Pix]

I was a neopagan for awhile before I drifted back into agnosticism. How I got into it and drifted out of it is a very long story that takes place over years.

I had a vision of Freya when I was 15, which is a very interesting story IMO but longer than I wish to share right now, and that made me interested in the more Heathen types like Asatru, and I was real good friends with both a bisexual gythia (priestess) and even a Heathen deputy (who gave me a lot of tips on dealing with the law). Unfortunately they can sometimes be uncomfortable with homosexuality (though bi women are often given a pass) and a few other things that could make interacting with them problematic at times, plus when I did there was so much drama that I gave up on it. I could see joining a Kindred under the right (if unlikely) circumstances, however, which is more than I can say of most other religions.

I was Wicca for a short while (a few months) but decided it didn't fit me, though I find Wicca a beautiful, poetic religion for the most part and get along with them well.

I was also part of a Discordian cabal (we had all kinds of chaotic spellings for ourselves, like "Dyskordyan Kabal" as well as call our group things like the CFR, a group hated by many conspiracy theorists on both the Left and the Right but in our case the CFR stood for "Conspiracies For Rent" and we pulled some major pranks). Though fun it was a spiritual and enlightening experience and the goddess of Chaos touched us all in bizarre and hard to describe ways. Sadly our group is sundered though I'm still BFF with the one who organized us, though she who was once known as Mistress Anarky is now a Taoist (though technically Discordianism is in many ways basically Taoism converted to western sensibilities). I joined it purely as a joke but came to believe the goddess was real before drifting back into agnosticism.

That said, you should know that there are homophobic neopagans...mainly these come from either the more conservative branches (like the Scandinavian pagans tend to be, though not always) or the really traditional branches of Wicca. See when Gardner pretty much invented Wicca (not to say he fabricated the entire thing, more like he updated a lot of occult and spiritual practices and modernized it, tweaked to his own personal interests of course so that whippings and young maidens used to be featured a lot more prominently :tongue: ) he was careful to make it as socially acceptable as possible (keeping in mind that when he published his first book witchcraft had just been decriminalized), and that included putting in a passage that gays were "cursed by the Goddess." The Wiccan trads that formed around him (including those that split off) tended to keep that belief with a lot of emphasis on male/female dynamics.

Luckily, neopagans tend to be a free thinking bunch (though some can be as dogmatic and intolerant as Westboro Baptists) and frequently challenge ideas (after all, most would not become neopagan unless they were willing to challenge the ideas they were raised with in the first place) and by the 1970s the homophobic elements were pretty much rejected as stupid and inconsistent with the theology (thealogy?) in general, and even many of the more traditional sects (like the Gardnerians) have also lightened up on the issue (though homophobia still exist).

Btw, you might find this site useful:

http://www.witchvox.com/

Also, the pagan field guide (funny because it's true! ):

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=...rs&id=2099

[Rainbowmum]

Merry we meet.

I am pagan by choice , on my mothers side our witch ancestry goes back to 1662 in Scotland.
My interests lay in healing and blessings and crossovers.
Favorite herbs /roots/ spice ,Angelica root, Sage, Cinnamon.
I make my own oils, tea and incense .
Guiding- Bird Raven
Guiding- animal wolf.
Familiar -cat.
My tree - Weeping Willow.
Calming influence - River.

Blessed be.

[ElfiexElfSeeker]

Very cool posts here. I don't know where to begin! I didn't realize there was some homophobia in Wicca, but I'm not surprised. All spiritual paths have something against someone. I think Wicca is a beautiful religion too, which is why I have some Wiccan practices and beliefs.

I started on the path my senior year in high school and have been developing and refinding myself over the years. I know where my interests lay within my heart and I shared those.

My current spirit guide in an enormous bear whom I affectionately call Mishka from Russian folklore, which is a name for a bear that is prominent in Russian stories. I didn't realize how neat bears were until once decided to work with me. I had a wolf guide for so long. The type of birds I feel connected to are owls and red tail hawks.

I've learned a lot about myself by being neopagan. I love it. There's always so much to discover. You think you found it all then bam something new arrives in your life and you're back to exploration. That's how it is for me, anyway.

I had a dream about Odin once. I really should look into Asatru because of this connection to Odin. The story behind it is kind of long but there goes: I was dreaming about being someplace in the South. I could see civil war battles occurring outside of this old house that was once owned by a doctor. The battles were like imprints in time and only I could see them. The house was haunted by the Doctor. We decided to walk the property grounds. There was 3 or 4 of us. We were walking through a field and getting closer to the woods. Suddenly the sky darkened. I looked up to see clouds composed of black ravens. I said, "May Odin have mercy upon us." We all scrambled to the woods to get out of the storm. The raven cloud descended and I couldn't see anything. Then there was a voice asking me questions. It started to lead me. I stumbled through the woods, clinging to this voice and suddenly I came out on the other side and the storm was over. I was safe but no one else from my group seemed to have made it.

What was really interesting about this dream is that I caught the doctor's name and upon waking I wrote it down. Then I looked him up and found out he was a doctor during the civil war. It was a very interesting experience.

[Rainbowmum]

Indeed very interesting.