Paganism

Well Ive been a Wiccan since I was 17, but took my 20s to really know what it was about without the showiness etc that you would hear, nothing major about it - like everything its as showy or big as you make it
I dont advertise myself as such, unless specifically asked what faith I am/have chosen, I wouldnt call it a reiligon though, imho its more a faith based on morals which make sense believing in some kind of magick in the air/around us, thats it really, to me anyway

Custardpi wrote: »

So you're saying that one should judge the credibility of a belief system on the basis of its longevity? Not sure that necessarily follows. As regards modern Wicca having a single origin in the teachings of Aleister Crowley I'm not too sure on that, you might be giving him a little too much credit. Even if it was solely down to him, there's probably worse people to be inspired by. The guy had a reputation for throwing one hell of a party.

No, I'm saying that claiming to be a pagan or Druid and that you are taking part in an ancient form of worship is bull**** as those religions were invented pretty recently. No one knows for sure what the historic pagans believed or what their rituals consisted of so all of their ceremonial stuff has just been made up recently. We have a fair idea of the names of some of their gods and that they practiced sacrifice and held ceremonies around particular solar events but we have no idea what they chanted, if they did at all, or what else these ceremonies consisted of at least we don't know enough specific details that you could say you are performing the same rituals as they did.

I was referring to a guy called Gerard Gardner not Aleister Crowley who made Wicca up. He had a couple of dozen middle class types who used to come up to the woods near his house to get naked and he based a religion around this while claiming it was ancient.

Bonfire night a few nights ago. Kinda cool to think it's still going since pagan times.
As far as the OP goes, avoid the g@b****e. Life is too short to feign interest in some sad tw@ts "look at me" fad. Like the only gay in the village or the guy who always had no interest in sport but nowadays wrecks your head with NFL stats and says he's love to see Tom Brady play fly half for Leinster. Get to f@ck.

Blaire Faithful Swatter wrote: »

I was introduced to a friend of a friend at a party there last weekend when we got into our hobbies and interests.

Instead of informing him that I have almost 30,000 posts on an internet forum I was telling him about my other passions (exercising, languages etc) and he told me that he was a pagan witch.

"Excuse me?"

Apparently, it's true. He is a pagan witch of some sort, away with the faeries and dancing in the woods or whatever with the other... witches.

I couldn't stand to be seen with such a loser any more so I let him know his beliefs were complete bobbins and decided to join my other friends for a game of beer pong instead. We lost. Your man probably cursed us.

Anyway. Have you met any witches? Are you a witch? Is this a form of mental illness?

Is saying you're a witch any more mental than saying you converse with the creator of the universe every night? Imagine 85% of the population of Ireland were pagan witches and only a few hundred claimed they worshipped a lad who walked on water, turned water into wine, died for our sins (that he/his dad gave us in the first place) by being tortured to death and despite having a monopoly on kindness, still sends people to hell (a place he/his dad created).

The only reason paganism seems so weird is because it's not as widely adhered to as christianity. When you really look at religions you'll see they're all mad. The minor ones just stand out more...

GerB40 wrote: »

Is saying your a witch any more mental than saying you converse with the creator of the universe every night? Imagine 85% of the population of Ireland we're pagan witches and only a few hundred claimed they worshipped a lad who walked on water, turned water into wine, died for our sins (that he/his dad gave us in the first place) by being tortured to death and despite having a monopoly on kindness, still sends people to hell (a place he/his dad created).

The only reason paganism seems so weird is because it's not as widely adhered to as christianity. When you really look at religions you'll see they're all mad. The minor ones just stand out more...

Tradition I suppose. Widely practised for centuries as opposed to a "rediscovered" ancient practice with scant real detail being made up as they went along in the last century. No less valid maybe, but without any real foundation or tradition. A bit sad really.