Paganism (happy...solstice?)

[glitch hiker]

Google tells me I'm 3 days early. I'm not a very good pagan and if this isn't the correct forum I'm going to look quite the fool!

Not really sure how to celebrate Litha. I decided last year to be a pagan. No that's not quite right. I don't believe in gods or ghosts and I don't think spells nor tarot readings are anything more than harmless fun (like Dungeons and Dragons, psilocybin mushrooms, or the slaughter of the innocent in the name of Baal the Goatlord).

What I mean to say is that for some time I have looked at some aspects of paganism, particularly the wheel fo the year, the eight or so points that ye olde folk used to mark. I decided I would like to start developing a practice along those lines because I felt it would be emotionally healthy to develop a connection with the natural world, its warp and weft, in that way. Not in some fluffy or vacuous way.

I'm just trying to think of good ways to do that. Maybe there are others, even proper pagans (i know it's a vast categorization that's possibly completely meaningless these days), on here who could give some thoughts. I'm not looking to run skyclad through the forests or mix love potions, but to me spirituality means developing a relationship with the natural world. Not this crazy madhouse we're otherwise caught up in.

Or perhaps I'm just a weak minded fool, you know, like this guy:

(bad star wars joke)

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Google tells me I'm 3 days early.

Are you using the Gregorian calendar or the old one?

 

[glitch hiker]

Are you using the Gregorian calendar or the old one?

Same one as you. Gregorian I guess. Never really thought about it.

 

[Shechemite]

HEATHENS!

 

[Shechemite]

Sorry. Carry on as you were.

 

[Wilf]

Google tells me I'm 3 days early. I'm not a very good pagan and if this isn't the correct forum I'm going to look quite the fool!

Not really sure how to celebrate Litha. I decided last year to be a pagan. No that's not quite right. I don't believe in gods or ghosts and I don't think spells nor tarot readings are anything more than harmless fun (like Dungeons and Dragons, psilocybin mushrooms, or the slaughter of the innocent in the name of Baal the Goatlord).

What I mean to say is that for some time I have looked at some aspects of paganism, particularly the wheel fo the year, the eight or so points that ye olde folk used to mark. I decided I would like to start developing a practice along those lines because I felt it would be emotionally healthy to develop a connection with the natural world, its warp and weft, in that way. Not in some fluffy or vacuous way.

I'm just trying to think of good ways to do that. Maybe there are others, even proper pagans (i know it's a vast categorization that's possibly completely meaningless these days), on here who could give some thoughts. I'm not looking to run skyclad through the forests or mix love potions, but to me spirituality means developing a relationship with the natural world. Not this crazy madhouse we're otherwise caught up in.

Or perhaps I'm just a weak minded fool, you know, like this guy:

(bad star wars joke)

Happy Solstice! I'm not really a pagan, but do like the idea of having a sense of the year and natural cycles. Hard not to retreat into cliches, but something that connects you to how people have experienced life for hundreds of years.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I like the being connected to the natural world/the cycle of birth and death stuff, but can't cope with the god and goddess crap.

 

[glitch hiker]

I like the being connected to the natural world/the cycle of birth and death stuff, but can't cope with the god and goddess crap.

Me neither. I joined a pagan group on FB a while back and it was all tarot readings and spells.

I take spirituality to mean precisely that: finding a relationship with the natural world. It doesn't have to mean fairy tales, the supernatural, or the ten of cups.

 

[glitch hiker]

HEATHENS!

Thanks!

 

[mx wcfc]

I like the being connected to the natural world/the cycle of birth and death stuff, but can't cope with the god and goddess crap.

This is similar to me.

The way I see it is that the only thing worth worshipping is the earth and the sun that give us life. From a green perspective as much as anything else. I know people who call themselves pagans and witches - they are all good people (though they lack any analysis of class struggle )

I'm comfortable with the concept of a Goddess (the Earth, albeit with the Green Man as her consort), but I can't handle rituals, and struggle with being true. If only I could live the life. Does that makes sense?

 

[ElizabethofYork]

It does. Personally I like the idea of rituals as a way of feeling connected to the earth and the ever-turning seasons.

But spells, gods and goddesses leave me cold.

 

[BoxRoom]

Been thinking along similar lines recently. Fancy getting printed out a nice Wheel of the Year to put on the wall to replace the 2018 David Bowie calendar.
Not sure what to do for Litha myself. Today has been spent feeling shite.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Sorry to hear that BoxRoom. Hope tomorrow will be better for you.

 

[BoxRoom]

Sorry to hear that BoxRoom. Hope tomorrow will be better for you.

Thanks! I'm getting there. Just a minor setback during a seemingly endless recovery. Been 12 weeks since surgery, feels like much longer!
All's well in the scheme of things

 

[ska invita]

this happened

 

[Sprocket.]

I have definitely felt more of a connection or moved by witnessing something natural like a beautiful sunset, than anything ever in any church.

 

[BoxRoom]

Okay, well then! My partner independently arrived at an interest in paganism. Both of us are interested in it at a basic nature level, appreciating the Wheel of the Year's eight seasonal festivals. Nothing extravagant, just a little nod to the olden ways really. None of this modern, new fangled, nailed god stuff that's going around. Honestly, kids these days.

 

[flypanam]

Today is probably solar Lughnasadh - the midpoint between the solstice & the equinox.

 

[Orang Utan]

it’s just as daft and unattractive as the other religions. i can get through life fin without daft rituals and worshiping things or not-things.

 

[nogojones]

this happened

I've been down there for the solstice a couple of times over the last 20 years. Too many people with bongo drums and not enough rigs. 2 star.

 

[platinumsage]

I thought modern-day UK paganism involved fetishisation of the Celts (who were slave-owning warriors and probably cunts compared to the peoples they displaced) whilst studiously ignoring the human sacrifice stuff.

 

[BoxRoom]

Great, thank you for your input. I've just bought some chips, can you please piss on them?

 

[Cid]

I thought modern-day UK paganism involved fetishisation of the Celts (who were slave-owning warriors and probably cunts compared to the peoples they displaced) whilst studiously ignoring the human sacrifice stuff.

I think that's probably a little unfair on the Celts... I mean that's a thousand odd years of history you're generalising there. And we don't know much about the people who came before either.

But yes, bit of 19th century romanticism here, some dodgy anthropology there with 1960s woo to top it off. And a few scant sources doing a lot of heavy lifting.

 

[Edie]

What else is there to Paganism other than the lunar calendar? I’ve no idea what they believe.

 

[MrSki]

Well Celtic druids believed in human sacrifice which does put me off a bit.

 

[mx wcfc]

Great, thank you for your input. I've just bought some chips, can you please piss on them?

I’m “attracted to paganism”!without being a pagan. There’s some stuff I don’t get but the idea of respecting nature/the earth/sun that give us life appeals.

 

[ska invita]

What else is there to Paganism other than the lunar calendar? I’ve no idea what they believe.

In short, nature worship, and rejection of a One God figure

 

[Reno]

I’m “attracted to paganism”!without being a pagan. There’s some stuff I don’t get but the idea of respecting nature/the earth/sun that give us life appeals.

You could be an environmentalist, which does more for the planet than sacrificing Christian virgins to nature/the earth/sun.

 

[Orang Utan]

I’m “attracted to paganism”!without being a pagan. There’s some stuff I don’t get but the idea of respecting nature/the earth/sun that give us life appeals.

isn't that just using one's common sense? why surround it with religious trappings?

 

[Spandex]

What else is there to Paganism other than the lunar calendar? I’ve no idea what they believe.

Originally 'Pagan' was an early Christian term for any believers in pre-Christian religions, followers of false gods. This means that Roman gods = pagan, Norse gods = pagan, folk sneaking off to the sacred grove to get up to whatever they got up to in sacred groves = pagan. There's a huge variety of ancient 'pagan' belief.

The Church worked hard to extinguish the old beliefs and false gods and heretic versions of Christianity during the dark ages, and being the dark ages there's not many records of a lot of pagan beliefs.

Paganism was first revived during the renaissance in the 17th C, with an interest in Greco-Roman magic, then northern European paganism was revived by the Romantics in the late 18th/early 19th C, with further romanticisation of it going on throughout the 19th C, often tied to nationalism and the rise of modern nation states.

What passes for Paganism today is a load of made up guff, cobbling together a wide variety of old beliefs and more recent interpretations of them, that would leave a 5th C druid completely bemused.