Pagan Values: Exercising Faith

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" -Buddha

In my free time I like to study religions. I plan to one day be clergy and be able to guide people spiritually. I'm a strong believer that if you understand their faith, you understand the person. I have come across so many flaky people in my past that I wonder if there are many of us left who actually follow our faiths, and exercise them.

I once went to a nondenominational-Protestant Christian church.The pastor, who was one of the sweetest ones I've known, always mentioned how he did not want a church full of cereal. I thought this was funny as he went to explain that he did not want any fruits, nuts or flakes condemning the testimony of the church, the works of Christ; how he prayed that one day, the community of cereal would stop being so and become true followers of Christ, exercising their faith in Him and following His example.

I've noticed a lot of my own faith be that way, too. I am mostly Wiccan. I have no tradition, and am very eclectic since all of my training was on my own time with my own resources, or borrowing resources from libraries and friends. I studied, HARD, and had to work to not become a member of the Wiccan cereal, dubbed "fluffybunny."

Faith is not smoke and mirrors, or just a few pretty words that you memorized. Faith is waking up in the morning, seeing a new day, watching the sunset, planting a garden, playing with your children, making a meal, and seeing the beauty and the magic and the blessing in everything. "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill, An it harm none do what ye will." -Doreen Valiente, 1964. Following the creed, the rede, and putting it into practice, daily, in everything you do. Questioning everything, including your morals.

My value is to exercise my faith, my beliefs, my love for my gods, my love for the human race, each and every single day.

Pagan Values: Personal Values

1. Strong belief in exercising faith
2. Open-minded
3. Ever-learning, especially about others to better understand and truly stay open-minded
4. Academic back-up. :)
5. Balance between structure and just winging it.
6. Loving all, judging none.
7. Finding the good in everything even when things seem bleak.
8. Asking permission when necessary, going ahead with it in an "emergency"

Because It Fits

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. […] The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”


Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963


“I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice; I’m concerned about brotherhood; I’m concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. Where Do We Go From Here, 1967 (fourth paragraph under 'Commitment to Nonviolence')


People may say that I am naive in agreeing with these views. Some may even go so far as to think I have never been a victim and therefore have no idea what I am talking about. My family, myself included, have been victims of rape, abuse, murder, racism and suicide. I fully understand the implications of these actions. I also understand that I never want to partake in them. Ever. I know, first hand, the pain it causes, and I wish to never cause that pain upon someone else.

I do not deny the existence of bad people. We would not know good people if we had no one to compare them to. What I wish for, however, is that more people would strive to be more understanding, more compassionate, more of a help to each other than a hindrance to civilization. In nature, there is no evil v. virtuous. It is both because nature is both cruel and kind. There is both love and scorn and both work in harmony. I am not saying that we as a people should only love and have no other emotions, I am saying that we as a people should learn to cooperate.

I will continue to love everyone, whether they cause me harm or not. I will forgive always. I will find room in my heart for compassion. And I will die knowing that I was the best human being I could possibly be.

I pray for the friends and family of Osama bin Laden, if he had any, and that his restless soul is at peace in a place where there are no prejudices. I do not rejoice in the death of another human being. In fact, I apologize for the fact that this country, this world, resorts to murder as a form of justice.

Am I saying that he was a good man? Absolutely not. I quite agree that he was a terrible man. Do I think he should have been taken to trail? Yes. Do I think he should have been given the chance to live, something he himself believed we didn't deserve? Yes. Why? Because I thought we were better than that. If he had killed himself, I wouldn't have minded, but the fact that we stoop to the same level every.single.time.

I pray that one day, as a people, we can live to better understand each other even if we don't always agree. I pray that instead of using brute force, we use our minds to deal with our disagreements.

Here's to empathy.

Melting Beliefs

The exercise for today involved the one from yesterday. Today I needed a candle holder, a white taper candle, and the words from yesterday. After meditating on the emotional meanings of these words I found a common theme: FEAR. FEAR is the source of the anger, confusion, and refusal of educating oneself of the meaning of the words. Fear guides the mistrust, discomfort, and misguided actions toward others. I even have fear of using the words due to the reactions others may have of them.

Taking a knitting needle (I couldn't find a pin and my witch cabinet is in the craft room), I wrote the word FEAR on my candle and burned it. The melted wax will be buried far from home, the fear of the words symbolically melted away and physically buried. I found the perfect spot at the old Christian church that is up for sale. No one will be there to disturb it.

Throughout this journey, I hope to be rid of my own fears in these words and the reactions of others due to their own fears.

Believe or Not Believe?

Okay, first off, I'm not going to make any promises on writing in this regularly. Considering the fact that this is a one way street for me, I don't see why I should even try. I'm not even sure if this is helping me grow in any way, so, why even bother, right? Second, I don't know what day is, I just know we're in July. My nights and days are all mixed up since I don't have school right now and I enjoy sleep a lot.

I'm now fifteen years old, and currently on summer vacation after my freshman year. The school year wasn't so bad, though I must say, I still very much hate going. I'm not a perfect kid. Got into smoking both pot and cigarettes, but I really don't care. I was kept busy with extra-curricular activities, like JROTC and choir. I still study a lot about witchcraft, but I have to keep everything hidden from my mother. I know she means well, but I believe she is horribly brainwashed into thinking that anything that is not Christian is devil-worship. The thing is this, Wiccans don't even believe in a devil. Let's play this out logically, as logical as religion can get, anyway. If a person doesn't believe in an entity, can they really worship it? For example, can you truly worship God if you didn't believe in him? The logical answer would be no, right? So why doesn't that go both ways? The Buddha once said, ""Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." Now the reason I like this quote is that so many religious teachings in this world contradict each other and all say that they ARE the truth. I strive to believe -or reject- none of them unless I understand them and see if they fit in my own personal views.

Do I think all religions are wrong? Nope. I actually think a lot of what is shared in every religion has some truth in it. I haven't researched a lot of it yet, since I've been focused on only one religion and only know thoroughly one other, but in my studies I found out that the Biblical Armageddon is almost identical to the Norse Ragnarok. Both are depictions of the end of the world, or at least of this existence. They both end with a battle where the bad guy gets bound and then later slain; Lucifer and Michael, where Lucifer is locked up for 1,000 years then released and killed by Michael, then Loki and Heimdallr, where Loki is bound to a cliff, released, and then slain as well. In the Bible, it's angels vs. demons; in Norse mythology, it's gods vs. giants. Sure, not exactly the same, but pretty damn close if you ask me.

Why do people get so wound up about whether their religion is right? I mean, aren't we all just trying to get through life the best way we can? Aren't we all trying and seeking happiness? Why waste energy trying to prove something that's based solely on faith?

Changes

Hi there. This is my first attempt in the past three years or so of starting a journal. I just want someone to vent to that I know won't chime in with advice. I know I'm just a kid, only thirteen years old, but I do the things I do because I want to learn on my own. So, I'm not looking for specific advice, I'm just searching for an ear, or I guess, in this case, eyes, paper, whatever. I know this is probably really weird, but I think this will be good for me. I can tell you all of my secrets and not fear that my parents would find out. So in a way, this is therapeutic. It’s helping someone in need, though emotionally, out. I used to write in a journal years ago. I'd make them out of folded sheets of paper. I don't know why I stopped.

To be clear, I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not writing to tell you about sex, drugs, or alcohol, but what I am doing is frowned upon by a lot of people. Currently, thanks to Tiffany, I'm considering about changing my choice in religion. My parents are missionaries, so you can see where that would cause problems. They are very devout and really love Jesus Christ and His Father. I just feel so out of place all the time. We go to church every Wednesday, Friday, and twice on Sunday. I was the treasurer in my old youth group, and I was the youngest graduating member in the School of Ministry at my old church. In this new church I'm still an active member and secretary of the youth group. I'm not saying I'm awesome or deserve a lot of praise, but I am very active in the church. I pray every morning and every night, and I help out in everything I can. I'm even in the church choir and coordinate youth events with the other teens in the group. I like church well enough, but everything I do feels empty. All the prayers, and the praising, the songs and the teachings, they all seem to fall flat for me. Don't get me wrong. I love God. I do believe in a Supreme Being, for lack of a better term. I'm just not feeling it at church.

I'm afraid to tell my mom how I really feel. You see, Tiffany brought a book for and about teen witches to school last week and she let me borrow it. I didn't even know witches were a real thing. I thought it was something someone made up a long time ago to scare people into following rules or going to bed on time or whatever. Turns out, I was wrong. However, my mom found it in my backpack and threw a fit. Personally, I think she overreacted. It's a book, and I'm not practicing anything in the book, but she quoted the verse "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" which is Exodus 22:18. I get that witchcraft is a seriously bad thing for Christians to partake in, but I went to the library after her hissy fit and looked up the translation. Apparently, King James 1 was paranoid about witches and spells and stuff, and so when the translators were making "his" Bible (King James Version) they changed the Hebrew word for "poisoner" to witch. All other translations go downhill from there. People, especially early Christians, seemed to be afraid of people who worked spells and other forms of magic; things that are now known as science.

Anyway, I told my mom to chill out. I mean, seriously, it's a freaking book for crying out loud. I am learning about something I didn't know existed. What's so wrong with expanding knowledge? Well, according to her, bringing anything that's "of the devil" to the house brings that evil into the house as well. What a bunch of force-fed crap, in my opinion. You know, for someone who doesn't believe in ghosts, she really is stuck on believing spirits attach themselves to sheets of paper, because, you know, that's not contradictory at all. Whatever. I'm not going to freak out just because my mom is. What's worse, though, is that she told our pastor, and now he thinks I need an extra lesson on the evil of witchcraft. Should I remind him that I was the youngest graduating member of the School of Ministry? I know everything there is to know that most people who say they are Christian don't know. Did that make sense? Well, what I mean is I know a lot more than most Christians. I only know this because I have tested out this theory. I know what I'm doing. I'm not worried. I wish everyone would stop freaking out over bound sheets of paper.

So, while I believe there are such things as spirits, (I also believe in a lot of other supernatural things) I don't think there are any in this book. It seems interesting enough. It talks about Wicca being a form of witchcraft. It's a religion that was created in the 1950s or so by a guy named Gerald Gardner. He incorporated a bunch of practices from other ancient religions, like old gods and celebrations from Egypt, Italy, and Greece. It seems really interesting and I want to learn more. Unfortunately, this book doesn't have a lot of information. It's mostly spells and practices. It's really basic and hasn't answered any of the questions I have. I'm not giving up though. Tiffany opened a new door for me that I didn't even know was there. I'm heading to the public library tomorrow to check out more books on Goddess worship and the Occult, as well as compare them to Judeo-Christian philosophies. This seems like it's going to be an exciting adventure.