Pagan Tropers Unite!

Show me a fluff-bunny, and I'll show you someone who, within three to five years, will either grow out of their "I wanna be Pagan!" phase and move on to something else, or grow into it and get serious about it. Either way, the fluff-bunnies are not a big problem.

Yeah, I'm one of the people who grew into it. It's just that 99% of my interactions with other pagans are online, and the whole thing gets rather tiring because I don't usually know them in real life and only have contact with their shallow gushing.

What do you think of people who are neo-Pagan, but worship a set of gods they have no, uh, "genetic" relation to?

I'm a Filipino(-American) worshiping the Irish pantheon. My thoughts on people holding "non-genetic" beliefs are the same as for any other people: As long as you're a good person, I don't care.

edited 12th Feb '11 6:58:37 PM by Sharysa

Yeah. Shary's Fillipino and worships the Morrigan (Irish goddess of death, war, et cetera) and I'm Irish and follow a Thracian goddess. I don't think it's much of an issue, since it's almost universally agreed that we're all tapping into the same thing in different ways.

Goddessforsaken ninja.

edited 12th Feb '11 7:52:34 PM by Diamonnes

I guess it's a question of taste, really. I wouldn't be able to, for example, worship the gods from the Japanese, German or Hindu pantheons wholesale. It would feel odd, it would be like letting go some of my ethnic pride.

However, that doesn't mean I oppose those who do worship gods that are alien to their genetic pantheon, nor does it mean that I am opposed to these other pantheons.

I didn't even get much of a choice of pantheon; I was um...recruited?...while I was meditating one day.

I feel rather drawn to the Norse on a sort of biological level, but I 'work for' the Kemetics.

Diamonnes: Lately I've been hearing "Thracian" everywhere but I've never been able to get a good answer. What region/country were they originally worshipped in?

Thrace is near Greece.

Ah. Is it an old-fashioned/obscure name for the region? Because I've only heard "Thrace/ian" in mythology.

It's archaic as hell. Specifically, my particular faith is thought to come from the island Nissos Anydros, though I may have spelled that wrong. It's a very small island that is inexplicably completely barren.

It was a place, but it's on a par with 'Dacia' or 'Germania' in terms of likelihood of finding it on an Atlas...it's half in Bulgaria, partly in Greece and partly in Turkey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace

edited 14th Feb '11 11:30:24 PM by InverurieJones

I'm supposing a weird bastardization of Animism goes here?

Sure, Why Not?. Care to share any details?

I'm basically an animist, if you ditch the dualism.

So...everything has a spirit, but that spirit is inseparable from its physical reality?

sort of, I guess. I suppose it's more an unto religious-ish respect for nature type deal?

What do you think happens when ye die?

"you" cease to exist and your body decays.

edited 19th Feb '11 6:37:38 PM by Lanceleoghauni

Huh. Intersting.

I'm not a religious person by inclination. I'm a scientist. My skepticism keeps me from being able to truly be able to "worship" as it were. Some can reconcile it, I can't.

My skepticism keeps me from being able to truly be able to "worship" as it were. Some can reconcile it, I can't.

This is an interesting thing. If you can't reconcile things, how are you even sort-of animist? You don't need to a religious mindset to have respect for nature.

edited 19th Feb '11 9:58:50 PM by Sharysa

I like categorizing things. it's the closest box to put it into. I have a strongly spiritual side, but I suppose you're correct, it's more an adoration of the beauty and complexity of reality than a religion-esque thing.

I suppose once losing yourself in the glory of the universe shows up the line kind of blurs.

edited 20th Feb '11 12:23:18 AM by Lanceleoghauni

...You're starting to sound like an inversion of me. I love being pagan and all that stuff, but I also love getting into the tiny little bits that literally make things work.

Seriously, one of my favorite sites is How Stuff Works.

Fuck Science Is Bad, it is fascinating.

Reminds me of an experiment myself and a Wiccan friend were running until I moved. We wanted to isolate the variable that made magic work. <<

As near as I can figure out, said variable is mostly mental. How do you control for something like the human psyche?

oh I love taking everything apart and finding out why it works. It's the reason WHY I find reality glorious.

It's rather difficult to explain. The process took us a year and a half to even come up with, let alone try to impliment.

edited 20th Mar '11 8:53:56 AM by Diamonnes