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30 Days of Paganism, Day 1
May. 16th, 2011 03:15 pmOkay, so a caveat--I make no promises about getting this done in 30 days. I may skip days, or weeks. I may do several days on the same day. Just so's you know. :) And due to the meme's structure it might even end up being more or less than 30 discussions.
1. Beliefs – Why Paganism?
Originally, as in way-back-when twenty years ago, it was the world-view that drew me in. I'd been fairly strongly agnostic (can you be that? :)) for many years, ever since I realized as a teen that I didn't really believe the things I'd been taught in church. And, belief being central to even my family's fairly liberal branch of Christianity, that was significant. Never was able to get it to "take." And in my experience you can't force belief. You can't even choose it, not really. Or at least, I couldn't.
But paganism (and I use the lower-case mindfully, not as a lack of respect but as making the point that faith is a part of life, not to be put on a special shelf somewhere) was about more than belief. It was about experience, and practice, and about what you did, not just what you thought. It was about Yes, not No. It was about the good things it brought with it, not the bad things that would happen if you didn't join up. It was about promises, never threats. It was about the possible. And I like the possible.
And that, I think, was "Why Paganism?" More specifics follow in later topics.
( The Days )
1. Beliefs – Why Paganism?
Originally, as in way-back-when twenty years ago, it was the world-view that drew me in. I'd been fairly strongly agnostic (can you be that? :)) for many years, ever since I realized as a teen that I didn't really believe the things I'd been taught in church. And, belief being central to even my family's fairly liberal branch of Christianity, that was significant. Never was able to get it to "take." And in my experience you can't force belief. You can't even choose it, not really. Or at least, I couldn't.
But paganism (and I use the lower-case mindfully, not as a lack of respect but as making the point that faith is a part of life, not to be put on a special shelf somewhere) was about more than belief. It was about experience, and practice, and about what you did, not just what you thought. It was about Yes, not No. It was about the good things it brought with it, not the bad things that would happen if you didn't join up. It was about promises, never threats. It was about the possible. And I like the possible.
And that, I think, was "Why Paganism?" More specifics follow in later topics.
( The Days )
