Merry Festivus! Yule day 2

Ra's Day
Dreamspell - White Spectral Wind (11 Ik) - Kin 102
I dissolve in order to communicate
Releasing breath
I seal the input of spirit
With the spectral tone of liberation
I am guided by my own power of spirit doubled.


Mayan - 2 Ix (White Lunar Wizard) - Kin 54
Sun in sidereal Sagittarius






~Magickal Graphics~






~Magickal Graphics~




Part of being non-traditional is that you get to have your holidays when you want. The exact time of the winter solstice is 12:30 am EST 12/22. I will perform my Yule ritual this evening. Our secular holiday of Festivus will be held 12/25-26. Next year, I will try to have a theme for each of the 13 days of Yuletide. Why 13? It's the time period between my pagan new year (winter solstice) and the Gregorian new year (Jan 1).


This year was the first year that we decorated with lights outside. We wanted blue and white lights but the blue lights were more greenish. I was happy with the snowflake pathway lights.

Calendar reform

With Yule right around the corner, I can't help but think that the current secular calendar is wrong. I've attempted to reconcile the calendar with astronomical markers. It's not perfect by any means but it feels better. Weeks and months are uneven since the earth's orbit is not a perfect circle; the sun is not even in the middle of earth's orbit. Weeks are roughly 7 days and months are roughly 30. A new week, month, and year begin at the winter solstice. Each subsequent quarter begins at the equinox or solstice and serves as anchors for the secular calendar.

Tell me what you think:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Agk5pcZ6m4VHdGl1aTBQTFBhbVZvd2lMZmNGbXRHanc

On Being an Agnostic Deist

For the purpose of this post, I will define agnostic as the belief that the existance of a greater power cannot be proved or disproved. I personally do not doubt that there is a God/dess but I realize that others do and  I respect that point of view. So I am not skeptical. I really don't appreciate how www.dictionary.com defined agnostic. One of the synonyms listed was pagan. Really?

Now the deist part - Wikipedia does a great job with the deist and theist articles. I never knew it was a difference. In a nutshell, theists believe that God created the universe and very much has a part in its day-to-day functions, including intervening in human lives. Deists believe that God created the universe and then went on vacation, so to speak. Humans are to do as they please, for better or for worse. If and when shit hits the fan, God says, don't look for my help. Again, both definitions are really broad and I like to think of deism and theism as being on opposite ends of a spectrum. One may fall anywhere in-between.

 

Me? I've discovered that I'm closer to the deism end. Another thing I've learned is that deism promotes using God-given logic and reason; theism is usually based on a holy book of some kind. As you know, I used to be Christian. The holy book is the Bible, both old and new testaments. I was brought up to believe that EVERYTHING in the Bible was true and that it was THE word of God. If you weren't Christian or more specifically a JW, then you weren't following "the truth" no matter how good of a person you were. The big 3 - Christianity, Judism, and Islam - are revealed religions, that is, someone was spoken to by God and wrote down what He said. Basically, the Bible, Torah, and Quran are hearsay. Theistic religions require one to suspend reason and logic. If this was court, hearsay would be disallowed. However, many people based their entire lives on these books of hearsay. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some great lessons in the Bible and perhaps some true stories (like the Flood, not sure that Noah built an ark though). But theists suspend reason and logic by believing that as great as God is, only one faith is the "right" one. Is it reasonable to think that God does not have enough love for the entire human race?

 

Deism reminds me of Buddhism in a way. The Buddha said to listen to his speeches and if someone didn't sound right to you, discard it. He also encouraged people to not take his word, to try out things for themselves. He realized that not everything would work for everybody. Deism is compatible with Paganism. There is no centralized organization. In fact, having a deist church would really defeat the purpose. The closest thing in my experience so far is the Universal Unitarians. Although UU started out as liberal Christian, Christianity is a minority among their members.

 

I've been liberated from following someone else's divine inspiration. I am now following my own as each of us should.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
http://www.reasonandspirit.com/2011-04-23-21-39-20/member-perspectives/entry/our-spiritual-operating-system

This site blew my mind - World Union of Deists http://www.deism.com/

 

If you're spirtual but not religious, you just might be a deist.

 

PS. It's not about labelling myself but more of finding out what's out there and where I fit in.