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.

I'm an agnostic Buddhist Pagan deist :-). More on this later.

Legend of Frigiving

Since we don't celebrate Thanksgiving at my house.... :)

Legend of Frigiving

 

Once upon a time, two people got married. They both came from families that weren't real big on holidays. When they decided to buy a house, the wife said, "Hey, let's start our own traditions with our own family". The husband agreed. November rolled around and they were excited to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. But alas! They both worked jobs that required them to work that day. Furthermore, the husband worked days and the wife worked nights. The husband lamented, "what are we to do? our first Thanksgiving dinner is ruined before it began!" The wife thought for a second and said, "Husband, don't fret. Aren't we both off from work tomorrow? We can have our dinner then". The husband said, "Awesome! Is it still Thanksgiving?" "No", the wife said, "we'll call it Frigiving since it's the next day." "But," the husband realized, "all the turkeys will be gone". "no biggie," the wife replied, "we'll have fried chicken."

 

So the couple and their children started the annual ritual of Frigiving. Anything but traditional Thanksgiving food is served. The dinner is held when it is convenient in the 4th or 5th week of November.

 

Does your family have special holiday or do you put your own twist on existing holidays?

Pagan Prompt - Your Beginning

I'm neglecting my blog. I feel so bad. The Pagan Prompt theme from 11/10/11 is "Your Beginning". I'm sure I've answered this before but here it is again.

How did you come to be where you are today?

Did you always know you were Pagan/Wiccan/etc?

How did you get started on this journey?

I was raised as a Christian, Jehovah's Witness to be exact. Yes, JW is a Christian religion. I never celebrated holidays of any kind and preaching the Word door-to-door was mandatory as was attending 3 meetings a week at the Kingdom Hall. Sometime in spring 1992, I was officially baptized as a JW. Why? Because it was the "right" thing to do. My mom was very strict so it was either her (JW) way or the highway. I really tried to be a good JW but the restrictions got to be too much. I was still living at home and couldn't have a boyfriend although I was over 18. Where there's a will, there's a way; I got pregnant with my 2nd child out of wedlock in 1995 and was - to use the JW term - disfellowshipped.

I moved into my own place in Aug 1995. Plans to wed my son's father deteriorated; he too was a df'ed JW. From that point to about 2 yrs ago, I was trying to go back to my childhood religion. After all, I no longer had any friends or family since the religion forbids contact with df'ed members. Yeah, so that didn't work.
About 2 yrs ago (I need to find the exact date for my personal records) a coworker invited me to a Buddhist meeting. Remember that since I was raised JW, I really had no knowledge of any other religion. I was apprehensive at first but what did I have to lose? My own mother rarely speaks to me. so I went and afterwards did some research on my own. It made sense to me. I must also point out that (most) Buddhist do not recruit. My coworker told me that something I said made her think that I would be interested in the meeting. We can't remember what that was but I do know I was feeling like the spiritual part of my life was missing.

Anyhoo, I started chanted and I realized that I was feeling better emotionally. I called my brother and formally forgave a 10 yr old debt. I called my sister and told her I was studying Buddhism. Her response? OMG, you might as well study Wicca!!! So thank you sis, I told your advice. I actually studied a few major religions because I no longer believed that JW was the end-all, be-all.

Wicca/Witchcraft for Dummies was the first book I read about Paganism. O-M-Goddess! Talk about epiphany! I was like, this is me. Ok, maybe not Wicca proper but Paganism definitely made sense to me. I felt comfortable. I felt like I had come home. I started researching different forms of paganism. I realized that although I like some of what Wicca is about, I'm not Wiccan. I like that the Feminine is equal to or even greater than the Masculine. In Christianity, "the head of the wife is the husband".

I was always fascinated by the moon, planets, and the seasonal changes. I never understood why the beginning of summer meant that the days would be growing shorter. When I was younger I wanted to be an astronomer. I think that I may have always been pagan but never knew that it was a name for it.

I consider myself a solitary Buddhist Pagan. The Buddhism speaks to my rational side while Paganism speaks to my creative side. If I were one or the other, something would be missing. I've tossed around the idea of starting my own teaching coven but not sure where to start.

I rededicated myself to the Goddess on 6/1/11 as Her priestess, a new moon. I say rededicated because all Gods and Goddesses are one. My Christian dedication and baptism is not nullified; it served what it needed to for that phase of my life. I remember my mom talking about how serving Jehovah gave her so much joy. I never felt that joy and I felt guilty. I really really tried. Honoring the Goddess has brought me that joy. The Goddess is within and without. One who honors the Goddess, honors herself.

Blessed (astronomical) Samhain

Dreamspell - White Rhythmic Mirror (6 Etznab) - Kin 58
Mayan - 10 Oc (White Planetary Dog) - Kin 10
Sun in Libra

I went to visit my father's grave today for the first time since he died. There is no headstone. The graveyard was peaceful. I have so many questions that I want to ask him now.




~Magickal Graphics~