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And as an aside, I wish the homogenizers who want to call it a "Harvest Festival" and the conservatives who see it as devil worship would please keep their freakin' hands off my beloved Halloween. They need to do some reading and see that it was in fact a spiritual day for the original celebrants. It is what it is and it doesn't require any tweaking!
Hallowe'en/Samhain as a harvest festival? Well....okay...I suppose it depends on what's being harvested.
i am sorry but... am i to understand that matrix actually is about paganism? i thought it was more like Neo being the cyber Jesus? and i looove matrix by the way... just the original one.. the sequels got weirder and weirder. and no freshness like the first matrix.
to the OP... you seem to live in the virtual world and losing sense of your own world.. our world. in short, step back to REALITY. it may help you.
i actually thought i step into twilight zone when read your first post.. i was like.. what the hell... is this for real? honestly?
i just hope reality bites you back...
With all due respect, I am firmly grounded in reality -- moreso than I have been in the past, in fact, when the reality was that being openly pagan cost us our jobs and custody of our children.
The Matrix quotes that I selected were very specifically chosen and placed, and I ask you to read them again, in the context of my overall message.
Aconite: most of the angst comes from my own experience: I'm tired of feeling scared, or ashamed, or embarrassed to admit that I'm a Pagan.
Like I said in my original post: no more running. I now wear my pentacle as openly as a Christian wears a crucifix. It's not tucked under my shirt anymore, because I am not ashamed of my religion.
Aconite: most of the angst comes from my own experience: I'm tired of feeling scared, or ashamed, or embarrassed to admit that I'm a Pagan.
Like I said in my original post: no more running. I now wear my pentacle as openly as a Christian wears a crucifix. It's not tucked under my shirt anymore, because I am not ashamed of my religion.
"Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me." Audre Lorde
The learning and growth is not how people out there are treating me as a ___________ (fill in the blank: lesbian, pagan, woman, amputee, Christian, veteran, homeschooler, African-American, whatever). The learning and growth for me is in learning to accept that about myself.
When it ceases to be an issue for me, when anyone can say venomously "So you're a _____" (whatever) and I can shrug and say "So?" with the same level of disinterest as if someone had said to me "You have brown hair" then that is self-acceptance.
As in: there is a difference between culturally/traditionally acquired faith and the process of acquiring faith. (???)
An interesting thought...
that is it though!
traditionally/culturally acquired belief means nothing. it means that you are part of the culture that you grew up in. it means that you have gone along with the herd. you have to find your own faith eventually. you have to find out for yourself. your mother's faith is not going to save you in times of stress and pain. your father's wisdom and experience are not going to be there for you when you begin your own trials.
we all need to find this strength for ourselves. i call it faith. i attribute it to my Father in heaven and my Redeemer. others call it other things and attribute it to other fonts. but as long as you can claim it as your own, as long as it is something that you have earned, not merely inherited or assimilated, you will be on the road to enlightenment.
as long as you can claim it as your own, as long as it is something that you have earned, not merely inherited or assimilated, you will be on the road to enlightenment.
Very true, and very well-said!
I like to say that faith without experience is like a car without fuel -- you're not going to get very far in either situation.
The courage and the self-awareness to ask 'why' are the greatest defining points of faith.
Aconite: most of the angst comes from my own experience: I'm tired of feeling scared, or ashamed, or embarrassed to admit that I'm a Pagan.
Yeah, that would suck.
I've only really lived one place where that was an issue, and that primarily because of the repercussions for my kids. I left as soon as I could manage it.
i'm sorry that it even has to be an issue. i obviously don't believe in the same things that you do--as far as divinity goes--but that hardly makes us strangers or enemies. it is sad that there are those out there that feel the opposite is true.
we're all still human, all still striving for one variation or another of the same goal (with an admitted small percentage of people that are striving for different goals--nut who's counting?), and we're all stuck together on this beautiful planet. might as well get to know and like one another and make the best of it.
it is sad that there are those out there that feel the opposite is true.
Sad, but true. I weep for those that refuse to see the wonderful diversity that is presented in our world, and only see 'difference' -- and then equate those differences with evil.
Are we required, somehow, to be afraid of the Other? I don't think so.
That's another reason I wrote that essay: by hiding my pentacle, disguising my faith, and telling half-truths about what I believe, I did more to make myself an outsider than any religious zealot could possibly manage.
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