Turned My Back On My Religion ...

[Hemels]

WOW Thanks guys for all your inputs.

I was affraid of being judged and the main reason for this is for centuries Pagan's have been judged alot by Christianity. Being seen as "Witches", witches doing bad spells and worshipping the devil. Unfortunately this is so fair a missconception it couldn't be further away from the truth if it tried. Yes we are witches, Yes we do spells, No we do not worship the devil and No we don't do harmful spells. All spells are what we see as our riturals in paying tribute to mother nature, all the spirits of all living things and elements.

We look towards Karma and Mother nature to guide us down the path we have chosen. Meditating is just one way we reconnect with mother nature and regaining some of her possitive energy when we most need it.

I have tarot cards and runes, these help me with guidence. They answer me questions when I am very unsure on what to do. Due to the nature of the domestic violent relationship I was in, and him taking full control of ALL decisions I find it so hard to make my own now when given the choice. I found myself a few months ago freaking out everytime I got a choice to make and refusing to make it. It usually ended up me turning to my boyfriend Lee and getting him to decide for me, which everyone knows here is a bad thing. So recently instead of freaking out and screaming and pulling my hair out I simply ask my runes/ tarot cards for help. I don't take what they say as gospil but for me it does make me making my own decisions easier.

Medatation helps me so much more then anything else when I have been triggered. It helps me to retrieve some of the possitive energy I have lost, thus calming me down.

All the best

Hemmy xXx

 

[Nicky31]

Hi Hemmy

Brave, brave, brave. Well done for having the strength. For any of us who have a routine, normal day to day aspect in our lives, whether it's a person, a thing, a belief system, it can be so hard to break free from it - yes, even when it is clearly dysfunctional and harmful to us! I am pleased that you have found something that works for you.

You might like to read the post I've just written about connecting with the natural world. I would be interested to hear if you think this is reflected in your newly found belief system.

Nic x:Hug_emoticon:

 

[amethist]

Hi Hemmy

Funny you should start this thread, I have used a few pagan ways over the last few years to help my husband.

I hope you don't use Tarot or Runes every day, as you can get mixed messages and repeated confusing ones too.

The answer I sometimes give when questioned, is the definition of the word "witch", which translated means "wise women".

I have found smudging a real help when the atmosphere gets too negative, it really clears the air. Followed by a good blow through with all the windows and doors open.

Pagan's were here before most others. And where does the Order of the Garter come form, Pagan origin and the High Priestess. Just something to think about.

Amethist

 

[Hemels]

Hi Amethist,

No I don't use my runes or tarot cards everyday. sometimes twice a week. I do meditate every day though and right any meditation in my book of shadows along with my dreams. I like your interpretation of witch :smile: that is so true.

I am yet to find your post Nicky31 - but I haven't looked as hard as I would like as I haven't had time much over the weekend with all the Christmas shopping.

Thanks guys,

Hemmy xXx

 

[Pam]

I have been quite a student of religious texts and stories and have been a Sunday school teacher (much to the concern of traditional Christians). My view of these stories is much the same as my view of the old moral fables. They are our stories of trying to live successfully in a rather cruel natural world. At times life has been so cruel (or so triumphant) that humans are bound to place the reason on an outer-world entity. There is nothing inherently bad about doing that. It is what people do that can be cruel, not the religious title they use. Religion, to me, is like a gun. Sitting there it cannot pull the trigger or think for itself. But in the hands of a human, a gun can be used for both good and bad. The stories are fascinating to me and reveal a lot about human nature at an individual and group level. Well worth the time to study.

 

[ghost]

karma (1)

Hi Ghost,

I didn't want to hijack this thread but your explanation of Karma has helped but I am still very confused by it.

...But I still can't work out what my karma is.... maybe I was a hard hearted, compassion less person in my previous life and I have to make up for it now or.....some other reason, but what is it ???

Help! Confused.com

I am certainly not an authority on karma. However, I do have a deep interest in metaphysics and universal spirituality, and am happy to offer the (somewhat limited) understanding that I have:


The Law of Karma


The law of karma is one of several intrinsic principles that pervade all aspects of the Universe’s operation. It reflects the basic idea that what you send out into the Universe is what you get returned.


A universal principle

The law of karma can be described as a universal principle; meaning that it is recognised and accepted through out the world; albeit in various forms. Understanding of karma is reflected in the world’s dominant religious factions (Hindusim, Buddhism, Christianity) and also permeates secular culture, as reflected in the popular proverbs ‘you reap what you sow’ and ‘what goes around comes around.’

Karma in Christianity

In addition to its prominence in the doctrines of Eastern spiritual practices, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, karma also features heavily in Christian scripture:

The notion of ‘sin’, as represented in the Bible, is essentially a representation of negative karma. This is shown in the various New Testament parables that revolve around monetary debts being owed and paid:
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I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
Matthew 18: 32-34
​

This parable extract is basically a commentary on the operation of karma: Negative karma is accumulated as a monetary debt is accumulated, and it is eliminated through suffering just as a ‘bad debtor’ is forced to suffer a prison sentence.




​

Personal Karma


In Western society, karma tends to be regarded as an abstract, philosophical concept, but from a transcendental perspective our karma has a ‘real’, substantiative existence; just as the various components of our bodies, such as our blood vessels, have a substantiative existence in the physical world.

Our karma functions simultaneously as a record of our thoughts, words and actions and as a kind of blueprint of our future. This reflects the basic principle that we design our future through our thinking and behaviour in the present.

Our karma endures beyond death, shaping our experience of the ‘after-life’ and defining our rebirth.


Karma in operation

The suffering that is produced by negative karma is not a form of punishment; it is a natural consequence to our actions. Just as eating unhealthy foods causes cholesterol to accumulate in the blood stream; engaging in damaging behaviour results in the contamination of our karma.

View attachment 3444
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Just as our arteries are contaminated through smoking and unhealthy eating,
our karma is contaminated through harmful behaviours


​

Basically, when we engage in damaging (or sinful) activities (this includes our thoughts) we accumulate negative karma. When damaging activities are committed against us, we accumulate positive karma.

For example, if someone walks up to you in the street and punches you; they accrue negative karma, and you accrue positive karma.

Positive karma is also accumulated through ‘meritorious activity’ (i.e. activity that produces merit). More or less, this involves acting with virtue (truthfulness, compassion, forbearance); helping others, and generally advancing the cause of good in the world.

 

[anni]

I do realize it's exasperating in the extreme to have some philistine ( that would be me in this instance on the grounds that I am lacking much requisite plain knowledge and am speaking based on, I suppose, instinct? Personal theory?) offer up a big, fat IMO on a subject such as this but the karma as a concept across the board has always just bugged me.

If the general idea is one in which one is, in fact, endlessly 'paying' for the misdeeds of past lives ( personal, societal, et al ) I can't see what benefit this is to the universe or person by way of a lesson if one is also disallowed the' lesson' learned? If I've done something dreadful in this life, I of course know this and can take steps to either rectify the situation or do something or other by way of at least an apology. What I can't do is write a check to someone predated to 1845, for having skipped out on my rent as a yeoman farmer. Or, if it's a matter of some balance being reachieved, having it occur through reaccurance of more negative events just seems to me to be 'saying' that the universe is set up with some pre-ordained 'amount' of these as some sort of plan, and like it or not we have to keep the quota, personally or as a group. Neither one makes any sort of sense, although Im positive there are academics who could shred that statement-although I don't know if I'm at all bright enough to follow one of those arguments well enough to know I've been shredded! :) If nothing else in the universe, I've just seen that the rest of it makes sense, down to the microbes. The seasons follow the seasons, with the course of nature feeding, reproducing, resting and awakening the entire astonishing planet through time-it all involves processes which make incredible SENSE, if somewhat miraculous, really. (people don't-that seems to be a different story. Am speaking no doubt not very clearly of the process of the planet-our given part of the universe) It makes zero sense to either be paying for something I do not remember, or be putting something back in balance which was negative in the first place, or even to be learning some soul's lesson I don't remember from 'last time' so I can finally be perfected and not have to come here any more? Would God really be quite that unreasonable? If that were the case, a nice note, on birth, containing the dreadful things one did as a scumbucket in 1820-please correct, signed, God-would be forthcoming.Or a brief expainatory contract so one would know that one is suffering a series of ills but there's really nothing personal, the universe is out of balance and once it's corrected everyone else will be just fine. Be nobel, all this is for a good cause so shush! It all doesn't make any more sense to me than any organized religion, and I grew up in 'the church'. I believe in God, just not in 'rules' which make no sense, mostly, or disallow the premise of happiness and peace on the grounds that it's out of our hands. This has zero to do with being critical of any belief system or religion, as I said, it's a big, fat IMO,a personal belief system and not one thing more. It's also not a rant, just something which has always bothered me a great deal.

I suffered horribly because there are *sswipes in the world and because I made assinine, STUPID choices. I do think that if I live badly in this life 'it' will bite me in gluteous maximus, and that could be God taking a good swipe at me but I'll know why. It's tough enough dealing with getting through this PTSD chaos in my head this time around without worrying what on earth I might have been getting up to for the last few centuries.

 

[AdamAnt]

No need to mention my religious preference, but maybe just an observation on life in general?

One thing I believe is that I DON'T KNOW! We're born not knowing. There is no way to know. It scares me when someone says that they know anything!

However, I do believe in "the quest". The search for reason, to become a better, more positively effective person. We can put whatever shell around it we want. If the universal higher power is forgiving of the details, then he (she,it?) won't care what name we say when we worship (or meditate?) as long as we're headed in the right direction?

I believe many things, my theories on life can change with the wind, but you won't catch me even thinking that I KNOW anything!!

 

[anni]

Hahahaha! VERY good point Adamant! So funny to see some nice, concise paragraphs neatly putting to rest one's long-winded diatribe! :) Good to see, too, to be sure! It's all so fuzzy that of course there IS no 'real' answer, is there? The rest must be opinion, of course! Not to lapse into the philisophical, and Kant can be smug in the extreme but do agree with his 'As something cannot be proven, neither can it be disproven, and must remain forever a 'ding an sich, a thing in itself, and in it's ultimate reality, unknowable'.

VERY good post, but hope you know that!

 

[AdamAnt]

Thank you anni!

It's so hard (and rare) to discuss things of this nature without it falling into disharmony. I DO hope this thread can be that exception!

PTSD is enough to shake the roots of any belief system, so of course it's good to see that it can have the good (if hard won) side effect of examining ones spiritual side and making needed adjustments.

 

[Iam]

Very interesting thread. I have always loved learning what others think regarding sensitive topics.

I am totally with you Adam.....I do not know the answers. The one thing I do KNOW is that what we believe about ourselves, others and spiritually affects who we are and how we act. I am a christian who has really been struggling with my faith for the past 9 years....and yes as a result of traumas and PTSD. I believe if we focus on the good we are happier, more healthy people. I believe we can create a better world for ourselves just in doing that. I have a really hard time with organized religion now, though I am not saying it's a bad thing. As far as my being a christian, I truly believe it is about having a relationship with Christ. Belonging to a chirstian church does not make anyone His follower. It is a strictly personal journey that each of us walk and I believe "God" meets each of us where we are at and for that very reason cannot be catergorized as one thing or another. To do so would be to put him/her/it in a box.

 

[anni]

Yes to all!

Adam, it would be awful, wouldn't it, for a thread like this to fall into disharmony given it's nature? Hee! Can you imagine how silly? Maybe it is age, or just having made a plethora of extraordinarily dreadful decisions in my life, but do know I do not know much of anything for certain. Of course, entire wars have been fought over questions of religion-always seems to me like 'I know the truth', and 'Oh yea? No, you don't, I know more than you what God REALLY means when he speaks of love and peace and forgiveness so now will shoot you because you're annoying me'. Sigh. I DO just adore forever wondering, however, and one can't do that anymore with a closed mind. Hope to keep that open, someone kick me in a shin if I show aging signs of not.