[quote author=Dufonce link=topic=277.msg6174#msg6174 date=1287881005]
anyone have a way to contact felix?! he started this thread then left it to die... I'd take over if I knew enough to answer questions.. lol
[/quote]
He pops in and out, just not on a daily basis...give him a wee bit of time!!
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom
“We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
"Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett
Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
Oh for goodness sake! I set this up so that I'd receive an e-mail whenever someone replied to it.
I haven't gotten a single e-mail! Shit! I'm sorry!
Over the next couple of days, I will respond to all of your questions. Right now, I can't but I promise you that by Monday, you'll all have your answers!
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not
On another forum I follow, many of the members are insistent that true Wicca is performed in covens, that "Solitary Wicca" is actually based on misinformation, and that in order to be Wiccan one must be initiated into a coven that can be traced back to Gardener.
The thread that I'm referring to can be found here:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/vie...php?t=17613519
I'm curious about your opinion on this.
you really using a childish looking game's forum to judge .. well... anything? hehe.. technically Wicca itself yes was brought out into the open by Gardner but that doesnt mean that that is the only tradition. its his coven's traditions. Solitary Wiccans can also perform a self-dedication. and honestly I've noticed that most people start out with Wicca, and then "graduate" for a lack of a better term into a different type of pagan beliefs. I've been pagan since I was 12, thats 14 years now, and started as a fluffy bunny wiccan like most people that young end up being... then as I learned I evolved. theres no wrong way to be spiritual. I think its more important to be spiritual than to choose a religious title.
"Sometimes bad things happen, and theres nothing you can do about it, so why worry?" ~ Timon
[quote author=Dufonce link=topic=277.msg8377#msg8377 date=1288460653]
you really using a childish looking game's forum to judge .. well... anything? hehe.. technically Wicca itself yes was brought out into the open by Gardner but that doesnt mean that that is the only tradition. its his coven's traditions. Solitary Wiccans can also perform a self-dedication. and honestly I've noticed that most people start out with Wicca, and then "graduate" for a lack of a better term into a different type of pagan beliefs. I've been pagan since I was 12, thats 14 years now, and started as a fluffy bunny wiccan like most people that young end up being... then as I learned I evolved. theres no wrong way to be spiritual. I think its more important to be spiritual than to choose a religious title.
[/quote]
Eh, don't judge the forum by it's appearance. Yes, it is an RPG site with a high population of young ones, but that particular forum/guild has quite a lot of members around my age (25). I guess what I'm getting at is that they dismiss Solitary Wicca altogether and insist that one cannot dedicate themselves. It's an interesting perspective but strikes me as a bit... elitist... at times.
I may be 26 and with 14 years studying different things... but i by no means call myself an authority. I refuse to because I know I don't have the knowledge to do so. I myself am against organized religion because I refuse to allow someone to dictate to me how to be spiritual. Honestly, I think solitaries are more spiritual people than those following in a coven. The high priest and high priestess might be very spiritual but people that are following may not have 100% belief in their hearts. and thats where organization is flawed. It will take me a long time before I consider myself worthy of any title or being an authority
"Sometimes bad things happen, and theres nothing you can do about it, so why worry?" ~ Timon
[quote author=Nyx link=topic=277.msg8375#msg8375 date=1288460363]
On another forum I follow, many of the members are insistent that true Wicca is performed in covens, that "Solitary Wicca" is actually based on misinformation, and that in order to be Wiccan one must be initiated into a coven that can be traced back to Gardener.
The thread that I'm referring to can be found here:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/vie...php?t=17613519
I'm curious about your opinion on this.
[/quote]
Wicca is heavily divided, not all sects agree on solitary initiation. I'll leave that fight to Wiccans. The more important point is that you can pledge yourself to the Lord and Lady (should you so choose) without help from a coven, you can follow them without help from a coven and you can work magic without help from a coven. What you happen to call yourself is a secondary issue. Live and believe as you find appropriate first, label yourself whenever you find it convenient to bother.
"It is not simply enough to know the light…a Jedi must feel the tension between the two sides of the Force…in himself and in the universe."
―Thon
"When to the Force you truly give yourself, all you do expresses the truth of who you are,"
Yoda
Yoda told stories, and ate, and cried, and laughed: and the Padawans saw that life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
"But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."
John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper
"You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."
Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
i wish a Blessed Samhain to all that celebrate it:
Greetings!
I asked this on another post, though I was told that here was the place to ask
Sorry if this comes across as a random jumble of thoughts (lol), but I have been feeling lately that my path is a mess - for lack of a better way of describing it. I am an Eclectic Pagan with strong Wiccan leanings, though I am still searching for the specific path which is right for me.
I feel as if my spirituality is a random mix of things from a million different sources, and I don't really know what to do about it. I do a lot of reading, and as you would expect, different books tell you to do things (casting circles etc) differently, and I find it so difficult to decide what to do. Seeing as I live in the Southern Hemisphere I usually adapt circle castings from books (the majority of which tell you to cast your circle clockwise) and cast them sunwise (counterclockwise in the SH).
I have just finished reading Teen Witch by Silver Ravenwolf and am about to start reading Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. I feel as if I am drawing from so many different sources and I cannot decided which to use in the long run. It sort of feels like I am trying to do too much at once, while drawing from too many different sources. I also have this problem where I find it difficult to trust myself and be confident in my own intuition. It's probably a beginner thing, but I always feel bad if I get a line wrong in ritual, or if I feel I need to adapt something from a book (such as circle casting).
I feel as if I am not a "good" enough Wiccan, and I don't really know what to do. I want to stop worrying that I'm not doing good enough, but I don't know how.
For example, yesterday I did a Seeker Ceremony (taken and adapted from RavenWolf's Teen Witch). I was hoping it would go perfectly, though overall I found that it was a bit of a disapointment. I had to leave the circle to get items I had forgotten, and I made various mistakes. My oath to Spirit was just as genuine however, and I suppose it is that which matters...
Anyway, I know this was a very long post and I hope someone will have some advice concerning this (rather silly) problem of mine!
Hoping you are having a blessed Beltane/Samhain!
Well, first off....read more then just two books before you decide on any religion. When I first became Wiccan I read all I could get my hands on.
I'm also not a fan of ravenwolfs work (Not many of us are here) but Cunningham is pretty good.
As for the disapointments you felt....your first several rituals will not go perfect. Hell I've been practicing activily in a coven for 4 years almost and none of ours goes "perfect"
If you put too much thought into perfection, you will steer yourself away from the beauty of ritual. The Gods know our intent and do not expect us to be perfect 100% off the time
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