Posted in Spirituality, tagged Christianity, Church, God, Goddess, Gods, Greco-Roman Polytheism, Greek Mythology, Heavenly Father, Hellenic Polytheism, Holy Ghost, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Kharis, Mormonism, Mysticism, Myth, Mythology, Neopagan, Neopaganism, Pagan, Paganism, Polytheism, Religion, Spirituality, Worship on September 7, 2009 | 21 Comments »
I was a faithful Mormon for nearly three decades, and while I definitely busied myself spiritually, and tried to be close to Heavenly Father, I never actually wanted to worship him. Worship in Mormonism is problematic anyway: in my experience Mormonism is much more about trying to experience certain things, trying to feel the Holy [...]
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Posted in Spirituality, tagged Beauty, Food, Pie, Jesus, Mormonism, Christianity, Poetry, Theology, Internet, Marriage, Paganism, Reconstructionism, Identity, Odin, Halloween, Christmas, Nature, Tradition, Polytheism, Hellenic Polytheism, Dionysus, Demeter, Sex, Unconscious, Neopaganism, Night, New Age, Meditation, Summer, Spring, Fall, Wicca, Neo-Paganism, Worship, Wine, Eclecticism, Sexuality, Fertility, Balance, John Michael Greer, Ritual, Seasons, Celebration, Agriculture, Gardening, Farming, Herbs, Winter, Easter, Holidays, Mind, Wheel of the Year, Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, Ancestry, Ancestors, Beltaine, Beer, Hades, Dying God, Subconscious, Adolescence, Arthurian Legend, King Arthur, Friendship, Honeysuckle, Autumn, Thanksgiving, Summer Solstice, Solstice, Birth, Flowers, Fruit, Equinox, Cross-Quarter, Rebellion, Feast, Samhain, Lughnasa, Mabon, Yule, Fall Equinox, Spring Equinox, Midsummer, Winter Solstice, Easter Bunny, May, Juniper, Bonfires, Luck, Mead, Cross, Rowan Cross, May Bough, Sun, June, Vigil, Lamb, St. John's Wort, August, Harvest, Dancing, Bread, Cernunnos, Osiris, Arthur, Green Man, Barbecue, September, Wicker Man, Harvest Lord, November, Dead, Rememberance, December, Great Bear, Polaris, Yule Log, Libations, Mistletoe, Holly, Ivy, Holly and Ivy, Childbirth, Purification, Initiation, Candles, Candlemaking, Cheese, Dairy, Water, Easter Eggs, Underworld, Persephone on August 20, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Back in April when I first started to come out as a Pagan, I mentioned that one of my goals was to figure out some good ways to celebrate the Wheel of the Year. Although my emphasis is typically on the Hellenic gods, and my personal practice draws more from reconstructionism than anywhere else, I [...]
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Posted in Religion, tagged Atonement, Christianity, Easter, Fasting, Holidays, Holy Week, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Liturgy, Mormonism, Music, Prayer, Religion, Sacrament Meeting on April 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Once again this year I am baffled by how big of a deal Mormons do not make out of Easter. It’s a total non-holiday, while by contrast in most of the rest of the Christian world it is the high point in the liturgical (or even semi-liturgical or not liturgical at all!) year. [...]
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Posted in Spirituality, tagged Aphrodite, C. S. Lewis, Christianity, Dionysus, Divine, Divine Female, Divinity, Female, Fertility, Goddess, Gods, Hard Polytheism, Heavenly Mother, Hellenic Polytheism, Hellenismos, Hera, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Magic, Magick, Male, Mormonism, Mysticism, Neo-pagan, Neo-Paganism, Neopaganism, Odin, Paganism, Polytheism, Reconstructionism, Reconstructionist Polytheism, Religion, Sex, Sexuality, Soft Polytheism, Spirituality, Violence, War, Wicca, Witchcraft, Zeus on April 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Or, other ways of explaining the experiences I have had…
So, having personally experienced the presence of two separate divine figures–Dionysus and Aphrodite–I immediately assumed that the next step was Hellenistic Reconstructionist Polytheism. Simply put, it didn’t work. I have an intuition about where to go from here, but I am still assuming some kind of [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adam, Amon Amarth, Anachronism, AODA, Aphrodite, Ares, Army, Asatru, Atheism, Athena, Battlestar Galactica, Belief, Blogging, C. S. Lewis, Celtic Mythology, Childhood, Christianity, Commitment, Consciousness, Culture, Death Metal, Deity, Dionysus, Divinity, Druidry, Edith Hamilton, Ensiferum, Epiphany, Episcopal Church, Episcopalianism, Euphoria, Eve, Folk Metal, Genealogy, God, Goddess, Gods, Gospel, Greek gods, Greek Mythology, Heavy Metal, Hellenic Polytheism, Hellenismos, Heritage, iPod, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Kobol, LARP, Law School, Legend, Love, Marriage, Mormonism, Music, Mysticism, Mythology, National Guard, Neopaganism, Norse Mythology, Paganism, Paradigm, Passacaglia, Polytheism, Prayer, Primal, Reconstructionism, Relevance, Sex, Spirituality, Starbuck, Truth, Uncategorized, Vikings, War, Western Civilization, Zeus on April 1, 2009 | 21 Comments »
As a little kid in elementary school, I was obsessed with Greek mythology. In high school I branched out into Celtic and Arthurian lore, and then in college I fell in love with Vikings and Norse mythology, but the pattern is fairly consistent: for most of my life, myth and legend have resonated strongly and [...]
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Posted in Religion, Uncategorized, tagged Abuse, Aesthetics, Apollo, Apollonian, Authority, Cathedral, Christianity, Church, Clergy, Deception, Dionysian, Dionysus, Divinity, Emmaus, Episcop, Episcopal Church, Episcopalianism, Experience, God, Hymns, Intoxication, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Liturgy, Love, Mormonism, Music, Mysticism, Relationship, Religion, Saul, Spirituality, Tradition, Uncategorized, Yahweh on March 31, 2009 | 9 Comments »
When I think of direction in religion and my ongoing conundrum, some of my difficulties fit the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy really well. Simply put, in terms of Apollonian religious experience, Christianity is the most appealing and compelling to me. Christianity (and for me I mean mostly Episcopalian/Anglican Protestantism) is beautiful: I love the liturgy, the hymns, [...]
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Posted in Spirituality, tagged Childhood, Chriatmas, Christianity, Church, Commercialism, Faith, Family, Holiday, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Light, Memory, Music, Religion, Sacred, Spirituality, Television, Time, TV on December 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I absolutely love Christmas. I love the music, the decorations, the cookies, the shopping, the presents, the smiles, and the colored lights. The commercialism of Christmas just doesn’t bother me. It’s fun, and its only once a year (commercialism the rest of the year bothers me).
I can remember each Christmas distinctly going back to when [...]
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Posted in Religion, tagged Belief, Books, Borders, Christianity, Epistemology, Faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Religion, Resurrection, The Matrix, Thought, Trinity on November 30, 2008 | 18 Comments »
One of the biggest obstacles preventing me from simply embracing Christianity is that I am not entirely sure what it means to be a Christian. Specifically, I can not wrap my head around what it means to actually believe in Jesus, to the extent that belief becomes faith. By any reading of the New Testament, [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Amon Amarth, Asatru, Conservativism, Contract, Death Metal, Deity, Dreams, Edda, Ensiferum, Ethics, Faimily, Folk Metal, God, Gods, Heathenry, Heavy Metal, Identity, Jari Mäenpää, Jesus, Kinship, Morality, Mysticism, Mythology, Nine Noble Virtues, Norse Mythology, Oaths, O∂in, Odin, Paganism, Property, Prophecy, Prose Edda, Reconstructionism, Sleipnir, Spirituality, Tattoos, Uncategorized, Values, Viking Metal, Virtues, Wintersun on October 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I promised myself that I would stop going around and around with religion and getting nowhere with it, but it looks like it was a promise in vain. I went to see Amon Amarth and Ensiferum in concert last week, and it set me thinking about Ásátru again, catching me at a time when [...]
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Posted in Religion, tagged Asatru, Belief, C. S. Lewis, Christianity, Druidry, Episcopal Church, Faith, God, Intellect, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Kingship, Mormonism, Paganism, Religion, Resurrection, Spirituality on October 28, 2008 | 9 Comments »
I would like Christianity to be true. I’m just not really sure if I believe it. I decided last year, after reading C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, that I believe in God. The exact nature and extent of that belief is properly the subject of another post, but it is sufficient [...]
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