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Author Topic: Creating Your Own Religion  (Read 6960 times)

Goddess_Ashtara

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2017, 06:32:49 am »
Quote from: Demophon;195521
Does anyone either follow a religion that you have created yourself, or made up your own religious system, even if you do not practice it? All religious traditions start somewhere, so there's no reason why a person can't create their own valid system, whether or not it's based on earlier ideas. If so, what does it entail, and what were your inspirations?

My spiritual-religious system is about strengthening my connection with God(s), aiding in the attainment of my greatest goals and aspirations, and encouraging me to live how I Will to live and be who I Will to be.  My spiritual-religious system encourages me to absorb strength, power, wisdom, and beauty from any religion or culture I Will.  It is not for the masses, it is for the individual... this individual.   It is intended to complement my own Weltanschauung and True Will, and fuel my own dreams and desires and ambitions.

While my spiritual-religious system is a product of my own thoughts and experiences, my own Weltanschuung and True Will... I have found inspiration in many spiritual-religious systems, first and foremost the ancient Mesopotamian pantheons and the Abrahamic pantheons, and the more esoteric elements within their myths and sacred writings.  Thelema, O9A, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Qabalah and Kabbalah, ceremonial magick and "traditional witchcraft"... the list goes on.  I have many interests and many passions... and while I have found strength, power, wisdom, and beauty within these spiritual-religious systems and more, the God(s) of my pantheon are the greatest source of motivation and inspiration, beyond my own True Will.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2017, 09:38:33 am by Jenett »
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Jenett

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #16 on: January 17, 2017, 09:38:15 am »
Quote from: Goddess_Ashtara;201511
My spiritual-religious system is about strengthening my connection with God(s)

A Reminder:

Hi, two quick notes.

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« Last Edit: January 17, 2017, 09:39:09 am by Jenett »
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EclecticWheel

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2017, 09:26:19 am »
Quote from: Demophon;195521
Does anyone either follow a religion that you have created yourself, or made up your own religious system, even if you do not practice it? All religious traditions start somewhere, so there's no reason why a person can't create their own valid system, whether or not it's based on earlier ideas. If so, what does it entail, and what were your inspirations?

 
Yes, I do, but it's a work in process, and some of the elements I describe are newly emerging.

I do practice the Episcopal-Anglican religion (Anglo-Catholicism specifically) as my communal religion.  I am not orthodox which is more or less acceptable in the Episcopal faith.  Then I have my own emerging religion that draws on material from the other, but it is very different.

Omnia -- a personification for The All -- is the glue that holds both these religions together such that they are not merely (for me anyway) a contradiction.

I interpret my Anglo-Catholicism through a pantheistic lens with the help of modern non-realist theology, liberal theology, mysticism, and some other sources.

Then my personal system is more explicitly pantheistic but there are a few primary deities and a few traditional saints (Mary, Joseph, etc) through which to worship Omnia -- who isn't really directly worshipped -- as well as work with in a more personal devotional way.

Saints and gods are honored in thanksgiving rites that are my pantheistic take on the Holy Eucharist and also honored at personal shrines.

Some entities not honored in the primary rituals may also be honored at shrines, and if they become very important to me may eventually be incorporated into the rites.

For a long time my practice just looked like eccentric Christianity, but it is now beginning to resemble a (non-Wiccan based) Christopaganism.

For that and other reasons I have felt it necessary to brush up on ancient mythology.  I have always felt most affinity to the ancient Greek gods out of ancient pantheons, so that is what I am now focusing on and finding it more enjoyable and easier than in the past when I was more so focused on Christianity and put more effort there.

I do and have in some way feel drawn to these gods, especially Hypnos, Morpheus, and Thanatos.  The block for me has been a feeling of disconnection between myself and the ancient culture these gods come from.  I just cannot bring myself to pray to them in these cultural forms apart from their culture and could *never* *ever* incorporate them as Greek gods into a Christopagan system.

Yet I still feel they are important.  So I have asked myself lately who or what these gods would be and how would they connect to me if they took on aspects or forms more relevant to my time, place, culture, and religions.

Thanatos for instance is the personification of Death.  Death is a cultural universal.  So who is Death to me?  My relationship with her -- and for me Death is a "she" -- is new, but I have been exploring Grimm's fairy tales, Hans Christian Anderson, Sandman comic series, and folklore in general to frame what resonates with my experiences and go from there in terms of my approach in ritual and whether she should be honored within the thanksgiving.

And Death as Thanatos would be there in a way even if the Death I worship diverges quite a bit because I will still be working through that lens indirectly.  For example Sandman for me (Sleep and Dream) is Death's brother.

That's all I have for now.
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

MadeiraDarling

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #18 on: April 05, 2017, 08:02:33 pm »
Quote from: Demophon;195521
Does anyone either follow a religion that you have created yourself, or made up your own religious system, even if you do not practice it? All religious traditions start somewhere, so there's no reason why a person can't create their own valid system, whether or not it's based on earlier ideas. If so, what does it entail, and what were your inspirations?

I definitely have aspects of deity that are sort of my own?  Some of them started as fictional characters (I'm a writer) and evolved into representations of some aspect of deity.

I have Valentine who's a sort of beautiful, androgynous male love/war deity, Mae West who's... sort of literally just Mae West because I feel like she's a valid icon of a certain type of femininity rarely represented as sacred, Gaia-Galatea or the Plastic Venus who's sort of associated with artifice and like body modification and sexuality as well as like mental fertility and technological advancement, and a nameless deity I've been calling the male goddess who's in charge of like death, the infinite, the incomprehensible, fertility and transformation and he's the consort of Gaia-Galatea.  I'm sort of inspired by Fillianism and obviously the Classical Pantheon...

I tend to agree with Fillianists that the universe is feminine by nature but I don't think that makes it necessarily female, if that makes sense?  So I honor the divine feminine as it appears in men and women and others.  I'm also sort of inspired by the repeated mythological motif of the "unnatural mother" where someone who should be unable to give birth gives birth in one way or another to a super natural entity (E.G. Mary having a child while a virgin, Adam birthing Eve from his side who in Gnostic tradition is a savior, Zeus and Dionysus and so on)
« Last Edit: April 05, 2017, 08:12:25 pm by MadeiraDarling »

EclecticWheel

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #19 on: April 11, 2017, 12:03:09 am »
Quote from: MadeiraDarling;204661
I definitely have aspects of deity that are sort of my own?  Some of them started as fictional characters (I'm a writer) and evolved into representations of some aspect of deity.

I have Valentine who's a sort of beautiful, androgynous male love/war deity, Mae West who's... sort of literally just Mae West because I feel like she's a valid icon of a certain type of femininity rarely represented as sacred, Gaia-Galatea or the Plastic Venus who's sort of associated with artifice and like body modification and sexuality as well as like mental fertility and technological advancement, and a nameless deity I've been calling the male goddess who's in charge of like death, the infinite, the incomprehensible, fertility and transformation and he's the consort of Gaia-Galatea.  I'm sort of inspired by Fillianism and obviously the Classical Pantheon...

I tend to agree with Fillianists that the universe is feminine by nature but I don't think that makes it necessarily female, if that makes sense?  So I honor the divine feminine as it appears in men and women and others.  I'm also sort of inspired by the repeated mythological motif of the "unnatural mother" where someone who should be unable to give birth gives birth in one way or another to a super natural entity (E.G. Mary having a child while a virgin, Adam birthing Eve from his side who in Gnostic tradition is a savior, Zeus and Dionysus and so on)

 
Interesting!
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Altair

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #20 on: April 11, 2017, 05:58:41 pm »
Quote from: Demophon;195670
Cool, thanks for the links.

That's interesting about your own pantheon. If you don't mind elaborating, I'd be interested to know more about the three families of deities and their myth cycles.
 


Demophon, I don't know how I missed this until now; my apologies. The three families (and their greatly oversimplified provinces) are the celestials (gods of space), the temporals (gods of time), and the nocturnals (gods of thought/the unknown). They're all related to each other, to greater or lesser extents.

You can get a better sense of the mythos here; I wrote their myths in my book Songs of the Metamythos.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Pusheen

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Re: Creating Your Own Religion
« Reply #21 on: April 20, 2017, 02:11:38 pm »
Quote from: Demophon;195521
Does anyone either follow a religion that you have created yourself, or made up your own religious system, even if you do not practice it? All religious traditions start somewhere, so there's no reason why a person can't create their own valid system, whether or not it's based on earlier ideas. If so, what does it entail, and what were your inspirations?

 
I don't know what I consider myself other then Heathen however I have my path within that. I give offerings to Thor in my own way and honour him in ways outside of tradition, I think that creates your own tradition and practice
Devotee of Thor and a huge nerd

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