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Author Topic: Why Do You Do What You Do?  (Read 4109 times)

HarpingHawke

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Why Do You Do What You Do?
« on: January 20, 2017, 11:09:24 am »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that, myself, and I wanted to see what y'all might have to say. :)

In bullet points, here are my reasons:

- the gods motivate me to be better--to myself and to others
- deity relationships are important to me (though I've gotta figure out *why*)
- learning things is a good thing and I tend to learn a lot from the different things I do, about myself and otherwise
- as someone who's had a few close brushes with death, I find deathwork to be important. The deathwork *I* do is about becoming comfortable with the idea of dying and about honoring the dead.
- the world feels more manageable when I make offerings and do quiet ritual
- texts like the Havamal both bring me comfort and make a lot of sense to me
- animism
- a sense of justice in my religion is important to me
- archaeology is cool as heck
- that sense of justice makes me want to make the world a better place, which is good--I don't just want my religion to be good for me, but for other people as well, regardless of if they know religion is even involved
- it's just...fun. I enjoy what I do.

So. What about you guys?
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." - Hemingway

Sorcha

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2017, 02:29:28 pm »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201651
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that, myself, and I wanted to see what y'all might have to say. :)

In bullet points, here are my reasons:

- the gods motivate me to be better--to myself and to others
- deity relationships are important to me (though I've gotta figure out *why*)
- learning things is a good thing and I tend to learn a lot from the different things I do, about myself and otherwise
- as someone who's had a few close brushes with death, I find deathwork to be important. The deathwork *I* do is about becoming comfortable with the idea of dying and about honoring the dead.
- the world feels more manageable when I make offerings and do quiet ritual
- texts like the Havamal both bring me comfort and make a lot of sense to me
- animism
- a sense of justice in my religion is important to me
- archaeology is cool as heck
- that sense of justice makes me want to make the world a better place, which is good--I don't just want my religion to be good for me, but for other people as well, regardless of if they know religion is even involved
- it's just...fun. I enjoy what I do.

So. What about you guys?

 
Why do I do what I do? Hm. Well, what I do is very much in process right now, as in, I don't really KNOW, so what I'm doing is exploring. So here are the why's to my exploration, I guess:

-Christianity wasn't cutting it in the form I was doing it. I come from an evangelical tradition, and there was no mystery and yet nothing tangible. I need both. It had neither.

-I need a spirituality that connects to nature. Otherwise I feel like this HUGE part of my life is just very, very minimized. I needed the divine to be IN the trees and the rocks and the sunset. I needed to enjoy them as themselves, not just as the creation of a separate-from-nature God.

-I love the idea of burning incense and doing rituals and having an altar

-Um, hello? Magic

-Apparently Tarot is an awesome tool for me

-CANDLES

-Integrating spiritual things into everyday life in a natural way. It's hard for me to connect the Christian God to, say, cooking. Christians talk about "doing everything for God's glory" in order to imbue life with meaning, but saying "praise God that kitchen is clean!" always seemed... empty. Cleaning my kitchen because I also see it as a magical space imbued with spirituality and possibly its own genius loci? Yeah, that I can get into. (It also bugged me watching people do actual hard work and then have that hard work attributed to a deity. Paganism doesn't seem so determined to strip credit away from the person who actually did the work, and pagan deities seem less needy.)


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EclecticWheel

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2017, 12:47:00 am »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201651
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that, myself, and I wanted to see what y'all might have to say. :)

In bullet points, here are my reasons:

- the gods motivate me to be better--to myself and to others
- deity relationships are important to me (though I've gotta figure out *why*)
- learning things is a good thing and I tend to learn a lot from the different things I do, about myself and otherwise
- as someone who's had a few close brushes with death, I find deathwork to be important. The deathwork *I* do is about becoming comfortable with the idea of dying and about honoring the dead.
- the world feels more manageable when I make offerings and do quiet ritual
- texts like the Havamal both bring me comfort and make a lot of sense to me
- animism
- a sense of justice in my religion is important to me
- archaeology is cool as heck
- that sense of justice makes me want to make the world a better place, which is good--I don't just want my religion to be good for me, but for other people as well, regardless of if they know religion is even involved
- it's just...fun. I enjoy what I do.

So. What about you guys?

I have asked myself this very question often.

Since I am practicing two traditions (one self-created and in some ways still evolving) I will include them both.

Episcopal Church:
- provides a warm accepting community

- tangible sacraments, mystery, ritual, beauty, intellectual stimulation

- rites of passage

- rituals to heal, forgive and be forgiven (the latter does NOT mean you're off the hook in terms of consequences)

- connection to tradition

- I am allowed to have unconventional, even heretical beliefs: we are more orthoprax than orthodox in modern times

My other personal rituals are a process through which I am framing a worldview through ritual.  That worldview and ritual is now complete enough that I am now moving on with inner work I have wanted to do for a long time that provides a context that in practice is both pantheistic and polytheistic.

I am now reaching out to more gods through writing and exploring folklore and Greek myth for inspiration.  Through this practice I am able to

- develop my worldview not only by my intellect but also through art forms such as writing, ritual, metaphor, and religion.

- access to this tradition is not dependent on geography, community, or governance

- I do as I see fit

- my rituals encourage me to clean and declutter to have an appropriate worship space

- tangible rituals & relationships with saints, angels, & gods helps me process and work through emotions

Right now I am focused on Death and some other cultural universals personified, working with them through European folklore, popculture, and Greek mythology as informative lenses.  I am blown away by things I am learning and connections I am making.

Death (personified) is important to me.  I am not so much struggling to accept my death.  I am really hurting because I fear we may be too late to save the species for climate change.  Death will be here for me while I grapple with accepting our eventual extinction whether that is relatively soon or in the distant future.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2017, 12:49:12 am by EclecticWheel »
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Altair

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2017, 06:15:32 pm »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201651


So. What about you guys?


There isn't a lot that I *do*--my spirituality is more about the lens through which I view things. But for those things that I do, I do them because they help me feel connected to the natural world.
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

HarpingHawke

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2017, 12:00:59 pm »
Quote from: Altair;201763
There isn't a lot that I *do*--my spirituality is more about the lens through which I view things. But for those things that I do, I do them because they help me feel connected to the natural world.

 
So I'm super interested--why do you feel the need to be connected to nature? What does it do for you?

(Sorry if I'm prying--I'm just having a very introspective time and getting to the root of things is like, a priority XD)
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." - Hemingway

Altair

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2017, 06:55:13 pm »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201809
So I'm super interested--why do you feel the need to be connected to nature? What does it do for you?

(Sorry if I'm prying--I'm just having a very introspective time and getting to the root of things is like, a priority XD)

 
Damn you and your tough questions!!!! ;)

The connection to nature strengthens me, grounds me, helps me understand who and what I am.

Or, to put it another way, it's something that I gravitate towards anyway (looking back--I was raised without any religion, and long considered myself atheist/agnostic--I was doing tree-hugging pagan things, like celebrating the summer solstice, even before I knew what a tree-hugging pagan was). It's not so much that it does something for me, as its absence leaves me miserable.

If there's such a thing as a "spriritual orientation", akin to sexual orientation, then I've definitely got a nature-centered pagan one: imaginative, independent and suspicious of authority, endlessly awed by a "simple" rock or blade of grass, and craving to be outdoors.

So anything that feeds that makes me feel whole.
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

HarpingHawke

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2017, 07:55:03 pm »
Quote from: Altair;201820
Damn you and your tough questions!!!! ;)


 
They're what makes me fun! :whis:

Thanks for your answer, though!
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." - Hemingway

Jainarayan

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2017, 11:32:04 am »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201651
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*...

 
Hinduism as I practice and believe it (Hinduism is only an umbrella term for possibly hundreds of different philosophies and practices), has given structure and a name to things I have believed from the time I was a freshman in high school.

I was raised Roman Catholic and practiced it until I was about 23 years old when I joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. All that time, however, since I was introduced to eastern philosophies, Hinduism especially, I was drawn to Hinduism. Despite being Christian I believed in the Hindu gods. I drifted away from Christianity and towards Hinduism.

I remember the time I bought my first little murtis, statues of Hindu gods, and created a little shrine. There are lessons in the Hindu texts e.g. Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, puranas, the Vedas that I find useful and have actually learned from, or supported my ways of thinking.

Oskar

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2017, 03:24:21 am »
Quote from: HarpingHawke;201651
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*
So. What about you guys?


For me it is to:

-feel closer to my ancestors, to honour and give them respect
-answer some of the questions I had about the universe which as an Atheist I could not answer
-give my life a spiritual aspect which I felt was missing
-commune with deities & ancestors, knowing they are always around me
-learn about the history of my ancestors
-give my life more balance
-feel closer to the natural world around me
-build more self esteem and help me through the dark times in my life
-help me find my place in the world even if those around me follow very different paths
-give my life more meaning, a sense of purpose
-I love candles too :)

Sorcha

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2017, 11:29:13 am »
Quote from: Altair;201763
There isn't a lot that I *do*--my spirituality is more about the lens through which I view things. But for those things that I do, I do them because they help me feel connected to the natural world.

 
YES. This! I can't believe I forgot to mention it in my original reply. I feel the need to connect to nature spiritually, and what I do helps me do that.


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Goddess_Ashtara

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2017, 10:21:16 pm »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice?
Because it is my Will.

Quote
What is the purpose of your tradition?
-To complement my own Weltanschauung and True Will, and my own goals and ambitions

-To complement the Will of my God(s)

-To express and explore and utilize my relationship with God(s)

-To develop and explore an organized means of generating mana for God(s), and directing it towards God(s)

-To help me absorb strength, power, wisdom, and beauty from wherever I Will, and utilize it however I Will

-To express my reverence for nature- especially the desert, the night, the skies, and storms- and places beyond this earth

-To explore and express my reverence for human Nature

-To develop a lasting reservoir of culture for Nexion 3127- for myself and those of similar Weltanschauung who embrace the same God(s) and have similar goals and ambitions

Quote
What good does it do for you and for the world?
What my spiritual-religious system has done for me, has been summarized in my answers above.  I am not concerned with what it does for other people, other than those of 3127... who embrace and evolve my ideas as they Will, in their own direction, in some manner that it becomes a reflection of their own thoughts and Weltanschauung, instead of mine.  What it does for my God(s) is amplify my ability to generate mana for God(s), and allow the Will of God(s)- as I experience them- to manifest on this earth, through me. 
Quote
Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

It is my Will.  This spiritual-religious system is a reflection of who I am, of my thoughts and experiences, of my Weltanschauung, of my True Will and goals and ambitions.  As I adapt and evolve to move forward in this world as I Will, so shall my spiritual-religious system adapt and evolve accordingly.

« Last Edit: June 05, 2017, 10:27:49 pm by Goddess_Ashtara »
𒊩𒆪  𒂔𒇸𒀝  𒄿𒈨
NIN EDINLIL AK IMEN
𒊩𒆪  𒂔𒇸𒀝  𒄿𒈨

Megatherium

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #11 on: June 06, 2017, 12:53:45 am »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

- I became interested in Heathenry at a time in my life when I was starting a family of my own. The relatively strong focus on community within this tradition really helped me to embrace a new role for myself in which I put other people before myself

- There seems to be an attitude towards nature/wilderness among historical Heathens which mixed both religious awe and fear in a way that strongly appealed to me

- The importance of one's local land/environment in historical heathen communities gave me a way of conceptualizing my relationship with the land I live on that has been tremendously rewarding

- It has provided me a way of connecting, (in a much more general way than I had originally envisioned) with my historical roots

- The importance of one's ancestors always appealed to me and Heathenry is a tradition which has allowed me to have a religious way of expressing my respect for my ancestors

- The Germanic Deities really "clicked" with me once I had read enough to see past the modern caricatures of them, and my conception of them has fit very nicely with religious feelings I have always experienced but never previously had any way of expressing

- I have always been interested in history and religion and those interests are significantly enlivened when the acquisition of knowledge about these topics helps me to deepen my religious practice


So, yeah, looking back on that list, Heathenry is the rug that really ties the room together for me.
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Henzelli

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2017, 07:45:53 pm »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

I feel like this is a far more appropriate place to introduce myself as a first post while I think of something witty to title my introduction in the introduction forum.

When I first started down the Pagan path, I was 13-ish, didn't know a Wiccan from a Witch, and thought it was super edgy to Anything-But-Christian(tm). After a few years, I drifted back towards my native Roman Catholicism and felt it necessary to actually *learn* the faith I had been confirmed in. For those who aren't familiar, Confirmation is the sacrament whereby you take everything you've learned and make the conscious decision whether or not to formally join the Catholic Church. We can all sympathize with the immense familial and social pressure to join the church you've grown up in, I'm sure. So after several years of *really* studying the Catechism, reading Sts Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, etc. I realized certain things I believed stood in direct opposition to the dogmas of the Church and consciously left. Then I swam around a bit, mostly being an agnostic witch. It was after I met my fiance that I began to engage with the gods in a way that for me was more real than I could have ever imagined in the incense-filled sanctuary of Catholicism. Through not only my home garden but also through the non-profit I'm a part of and the community garden we help manage, I was engaging with the gods of the earth on a daily basis. This really tapped me into the wheel of the year and drew my attention lovingly to the world around me in a way my previous Edgy-Wicca(tm) never did.

So, to wrap up a long story, the practices I do grow out of this slow push and pull. The gods nudge me towards something, and I reach out for something else. We triangulate and try again. To bullet point the rest:

* Living off the earth (as much as I can) reinforces my direct experience of the gods
* Experiencing faith in such a direct way pushes me to things I wouldn't have thought I would do
* Worshiping the natural world around me helps me live as harmoniously as I can with it

Is there a real "purpose"? None that I can divine; but the experience itself may be purpose enough, or the gods might have a different purpose. In any event, my life and my tradition/religion/faith/etc. are intertwined to the point where I have trouble separating the two.

milkeyedmender

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2017, 11:18:12 am »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*


I was raised, much like others, without religion by my parents.  My grandparents were catholic (converted from a white magic witch of the 70s) and jewish.  I have been drawn to magic created from the outside world since a child-gnomes, fairies, seasons, witches, ghosts, pretty much anything that was beyond what my logical, analytical upbringing told me to hold in high regard. 

I guess I just always felt there was more, another veil, of reality.  Feeling closer to it in young childhood, farther away in adolescence, and now sidled up to it once again. 

It always made sense to me that "my grandmother was a witch, and so I am a witch." 

As an adult, I've found i'm not happy, or fulfilled unless I spend part of my day outside every day.  In the south this is hard to do during July and august. But being outside, I notice the magic of the natural world. I see my signs, and I'm with my people.  It helps me to think of the chain reaction small decisions make.

blah blah! love to talk!

Kyaza

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Re: Why Do You Do What You Do?
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2017, 12:40:50 am »
As the title says, why do you practice the religion/path you practice? What is the purpose of your tradition? What good does it do for you and for the world? Why, beyond "it just feels right," have you made the decision to practice *this specific thing?*

The way I got to Paganism itself is a little strange. I grew up in a Southern Baptist home, but I never went to Sunday school until I was twelve. The first Sunday school I went to, the lesson focused on a verse that talks about how people went to heaven based on their deeds...then the next verse we focused on directly contradicted that by saying only those who followed Jesus could go to heaven. I was pretty angry at the contradiction, and I decided I was an atheist pretty much instantly. Then I got curious when I saw a girl refuse to say the pledge of allegiance, found out she was a Jehovah's Witness, and I started studying that denomination (for like three months). When I realized how much they hated Pagans, I started doing research, determined to find out why Pagans were such dreadful people. Of course, when I started doing the research, I found the exact opposite, and I was drawn to Paganism originally because it promotes inclusiveness.

That was over 17 years ago, and today I'm a priest for both Loki and Freyr. I follow a fairly eclectic path, which is kind of a given considering how prominent a role Loki plays in my life. My practice is recon-derived rather than strictly recon, as I believe that the gods can change and evolve and therefore aren't limited to interpretations that limit their personal sovereignty.

With that background information, I can now properly answer the questions.

I walk a path of priesthood because polytheism is still largely misunderstood, even among fellow Pagans. I work to promote a greater understanding of what it means to be a polytheist, and I also do the best I can to help connect people with deities and help those who come face-to-face with deity understand their encounters. I was born with a thirst for spiritual truth, and what I found was a multiplicity of them.

I walk the path I do because I can share with others the joy of the gods and help the gods communicate when no one else seems to want to pay attention. I follow this path because it is the only path I can imagine following, a path that promotes good relationships between people and between people and the gods. Everything I do, I do in the name of relationship. Because that's what polytheism is about - establishing and maintaining good relationships with the gods and with the people that serve them.

I also walk this path because I have had incredible experiences, learned amazing things, and there is nothing I would trade those experiences for. It is a hard path, to be sure, but it is the most rewarding thing in my life.

As for what good it does for the world...it helps create space for polytheists. There are many, many polytheists, myself included, who have been verbally and physically assaulted within mainstream society but also within Paganism itself. Our experiences of deity are often denied, and we often find ourselves having to defend our own mental health status. Because polytheism is difficult to understand, I work to help others understand it. We live in a world where multiplicity of deity is often equated to the multi-faceted diamond concept of a single deity with many names. For most polytheists, that is not the way we view deity. Each deity is viewed, in and of itself, as a diamond with many facets. And then there are countless numbers of diamonds. Those are very different concepts of deity, and many polytheists have been abused and assaulted for their beliefs, harassed much more harshly than most other Pagans. Because we're the ones that get called crazy for experiencing deity directly, accused of making up our experiences and ridiculed.

That's what I'm working to change, and that's why the path I follow is such an important one for the world. As a priest of Loki (which is rare in and of itself), I am dedicated to teaching people who have been taught that they have no voice, no right to speak, no right to their beliefs - I'm dedicated to showing them that they have a voice. We all have a voice, when we deign to speak. Loki looks after those who have been the most hurt. Freyr governs diplomacy.

I am a very passionate person, very dedicated to the gods, and that has often led to very negative reactions. Because there are many people who are content with the trappings of faiths/religions and not the heart of them, and I tend to make those people uncomfortable which is not my intention. I am simply not the kind of person who can be content with the trappings, but that doesn't mean I have any issues with those who do. We all walk different paths - respect for difference is the one thing that should bind us all.

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