Author Topic: Deployed Sailor looking for help/advice/guidance (Read 1636 times)

deployed sailor · « **on:** August 22, 2012, 07:33:41 am »

Hello everyone, first I've been browsing this forum, with what little bit of crappy internet I get out to sea, for the past few days. I already went over a bit of back story in the Introduction forum, but I was deployed at a time in my life where i was moving past one religon and looking for another. Since then I've come to realize, after great mediation and thinking and speaking with my spouse about it, that Paganism is right for me. I've ruled out Wicca, and most forms of ritual magic, mostly since being solitary and honestly the one time I tried it I didnt get the feeling it was what I needed to do. However I've come to feel a "pull" is the best I can put it towards the old Greek Gods and Goddess's not so much to get into the Hellinistic Recon that I researched about on these very forums as well as a few rather informative blogs. Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously. I do not want at this time to be shouting my faith out from the Flight Deck so to speak, but I do want to grow and right now, and for the next many months, I am afraid I will grow stagnent and that worries me since that is the one thing I dont want to do. I am very excited and not patient enough to wait around for me to get home to grow and expand my life.

In case that was too long in summary, how would you advise growing your faith having to keep it secret, with no place to really call your own, or privacy at all. Thanks again for any help at all!

randomheathen · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2012, 09:11:07 am »

Quote from: deployed sailor;70165

Hello everyone, first I've been browsing this forum, with what little bit of crappy internet I get out to sea, for the past few days. I already went over a bit of back story in the Introduction forum, but I was deployed at a time in my life where i was moving past one religon and looking for another. Since then I've come to realize, after great mediation and thinking and speaking with my spouse about it, that Paganism is right for me. I've ruled out Wicca, and most forms of ritual magic, mostly since being solitary and honestly the one time I tried it I didnt get the feeling it was what I needed to do. However I've come to feel a "pull" is the best I can put it towards the old Greek Gods and Goddess's not so much to get into the Hellinistic Recon that I researched about on these very forums as well as a few rather informative blogs. Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously. I do not want at this time to be shouting my faith out from the Flight Deck so to speak, but I do want to grow and right now, and for the next many months, I am afraid I will grow stagnent and that worries me since that is the one thing I dont want to do. I am very excited and not patient enough to wait around for me to get home to grow and expand my life.

In case that was too long in summary, how would you advise growing your faith having to keep it secret, with no place to really call your own, or privacy at all. Thanks again for any help at all!

I wouldn't worry about growing stagnant just because of a lack of reading material or privacy. I think the main thing is the core values and how you implement them into your life, not how often you can do rituals. You don't have to loud to be devout.

deployed sailor · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2012, 09:48:11 am »

Quote from: randomheathen;70175

I wouldn't worry about growing stagnant just because of a lack of reading material or privacy. I think the main thing is the core values and how you implement them into your life, not how often you can do rituals. You don't have to loud to be devout.

I understand that now thankfully. In my previous faith i was one of those loud obnoxious types as i was younger. Glad to be free of that part of my life. I just need to figure out how and what to do to be able to honor and show devotion and grow out here. Thats the biggest thing tripping me up right now.

: Just really glad and excited to be starting something new, and unexplored.

Laveth · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2012, 10:52:51 am »

Quote from: deployed sailor;70165

Hello everyone, first I've been browsing this forum, with what little bit of crappy internet I get out to sea, for the past few days. I already went over a bit of back story in the Introduction forum, but I was deployed at a time in my life where i was moving past one religon and looking for another. Since then I've come to realize, after great mediation and thinking and speaking with my spouse about it, that Paganism is right for me. I've ruled out Wicca, and most forms of ritual magic, mostly since being solitary and honestly the one time I tried it I didnt get the feeling it was what I needed to do. However I've come to feel a "pull" is the best I can put it towards the old Greek Gods and Goddess's not so much to get into the Hellinistic Recon that I researched about on these very forums as well as a few rather informative blogs. Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously. I do not want at this time to be shouting my faith out from the Flight Deck so to speak, but I do want to grow and right now, and for the next many months, I am afraid I will grow stagnent and that worries me since that is the one thing I dont want to do. I am very excited and not patient enough to wait around for me to get home to grow and expand my life.

In case that was too long in summary, how would you advise growing your faith having to keep it secret, with no place to really call your own, or privacy at all. Thanks again for any help at all!

You don't need to keep props (journals, books, altar items) to be spiritual. It's a mentality or perspective more than anything else. Just read what you can, try to incorporate the parts that make sense into your life without making any blatant statements to the world, and you should be fine.

You have a right to keep some things private, and ultimately it's your choice whether to tell others about your studies or not.

monsnoleedra · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2012, 11:09:39 am »

Quote from: Laveth;70192

You don't need to keep props (journals, books, altar items) to be spiritual. It's a mentality or perspective more than anything else. Just read what you can, try to incorporate the parts that make sense into your life without making any blatant statements to the world, and you should be fine.

You have a right to keep some things private, and ultimately it's your choice whether to tell others about your studies or not.

Bolded mine. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way on ship. The berthing area is one of those things where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. In Officer County or the Goat Locker, CPO Berthing, it's a bit better but still just as compact. What makes it so bad is that you sleep with the same group you work with or componet you belong to, example deck sleeps with deck. So it's really difficult to find any "Me" space outside of ones rack when they pull the curtains closed.

monsnoleedra · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2012, 11:21:02 am »

Quote from: deployed sailor;70165

.. Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously. I do not want at this time to be shouting my faith out from the Flight Deck so to speak, but I do want to grow and right now, and for the next many months, I am afraid I will grow stagnent and that worries me since that is the one thing I dont want to do. I am very excited and not patient enough to wait around for me to get home to grow and expand my life. ..

Since your looking to Posiedon I'd suggest going to the fantail / Stern or bow at sunrise or sunset and just talking to him. Granted flight ops can restrict deck access but if nothing else one can stand on the catwalks if they are open. Standing at the fantail and watching the green algie glowing in the wake of the ship can be a really connecting time with the water and Posiedon. The same if your near the Bow and watch the dolphins racing with the ship and crossing back and forth. Another thing is the black torpedo shape of a shark trailing in the ships wake from dumping trash.

There are a number of ways to connect to the sea and come to know the moods of Posiedon.

Annie Roonie · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2012, 11:44:39 am »

Quote from: deployed sailor;70165

Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously.

In case that was too long in summary, how would you advise growing your faith having to keep it secret, with no place to really call your own, or privacy at all. Thanks again for any help at all!

You can do quite a bit with the only place you have that you can call your own: your mind. Loci is a method of memory that makes ties between physical things and ideas, but you don't have to use actual physical things. This method has been used by prisoners in a fully abstract way. One way is to imagine a grid. Each box on it will contain an idea. But that can be boring. You can use a room in your mind and associate the items in that room with ideas. Then when you get back, revisit the room, the ideas and record them. You can imagine a whole town or a street and that each shop contains certain ideas and going in to them you can, like an outline heading, explore all of the sub ideas under the broader topic of the shop.

For example the tea shop could have all different kinds of tea pots. Image a stout iron pot and put into it all the concepts you can think of about iron. You can have a whole tea ceremony in that shop and many ideas about time and care can be stored within that. And then there might be an ornate flowery French tea pot. What will you put into that one? I use tea because it uses water to transform but you have your own mind scape and preferences. One shop could be a music shop. Good gravy, you could store an idea in every CD or record.

Some suggestions on ideas to think about without much reading would be things like exploring what roles deity plays in people's lives and what role you want it to play in yours if at all. That has many parts to it. Another idea could be to build a sanctuary. Get down to the nitty gritty. Imagine digging, imagine the materials and how to use them. Imagine step by step putting your sanctuary together. In your mind you have all the resources of the world.

Using what is around you you can explore the basic elements and put your thoughts about them in your grid or imagined space for safe keeping. The human body is earth after it degrades, you have the water, air and fire in the sun. You have your own spirit and can observe that of others and form ideas about these things.

You can do other types of mind work. You may be able to get meditative in task or in a chapel. Hone the skills of using your mind. This is real work and it can be used even after you're done. Pray to whatever or whoever you like and ask for ideas or guidance.

You do have a unique opportunity without as many distractions as being home perhaps to focus in on some basic concepts and really explore them and how they work. Your thoughts can be kept using any memory method (Loci was just a suggestion) and used where ever you go. This will allow for much private growth and when you get reading material or other information, you will have already formed a framework that you can use to assimilate and evaluate new information. Or you can toss the framework when you're done with it and build, grow, in a new way when you are in a different circumstance.

It's a bit more complicated than saying "use your imagination" but not a ton. Use your mind's tools is more accurate maybe. And in using those tools, you may become much better at it. I think there are people who would like to be in some sort of isolation in order to be more apt to do this kind of mind work, might as well take advantage of where you are. There are some very practical advantages to doing things like this and some do not become apparent right away.

Surely you have work to do as well. Your thoughts concerning that and stories you may have to tell that arise from that can also be stored in memory for later use.

A way to test how you are progressing is to store a simple idea some where in your mind. Then forget it and move on. A day later see if you can access it. If not, start over and if so, see how long you can go. When it becomes a matter of understanding a full complex though at just the sight of an imagined shop or room, you'll know you're doing it right because you'll have full access to all your thoughts when you want them. And a way to figure out where you want to take your growth when you get back is to note which ideas you remember best and how you feel when you remember them. If you are drawn to one shop on your imagined street more, that may indicate a future direction for you.

Just ideas!

Good luck to you!

Hunthjof · « **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2012, 07:49:26 am »

Quote from: deployed sailor;70165

Hello everyone, first I've been browsing this forum, with what little bit of crappy internet I get out to sea, for the past few days. I already went over a bit of back story in the Introduction forum, but I was deployed at a time in my life where i was moving past one religon and looking for another. Since then I've come to realize, after great mediation and thinking and speaking with my spouse about it, that Paganism is right for me. I've ruled out Wicca, and most forms of ritual magic, mostly since being solitary and honestly the one time I tried it I didnt get the feeling it was what I needed to do. However I've come to feel a "pull" is the best I can put it towards the old Greek Gods and Goddess's not so much to get into the Hellinistic Recon that I researched about on these very forums as well as a few rather informative blogs. Basically I'm looking for advice on how I can incorparate some sort of daily practice, in a floating city, with the only nature I have access to is the sea (Good thing since Posiedon has always been one of my favorites), and surrounded by mostly Christians in a society where if revealed you may very well be reviled due to the majority being funadaminatlists of one form or another, politaclly and religiously. I do not want at this time to be shouting my faith out from the Flight Deck so to speak, but I do want to grow and right now, and for the next many months, I am afraid I will grow stagnent and that worries me since that is the one thing I dont want to do. I am very excited and not patient enough to wait around for me to get home to grow and expand my life.

In case that was too long in summary, how would you advise growing your faith having to keep it secret, with no place to really call your own, or privacy at all. Thanks again for any help at all!

Shipmate I am starting my journey as well. Though my Naval journey is coming to it's end. I have felt a similar pull though towards the religon of the Romans. If you need a shipmate to contact let me know.