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Author Topic: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess  (Read 1025 times)

Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess

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Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« on: August 15, 2016, 01:57:06 am »
Hello There,

I'm Ida. You can call me Ida or The Spiral-Star Goddess. Whichever you feel comfortable using. I'm 33 years old and I live in the upper mid-west if you can call it that. I'm pretty new to paganism. I've only been practicing for two months but I feel right at home in my new religion. I did quite a lot of research before I found my current path. I don't really have a career but I do have a full time job. I am also a gifted writer but have yet to be published. I write across several genres but am more gifted in love stories, fantasy, fiction, and science-fiction. I do have a few novels that I'm working on that do involve spell-work, Wiccanism(Wicca), Paganism and demonology on some level.


Like other people I watch movies or online shows, listen to a wide range of music, cooking, playing xbox, taking walks, being in nature, reading, learning new things, hanging out with friends, shopping, watching Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films, surfing the internet and youtube, aromatherapy and incense. I've always been interested in history, ancient civilizations, other cultures and mythology. Ever since I've been little I've had an unusually strong fascination with The Lost City of Atlantis. I read everything I can find on the subject. I do believe that I lived a past life in Atlantis and was there during it's destruction. I firmly believe that it was located in the Atlantic Ocean not anywhere else. Don't ask me how I know, I just know. I'm a pretty eclectic person. I'm extremely honest as I always believe in telling the truth no matter what. People have told me that I'm a very methodical person in whatever I do. I've been through quite a lot in my life.


From birth I was raised as a Roman Catholic. Over the years that religion started to hold less and less meaning for me. I had also felt that God had turned his back on me and stopped listening to me. After seven or eight years of being a non-practicing non-denomenational christian that I started looking into other religions that would hold more meaning to me. I looked into Wiccanism (Wicca) and Paganism. I consider them separate but similar, that's just my beliefs and each of us are entitled to our own beliefs about things. While doing my research I found that just being Wiccan or just Pagan wouldn't fully work for me. I had wanted to find a way to blend the best of all three religions, christianity, wiccanism (wicca) and paganism. That's what I decided to do. I blended what works for me from Wicca and Paganism and blended it with a bit of christianity. I still accept that God/Jesus is a god but one that I no longer pray or talk to but I still celebrate christian holidays such as: St. Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. I also celebrate the pagan sabbots of: Imbolc, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, Mabon, Samhain and Yule. The christianity part of my religion is more of a respect for my birth religion that I was raised in even though I don't fully practice it anymore, mainly because of my family. I have a strong respect for nature and mother earth. I've tried spell-work off and on in the past before finding my current path of a blended religion. In the past I wasn't always doing spell-work right. Since staring on my blended path I've had more luck with spell-work.


I mainly worship goddesses that are associated with love. I have an eclectic pantheon of 20 goddesses from around the world. I also worship the Mother Goddess (also known as Gaia or Earth). From time to time I also call upon other gods and goddesses when I need to. If I call upon other gods/goddesses that I feel would be a good addition to my pantheon then I worship them as a side goddess along with the Mother Goddess and separate from my main 20 goddess pantheon, an example is the goddess Bridget (also called Brigid). My goddesses haven't had any issue with me being both a transgender woman(MTF) and bisexual. I hope any of you reading this don't take issue with who I am either. I hope to find like minded people that I can bounce ideas off of, connect with and where I can learn new things about myself and others. Sorry if this was a lot to read, like I said I'm a writer and I usually have a lot to say. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about anything I've written here. Blessed be!

Jenett

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Re: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2016, 07:19:19 pm »
Quote from: Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess;195020
After seven or eight years of being a non-practicing non-denomenational christian that I started looking into other religions that would hold more meaning to me. I looked into Wiccanism (Wicca) and Paganism. I consider them separate but similar, that's just my beliefs and each of us are entitled to our own beliefs about things.

 
Hi there! Welcome to The Cauldron.

I spent about 12 years living in the Twin Cities - it's got a really great Pagan community with a lot of opportunities. (Also an amazing reading and writing community for SF and fantasy....)

I'm curious about two things here, though, and maybe you could expand more? First, why do you refer to it as Wiccanism, rather than Wicca? And why do you see Paganism as something distinct from Wicca? Most people I know consider Wicca to be one religion under a much larger Pagan umbrella.

(I can go on about this a bit more if you're curious why I'm asking, but it's your intro, so I figure I'd ask!)
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Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess

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Re: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2016, 01:18:55 am »
Quote from: Jenett;195043

I'm curious about two things here, though, and maybe you could expand more? First, why do you refer to it as Wiccanism, rather than Wicca? And why do you see Paganism as something distinct from Wicca? Most people I know consider Wicca to be one religion under a much larger Pagan umbrella.

(I can go on about this a bit more if you're curious why I'm asking, but it's your intro, so I figure I'd ask!)

 

Hello Jenett,

Thanks for the welcome. I can see where you’re coming from in regards with the questions you asked me. I guess the reason I refer to Wicca as Wiccanism is because old habits die hard. You see the term Wicca is mainly new for me. I’ve heard about it for a few years but the earlier term I know it by: Wiccanism was more prevalent when I was younger and that’s how I associated everything Wicca. Also in my research both terms were used and I was more comfortable using Wiccanism as that’s what I was used to. The reason I put Wicca in parentheses was in case anyone asked what Wiccanism was. Mainly it's just a use of different terminology.


Why do I consider Wicca (Wiccanism) and Paganism different rather than the same? I could have considered them both to fall under the same umbrella term: Paganism but I’ve chosen to not do that. Part of it is personal choice and second: in doing my research I broke Wicca and Paganism down into their own separate definitions. Broken down they meant different things to me so naturally I went with separate definitions hence separate groups/religions. During my research I ended up defining paganism as any religion that is non-Abrahamic, worships multiple gods/goddesses (polytheism) and an appreciation/worship of nature. Also during my research I defined Wicca as more of a religion/focus on witchcraft(I also call it spell-work sometimes), appreciation/worship of nature and the use of herbs and oils. To me Wicca was more about the craft than worshiping a god/goddess while Paganism was vice-versa. A lot of it boils down to my own personal beliefs and how I interpreted my research before deciding on my blended religion as I had to learn and research everything all on my own. I hope that clarifies it a bit. Thanks for the questions. It got my noggin thinking about how others define things. A perfect example of why I joined the forum in the first place.

Jenett

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Re: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2016, 08:10:52 am »
Quote from: Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess;195063
Thanks for the welcome. I can see where you’re coming from in regards with the questions you asked me.

Ah, okay! I'm glad I asked. One of the complications of being an online forum is that if we're using words in different ways, it can get really confusing very quickly. So in this case, I'm really glad to know you're using terms in a way that's really different than most people on this forum, because it means I can give you some info (which may help you understand how other people use the terms), and so you'll understand why people may be baffled at some things you say.

Quote
Part of it is personal choice and second: in doing my research I broke Wicca and Paganism down into their own separate definitions. Broken down they meant different things to me so naturally I went with separate definitions hence separate groups/religions.

So, one of the things about words is that definition of a word or the way it's used isn't just a personal choice - other people use the same words, and if we all use them to mean different things, that is going to make it hard to communicate.

Quote
During my research I ended up defining paganism as any religion that is non-Abrahamic, worships multiple gods/goddesses (polytheism) and an appreciation/worship of nature.

This is a definition some people use, but it's a definition that leaves out a lot of kinds of Paganism, including the practices of many people here who are active in the Pagan community in various ways and identify as Pagan. The definition we use on this forum is "A Pagan religion is a religion that is not Jewish, Christian, or Islamic and self-identifies as Pagan."

There's a reason we leave out the appreciation/worship of nature - there are a lot of historical Pagan practices where appreciation or worship of nature just wasn't a thing (or when it was relevant, it was in a very different way than people who use that phrase usually mean.) If you think about it, it'd be pretty silly to have a definition of Paganism that leaves out historical Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or other practices, since those things are part of the roots of our modern traditions.

Likewise, some Pagans are agnostic or atheistic - deities are simply not a part of their practice. Some people work with archetypes, some work with local spirits or ancestors, and some practices get more complicated than that. (And some people are henotheistic - focus on one deity while acknowledging other deities exist, and some paths believe that all named deities are facets of a greater divine force.)

You can find some more links that talk about this from our Pagan Primer (which needs updating: the staff here have been talking about how to do that.)

Quote
Also during my research I defined Wicca as more of a religion/focus on witchcraft(I also call it spell-work sometimes), appreciation/worship of nature and the use of herbs and oils. To me Wicca was more about the craft than worshiping a god/goddess while Paganism was vice-versa.

Wicca's also a tricky term in use - some people use it to describe a handful of specific initiatory religious witchcraft traditions with roots in the New Forest area of England, while other people use it to mean 'whatever I want it to mean'. As I noted above, this get very confusing! A while back, I wrote a piece for my website (which is designed to help people interested in learning more about religious witchcraft) that talks about the different ways people use the term Wicca, and why some of those definitions don't work well when used in the same conversations. You might find it handy, just so you know more about where other people might be coming from.

I'm curious too, about where you were reading that Wiccanism was a really common term - it's one I've seen occasionally, but I read pretty widely (both in books and online) and it's certainly not the *main* term I've seen used anywhere. I'm working on a book about research for Pagan practices, and terminology is a big part of it, so if you have pointers about where you were reading that it was heavily used, I'd love to dig into that.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 08:15:39 am by Jenett »
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Re: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2016, 11:31:04 am »
Quote from: Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess;195020
From birth I was raised as a Roman Catholic. Over the years that religion started to hold less and less meaning for me. I had also felt that God had turned his back on me and stopped listening to me.


As one recovering catholic to another, I totally sympathize. You also sound like you have a very strong creative instinct. The world always could use more people like yourself. Welcome:)

Morag

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Re: Hello from the Spiral-Star Goddess
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2016, 03:39:55 pm »
Quote from: Ida-Spiral-Star Goddess;195020



 
Welcome to TC!
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"The most powerful god at any given moment is the one who can solve the moment's problem."
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