Hey Hey! This is a breath of fresh air!

[PictishMoon]

Hail All,

    So I consider myself to be "Wiccan-Curious", as I was heavily interested in Wicca as an adolescent and have since identified as a Taoist/Agnostic ever-since.  I am seeking a Pagan religion that is closer to my desire to be intimate with nature-worship while maintaining self-empowerment.

Does anyone have any leads/suggestions for an appropriate vessel of worship for me?  Perhaps Goddesses/Gods to recommend I investigate, or a religion that would suit both aspects of such a desired religion?  

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  

For Funsies:  I am a 25 yr. old mother of one perfect 21 mo. yr/o boy and am in a personal Renaissance (if you will!) Parents please feel free to connect with me as well, I am interested in integrating some Pagan holidays into my family's calendar!

[MeadowRae]

Hail All,

    So I consider myself to be "Wiccan-Curious", as I was heavily interested in Wicca as an adolescent and have since identified as a Taoist/Agnostic ever-since.  I am seeking a Pagan religion that is closer to my desire to be intimate with nature-worship while maintaining self-empowerment.

Does anyone have any leads/suggestions for an appropriate vessel of worship for me?  Perhaps Goddesses/Gods to recommend I investigate, or a religion that would suit both aspects of such a desired religion?  

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  

For Funsies:  I am a 25 yr. old mother of one perfect 21 mo. yr/o boy and am in a personal Renaissance (if you will!) Parents please feel free to connect with me as well, I am interested in integrating some Pagan holidays into my family's calendar!

Welcome! I am not all too familiar with Taoism, but could you be a Taoist pagan and celebrate the wheel of the year? I am a mother of a 7 month old (also perfect) little boy. I'm in the closet by necessity, but that doesn't stop us from greeting the sun every day, earthing, or going for walks.

I do plan to celebrate Samhain/Halloween somehow, and Imbolc is special to me because he was born at that time and Brighid is my primary deity. Other important ones to me are the equinox and solstice celebrations.

That was a bit random and rambly, but I hope it helps!

[PictishMoon]

Welcome! I am not all too familiar with Taoism, but could you be a Taoist pagan and celebrate the wheel of the year? I am a mother of a 7 month old (also perfect) little boy. I'm in the closet by necessity, but that doesn't stop us from greeting the sun every day, earthing, or going for walks.

I do plan to celebrate Samhain/Halloween somehow, and Imbolc is special to me because he was born at that time and Brighid is my primary deity. Other important ones to me are the equinox and solstice celebrations.

That was a bit random and rambly, but I hope it helps!

 

Yay! Congratulations on your little life creation!  Of course you think that your post was rambly, you must be exhausted (as all mothers of babies less than 3 yrs. old are!) It was totally comprehensible, just so you know though.  

Anyhow, would you mind telling me a little bit more of your Samhain celebrations?  I can absolutely observe the wheel and maintain the meditative and self-empowered aspects of the River of Life (a staple of Taoism...although I'm not strict in that practice, just identify with the beliefs very much so).  Does your family do a Circle together?  Do you set up an alter?  Do you have any other nature-worship/rituals that you observe?

[MeadowRae]

Yay! Congratulations on your little life creation!  Of course you think that your post was rambly, you must be exhausted (as all mothers of babies less than 3 yrs. old are!) It was totally comprehensible, just so you know though.  

Anyhow, would you mind telling me a little bit more of your Samhain celebrations?  I can absolutely observe the wheel and maintain the meditative and self-empowered aspects of the River of Life (a staple of Taoism...although I'm not strict in that practice, just identify with the beliefs very much so).  Does your family do a Circle together?  Do you set up an alter?  Do you have any other nature-worship/rituals that you observe?

Thank you! Honestly, because I'm living with family that is anti-pagan I plan to have a stealth altar to my dearly departed and visit grave sites. Of course, I will also dress up for Halloween, because why not?

 Other nature worship aspects would be grounding and centering, which I try to do most days, I set intentions at the new/dark moon, and sometimes some spell/prayer work. I used to be able to burn incense and such, but for now I'm limited mostly to my head and heart. Also, I love to have a ritual outside at the full moon. I do so when I can, and put out stone/natural jewelery to bathe in the moonlight. It's symbolic for me. I've also been known to gather full moon snow or storm water.

My ex asked me once what kind of spells I had done. I told him that 99% of my practice was listening. I meditate as much as I'm able.

[Morag]

Welcome to TC!
 

Parents please feel free to connect with me as well, I am interested in integrating some Pagan holidays into my family's calendar!

 
I'm not a parent, but if you're interested in family ways of celebrating the NeoPagan Wheel of the Year (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, Samhain, and the solstices and equinoxes), then I recommend checking out Mrs. B's Guide to Household Witchery. There's a chapter in there on Sabbats and with each sabbat she has a 5-minute solitary ritual, a small group ritual, and a section on how to make the holiday meaningful and fun for children.

We also have a Pagan Parents SIG (Special Interest Group) here on the forum; it's not very active at the moment, but there are plenty of old threads to read through and please feel free to start some new ones!

[PictishMoon]

Also, I love to have a ritual outside at the full moon. I do so when I can, and put out stone/natural jewelery to bathe in the moonlight.

It's awesome to see how devoted you are to your practice.  Did you perform any dedication rite when your baby was born?  

I'll take a leaf from your full/new moon practices!  I've been fortunate enough to find a Samhain celebration nearby, so I plan on taking my son and I to that.  In the meantime, a daily devotional will definitely help me to scratch an itch!

Best of luck to you and yours! Thanks for all of your insight and advice.  Feel free to message me anytime

[PictishMoon]

Welcome to TC!
 

 
I'm not a parent, but if you're interested in family ways of celebrating the NeoPagan Wheel of the Year (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, Samhain, and the solstices and equinoxes), then I recommend checking out Mrs. B's Guide to Household Witchery. There's a chapter in there on Sabbats and with each sabbat she has a 5-minute solitary ritual, a small group ritual, and a section on how to make the holiday meaningful and fun for children.

We also have a Pagan Parents SIG (Special Interest Group) here on the forum; it's not very active at the moment, but there are plenty of old threads to read through and please feel free to start some new ones!

 

Thanks so much for the useful info!  I'll be sure to check out the book and the forum!

[RecycledBenedict]

I am seeking a Pagan religion that is closer to my desire to be intimate with nature-worship while maintaining self-empowerment.

Does anyone have any leads/suggestions for an appropriate vessel of worship for me?

Meso-Pagan Druidry - i.e. the sort of Druidry that has its roots in 1740 - was very much influenced by Enlightenment Era ideas about human rights and civil liberties combined with veneration of nature.

From the early to mid-19th century writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau exercised some influence on some forms of Meso-Pagan Druidry (but more so posthumously, I believe).

During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Victorian Occultism and the emergent field of folklore studies had some impact on the Druid movement.

I use the word movement, since the movement consists of several independent organisations and individuals with no mandatory dogma or ritual, but a shared field of commonly occurring ideas or ritual customs.

In the 1960s, parts of the movement began to come under the influence of counter culture movements, and in the 1970s environmental issues rose in prominence. Meso-Druidry is now a very many-faceted spiritual way, permitting many different expressions. Meso-Druidry welcomes Agnostics and Polytheists, Christians and Buddhists, Pantheists and Deists, Animists and spiritual-but-not-religious - all united in the principle of respect towards their fellow human beings' conscience and towards Nature.

Please note, that Neo-Druidry, that emerged out of Meso-Druidry about 1979-80 (with some preludes in the early 1970s) is Polytheist in principle, and probably less welcoming for some of the above segments of Meso-Druidry.

(...) and have since identified as a Taoist/Agnostic ever-since.

The Daoist pantheon is very vast and rich. If you have already found your spiritual path in Daoism, I don't want to give you advice that lead you away from it. Double adherence to Daoism and another religion wouldn't be something new, though, if you prefer to combine Daoism with something else. In the past it was fairly common to practice both Daoism and Confucianism or both Daoism and Buddhism, or all three. I highly admire the Neidan practices of Daoism.

[PictishMoon]

The Daoist pantheon is very vast and rich. If you have already found your spiritual path in Daoism, I don't want to give you advice that lead you away from it. Double adherence to Daoism and another religion wouldn't be something new, though, if you prefer to combine Daoism with something else. In the past it was fairly common to practice both Daoism and Confucianism or both Daoism and Buddhism, or all three. I highly admire the Neidan practices of Daoism.

 
Hello there!  Thank you very much indeed for your enlightening commentary.  What you mentioned about the combination of Daoism and another Eastern religion would be a somewhat satisfactory option to me, although lacking in some nature-reverence that I seem to crave.  Keeping with the mindfulness of my practice while integrating the Sabbath wheel seems to be the best combination of satisfying these previously-conflicted needs.

Thank you for the additional information on Enlightenment-Era writing--I've always been a Whitman and Emerson fan myself.  

Gaining encouragement from the Pagan community in beliefs that I have identified with for years now certainly gives me strength.

[RecycledBenedict]

What you mentioned about the combination of Daoism and another Eastern religion would be a somewhat satisfactory option to me, although lacking in some nature-reverence that I seem to crave.  Keeping with the mindfulness of my practice while integrating the Sabbath wheel seems to be the best combination of satisfying these previously-conflicted needs.

Then I understand your situation and motivation slightly better.

I am afraid of giving advice: It is often a sensitive matter, and I feel more comfortable about sharing information about history.

Since I am not a Daoist myself, nor ethnically Chinese, I can only rely on academic overviews of the subject matter, but I have a vague memory of reading somewhere, that some Daoist festivals coincide in time with the Druidic-Wiccan festivals. You will perhaps find a way to combine these traditional Chinese festivals with their co-inciding Druidic-Wiccan festivals.

Something I appreciate with Meso-Pagan Druidry (compared to Wicca) is the less strict myth-cycle associated with the festivals. Vivianne Crowleys re-telling of the Traditional Wiccan myth-cycle about the life, death and return of the Wiccan deities is a fascinating read, and I understand the allure of it on those who take up the Wiccan path, but personally I have found the permitting and adaptable approach of Meso-Druidry more useful. There are several different pantheons and myth-cycles in use among Meso-Druid solitaries and groups, and many Druidic authors (such as John Michael Greer) encourages Druids to adapt the celebrations to the climate-conditions of their own region of planet Earth. When some Northern American Wiccan paperbacks (especially from the 1990s) tell me, that

... the first signs of spring are visible at Imbolc

my reaction to that is: Are you kidding? Here we are usually surrounded by deep snow in the end of January and beginning of February, and, not seldomly, the annual peak of coldness occur around the time of Imbolc. Similarly, the hottest time in the year very often happens around Lammas/Lughnasadh. Wiccan popular authors often (but not necessarily always) seem stuck in the weather conditions of southern England and southern Ireland, while Druid authors often (but not in all cases) seems more aware of the necessity to celebrate Nature of one's own local natural environment. I appreciate that.

[MeadowRae]

It's awesome to see how devoted you are to your practice.  Did you perform any dedication rite when your baby was born?  

I'll take a leaf from your full/new moon practices!  I've been fortunate enough to find a Samhain celebration nearby, so I plan on taking my son and I to that.  In the meantime, a daily devotional will definitely help me to scratch an itch!

Best of luck to you and yours! Thanks for all of your insight and advice.  Feel free to message me anytime

 
Thank you! I didn't perform a dedication rite, because it doesn't fit in with my own personal gnosis. (In my belief, my son will choose his path when he is of age.) I did, however, hold ritual for Brighid when I went into labor and asked/thanked her for a safe delivery. I firmly believe she was there, and that her presence will follow us.

[PictishMoon]

Something I appreciate with Meso-Pagan Druidry (compared to Wicca) is the less strict myth-cycle associated with the festivals...(cont'd) Druid authors often (but not in all cases) seems more aware of the necessity to celebrate Nature of one's own local natural environment. I appreciate that.

Wow!  Since your reply was the first time that I'd encountered the term "Meso-Pagan", I did a little research and found it to be a parallel term for "Neo-Pagan" in some instances.  I wonder if you intended that meaning when referring to the Neo-Pagan Sabbath cycles and the general tenants of the Meso-Pagan belief systems?  Continuing the discussion assuming that they are somewhat similar terms, I would have to agree that I find the idea of celebrating the yearly cycles in correlation with my local weather patterns appealing.  I live in the E. United States and our weather patterns are somewhat similar here as to what you expressed in regards to the Sabbath Cycle that you experience in Sweden.

I googled the term "Meso-Pagan Druidism" and another one of your posts came up from earlier on in the forum.  I'm going to look further into this because I am intrigued that there may be more people in my area who are willing to celebrate with our actual seasons

[kginpur]

Hail All,

 I am interested in integrating some Pagan holidays into my family's calendar!

 
Hi! Welcome!! I am new to the group as well. I am a mother of 3, ages 2.5 - 12. This year to celebrate the end of the harvest season my daughter and I made corn husk dolls. They were very simple (each takes about 10 minutes) and I was able to talk with her about the transition into the fall equinox that is approaching and the end of the summer harvest that we are ending (we are also harvesting the rest of our vegetable and herb gardens). I will try to upload a picture of the dolls for you to see. There are many websites that have instructions on how to make these. Anyway, this is what I hope will become a new tradition in my home with my kids.

[ThorbjornOdinson]

Hi, you asked about nature Goddesses/Gods and a religion/spiritual path that is nature based. You may be interested in Asatruism, it is the nature based religion of the Norse. You may want to investigate Freya, Frigga, Skadi, Frey, or Njord. These are all nature deities, Njord is God of the sea; Skadi is Goddess of the mountains and ice. Frigga is Goddess of nature, mothers and the hearth; and Frey/Freya are Goddess/God of nature and beauty.

Hope this helps.

[SunflowerP]

 

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