Author Topic: new & uncertain! (Read 667 times)

shoemakerlevy9 · « **on:** January 22, 2021, 01:36:47 pm »

Hello! I'm Niamh, a college student & Environmental major.

I was raised Catholic but have always been personally agnostic, and I've recently felt the need to try to incorporate some form of spirituality in my life. Belief/faith in anything beyond the physical world has always been difficult for me to wrap my head around, and I honestly doubt that will change anytime soon, so I've been looking for an outlet for my spirituality that won't require that, if that makes sense? I've taken a few religious studies classes in college, and I found exploring religion from an academic perspective very rewarding, but I still want more. I often find the imagery and stories of a religion very spiritually fulfilling, and I have a lot of respect for all religions, but the actual faith part of it is uninteresting to me -- I don't find it particularly important for myself to have a clear answer for whether God(s)/the afterlife/etc exist or not.

Currently, I'm curious about atheopaganism/humanistic paganism and Discordianism, though I haven't explored those too deeply yet. I'm also interested in Jungian archetypes, possibly going in a soft polytheism direction (mostly based around historical syncretism, I really enjoy academic research if you couldn't tell). I've done chaos magic/tarot card reading, although I'm still a beginner, and these practices are entirely psychological for me.

I still feel that Catholicism inspires my spirituality a lot (which makes things extra-complicated) but for the past few years, I've felt very drawn to Brigid (mostly the goddess, but also the saint) in a way that I can only describe as spiritual. Recently, I've found certain imagery (not traditionally associated with Brigid) popping into my mind again and again, and, after looking into, found that it seems to be SPG (with even a little bit of historical evidence) for Brigid, so that has got me re-evaluating things

Thank you for reading, if you got all the way through haha!

PerditaPickle · « **Reply #1 on:** January 23, 2021, 07:00:39 pm »

Quote from: shoemakerlevy9 on January 22, 2021, 01:36:47 pm

Hello! I'm Niamh, a college student & Environmental major.

I was raised Catholic but have always been personally agnostic, and I've recently felt the need to try to incorporate some form of spirituality in my life. Belief/faith in anything beyond the physical world has always been difficult for me to wrap my head around, and I honestly doubt that will change anytime soon, so I've been looking for an outlet for my spirituality that won't require that, if that makes sense?

Makes total sense to me, I identify as spiritual but not religious but am also drawn to Neo-Druidry.

Welcome to TC

anubisa · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2021, 12:50:46 am »

Quote from: shoemakerlevy9 on January 22, 2021, 01:36:47 pm

Hello! I'm Niamh, a college student & Environmental major.

I was raised Catholic but have always been personally agnostic, and I've recently felt the need to try to incorporate some form of spirituality in my life. Belief/faith in anything beyond the physical world has always been difficult for me to wrap my head around, and I honestly doubt that will change anytime soon, so I've been looking for an outlet for my spirituality that won't require that, if that makes sense? I've taken a few religious studies classes in college, and I found exploring religion from an academic perspective very rewarding, but I still want more. I often find the imagery and stories of a religion very spiritually fulfilling, and I have a lot of respect for all religions, but the actual faith part of it is uninteresting to me -- I don't find it particularly important for myself to have a clear answer for whether God(s)/the afterlife/etc exist or not.

Currently, I'm curious about atheopaganism/humanistic paganism and Discordianism, though I haven't explored those too deeply yet. I'm also interested in Jungian archetypes, possibly going in a soft polytheism direction (mostly based around historical syncretism, I really enjoy academic research if you couldn't tell). I've done chaos magic/tarot card reading, although I'm still a beginner, and these practices are entirely psychological for me.

I still feel that Catholicism inspires my spirituality a lot (which makes things extra-complicated) but for the past few years, I've felt very drawn to Brigid (mostly the goddess, but also the saint) in a way that I can only describe as spiritual. Recently, I've found certain imagery (not traditionally associated with Brigid) popping into my mind again and again, and, after looking into, found that it seems to be SPG (with even a little bit of historical evidence) for Brigid, so that has got me re-evaluating things

Thank you for reading, if you got all the way through haha!

Welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy it here!