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Author Topic: A summary of YOUR beliefs  (Read 6253 times)

Ivy4031

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A summary of YOUR beliefs
« on: July 21, 2020, 09:38:54 am »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

I'll start. I'm a weak-agnostic, meaning that I will not believe in any theistic or atheistic opinions until there is proof - and I am open to the possibility of maybe one day knowing said proof.
However, I do believe there is something more to what we perceive as our existence - and there is nothing wrong with trying to search for answers. I just don't think us Earthlings are designed to know everything... at least not yet.
 
 

ehbowen

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2020, 12:44:12 pm »
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?


Oh, my.

I'm still enough of a fundamentalist to fit in very well with a conservative Southern Baptist congregation. I don't wear my oddities on my sleeve with them generally, but I have spoken clearly and frankly with our pastor and his wife. They continue to welcome my participation, but they want me to eschew any kind of a leadership role. I'm OK with that.

Where I differ with 99% of the fundamentalists is: I believe that I've met God. In person. More than once. Specifically, the lady whom the Proverbs refers to as Wisdom. She's cute, and I have reason to believe she's eligible. God has done nothing to dissuade me from that notion. I also believe I've met her Father...and his wife. I've shared the story elsewhere and elsewhen on this board, but details aren't important. I haven't experienced anything momentous enough to convince you if you don't want to believe me...but you have no argument convincing enough to persuade me otherwise.

And, as a result of that contact, I have come to some conclusions which push me out of the fundamentalist mainstream. Not far; I still believe that every word of the Holy Scriptures as originally penned is exactly what my God intended to say in that place and in that time. And that it is still valuable for study, and teaching and as a guideline for living. This includes all of what Paul, Moses, and others had to say about sexual morality. If you don't like that, I'm sorry, but not sorry enough to back down.

Basically, though, I feel that the affirmative promises of the Scriptures are still in force in full. Come to Christ, you will not be cast out. Eternal life means just that. And more. But I believe that the negative promises of the Scriptures are open to being superseded. I'm not saying that they HAVE been superseded, but I'm saying that I believe that it's possible. I think that my God is always open to suggestions as to how to do something better, and if it really is better He's not too proud to change his policies accordingly.

And when you see a "tension" in the Scriptures, I see it as an indication that an improvement in policy is being considered. Anyone who has spent time amongst fundamentalists has heard about the doctrine of Hell. But in 2 Peter 3, one of the passages which does talk about the judgment and doom of the ungodly, there is also this verse: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." And so I believe that the possibility that ALL will come to repentance...in other words, Universalism...is still very much on the table simply because God has been waiting this long.

Make no mistake, though, the universalism I espouse is not the light and fluffy "everyone gets a trophy" sort. I simply believe that each living soul...and not just human souls...is unbelievably precious and valuable, so much so that it is worth any amount of effort to reach. Now if sweetness and light work, great; unfortunately I think that there are a lot of folks who will need to be hit over the head with a clue-by-four. Jesus warned that those who would not repent would have to "pay the very last penny." But I believe that, with eternity before us, eventually that last penny will be paid.

So what am I doing on this board? Well, I can speak more freely here than I can in church, I'm afraid. I mark a difference between standing up in a pulpit and expounding, "This is the way IT IS" as opposed to sitting with friends while sipping a cup of tea and saying, "You know, I've got this idea for another way that we can look at this problem..." And, frankly, I find the conversation here stimulating. I would be extremely disappointed, at this point, to find that the spiritual realm consisted entirely of God, Satan, and nine ranks of angels. There's a lot out there that I'm curious about. Not curious enough to cross any red lines, but curious enough to say, "You know, I'm open to discussion."

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Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
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Altair

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2020, 04:09:53 pm »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

"Tree-hugging pagan" is my self-deprecating way of saying that my spirituality is drawn from the natural world around me; that my brand of neopaganism fits into the same constellation as other nature-based pagan paths like Wicca (but since I don't believe in spells, I don't consider myself Wiccan).
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

Aisling

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2020, 10:09:30 pm »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

"Electic pagan witch" - Yea gods, you'd think I could come up with something better than that for a descriptor. However, it fits as a general, if somewhat generic, label.
 
What it translates to is that I'm a polytheist, animist, psychpomp, and magic-user who draws from multiple sources for my practice rather than following a specific tradition.  Although I do work with magic and spells,  I'm not Wiccan or Wiccan-ish in my beliefs or practices, so it's just plain "witch". 

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." -
Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2020, 01:53:08 pm »
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

I apply my Jewish upbringing and philosophical style to a personal religion in which I have accepted the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury as God and do my best to live up to his ideals of boundless Love and self-authenticity.
"The peacock can show its whole tail at once, but I can only tell you a story."
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Jenett

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2020, 03:55:44 pm »
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

Like many religious witches, the things that make my practice distinct are about what I do, not my beliefs. (I am of the "I could have a coven here and we could have 10 people and 20 different opinions about the nature of the Gods, cosmology, and a bunch of other things." camp.)
 
Mostly, I'm about "Does this thing make my life better? Does it make stuff around me better? Does it improve celebrating the good times, and getting through the hard times as well as possible? If so, great, that's the goal."

In terms of labels, working backwards.
Witch. That's about how I interact with the world, and sometimes specifically at how I poke at the thing that's uncomfortable, in a specific way. Discomfort is where we get change and where the magic happens, often.

Religious witch: my witchery involves deities (and other powers, in my case). I'm a polytheist. I believe there are many many many gods, goddesses, and other powers out there most of whom I don't have a lot to do with, and some of whom I'll cheerfully go to other people's rituals for. I have two deities I work with regularly in my personal practice, four for my coven and tradition, and probably another 15 or so that I honour and talk to less frequently, either seasonally or for specific needs/goals. (Math is hard: do I count the guardians of the quarters in there?)

Initiatory: my particular tradition requires shared initiatory experiences to become a part of the tradition. I don't think that makes me a better witch than other people, but I believe it makes me a specific flavour of witch that I value and treasure.

Other labels highly relevant to my practice of witchcraft: librarian, author, musician, and process geek. All of which have some belief aspects to them, as well as being about what I do and how I do it.
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SirPalomides

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2020, 04:08:55 pm »
Make no mistake, though, the universalism I espouse is not the light and fluffy "everyone gets a trophy" sort. I simply believe that each living soul...and not just human souls...is unbelievably precious and valuable, so much so that it is worth any amount of effort to reach. Now if sweetness and light work, great; unfortunately I think that there are a lot of folks who will need to be hit over the head with a clue-by-four. Jesus warned that those who would not repent would have to "pay the very last penny." But I believe that, with eternity before us, eventually that last penny will be paid.

The last Christian book I read was the recent book That All Shall Be Saved by the theologian David Bentley Hart. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Christian universalism. Hart argues- conclusively, IMO- for the necessity of universal salvation on the basis of scripture, church tradition, and reason. His argument is fully consonant with orthodox Christianity but non-orthodox Christians will find it useful Like you say, though, it is not by any means "light and fluffy".

SunflowerP

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2020, 08:39:24 pm »
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

It's been a long time since the last thread of this sort, so, no need to apologize!

The expanded description of my 'stuff' can be found in my full profile, but I'll reiterate it here (as I typically do in threads like this; IIRC, it originated as just such a forum reply, and the reiterations are a good chance to review it and see if it needs any edits):

- Urban/Practicing Animist
- Pantheist (absolutely not panentheist)
- Medium-hard polytheist who works with a thematic personal pantheon ('polytheist poached medium')
- Agnostic (i.e., I believe all these things, or alternately, act as if they are true, based on the evidence of experience, but I do not know them, and have doubts about whether they can be known absolutely - which doesn't stop me from asking the questions)
- Borderline atheist (depends on definition - I do not believe in a self-aware, volitional, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent creator-of-everything)
- Eclectic neoPagan religious Witch. Influenced by many things, including Traditionalist Wicca/Witchcraft and Feri-derived material. Member in standing of the BHS. Grumpy witch.
- Witch of the system formerly known as Libertarian Witchcraft, currently nameless, which I constructed (no grandmothers were harmed or fallaciously invoked in the construction of this system), and therefore chthonurgist.
- Discordian
- Cyberwitch
- Improvisational Magician
- rational mystic, technician of the sacred, spiritworker, worldwalker
- liminalist
- voluptuary
- Humanist (if just one of these is 'my religion', this is the one; the others are explanations of worldview and/or descriptors of praxis)

Sunflower
I'm the AntiFa genderqueer commie eclectic wiccan Mod your alt-right bros warned you about.
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Darkhawk

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2020, 09:37:41 pm »
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

<stares at the religion listed in my profile>
... nope.

I can expand it a little but none of us has time for an actual explanation.

An American Werewolf in the Akhet - the akhet is one of the Egyptian words for the spirit world, and I am pretty sure that 'American' and 'werewolf' are translatable.  This is folkloric recon!  Also a bad joke riffing on a movie title.
Kemetic - Egyptian reconstructionist
Feri - Feri is an American-origin form of religious witchcraft founded by Victor and Cora Anderson, of which the most famous initiate used to be Starhawk (of The Spiral Dance fame) but who even knows these days.
Imaginary Baltic Heathen - look, gods are complicated and these may be fairies and in any case this isn't my bag except in the mirror universe so hang on where's my moustache. I can't explain it.  No, really, this is the best you get in a short brief.
Discordian - seriously compared to everything else the Discordianism is straightforward.  Just... read the Principia.
CoX - the Cult of Ecstasy is a faction of mages in the RPG Mage: the Ascension.  I cannot meaningfully provide further explanation than the Code of Ananda.
Etc. - there is a lot of et cetera available in et cetera. Some of it involves hats.  Some of it involves gender.  Some of it involves kink.  Some of it involves fairies.  Quite a lot of it involves music.  Most of it involves writing.  Some of these things are the same things as the other things.  I don't know, man, I didn't do it.
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

EclecticWheel

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2020, 05:18:05 pm »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

My beliefs have ranged across a spectrum.  In the end, I am certain of very little.  I put my trust in reason because it is a useful tool, and in some ways I work intuitively when it comes to spiritual matters.

I have listed Christo-Eclectic.  I have been through some changes and my religious practice has been evolving with me.

There are a few experiences I've had over the years that have continuously informed my otherwise changing practices.  I acknowledge those I call the Holy Ones.

I honestly don't know what else to call them.  This is based purely on personal experience.  They are a multitude, and they are many and one.  As far as I am concerned They may as well be the high God, if there is a most High, but I don't know.  If they are not the high God, they must be awfully close.

Then there are a few spirits I have acknowledged over the last twelve years at least, and I have made offerings to them for over a decade.  I do not know what they are, but often I acknowledge them collectively as the Holy Guardian Angel (because of their close connections to one another), and another spirit besides them, the Little Rabbit as I call him, is the one whose protection I ask especially before establishing a possible connection to a new spirit or introducing myself.  I also venerate Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The acknowledgement of the Holy Guardian Angel (or the Four), the Little Rabbit, and the Holy Ones has been continuous for me, and I have been devoted to them no matter what else I was practicing at the time.  Most of the time I was practicing some form of Anglo-Catholicism, so Jesus and his Mother have been important Presences for me.

At other times I have honored Hellenic deities or pop culture spirits or particular members of the Dead.  What I am currently deciding is whether I wish to work on just these relationships or introduce more.

What my current practice of offerings look like is simple and does take cues from neo-pagan sources I have in my home and online, mainly Hellenic ones, but my practice is my own, not Hellenic.

As regards Jesus and Mary, since I have been an Anglo-Catholic most the time, I currently still pray to them, especially for family matters.  That is what my family would wish for me to do as well, I am sure, not that we'll be discussing it.  I still love Jesus and Mary, but my beliefs are different than Christian ones.  I believe that there are multiple Powers in the world responding to those names and that I don't necessarily need to be a Christian to venerate Jesus or the Blessed Mother.

To summarize, the consistent parts of my practice have been either an acknowledgement of or reverence toward the Holy Ones, the Four, the Little Rabbit, and Jesus and Mary, but it would be too much to go into the identity of the Four and the Rabbit.

I could probably just change my religious title to Eclectic at this point, but I am still waiting to see what transpires before I rush to change anything.  I may not know what religion I may be practicing next month, but I appreciate this post for helping me to identify what actually is consistent in my practice.  This should be very useful to me.
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Yei

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2020, 06:35:27 am »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

I'll start. I'm a weak-agnostic, meaning that I will not believe in any theistic or atheistic opinions until there is proof - and I am open to the possibility of maybe one day knowing said proof.
However, I do believe there is something more to what we perceive as our existence - and there is nothing wrong with trying to search for answers. I just don't think us Earthlings are designed to know everything... at least not yet.

I'm a Mexica Reconstructionist, which means that I include Huitzilopochtli in my pantheon, and I frame my worship as that of someone from an urban environment. As a Reconstructionist, I base my worship on historical precedence.

For me, worship is meant to achieve the following:
1) Payment of the debt which I owe to the gods.
2) Recreation of a mythic past which restores and regenerates the world.
3) The balancing of cosmic forces to ensure the continuity and balance of the world.

Divinity, called Teotl, is found throughout pretty much everything, in both visible and invisible manifestations. There are many gods, but each god is composed of Teotl, and has multiple manifestations. In addition, there are spirits embedded throughout the landscape. Usually, they are bound to different gods.

In general, I favour a structured form of worship, which I achieve using a calendar. That said, actual worship can be quite flexible and preformative. I am a solitary practitioner, but ideally worship should be a collective activity.

Sophia C

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2020, 07:14:57 am »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?

Good question and fun to answer - thanks for asking! I am bad with labels and change the details of my religion here rather often, staring at it as I scratch my head, wishing I had better words for things.  :D

'Christian and Pagan' is more accurate than the 'ChristoPagan' term that I see some people using. These are not syncretised or blended religions for me. They're separate religious structures I keep to separate spheres of worship. That said, I currently only have space for one altar/working space, where I do everything. So far, no gods have told me they mind that. But if I gained more space, I can imagine them asking for separate Christian and Pagan areas.

I only use the term 'Christian' for convenience of understanding. I don't particularly fit the definition that most Christians use. Most importantly: for me, religion is practiced, not believed. I think the influence of my Jewish spouse has helped me embrace this approach, but it was the case for me long before I met them. It might be a neurodivergent thing (for me personally), but I believe nothing. I embody religious practice, and belief does or does not follow. I don't think the gods care about my belief, anyway. Only my devotion.

My Christian practice is almost entirely contemplative. That basically involves prayer without words (or concepts or beliefs). You might call it meditation, except it's specifically about spiritual union with God. I don't actually know who or what God is, which makes that all the more interesting.

My Pagan practice is mostly Druid, except that I'm a very bad Druid in the usual sense. I love the wild land, and I meet the gods and spirits when I'm out in it, but I'm a terrible gardener, can't remember the names of trees and don't do nearly enough environmentalist work. But being out in the land, and developing relationship with it, is religion, for me.

I'm also a Gaelic polytheist, in the sense that the gods I honour are mainly the ones from Irish myth/culture, and one or two from Welsh/Brythonic myth. (Herself of the Christians is an exception.)

'Other influences' is other random stuff I do that would probably fit under 'pop culture Paganism' although I really don't like that term.

I could add 'witch', but that comes with even more stereotypes and expectations that I can't live up to.

Ok, now I'm more confused than ever. Which is basically the definition of my religion, so that's fine.  :)
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
- Doctor Who

Donal2018

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2020, 02:33:46 pm »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile.

I am an agnostic scientific humanist. I view religion as a human cultural activity and gods and goddesses as powerful psychological symbols and cultural constructs. I tend to view belief and non-belief through a social scientific lens. I believe in cultural and religious diversity as an aspect of my humanism. I believe in a sort of Universal Humanism as an umbrella term for this diversity.

I am eclectic in what I focus on as far as practice goes. I consider myself a kind of cultural Christian with a rexpect for Westrn Civilization and associated paganisms. So, eclectic Christian Pagan Agnostic. Soft polytheist with syncretic personal gnosis.

For example, I associate Christ with the Irish Pagan god of healing Dian Cecht. My thinking is that if gods and goddesses existed, they would appear under different names and guises to different cultures.

So the Father God in one culture may appear under a different guise and name in another culture. For example, the Irish Dagda has been associated with the Norse All Father Odin. This is Unverified Personal Gnosis for me, but it suits my way of thinking about what gods are, at least in my own imaginaton. Basically a kind of comparative mythology.

There is other stuff I could mention,  such as that I also consider myself an Urban Pagan with a spiritual connection to the City. So my beliefs and practices are somewhat eclectic and multi-faceted. I will leave off for now.

Uneryx

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2020, 01:29:44 am »
Hey everyone.
Apologies if this has been asked before.
I'm extending this question to everyone of every belief (or lack thereof).
Can you summarise the 'religion' you have listed in your profile?
 

Some say it's mystic
It's eclectic!
Woogie woogie, woogie
You can't resist it
It's eclectic!
Woogie woogie, woogie


in all seriousness, my beliefs are kind of a hodgepodge as I figure out what exactly i'm doing. Mostly:

- Solitary witchcraft: spellwork, divination and astrology are the main thing I do and hinge my practice on
- Fairies: The primary powers I work with are a set of 7 fairy queens that I learn more about as I sink deeper into practice. They're vaguely seasonal
- A lot of journey work, especially when journeying is one of the only ways I can safely leave the house in These Trying Times™.
- Sometimes involvement with Gods (mostly Hermes and another who has yet to verifiably identify himself but I have a good idea, sometimes others depending on what it is), but it's more like doing a project with a department head than working directly under them.
- A handful of other things I'm figuring out.

mostly I like studying and learning and contemplating and jimmying with the wires of reality as much as I can.

Donal2018

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Re: A summary of YOUR beliefs
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2020, 06:13:11 pm »
I am an agnostic scientific humanist. I view religion as a human cultural activity and gods and goddesses as powerful psychological symbols and cultural constructs. I tend to view belief and non-belief through a social scientific lens. I believe in cultural and religious diversity as an aspect of my humanism. I believe in a sort of Universal Humanism as an umbrella term for this diversity.

I am eclectic in what I focus on as far as practice goes. I consider myself a kind of cultural Christian with a rexpect for Westrn Civilization and associated paganisms. So, eclectic Christian Pagan Agnostic. Soft polytheist with syncretic personal gnosis.

For example, I associate Christ with the Irish Pagan god of healing Dian Cecht. My thinking is that if gods and goddesses existed, they would appear under different names and guises to different cultures.

So the Father God in one culture may appear under a different guise and name in another culture. For example, the Irish Dagda has been associated with the Norse All Father Odin. This is Unverified Personal Gnosis for me, but it suits my way of thinking about what gods are, at least in my own imaginaton. Basically a kind of comparative mythology.

There is other stuff I could mention,  such as that I also consider myself an Urban Pagan with a spiritual connection to the City. So my beliefs and practices are somewhat eclectic and multi-faceted. I will leave off for now.

I thought that I would add an element to this- I would call myself a Pantheist Agnostic Naturalist (PAN). My Pantheism is sort of a Western Tao. It is a container for some of the other things that I am- Humanist, Pagan, Cultural Christian, etc.

This Pantheism holds the Cosmos, Nature  and Evrrything in it to be Sacred and the Source of Life. It is not a personification, but rather contains gods as personifications of different aspects of Nature and the Cosmos. These gods are idea forms and powerful cultural constructs.

So I am a kind of naturalistic Pantheist with other Eclectic stuff.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2020, 06:18:13 pm by Donal2018 »

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