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Author Topic: What is your religion/spiritual identity?  (Read 22267 times)

Morag

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2016, 02:16:17 am »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?


Here's what's actually in my sidebar: "Something-or-other I'm building; Hellenic polytheism; D'Angeline Recon; Otherfaith"

Something-or-other-I'm-building: a religious witchcraft tradition I've been slowly piecing together over a period of years. I have no idea what to call it so it's just "something or other" until I figure out a better name. It's centered around three gods whom I call the Sacred Triad/Three or the Big Three or just the Three, and who are individually known as Brighid, the Morrigan, and Manannan.

That's basically the best intro speech I have for it; eventually I'll get a real elevator speech down. I stumbled onto it because...well, the three thwapped me, and eventually it became clear they all worked together with me, and I needed to build something.

Hellenic polytheism: I honor a small selection of Hellenic gods; I can't honor the entire pantheon, so I don't try (I have a geas on me against working with Poseidon).

I stumbled onto this via Aphrodite, to whom I gave an offering 6 years ago and asked her to heal my heartsickness. She really delivered. (That was the weekend I met my now-husband.) Then I went to Spring Mysteries Fest and sort of accumulated more Hellenic gods, including a thwap from Hecate.

D'Angeline Recon: I'm trying to build a religion based on the gods and religious life depicted in the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. So far I've got twice-weekly prayers (they can be said daily, but I say them twice-weekly because I have 4 pantheons) and I think 2 holidays. It's slow work and I need to reread the books.

I can't actually remember when I decided I wanted to build a religion based on the books; I read them a very long time ago, originally, and it took a while for the idea to pop up in my head. Calling it D'Angeline Recon, however, was an idea I got when I saw Jack describe his stuff as "fictional recon". It's not exactly the same idea (though actually, "fictional recon" as he describes it above could really refer to my entire spiritual process) but it is about reconstructing the D'Angeline faith based on knowledge from the books (primary sources) and fan theory/fanon/fanfiction/fandom (secondary sources).

Otherfaith: This is a new faith, came about in 2010, worshipping the Four+ Gods. I probably can't explain it very well but there's a good write-up on the website.

I came across it via some friends who are into it, one of whom is the spokesperson for the 'faith, and just started lurking and reading up on it, feeling some mild interest. I eventually felt a tug from Epiphany, a spirit in the Otherfaith, and the Ophelia, one of the Four+ Gods. So I've got a foot in, now, though the only truly regular practice I'm doing is my twice-weekly prayers.


There are other bits to my spiritual life, too, but those are the main, big things.
 
Quote from: Jack;198178
UU is in there because frankly I think it'd be weirder not to list the religion of the church where I've gone to services, helped set up and take down tables and chairs, wash dishes, painted and built furniture, attended study and social and meditation groups, been on committees, taught young adults and run social events. I grew up volunteering for everything under the sun at my Catholic parish and frankly the part where you show up and do things with people every week has turned out to be a much more important part of my spirituality than I'd thought it was.


You know, reading this paragraph here I think at some point soon I'll have to add "Anglican" to my religion field, as I've joined a local Anglican church. I haven't been around to do a lot of volunteering yet, but I'm sure it'll happen.

And yeah, I'm coming to realize that showing up and doing things with people is really important to my spirituality/religious life, too.
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Faemon

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2016, 05:33:24 am »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?


Faelatry, from fae as in fairies (I go by Keightley's word history) and -latry which I predict could become a tad contentious the way I use it; usually -latry means to worship or serve: compare idolatry, hagiolatry (which I was disappointed to find out is not the veneration of hags), bardolatry which is basically the Shakespeare fandom...

But I'm like:

Quote
"Have you ever seen a fairy or such like?" (Yeats) asked an old man in County Sligo. "Amn't I annoyed with them," was the answer.


So, I read fairy tales and usually believe them on some level—

Quote from: Jack;198178
fictional recon, which is to say, building helpful and useful practice and theology using the power of writing, reading, and the experience of connecting with stories


—Jack's definition of fictional recon describes most of my faelatry accurately too.

Quote from: Morag;198183
Otherfaith: This is a new faith, came about in 2010, worshipping the Four+ Gods. I probably can't explain it very well but there's a good write-up on the website.

I came across it via some friends who are into it, one of whom is the spokesperson for the 'faith, and just started lurking and reading up on it, feeling some mild interest. I eventually felt a tug from Epiphany, a spirit in the Otherfaith, and the Ophelia, one of the Four+ Gods. So I've got a foot in, now, though the only truly regular practice I'm doing is my twice-weekly prayers.


Heh, it was mostly after I'd joined the group that I noticed at least five people who were into the 'faith had also been active here. :) I'm so awful about remembering names and faces. Whenever I like someone's posts, I try to find out if they have a blog or something full of their thoughts on life and the universe and everything that I can keep up with, and if there is I forget to give rep. (Sorry, fellow Cauldronites! I probably love your blog!)

And at one point, two and a half -ish years back, I realized I'd looked up the main Otherfaith blog for the fifth time that I could recall, probably closer to fifteenth, and still had no frame of reference for all the spirit names and concepts so, instead of going "eh" and hitting the back button to these forums again (and forgetting later that I really oughtn't click that one wonderful poster's sig link because I am just not going to get it, all those writings on the other side of the link), I found some links to the Patheos blog, and the page with the myths and read them through in alphabetical order. Which was still confusing, but generally I liked what was going on 'ere. Modern fae, tech savvy fae, gay fae, genderfluid fae, fae of color, bookworm fae, fae with what able-bodied humans would consider disability, abuse survivor faery gods...also felt validating to my own UPG that someone else had noticed star fae can be imperialist jerks. It didn't come off as a product of some token diversity checkbox, either; they all read like stories about gods and spirits that someone had met and was trying to make enough sense of to represent. Finding the Wiki entries that laid out the Seasons (then called the myth cycles) helped make that more cohesive.
 
Quote from: Eevee;198082
I've seen people here who identify as two different spiritualities/religions, and I dont quite get why.


I really got into Faelatry because I felt that I was being yo-yo'ed between callings from Celtic (Gaulish and Gaelic) and Norse (Icelandic and Germanic), and...I knew I wouldn't be able to keep all those balls in the air, it was already a strain. I guess I found more common ground between them all in their respective 'lower mythologies'? They're based long ago and far away, though, so the way I adapt what I'd figured out from there to indigenous and diaspora fae became more of a personal approach than a hrmmgrumble thingummy...habitus? I only figured out this word, habitus, out from having a roommate who's an anthropologist, so I might be off, but I think in English it's "spaces" not in the astrophysics sense of space, but in a sociological sense.

For example: something's not a church because of real estate, but church because everyone goes there expecting to be in a certain state of mind; in that case, a mostly-unwrecked car of a wrecked train can be a church if that churchgoing mindset is what people bring (that makes it a spiritual space.)

I think religion's not solely defined by one cohesive personal approach, then, multiple influences also makes sense to multi-list, and it can also depend on the spaces that one approaches, whether that's communal (people who share in activities and vocabulary understanding related to the religion), material (altar, rituals), or something else or in-between. When those spaces feel different enough, and one wants recognition of such, then one sensible option is to list those spaces separately.

Does that make sense?
The Codex of Poesy: wishcraft, faelatry, alchemy, and other slight misspellings.
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Megatherium

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2016, 03:38:35 pm »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
Since I've been coming to this forum, I always glance at what people put as their "religion" and 90% of them I've never heard of.

So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

 
Browsing this thread inspired me to change my religion description. I used to have it as "Animist/Polytheist/Pantheist - Germanic Focus" which I decided to change because it seemed to be unnecessarily verbose.

I'm a Heathen, so my religious beliefs are predominantly influenced by the religious beliefs of the pre-Christian Germanic-speaking cultures. I don't identify with any particular strand of Heathenry, though I try to focus on continental Germanic cultures.

I've added "ish" to the description because;
a) I have some beliefs and practices that not all self-described Heathens would accept as appropriate for this tradition, (F'ex I sometimes make offerings to Non-Germanic deities) and

b) I am influenced to some extent by non-Heathen religious ideas. I've maintained a
level of interest in other pre-Christian European, local First Nations, South Asian, and East Asian traditions. While some of these traditions have influenced my philosophical and theological outlook, I don't incorporate/practice them to an extent that I feel would be required to claim them as part of my identity.
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Jack

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2016, 03:43:44 pm »
Quote from: Megatherium;198203
I've added "ish" to the description because;

I feel like "ish" is like "y'all" - it fills a niche that's empty in the language, and should be more widely used.

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2016, 06:46:13 pm »
Quote from: Jack;198204
I feel like "ish" is like "y'all" - it fills a niche that's empty in the language, and should be more widely used.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 
Yeah, I agree. I think, as humans, we have to simplify things to understand them, but we can also recognize the limits of those labels. -Ish is a nice way to say "not exactly 100% that, but, you know, fairly close".

It reminds me of how "impactful" became widespread in the field of sports writing/broadcasting - yes there was some disagreement over whether it was a "proper" word, but it served its purpose well in the context it was being used in.

So Heathenish it is!
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Eastling

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2016, 11:42:40 pm »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

 
I am publicly and ancestrally Jewish, specifically Reform. I also do a lot of semi-recon, semi-mythopoeic work with Powers that neighbored the Jewish people in our earliest history. I might, at this point, describe myself as practicing two interweaving, overlapping paths: a personal, somewhat eccentric mystic Judaism influenced by my Reform Jewish upbringing; and a Neo-Bakkhic devotion to Dionysos and a reconstructed Ariadne.

I was raised in Reform Judaism and adapted it to my later learnings about the Shekhina and associated Powers, as well as a goopy Soup of Wiccish Stuff I absorbed as a teenager who read too many '90s fantasy novels.

Dionysos, the god who comes, came to me after I got a tattoo designed to assert my personal sovereignty ("I am the one thing in life I can control; I am inimitable, I am an original") and publicly dedicated it to my lifetime of experience with musical theater.
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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2016, 05:58:58 am »
Quote from: Eastling;198237
I am publicly and ancestrally Jewish, specifically Reform. I also do a lot of semi-recon, semi-mythopoeic work with Powers that neighbored the Jewish people in our earliest history. I might, at this point, describe myself as practicing two interweaving, overlapping paths: a personal, somewhat eccentric mystic Judaism influenced by my Reform Jewish upbringing; and a Neo-Bakkhic devotion to Dionysos and a reconstructed Ariadne.

I was raised in Reform Judaism and adapted it to my later learnings about the Shekhina and associated Powers, as well as a goopy Soup of Wiccish Stuff I absorbed as a teenager who read too many '90s fantasy novels.

Dionysos, the god who comes, came to me after I got a tattoo designed to assert my personal sovereignty ("I am the one thing in life I can control; I am inimitable, I am an original") and publicly dedicated it to my lifetime of experience with musical theater.

 my faith is 12 step higher power Jesus/buddha new age pagan
its a mixture of faiths  i hope i dont offend  anyone  by posting this

Dusk

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #22 on: October 29, 2016, 04:48:35 pm »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
Since I've been coming to this forum, I always glance at what people put as their "religion" and 90% of them I've never heard of.

So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

 
Seeing all of complex explanations here, I feel I should list more than just "Eclectic" in the religion field...

The expanded way I would describe my religion is Heathen-influenced animal-focused eclectic polytheistic pagan.

Heathen-influenced, meaning most of the Gods I worship are from the Norse pantheon, and as a result I've found it most appropriate to adopt Heathen forms of worship and sometimes holidays. But I'm definitely not reconstructionist and too much of my practice falls outside of the realm of Heathenry to be able to call myself Heathen. I believe Northern Tradition Paganism most closely reflects my beliefs and practice, but I'm not comfortable using that label for myself yet.

Animal-focused, meaning I emphasize veneration of animal spirits, working with animals as guides, and incorporating animal themes into my seasonal celebrations (based on the activity of local animals at those times of year).

Eclectic as the basic term describing my practice as not neatly falling into a single tradition, so I have had to construct my own using some aspects of several traditions and some of my own invention.

Polytheistic (more specifically, hard polytheism), describing my theological beliefs - I believe in the Gods as being many distinct entities, not being different faces of one or two divine forces, or being metaphors, etc.
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Altair

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #23 on: October 30, 2016, 12:02:12 am »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
Since I've been coming to this forum, I always glance at what people put as their "religion" and 90% of them I've never heard of.

So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

 
tree-hugging neopagan

My self-deprecating way of saying that my paganism is:

1) of modern origin, making no claims to an ancient, unbroken tradition (that's the "neo" part)

2) nature-based, more or less Wicca-aligned
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

Louisvillian

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #24 on: October 30, 2016, 05:17:33 am »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

Broadly, I categorise most of what I do as religio romana, the modern reconstructed religion of the ancient Romans.

Because Roman culture and identity came to envelop a lot of other cultures and peoples, I feel that I can securely identify as that while also including other practices that might not ordinarily be considered acceptable in other reconstructionist religions. What is usually referred to as sacra privata--a private practice that is not necessarily Roman per se, but not necessarily forbidden or preventing oneself from identifying as Roman. It recognises that religion is a holistic, organic thing in any individual's life, and putting everything in separate boxes isn't always practical or desirable.

In addition to my main Roman domestic and public practice, I maintain Hellenic devotions to Hekate, Dionysos, Pan, and the Olympians; a devotion to the gods of my Celtic ancestors of the British Isles; and a devotion of Cernunnos as a tutelary or patron god. In the course of this, I celebrate some Celtic and Hellenic festivals that most reconstructionists might ordinarily avoid.

MeadowRae

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2016, 09:40:05 am »
Quote from: Altair;198298
tree-hugging neopagan

My self-deprecating way of saying that my paganism is:

1) of modern origin, making no claims to an ancient, unbroken tradition (that's the "neo" part)

2) nature-based, more or less Wicca-aligned


I could probably just list this for myself, as well. :)

I list myself as Pantheist. I honor gods as archetypes, which is why I also consider myself pagan. I see the universe as greater than the sum of its parts, and has having an intelligence/influence of its own. I also believe in the "ether" or universal unconscious.

 I have also debated identifying as a witch, as there is some magic involved in my practice, but not on a consistent basis. It tends to just come to me rather than being planned out or ceremonial, so I'm not sure where I fit on that. I feel like a witch, I guess I just haven't gotten my broom legs yet. :D:
The genderqueer witch your mother warned you about

EclecticWheel

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #26 on: November 14, 2016, 09:14:34 pm »
Quote from: Morag;198183
Here's what's actually in my sidebar: "Something-or-other I'm building; Hellenic polytheism; D'Angeline Recon; Otherfaith"

Something-or-other-I'm-building: a religious witchcraft tradition I've been slowly piecing together over a period of years. I have no idea what to call it so it's just "something or other" until I figure out a better name. It's centered around three gods whom I call the Sacred Triad/Three or the Big Three or just the Three, and who are individually known as Brighid, the Morrigan, and Manannan.

That's basically the best intro speech I have for it; eventually I'll get a real elevator speech down. I stumbled onto it because...well, the three thwapped me, and eventually it became clear they all worked together with me, and I needed to build something.

Hellenic polytheism: I honor a small selection of Hellenic gods; I can't honor the entire pantheon, so I don't try (I have a geas on me against working with Poseidon).

I stumbled onto this via Aphrodite, to whom I gave an offering 6 years ago and asked her to heal my heartsickness. She really delivered. (That was the weekend I met my now-husband.) Then I went to Spring Mysteries Fest and sort of accumulated more Hellenic gods, including a thwap from Hecate.

D'Angeline Recon: I'm trying to build a religion based on the gods and religious life depicted in the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. So far I've got twice-weekly prayers (they can be said daily, but I say them twice-weekly because I have 4 pantheons) and I think 2 holidays. It's slow work and I need to reread the books.

I can't actually remember when I decided I wanted to build a religion based on the books; I read them a very long time ago, originally, and it took a while for the idea to pop up in my head. Calling it D'Angeline Recon, however, was an idea I got when I saw Jack describe his stuff as "fictional recon". It's not exactly the same idea (though actually, "fictional recon" as he describes it above could really refer to my entire spiritual process) but it is about reconstructing the D'Angeline faith based on knowledge from the books (primary sources) and fan theory/fanon/fanfiction/fandom (secondary sources).

Otherfaith: This is a new faith, came about in 2010, worshipping the Four+ Gods. I probably can't explain it very well but there's a good write-up on the website.

I came across it via some friends who are into it, one of whom is the spokesperson for the 'faith, and just started lurking and reading up on it, feeling some mild interest. I eventually felt a tug from Epiphany, a spirit in the Otherfaith, and the Ophelia, one of the Four+ Gods. So I've got a foot in, now, though the only truly regular practice I'm doing is my twice-weekly prayers.


There are other bits to my spiritual life, too, but those are the main, big things.
 


You know, reading this paragraph here I think at some point soon I'll have to add "Anglican" to my religion field, as I've joined a local Anglican church. I haven't been around to do a lot of volunteering yet, but I'm sure it'll happen.

And yeah, I'm coming to realize that showing up and doing things with people is really important to my spirituality/religious life, too.


I had a peek at the Otherfaith site and have to say I really love the idea that Other People are co-creating their tradition through fanfiction and explore the gods through comics, literature, and other means.  That is truly wonderful.

There may be useful traditions and ideas there for me since I have been having a look into just those very forms of exploration to work through some spiritual as well as practical issues cropping up for me.

I do tend to resonate better with "new" gods/entities when I am not specifically working in my familiar Christian context.  I simply find that more relatable.

I described my religious beliefs and practices in some detail in a similar thread about what interests us in neo-paganism and what our emphases are.  I never really can sum it up the same way each time depending on what I am focused on, so:

Naturalistic pantheism is my common denominator, my foundation.  My Christian (specifically Anglo-Catholic) practices are interpreted through that lens, and my Christianity itself is largely influenced by Buddhism and post-theist approaches in Christian theology.  I would not make an orthodox Christian or Buddhist, I am sure.

MyOwnRituals is the best way I have to describe my other practices right now.  They are based largely on an experience I had as well as other particular experiences with personified aspects of my psyche (or at least that is my interpretation of the phenomena).

They could be called angels or even gods, and that is exactly how I approach them, as there is not too much of a difference for me.  I worship them in a Christian context because that is often how I have experienced them, and they sometimes participate with me in the Eucharist or other devotions.

My overall approach to worshipping them and to performing the ritual offerings is to become/realize that I myself am a god/aspect of God and that God is an aspect of me.

To some degree I do work with entities based on fictional literature and my approach in venerating them is based on intuition, although right now only one of those entities is a regular part of my life.  His proto-myth or legend and his identity is derived from fictional, religious, and historical sources.

A fictional literary, modern culture-inspired aspect of my spirituality is something I have been preparing to expand, but I will go slowly with this -- I would rather pick up a little here and there and absorb it deeply than dive into a bunch of new stuff and not really find what I am looking for.

Ideas from various sources have informed how I approach my spirituality, though there is not *always* an obviously observable connection in what I actually do.

Off the topic of my head some of those sources would be Humanistic approaches to neo-paganism, some neo-Gnostic Christian approaches to practicing spirituality (excluding anything dualistic), and some secular approaches to mysticism, pantheism, and Buddhism.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2016, 09:19:20 pm by EclecticWheel »
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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #27 on: November 15, 2016, 02:31:29 am »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
Since I've been coming to this forum, I always glance at what people put as their "religion" and 90% of them I've never heard of.

So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?

 
I am a kemetic, but most importantly i am a Sethian. I would jump through the brinks of hell & back for Set.
Religious blog: Typhonian.
[/U]

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #28 on: November 15, 2016, 04:19:05 am »
Quote from: Darkhawk;198164

Imaginary Baltic Heathen: I am not a real heathen.  I am, however, dealing with powers and folklore from the Baltic states and Poland in a spiritual fashion.  I am not a practitioner of Romuva, Rodnovery (I forget the Polish version of that word, alas), Taaraism, or Maausk.  I am just kind of imaginary and heathenish around the edges.  Miscellaneous ancestral stuff and chasing around things that are interesting and important.


 
Rodzimowierstwo?

Anyway I'm similar in that I am dealing with stuff from that area, but not a practitioner of those groups. I'm pretty much doing my own thing from whatever I can cobble together with relevant ancestral bits.

Along with that, I had a bit of a foundation in kemeticism that pokes up now and again, mostly in terms of religious philosophy and generally staring at it and telling myself I'll get around to it eventually.

Eclectic I guess is the best descriptor, I go with what works and will muddle along.
"I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."
-Lewis Carroll

Jainarayan

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Re: What is your religion/spiritual identity?
« Reply #29 on: November 15, 2016, 03:53:56 pm »
Quote from: Eevee;198076
Since I've been coming to this forum, I always glance at what people put as their "religion" and 90% of them I've never heard of.

So what is your religion? What does it mean? How did you stumble upon it?


Hindu. I am a non-Indian Italian-American (US born) male, formerly Roman Catholic who adopted Hinduism. I was Eastern Orthodox Christian for a while but abandoned all forms of Christianity. I was deist for a while, but the Hinduism I became interested in as a teenager and was always just below the surface came out. I dabbled in Buddhism, Taoism and Heathenry for a while, not all at the same time, but felt called back to Hinduism. Hinduism always meshed perfectly with what I believe about the universe and our place in it.

I don't practice Buddhism, but I revere its deities and bodhisattvas. Many Hindus believe the Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu, but I'm iffy about it. No matter, because his core teachings of compassion are very Hindu. He was, after all, born a Hindu in what is now Nepal. I revere Taoist deities also.

I was drawn to Heathenry, feeling called by Thor, whom I still revere. I have a tiny shrine for him apart from my Hindu shrine. I see a lot of myself in Thor, and him in me. Many Heathens chafe and snort at the idea of the Norse gods calling to or being involved with anyone except "communities" and "tribes", but in my views of polytheism, it's quite normal. Especially given that the Norse, Greek, Roman, Slavic, Baltic, Hindu, etc. deities are all Indo-European. Many, but not all, may be the same deities seen through different cultural lenses, e.g. Thor, Perun, Perkunas, Donar, perhaps even Indra may be the same deity. Krishna is OK with it too, as he says in the Bhagavad Gita: "Whichever devotee desires to adore whatever such Deity with faith, in all such votaries I make that particular faith unshakable."

 

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