About Me
Introductions… I consider myself to be an atheistic eclectic pagan, which probably sounds like one heck of a contradiction to a lot of people. How I arrived at this point has been a journey from the time I was little, being raised as essentially “no religion” by my parents, though of course Christmas and Easter and the like were celebrated with food, family, and gifts, and the occasional church service that relatives may have dragged us to. Around age 12, I decided I thought Christianity sounded pretty good, and got my parents to start going to a local United Church of Christ, or UCC (nickname: Unitarians Considering Christ). They still go, and though I was baptized and confirmed as a church member, I quit going almost as soon as I started high school. I didn’t have a bad experience at the church. Quite the contrary. In fact, I still do charitable work with them, because they are all around wonderful people. But, at some point, something just didn’t quite feel right any more. I couldn’t tell you exactly how, other than that I had a friend who was Wiccan, but I became interested in paganism (starting with Wicca and expanding outward from there) around the age of 14. I “officially” deemed myself pagan at age 15, and my spirituality has been evolving ever since. At 24, I’ve been pagan for a little over 9 years.
So how to explain the atheism. To a certain extent, it has roots in my Christian background, though the quality I will discuss can be found across many religions. It is the idea that god (or whatever you want to call it/them; I’m going to stick with “god” because it’s short and I’m a lazy typist) is inherently unknowable. If it is impossible to “know” god, to even conceive of what god might be or entail in the first place, then it is impossible for me to believe in god, being that belief requires inherently that the mind must first be able to comprehend the concept to be believed in. What’s nice about this, is that if another person’s definition of “god” does not include “unknowable,” then their belief is not internally contradictory, nor does my non-belief in god in any way require that their belief in god be incorrect. It does away with the entire argument about who is “right” about god.
But enough about spiritual/religious philosophy. I’ll give a brief outline of my personal practices and studies: I celebrate the Sabbats as they relate to the changes in the earth, without any sort of mythological context. My symbolism tends to be simple, in the form of rocks, twigs, leaves, seeds, and small trinkets I’ve collected over the years. I study tarot (my deck is the Golden Tarot of Klimt) as a method of looking at problems in a different light, rather than as a method of fortune telling. I (try to) practice meditation regularly to calm my mind and connect with the earth and the elements of nature, though I am often quite busy and don’t make as much time for it as I should. I am also fascinated with religion as a whole, and go out of my way to read about various world religions. In that same vein, I love mythology, particularly Native American stories, which I grew up with since my grandmother always kept stacks of books with stories upon stories. I see many lessons to be learned from every religion or myth or story I have read, which I try to incorporate into my personal practices. Hence the term, “eclectic” I used to describe myself earlier.
This blog will consist of various photos, quotes, thoughts, ramblings, essays, art, and anything else that relates to my personal journey and study. All questions and comments are welcome.
