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Jan. 18th, 2006
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Jan. 18th, 2006 10:25 pmIn response to my "Pagan Apologetics" post the other day, asked me to answer some of the questions that i had posted. Some of them I answered in response to her comment...but the one about how I got involved in ADF...it's a little much for a comment. In fact...it's a little much for a comment...in fact, unless you want the cliff's notes, it's a little long for a post.
Cliff's notes:
Spent jr. high and high school trying to be Christian but never realy could quite beieve everyhting I was trying to believe. Finally gave up trying during my freshman year of college and decided to see what else came to me. olytheistic ideas started to make sense to me and I considered such things with varying degrees of interest over the next several years, interspersed with being depressed and/or against organized religion for no good reason that I can think of today. Moved to Baltimore and after a year and a half of wanting to go uot and find a group of some sort because I really missed the informal discussion and ritual groups that I had been involved witb back in PA, but being wary of group politics at the same time. (I was lucky with the 2 groups in PA...they were extremely informal and there wasn't really a context for politics to become a problem. The discussion group was just a once a week thing for a few hours for people to hang out and talk about whatever topic and go home, the ritual grup met once a month for full moon and that was about it.) Finally one day I decided that I was sick of being ininvolved with anything in a religious context and surfed on over to Witchvox. Back when I first moved to Baltimore, someone had suggested that I check out Cedarlight. I surfed around the local groups and found out that I was living not very far from the Grove, so I wandered on over. I was greeted that morning by Caryn, who introduced herself as the "Senior Druid and High Wonkydoo". Okay then. After talking to people for a while, someone asked me if I thought I had any interest in joining. My response was that I had no idea. I realy liked what I had seen there so far, but I knew nothing of the group beyond what I was seeing on the surface, I didn't want to just jump into membership, and having been only fairly recently one to avoid anyhting that I saw as organized religion, what I wanted at that point was to be able to be part of something on my own terms. I said flat out "It will probably take me a long time before I decide to join if I do. If that's the case, my involvement wil be on my own terms, and as it suits me." Two things surprised and impressed me that day. 1. Caryn's reaction to my flat out "It'll happen on my terms" was a nod, smile and "That's cool!", and 2. someone else- I don't remember who- saying shortly after that "We're like family here. And let me tell you, if you hang out here you're gonna hate us that much." It was funny...but it was also very honest and forthcoming. I appreciated that a lot. I really think that that was when I actually decided that I was going to join eventually, but it was several months until I started really seriousy thinking about it. And then several months later until I actually did join. I'm really happy that I did.
The longer version to follow in pieces. Focus more on my involvement and activity in paganism, with some about my beliefs and how they've changed...but a discussion of my beliefs will also be a separate post or three....
Cliff's notes:
Spent jr. high and high school trying to be Christian but never realy could quite beieve everyhting I was trying to believe. Finally gave up trying during my freshman year of college and decided to see what else came to me. olytheistic ideas started to make sense to me and I considered such things with varying degrees of interest over the next several years, interspersed with being depressed and/or against organized religion for no good reason that I can think of today. Moved to Baltimore and after a year and a half of wanting to go uot and find a group of some sort because I really missed the informal discussion and ritual groups that I had been involved witb back in PA, but being wary of group politics at the same time. (I was lucky with the 2 groups in PA...they were extremely informal and there wasn't really a context for politics to become a problem. The discussion group was just a once a week thing for a few hours for people to hang out and talk about whatever topic and go home, the ritual grup met once a month for full moon and that was about it.) Finally one day I decided that I was sick of being ininvolved with anything in a religious context and surfed on over to Witchvox. Back when I first moved to Baltimore, someone had suggested that I check out Cedarlight. I surfed around the local groups and found out that I was living not very far from the Grove, so I wandered on over. I was greeted that morning by Caryn, who introduced herself as the "Senior Druid and High Wonkydoo". Okay then. After talking to people for a while, someone asked me if I thought I had any interest in joining. My response was that I had no idea. I realy liked what I had seen there so far, but I knew nothing of the group beyond what I was seeing on the surface, I didn't want to just jump into membership, and having been only fairly recently one to avoid anyhting that I saw as organized religion, what I wanted at that point was to be able to be part of something on my own terms. I said flat out "It will probably take me a long time before I decide to join if I do. If that's the case, my involvement wil be on my own terms, and as it suits me." Two things surprised and impressed me that day. 1. Caryn's reaction to my flat out "It'll happen on my terms" was a nod, smile and "That's cool!", and 2. someone else- I don't remember who- saying shortly after that "We're like family here. And let me tell you, if you hang out here you're gonna hate us that much." It was funny...but it was also very honest and forthcoming. I appreciated that a lot. I really think that that was when I actually decided that I was going to join eventually, but it was several months until I started really seriousy thinking about it. And then several months later until I actually did join. I'm really happy that I did.
The longer version to follow in pieces. Focus more on my involvement and activity in paganism, with some about my beliefs and how they've changed...but a discussion of my beliefs will also be a separate post or three....
How I came to what I believe is a little vague and haphazard. I spent junior high and high school trying to be Christian because I thought that that was the right thing for me to be.( Nevermind that it never felt right... ) ( And then one day... )"You know I think the ancient Greeks and Romans had it right with having a different god or goddess for everything, becase one just couldnt handle it all"
