DJ, I'll let someone else tackle that one...I have to ponder it for awhile...a long while.

Fiftyandfine, congrats on your recent graduation! Three decades would make it a very catalystic adventure!

I can relate to your "more confused than ever". I took two years of theology at a Catholic seminary (wanted to be a priest...yep, I did) back in the late 70's. I would swear that they did everything they could to squeeze every ounce of blind faith out of us until we were left with nothing but questions.

In a way it was freeing, because it left us open to letting God be God. Not that I'll ever know for sure if I've interpreted that Be-ing into my own image of who I think God ought to be, or actually been open to possibility and epiphany. But I do have to say it's been a very interesting and often exhilarating faith journey since those days.

Interesting thoughts, there DJ--just the type I was always in trouble for at school! I didn't see how claiming two sexes was any different from claiming a trinity ... Never did get answers to that one
Eagle, I knew from reading your posts you had sorted through some spiritual stuff along the way. A priest, heh? I like what you said about a faith journey--seems like just the phrase to describe my
current spiritual road trip!

Dahti and Pattyann, I'm feeling badly that this thread may have gone off in another direction here. Faith can be such a passionate thing, it's hard not to get excited and chime in with echoes of one's own passion. I've been enjoying your sharings here, and want to hear more, but to be honest, I don't know what questions to ask to get you to share more. I enjoy hearing people get passionate and excited about their faith and hope you're going to tell us more.

In my faith, music has always been a huge part of my spiritual life. Many spirital peoples do have their own special type of music to express themselves. What about in the Wiccan gatherings and your personal spiritual journey. Do you have any special music that you use in your celebrations and meditational lives?

[ September 01, 2005, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Eagle Heart ]

Eagle, don't feel bad. I also enjoy hearing about others' beliefs as long as no one is trying to push me into their way, which no one is doing here. It is a little difficult to know exactly what to tell you because I don't want to be perceived as pushing my beliefs either.
Music is important in my spiritual life also. And from everything I've studied it is in most religions. We definitely have many chants we love to sing when we're in groups and doing ritual--much like playing music for the Christian services and rituals I've been hired to do. Our music tends to be simpler chants often accompanied by drums and sometimes other instruments. I have a degree in early music--a great deal of the medieval and renaissance music I spent so much time studying came from the early Catholic church. Some of the music we do reminds me of that. Off subject only a little: I was a witch attending a wonderful Catholic college to study music with a Jewish musician. I loved that school and graduated from there and now my daughter is headed there for her freshman year in 2 days.
I do call myself a witch, though not all goddess women or even wiccans do. And when I said my form of wicca, I meant that it is a bit like the idea of the different Christian churches. Except that we wiccans aren't anywhere near so organized. Dianic wiccan groups are all women. There are others who are mixed, some like the Gardnerians who have very precise ways of doing things and have hierarchies sort of like Catholics having bishops, priests and nuns, and many who practice their beliefs by themselves and are called solitaries. I think of myself as mostly solitary but I do have my women's group and I celebrate Solstice and other holidays with large groups of people sometimes too. Though my husband and kids aren't wiccan our beliefs are all compatible. We've always considered ourselves a pagan (meaning nature-based) family. My son, who is a scientist, has told me that he finds a lot of his and my beliefs have a lot in common. For instance, we both believe in the Gaia theory which holds that the earth is an interconnected organism. I just happen to see her as a thinking, loving and sometimes hurting being.
I do talk about goddesses (and even gods) as if there are many of them. But I see them as different aspects, for me, of the Great Mother. And I also believe that we do see the higher being/creative force/God/Goddess or whatever we call it, in the way we each need to do, and I respect that.
I hope that wasn't more than anyone wanted to know. I'll be happy to share as long as anybody is curious. Thanks for sharing your beliefs also.

Dream of the Circle of Women
by Dahti Blanchard
published May 2004 by Spilled Candy Books
visit: www.dahtiblanchard.com

I believe in Earth as Gaia but also extend that idea to the entire universe. I believe that everything that is, was and will be, is connected through time & space & energy. I believe that God/Goddess is a part of us and we are a part of Him/Her. I don't believe in a physical Deity of either sex or human form. I think it's energy but I'm not sure where the boundaries are, if there are any. Sometimes I think of Deity as the collective ALL. I don't think we're wholly Deity now because we have these physical forms which limit us. Perhaps when we die we become a greater part of Deity.

Until my mid-30's I had very strong (and more traditional) religious beliefs but I consider myself as more spiritual now. My beliefs have evolved to a point where I see more blur than physical substance, and this makes me happy because I am that much closer to the connections.

I see different religions as arms of a great spiral. All arms lead to the center of the spiral. The further out on an arm you are, the clearer things seem because nothing else blocks the view. The closer to the center you are, the blurrier the view because everything merges in the middle. I suppose that Diety would emanate from the center.

This is an over-simplified visual, but the best I can do.

"Over-simplified" works for me. This is some very interesting stuff, because it describes much of what I feel about humans/the earth/the universe. Although my basic understandings are wrapped in Christian cloth, because I have lived in so many alternative cultures, I think I've absorbed quite a bit from them and like to use it my thinking and my life. I am not "exclusive" as has sometimes been required by various Christian sects. Truthfully, with the personal insanity I've experienced in the last few years, and the global insanity that I now see all around us, I'm willing to entertain concepts that I never would have before. I love hearing about the different religions/worldviews. Thank you for sharing so much.

Dahti, These are wonderful sharings. Your diversity of experiences makes your explanations not only easy to grasp but exciting too. It continues to affirm my hope that there is so much more of the essential that we share than divides us.

Meredith I loved your visual of the great spiral...what I see is that there is a place for everyone and no way for anyone to be left out.

Fiftyandfine, we've seen for too long how refusal to understand each other leads to hateful intolerance and deadly violence. Being willing to explore what in the diversity unites us has to be a better way. Like you, I find myself absorbing so much from so many, integrating into my own spirituality and finding a greater stability and more profound joy in doing so. It's as if there's no limitation to where our hearts and souls can soar if we dare to unchain them from our fear of the unknown and unfamiliar.

This has to be one of the most interesting forum topics that I've seen in a long time. I am enjoying learning about everyone else's faith. Thank you for sharing!

I call myself a witch too- at first I was more wiccan but not being very organized or into shoulds I have since felt more grounded in personal beliefs and have become a more solitary .
When I lived in NJ I belonged to a coven and at first we were all feeling our ways, learning, writing ritual but then a few got internet degrees and proclaimed themselves priestesses and then there was a question of letting men in and it became political
So now I celebrate mostly alone altho I have a good friend in Ny and we write ritual together on the computer and then we know that tho miles apart at the same time we are sharing our feelings for the goddess
Also in the summer months twice a month on Sunday afternoons my husband and I go to drum circlesa- open to everyone where you just bang out a rythnm and it just sounds down to your core- it was started by pagans but now has more christians and it's great
We have a huge solstice celebration open to all- a few years ago there was a write up in the paper about the commercialization of Christmas and how the pagan community invited everyone just to come together and welcome back the light of the sun It's beautiful
I do get together with women in my community to dance in circle- it's a winding in and out snaking round dance- alot of us are pagans but it is a dance organized by feminists for the earth
Chants and rounds are part of my celebration too- it's almost a meditative and mezmerizing celebration
it was interesting to hear everyone's way to picture their ONE
i was brought up in the catholic church- it was always God the father , god the son and god the holy spirit- there are alot of books out now that posture that the early church suppressed the feminine- that there was meant to be a balance- that the spirit was the holy feminine
I was in high school when I lost my faith- we had these incredible dedicated nuns who had so much hope that the second Vatican Council would finally allow them to take there rightful places at the altar and then that hope never came true- alot left the convent and I wasn't surprised when Dahti told me she knew alot of ex- nuns who are witches!