We talk sometimes about values. What we value, who we value, etc.
But looking honestly at your own life - what do you value in other people? Not as relationship prospects necessarily - but what to you makes someone worth emulating? Worth idol worship? Is it money? beauty? Intelligence? Who ranks higher to you - George Clooney or Stephen Hawking, and why?
What truly matters? And why?
I haven't read much on the subject but lately I've become very curious.
Do you believe we create the gods or discover them?
Are there gods out there still waiting to be discovered?
How valid are newly discovered/created gods?
What are the drawbacks to worshiping a more recently discovered/newly created god?
Do newly created/more recently discovered gods have a lesser status than established deities?
And any other input you have on the topic would be greatly appreciated.
How does your path view lying, or deception in general (eg omissions, innuendoes, intentional ambiguities, etc)? Is it a strictly moral matter, or does it have spiritual (or even magical) repercussions? Does it make a difference what kind of lie it is, or with what intention you tell the lie, or what the lie's about, or any other circumstances? Does it make a difference if, at the time, you think it's the truth - or does the lie itself have an impact regardless?
So has anyone ever had any embarrassing and/or not-so-great ritual moments, or had a ritual where something just went horribly wrong (you set something on fire, got sick at an inopportune time, etc.)
I haven't been practicing long enough for anything too unusual to have happened to me, but this year I had an allergic reaction to my hair cream just before Beltane, and so I had to take medications that ended up making me feel really drowsy. I did the ritual hyped up on my meds and don't really remember much of it, other than that I was so tired I could barely concentrate. And then there was that time in the sweat lodge when it was my first time as ceremony leader and I put waaay too much water on the rocks and some of my fellow attendees barely made it through the ceremony...
I'm sure someone out there has a much more embarrassing ritual moment than that!
The primary purpose of this thread is to start a discussion. I am interested in opinions on whether or not curses are acceptable and under what circumstances? Is experience with curses important to a practitioner of magic, or are they forbidden? Do you find them useful for understanding the way magic works? Are they a legitimate action to be taken to achieve one's goals?
A group of meetup organizers, myself included, are planning on a big regional festival of at least 50 people for either Summer Solstice or Lughnassadh in the San Francisco Bay Area that is tentatively going to take place over three days. One thing we're going to do for this one is not just include ritual, discussion, meditation, and workshops but are going to make the main event be a series of games, sports, arts, crafts, and bardic competitions. Tentatively the plan is for the first day to be introduction, arrival, and opening ritual, second day will be when we hold the events, third day is closing ritual and cleanup.
If anyone has any suggestions on running a big event, publicity, organization, any red tape to be aware of, as well as any suggestions for games, sports, and other events post 'em if you got 'em please.
It's been a long time since we did the Belief-O-Matic on The Cauldron, so it is probably time to do it again. Take the Belief-O-Matic at
http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx
and report you results in this thread. Remember to pick the answer that BEST fits your beliefs for each question -- even if there is no answer that perfectly fits. Remember that answers with OR in them treat all alternatives equally. Also remember to rank the importance of each question to your beliefs (High, Medium, or Low). The results are always interesting, although not always perfectly accurate.
The result will be a list with the faith group represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by that faith, or vice versa. !00% really just seems to mean that it is the faith group that most closely matches your answers. Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
Paste your result list into this thread. Feel free to comment on it too.
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I'm curious whether or not animal sacrifice was common in Egypt as a religious practice. In ancient Greece it was definitely a common aspect of public religion to sacrifice an animal to a deity and for the community to eat the meat and burn the bones and fat to the deity. I've seen some references to animal sacrifice in ancient Egypt, but I haven't been able to find out whether it was a common aspect of ancient Egyptian religion.
I know they honoured their gods in temples in ancient Egypt, and gift offerings and prayers were given to deities, and the priests maintained the cult image similar to how the Hindus still do for their gods, but I haven't seen animal sacrifice emphasized as a major part of ancient Egyptian worship. If someone could explain to me the role of animal sacrifice in ancient Egyptian religion, or paoint me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.
Marilyn (ABSENTMINDED) has moved from Staff to Senior Staff and now joins Shadow as an Assistant Message Board Coordinator. I'll like to than her for accepting this new job and all the additional volunteer work that goes with it.
TC's senior message board Staff now include:
Message Board Coordinator: Star
Assistant Message Board Coordinators: Shadow, Marilyn
What are your experiences with interfaith friendships? Have you had very many? Do you have meaningful discussions, or do you try to avoid the topic of religion/spirituality? Do you ever do anything of a spiritual nature together together, and if so, whose tradition do you follow?
Apollonian and Dionysian are the first sort of terms I heard of for this concept, but perhaps there are others. Basically it is the pull between logic/reason and passion/wildness. I studied this theme a lot in a literature course last semester, and I'm reading Steven Pressfield's Last of the Amazons now, which is *very* centered around this too. The more religious nature of the Pressfield's story has me thinking about it more in terms of spirituality.
I like to think I balance the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of myself in my life and religion. But in reality I find myself overwhelmingly Apollonian, to my dismay. In Last of the Amazons (I'm about halfway through), I really sympathize with the Amazons as they face the loss of their way of life to the democratic perspective of Athens. It's kind of the same thing with the Native Americans and the settlers (kind of). I identify with the Dionysian so much, but in actuality it frightens me. I fear the loss of control that comes along with that side of life, so I shirk from it. It's quite hard for me to actually let loose and let my hair down. I'm hyper self-conscious a lot of the time.
What side do you more lean towards, in your everyday life and then in your religion? Is it ever a struggle? Do you think this is an important or useful concept?
Assuming youhave a completely new crystal; how would you identify what its good for?
Are there any "clues" you would look for in determining what a stone is useful for, even if you are uncertain of its exact type?
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While The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum uses TinyPortal and it has an article system that members can use, Tinyportal's article system is so confusing and complex that I'm about the only person who ever uses it. This sort of defeats the purpose of having an article system.
In the interest of getting more of our members to submit articles for our web site, I've added the SMF Article mod to the board software. (see the Article button in the blue menu bar on this forum). This system is much easier to use. Typing and submitting an article for the Article section is now not much different than posting a message. The editor is a slight variant of the standard message editor and uses standard SMF BBCode (not html). So if you can post a message on the board, you can post an article in the Article system.
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I was wondering if there are any examples of three form deities that predate Christianity.
Am I right in thinking that three form goddesses such as the Morrigan and sometimes Brigid existed before the Christianization of the Celtic peoples?
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When reading the book I got on Wicca, it told me a lot, but left more questions than were answered (Ah life, how you love to taunt people's thirst for knowledge). So I have a few questions. Please bear in mind that I was raised a Christian Catholic, so my knowledge about that religion and how it is structured will greatly impact how I understand. Also, I have a few disorders (Aspergers causing the most troubles), so if I don't understand right away, try wording it differently
I don't quite understand how the God and Goddess concept works. I get that they are considered in a yin and yang way and how one can have a personal relationship with them, but the book didn't explain their relationship with humans in general nor what their power exactly entails
When I think of a deity belonging to a monotheistic religion (for all intents and purposes, I am grouping Wicca in with that, despite it being a duotheistic (spelling?) religion when one only considers the God and Goddess, since two deities is a far cry from the many deities polytheistic religions and old cultures have), I think of an all powerful, all knowing being who can change the very fabric of reality with a single thought. Is this the same with the God and Goddess of Wicca, or are their powers more limited?
Are they known to get involved in human affairs often, or more or less just provide spiritual strength when asked? If they are all knowing, how does that exactly work with Free Will? (Christianity never exactly explained that, giving it one of the many strikes that eventually drove me away. After all, if you know all, then you also know the future, which means all actions are predetermined, in which case, why would a Hell even exist if we can't control what we do?) How do they view evil? If they are all good and have set views on what is evil and what is good, then why would they allow evil?
As for rituals, does one have to follow them to the letter, or is variance (and I mean more drastic variance, not, "Oh, that is allowed to be two inches shorter/oh, you can do that alone/in a group," style variance) allowed? If variance is allowed, how much is allowed? (E.G. is a circle needed for ones where, when talking about the ritual letter for letter, it says to prepare one? things like that) Also, how does one exactly FIND spells?