Acceptance: Where Do You Draw the Line?

The Pagan community is strong on accepting people as they are and treating them as they wish. In general, I think that's a good idea. However, where do you draw the line?

For example, I think it is fine to treat people as whatever gender they say they are because there is real world "scientific" evidence that physical characteristics do not always map to gender one for one.

However, what about these cases?

1) Person A claims to be of religion X and wishes to be treated as such, but obviously totally ignores the known tenets of that religion. Should everyone treat them as religion X? What about other members of religion X?

2) Person B claims to really be another species even through they are obviously biologically human.

3) Person C claims to be the reincarnation of historical person X and expects to be treated like they were person X (e.g. their statements about what person X believes/knows accepted, etc.)

4) Person D claims to be the current incarnation of an ascended master, demon, angel, deity, etc. and believes he/she should be treated as such.

Where (and why) do you draw the line on acceptance issues like these?

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Tarot Vs Oracle Cards

I own the Goddess Tarot cards (they are BEAUTIFUL!!) However I was in my local book store looking and I noticed these cards, okay well they fell off the shelf at me, but they are Oracle cards. I know I should have bought them but I got concerned because I am unaware of the difference betweeen Oracle cards and Tarot cards. Can someone help me?

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Do Deities Get Lonely?

I was reading someone's blog a couple days ago (can't remember whose, otherwise I'd link to it) talking about how some forgotten or nearly forgotten deities--deities who may have had a large cult back in their day--must be lonely. This person then went on to say that saying a prayer or making an offering to a deity like that would really make his or her day.

My kneejerk reaction was LOLNO, but now I'm not so sure. I doubt a god or goddess experiences loneliness in the same way we humans do, and there are still other deities to hang around with. But to say they don't get lonely at all in any way, shape, or form may be going a little far, at least in my mind.

Then I think of the offerings, prayers, communings, meditations, feasts, and (sometimes raucous) festivals a deity may have once received. It starts to make a little sense. It's not that said deity's life is ruined, that they're now mopey and depressed, or that they have no purpose to exist. Nor is it that a deity's going to get all lovey-dovey on someone who deigns to pay attention to them. There are still rules and boundaries for mortals. It's just. . . there are times where the little things are missed, eh?

I sometimes get that impression from Atum--an impression of loneliness. Maybe "loneliness" isn't quite the right word, though. Maybe it's a desire to be contemplated. Dunno. That would be a topic for a different thread.

So, what do you think?

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Is it correct to say that all religions have the same goal?

Not sure where to put this. I understand the question to be a philosophical one. Not one of practicing religion.

from http://www.arcamax.com/religionandspirituality/religiousnews/s-1219082-727701

Oct 17, 2012 The Kansas City Star

VOICES OF FAITH: IS IT CORRECT TO SAY THAT ALL RELIGIONS HAVE THE SAME GOAL?

ALL PATHS LEAD TO A SUPREME BEING

A.M. Bhattacharyya, an active member of the Hindu community: From the perspective of Hindu faith, the answer is "yes." Let us explore the purpose of a religion in our lives.
(snip)
The real purpose of religion is to raise our spiritual awareness, which helps build compassion, kindness, purity, self-control and a sense of service to fellow humans, and it takes us to a higher and higher level of spiritual wisdom, ultimately to the realization of divinity within.
(snip).

Thoughts, comments?

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Is Happiness Important?

Just read a Reader's Digest Article on Happiness and it got me to thinking (again!).

Is the emotion of happiness the be-all/end-all of life? If you asked folks 60 years ago if they were happy, I think most would've answered, What does that matter? As my dear departed father used to often say, A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Happiness was a luxury.

Can you be satisfied with life without being happy? Are there other emotions that are just as satisfying as happiness? i.e. in the article, interested, was brought up. I, personally, am a very interested, curious person who has happy moments.

I'm generally a positive person, but I don't think that's the same as being a happy person.

Even our constitution, the Pursuit of Happiness, makes it sound like we're chasing butterflies with a net. Calvin and Hobbes had a a little series about happiness that was spot-on.

Again, just thinking and wondering. I'm an old lady of 47 and I wonder if a lot of younger folk's depression is because they feel they haven't achieved happiness and the opposite of happiness is depression.

This little article was a real eye-opener for me and I hadn't really thought about it before. Pele is my patroness and she definitely never promises happiness, but there is a huge sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that I get working with her.

Maybe happiness is over-rated...?

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What If Your God/desses Asked You To Do Something Contrary To Your Nature?

I just ran into a reference of Abraham being told by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and it got me to thinking.

If it'd been me, my response would've been, Really? Then I would have removed all symbols of that deity from my house and hired an exorcist to remove all traces of any energy left behind. And when the angel appeared and said, Just kidding! I'd've said, Haha, very funny, and slammed the door in their face.

Now that's extreme but it got me to wondering how far we, as pagans, will go to follow the "laws" of our beliefs in order to please/placate our deities.

Would any of you step outside your normal values if you truly believed your deity was telling you to? Or would you jump ship, like I said I would in my little farce?

Do we only hang with our deities because we think THEY think like us? Or are we true servants and should do as our God/desses bid?

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Towards Daily Worship

I'd like to start doing the type of daily morning/evening devotions that I've noticed a lot of people on this forum do, but I have no background whatsoever in this sort of thing and I'm floundering around a bit trying to figure out where I should even start.

Can anyone who does devotions of this sort tell me how you got started? What did you begin doing first? (I'm pretty eclectic at the moment at least, and most of the gods I feel drawn to are either Celtic or Egyptian, but I think this is a general enough question that advice from someone of any path would help)

First I feel like I should buy a small table and an altar cloth and set it all up so that I can have an altar area. But what would be the point in that I still have nothing to put on it and nothing to do with it? Or I could start collecting images of the gods --- but my room is awfully messy, and so I don't want to do that until I have somewhere to put them. I don't want them to sit on my dirty floor and get trampled by my roommate. Or I can start collecting relevant hymns and prayers before objects . . . but not having an altar space and so forth would make it difficult to do offerings, wouldn't it?

I keep going around in circles like this, and it's really frustrating to me because I do feel like this is something I should be doing, but I can't figure out how.

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Entering Meditation

Meditation has always fascinated me. Partly because there are so many different ways, and partly because it's so hard for me to get to that state.

Some people clear their mind of all thoughts, others let the thoughts run wild, and still others create an entirely new place.

I'm curious what/how it's like for some of you folks get to your meditative state. For the purpose of this thread, I'm not interested in "this one time" type of things. Rather, I'm more interested in how things normally tend to go.

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Are Gods Prejudiced?

Are the Gods (in general) prejudiced about things like race, sex, place of birth or are these generally things their human followers have projected upon them? Why do you believe as you do?

Note: while I am sure there are some exceptions no matter which side of the question you come down on, I am asking about what you believe about the majority of deities -- not the exceptions -- here.

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Offerings

I read something about how it's good manners to leave something as an offering when you take something from nature...I like to pick up little stuff like stones, acorns, leaves, etc, and I was wondering what is appropriate to leave behind? I also like to go outside to meditate, especially by a stream or in the forest, and I feel like I should leave something by way of thanks...but again, not really sure what. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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Ultimate Purpose or Goal in Your Religion?

Does your religion have an ultimate purpose or goal? If so, what is it? (eg, conversation of your higher self/ escape the cycle/ conquer the world?)

Do you agree completely with this goal? Where do you differ if you do?

If your religion doesn't come with a goal ready made, do you have a goal of your own that you consider to be related to your spirituality or religion?

If you don't have a goal, how do you feel about this? Is it okay to not have goals, or is it something we should strive to have?

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Pagan Etiquette Pet Peeves

What bits of Pagan-related etiquette do you wish more people paid attention to, or were better known? I'm thinking things along the line of "don't touch someone else's religious jewelry without asking if it's ok" or "don't pester someone with questions about what their practices are if they're obviously trying to do something else" or whatever.

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Pagan Heretics?

Does your religion have the concept of heresy? Have you ever heard of a Pagan being called a "heretic" or of certain beliefs or practices being considered heresy by other members of a Pagan religion? If a member of your religion were to deviate from the standard beliefs or practices of the religion, would there be negative religious consequences for them? Why or Why not?

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Are Pagans Interested in "Fictional" Christian Saints?

The proper adjective ought to be "mythological," but I hope you all understand me. If not, I'm talking about saints deemed by historians to never have existed. St. Barbara, for example.

The reason I bring the matter up is that my gnosis tells me these are "new gods," or, as I like to say, to differentiate them from the DC Comics characters, Niwe Godas, in Anglo-Saxon.

Well, I came across an article in an archaeological journal that gives a list of female Anglo-Saxon saints that never existed. There are not that many. Most saints were real people, optimistically, though, maybe ten percent (just whipping it out there, never counted them all yet) don't have enough evidence either way or are pure myth.

I'm wondering if anyone is interested in the list I found, with notes on their legends and name meanings I was able to hunt down. Is this something pagans are interested in?

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Book of Shadows: How did you do it?

I recently just stared my Book of Shadows and was wondering about everyone else. When did you start yours, what does it look like, is your categorized or a cluttered mess, did you type it or is it hand written?

Mine is actually more like a field journal. It has a leather cover with a leather strap that wraps around it to keep it shut, and filled with 200+ pages of parchment, I wrote mine out by hand and it is slightly organized by where I get what information: website, book, article etc.

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Bringing up Pagan Children?

How many of you here have brought, are bringing up, or will bring up your kids up as Pagans?

What have been the issues in day to day life? Were they ostracised or accepting?
What literature did you read to them? When did you take up reading things to them, and when did they start actively performing in worship with you? Did you take your children to any place of worship, even if it's not your own, for the children to make more friends outside of school?

If they are older now, did they stick with Paganism, or change to another/no religion?

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