Trusting a 'gut instinct'?

What are you views on so called 'gut instincts'? When deep inside you just know the truth behind something, even if it leads you to be called crazy by other people.

I am not so much talking about faith or religion, more the deep seated knowledge that, despite all indications to the contrary, and despite the fact that friends and family may ridicule you and/or want you to be committed, you just 'know' that your truth is THE truth... I would be interested in knowing your views on the value of 'gut instinct'.

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Gods: Local or Universal?

Some folks believe that gods are bound by geography (e.g. having dominion over a particular mountain or stream). Some folks believe that gods are universal, that is to say, they can reach and interact with followers all over the world.

What do you think? Are gods local or universal? Or are some local only, and some universal? Do some universal gods hold special powers related to geography?

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Number of Muses

Do you think that there are more muses then the basic nine (or three or five, whichever version you follow)? What if the nine famous Muses gave birth to a race of spirits that have the same function as their mothers? For instance (drawing from aforementioned thread), was Erato the mother a group of spirits that specialized in inspiring writers to write erotica? Do you think there are male Muses?

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Being a Good Steward?

Part of most Christian paths is the idea of being a good steward of what God has given to you. For our members that are part the Judeo-Christian tradition, what does being a good steward mean to *you*? How do you implement that as part of your daily life?

For our members of other faiths, is there a similar concept as part of your belief system? If so, how do you implement that concept in your daily life?

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Beginner Mistakes

This is a thread for people to discuss what mistakes they made when they first started out on their paths. Or maybe it wasn't at the beginning, but the situation made you go "oops" anyway.

Everyone has done something...

Anyway, one for me was I bought reed divining mat for Oya. I thought I'd create my own system with it. Um...yeah.

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Empathy and Movies?

I don't really like watching movies very often. Lots of times when I watch a movie, I really do like it. I watched Garden State last night, and it was cool. i love thought-provoking movies when I can be convinced to sit through them, but sometimes I can't sit through a movie because I don't like having my emotions tinkered with, and I wonder if I'm getting an empathic reaction from watching movies.

I already know that I am an empath as other people's emotions, good, bad and otherwise, rub off on me easily. The only movies I can easily be convinced to watch are comedies, although on the rare occasion that I sit down to watch a serious film, I often enjoy it immensely. Even if my family is sitting down to watch a movie together, I usually leave the room and try to stay away as long as the movie is on. Does that sound weird to you?

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Vengence and/or Revenge?

We had a thread about forgiveness and I thought we should flip the coin a bit and look at our views on vengence... revenge... payback. Call it what you will, some folks are good at it, some people never do it.

My current faith-path does not prevent me from taking revenge/vengence on someone who has grieviously injured me.
Sometimes I feel it is necessary. I guess I am of a basically violent nature, but also I know that actual violence is not always necessary to exact revenge. Sometimes a well-timed phone call can do the deed.

There is the question of righteous vengence... which seems to be the mindset of most national governments when they go to war -- or the mindset of religious extremists when they strap on a bomb and wade into a crowded restuarant.

What's your take on revenge/vengence/payback? Is it prohibited by your own beliefs or your faith? Is it okay (up to a point)? How do your personal feelings/thoughts on it conflict or agree with your faith-path?

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One Wish?

If you had one wish you could use today, what would you wish for? (And no, wishing for more wishes will not work.)

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Spectacularly Bad Religious Analogies

I was reading CS Lewis's Mere Christianity and got to the section where he tries to argue that modern society has an unhealthy obsession with sex. He tries to support his argument with the following analogy to food (which I have paraphrased since I don't have the book with me):

[comparing to a striptease] If a porterhouse steak was placed before an audience and slowly uncovered, and the audience stared so raptly at it, one would conclude that they were either starving or overly gluttonous. If the people in question are not lacking for food, they must therefore be gluttons.

Now, Lewis's thesis is highly debatable, but my point here is that this analogy is not valid. We do in fact pay this much attention to the presentation of food (silver domed platters, garnishes, nouvelle cuisine, restaurant decor etc.), and this does not make us gluttons, or even make people think we are gluttons.

This has been bugging me for a while and I just had to get it off my chest. Anyone else have a bad religious analogy to share?

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Hathor

Recently, I keep getting an image flashing into my mind of an Egyptian Goddess with a disk beetween her horns, and after a little research I've discovered that this is the image of Hathor. This is a bit strange for me, as I've never been particularly attracted to the Egyptian pantheon, and my area of greatest knowledge is the Greek Gods. So I hadn't been thinking about the Egyptian Gods when this image came into my mind.

Could anyone point me in the direction of any good online resources for Hathor? Also, are there any good resources for the Egyptian pantheon in general, as I know very little about them. I've currently banned myself from buying any more books (there's no more room in the flat!), but if you could recommend any books I might be able to buy them in the future.

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