What Does "Worship" Mean?

I have issues with the word "worship" and I'm trying to get past them. I think this springs from my baaaaaad teen experiences in a somewhat fundie Methodist youth group (from which I was impeached as president for the crime of asking questions).

To me, "worship" has connotations of demeaning/debasing oneself in order to make a deity happy. It's a very negative feeling, and I'm not even sure how I developed it. Unfortunately, it causes me to close up to what I'm sure could otherwise be wonderful experiences.

Obviously, that's not the only way to construe the word "worship" (duh), so I thought I'd ask you all what it means to you. I'm hoping the discussion will provide other, more positive perspectives, and help me move past this negative place.

So, what does "worship" mean to you?

How does it define or effect your relationship to deity?

What actions/rituals/practices do you consider to be worship?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Brigid and the Morrigan's Relationship?

I thought that Brigid and the Morrigan were not on friendly terms, but couldn't remember why I thought that. I discovered that I couldn't find anything with a quick Google that explicitly detailed their relationship. Do any of you Celt experts have any insight?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

October Challenge

Thank you to Mandrina for this month's Challenge.

In October, your Challenge is another one of those "something new" things. This time it's music. I challenge you to listen to a kind of music you haven't really listened to before. Check out a CD from the library, borrow from friends and family, maybe even get a few MP3s. (The Cauldron has a listing of free and low-cost legal download sites.) Listen. Give it a fair chance. Even if it doesn't grab you right off the bat, try to find something you like about it. Keep your mind open.

I recognize, of course, that this may seem a near-impossible task for some of us who have very eclectic tastes in music. I would encourage everyone to really, really think about this and see if there's not something that they haven't listened to before... But if you honestly can't think of anything, I don't think it would be cheating to just pick something you haven't listened to much. Most people, even if they listen to and like everything, will tend to have some genres they only listen to occasionally -- try to hit one of those.

What kind of music will you be listening to?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Do You Believe that People in your Life are There for a Reason?

For those of you who do not believe in reincarantion, this may seem strange. For the others who do believe in reincarnation, I find myself constantly discovering reasons for the current relationships in my life.

- Do you find the relationship with your parent(s) has teaching lessons for you in this life?

- At different points in your life, do you find yourself discovering your past relationships with people currently in your life and how they apply to the present reality?

The reason I ask is that I constantly have epiphanies of the current relationships I have in my life. For example, my mother has many things to teach me about not loving yourself and the consequences of those actions. My best friend teaches me how to love outside myself. And the reverse of forgetting to love oneself at the expense of others.

Does anyone else ever sense similar experiences in their own relationships?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Hekate Kourotrophos?

Nurse of the Young, or Protector of Children. Epithet might be misspelled. A woman on another message board was asking me about this aspect of Hekate, if I had any info. I thought I might, but I only had a snippet from my own essay more related to the lack of proof that Hekate's knife is related to midwivery at all.

Though I see Kourotrophos on several websites there's little about how the epithet came about. Anyone have any ideas for me?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Bibliomancy

I have a question for all of you who do divination. Do you do bibliomancy? If so, what books do you use, and how do you use them? Do you flip through for your answers, or do you write passages on blank cards and use them like tarot cards? Have you found bibliomancy to be effective for you?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Ritual Sex and the Cult of Diana

The other night, I caught this documentary on the city of Ephesus. During Roman times, the city had a huge temple to Diana. The documentary stated that followers of her cult would have sex in the temple as part of their offering. Furthermore, I remember reading once that Caligula allegedly was in this cult, and would take part in the same ritual.

My question: Why would Diana be at the center of a cult that involved ritual sex when Diana was always perceived as being chaste? You'd think (at least I would think) that her cult would resemble the Vestals in this regard.

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Sea Salt and Sandalwood

Been doing some soul searching lately, and due to problems with an ex-high priestess and ex-coven members, find myself questioning a lot of things I've taken for granted. So my new course of study is to find precedents, or documented "proof" if you will, of how certain things that seem to be offered up to be accepted "on faith" actually came into being.

I'll throw the first two out in this post, and post more as I am able to find others.

The first two are sea salt, and sandalwood. My ex-hps swore by these two. In fact, she used sandalwood oil in sea salt for everything from ritual baths to cleansing magickal tools to "banishing demons".

So here are the questions:

What is the precedent for sea salt's cleansing/banishing property?

What is the precedent for sandalwood's cleansing/banishing property?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Changes in Perception and Acceptance

Since you began following a religion other than the one you were raised in (most of us here, I think) has your perception of other faiths or cultures changed? Have you let any prejudices fall by the wayside or have you picked up any biases against any other faith or culture?

Do you feel you have grown in your acceptance of others, that is, do you embrace the *different from you* more now than you did before changing faith-paths? Or have your views changed to where you are less accepting?

Do you feel that any (or all) internal changes you may have experienced are due more to your faith change or more to the gained experiences that come with age or due more to the changes the world its-self has gone through in the past, say, 20 years? Combo of all?

• Message Board: Join in our discussion

Virtues: Curiosity

I promised you all this series of threads ages ago, and I'm finally starting them!

Curiosity: Is it a virtue in your faith? How does it function as a virtue? Why do you think it is or is not a virtue? What does a virtuous person do w/r/t curiosity? How does it make one holier or a better person?

Curiosity is part of the "Wisdom and Knowledge" group.

• Message Board: Join in our discussion