Pagan Podcasts

I've been browsing through iTunes for *Pagan* related podcasts. It looks like there are quite a few, more than I anticipated I would find. So far I listened to a portion of one regarding Tarot; the host was discussing the minor arcana. I didn't listen to the entire thing, but it was done well and she was talking not only about the card's meanings and interpretations but also about the specific meaning some of the cards held based upon their origin (if the case was that the card was representative of an actual king, queen, or other historical figure).

Next one I have ready to play is the show by Deos Shadow -- have you heard of him? Apparently it is a radio show that discusses different general Pagan topics. This one is about Runes... I haven't listened yet, but both of these are of good quality (sound and recording wise).

Does anyone else utilize podcasts for learning tools?

Certain podcasts have to be purchased through iTunes but just as many are free -- the ones I'm browsing now are free.

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Close Encounters of the Fundy Kind

Have you ever matched wits with a fundamentalist (of any religion)? Lived to tell about it?

I met my first one quite recently. We're both students at the same university and we even have some courses in common but I never really talked to her until one morning, we just started chatting on the bus. I was reading something for class and she whipped out her Bible.

When we got off to transfer routes, she started asking me questions about what I believe. At first, I skirted the issue and said Protestant, born and raised but then decided to be honest and identified as a polytheist. As we got on our way, she whipped out her Bible again and tried to make me read certain underlined passages aloud, on a crowded bus, and could not accept that I found that vastly inappropriate. So, she put it away and we got to the trick questions portion of the event. "How do pagans get saved?" "What do you think will happen when you die?" and all that Sneaky Deep crap. I was too surprised to be offended and I answered the best I could.

Eventually, we went our separate ways for different classes and that was the last time I talked to her. In hindsight, it was probably Someone's influence that kept me as surprised as I was. Looking back on it now, I'm really irritated with her and anything I say now is probably going to reinforce her negative view of non-Christians. Oh well, I have until September to get past the urge to taunt.

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Are Your Gods from a Familiar Pantheon?

For those of you who have had contact with gods in some way: Did your gods come from a pantheon you were already familiar with, or did they come from a completely unexpected direction?

I am much more familiar with the Greek pantheon than any other. Part of this may be that exposure to Greek myth in school might have been more common than exposure to the mythology of another culture. Yet I have always been interested in Greek religion, even before I identified as pagan, from a historical perspective. It’s possible that I just happened to retain the Greek stuff, but I don’t remember learning too much about myth from other cultures.

I’m wondering if my perceived nudges from gods appear to be from the Greek direction because it is the pantheon I am most familiar with, or if I became familiar with Greek religion over the past several years as a result of unrecognized nudges.

Did your exposure to a particular pantheon from an early age push you in the direction of the gods you work with, or did you come across a less familiar pantheon as a result of later contact from a certain god?

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Spell Craft and Children

I was flipping around the internet and stumbled onto a discussion between a couple gals who were looking to start working with their young (4-6) children on spell craft.

While this is a pretty common happening as pagan parents go, it got me thinking of some things.

Magic is the art and science of causing change in conformity with will.

We as adults and young adults go through huge amounts of background work to get our will and our visualization on track to increase our possibilities and effectiveness.

With this in mind, is is recommendable, or even possible to teach a child spellwork without a solid background in associations, and the process of raising energy?

I've considered and in the past have let the boys (4/6) participate in some minor workings one was a banishing, and the other a cleansing; but for the most part don't feel that they have the ability to focus for the time frame that I see as required for magical intent. (ten-15 minutes or more of intense purpose related focus)

Is it ethical then, to direct their energy in your own workings that you choose for them? For example one of the suggestions that the gals were going to make use of was making a dream catcher as a spell against bad dreams, or a wish spell that involved the releasing of a balloon.

For me, without putting intention into each stitch, the dream catcher would not be a spell. It would be a craft masquerading as a spell. Same with the balloon. There is no 'process' being taught.

While I believe in starting small, and breaking things down into simple concepts, I don't see much of a break down of concepts at all. Just 'ask' and 'get'.

What parts of spell work would you see as necessary before starting to teach a child? What kinds of checks and balances would you put in place to give a child a feeling of security against others who might use magical thought against them, or times when they have used their words or directed energy in anger or haste?

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Gemstones/Minerals/Crystals: Which are you most drawn to?

Which type of stone, mineral, or crystal would you say you felt most drawn to -- or most useful to you personally? AND... why? (Include a little information about your favorite if you'd like.)

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Sources of Eclectism

A couple of the recent threads addressing eclecticism and how we self-define has sent my brain down another line of thinking and I'd love to hear what others have experienced and/or think. I'm really throwing this out there at those who self-define as eclectic, but welcome anyone who'd like to weigh in.

One of my favorite dictionary definitions of the word eclectic reads "not following any one system, but selecting and using what are considered to be the best elements of all systems."

Keeping in mind this definition, what are those best elements have you incorporated into your path? What are the sources for your faith? What deities, rituals, schools of thought, etc, have you drawn from?

On the flip side of this, there is an implication of rejecting things that are not the best. What have you tried and found does not work for you? What ideas that you've come across have you rejected? What false trails along the path have been unworkable for you and forced you to backtrack in your journey?

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What Do You Meditate On?

I'm looking to raise my meditation ability and have sort of "ran out" of things to meditate on? Any ideas?

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Why the Numbers Agenda?

In the ADF and FoDLA thread, Gothicdruid said

Quote
FoDLA is built largely on face-to-face instruction and worship (though there is a distance learning component to its Druid clergy training program). This is intentional and is a response to the issue I've experienced over more than a decade in practice of the Internet serving as a vehicle for would-be leaders to inflate their abilities (and backgrounds) by being rather different people online than IRL. Consequently, my expectation is that FoDLA is going to be a long time in developing. One of my intentions, frankly, was to avoid the "numbers agenda" that plagues many organizations and focus on appeal to sincere polytheists.

Gothicdruid brings up something I have never understood in Paganism: the "Numbers Agenda" and I'd like to discuss it here.

Many of the Pagans I know seem almost obsessed with the numbers game: how many Pagans there are; which Pagan religion is biggest, which local group is largest, etc. I've never understood this, especially as many of the Pagans with this numbers obsession come from religions that don't actively proselytize. Some of the most numbers-obsessed Pagans I've met come from religions that simple do not allow proselytization.

In its extreme form the Numbers Agenda leads some Pagans to complain about the large number of Pagan religions and loudly wish that all the non-Wiccan Pagan religionss would just come to their senses and become part of Wicca so Wicca would be larger and Paganism would be united. (Note: one gets the impression that if Nose-Picking Paganism were currently the largest Pagan religion, these folks would be demanding that all other Pagans unify as Nose-Picking Pagans instead of Wiccans.)

We had one person come on our old Delphi Board (or maybe it was on The Thicket?) who wanted every Pagan to convert one person to "Paganism" every year so "Paganism" would double in size each year until it would become the largest religion in the US.

In less extreme forms, it the Numbers Agenda leads Numbers Agenda Pagans to judge the "success" of even local Pagan groups mainly (if not solely) by their size: Coven A with 10 members is better in their eyes than Coven B with 7 members even though coven B has been working together for 6 years and coven A formed 3 months ago and has that four changes of leadership in that time. I've known Pagans who were obviously drawn to a smaller non-Wiccan religion decide to become Wiccan instead because it was the biggest Pagan religion and all those people can't be wrong.

Why the Numbers Agenda? Biggest doesn't mean best. Even if all Pagans were members of nice cleaned up form of Wicca designed no to offend conservatives with things like nudity or any hint of sex and there were several million Wiccans, folks like Pat Robertson would still proclaim Pagans as evil followers of Satan. A larger group does not mean better -- the Southern Baptist Convention, for example, is the largest Protestant group in the US, but a few outside that group think that means it is the best.

So please clue me in on the Numbers Agenda and why it is stressed by so many Pagans.

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Levels of Ritual Participation?

What levels of participation are allowed during your religion's rituals by differing levels of members? That is- taking Catholics as an example, those who can or can't accept Communion. Everyone can come to church and listen to the sermon, sing and do the "God be with you" handshaking stuff, but only certain members can go up to the altar and accept Communion.

Does your path have anything like this?

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Pagan Homeschooling?

I don't have children, but hope to one day have at the very least, a child. I would reeeally like to homeschool this future child and am curious if anyone on his board homeschools their children and how they do it? Are there Pagan places to get homeschooling supplies? ((I have no idea how homeschool really works either! so some of what I say may not even make sense))

I would like to also avoid raising children with the Christian holidays.....I mean I don't mind taking them to grandparents and whathaveyou who do celebrate those holidays during those times....and I want my child to go on their own path.....but I would still like to instill the holidays which I celebrate with them and for them to not think that Christian holidays are the "only" or the "main" holidays and whatnot.

me having a child is way off in the distance, past the horizon.....but I often think of homeschool, as it is the only option I would even want to delve into with concerns to schooling them.

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