Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Going rogue

I was looking over the curriculum for AODA's initiation year and decided maybe Druidry isn't my path after all.  Some of the requirements are just plain boring.  I want to be intimate with nature, enjoy her company and find a spiritual connection with the gods through her.  I don't want to be a scholar on the subject of the ecosystem in my neighborhood.  Nor do I want to spend hours and hours reading about nature, crafts and divination.  I want to spend time doing them.  Not reading about them.

I'm not terribly interested in paying bucks for each "level" or becoming clergy of any kind.  And I'm not even impressed with the levels anyway.  I don't want to specialize in one thing or another.  I'd like to be more of a Renaissance type of Pagan, knowing a bit about everything.  I love the crafting aspect, the writing aspect and the divination side of it all.  Why delineate a particular path and lock off all others?

I know I don't need a label as such, but I am the way I am and I like having myself defined.  After a riveting discourse on a message board about how fluffy bunnies are destroying Paganism by a Pagan who has determined that she is the bar everyone much base their spirituality on, I've gone rogue and decided to define my own path, including determining its "requirements."  I do love Celtic polytheism and Nature so I've determined that is what defines me.  The heck with any other requirements.  I've also been unable to resist the pull toward Greek polytheism as well, so I've decided one of my altars will be Greek, without a nod to reconstructionism.  My relationship with the gods is mine alone and if they accept me as I am then no one has the right to decide otherwise.

I'll admit that reading the nonsense about "fluffy bunnies" and her definition of them that seems to be that of anyone who hasn't studied as deeply and is as knowledgeable as she is, pissed me off royally.  It reminded me of the bullshit I dealt with within Christianity.  Also known as the No True Scotsman fallacy.  She did get trumped mightily by other Pagans on the board to which she responded in a very snarky way, intimating that they're not real Pagans or some such nonsense.

I swear that's the kind of bullshit I thought I had left behind.  Apparently not.  At any rate, all she has accomplished is to energize me to make my path my own.  So I think her intentions backfired on her.

BB

7 comments:

  1. I'm a big believer in forging my own spiritual path too.

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  2. It helps to see that there are so many out there forging their own path. I keep losing confidence in my ability to do it, but maybe now I finally have the confidence to move ahead...finally. Thanks, Debra.

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  3. Ego-centric idiots give themselves religious titles like "High Priestess of the Coven of Dickheads in the Third Degree". AS soon as I read or hear any of that garbage I click or walk away. Spirituality has no "level"

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  4. LOL! Isn't the Coven of Dickheads in Washington D.C. and don't we normally call it Congress?

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  5. You are indeed a wise wise woman! They sure are !

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  6. Hahahahahaha, both of you! You're hilarious!

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