Christianity and Eclectic Wicca

There are times were you have to  forget about being popular and stand up  for what  you believe in.  This is one of those cases. I make it no secret that I have troubles with many  eclectic wiccans, specially eclectic wiccans that openly surround themselves with "love , light, and happiness".  Do I  have reasons for being so  down on these people? Yes I  do.  Does this view go  along with my  desire to  have religious tolerence? Yes it does.  This is thier path and not my  path.  While I  might disagree with it, because I  think  that  they  are not balanced. It is for them to live, and not me.

What  does this have to  do  with  christianity? Alot, in my opinion. Thanks to  eveerything that I have learned in the last  few years I  see christianity in a bad light.  Christianity is nothing more than a dualistic jewish cult. These early christians couldn't handle thier god killing and doing all  these bad things, so  they  created ...SATAN.  Satan is actually a hebrew verb meaning "to stand against" In the jewish torah, everywhere that  'satan' is mentioned it is meant in that  manner. That is why  the christians have this dualistic view point of " You  are either for god or against god." 

The bible has over 30,000 verse in it. And most christians haven't read the entire bible like a book. What  they  do is pick  and choose 100 verses and base thier beliefs on those verses. They  picked out the 100 verses that  support thier beliefs and makes them feel  good about themselves.  Anyone that has actually read the bible or done any bible research knows that there are hundreds of bible contradictions.  If a none believer points out a contradiction, they  are told that  they  are reading it out of context. That  some verses are parables and ironic statements. These christians are buffet bible followers. pick  and choose what  they can use and want and ignore everything else.

In the years of debating and dealing with  christians I  have grown an attitude of them being shallow hypocrits. They  are weak  and lazy as well. I  say this  because of the heavan rule concerning jesus. That all you have to  do is accept jesus  as your savior and  all  your sins are forgiven.  All  you have to  do is believe and you don't have to  try to be a good person. You  don't have to work  on yourself to  get into  heavan. Because the fruits of a man's lavor can't earn his way into  heavan...  I  think  that  was added to make another control tool for the priests.

So  what  does all  this have to  do  with  eclectic wicca?  I  would say  that  half of the eclectic wiccans are following the history of christianity. Maybe it is because the growth of wicca was spurred by  the churches not allowing female ministers. Causing many  upset women to  adopt wicca so  that they  can have some level of control religiously in thier lives. They  were having thier christian ways affect thier wicca structure.  They  went through all of the pagan pathways and started to cherry  pick what  they  liked, and shunned the rest. The rede was turned into  this dogmatic law, "Harm none, so it be done". That  was a positive and loving statement, so  they  turned it into  a law. 

Gods and goddesses were also  cherry  picked to  fit the needs of that person.  Pantheons were ignored and the gods and goddesses were served in a buffet for the eclectic wiccans to  choose from.  Where the christians used verses, many  eclectics used a certain god or goddess. "I  follow the goddess Demeter, this makes me a hedge witch."  or " I  honor the god, Dian Cecht, thus I  am a healer."  I  watched and loved a youtube video talking about the gods and goddesses being used  like pokemon.  I have talked to  eclectics that  change thier gods and goddess regularly.  They  never build a relationship  with  the a certain god or goddess, they  use them on a as needed basis.

I  follow a Celtic path, I  honor only the celtic gods and goddesses. The hardest work that I had to  do  was to find the Gaulic names for the gods and goddesses.  I  didn't use the Irish name for this god and the Scottish  name for that  god.  Some of the gods and goddesses that I  honor are not popular or considered nice, but  they  are a part of the Celtic tradition and so I  honor them all.

Light and love... Many  of these eclectic pagans  focus on light and love. They  mirrored the christian stance of only using the positive attributes of a pathway  and shun the rest.  I have been in pagan rooms and chatted with  eclectics that  said that I  am too  negative. I  am blunt and lack  some of the finer points.  I have seen these eclectics run away  from anything that  doesn't make them happy or they complain about how negative people are. Recently in a pagan facebbok group, I  went through just that.  I  was even called a "problem poster". We criticize the christians for being so  closed minded, but these eclectic wiccans can be just as bad.  I  am not wording my  statements in a happy tone, so I  am attacking someone's path.  JUst like if you say something that is not inline with  christian beliefs you are attacking jesus.

I have seen this term used by others and I  have adopted it as well. Fluff Bunny is a term I  use to describe a pagan that is so  concerned with  love and light that  they  have lost all  balance.  They  have become fundies on this stance. They  can't handle negativity on any level. If you can't talk in a loving happy manner they  want you to  be quiet, and you can't argue because that is negative.

Life is not a black  and white world. These eclectic wiccans have the view of light and love, which is 2 dimensional  thinking just like the christian stance of .. You  are either for god or against god.  There are thousands shades of grey in between black  and white. There are thousands of colors as well. If you shun certain aspects of the world you are missing out on so much. The crone is considered by many  as a dark  goddess of death and endings. I look at  her as warmth as well. She is the grandma that  has wisdom to offer.  Grandmas are known to  take care of the children when needed to.  Once you lift that viel of gray  you will  find a heart of warmth.

Conflict is a stressful thing for many  of these eclectics. With  thier love and light stance, when situations come that  require someone to  stand-up  for an important cause, they  run away .  Christian groups like DC-40 wanted to impose christianity as the primary religion of the US. We needed people to  stand up and work against this group.  But the Love and light wiccans refused to  help. DC-40 wanted to  take away  thier rights to follow wicca, but they refused to do  anything.  They  will run and they  will hide, and they  will complain about anyone that  tries to get support to defend pagan beliefs. To  them we should just stop the hostilities, we are being to  negative.  Just like the christians that  proclaim "Love your nieghbor", it only counts when the nieghbor is doing what  you want him to do.

If you are an Eclectic wiccan, you are free to  believe as you want. These are the rules that I have to  place on myself first. If someone believes in a relgion and it makes them happy and they  don't go  around trying to push it on anyone else, I  am happy for that person. I  will  respect your views as yours.  But I  will  find it hard to  take you serious when you can't accept negativity or anything considered dark . Reality has both positive and negative events happening constantly, sometimes we have to  accept it.

How I became a Pagan

I  was very  lucky  that  my parents weren't devout christians. They  did  take us to church a few times, but my dad wasn't the biggest fan of churches. My  dad worked on the road alot and Sundays were a day  for him to  sleep in. My  dad also  had a few spell  books and other occult items kept in a trunk in the basement. My  dad said that I  could look  at them as long as I  put them back. He also  got the catalogs from World Wide Curios every year. So I  have seen many  occult/ Pagan items from an early age.  I  tried to  be a good christian  and fit in with the crowd. But christianity never felt good to me. I  was always feeling empty and some things didn't make sense to me. I  considered myself a christian , even when I  didn't feel like one. One of my  last  attempts as a kid of being a good christian was ruined by  a holy roller. I had been going to  church  for a month, and I  got sick. Stuck in bed for a week sick. So I  missed two Sundays of Church.  The very next Sunday  when I  was finally feeling back  to normal, I  went back  to  church. And this one lady  walked up  to me and said, " I  thought you were going to  be religious."  That  was the last  time as a kid I  stepped into  a church.

When I  finally moved out from home I  decided that it was time to  research various religous groups that I  had read about when I  was a kid.  So I  went to  the local library  and checked out some books and I  did a lot of reading. I  concentrated on the holy lands and I  read about Zorastrianism. I  couldn't get much  information about them, and from what I  read it seemed like a decent path.  I  tried to  find more information, from a small town library, it is rather hard to find anything about other religions. I  decided that I  was going to be better than the christians around me and labeled myself a "Magi  Humanist" . I  loved the self adopted title and freedom I had.  But I  was young, impatient, and busy at work. When things didn't get better with getting information I  got bored and walked away  from that  path.

These were the pre-internet days. I  feel in love with role-playing and war games. Those two  hobbies filled my love for history and my spare time. I  was able to  learn about my  heritage by  researching for the roleplaying games. Many  years pass and I  a non-practicing christian.

 I then started my family and went through two  failed marriages. I  acted like the good little christian in both marriages. Went through the marriage counciling with  ministers  so  that I  could get married in a church. Both events were terrible experiences. The first was through the salvation army minister that my first wife liked. And the second marriage I  had to  go through  two  different ministers because the first minister  said he couldn't marry us after 5 weeks of conciling because we were living together.  Which  really pissed us off.  I  was trying to  work  past my  doubts and be a devout christian boy  so  that I  could be a good husband. Well  the second marriage ended ugly. The mind games that  I  went through had placed a lot of damage to  myself.  I  was a mental  mess. During the divorce I  bought myself my  own computer and I  started to  connect with  the world around me. My  second wife hated the internet.  I  started to  talk  to non-believers, I  had started to  buy  pagan books. Then the best thing that  happened to me occured.  I  was checking out Yahoo  chatrooms, and I  found this one religion room full of non-christians. I  learned so much  from these people. The troubles that I  was having with  the bible was explained to me. They  showed  me contradictions in the bible. We exchanged  stories, like when the JW's come knocking on the door. I  was starting to  see the world differently. I  was at a night anger class, and a man started to  talk  about how he started to  change his life, he was reading about bhuddism. It made me think, and I  started to  realize that  the way I have been thinking has been changing my life as well.  I  continued talking in the chatrooms, read pagan/celtic books,  and a lot of self reflection.  I  made a few very  good pagan friends and I  was thinking about following a celtic pagan path.  But I  still had a lot of issues to work out.  My night anger class was showing me that I  was not the super evil person at  fault with  everything.  In fact, they showed some instances were I  was the victim.  Some things I  was guilty of in my  second marriage, but not all.  I  was starting to  put my  pieces back together.

 Early Spring in Iowa and I  decided to  go  to  the state park  and have a walk. I  think  best when I  am walking one of the many  trails. I  was thinking of my  life and how everything was starting to make sense to me now. I  knew that what  was in the past was wrong. History has shown what  was the right things to  do. Before I  was back  to my  car, I  denouced christianity and devoted myself to  honoring the Earth.  I  felt wonderful, I was looking through a new set of eyes. The world and I  felt as one.  I  declared myself pagan.

I  did  a lot of research  over the years. taking notes and refining the information out there. I  was Scot/Irish and I  was going to  follow the path of my  ancestors. I  was going to  be a druid. Easier said than done. But that is the path  that I  am on. I have devoted myself  to  study Celtic traditions and anything that is connected with Celtic traditions and history.  I knew of the ways the church converted  pagans to christianity and it made me sick. I  learned of the witch  trials.  I   talked and helped out other pagans. I  felt absolutely wonderful  helping others. And I  learned about the druids as being teachers as well. It felt wonderful walking down this path.

The road was rocky, I  doubted myself many times. But with  every obsticle that I overcame I  became stronger. I left being the person everyone else thought I  should be and became the person I  wanted to be.  The Journey has been rough but it helped make me the Pagan I  am today.

Greetings, A little about me....

Merry meet, I  am called blue by many,  I  am a complex person in many  ways. I  am creating this blog so  that  I  can better express myself and to change  the world as we know it.  The title for my  blog is important to me. I  am a pagan, which is a follower of the old ways of honoring the earth and the many  cycles of nature. There are many  paths to  take in Paganism, I  am following a Celtic Recon/Druid path.  Robert Frost in 1920  wrote a very interesting poem that best describes my journey. Two  roads diverge in the wood, and I  took the road less traveled, and it made all the difference.  Life is not about the destination, it is about the Journey.  I  could easily try to  fit in with everyone else, but then I  would be unhonest with myself.

I have a love for history, and with  that  love I  have read some sad tales of events past. Years ago where history tells us of men that killed and plundered his fellow man for self gain.  A time of which a group of people  used power to abuse and control those less fortunate. I have decided to  stand as a man against the driving wind and rain. Nothing changes in history until someone says no. Where no man will  say  no  against the odds, I  will  stand. I see so  many other pagans run at the sight of anger and hostilities, but I  shall  draw a line in the sand and hold my  place.  I  feel  as if I  am Gandalf at the bridge against the Balrog. With my  Staff in my  hand declaring "You  shall not pass!!" 

I  see many  battle for the pagan community from outside and from within.  This way of life for me doesn't make me the popular person, I  will  easily get a list of those that  do not like me. But that  doesn't matter. If something is of value to  you then you must stand up for it. You  can't allow others to  take what  you hold dear. I stand against the Abrahamic religions and thier actions. I  am told that I  am as bad as they  are. But I  am not,  I  can't let these abrahamic religions go unchecked, You  can't be nice to a group  that  thinks the world should follow thier god only. I am told to  let it go  by  those pagans that  try to  surround themselves with only positive  love and light. In these people I  see no balance and no  strength. Life is full of good and bad events, and if you can't handle the small  stuff, you can't handle the larger issues. But there are the rare pagans out there that  understand life and live in balance of light and darkness. With  these people, when they  see my  actions and respect me. I  would rather have one person's respect, than have 2 peoples friendship. Respect is earned, it is not given.

I  believe that  the day  you stop  learning you stop living. So part of my  Journey is to  learn as well. I  also  work  as a teacher. My  blunt style has caused many ripples in communities, but I  do make people think, and isn't that  what is important.  I  am blunt, honest, lacking the finesse, and somethings just cranky, but that is the way  that  I  am.  I  call myself an asshole, Adept Stoic Sentient Homosapien Obtaining Logical Education.