What is your religion / spirituality / cult / nonbelief / etc

[Velvet-Tongue]

I'm incredibly curious to see what everyones answer is to this. This subculture being more offbeat and open minded will probably have alotta interesting ideas. So please share

Lemme get this ball rollin..

Born and baptised catholic
Age 6 - Started to hate God became atheist. Continued for a long time.
Age 12 - Started getting into the whole newage/druidism deal (6th grade..I blame Harry Potter haha.)
Age 14 - Still reading lotsa of occult books, considered myself druidic and was a very eclectic pagan.
Age 15-17 - Very Pagan. Joined a coven of Scottish Wiccans. Went for a year and a day of class. Very Gardnerian style system 9as the HP was a former member.). 300 question test, probably wrote over 30 papers on occultism during that time for classes. Was made a priest. Became dissillusioned by all the coven politics. Became disillusioned with paganism in general. It was to stratified and the beliefs varied too widely. So....
Age 18 - After talking to my Muslim friends for many years (since 8th grade) and narrowly avoiding having myself/ex/and 2 friends killed in a carcrash I converted to Islam.
Age 18- Left Islam, long story, fear and ignorance being the main point of my rant. I'll go into it if anyone cares. All kinds of crazy shit happend around this time.
Age 19- Agnostic/Atheist back and forth, sometimes I believe in God, other times i'm not so sure anymore. Even go to Catholic church now and again when the mood strikes me to have a place to pray. Still love to dabble in the occult. Recently started getting back into doing rituals and studying the occult for a hobby.

And...there we are.

[Mr Karl]

born heathen, through childhood and adolesence had a lot of exposure occult doctrine and also religious doctrine. after leaving home spent years travelling and more study , there are very interesting things in the occult, trivial, but interesting. after a while came to the conclusion that while all that stuff means something and does work, it all works to other ends than my own.
so now I just believe in stuff I've come up with on my own.....works just as well as anything else

[TheQuietPlace]

To put it simply I was Mormon until 10 then I rebelled and now I'm agnostic.

[One Eyed Cat]

I'm incredibly curious to see what everyones answer is to this. This subculture being more offbeat and open minded will probably have alotta interesting ideas. So please share

Lemme get this ball rollin..

Born and baptised catholic
Age 6 - Started to hate God became atheist. Continued for a long time.
Age 12 - Started getting into the whole newage/druidism deal (6th grade..I blame Harry Potter haha.)
Age 14 - Still reading lotsa of occult books, considered myself druidic and was a very eclectic pagan.
Age 15-17 - Very Pagan. Joined a coven of Scottish Wiccans. Went for a year and a day of class. Very Gardnerian style system 9as the HP was a former member.). 300 question test, probably wrote over 30 papers on occultism during that time for classes. Was made a priest. Became dissillusioned by all the coven politics. Became disillusioned with paganism in general. It was to stratified and the beliefs varied too widely. So....
Age 18 - After talking to my Muslim friends for many years (since 8th grade) and narrowly avoiding having myself/ex/and 2 friends killed in a carcrash I converted to Islam.
Age 18- Left Islam, long story, fear and ignorance being the main point of my rant. I'll go into it if anyone cares. All kinds of crazy shit happend around this time.
Age 19- Agnostic/Atheist back and forth, sometimes I believe in God, other times i'm not so sure anymore. Even go to Catholic church now and again when the mood strikes me to have a place to pray. Still love to dabble in the occult. Recently started getting back into doing rituals and studying the occult for a hobby.

And...there we are.

I would be interested in hearing more about your journey through islam. Sufism has been somewhat of an influence on me at specific points in my life. Could you go more into detain on your specific practice of islam? What was the source of the subsequent fear? I have enough familiarity to distinguish school of islamic thought. I'll answer your question in a separate post. Have to give it some thought as the caffeine hits my system (went to a bash for the underground explorer folk here last nite)

Jackie T

[aXa]

i generally label myself a Wiccan or witch, but not of the run of the mill kind. most of my deities are darker than your normal Goddess(Anatha/Neith, Hekate and kali among them), etc. dont really practice much anymore but i have the beliefs, etc. havent had anyone to do any rituals in quite some time; mostly a solitary practioner.

[GnArKiLL]

was catholic, did that whole thing when i was a kid cuz i was told to, untill i actually started to wonder wtf it all was about.

So im Atheist.

[One Eyed Cat]

I'd have to say I am spiritual in line with my own experiences. I have some buddhist leanings (karma) (meditation) (cycles of ahimsa) but I see it all play out in one time. I don't believe in ultimaye "enlightenment". Beyond that, I believe the "shadow" or "dark" must be incorporated. To me, the darkness comes from both within and without. You have to come to peace with it. I find it dangerous to view the world in its entirety in black and white terms. I am still influenced by "moralists" such as Dostoyevsky. I'd have to say my overall views are fairly eclectic and context specific. I do believe in a universe that transcends our existence. That is not to say I understand or have all the secrets of it. Noone does.

Jackie T

[One Eyed Cat]

Correction: I believe karma plays out within one's lifetime.

Jackie T

[Velvet-Tongue]

I would be interested in hearing more about your journey through islam. Sufism has been somewhat of an influence on me at specific points in my life. Could you go more into detain on your specific practice of islam? What was the source of the subsequent fear? I have enough familiarity to distinguish school of islamic thought. I'll answer your question in a separate post. Have to give it some thought as the caffeine hits my system (went to a bash for the underground explorer folk here last nite)

Jackie T

Hi Jackie,

Well the friend who got me into it first (introduced me to other people at the Mosque, let me borrow a Quran etc) was a sunni Muslim. He was a very, very orthodox sunni.

You probably already know but for anyone else thats curious the Sunni believe that the Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet who spoke for Allah. They're very conservative (no saints, magic, grave worship, etc etc) the most un-mystical religion I can think of (excluding the Islamic belief in Djinn, creatures made from the elemtn of fire that live with us ..kind of like demons but not.)

Shiites believe in Caliphs, family/friends/hereditary offspring of the follower of Mohammed. Think of Islamic Popes who speak from Allah. Sunnis don't believe this at all. Shiites also pray to saints, pray at graves etc.

Sufis are the mosy mystical/occult branch of Islam. They use rosaries, pray, chant, rituals, dancing etc. They're considered highly heretical by the Sunnis, as are the Shiites. However in Mecca they can all gather in peace.

Anyway!

The problem with Islam and WHY it works so well is fear and ignorance. You're kept in a constant state of guilt/fear to not go against the Quran. You beleive you will suffer horrible punishments if you do. You're also kept in a state of ignorance. The islam of old is dead for most of the world, replaced by a religion of xenophobia/cloistering. Anything new is hated. How do you keep someone a slave? Keep them ignorant and in fear.

Why are thre countries with 100% islamic citizens? Because if you say you've converted to christianity/judeism/etc. They KILL you. The Quran even speaks about not letting an apostate live. Its also in favor of slavery.

The prayer you say every time before you pray and several times during it ends with the lines of "The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down(jews), nor of those who go astray(christians). "

To almost every Muslim I spoke with Jews are the archenemy. They're dirty, evil, heretical, the scapegoat for all the worlds problems. It's disgusting.

I just decided that I could no longer be in a religion that forced me to turn off my brain to new information and embrace a path of xenophobia.

[TheDeathKnight]

Athiest.

[One Eyed Cat]

Hi Jackie,

Well the friend who got me into it first (introduced me to other people at the Mosque, let me borrow a Quran etc) was a sunni Muslim. He was a very, very orthodox sunni.

You probably already know but for anyone else thats curious the Sunni believe that the Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet who spoke for Allah. They're very conservative (no saints, magic, grave worship, etc etc) the most un-mystical religion I can think of (excluding the Islamic belief in Djinn, creatures made from the elemtn of fire that live with us ..kind of like demons but not.)

Shiites believe in Caliphs, family/friends/hereditary offspring of the follower of Mohammed. Think of Islamic Popes who speak from Allah. Sunnis don't believe this at all. Shiites also pray to saints, pray at graves etc.

Sufis are the mosy mystical/occult branch of Islam. They use rosaries, pray, chant, rituals, dancing etc. They're considered highly heretical by the Sunnis, as are the Shiites. However in Mecca they can all gather in peace.

Anyway!

The problem with Islam and WHY it works so well is fear and ignorance. You're kept in a constant state of guilt/fear to not go against the Quran. You beleive you will suffer horrible punishments if you do. You're also kept in a state of ignorance. The islam of old is dead for most of the world, replaced by a religion of xenophobia/cloistering. Anything new is hated. How do you keep someone a slave? Keep them ignorant and in fear.

Why are thre countries with 100% islamic citizens? Because if you say you've converted to christianity/judeism/etc. They KILL you. The Quran even speaks about not letting an apostate live. Its also in favor of slavery.

The prayer you say every time before you pray and several times during it ends with the lines of "The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down(jews), nor of those who go astray(christians). "

To almost every Muslim I spoke with Jews are the archenemy. They're dirty, evil, heretical, the scapegoat for all the worlds problems. It's disgusting.

I just decided that I could no longer be in a religion that forced me to turn off my brain to new information and embrace a path of xenophobia.

Islam proper (both sunni and shia) were definitely a turn-off for me. I've found some value in sufi (and related) literature ie Iqbal, Al-Ghazali etc. I have a friend who began practicing as a shiite some years ago. He has mellowed over the years. Some of his beliefs and statements were consistent with what you are saying. I believe he still identifies as mulim, however.

Jackie T

[Amerist]

Wow, Velvet-tongue, thou certainly had a fun ride there.

I think it rather mimics my beginnings at least, the whole being baptized Irish Catholic and winging it through the indoctrination as a child. That didn't stick, even as a child, and I ended up being just a fluffy Celtic practitioner in the end.

The Irish stayed -- genetics, I guess -- but the Catholic really waned once I got a good look at their traditions and they didn't mesh with me at all.

[Superna]

metaphysics

[Kidthorazine]

I'm a traditional Wiccan, I grew up an a Unitarian Universalist church and still attend services there from time to time.