Yet Another Intro post
Apr. 29th, 2009 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_aster posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
spiritual_wooHello all! I'm Aster, recently moving from InsaneJournal, where I mostly do fannish things of the anime/manga variety (no no wait, don't run away, I'm not That Kind of Fangirl, I promise!) I found this community through ye olde DW interests search, and from looking at other folks' intros, this looks to be a comfy place to settle!
This is pretty much the first time I've joined a pagany sort of community. So I've never really had to do this intro post thing before. Let's see how it goes!
I am, in no particular order: an analytical scientist, a worldbuildy writer, a lazy pagan, an inveterate introvert, a shoestring budget sensualist, and an all-around geek. \o/ On the spiritual side, I was raised Protestant, but college and the internet introduced me to paganism, and it just resonated more than the "unknowable God and sinful humans" archetype. I've dabbled in Wicca for a good ten years or more, but right now I don't really consider myself Wiccan, though the Rede and the Rule of Three are still pretty front-and-center in my beliefs. I'm sure that by a lot of definitions I'm a solitary, eclectic Wiccan with an Egyptian bent, but really I'm more comfortable just saying I'm a pagan. Less baggage that way. Also less nature (I'm not an outdoorsy person. I always felt that as a non-outdoorsy Wiccan I was kinda getting "ur doin it rong" messages from my subconscious.)
For reasons that I'll never quite understand (I've not got a drop of Egyptian or even Middle Eastern blood in me, unless you count the "we are all children of Mesopotamia" argument), I've resonated really strongly with several of the Egyptian gods. Anubis was the first to show up, and I'll maintain that he chose me rather than the other way around. Set followed quick on his heels, much to my stodgy, turtled, "I don't like chaaaaaange" horror. I blame Ellen Cannon Reed for planting the idea that having traditional "funerary" and "destructive" gods as patrons might actually be good for me. The other of my triad is Thoth/Khensu, who will always be the god that I'm eternally striving to feel worthy of. ;P
I light incense and burn candles when I think of it. I talk to animals and inanimate objects way more than is strictly needed. I don't so much pray as hold conversations with whoever's listening. I try to stay centered and live love. That's about it! Howdy.
This is pretty much the first time I've joined a pagany sort of community. So I've never really had to do this intro post thing before. Let's see how it goes!
I am, in no particular order: an analytical scientist, a worldbuildy writer, a lazy pagan, an inveterate introvert, a shoestring budget sensualist, and an all-around geek. \o/ On the spiritual side, I was raised Protestant, but college and the internet introduced me to paganism, and it just resonated more than the "unknowable God and sinful humans" archetype. I've dabbled in Wicca for a good ten years or more, but right now I don't really consider myself Wiccan, though the Rede and the Rule of Three are still pretty front-and-center in my beliefs. I'm sure that by a lot of definitions I'm a solitary, eclectic Wiccan with an Egyptian bent, but really I'm more comfortable just saying I'm a pagan. Less baggage that way. Also less nature (I'm not an outdoorsy person. I always felt that as a non-outdoorsy Wiccan I was kinda getting "ur doin it rong" messages from my subconscious.)
For reasons that I'll never quite understand (I've not got a drop of Egyptian or even Middle Eastern blood in me, unless you count the "we are all children of Mesopotamia" argument), I've resonated really strongly with several of the Egyptian gods. Anubis was the first to show up, and I'll maintain that he chose me rather than the other way around. Set followed quick on his heels, much to my stodgy, turtled, "I don't like chaaaaaange" horror. I blame Ellen Cannon Reed for planting the idea that having traditional "funerary" and "destructive" gods as patrons might actually be good for me. The other of my triad is Thoth/Khensu, who will always be the god that I'm eternally striving to feel worthy of. ;P
I light incense and burn candles when I think of it. I talk to animals and inanimate objects way more than is strictly needed. I don't so much pray as hold conversations with whoever's listening. I try to stay centered and live love. That's about it! Howdy.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 04:11 am (UTC)My experience of Wicca has been almost exclusively an indoor thing (the exceptions are usually festival settings). Outdoors is great if you can manage it, but you also have to be practical about it: don't insist on an outdoor ritual if temps are below freezing, or if you have nosy neighbors, or if you're breaking laws to be in a park after dark, etc.
I have three cats, so I talk to animals as a matter of course. ;) I talk to inanimate objects sometimes too. Funny thing is, it tends to work!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 12:04 pm (UTC)Oh, my non-outdoorsiness is less out of practicality than sheer stereotypical girly "ew". I like sun as much as the next person, but I don't do well with sweaty and hot. And bugs, for instance. I'd like nature a WHOLE lot more if I had an anti-bug field that kept the bugs from biting/divebombing/getting within ten feet of me. Alas, technology has failed me here. ;P I just...eventually came to the conclusion that I felt kind of hypocritical thinking of myself as a nature-based pagan when I felt so much more comfortable....separating myself from a lot of the nature!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 03:19 pm (UTC)Discomfort can serve a purpose: I'm happy to be exhausted because part of the purpose is an ordeal, to be hot and sweaty when we're focusing on the sun stuff - that just fits. But there's no point in the meaningless 'this isn't what we're focusing on, you just happen to be hot, sweaty, and eaten by bugs." if it's taking my attention and endurance away from the religious stuff, y'know?
I think there's also this mode of "But nature is nice and sweet and innocent!" that bleeds through into some discussions, and which I very much disagree with. I am a nature-based Pagan in many ways *because* I recognise that nature is a dangerous and unpredictable thing. (I live in Minnesota, so we get both serious cold and pretty miserable heat (and torrential thunderstorms, and occasional tornados, and a few other things.)