What path and how did you come about yours?

[catknuckles]

I'm new here so go easy on me haha.
For the past 5 months I've been researching into the pagan religion and I am aware there are many paths to follow but myself am unsure. Do you have any advice?

Through research I have found I do believe in many Hindu beliefs with the afterlife and spirits - whether that's any help I do not know.
Thanks x

[Mr. Badger]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

it's very easy to get lost on your path because of all the options (at least that's one thing that affected me early on) but the real basis of the concept of the path is that it is your own. if you follow too strictly by another's path, it will hinder your growth and lead you astray. (keep in mind this is a solitary practitioner that is talking)
as far as a place to start, i began studying through Wicca, because it has a tremendous amount of easily available reading material.
hope that helped.

[Daecca]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

I, as Mr. Badger up there, am an Independent Spiritualist/Pagan.

I have found my path a couple of years ago and am following it still. I too noticed the differences in paths and due to my healing abilities from birth I have found myself at a couple of crossroads. As to the one I am on now. Which is "Am I to be called a shaman or not." But in the end, I still only find my own path. I accumulate knowledge, I spread knowledge.

This I do a lot. But mostly, I just tend to help people. I am one who likes to go without a common denominator. Since, as is my belief, spirituality is not to be "Boxed" into categories, spirituality is freedom. Spirituality is as you want it to be.

Therefore I say, your path is your own to discover. and, of course, if need be, you can find help.

As long as you keep in mind that your mind is your own, you do not have to believe what others say.

What I am trying to say is. Follow your feelings, follow your heart. I think in that, lies your one and only true answer

[nbdy]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

Well said. Yah, my path is my own, and I have put the best name to it I could in order to let folks know, sort of, how my mind approaches things. I never really had a plan, just started walking. I seem to be hanging out with pagans, but it was never my intention to have that identity.

[volcaniclastic]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

If you'd like some more reading, we have several threads on this topic already.

here, here, and here.

[Sarkana night]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

Also this, perhaps. http://www.paganforum.com/showthread...ur-progression

[AL!CE]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

When it came to finding my path is was mostly a matter of reading books and agreeing or disagreeing with what the authors were saying. Path is pretty much another word for ideology. To develop an ideology or path you first have to research other ideologies or paths and work out what ideas suit you and what ideas don't. Then you can maybe come up with some of your own ideas but you know learn to walk first.

[TJSGrimm]

Re: What path and how did you come about yours?

I, as Mr. Badger up there, am an Independent Spiritualist/Pagan.
But in the end, I still only find my own path. I accumulate knowledge, I spread knowledge.

This I do a lot. But mostly, I just tend to help people. I am one who likes to go without a common denominator. Since, as is my belief, spirituality is not to be "Boxed" into categories, spirituality is freedom. Spirituality is as you want it to be.

Therefore I say, your path is your own to discover. and, of course, if need be, you can find help.

As long as you keep in mind that your mind is your own, you do not have to believe what others say.

What I am trying to say is. Follow your feelings, follow your heart. I think in that, lies your one and only true answer

Explains how I lead my life currently, how I came to that may vary.

I was raised in a very spiritually open and accepting household, I consider myself lucky to have a mother who educated herself and took the time to explain things openly and let me choose to pursue whatever captured my interest.
Like a lot of teens, the first thing I heard about was Wicca which opened a lot of doors for me. I consider it now a mistake (for myself) to have claimed it as my path without doing a lot of research. I wanted to belong to something and I simply jumped in. In the end it worked out in the sense that I learned how others react to situations like that (a lot of misguided peers picked on me and I wasn't readily able to defend my position because I lacked education on something I claimed :x)
After I dealt with that situation, I was able to do more research, and I came to find that there are many different spiritual paths (duotheism, panenthesim, polytheism, atheism).

Personally, finding faith in one or more gods was difficult, but I don't deny the existence of a creator. I enjoy reading about another's experiences. I believe in treating others as I want to be treated (it took me a while to learn and accept that those people may or may not return the favor and that doesn't mean I should treat them like they are less!)

I started seeing the beauty in the happiness a lot of people find in their faith, which helped me find acceptance and contentedness without labeling myself as anything in particular.
That is not to say that I'm not open to accepting another form of faith later on, though because I'm always learning!

As far as "Pagan" goes, I always understood it as a blanket term for polytheists, rather than a religion in itself.