I felt like stirring the pot this afternoon
How important is personal gnosis to your path?
Do you feel there is a lot of stigma attached to 'unverified' or 'unsubstantiated' personal gnosis in your path? Why do you think there's so much bias, or do you think there's not enough bias? How does it affect you and how you worship?
Have any good UPGs that you'd like to share, or any wacky UPGs that other people have shared with you? That's another good question - what makes one person's UPG valid, but another person's UPG wacky or outlandish?
I used to share a lot of my truly deep spiritual experiences. As I became more exposed to the online world of Paganism and religion in general, I've gotten a lot more private over the years. There's always going to be someone who disagrees with a person, or their experiences, but I see a lot of outright bashing and abuse online. I've even been subjected to some of it. I'm experienced enough both as a Pagan and a human to not let anyone else shake the foundations of my own spirituality overly much but I see a lot of new Pagans run for the hills and give up on everything they've just found because of mistreatment.
I'm not a full Greco-Roman recon, nor do I claim to be - most of my work with those deities has been on a purely personal level. I have no sources for it, other than similar experiences shared with me by other people. Same with my own 'native' American (meaning, working with spirits of wherever I'm living here in the US) work. I can understand anyone's distaste for misappropriation, but it doesn't negate honest experiences had by people communicating with or venerating native spiritual entities, wherever they may live. A lot of my personal cosmology is built up from UPG - but at least with my cosmology I can throw out some source material to offset the 'unverified' stigma.
How important is personal gnosis to your path?
Do you feel there is a lot of stigma attached to 'unverified' or 'unsubstantiated' personal gnosis in your path? Why do you think there's so much bias, or do you think there's not enough bias? How does it affect you and how you worship?
Have any good UPGs that you'd like to share, or any wacky UPGs that other people have shared with you? That's another good question - what makes one person's UPG valid, but another person's UPG wacky or outlandish?
I used to share a lot of my truly deep spiritual experiences. As I became more exposed to the online world of Paganism and religion in general, I've gotten a lot more private over the years. There's always going to be someone who disagrees with a person, or their experiences, but I see a lot of outright bashing and abuse online. I've even been subjected to some of it. I'm experienced enough both as a Pagan and a human to not let anyone else shake the foundations of my own spirituality overly much but I see a lot of new Pagans run for the hills and give up on everything they've just found because of mistreatment.
I'm not a full Greco-Roman recon, nor do I claim to be - most of my work with those deities has been on a purely personal level. I have no sources for it, other than similar experiences shared with me by other people. Same with my own 'native' American (meaning, working with spirits of wherever I'm living here in the US) work. I can understand anyone's distaste for misappropriation, but it doesn't negate honest experiences had by people communicating with or venerating native spiritual entities, wherever they may live. A lot of my personal cosmology is built up from UPG - but at least with my cosmology I can throw out some source material to offset the 'unverified' stigma.
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