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What's your progression?

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    Re: What's your progression?

    Hello Ahiram Hasdruba'al! I'm Turningtides, it's nice to meet you. I also (try to) follow Natib Qadish, though I don't quite know/do enough to call myself a qadish. I have prayed to and honored the 'Iluma as a whole, and also the individual deities at times. Pagan Forum has always been a welcoming place for many traditions. I hope to hear more about your experiences in Natib Qadish!

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      Re: What's your progression?

      Southern Baptist -> a teensy bit of Fairy Faith/Celtic Polytheism -> Heathen

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        Re: What's your progression?

        *Fundie>Agnostic>Messianic Jew>Agnostic>Ceremonial Magician>Discordian/Chaote/Eclectic

        *Note- This entire timeline also includes learning since birth about the Animistic Tribal Faith and Practice I am raised in and around.
        There is beauty in darkness for those who dare enter the shadows to embrace it. - John Coughlin

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          Re: What's your progression?

          Episcopalian-->Fluffy Liberal Episcopalian--->Nothing really--->Zen (with a side of philosophical Taoism)--->Agnostic--->Brief involvement with Nichiren Shu--->Stephen Batchelor style Buddhist---->Atheist--->Naturalistic Pantheist with Buddhist and Taoist leanings who's still searching.

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            Re: What's your progression?

            Russian Orthodox Christian > General soft Christian > Agnostic > Atheist > Wiccan > General pagan > Norse/Slavic traditions with shamanistic & animistic tendencies

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              Re: What's your progression?

              Christian (Baptist) > Atheist > Eclectic Pagan

              I began to lose my faith in Christianity when I was around fourteen or fifteen. I became an atheist when I was sixteen and stayed one until I was twenty-one when my spiritual path began

              It's like something was calling to me and telling to me to believe. Then one night, I was on the back porch looking at the stars, and for the first time in a very long time I prayed. I just simply said "God, if you exist, please give me a sign.". And moments after I said that, a meteor passed through the night sky

              That may sound a little cheesy, but that's what happened and I've been on a spiritual path ever since
              "Well I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer,
              The future's uncertain and the end is always near"

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                Re: What's your progression?

                Agnostic>Atheist>General Paganism>Heathenism>Northern Traditional Shamanist
                "In the shade now tall forms are advancing,
                And their wan hands like snowflakes in the moonlight are gleaming;
                They beckon, they whisper, 'Oh! strong armed in valor,
                The pale guests await thee - mead foams in Valhalla.'"
                - Finn's Saga

                http://hoodednorseman.tumblr.com/

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                  Re: What's your progression?

                  Christian -> Wiccan -> Heathen -> Hellenismos -> Asatru

                  I've been a seeker for a while, Asatru just feels right to me

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                    Re: What's your progression?

                    Originally posted by CttCJim View Post
                    This was a popular thread in the Before. I'll kick it off.

                    Christian (Lutheran) -> Agnostic -> Wiccan -> Eclectic -> Kemetic

                    What's yours?
                    Atheist -> Non-denominational Bible Believer

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                      Re: What's your progression?

                      Christian (Anglican) > seeker/ditherer > Hellenic Pagan

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                        Re: What's your progression?

                        Christian (Methodist) -> Kemetic
                        I did a lot of reading and research before actually making a decision, so I didn't really go through many different religions xD
                        Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.

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                          Re: What's your progression?

                          Atheist-->Kemetic

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                            Re: What's your progression?

                            This will be long. But if anyone wants to read, feel free to.

                            I was taught to believe in the basic Roman Catholic beliefs, and this worked fine during my infant days and I was even partially ordained - I actually had my "First Communion". However later on became harder and harder to maintain these beliefs. Loss of faith due to various events, an increase in learning and available knowledge on my part, and the fact that none in my family were true to the doctrines they claimed to hold paved the way for a hard atheism and a misanthropic worldview.

                            The years brought in more learning and knowledge and somewhat better times pushed my worldview towards a better one. In time, as it changed from a hopeless to a hopeful one I began to re-examine my beliefs and my hard atheism softened to the point that it was no longer "gods are not real" but "I have no gods to follow".

                            This later point become the central focus of my philosophical research. I dabbled in various polytheistic and pantheistic practices (including Wicca, Tengerism) and Eastern beliefs (including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Shinto, even Hermeticism) but none of them felt completely right to me. To this add that as far as religion goes, I always felt like a foreigner in a foreign land: Who my ancestors were was never clear (I did research on the genealogies of my maternal and paternal families), so the European faiths felt distant. The Native American faiths were closer to home as I am of the New World, but I have no blood from amerindians and I always felt that taking their beliefs was cheating them out of their identity. If I did not even join them in their customs, why would I take their gods? There was always my mother and her Christian-veiled African religion but... It felt wrong. To this day whenever I think about African gods they feel entirely alien to me.

                            That is when I began to read about the conflict of Roman Christianity and Roman Paganism. The efforts at creating a new state faith and the efforts to revitalize the old one led me to read about Neo-Platonism. Platonists and Neo-Platonists are very diverse, but among them I discovered some very interesting thoughts that echoed with what I thought and felt. It also enabled me to take a more inclusive view of other religions (As even if the Egyptian gods have no love for me it does not mean they are not real, only that they have no interest in me).

                            Eventually, I found a god. Or to be honest, I "acknowledged" a god. Long ago I had a dream about him, and that particular memory stuck. I began to consider whatever this fixation of mine had actual meaning, even if he was not widely worshipped in the past and I am pretty sure many would consider him merely a mythological figure or minor spirit - but I always though there was something more. I read more myths about him, even with the scant literature. Over time I even identified with him on certain personal aspects that I had not realized earlier, and also noted how his other aspects are overplayed.

                            These days I keep going on my "spiritual quest" as it were. I am much more accepting of other people's beliefs (but I do make exceptions sometimes, for example fundamentalists are annoying whether they are monotheistic or polytheistic). Still some old beliefs remain which I am fine with. I am with Confucius on that the afterlife is unknownable, so I do not pretend to know what happens to me when I die. But while I live I try to be as true to my morals as I can. And it is good to know that I have a god watching out for me, too.

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                              Re: What's your progression?

                              Methodist > Non-denominational Christian > Agnostic > Northern Tradition Heathen

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                                Re: What's your progression?

                                Christian->Christian Witch->Agnostic->Eclectic pagan
                                ~Rudyard Kipling, The Cat Who Walks By Himself

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