musings...

[pipistrellafelix]

just got back from a panel on spirituality in the chapel at st. ignatius (which is a gorgeous church)...it was interesting. some things i wrote down:
"i feel very comfortable being a jewish-wiccan-agnostic."
"it didn't matter what i was as long as i was comfortable with who i was..."
"while my religion of choice changes as often as my hair color..." (these from stephanie, very cool girl. with pink hair. and a tweed coat.)
"not knowing is very painful...so i did what any rational person would do--i left the united states and went to study abroad. in asia."
"i stand before you today representing the big question mark."-zachary
"be sure that your faith liberates you."
"campus ministry is the most wonderful search engine on campus." -tara
-all religions are different paths up the same mountain--hindu proverb.
there was a boy who was hindu and talked in a lovely way and now i want to go to temple with him. he said anyone could.
mostly what they kept coming back to was that despite being a catholic university--or i should say, because of being a jesuit university--it's fabulously warm and welcoming for anybody and they're not just saying that. so it feels happy.

it got me thinking, though--kareem asked me earlier whether i was religious and i said, um, well, sort of...i'm a pagan-wiccan-christian; and he and katie said, how does that work? and i said, i have no idea.
it's weird. i have an altar (which i haven't set up in my dorm room yet and now i really want to), and i celebrate beltane and ostara and so forth--kind of--but while i'm not technically christian, i think jesus was a damn cool guy (and existed, and is probably the son of god in some way), and i certainly have talked to god, in a church.
it was weird--it a different voice than usual, but coming into my head in the same way that i hear trees. which means it comes into my head in the same way as a story when the story is writing itself--it might be coming from me, but i honestly can't tell and i have no sense of 'making it up'. i talk to a tree and the words of its answer are in my head without me hearing it or thinking it up. same thing with airplanes. and with god. although they all have different voices. i sat there in st. martins in the fields and i said, wow, this is a beautiful place...and god said why yes, it is, and he (she, it--we need a non-gender-specific-pronoun) sounded sort of proud and happy. and i said, oh hello god, and he said, hallo child, and that was that.
so what am i? essentially that doesn't matter too much; as long as i know who i am. which i do.
but i am interested in hearing what other people think...what are people's views on religion? i never discussed that much with many people...i should, it's fascinating. so talk to me. tell me things.
love love love you all
k

Comments

Religion.

[mulberryswirls.livejournal.com]

I am agnostic-wiccan. I think.

So the Catholicism thing is no longer working for me... I think the biggest problem I had with the Catholic Church is that, as a whole, Catholics are awfully judgmental.

I was a pure agnostic for a while. Then... around The Raven Seance, I guess, I began to become interested in Wicca/Paganism and such... Magic's always fascinated me, as has nature, and MAN do I love candles and incense.

I have an altar. I have dried herbs and candles and books and such. I don't do MUCH, and what I do do I don't often do by the book.

But that's me. I think everyone needs to find their own way, their own religion, or not at all. I don't think religion should be crammed down anyone's throat (nine years of religion class, har), because that's not only counterproductive, it's... it's... stupid? I mean, religion should be open and welcoming (know that Catholic means 'welcoming to the whole world?' I do.), not restricting.

....okay, bravo if you can make any sense of that post.

Re: Religion.

[elanor-two.livejournal.com]

I make sense of it.
As for the Catholicism, I know what you mean about the judgemental thing--but I think that can happen in any religion, really. I've heard wiccans yelling about catholics and basically saying the same things that people say the other way around.
the jesuits here are way cool though. they're all liberal and religious at the same time. it's so refreshing.

(And I'm finding you a stone. Or a crystal. When's your birthday? I forgot...)

Re: Religion.

[mulberryswirls.livejournal.com]

Yes... But Wiccans seem somehow more openminded, or something?
I just want everyone to be happy and peaceful, dammit. No judgement.
It's wonderful that Seattle U isn't too religious! And, oh my, isn't that chapel breathtaking?

Eeee! My birthday's December 31. :)

Aaaah, religion...

[mantini.livejournal.com]

I think that everybody needs to find their own way. Religion is a way of explaining the unexplainable world we live in, and everyone has to explain it in their own manner. I've never held with the whole Christian thing, in fact, I've never held with any sort of organized religion in general. I think that this world/universe is far more complex than we could ever dream, and that our sciences are just the tip of the iceberg. In terms of deities (or lack thereof), I really want to believe that something or someone is in charge up there. Though I haven't yet discovered what form precisely that takes for me, there are simply happenings too strange to ignore, coincedences and other little things that simply scream out that somebody is calling the shots. At least, thats what I like to believe. You gotta believe whats right for you, not what somebody else thinks is right for you.

-Mantini aka the cute one