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Apr. 6th, 2010 12:42 pmYou can be culturally Jewish, you can be culturally Catholic....can you be culturally Pagan? I think so.
Well, hm. People who are culturally (insert religion here) usually are so because their family belongs to that religion, and they grew up in it. And so they feel themselves a part of that faith to a certain extent, whether they believe in it or not. And many of them go through the rituals of that faith (Jews doing Hanukkah and Passover and maybe Rosh Hoshanah/Yom Kippur, Catholics doing Easter and Christmas). But many of them have very different values than the faith they grew up in.
Then there's me...I was Pagan/Wiccan starting about when I was fifteen years old. In 2007 I became officially atheist. But...damn. I miss rituals. (What I really miss are the big Hands of the Mother rituals that occurred downtown, back when there would be a hundred people.) If I could afford it, I'd probably continue going to the two big ATC festivals, Hecate's Sickle and Spring Mysteries.
I love the mental headspace when you're in a group of Pagans--either the smaller group of Earthen Grove, or the big one of festivals. There's just a similar way of seeing the world and each other that is free and open and beautiful. There is a cultural component at work: people tend to be socially liberal as a rule. But also, there are just shared jokes, especially since Pagans (as a general rule) tend to be geeky. If you're at Hecate's Sickle and make a Monty Python joke, chances are, people will get it.
I consider myself culturally Pagan. So there.
My facebook profile, for "religion" says "Atheist/Pagan/Wiccan/WTF?" but I've thought of changing it to, "Atheist philosophically, Pagan out of habit."
I got nothing done on my "to do" list yesterday due to constant nausea. Today, hopefully, I will Get Shit Done. For fuck's sake, I move in less than two weeks.
Well, hm. People who are culturally (insert religion here) usually are so because their family belongs to that religion, and they grew up in it. And so they feel themselves a part of that faith to a certain extent, whether they believe in it or not. And many of them go through the rituals of that faith (Jews doing Hanukkah and Passover and maybe Rosh Hoshanah/Yom Kippur, Catholics doing Easter and Christmas). But many of them have very different values than the faith they grew up in.
Then there's me...I was Pagan/Wiccan starting about when I was fifteen years old. In 2007 I became officially atheist. But...damn. I miss rituals. (What I really miss are the big Hands of the Mother rituals that occurred downtown, back when there would be a hundred people.) If I could afford it, I'd probably continue going to the two big ATC festivals, Hecate's Sickle and Spring Mysteries.
I love the mental headspace when you're in a group of Pagans--either the smaller group of Earthen Grove, or the big one of festivals. There's just a similar way of seeing the world and each other that is free and open and beautiful. There is a cultural component at work: people tend to be socially liberal as a rule. But also, there are just shared jokes, especially since Pagans (as a general rule) tend to be geeky. If you're at Hecate's Sickle and make a Monty Python joke, chances are, people will get it.
I consider myself culturally Pagan. So there.
My facebook profile, for "religion" says "Atheist/Pagan/Wiccan/WTF?" but I've thought of changing it to, "Atheist philosophically, Pagan out of habit."
I got nothing done on my "to do" list yesterday due to constant nausea. Today, hopefully, I will Get Shit Done. For fuck's sake, I move in less than two weeks.
