Idk how to describe how it felt. My experiences with offering to other gods are tangible, they came into my life when I needed it the most and they helped me to either see things to the end or gave me motivation and tests to make it. Jesus on the other hand seems to be guiding me instead of just helping me, it feels interesting.
I hear a lot about dark goddesses or saints being more intimidating. I’m curious if this applies to Black Madonna compared to other titles of Mother Mary. What’s your experience?
ETA: I’m also curious about Mary titles like Our Lady of Sorrows, Empress of Hell, etc
so I’ve been a Hellenic polytheist/ spiritual for about three to four years now, but have been surrounded by Christianity my whole life. my idea of Christi since I was little has always been spiritual and very pagan. I distinctly remember praying for animals during hurricanes and very similar things. I’ve also seen “god” as Zeus look wise, but as I’ve found my spiritual path, I’ve learned that god isn't a man in the sky, more so everything around us. I see him as a male gaia if that makes sense? I started to finally worship Santa Muerte after being to scared, and it’s got me thinking about my religion. I’ve always thought about being helpol mixed with folk Catholic, but I’ve always been so confused. I also don’t like the church, modern Christianity, and the Bible, is this normal? could I be christopagan?
I wanted to ask, regarding Mary Magdalene and Joseph, the beloved, two of the apostles that were there at Christs crucifixion, so should they be the true apostles because they didn’t leave Jesus’s side?? Should they be the only apostles worthy of reverence?? I just wanted to ask this and was wondering if anyone else had these thoughts.
(I am NOT a Christian)
I’m looking for guidance/opinions from people who are spiritual, religious, ex-Catholic, folk Catholic, mystical, pagan, etc. because I’ve been trying to understand where my beliefs fit.
I was raised Catholic and went through baptism, reconciliation, communion, and confirmation, mostly because I went to Catholic schools. My mum’s side is Italian/Sicilian and Peruvian, and my dad’s side is Maronite Catholic Lebanese, so I grew up surrounded by Catholicism culturally even though my parents themselves weren’t super religious.
A big part of my connection to Catholicism has always been the devotional and ritual side rather than the actual theology. I’ve always loved:
I especially feel connected to Mother Mary and Archangel Michael. I see Mary almost as a universal Mother figure or Mother Goddess archetype connected to compassion, protection, femininity, nature, and guidance. And I’ve always felt a very strong spiritual/protective presence from Saint Michael.
At the same time, I don’t really believe in the Abrahamic God, Jesus as divine, the Bible as literal truth, heaven/hell, or the institutional Church. A lot of Christianity has never felt believable to me, especially things like:
I also feel deeply connected to nature and natural cycles. The moon especially has always felt spiritually important to me, and I feel connected to ideas of feminine cycles, energy, the sun, the wind as cleansing/resetting energy, etc.
I guess I’m trying to figure out:
I don’t want to force myself to believe something that doesn’t feel true to me, but I also don’t want to completely disconnect from the parts of Catholicism that genuinely feel sacred and meaningful to me.
Would love to hear from anyone with similar experiences or perspectives.
This morning my mind randomly wandered on the subject of pagan wedding and I began to wonder what a Christopagan wedding looks like . Is that just a regular Christian wedding or their more to it . Btw, i understand than it must depend of the synchretised pagan elements .
Sorry for the long post. Ok first a little bit of background: I'm a seminarian in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition.* I'm also a universalist. My fiancé is a Lokian pagan, and we have a friend who's a Hellenistic pagan. We were talking yesterday about my fiancé's work with Loki and our friend's work with Apollo. I made the comment that if I were to work with a deity outside of my faith tradition, it would be Artemis because I've always really liked her vibe (I'm an enciromemtalist and had just returned from a wilderness cleanup event), and that reading about her was definitely part of my lesbian awakening. I jokingly said that if she ever wanted to talk to me, I'd definitely be open. I instantly got a tingly feeling, like goosebumps, all over my body. I kinda shook it off and then got this image in my mind of this very sarcastic teenage girl knocking on my skull, shouting, "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU ABOUT YOUR CAR'S EXTENDED WARRANTY!"
So I know enough about Artemis to know that she communicates a lot through dreams, and I'm a very lucid dreamer. So before I went to bed, I asked her for a sign of what she wanted to tell me. That night, I had a very vivid dream where I confronted and rebuked my abuser in the midst of this incredibly dense and wild forest.
So, my question is: what do I do now? Where do I go from here? Can anyone who has worked with Artemis before give me any advice?
*I am a seminarian in the Universalist Orthodox Church, an independent Christian group that is affirming and accepting of all people and belief systems but practices in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.