Guest Cathal Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 When I was younger I was one of the most devout Christians you could find in New Hampshire. I was even what one could call a lunatic fundamentalist. As I got older I developed interests in the Occult, and in Native American Spirituality. I think this was in part due to my membership in the Boy Scouts of America. I would spend hours at a time in the Public and School Libraries reading books on topics as diverse as Nessie and Ghosts to Occult Spirituality. Though at the time I was still naive and did not know that these things were real. I thought that the Occult Spirituality was purely a myth, or that it didn't exist any longer. When I was 13 I was born again. You might be asking how a person who was born again could ever give up the faith of Christianity... well let me tell you, it was an easy decision. Ever since my born again experience, I never was able to experience the Christian God in the same way again. Whenever I prayed to him I always got the feeling that the Christian God was giving me the cold shoulder. Then when I was 15 I got into a yelling match with some of my teachers at school. I decided it better to walk out on school for that day than to remain in an environment that could potentially wind up with me at jail. So I walked the 5 to 6 mile trek home. Fortunately about 2 to 3 miles away from my home when my legs had begun to give out due to the snow I was picked up by the mother of one of my sisters friends and driven the rest of the way home. When I got home I found that the house was completely locked up, and that no one was home. I was forced to wait in the blizzard that had crept up on me for 2 to 3 hours before anyone would arrive home to let me into the house. During that storm I got into a very in depth argument with the Christian God. This argument led to me giving up the Christian Faith completely, as not only did I not feel compassion from the Christian God, but I felt emptiness, almost like he wasn't there. Later, when I was 17, I met the first two Pagans (wiccans) I would meet in my life. They introduced me to Paganism, and allowed me to realize that those Occult Spiritualities I had studied and longed for as a Kid still existed today. I would go on to study Paganism, Wicca, and Celtic Spirituality, and ultimately found my home in Celtic Reconstructionism which is what I am now, a Celtic Reconstructionist. Now that I look back on the Snowstorm that ended my Christian faith, I realize that even though the Christian God had abandoned me, An Cailliach, a Celtic Goddess had not given up on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 When I was younger I was one of the most devout Christians you could find in New Hampshire. I was even what one could call a lunatic fundamentalist. As I got older I developed interests in the Occult, and in Native American Spirituality. I think this was in part due to my membership in the Boy Scouts of America. I would spend hours at a time in the Public and School Libraries reading books on topics as diverse as Nessie and Ghosts to Occult Spirituality. Though at the time I was still naive and did not know that these things were real. I thought that the Occult Spirituality was purely a myth, or that it didn't exist any longer. When I was 13 I was born again. You might be asking how a person who was born again could ever give up the faith of Christianity... well let me tell you, it was an easy decision. Ever since my born again experience, I never was able to experience the Christian God in the same way again. Whenever I prayed to him I always got the feeling that the Christian God was giving me the cold shoulder. Then when I was 15 I got into a yelling match with some of my teachers at school. I decided it better to walk out on school for that day than to remain in an environment that could potentially wind up with me at jail. So I walked the 5 to 6 mile trek home. Fortunately about 2 to 3 miles away from my home when my legs had begun to give out due to the snow I was picked up by the mother of one of my sisters friends and driven the rest of the way home. When I got home I found that the house was completely locked up, and that no one was home. I was forced to wait in the blizzard that had crept up on me for 2 to 3 hours before anyone would arrive home to let me into the house. During that storm I got into a very in depth argument with the Christian God. This argument led to me giving up the Christian Faith completely, as not only did I not feel compassion from the Christian God, but I felt emptiness, almost like he wasn't there. Later, when I was 17, I met the first two Pagans (wiccans) I would meet in my life. They introduced me to Paganism, and allowed me to realize that those Occult Spiritualities I had studied and longed for as a Kid still existed today. I would go on to study Paganism, Wicca, and Celtic Spirituality, and ultimately found my home in Celtic Reconstructionism which is what I am now, a Celtic Reconstructionist. Now that I look back on the Snowstorm that ended my Christian faith, I realize that even though the Christian God had abandoned me, An Cailliach, a Celtic Goddess had not given up on me. Hey Cathal, It's Mike from My Space. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cathal Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Hey Cathal, It's Mike from My Space. Thanks for posting. You're more than welcome ^.^ And I will probably lurk around here a bit. I have been looking for a good forum in addition to myspace, livejournal, and facebook. Maybe I have found it ^.^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbobrob Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 First and foremost: Welcome to the boards. My question is this: What do you find different from the Celtic Goddess that you did not feel with the Christian God. Most of the members here have tended to give up on all deity systems once they throw off the Christian one. What did you find that made you say, well that one didn't work, but this one seems to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cathal Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 First and foremost: Welcome to the boards. My question is this: What do you find different from the Celtic Goddess that you did not feel with the Christian God. Most of the members here have tended to give up on all deity systems once they throw off the Christian one. What did you find that made you say, well that one didn't work, but this one seems to. You know that sense of Emptiness that I felt with the Christian God? Well with the Celtic Goddess, and the Irish Pantheon in general, the sense of Emptiness is gone all together. It is replaced by a sense of contentment. That is the reason I don't give up on the Irish Pantheon, or Pantheons all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 First and foremost: Welcome to the boards. My question is this: What do you find different from the Celtic Goddess that you did not feel with the Christian God. Most of the members here have tended to give up on all deity systems once they throw off the Christian one. What did you find that made you say, well that one didn't work, but this one seems to. the sense of Emptiness is gone all together. It is replaced by a sense of contentment. That is the reason I don't give up on the Irish Pantheon, or Pantheons all together. I think that is a very good reason. Pagansim didn't quite do it for me but it sure was close. It made so much more sense, too, given the calm soothing feeling I get from imersing myself in nature. Some Christians claim this is their god. So be it. Lots of the Psalms give one reason to see god in nature. Then there are Christian hymns like "Fairest Lord Jesus" and "For the Beauty of the Earth." It is not possible for me to know what the biblical writers were thinking and feeling. The reason I did not go all out for Paganism and similar traditions is that I was learning to know good moral atheists and agnostics. I had no more energy left to relate to invisible beings. Or to seek out the details of other belief systems. So I'm just a secular person who sits looking out my window at the beauties of the backyard. Just now I saw some pure white seagulls flew against the backdrop of a deep blue sky. And I can almost see the garden gnomes peak out from the lush greenry out my window. I'm a secular humanist but probably not anything else at this point in time. Who knows where the future will take me. Welcome and hope to see more of you Cathal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cathal Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 Welcome and hope to see more of you Cathal. Why thank you RubySera. I hope to be seen more of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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