I have recently been asked by an old high school comrade of mine if I would like to attend an interfaith meeting at a local pride group. He said the group is interested in trying to make any services they have inclusive of everyone, and would like to hear from people of paths outside of the Christian faith. I feel really excited to have this opportunity to contribute to the community. I identify as queer and pagan, and this is honestly the first time ever I had a chance participate in both communities in any capacity beyond a social call.
But I do want it to be understood that I in no way feel as though I can act as a spokesperson for pagans in general, especially since the term pagan as an umbrella term encompasses such a wide variety of theologies that even a single group could have members ranging from hard polytheists - who believe the gods are distinct and very separate deities- to monists who believe the divine is one entity that simply utilizes different names and faces to achieve what ever metaphysical goals it has in mind.
For instance, I have even come across on the internet people who identify as Wiccan and believe in the traditional dual divinity of the God and the Goddess, and others who identify as the same and believe in the same duality but ascribe names to them of other gods who fulfill similar spiritual functions from other religions (i.e. referring to the Goddess as Isis, or the God as Pan, etc).
There is even a wide divide concerning where the gods originate or are "headquartered" in. Many believe the gods are part of the natural world, that they reside in it and are actually identities of ecological, tectonic, or even meteorological forces. Yet many others also believe that the gods reside on other planes or, similar to many views that Christians have of their God, that they are outside of the world altogether.
So what I say past this particular paragraph should be taken no further than as the spiritual perspective of a solitary practicing pagan whose personal experiences are, to use a term widely used in the pagan community to discuss religious experiences without toting them around as universal fact, unverified personal gnosis, or UPG for short. I have only met a couple of pagans in real life and most of my knowledge about the community at large is from what I read in forums or in the blogosphere.
First and foremost, I have always strongly felt that for me, intuition and the personal journey is the crux on which my whole spirituality stands. My reading list that I have gone through on the subject has been quite long, but I feel first and foremost that if something a certain religious expert says doesn't rest well, or make sense in your own spiritual world view, then it's probably going to be harmful to your spiritual development. There is a huge field of pagan authors out there who all have their own take on the divine and how it should be approached. I'm not trying to say to keep a closed mind and not listen to wisdom, but if your experience of a particular god has been completely encouraging and positive, and someone comes along and blares at you that what you've seen is not in keeping with their experiences or the mythology, etc, then you are just going to have to let that go while also understanding that your interactions with the gods can be completely different to what others experience. And that is okay.
Secondly, I would like to say that I personally identify as a pantheistic polytheist. Pantheism is the belief that the divine is in every little thing, or more specifically, that the spirits are everywhere around us. The qualifier of polytheist means that I believe the gods are distinct and separate deities, i.e. I do not think one can swap Isis and Gaia and claim it is okay because they are both the same Mother Goddess. I'm not saying that it is not okay to see it that way if that is your UPG. Just for me personally, this what I have come to understand of the divine workings of the gods.
Basically as a pantheist, I recognize that is possible to encounter the spirits and/or gods anywhere. They are in the trees and stones and rivers. They are the mountain, sky, and rain. They are in everything.
As a polytheist, I believe there are probably more deities than there are people living on this planet, and that they are distinct (but I'm not beyond the possibility of accepting that many of them could share spiritual bodies).
Prayer for me does not necessarily need to involve words. For strength I look to the stones and ground and seek to find support from them. When I need emotional healing I look to water and draw serenityfrom the waves. Often, when I praise the gods, I do so verbally, not just in my head, because I believe that to expend the energy of giving honor is an important part of devotional work. I offer offerings of bread, grapes, incense, and wine when I want to welcome and honor the role that divinity has played in the universe.
Now I understand that magic is frequently tied to paganism due to the popularity of Wicca. For me witchcraft is a practice, a trade, like metal work or car repair, Although it is tied to my spiritual world view as I believe that that spirits are everywhere and they can frequently be worked with while using magic, I do not consider it a significant or necessary part of my spiritual practice. I am primarily interested in, as far as religion is concerned, with communicating the spirits and the gods, and communing with the divine in the natural world. Witchcraft is more than often used as a guide post for me to communicate with them - i.e., by setting up a circle, raising the power, and entering a trance, but it is not the axis around which my religious experience revolves.
I am also willing to admit that I am completely in err about the whole thing and the gods I think I know could be other gods in disguise. I wouldn't be surprised that the deity I worship as Artemis is actually just a local forest god. But in the end, I don't think that sort of knowledge would render my spiritual encounters invalid. Just now they would be viewed with a different lens.
And I think I have worn my keys in quite a lot by this point, but I just wanted to spend some time reflecting on what my personal beliefs are before perhaps being questioned about them in a public setting next month.
