It's actually kind of funny. I didn't seek out a Wiccan group and even start getting even remotely serious about practicing it until I was toward the end of a Goddess religion course in college.
I read Rosemary R. Reuther, and decided that I agreed with her that the myth of original matriarchy is a total invention based on crap scholarship by a hack who seemed to think that inventing a glorious history for womankind would give womankind a glorious future. I thought, "This is a ridiculous origin story myth like all the other religions have, and Wicca's isn't true, either." But then I thought, "I don't care. This is still the symbolic framework I want."
I started going to Indianapolis Pagan Pride Day. I found a Wiccan circle. They're my circle. I think that each and every one of them who thinks that something supernatural is happening there is wrong, but I didn't start on this path needing to believe any of it was accurate. I just needed it to be profound and guiding and meaningful and helpful, and it can be all of those things without any of its myths or magic actually occurring.
I've gotten the impression since that this makes me sort of a weird beast, but sparkindarkness and gc130a seem to sort of be where I am in a general sense (maybe, though if I'm misrepresenting them they should certainly comment and tell me to stfu). I'm a religious atheist.
By that I mean... I like religious practice, but religious beliefs are problematic for me in a lot of ways. I found a religion that's bound more by common practice than common belief though. Means that I can go to rituals and have a Hellenist on one side, me as an atheist in the middle, and a Kemetic on the other, and as long as we all find meaning in doing this particular thing at this particular time, we've all got a reason to be there.
Maybe that's splitting hairs. Maybe splitting that particular hair in that particular place is not a useful thing to add to the discussion, and I guess if that's true than I can avoid bringing it up. But that's where I fall. Religious practice = potentially awesome. Easily awesome, in fact. Religious beliefs = potentially and easily ill-advised and generally based on shitty reasoning anyway.
It's sort of like how I differentiate now between Buddhism and dharma practice. Dharma practice is something anybody can do who sees worth in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Buddhism is generally a belief system that requires a lot of faith in stuff extraneous to the 4NT and 8FP. It's possible to have dharma practice without those things, and that's sort of what I do with Wicca.
I'm rambling now, I think, because I'm not sure if I'm making any sense. Hopefully I at least came near enough to the mark somewhere in there that you have some idea what I'm getting at.
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chiming
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Date: 2010-11-09 08:47 pm (UTC)From:I read Rosemary R. Reuther, and decided that I agreed with her that the myth of original matriarchy is a total invention based on crap scholarship by a hack who seemed to think that inventing a glorious history for womankind would give womankind a glorious future. I thought, "This is a ridiculous origin story myth like all the other religions have, and Wicca's isn't true, either." But then I thought, "I don't care. This is still the symbolic framework I want."
I started going to Indianapolis Pagan Pride Day. I found a Wiccan circle. They're my circle. I think that each and every one of them who thinks that something supernatural is happening there is wrong, but I didn't start on this path needing to believe any of it was accurate. I just needed it to be profound and guiding and meaningful and helpful, and it can be all of those things without any of its myths or magic actually occurring.
I've gotten the impression since that this makes me sort of a weird beast, but
By that I mean... I like religious practice, but religious beliefs are problematic for me in a lot of ways. I found a religion that's bound more by common practice than common belief though. Means that I can go to rituals and have a Hellenist on one side, me as an atheist in the middle, and a Kemetic on the other, and as long as we all find meaning in doing this particular thing at this particular time, we've all got a reason to be there.
Maybe that's splitting hairs. Maybe splitting that particular hair in that particular place is not a useful thing to add to the discussion, and I guess if that's true than I can avoid bringing it up. But that's where I fall. Religious practice = potentially awesome. Easily awesome, in fact. Religious beliefs = potentially and easily ill-advised and generally based on shitty reasoning anyway.
It's sort of like how I differentiate now between Buddhism and dharma practice. Dharma practice is something anybody can do who sees worth in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Buddhism is generally a belief system that requires a lot of faith in stuff extraneous to the 4NT and 8FP. It's possible to have dharma practice without those things, and that's sort of what I do with Wicca.
I'm rambling now, I think, because I'm not sure if I'm making any sense. Hopefully I at least came near enough to the mark somewhere in there that you have some idea what I'm getting at.