I found online last night a Christian/Wicca site. Its the creepiest thing ever. Basically they have just combined the components of Christianity with Wicca. It struck me as being an intermediate stage for those Christians that desire to leave that behind but are not quite ready to make the plunge into Paganism or Witchcraft. Baby steps.

That's nice to see actually.

A lot of people who call themselves "Christains" aren't at all like many Christain Fundamentalists would like them to be.

In fact most modern day Christian worship Jesus like a Ken Doll, and have pretty much rejected the Old Testament and the God of Abraham.

You can usually tell them by their avatars and posters. They romanticize Jesus and the crucifixion. Like as if there was something quaint about nailing somone to a pole to pay for their sins.

So yes, a movement into more earth-based paganism is good. You can't expect them to give up their Ken Doll, that would be like asking Linus to give up his blanket.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I need to charge some crystals for shamanic journeying but owl have to wait for a clear night. I'm not worried about hitting the moon full, but I would like to get it fairly bright on a clear night to charge these selenite crystals. They seem pretty grounded to me.

I also have a feeling that more and more Christians (and people of other faiths) will begin to move towards more earth based spiritualistic pursuits. The reason will be the global economy and steady deterioration of the current ecological crisis. Its one thing when its just some crybaby liberals whining about it in the background but another thing all together when things really start to go down the crapper and they can SEE it.

Then the thought of worshiping and nurturing a planet back to health will not seem nearly as outlandish to them. Thats my guess anyway.

It's true. Like Smiless once said on the GR forums. We are moving away from the era of religions and moving into an era of true spirituality.

It's an unavoidable evolution.

Deepak Chopra also says that we are moving into the era of the "Wizard Awakening" as he calls it. The evolution of our consciouness of consciousness.

Of course Wicca itself can be a very dogmatic religion. The very idea of a Moon Goddess is already dogma.

There's nothing wrong with dogma. Where religions fail is when people start to worship and believe the dogma as though it is fact.

This is why I've created my own Moon Goddesses. I created my own because they are indeed my creation.

There is no such thing as a Moon Goddess outside of our creation of her.

Does that mean that she has no merit?

Of course not.

It's the spirit of the universe that is being worshiped, not the manmade deities. The manmade deities are simply a means of communiqué. And they should be viewed as such. As soon as we start thinking that these deities are absolute we've destroyed God.

But as long as we recognize that these are mere façades though which we can communicate with God, then they become a genuine vehicle for that communiqué.

The same thing holds true for crystals, athames, amulets and what have you. They are mediums through which the power of the spirit can be channeled.

It doesn't matter what property you assign to which crystal. All that matters is that you envision that crystal being a valid medium for the conduit of divine power.

All of these things, from the cerebral deities to the rock-solid crystaline substances, they are all mediums for the communiqué of divine power.

When we start worshiping the mediums we creat dogma and lose sight of the spirit.

This doesn't mean that the medium is useless or should be abandoned. Not at all. But it should always be recognized as a medium for the spirit, and not as a replacement for the spirit.

My gods don't need to be the same as your gods to be the same God.

That's the beauty of paganism.

Well the should move that way, I mean after all, they based their religion on the Pagans in the first place.

I agree with you there. In fact its a given that Pagans dont all worship the same God/Goddess. No one ever expects that of them. Its been that way since the beginning of time more than likely. If you were to leave one area people would be worshiping Isis, then you go another area and they are worshiping something else all together. I think that has transferred over into even modern day Pagan beliefs. It also causes far less anxiety and resentment.

I think it helps just to pick out a statue of some sort of divine presence on your alter. I have had "Lilith" there for a long time now. Doesnt mean I worship Lilith to the exclusion of the god or anything else. I just use her to focus.

one of the main things that really pushed me off from Christianity was the idea that there was only ONE GOD and ONE way to him and that way is thru Jesus. If you don't accept Jesus, then you go to hell. All of these millions of people that are just as devout to their religion as the christians will go to hell. All of the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, of course Pagans, everybody, suffers enternal damnation. I think thats a crock. How could you call your God all knowing and all loving and send everyone else to hell. And also, my idea of "heaven" is NOT sittin around on a cloud hangin out with all the other Christians.

I think they dislike Pagans in particular. At least the fundamentalist seem to. They always go out of their way to assert that it is a "new age" invented spirituality. Yet if you remind them that it pre-dates Christianity, they suddenly become aggressive and defensive about it.

Oh no doubt. They do get all pissy. I commented on that once, when I was in Barnes and Noble looking for a wiccan book... silly me was looking in with the religious books. I failed to go to the "new age" section.

My understanding of the term "new age" is that it was coined essentially for marketing purposes and a way to designate shops as being occult or New Age in designation. It really has nothing to do with Pagan beliefs themselves though they were kind of saddled with that term. Christians will use it in a negative context. The truth of the matter is that they are to be considered New Age in a relative context.

I'd get fired at barnes and noble for switching the signs around

At the library in my town they have witchcraft listed under fiction. The only book they have in the religion section is a book entitled "Why Witchcraft is Evil".

The world is full of idiots.

I remember you telling us about that when you were very first looking for books. Im waiting for that author's sequel due out sometime next year entitled "Why I make Rash Generalizations about Topics I have Little Understanding of."

Well, if a person believes in the Bible then they believe in witches.

They have no choice because the Bible refers to witches. In fact, in the Bible God commands, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"

That's a commandment in the Bible. Not one of the top ten, but certainly a commandment. According to the Bible a witch has 'sold' their soul to the devil.

Of course we all know that this is hogwash (Thus proving that the Bible cannot be the word of any God!)

But people who would rather believe the Bible then also believe that witches sell their souls to the devil.

This was all clearly brainwashing propaganda by the authors of those early religious doctrines to brainwash their followers into killing anyone who isn't on the side of "the author".

God most certainly was not the author of that horrendous book.

But a lot of people prefer to believe that God was like that, and still is today!

The Bible gives people permission to hate in the name of God.

So if you want to become a "righteous hater" join a religion that believes in the Bible. Then you can hate people in the name of God.

It seems a god that hates would truly be impotent. And yes, Christians have traditionally taken Witches and Witchcraft very seriously. Plenty of men were killed also. John Proctor was a farmer and tavern keeper in 17th century Massachusetts. During the Salem witch trials he was accused of Witchcraft, convicted and hanged. He would have been spared if he had confessed but he refused as did many.

Now that the gnostic gospels are more readily available to the average person I think you will find more people who were once Christians turning to Paganism a little.

Here is site on Christian magic....something I learned a lot about from studying hoodoo.

http://members.tripod.com/~ravenpsy/xian.html