Everyone's path

[random417]

So, I noticed in our HGA discussion, we actually have a fair number of more ceremonially inspired people wandering around at the moment. This got me thinking, for the most part, I have no idea how each of us defines our own path. Does anybody feel like sharing?

For my part, I'm influenced heavily by ceremonial approaches, especially the Golden Dawn, and Kabbalah. I'd be about halfway between monotheist and soft polytheist, depending on exactly where you draw that line. I work primarily with angels and created entities, but I'll work with some gods or god forms as well. I do have a special relationship with Eris, having spent several years as a Discordian. *chucks hot dogs wrapped in apples at all*

That's my deal, you guys?

*edit* I picked what I thought was the best place, feel free to move it, if someone feels it fits better elsewhere

[SnowCat]

My path has a definite lack of ceremony. I'm a Solitary with a small but eclectic Pantheon that I wirk with. Maybe I got my fill of ceremony growing up Catholic.

Snow

[random417]

As much as the ceremony is right for me, I envy the simplicity of less ceremonial paths sometimes.

[Shub Niggurath]

This is a great idea for a thread! I'm really curious about other people's paths! For now I'll share mine

I feel like starting from the beginning is important to describe my path as it's an important part of my life since I can remember.

So, I used to see "things" since I can remember, the oldest memory of such an experience I have is from when I was around 3 years old. Not to bore you to death, instead of telling you about all the experiences I had, I'll just name them - seeing spirits, demons (yeah, having that experience and being 3 yo was scary), ghosts, having spontaneous OoBE during sleep, recurring dreams etc. All of it started when I was at least 3, I remember all of those experiences to this day.

Then, when I was around 4 I had a near death experience - I almost drowned. I was underwater for around 2-3 minutes before I was rescued but for me it felt like eternity. And during this "eternity" I had plenty of time to think about my life. I believe that's when I discovered that there's something more to consciousness and started exploring life in a different way. I remember that since then I was also "playing" with the weather - trying to change it with the power of my Will. For a kid there's nothing more important than making the Sun come out to let me play outside, right?

When I was 5 or 6 - and this is something my parents told me - I woke up in the middle of the night, stood up and started speaking an unidentified language in front of my parents. When I was a bit older and tried to ask them what it sounded like, all they could say was that "it sounded ancient". I must've creeped them out, hahaha :>

Anyway, when I turned 7 and started school all those things kind of backed off and let me "socialize", except for a few incidents and visions, mostly in a christian context (as I was raised in a catholic family), so nothing really worth mentioning. Maybe except a few weird situations when I encountered some nasty spirits, usually when I was alone at home in the evening. I remember crying and calling my parents to come back fast because there's something in our house and it's making noises in the kitchen.

Then, when I was a teen, around 13 I started questioning my faith and exploring my psyche and spirituality more. It took me one year to think it all through and right before I had a sacrament of Confirmation I told my parents that I don't believe in christian god, I don't want to attend the church anymore and the last thing I'll do for them will be the Confirmation, then I'm out of the church. Surprisingly, my parents understood that my decision was mature, they accepted it and stopped going to church too, haha.

After I was done with all that I accidentally found Anthony de Mello's book called "Awareness", sitting there on our bookshelf. So I read it and it changed my life. I found out that there's more people in this world who think like me, that I'm not alone and there's much more to spirituality than I was ever taught. So basically the next two years of my life were full of Self-exploration and developing my consciousness. When I was 14 I found my mission - helping other people. That's when I decided that I'm going to be a psychologist.

Then, when I was 15 and I went to high school I decided that I'm ready to explore various paths. That's how I found out about Chaos Magick. I read lost of books about it, tried various techniques and exercised, started Runes divination, meditation and joined my first occult/esoteric forum. At that time, after reading lost of books and practicing various things I decided that spells and Ceremonial Magick is not something worth doing. Everything I needed to perform magick and bend the reality with my Will was inside me - it was my mind, my consciousness. Meditation made me understand it. So from that point to this day, my path was all about developing my consciousness and making the magick happen simply with my pure, concentrated Will.

Right now I'm 24, I graduated from University, got my master title in psychology and still discovering new ways and new meanings behind everything. It took me 8 years to understand that Ceremonial Magick is not that useless - as I got older, my mind also became more "stiff" (thanks to all the knowledge I had to gain in the meantime). The more one's mind is stuffed with knowledge the less place there is for fluid, magical thinking (and thus Creating with pure Will only). So I'm discovering Ceremonial Magick anew right now. I discovered that spells and Ceremonial Magick can be also very therapeutic so I'm trying to find a way of incorporating them into psychotherapy and stuff. At the moment I'm also finishing my research on spiritual experiences and their influence on the quality of life. And feels like everything's rolling the right way in my life.

To sum all this rambling up, I believe we're all One. I don't like attaching myself to any specific paths as I can't find freedom in something that has limits and one way of explaining things. I also don't like the concept of serving any gods or deities. To me they're all concepts and conceptualization always has its limits. We are the gods and goddesses. I believe in everything and nothing. Everything has equal power and nothing has power at the same time. Keeping your mind open, meditating, loving, doing good things for people and nature around you, expanding ourselves into Oneness, helping others expand and grow - that's all I care for. At least in this life, in this body.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted!

I know all of this is a bit chaotic. I tried not to mention most of my experiences and discoveries because I wanted to make it as short as possible.I'm not even sure if it makes sense at all, but I don't really care.
I'm not encouraging anyone to read it either, probably not too interesting anyway. Just felt like I wanted to bring the pieces together, it's always worth it to reflect a bit on our past

[SnowCat]

Must be a cat thing. My experiences didn't start as early in life, that I'm aware of, but beyond that, I feel a definite resonance with the story.

Snow

[Shub Niggurath]

Must be a cat thing. My experiences didn't start as early in life, that I'm aware of, but beyond that, I feel a definite resonance with the story.

Snow

I didn't really expect anyone to read all that rambling, but... HIGHFIVE, SnowCat! (Or maybe high-paw!)

[SnowCat]

Head-bump!

Snow

[random417]

The psychology of ceremony, for lack of a better way of putting it, fascinates me. Regardie was a psychologist, and so he did a lot of work with integrating psychology with his path

[Nightwatcher]

I wish I could do ceremony but I currently cannot. My parents are still slowly getting used to me being Neo Pagen and doing Witchcraft (even though I kind of told them causally in 7th grade... apparently it never stuck XD)

[Aesennyll-IF]

Would you consider ritual and ceremonialism to be similar?

I follow many paths, most are on the ground, (haha) as it is difficult to get out of my head.
but I get this sense when I know what to expect next, that I don't have to be present in the physical sense, and can then be open to a deeper more spiritual self, a place where time and space fall away.
I relate well to the Celts and any form of shamanism with a sprinkling of Buddha thought
and a little on the,
oh well it all just random, to
it is all planned, to
I have the power to change my will at will.
I find an awful lot of knowledge in plants and am most comfortable around them. I use some form of plant/s or another in all my work. Working with land energy is really a great way for me to connect spiritually, and since I live in America, I connect with the energy of the tribal people from here.
in light

[random417]

Would you consider ritual and ceremonialism to be similar?

For me anyway, Ceremonialism is my way of saying I follow a ritual-based path, rooted in Western Esotericism (things like the Golden Dawn and Thelema) but without following the teachings or path of any specific group. It's kind of like defining Pagan though, you'll get as many different answers as people you ask

[random417]

Aesennyll, sometimes I envy that connection to the land. I'm on a very intellectual path that can be dry and formal at times.

[Aesennyll-IF]

Yeah, I do ritual and sometimes ceremonialist aspects drop in, a protective pentacle for instance, though that goes back even further than Golden Dawn, though right?

Connecting with the energies and spirits of an area can lead to a willy nilly ride, sometimes I like a little structure
in light

[Seraphin]

I've already shared my beliefs and my path in this thread:

Your Path

But I'm going to post it here also. Hee!!!

Spiritually, I am a pagan, and tend to hold some principles and beliefs of certain traditions and worship certain Deities from different cultures and pantheons such as Ancient Mesopotamian, Celtic, Hindu, Greek, African and Caribbean traditions (Yoruban, Lucumi/Santeria, Vodou). Though, not because much of what I've experienced seems to mesh with Hindus and other pagan traditions does not mean I'm on any of those specific religions.

I also practice magick. And basically, I described myself as chaos magickian and Gnostic. If you're familiar with this particular magickal discipline, then you'd know we could basically just delve into any magickal practices we fancy such as Enochian Magick, Kabbalah and partially, the Western Mystery Tradition in my case.

Sorry I know it's a bit confusing but that's my path.

I am also a Hardcore Polytheist which means I believe in many Gods, Goddesses, Great Spirits and Celestial Beings -- not as aspects of "Deity" or of the masculine and feminine principles, but as individual sentient Divine Beings. I am also an Animist, I believe that everything has spirit and life force.

As for my beliefs, it would be very difficult for me to list a set of beliefs; like so many of the folks here at EUTM (including you), I am spiritually aware, so I experience life a little -- well, a lot -- differently from those who are not, but I don't view folks who aren't spiritually aware as any 'less than' anyone else; it's just not their path this time round, far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I guess my basic outlook is this: I am a multi-dimensional being, having a presence in this physical universe but also in the astral, mental, spiritual and other worlds or dimensions of existence. No aspect of my life is more or less real than any other, although the physical aspect -- this body of mine -- is finite, so I rather cherish it simply because it's not mine to keep forever. Just as I'm aware of my energetic connections with other physical beings, I'm aware of my energetic connections with other spirit and etheric beings as well. Although I did incarnate here for a specific purpose, the bottom line purpose for any incarnation (of mine) is to experience the many aspects of existence, teach me life lessons and attain my Higher self.

[random417]

Hey, I didn't see that other thread, cool. This is something good to do from time to time I think though, I don't see many of those people around much right now, and we have some new members. Also, Seraphin, I think we share a lot, although I am a "Hermetic soft polytheist". I threw that together to make a term, but basically mean that the Divine as a unity is split by our minds into chunks that make sense to us.

In any case, I guess our approach is very similar, but our views different. I bet we'll have lots of interesting discussions