Comments on: Rooted in Experience

By: The Wild Hunt » TWH Greatest Hits: The Guest Bloggers

The Wild Hunt » TWH Greatest Hits: The Guest Bloggers — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:31:33 +0000

[...] May 26th 2008, Cat Chapin-Bishop, “Rooted in Experience”. “We like to say that Paganism is not about following a creed or obedience to commandments written in an ancient book. It’s about lived experiences: direct encounters with our gods and our communities, with nature and with spirit.” [...]

By: Pitch313

Pitch313 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:31:00 +0000

Just about everything I write about Craft and Paganism has something to do with my experiences of them and aims at extending my capacities to experience them more fully.

By: Thalia

Thalia — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:34:00 +0000

Well it's a bit long to leave as a comment here, so here's the post inspired by your challenge over at my blog.Oh, ow.

By: Cat Chapin-Bishop

Cat Chapin-Bishop — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:38:00 +0000

I’m incredibly grateful to all who accepted my challenge to look to (and write from) the roots of your Pagan experiences. I’ve found links to a lot of great new (to me) Pagan bloggers in the comments on this post!What’s more, it makes me hopeful that we can remember what makes us, if not unique among the world’s religions, rare: our willingness to listen to what our gods have to say to us directly, in our lived experience of ritual, dream, and trance… and to take that more seriously than any doctrine or teaching not also supported by experience.Blessed be–and many thanks to all who have shared.

By: Jenett

Jenett — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Thank you for such a challenge! I've written more over at my own blog, but wanted to share my first ritual memory here, too. My first Pagan ritual, ever was MIT’s Samhain ritual in 1997. I was still Catholic at the time, and it was a particularly bad year for remembering my father (who died Nov. 3rd, 1990). A friend invited me to join her at MIT’s ritual. I went from playing piano for the Catholic mass that evening to getting on a bus to meet her.I don’t truly remember the ritual. The memories are lost in the twist of the spiral dance, the endless harmonies of a hundred singing voices, in the careful step in the dim light down into their basement chapel, thick with incense smoke. Part of my brain, even then, was comparing it to what I’d read about, and to the rituals I knew - but part of it was far, far away, dancing, and singing, and tasting the sweet tang of the pomegranate.My experience now tells me it was a beautifully done large public ritual. But the important part is that it worked. It helped, it eased, it did things deep inside me that I didn’t know needed doing.

By: r@d@r

r@d@r — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:33:00 +0000

so i’m working my shift as [so i was told jestingly] one of two “token males” on staff at the ecofeminist bookstore, and standing next to me sorting through the jewelry case is this big, powerful woman full of quiet glee. we get to talking and looking at some of the runestones, i mention my viking heritage, and she says, “you know, i’m an initiated priest of Thor.” i look at her, and for some reason, instead of thinking “okay – this woman is nuts”, something inside me clicks and goes “of course!” “that’s really cool,” i answer. she proceeds to invite me to a mead ritual with some friends of hers in the park that night. okay, so this is the really nutty part – after reading about and praying to Thor for years wondering if he’s just an empty fairy tale, i meet him there in the woods. it’s one of the most incredible, energizing experiences of my life.the main thing he said to me i want to pass on to all of you is: “don’t take yourself so seriously. you don’t need to call on me for help. you already have everything you need inside of you. so stop pretending to be weaker and smaller than you are, and live your life!” it sounds like a cliche, but when a god tells you, it kind of carries more weight.

By: Diana Luciano Grayfox

Diana Luciano Grayfox — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:54:00 +0000

One of my most intense connections with the Sea God, Neptune, is also one of my most spiritual experiences. It happened when I first viewed the Pacific Ocean at in Oregon during my honeymoon. I’d never seen an ocean with huge rocks jutting up from the dark depths below. A mist was slowly rolling up the side of the mountain, where it joined with the sea. Just being there at that moment, breathing in the salty, sea air, I felt Neptune’s calling stronger than I had ever felt it before. Elemental Water permeates my being, and I felt at that moment completely at one with my environment. Neptune is my Patron and Ceres my Matron, and where the mountain met the sea was an almost electrical pulse. With a mist rolling up the side of the hill, it was as though my Father was caressing my Mother with love and desire. Neptune was all around me, pulling me, guiding me. I felt I might lose myself completely if I did not hold on to my consciousness, otherwise I might find myself lost out at sea. As I approached the edge of the water, it was almost as though it began to part, creating a an upside down V around me, and there in the sand, revealed to me by the receding water, was a gift that I still treasure, a large sand dollar, unscathed. I found no others that day that hadn’t been broken by hungry birds. I’ll never forget the experience.