{"id":130,"date":"2012-03-27T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism\/"},"modified":"2012-03-27T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T19:02:00","slug":"the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html","title":{"rendered":"The Annunciation and True Polytheism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

Yesterday, Niki Whiting posted an essay on The Annunciation<\/a>, the Christian feast commemorating the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she would be the virgin mother of Jesus. Though Niki found she couldn\u2019t remain in Christianity and has found a home in Paganism, she has done extensive study on Mary and feels a particular closeness to her.<\/p>\n

The essay (Niki calls it a homily and I think that term describes it nicely) is good and it makes a strong case that for its time the Annunciation was quite progressive in its attitude toward women. <\/p>\n

Despite its Christian context, it is a powerful lesson for Pagans: when a god or goddess calls you it\u2019s never a trivial matter. What we are called to do may not be easy and it may not be what we had in mind, but when we say \u201cyes\u201d we allow something to begin that may be world-altering\u2026 and we\u2019ll never know for sure until it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a engineer. I like details. I like plans. I like detailed plans with drawings and timelines and checkpoints and status reports, always knowing exactly where I\u2019m going and how close I am to getting there. It\u2019s the only way to successfully run a large engineering project. But for the past ten years I\u2019ve been walking a spiritual path with only a vague idea of where I\u2019m going. All I knew was what I needed to do today, this week, this season. And so that\u2019s what I did: starting a spiritual practice, reading books, joining a Pagan group and then taking a leadership role, starting studies with OBOD and then completing those studies 5\u00bd years later, starting a blog, attending classes and festivals, serving on the Board of Trustees of Denton UU and of CUUPS Continental, and now studying for formal ordination.<\/p>\n

I like where it\u2019s taken me, but I\u2019m not \u201cthere\u201d yet. There\u2019s something more out there, something more I\u2019m called to do and be. I can\u2019t see it \u2013 all I can do is keep walking towards it. But I know this: if I wait for a detailed plan I\u2019ll never get there. Like Mary at the Annunciation, I need to say \u201cyes\u201d and trust that what I\u2019m called to do is worth the time and effort it will take.<\/p>\n

And that brings me to the second thing I took from Niki\u2019s essay. If we are true polytheists, why shouldn\u2019t we treat Christian stories and myths like every other religion and culture\u2019s stories and myths? Why shouldn\u2019t we simply ignore the unsupportable claims of exclusivity and take what wisdom we can find just as we do with Buddhism<\/a> and Hinduism?<\/p>\n

For many of us \u2013 myself included \u2013 those Christian stories and myths have been coated with harmful doctrines and bad experiences. It has been necessary for me to set them down for many years, to let the bad memories fade. They\u2019re not all gone, and it may be that I\u2019m responding favorably here because the Annunciation was a story I rarely heard growing up in a Baptist church.<\/p>\n

But if I\u2019m a polytheist and a universalist, and if I\u2019ve healed and grown enough to be the confident polytheist and universalist I think I am, there\u2019s no reason to ignore this wisdom just because some people think it\u2019s the only wisdom.<\/p>\n

I remain firmly committed to my path of Druidry and I remain firmly committed to the Celtic gods and goddesses who called me and who have guided me back to spiritual health. But I think I\u2019m going to take a deeper look at the Jewish and Christian imagery on the Rider-Waite cards at this week\u2019s Tarot class<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Niki Whiting posted an essay on The Annunciation, the Christian feast commemorating the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she would be the virgin mother of Jesus. Though Niki found she couldn\u2019t remain in Christianity and has found a home in Paganism, she has done extensive study on Mary and feels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Annunciation and True Polytheism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday, Niki Whiting posted an essay on The Annunciation, the Christian feast commemorating the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Annunciation and True Polytheism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday, Niki Whiting posted an essay on The Annunciation, the Christian feast commemorating the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-27T19:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-kTCAegc9x3U\/T3JUX6IDXbI\/AAAAAAAAA8Y\/rjl3IghjH50\/s400\/35b+trail+at+Chisos+Basin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html\",\"name\":\"The Annunciation and True Polytheism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-27T19:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-27T19:02:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Yesterday, Niki Whiting posted an essay on The Annunciation, the Christian feast commemorating the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation-and-true-polytheism.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Annunciation and True Polytheism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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