Solstice Series: Your Former Faith

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in December we will be asking people questions about Paganism and Pagan religions and culture. Want to weigh in? Find the next question at the bottom of this post!

Assuming you are a convert to Paganism, how has your relation to, and perspective of, your former faith evolved?

Talena responds:

My faith view has been developing over many years. Basically there is a greater deity beyond our comprehension/understanding. It has both a male & female aspect and humans define their religions around one or both of those aspects based on their culture/society at the time.

So coming to this belief I have not had any problems reconciling my previous religion ( Christianity) with my current views on a personal spiritual level as I believe most if not all faiths have a piece of a greater truth. My problem instead have arisen from the intolerance of organized religion and the power & politics embedded within them.

Heidi Carter responds:

I was a convert to Paganism for about seven years. I was a solitary following a Goddess centered path, that occasionally resembled Wicca, from 1997 thru 2004.

Then I lapsed into what I can only call a classic Orientalized reflection on my former faith brought on by familial shifts and 911, that manifested itself as generalized agnosticism once real danger had passed the home-front by. I think that why I haven’t come back to paganism has something to do with literary discourse. When I explored how literary and not religious genre defined Christianity and ‘Wicca’ in the Christian sense of the word, I ended up in that intersection of Schopenhauer, Fitche, Hegel, Nietzsche, and the Germanophiles. I didn’t want myself to mistake a literary device, for a genuine spiritual experience.

I haven’t sorted it all out yet. But I asked my mother for a Bible for Christmas.

As for me? The conversion process was rough, even before I found Wicca. I had a lot of anger directed at Christianity simply because I felt it had no place for me. As the years went by the anger dissipated. I was once able to look at the world from a Christian viewpoint, and I am often surprised today to find I can no longer do that. I am literally an outsider, no longer in touch with Christian thought and trying to make sense of the trends and traditions from the outside. I only find myself angry or frustrated with Christianity when it is imposed upon me, or presented as the norm in one of the most diverse societies in the world. I find myself focusing more on common experience rather than diverse doctrine, for all people of faith have the same spiritual struggles, joys and woes. When I look at Christianity from that viewpoint I find much to admire and much I can share with my Christian friends.

I have moved past the “flinch-point” to being comfortable drawing on Christian mythos and even singing gospel when the mood strikes, although I often change the words. I’m happy to be in a tradition that has a similar approach to the Christian faith. Have I lost all the baggage from my conversion? Not at all and I will likely never be baggage free. I still have an underlying assumption that someone who identifies as Christian is a difficult person, although I’m working on that. Ten years from now I might be able to attend a Southern Baptist church service with the polite disinterest and respect I would feel at a Buddhist temple. If I can’t, I won’t consider it a failure though. I think I am successful in relating in a healthy way to my former faith as long as I don’t define myself by it. I am a Wiccan. I am not an ex-Southern Baptist Christian. I define myself in positive terms, and let the past remain past.

Next question:

Intentional religious community is a North American tradition older than the US Constitution. Would you ever consider participating in building a permanent Pagan village from the ground up?

If you’d like to weigh in just e-mail me your short response (250-500 words) before Dec 15th. It’s sfoster at patheos.com.