Do you ever stop to wonder why people are so intolerant of other religions? It just doesn't make sense to me. When people look at people for what their religion is, they never get the chance to really know the people. For example, I openly admit that I am not a christian. I follow and whole-heartedly believe in the tarditional Pagan beliefs. Whaenever someone asks me what religion I am, that's what I'll tell them. So many people don't even give me a second glance because of that, and I just don't see any logic in that whatsoever.
Every day of my life I am asked to justify why I believe the way that I do, and to be honest, it gets a bit tiresome after a while. You never see anyone on telivision critizing christianity of judhism, so why would it be in the least bit fair to challange the rights of pagans or wiccans?
There are a few questions that I am asked almost daily, and I have logical answers to all of them.
I am constantly plauged with the question, what is Paganism? Well, a breif answer world be to say: "Look it up," but I've said that before and got nowhere, so I'm finally going to take the time to explain it. Paganism was one of the first religions established. It is an Earth based religion that Christianity formed from. There are two main rules of Paganism. The witches rede goes, "An it harm none, do what ye will." To some that up, if you want to do something, go ahead, unless it's going to hurt someone. Then there is the Law of the three-fold. There is no catchy little phrase to remember this one, but basically what it does is reminds us that whatever we do, be it good or bad, is magnified back to us three times.
There are eight basic holidays that are celebrated be wiccand worldwide. Around Christmas time, wiccans are celebrating the winter solstice. We call it Yule. Instead of a Valentines Day, we have Candlemas. At Easter time, we are celebrating the sabbat called Ostara. It is a celebration of the spring equinox. Near May Day, we have Beltane. The meaning of this holiday is to celebrate new life. For the summer solstice, we have Midsummer's Eve. In August we have a holiday called Lammas. Basically it is to pray for a good harvest. For the fall equinox, we have Mabon. This is when we do harvest. Last, at halloween we have a holiday called Samhain.
A lot of people think that Paganism is devil worshiping, but it is far from it. Actually, there is no such thing as a devil in Paganism. The dieties of Paganism are the God and Goddess. The God is the sun, and the Goddess is the Earth. The moon is also a huge part of Paganism, seeing as how all our holidays are based on the moon and Earth's movement together. I'm sure that there is more that I could write, but I just can't think of it at the moment.
Ok, now I've justified my religion, even though I don't understand why I should have. I urge all of you out there to do the same. Take the time to explain why you believe the way that you do, and maybe people will take the time to put religion aside to get to know the real person that you are.
Love,
Thia