Religious Survey as seen around the Friends List
1. What faith were you born into or raised with (if any)?
My mother is a Catholic. Unlike a lot of "recovering Catholics" that I know of, the church she attends is a more liberal and sane one than many others that have caused former members to coin the phrase "recovering Catholic." She herself is a fairly liberal Catholic and never been particularly devout; she goes to church on Sundays and that is pretty much the whole of her religious practice. Growing up, we never owned a Bible, had a cross or any other religious artifacts hanging anywhere in the house, and our celebration of holidays like Christmas and Easter were always very secular. My father on the other hand was a lapsed Catholic and now atheist that attended church to appease my mother and set an example for the children; now that they're not married any longer he's stopped doing that, and has been raising his other two children with his atheist wife very far from any religion.
2. Were you devout as a child/adolescent?
Nope. I was horribly bored going to church, felt nothing in the various ceremonies and strongly resented that this was cutting into my weekend sleeping in and fucking around the house time. And in fact, I don't consider myself to have been religious as a child or count my brief time in Catholicism as a part of my spiritual path; it was my mother's choice to take me there not my choice to be there, and since I never believed in any of it I don't consider myself to have ever been a member whatever the church itself might think. My actual childhood beliefs were more agnostic, leaning toward a couple of spiritual concepts that I had been exposed to (like polytheism) as making more logical sense, but not being particular certain about the reality of anything (and to be honest, I didn't much care at the time either, I had other problems to worry about).
3. If you are not currently practicing your childhood faith, what led you away from it?
Catholicism, I escaped. Eventually I just had it with going and told my mother I wasn't going to any longer. Unfortunately the one thing (religiously speaking anyway) that my mother was insane about was making certain her children all got their confirmations; she wasn't able to get her own confirmation because her mother who had taken them to church died when she was very young and her alcoholic father never bothered, this has always been a point of regret for her and she wanted to make sure her children didn't have that same regret (and yes, I know that she could still get her confirmation now, but ... what can I say, my mother is a little nutty sometimes). It was somewhere between six and nine months (can't remember now, I was nine when this happened) that I spent constantly grounded, the punishment restarted every time I didn't go to church; being a kid with no friends and no life that was content to just putter around the house and write all day made the grounding completely ineffective. I wore her down, and she just stopped bothering with me. (in case you're curious, only one of her three children, my sister, actually made it all the way to confirmation, my brother like me rebelled and refused to go when he was fourteen; I'm the only religious child she got, my sister is agnostic with some interests in Buddhist practices, my brother is an atheist)
As for the agnosticism, well the gods made it clear to me that they did in fact exist, so that was the end of that for me. :-)
4. How many religious denominations, traditions, and/or groups have you belonged to?
I first discovered Pagan religious about nine years ago, I spent most of that time reading and seeking out where I belonged, and since I'm not much of a joiner its hard for me to say what to count and what not to. Don't count Wicca since that was spent entirely reading about it and too much of it rubbed me the wrong way; I tried hard for a while there at Celtic Paganism having been exposed to the whole worship the gods of your ancestors thing, but had to admit after a while that blood doesn't necessarily matter as much as some people think it does (those gods just do not exist for me). The only tradition I can say that I really belonged to for a time was Hellenic Reconstructionism, and even there I was far fringe at best and for various reasons I have discussed elsewhere I don't consider myself a Reconstructionist any longer.
5. How would you describe your religion now?
Hermes Owned and Operated. Its tongue in cheek, but its also fairly accurate.
6. How long have you been practicing that religion?
Its been somewhere between seven-eight years since I started worshipping Hermes; my memory is just shit, I know for how long I've been formally dedicated to him because I celebrate those anniversary dates, but beyond that I know it was a little while before the need for this was brought to my attention. I haven't always been practicing exactly as I am now, but though there have been a lot of changes and modifications along the way (and probably a lot more of those to come), I still do consider it one long single path from the time that I came to him
7. Do you pray? If so, how?
Sure do. Very often its just informal talking, but I also have hymns and poetry that I've written that I will sometimes read to him. Usually prayer consists mostly of chatting or expressing gratitude, I very rarely pray for things myself though I will sometimes do that in an emergency.
8. Do you practice magic? If so, do you distinguish it from prayer?
Yes, I distinguish magic from prayer. Even if both may ultimately be ways of trying to get something that you want, someone who prays a lot isn't going to (and shouldn't) call themselves a magician. I do understand why people want to try and make magic seem nonthreatening to the world at large, but really there does come a point at which you have watered down a word so much that it can come to mean almost anything and hence means nothing, I don't see how that is productive.
For the longest time I had zero interest in magic, and ranged from being a non believer as far as that goes to, at best, highly skeptical (though I was one of those people that for the most part kept my fucking mouth shut about it, really if someone else believes in magic and practices on their own time, I don't see the need to attack them over it). Well, Hermes fixed that, when my path started becoming a lot more mystical and I was getting a few pokes and prods down this path as well (and yes, there are a lot of people who will argue that magic is one of the highest forms of hubris as far as the Greek gods are concerned and its blasphemy for me to practice it and blah blah blah; I won't pretend to speak for the preferences of deities that I don't know, but Hermes' connections to magic are fairly well documented outside of my own experiences). I have attempted some very basic things so far that I had been strongly prodded into doing, and so far it seems successful though only Renee and I have been the judges of that and who knows if our opinions really count for anything (I am a total newb here, and fully admit that I could be DOIN IT RONG).
9. Do you work with divinatory oracles like Tarot, astrology, the Runes, etc?
I've been playing with Tarot cards since I was ten. I've always gotten good reading from those and, though I don't advertise this or anything (not as of this moment, probably not at all though I can't say for certain) I have been asked to do readings from people that I know and those readings were reported to be helpful and accurate (even if sometimes my advice is not followed, but hey what can you do about that?). I've also had some success with the Homeric Oracle and the Greek Alphabet Oracle. I have used runes once or twice in the past, not had as much success. I'm not a big believer in astrology, but that is because I have yet to see a birth chart done up for myself that even remotely resembles who and what I am (in fact, very often it is the exact polar opposite of who I am; I may have been born under Taurus, but I am not a Taurus not even a little bit).
10. Describe your personal concept of God/dess/Higher Power/etc.
Hard Polytheist. I believe the gods of all different cultures exist and that they are distinct individuals with their own personalities, spheres of interest, preferences, etc. I believe that it may be possible that some gods actually are one and the same (particular ones in cultures that were very closely connected to one another, like Odin/Woden for example), but that its always best to approach as though they were actually different until you are told otherwise by them to avoid disrespect. I believe the gods are more than just their particular functions (which is one of the reasons I don't care much for the soft/inclusive/whatever they're calling it polytheist approach, it does seem to reduce deities to their function in the universe and casts any notion of personality to the wind). I believe the gods do interact with people, degrees of intensity and frequency of said interactions depending on the individual and the desire of the deity in question. I don't believe that every deity has to like you, and you may clash with some and they may not want you around them and that doesn't necessarily mean you did anything wrong. I don't believe they are either all powerful or all knowing, though more powerful and more wise than any human being could hope to become. I don't believe either that the deities are pissy angry vengeful beings that you must constantly propagate lest they smite your worthless ass, nor do I believe they are warm and glowy balls of serene goodness that loves you and cares for you and would only ever do what is best for you (which, if you press hard enough, usually translates to they will only ever give me what I want); I believe in a sane middle ground where the gods, like other personalities, are sometimes nice and sometimes not, where the ones that establish a relationship with you in all likelihood want what is best for you (and if not, why are you in this relationship) though that doesn't mean that they can't become offended and angry if pushed. I do believe the gods are capable of emotion, and if you say that they can feel things like love and concern, I don't see how you can reasonably leave out the other end of the spectrum where they might feel anger or dislike someone (either they can feel or they can't, there is no cherry picking the emotions you personally find acceptable for a deity to have). I could go on here, but I think this is enough.
11. How does your religion/spirituality explain the concept of/presence of evil?
I tend to think that "good" and "evil" are subjective terms we place upon actions based on our cultural and/or personal beliefs, and what one person considers to be evil another person might not (a lot of pro-lifers and I might seriously disagree on what is included under evil, as just one example among many). As much crap as I have seen in my life, I've never bought into the concept of Evil myself. I believe that people suck. People with huge egos and deep seated insecurities and who have far too much power over the lives of other individuals (and so often it seems the people most undeserving of the power are the ones who get it) suck. I don't believe man is inherently flawed or fallen, I don't believe they're all predisposed to be good either; I do think that, for whatever the reason, people often end up picking paths that turn them into raging selfish assholes, because its easier and because, as much as this may suck, that is the way to get ahead in the world. A lot of people seem to preach about Evil as cop-out, a way to evade responsibility (not everyone who believes in an objective evil will do that, I can think of at least one person on my friend's list who does hold such a belief but not doesn't fall into that trap - you know who you are, and I'm not talking to you here), but like it or not there is no little man in a red suit pulling people's strings, if you do something wrong it is entirely on you.
As for explaining the presence of evil in the world religiously, like I said people suck and as I don't believe in all powerful deities I don't necessarily believe they have the power to stop all this bullshit even if they wanted to.
12. Is music and/or dance important to your path? Why or why not?
I don't dance, that is not a pretty picture whatever my girlfriend may think. Music hasn't yet entered into my religious practice because the music I enjoy listening to never seemed conductive to a meditative mood. I am slowly working on compiling a Metal Hermes Playlist. :-)
13. What is your concept of the afterlife?
I've believed in reincarnation since I was first exposed to the concept (as a young child watching Unsolved Mysteries), it always made an instinctive sense to me. I believe the one constant in the universe is change, everything is constantly in motion and nothing can remain static forever; and so I don't believe in an eternal afterlife where everyone who has ever lived just goes to this one place and stays there, nothing ever changes, I believe (and this is my opinion only here) this runs counter to the way the world works. I do believe in the existence of an afterlife, and I do generally believe all the different places exist and where you end up depends on a lot of different factors like what gods you worshipped in life (and I do believe there is a place for atheists, however condescending I've seem some polytheists get on the subject when these discussions have come up, having a lot of atheist loved ones the attitudes get really annoying to me really fast). I believe those are places you go to while waiting until its your time to return, and that time may differ wildly from soul to soul. Of course, my belief in reincarnation differs from a lot of other traditions in that I don't believe its a punishment for some ancient sin, I don't believe its a cycle you must break away from, I don't believe its purpose is to learn various lessons so that your soul may grow, etc. I believe its just the way that things work, period.
And because I have seen this issue raised once, I don't believe that a belief that everyone reincarnates necessarily negates a belief that new souls can and are being created all the time.
14. Do you believe in ghosts, spirits, Faeries, devas, and/or other beings beyond ordinary perception?
I'm open to the possibility; I have not experienced these things myself but have heard accounts from people whose opinions I have trusted. That doesn't mean that I believe every account that's out there is a hundred percent accurate. In fact if you've basically made a career out of going around claiming that your house is/was haunted and gaining all sorts of fame and fortune by turning yourself and/or your property into a tourist attraction, I'm more likely to believe you're full of shit. If you've appeared on one of those ridiculous paranormal reality shows where every story reads like a failed horror movie screen play, I'm also more likely to believe you are full of shit.
15. If you have children, are you raising them in your religion/spirituality? Why or why not?
I would sooner peel off my own skin than give birth to a child. But, assuming that for some reason someone delivered a baby to me, held a gun to my head and threatened my life and the lives of my loved ones if I did not raise the child, and if their threats actually sounded more unpleasant than raising a child would be, then yes I would. I don't see any reason not to, and I do so love the argument that merely raising a child within a particular faith will trap that child in that faith forever with no way out and no ability to make up their own minds, is ridiculous, especially coming from a religion of converts. There is nothing wrong with raising a child within a religion, its only when you threaten or bully them to keep them from looking at something else, or threaten or bully them into staying when they want to leave, that you have stepped over that line.
My mother is a Catholic. Unlike a lot of "recovering Catholics" that I know of, the church she attends is a more liberal and sane one than many others that have caused former members to coin the phrase "recovering Catholic." She herself is a fairly liberal Catholic and never been particularly devout; she goes to church on Sundays and that is pretty much the whole of her religious practice. Growing up, we never owned a Bible, had a cross or any other religious artifacts hanging anywhere in the house, and our celebration of holidays like Christmas and Easter were always very secular. My father on the other hand was a lapsed Catholic and now atheist that attended church to appease my mother and set an example for the children; now that they're not married any longer he's stopped doing that, and has been raising his other two children with his atheist wife very far from any religion.
2. Were you devout as a child/adolescent?
Nope. I was horribly bored going to church, felt nothing in the various ceremonies and strongly resented that this was cutting into my weekend sleeping in and fucking around the house time. And in fact, I don't consider myself to have been religious as a child or count my brief time in Catholicism as a part of my spiritual path; it was my mother's choice to take me there not my choice to be there, and since I never believed in any of it I don't consider myself to have ever been a member whatever the church itself might think. My actual childhood beliefs were more agnostic, leaning toward a couple of spiritual concepts that I had been exposed to (like polytheism) as making more logical sense, but not being particular certain about the reality of anything (and to be honest, I didn't much care at the time either, I had other problems to worry about).
3. If you are not currently practicing your childhood faith, what led you away from it?
Catholicism, I escaped. Eventually I just had it with going and told my mother I wasn't going to any longer. Unfortunately the one thing (religiously speaking anyway) that my mother was insane about was making certain her children all got their confirmations; she wasn't able to get her own confirmation because her mother who had taken them to church died when she was very young and her alcoholic father never bothered, this has always been a point of regret for her and she wanted to make sure her children didn't have that same regret (and yes, I know that she could still get her confirmation now, but ... what can I say, my mother is a little nutty sometimes). It was somewhere between six and nine months (can't remember now, I was nine when this happened) that I spent constantly grounded, the punishment restarted every time I didn't go to church; being a kid with no friends and no life that was content to just putter around the house and write all day made the grounding completely ineffective. I wore her down, and she just stopped bothering with me. (in case you're curious, only one of her three children, my sister, actually made it all the way to confirmation, my brother like me rebelled and refused to go when he was fourteen; I'm the only religious child she got, my sister is agnostic with some interests in Buddhist practices, my brother is an atheist)
As for the agnosticism, well the gods made it clear to me that they did in fact exist, so that was the end of that for me. :-)
4. How many religious denominations, traditions, and/or groups have you belonged to?
I first discovered Pagan religious about nine years ago, I spent most of that time reading and seeking out where I belonged, and since I'm not much of a joiner its hard for me to say what to count and what not to. Don't count Wicca since that was spent entirely reading about it and too much of it rubbed me the wrong way; I tried hard for a while there at Celtic Paganism having been exposed to the whole worship the gods of your ancestors thing, but had to admit after a while that blood doesn't necessarily matter as much as some people think it does (those gods just do not exist for me). The only tradition I can say that I really belonged to for a time was Hellenic Reconstructionism, and even there I was far fringe at best and for various reasons I have discussed elsewhere I don't consider myself a Reconstructionist any longer.
5. How would you describe your religion now?
Hermes Owned and Operated. Its tongue in cheek, but its also fairly accurate.
6. How long have you been practicing that religion?
Its been somewhere between seven-eight years since I started worshipping Hermes; my memory is just shit, I know for how long I've been formally dedicated to him because I celebrate those anniversary dates, but beyond that I know it was a little while before the need for this was brought to my attention. I haven't always been practicing exactly as I am now, but though there have been a lot of changes and modifications along the way (and probably a lot more of those to come), I still do consider it one long single path from the time that I came to him
7. Do you pray? If so, how?
Sure do. Very often its just informal talking, but I also have hymns and poetry that I've written that I will sometimes read to him. Usually prayer consists mostly of chatting or expressing gratitude, I very rarely pray for things myself though I will sometimes do that in an emergency.
8. Do you practice magic? If so, do you distinguish it from prayer?
Yes, I distinguish magic from prayer. Even if both may ultimately be ways of trying to get something that you want, someone who prays a lot isn't going to (and shouldn't) call themselves a magician. I do understand why people want to try and make magic seem nonthreatening to the world at large, but really there does come a point at which you have watered down a word so much that it can come to mean almost anything and hence means nothing, I don't see how that is productive.
For the longest time I had zero interest in magic, and ranged from being a non believer as far as that goes to, at best, highly skeptical (though I was one of those people that for the most part kept my fucking mouth shut about it, really if someone else believes in magic and practices on their own time, I don't see the need to attack them over it). Well, Hermes fixed that, when my path started becoming a lot more mystical and I was getting a few pokes and prods down this path as well (and yes, there are a lot of people who will argue that magic is one of the highest forms of hubris as far as the Greek gods are concerned and its blasphemy for me to practice it and blah blah blah; I won't pretend to speak for the preferences of deities that I don't know, but Hermes' connections to magic are fairly well documented outside of my own experiences). I have attempted some very basic things so far that I had been strongly prodded into doing, and so far it seems successful though only Renee and I have been the judges of that and who knows if our opinions really count for anything (I am a total newb here, and fully admit that I could be DOIN IT RONG).
9. Do you work with divinatory oracles like Tarot, astrology, the Runes, etc?
I've been playing with Tarot cards since I was ten. I've always gotten good reading from those and, though I don't advertise this or anything (not as of this moment, probably not at all though I can't say for certain) I have been asked to do readings from people that I know and those readings were reported to be helpful and accurate (even if sometimes my advice is not followed, but hey what can you do about that?). I've also had some success with the Homeric Oracle and the Greek Alphabet Oracle. I have used runes once or twice in the past, not had as much success. I'm not a big believer in astrology, but that is because I have yet to see a birth chart done up for myself that even remotely resembles who and what I am (in fact, very often it is the exact polar opposite of who I am; I may have been born under Taurus, but I am not a Taurus not even a little bit).
10. Describe your personal concept of God/dess/Higher Power/etc.
Hard Polytheist. I believe the gods of all different cultures exist and that they are distinct individuals with their own personalities, spheres of interest, preferences, etc. I believe that it may be possible that some gods actually are one and the same (particular ones in cultures that were very closely connected to one another, like Odin/Woden for example), but that its always best to approach as though they were actually different until you are told otherwise by them to avoid disrespect. I believe the gods are more than just their particular functions (which is one of the reasons I don't care much for the soft/inclusive/whatever they're calling it polytheist approach, it does seem to reduce deities to their function in the universe and casts any notion of personality to the wind). I believe the gods do interact with people, degrees of intensity and frequency of said interactions depending on the individual and the desire of the deity in question. I don't believe that every deity has to like you, and you may clash with some and they may not want you around them and that doesn't necessarily mean you did anything wrong. I don't believe they are either all powerful or all knowing, though more powerful and more wise than any human being could hope to become. I don't believe either that the deities are pissy angry vengeful beings that you must constantly propagate lest they smite your worthless ass, nor do I believe they are warm and glowy balls of serene goodness that loves you and cares for you and would only ever do what is best for you (which, if you press hard enough, usually translates to they will only ever give me what I want); I believe in a sane middle ground where the gods, like other personalities, are sometimes nice and sometimes not, where the ones that establish a relationship with you in all likelihood want what is best for you (and if not, why are you in this relationship) though that doesn't mean that they can't become offended and angry if pushed. I do believe the gods are capable of emotion, and if you say that they can feel things like love and concern, I don't see how you can reasonably leave out the other end of the spectrum where they might feel anger or dislike someone (either they can feel or they can't, there is no cherry picking the emotions you personally find acceptable for a deity to have). I could go on here, but I think this is enough.
11. How does your religion/spirituality explain the concept of/presence of evil?
I tend to think that "good" and "evil" are subjective terms we place upon actions based on our cultural and/or personal beliefs, and what one person considers to be evil another person might not (a lot of pro-lifers and I might seriously disagree on what is included under evil, as just one example among many). As much crap as I have seen in my life, I've never bought into the concept of Evil myself. I believe that people suck. People with huge egos and deep seated insecurities and who have far too much power over the lives of other individuals (and so often it seems the people most undeserving of the power are the ones who get it) suck. I don't believe man is inherently flawed or fallen, I don't believe they're all predisposed to be good either; I do think that, for whatever the reason, people often end up picking paths that turn them into raging selfish assholes, because its easier and because, as much as this may suck, that is the way to get ahead in the world. A lot of people seem to preach about Evil as cop-out, a way to evade responsibility (not everyone who believes in an objective evil will do that, I can think of at least one person on my friend's list who does hold such a belief but not doesn't fall into that trap - you know who you are, and I'm not talking to you here), but like it or not there is no little man in a red suit pulling people's strings, if you do something wrong it is entirely on you.
As for explaining the presence of evil in the world religiously, like I said people suck and as I don't believe in all powerful deities I don't necessarily believe they have the power to stop all this bullshit even if they wanted to.
12. Is music and/or dance important to your path? Why or why not?
I don't dance, that is not a pretty picture whatever my girlfriend may think. Music hasn't yet entered into my religious practice because the music I enjoy listening to never seemed conductive to a meditative mood. I am slowly working on compiling a Metal Hermes Playlist. :-)
13. What is your concept of the afterlife?
I've believed in reincarnation since I was first exposed to the concept (as a young child watching Unsolved Mysteries), it always made an instinctive sense to me. I believe the one constant in the universe is change, everything is constantly in motion and nothing can remain static forever; and so I don't believe in an eternal afterlife where everyone who has ever lived just goes to this one place and stays there, nothing ever changes, I believe (and this is my opinion only here) this runs counter to the way the world works. I do believe in the existence of an afterlife, and I do generally believe all the different places exist and where you end up depends on a lot of different factors like what gods you worshipped in life (and I do believe there is a place for atheists, however condescending I've seem some polytheists get on the subject when these discussions have come up, having a lot of atheist loved ones the attitudes get really annoying to me really fast). I believe those are places you go to while waiting until its your time to return, and that time may differ wildly from soul to soul. Of course, my belief in reincarnation differs from a lot of other traditions in that I don't believe its a punishment for some ancient sin, I don't believe its a cycle you must break away from, I don't believe its purpose is to learn various lessons so that your soul may grow, etc. I believe its just the way that things work, period.
And because I have seen this issue raised once, I don't believe that a belief that everyone reincarnates necessarily negates a belief that new souls can and are being created all the time.
14. Do you believe in ghosts, spirits, Faeries, devas, and/or other beings beyond ordinary perception?
I'm open to the possibility; I have not experienced these things myself but have heard accounts from people whose opinions I have trusted. That doesn't mean that I believe every account that's out there is a hundred percent accurate. In fact if you've basically made a career out of going around claiming that your house is/was haunted and gaining all sorts of fame and fortune by turning yourself and/or your property into a tourist attraction, I'm more likely to believe you're full of shit. If you've appeared on one of those ridiculous paranormal reality shows where every story reads like a failed horror movie screen play, I'm also more likely to believe you are full of shit.
15. If you have children, are you raising them in your religion/spirituality? Why or why not?
I would sooner peel off my own skin than give birth to a child. But, assuming that for some reason someone delivered a baby to me, held a gun to my head and threatened my life and the lives of my loved ones if I did not raise the child, and if their threats actually sounded more unpleasant than raising a child would be, then yes I would. I don't see any reason not to, and I do so love the argument that merely raising a child within a particular faith will trap that child in that faith forever with no way out and no ability to make up their own minds, is ridiculous, especially coming from a religion of converts. There is nothing wrong with raising a child within a religion, its only when you threaten or bully them to keep them from looking at something else, or threaten or bully them into staying when they want to leave, that you have stepped over that line.