Thinking about My Beliefs - Deity and the Sabbats
It's weird how the most intense philosophical/religious/meaning-of-life thoughts seem to arrive when one is in the shower. Is it the water, the act of cleaning, or something else that generates this?? Inquiring minds want to know... Anyway, while in the shower this morning, my mind went off on a serious tangent about "what I believe" and why I'm suddenly finding my spiritual life so empty and unappealing after several years of being more or less content with it.
In an attempt to figure out what I AM happy with versus what I'm not, I decided to start with my beliefs about Deity. Over my time as a pagan, I've come to believe that the various gods and goddesses are both individuals in and of themselves AND various aspects of the God and the Goddess; these two individuals, working together, form DEITY. I find that I still believe this to be true. It still fits with my understanding of things and with my experiences with various deities. While this is obviously not everyone's experience or concept, it is mine, and it still works for me.
The next things that came to mind were the Sabbats, and this is where I found a major change in my thinking. I've noticed that in the last couple of years I've really gotten nothing very spiritual out of my Sabbat celebrations, excluding Samhain. What ARE the Sabbats, and why do we celebrate them? Well, we've got the Summer and Winter Solstices (Litha and Yule), the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes (Ostara and Lammas), the New Year/beginning of Winter (Samhain), and three others that don't really have a seasonal cycle equivalent (Imbolc, Beltane and Mabon), but that represent the beginning of new life/Spring, the union of the God and Goddes, and the harvest, respectively.
The Solstices and Equinoxes are markers in the seasonal cycle, representing transitions in the length of the days and nights. I like to acknowledge and be aware of these changes because they keep me in touch with the cycle of nature, but why "celebrate" them with a special ritual? Personally, I don't see why I should be particularly excited about the days that night and day are equal in length, or about the longest and shortest day/night; it's like being excited about it being 2:00.
I have a similar problem with Imbolc, Beltane and Mabon. Now, I CAN relate to the idea of celebrating the beginning of Spring and the coming of the harvest, but Beltane just leaves me cold. Samhain, for some reason, has always felt special to me, probably because I can feel the closeness of the Otherworld. Hmmm, could it be because I can't FEEL the energies of the other Sabbats, only think about them...?
Maybe for me the problem is that I don't really believe in the mythologies that are associated with the Sabbats, i.e. the mother/lover Goddess and the son/lover God (or the even more complicated Mother/Daughter goddess myths). In the beginning of my pagan studies I accepted them, but I'm finding that they don't really resonate with me.
In an attempt to figure out what I AM happy with versus what I'm not, I decided to start with my beliefs about Deity. Over my time as a pagan, I've come to believe that the various gods and goddesses are both individuals in and of themselves AND various aspects of the God and the Goddess; these two individuals, working together, form DEITY. I find that I still believe this to be true. It still fits with my understanding of things and with my experiences with various deities. While this is obviously not everyone's experience or concept, it is mine, and it still works for me.
The next things that came to mind were the Sabbats, and this is where I found a major change in my thinking. I've noticed that in the last couple of years I've really gotten nothing very spiritual out of my Sabbat celebrations, excluding Samhain. What ARE the Sabbats, and why do we celebrate them? Well, we've got the Summer and Winter Solstices (Litha and Yule), the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes (Ostara and Lammas), the New Year/beginning of Winter (Samhain), and three others that don't really have a seasonal cycle equivalent (Imbolc, Beltane and Mabon), but that represent the beginning of new life/Spring, the union of the God and Goddes, and the harvest, respectively.
The Solstices and Equinoxes are markers in the seasonal cycle, representing transitions in the length of the days and nights. I like to acknowledge and be aware of these changes because they keep me in touch with the cycle of nature, but why "celebrate" them with a special ritual? Personally, I don't see why I should be particularly excited about the days that night and day are equal in length, or about the longest and shortest day/night; it's like being excited about it being 2:00.
I have a similar problem with Imbolc, Beltane and Mabon. Now, I CAN relate to the idea of celebrating the beginning of Spring and the coming of the harvest, but Beltane just leaves me cold. Samhain, for some reason, has always felt special to me, probably because I can feel the closeness of the Otherworld. Hmmm, could it be because I can't FEEL the energies of the other Sabbats, only think about them...?
Maybe for me the problem is that I don't really believe in the mythologies that are associated with the Sabbats, i.e. the mother/lover Goddess and the son/lover God (or the even more complicated Mother/Daughter goddess myths). In the beginning of my pagan studies I accepted them, but I'm finding that they don't really resonate with me.