this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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I'd consider myself somewhere between spiritual and maybe kind of pagan, idk

Most of my practice revolves around plants and crystals (no I'm not going to sell you some alternative medicine bullshit, science and spirituality are separate and any mixture doesn't end well) ex catholic so I burrow small aspects from that but tend to avoid it mostly. Been looking into deities lately but haven't integrated any into my primary stuff yet.

Also been doing stuff with a tarot deck lately, that's been fun

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[–] kimagurevenus@beehaw.org 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Fun post! I practice Hoodoo, which is Afro-American Folk Magic. It encompasses various West African spiritual practices under one term and is based on the belief that nature — trees, plants, and similar entities — has spirits that deserve our respect. This practice involves conjuring spirits, connecting with the roots, honoring our ancestors, divination, and offering praise.

I’m still learning, but recently the women who have shaped me into who I am today chose me through their spirits (This is called mounting). I want to make them proud. While working with spirits can be a bit intimidating, my culture teaches that you cannot engage with ‘the roots’ without understanding them, and there are as many benevolent spirits as there are malevolent ones.

[–] arsCynic@beehaw.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I'm antireligion:
To consider antireligion instead of atheism

“The harm of religion is historically evident whereas the presence or absence of gods is not. Ultimately, the continued existence of religion is predicated on the indoctrination of children and suppression of rational thought. Therefore I am against religion but not necessarily against the idea of gods. For all we know gods are computer scientists and we are in their video game.” —https://www.arscyni.cc/file/antireligion.html

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

I sorta agree. Organised religion is harmful. I see no harm.in individual practices tho

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Don't we all /j

[–] rowinofwin@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Absolutely not, no spirituality or religion at all. Strong beliefs about how the world doesn't work (lots of specific debunked ideas, lots of ideas that are incoherent or inconsistent) but not sure about a bunch of stuff. I don't think it would be meaningful to say there is a mind behind the creation of the universe because what we consider a mind and what that mind would have to be are two ideas with almost no overlap. If there is something out there magically making the universe what it is I don't think we would be able to recognise it at all, let alone communicate with and understand it.

[–] dsilverz@thelemmy.club 1 points 2 weeks ago

(CW: Long text ahead)

My beliefs are somehow multifaceted and complex to put into words, but the closest label would be "syncretic Luciferian", but I'm not sure what exactly I'm believing and following nowadays, as I've been so distant from spiritual practices that were once a fundamental part of my daily life.

My recent spiritual journey (expand to read)

Back in January 2023, I became a member of a group/sect/initiatory school which, as paradoxical as it sounds, has both Hermetic, Luciferian and Christian concepts, in a syncretic manner.

My participation as a member was going steadily until December 2023, when I was unexpectedly "tunned into" some strong and unknown spiritual influence, beyond the group's concepts. This spiritual force messed with me in an intense manner, when I suddenly became highly sensible to the red color, red candles, cemetery flowers and afrodisiac flowers (such as the flower whose smell is deeply intense, almost poignant at night). I soon managed to identify this spiritual force as being a feminine energy, specifically Lilith. Then I started to search and to know more about Her, finding out how misunderstood She is, how deep is Her story and journey and how She's across several belief systems under many different titles and names. The group I was member didn't really like the fact that I was lighting red candles, because red candles aren't part of the group's ritualistic practices, so I left the group and started my individual, lonely practices of a spirituality centered on the worshipping of Lilith (also because I couldn't find any group/sect/initiatory school that worshipped Lilith AND allowed males, as Lilith is almost always a symbol/archetype to women empowerment which, understandably, doesn't always allow men to participate, even when there's a feminine side/pole within men).

Several months after, I had some life changes (which I'm not going to publicly detail here), part of which involves medication for mental health (depression and anxiety). All these things seem to have distanced myself from Her influence (although I'm not sure who distanced from who: did She went away from me as I was too dependent/focused/obsessed on Her energy and I'm too weird and complex to be dealt with, even by an ancient and powerful Goddess? Or did I unwillingly went away from Her as mundane/physical things started to happen around and within me? Perhaps both things happened simultaneously?) and my spirituality sort of "cooled down", especially the practices I was engaging on.

Few months ago, I tried to delve deeper into the study of Crowley's Thelema, as well as Chaos Magick... but that was all, I haven't really practiced Magick.

Sometimes I feel like I should've attend some "terreiro de Umbanda/Kimbanda" (Umbanda and Kimbanda are two of the main Afro-Brazilian religions, and terreiros is the name of the sacred place from both religions, a place where they engage with their respective sacred spiritual practices, chants and dances, with several similarities as well as several differences between the two religions) which especially focused on the figure of the Pomba-gira (a name for powerful feminine entities within Umbanda and Kimbanda, strongly related to the Lilith's archetype, complementary to Exu, Her masculine homologous archetype often associated with Lucifer/Satan; the Kimbanda's relation with the Pomba-gira is very different from Umbanda, Kimbanda is more reverent towards Exu and Pomba-gira than Umbanda), or even being part of some Satanic initiatory school (I have an inexplicable strong pull on both, especially the dark/shadowy beauty and aesthetics of Satanic rituals, hooded robes, deep and strong chants to Satan; I have never attended either of them yet). Problem is that I'd be a complete stranger to them as I know nobody within Umbanda, Kimbanda or Satanism (I'm kind of a solitary person without friends, it's my personality).

Happily agnostic. Who knows what's out there. The universe is vast, and we only see a few dimensions. We can't fathom what is out there or anything about it. So I believe it's equally arrogant to definitely say there is a god or to say there absolutely is not. Or many gods. Or the Q continuum.

What I will say is that the church here has both hurt society and hurt my family individually, and has been thoroughly corrupted. I don't think of any individual as less for believing or not believing in a higher power, it brings comfort, but the organized structure has hurt too many people.

[–] TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm always a little reluctant to post about religious topics on Beehaw because there's a pretty strong anti-christian sentiment on Lemmy in general which is, to be fair, entirely understandable.

I grew up in the "Church of Christ" and my wife and I stayed part of our CoC congregation for a long time mostly because of the support network and personal connections we had built up there, even though we had a lot of problems with evangelical theology and the increasing conservatism. A few years ago we wound up in the crosshairs of a group of deeply unpleasant people because of some comments we made in support of LGBTQ folks, and ended up spiritually homeless for a while. We eventually ended up at a local Episcopal church and while it's been a big adjustment for us in some ways - we definitely weren't used to high church liturgy - we've really come to love it there. It's not without problems, but we feel like we're able to wrestle with our beliefs and still have the support of the community, and we've made some close connections there as well.

Theologically I'm all over the place, so don't ask me for a firm stance on anything - I'm just making this shit up as I go 😅

[–] Gamers_mate@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I usually keep this to myself but I believe there is something. I am not sure what but I like the idea that the universe sort of has a will and a consciousness to an extent whether the universe is god or its own thing I don't know. I think the most important thing is humanity does not let any specifics of their beliefs get in way of seeing all people as equal regardless of religion,ethnicity, sexuality,gender. Or whatever excuse people come up with next to differentiate their group as better than any other.

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ya, I agree there

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

(Joke response pls carry on with your discussion)

I worship women is that spiritual enough finger_point_right finger_point_left :3

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

:o gay :3

Does you want pats?

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No pats for me thanks but gay is absolutely right!

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I was raised Catholic, but my mom got me out of religion class at school and let me take "ethics", where we learned about multiple religions. Then I went one year to a Catholic school... and decided that I was an Atheist.

After that, I looked at different religions, occultism, parapsychology, and other weird stuff (tarot too)... until I decided that I was going to live according to the scientific method above all, and denounce all sort of beliefs. So I became a Humanist.

Only I've since lost even more trust in humanity, so now I'm a Transhumanist.

I haven't been able to practice much lately, but my goals were to either improve humans with technology, or to let technology (AI) take over. It gives me solace to see that even if I can't contribute much at the moment, the world is pushing towards one of those outcomes.

[–] kittenroar@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not sure it's humanity that's the problem so much as capitalism

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"Capitalism", as in those with more wealth having more power, has permeated humanity since forever. The most democratic, theocratic, dictatorial, communist, etc. societies, have all been, and keep being, capitalist at their core, with only a veneer of the flavor of the year.

I'd say capitalism is intrinsic to humanity... and I don't see any alternative addressing that core tenet. Most of humanity either exploits it, or doesn't care at all, which leads me to having very little trust into any solution ever coming from the human side.

[–] kittenroar@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

The egregiously exploitative flavor of capitalism that exists today is a relatively recent development. I don't think it's intrinsic to humanity at all; humanity has been communist for most of our existence. Also, capitalism has a specific meaning; it means the means of production can be privately owned, and that owner gets to decide how many breadcrumbs to give to the workers.

[–] kittenroar@beehaw.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I am atheist, which is an absence of religion. I do however have a deep appreciation for the arts and sciences, and I have a vision for what the world could and should be like. We don't have to have homeless people. We don't have to have hungry people or poverty. The existence of this suffering is a choice that the capitalists make in the pursuit of power.

[–] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yea. Greed has lead to basically every issue in the world