Why I Went Back

[poliphilo]

I didn't go back to church for God. Or not exactly. I went back for the people.

God... people....maybe it comes to much the same thing. Anyway, the fact is I didn't have enough people in my life .

People are God in his/her most challenging manifestation.

I'd been limiting my contact with people after the Wicca experience. That hadn't ended well- and along the way there had been lots of hurt- given and received.

I don't apologize for sitting in my cave for a while. It was the right thing to do at the time.

But this is the right thing to do now.

Comments

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

People are God in his/her most challenging manifestation.
Truth.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Also the most interesting....

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I also.

My personal experiences with the Wiccan people through my daughter's friends, is that a surprising number of them are really screwed up and especially have massive control issues. This isn't to say that Christian communities are free of this but in my experiences it is not so overweening and pronounced.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That echoes my experience. Wicca is full of misfits, fantasists and rebels.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*nods*

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

People are God in his/her most challenging manifestation.


I would like very much to read an entire essay about this fine thought.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People are tricky and unpredictable- unlike other fine manifestations of deity- such as waterfalls or rabbits- which mostly behave according to type.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that you suffered hurt in your former community. In fairness to all, as a Christian, I have to admit to the sins of my own group, and acknowledge that we can be as wrong as the next group. We do not always adhere to the teachings of Christ, even though we are supposed to do this. Sometimes we have to backtrack, or change our route. Sometimes one congregation does not fulfil one's needs, and it is needful to change.
I do like the way you put it "...this is the right thing to do now."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I suffered hurt and I caused hurt. I don't believe I got anything I didn't deserve.

All human groups are problematic- some are more problematic than others.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Very well said!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

People are God in his/her most challenging manifestation.

This

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I see several other people have the same take. *grin*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Not a deeply meditated thought...just something that popped into my head.

Those are often the best, I find.

[shullie.livejournal.com]

I miss 'community' I thionk..in that we did lots of family things together when I was in church... but I found out that they 'love' offered was not unconditional, as neither was 'their' god.

I am not a Wiccian and I don't have much to do with many Wiccians... i would think that the same petty power politics take place there as in Christian churches.

I never did that a problem with Jesus, just those who follow him, as I said before I seemed to be reading a different book to most of the other ppl in the church.

when push came to shove, and my life was in pieces, the ppl who came to help me up, who fed me, clothed me and gave me shelter (literaly) and who listened, who offered a shoulder to cry on were not the Xn's or the church who I had spent the last 15 years with, but the ppl they believe would be damned...etc.

the pagans, the witches, the deviants, the homosexuals, the non belivers, etc...

I saw more of Godde in those who offered me their hand and asked for nothing back, than I ever did in those who professed the loudest that there was only onw way...

gosh I do sound bitter...lol...am I am not really. I think its more that I see more and more that Godde is far more than the narrow path that many of the Xns I know(knew) believe and sad that they can't see the beauty of it all.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. I wouldn't want to be knocking around with evangelicals either. But St. Paul's is a mainstream Anglican church (no hellfire preaching, no puritanism, no "personal Jesus"), the people are a friendly bunch- and if there's any bigotry around I haven't stumbled across it yet.

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's mainly been the people and the mysterious and wonderful thing that happens when people sing/perform ritual/generally open up to the divine together.

And that's what kept me in organized paganism of one stripe or other for a long long time, despite the other difficulties. That, and also that I'm a bit of a dramatic ritual junkie. I need the art part to be there.

It's also the reason I'm not doing any of that these days- I realized it was the people I wanted to be near more than the other things, but the social parts were getting in the way of the connecting to divinity for me.

I'm approaching relationships from a different angle for now, and when it comes to being with the Gods and relishing those times, that needs to happen as it happens, where it happens (which happily had been often and in all sorts of places).

I'm sure later down the road I'll come back to wanting to include other people, formally, in my spiritual life. Time to be away for now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It must be about five years since I stopped "doing" Wicca. I'm missing it. Ailz and I have talked about getting our act together for Beltane- just the two of us- and writing or improvising a ritual. I feel the need to balance the churchgoing with something a little more visceral.

[brttvns.livejournal.com]

When I, Zarathustra like, have spent time in a cave and feel the need for people I go straight back into pubs - there you experience the entire spectrum; rich, poor, professional, unemployed, educated, self-educated, uneducated, bores, poets, artists, bastards, losers, gamblers, story-tellers, comedians, liars, and I dare say you would find exactly the same in a church, so perhaps you have made the right choice, as I dare say what you leave in the collection plate is nowhere near what I find I deposit in the till!
Cheers

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People are people wherever you find them. If I've gone back to church- rather than down the pub- it's because it's the culture I feel most comfortable with.

[brttvns.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It does not matter what alter we choose to worship at, the congregation will always be the same - looking at the stars or not, we are all susceptible to the same failings.
Cheers