Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Blowing OFF PAGANISM – & BOUNCING BACK AGAIN

Terri in Joburg, South Africa, has this to say about falling away from her faith. I love the parts about pre-rational thinking versus trans-rational thinking, and magical thinking becoming magical being:

I went through my own Dark Night not so long ago, after many years as a Pagan. I just dropped it all and became a metaphysical naturalist and a strong atheist.

Because I was hurting, nothing that was nonmaterial existed. What we could see was all there was. Belief was stupid.

Well, you who’ve been there know what I’m talking about -- and it may be most Pagans who’ve been on their path for any length of time.

But eventually I began to realise that what I was blowing off as primitive, pre-rational thinking was in fact post or trans rational thinking. The two are frequently confused, especially by those who’ve never experienced the transrational. From the outside they may look similar, but a little enquiry uncovers the fact that they are vastly different.

Magical thinking’ becomes magical being, and a whole new understanding of the integral nature of the entire universe becomes accessible.
Go HERE to get to Terri's blog, "Aquila ka Hecate."
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Thnx to kaler for the foto

3 comments:

Aquila ka Hecate said...

Wow-thanks Athana!

Love,
Terri in Joburg

Morgaine said...

That's a good observation. Fits in quite well with Kohlberg and with RA Wilson's descriptions of Leary's stages of development. Real paganism is not about belief - it's about experience.

Athana said...

"Paganism is not about belief -- it's about experience." Thanks, Morgaine. Beautifully put. I've been reading The End of Faith, and whoozit (the author, I forget his name now) has a whole chapter on belief, and I just knew we didn't fit into that word, exactly. And we don't. And you've explained how we don't -- in a nutshell.