At this time I call myself an eclectic solitary, agnostic, Earth witch in Ontario. Because, I live in Ontario.
The rest of it has come over time, about 30 to 40 years at least. My family are Presbyterian. Not avid church goers, but we did attend on Sundays and holidays too. I went to Sunday School at our local church. I don’t have any big problem with organized religion, whatever the faith or belief, as long as it harms none. One way or another, most of them seem to view women as second class citizens. So, like many other young women in high school, I began wondering what else was out there as far as religions, spirituality or belief systems.
I began looking at Pagans because I had found a really strange and somewhat scary book from the 1970’s. The book wasn’t Pagan, or Wiccan. It really was on the creepy side and I wasn’t a fan of horror but it sparked curiousity about a faith which, at the very least, included women whether they were having their period, pregnant, just gave birth, or not.
I liked Wicca for the Rede. Harms none is important, and a very tall order. It is more than the average human can do really. So, do your best. Keep it sustainable. That is such a good word. It doesn’t mean you get to cop out and do whatever is easy or preferable to you. It means you have to keep yourself strong and able in order to help yourself and others. That’s sustainable. It’s not what the Wiccan Rede says, but I think it’s what is meant, or intended.
Wicca had a lot about gods and goddesses which didn’t work for me. I can’t believe in a god/goddess which expects obedience and subservience. If I were a god/goddess I wouldn’t want that. One of reasons I began looking at other faiths was the whole idea of hell, punishments and threats from a god just didn’t seem right. To me it sounded childish and insecure. How could a god, with power to create a universe of things from planets to flower petals, behave like a childish bully?
I used to think I was an atheist because I don’t believe in god, gods, or goddesses. But, I do believe there is something more than we can understand, or see. I don’t think it particularly cares about us, we are just like little insects on the window. If we happen to crawl near we night get noticed or it might be looking at something outside the window and not see us at all. We just aren’t all that important.
Whatever it is, if it created us or not, it doesn’t really need us for anything so we are left on our own to figure things out and manage one way or another. It is not going to rescue us. I wonder if it will blame us.
I believe we are each responsible for ourselves and our own actions. I don’t believe in converting others to what I believe. But I do believe I am right, until I change my mind. At the same time I do my best to respect what others believe or feel and leave them to stick with it or change their minds on their own time, in their own way. Being an atheist, not believing in some superior being you can rely on or blame for anything, you gain fresh perspective about self reliance.
I believe in reincarnation, everything gets recycled in nature, one way or another. It makes sense there is more to us than our physical body which (I believe and hope) is recycled in some way after our body and brain are finished. The great mystery of life is death. No one really knows, but we do know death is the end of life, a cycle for plants and animals. Also, there is scientific theory about all matter or energy not dying but merely changing form like from a solid to a gas, etc. I forget just how that goes but, it also makes sense for the idea of reincarnation.
Believing in something like “it” is an agnostic belief system. So, that’s where I am these days.
Still an Earth Witch, a solitary with eclectic ideas and values. But, agnostic when it comes to ideas of gods/ goddesses.
Welcome to my site.