What's your Path?

[zayin]

I was just wondering what other's beliefs were. Like what path you think you are on. I view my beliefs as mainly a Shaman/Wiccan. I think I am on a path of a seer right now. Precieving energies, the spirit, and creating connections with mainly the earth, animals and the spirit. I believe in all true religion, and I find true religion mostly overlaps each other, and believe mainly the same things. The views and beliefs I have built seem to go hand in hand with Shamanism and Wicca, both of which are very similar. Of course my version is still slightly different, focusing on other aspects more strongly.

[Blake]

I now consider myself a taoist for the most part (I still need to read a little more about it). If you want to know why I'm into taoism, you can read a post in "The OBE World" called "Death and Taoism".

[~¤LilacSky¤~]

I am and have been on the Ronni Path..lol
thats all I do is follow myself.

[zayin]

Very interesting is the Taoist philosophy on death. I find that many religions have a similar outlook, like you mentioned the Buddist one. Shamans also believe that we make a final jump, and they struggle to make their spirits impecable before this jump. I agree that our energy bodies leave our physical container at death, it just makes sense in every way. I think that perfecting our energy body throughout our life brings us much closer to the spirit.

[goodboy]

I'm not really sure how to define my path, but I suppose it is a path to eternal life granted to me by salvation. I may have gotten that wrong, but I'm a Christian and that pretty much defines my path...

[Anise]

My path is similar to Ronni's in that I follow my own path. I do however incorporate some wiccan beliefs into ideals and workings.

[andin]

I started on the Wiccan path. When I first began I thought this was the path I should be on. I took myself on a self-discovery...opened myself up to anything. I am actually still on it, but I am much more defined now than I was when I started. I have come to realize that the true path for me was a combination of what I have been interested in almost my whole life. So now I follow a path of Shamanism/Egyptian Pantheon/Greek Pantheon. Sort of a smorgasbord of Paganism, if you will. Like most that follow a Pagan path, I take what works for me and discard the rest, but always remain open to everything that comes by.

[alestan]

I often wonder as to what path I am on. Not quite sure how to define it! I suppose I would describe my path as a pagan one. But what does that actually mean? For me, it means that I am a believer in the Universe and nature as a living, breathing energy. I listed in my introductory post that I have an interest in Wicca. I would love to learn more about it. I just have not had the time to do so.

[Anise]

Andin: it seems you and I are more similar in each post you make. I have the same interests and if I had to list what I follow in "my path" it would be what you had listed.

Alestan: If you really want to know more about Wicca you have come to the right place.

I think a lot of us here are considered eclectic pagans. We use a variety of paths to suit our needs and personal beliefs. I wouldn't want to limit myself to one primary path, it seems too constricting.

[alestan]

Eclectic pagan! Those are the words I was looking for, Anise. Ha!

I am looking forward to searching for some Wiccan related threads when I get some time. I think I feel a wee bit bewildered at the wealth of information on Wicca (books, etc) out there. For the moment, my approach is as above; 'eclectic pagan'.

[goodboy]

I would like to update my path:

I seek enlightenment through the exploration of myself and what I can do, to learn "people," and expand my knowledge in worldly and unworldly "occurrences."

[andin]

Goodboy,
That seems like a really great path to be on!

Anise,
Glad to see someone else interested in many of the same things I am.

Alestan,
Let yourself go where it wants. Read what interests you little by little...don't get overloaded and discouraged. If something you read doesn't click with you, then move on to something that does. You don't need to stay with a specific path just because others follow it. Your true path with come no matter what it is. Just be open to all possibilities. I believe that regardless of the religion or spiritual life path, we are all on a quest to learn what we are needed to learn.

[alestan]

Good advice Andin. I guess it is a case of finding out what works for me with regards to Wicca.

[nani]

Interesting thread, and as we have had it somewhere already, but more like a specific path-description, I`ll try to do it now in a shorter way, which is a nice thing to do from time to time, otherwise I`ll forget how many times I thought I had a certain path Lol, so to say now a curriculum vitae in short: hmm.. start from somewhere.
1. traveller path (I thought I never will give up travelling - 1986 I did)
2. psychology path (I thought Im gone study this till the end of my days - I did not)
3. meditation path, (I thought I`ll do that till the end of the days - so I still do)
4. music path (I always thought to give it up - never did lol)
5. dance therapy (I thought Im gone do this till Im 88 - stopped with 44)
6. workink as a boring but "dangerous" economic controler lol (I thought I never would do such a thing, or maximum 2 years cause of debth - I got 10 years in this job now hehe)
7. social-work (I always thought this is my life task - I do it continuously, but need breaks and found out that Im not Mother Theresa though lol
8. astrology path (I thought I`ll never give that up, I started with 12 and stopped 3 years ago)
9. martial arts path (I thought that I wouldnt be able to do it for ever, though longer than I thought, but its diminishing/changing to a quieter path)
10. philosophy-path (zen-buddhism, daoism, advaita-vedanta, I never thought that Im going to fix and nail down myself - so I did, but my favourite love goes to daoism and advaita)
11. writing path (I dreamed of being a writer, wrote one book, then my breath was over lol)
12. sculpture arts (I wished I could learn and do stonecutting and make wonderful sculptures - never did, not even tried)
13. nature path (I often wished to learn about plants, never did, but I may get more near to this)
14. body-healer path (did for years massage and akupressure - liked it but got a kind of outburned and then allergy)
15. animal rights path (I never ever thought that I ever would be engaged into political rights stuff - since 3 years I am, with attempts over and over to run away again from this terrible field lol)

hey got a long post oho - and quite some path`s are left to go - in this life time.. maybe, maybe not.. and who knows what else is awaiting me lol, lgn

edit: I forgot the most important thing:
of course now I think that I will become one of the most famous OBEers, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

[andin]

Nani,
That is actually pretty normal. If people don't change as they grow, then they have stopped learning. Might as well just sit on the couch, stare at the TV and never move again. I expect my path and interests with change over and over again as I continue to learn. I will appear fickle, but only to those that are afraid of change. I congratulate you on your many interests. This has allowed you to live a full life (though I hope not even near done)...maybe it is now your time to teach.

[nani]

hey andin, yeah right, all pretty normal, just liked the idea of listing it up all, of course not all hehe, so yes I was teaching too, you could recognize it on my path very well, cool. I teached adults and mainly children in all kinds of body-art-work, this was very fullfilling indeed, anyways like you say, till now a very full life, kind of overactive at times though - so maybe rather its my turn now to sit more still, dont desire, dont think and do so much.. seems a bit like.. the tendency yet is there.
You mentioned shamanism as one of your path`s, would you like to tell how this works for you, and how you can integrate this into your daily life? And are you teaching something, or would you like it? lgn

[andin]

Nani,
Right now the Shamanism is still pretty new to me. I'm not an expert in any way. I have always found myself drawn to the Native American spiritualism even though I am not Native American in any way (more heinz 57--mostly English, German, Norwegian, etc.). Maybe it is from a past life. I have found a book that went along with where I want to go with it that has helped me out tremendously so far (still reading it). It is called Spirit Healing: How to Make Your Life Work by Mary Dean Atwood. I like it because it is a very well-rounded book that covers all aspects of a person's life. To give you an idea, the chapters are entitled "Mind", "Place", "Body", "Food", "Herbs", "Spirit", "Medicine".

Anyway, I consider Shamanism to fit in nicely with my beliefs and where I want to go. So now I am still in the studying mode...learning what I can and fitting it into my life as I go. I have been on my self-discovery phase (seriously on it that is) for the last 6 months and I have learned a lot about myself so far and I'm sure will find out more as I continue on.

So to answer your questions. I integrate it into my life piece by piece. For example, coming here to learn more about dreams and remembering them has been one of my steps to integrating it into my life. I believe that dreams are the doorway to the answers we are looking for. Dreams are also very important in Shamanism. A way to communicate with the spirits. But I have to learn to remember them and interpret them before I can move on. As for your question about whether I am teaching something or would like to? I teach what I already know and learn what I do not. I have always been someone that people come to for advice and information (I think I have "answer lady" tattoo'd on my forehead. Haha). But I also know my limits. If I do not know something, then I will say "I do not know." If needed I will then go learn what I do not know, but only if I was meant to learn it.

I hope I answered everything. Sorry for the long rambling...I tend to do that, too!

[nani]

haha I like your humor.. and yes greatly answered, good and interesting what and how you told. And this "answer lady" sounds familiar to me lol, its a great natural thing and gift. About rambling.. we have posts here that almost blast the limits lol, so please dont worry at all, I really do enjoy to read and get to know you and everybody.. again, very nice to meet you, lgn

[Lena]

Wow, Nani, so many experiences, thanks for sharing. I can relate to some of you as I think eclectic pagan is a pretty good description for me. I always had an interest in magick, although didn't start actively learning about it until recently, for about a year now. I started out with Wicca and still learning it, but my interest shifted somewhat to Slavic Paganism. A lot of what I like about Slavic Paganism is magick and shamanism...So yeah, so many interesting things to leran ;D

[andin]

Thanks, Nani! I'm glad to know that I haven't broken the limits of rambling yet! Haha! I'm sure you will all let me know when I do...at least I hope so.

Lena,
Slavic Paganism? That sounds interesting. Does that have to do with any particular pantheon? I haven't heard of it before can you tell me some basics? Thanks.