Friday, October 12, 2012

Raising pagan children

Over the past couple of months, I've been really searching for what I believe in exactly. I obviously wasn't satisfied with just being atheist and realized that I do believe in something. I took the infamous Belief O Matic quiz and my top religion was Paganism, so I decided figure out what that means. I've read blogs and forums and books and wikipedia articles. Yep, definitely Pagan. Only with some caveats.
I don't believe in God(s) and/or Goddess(es).
I believe Magic(k) is focusing energy towards something, using ritual with intent. I do think focused intent can affect changes but not sure how and not sure if the how matters.
As a mother and wife who cooks for my family, I'm very much interested in Kitchen Witchery.
Reincarnation is a big one for me as well. I've been calling it Random Reincarnation; meaning that there's no Karma ladder going up the reincarnation staircase until we hit Nirvana, but anybody could come back as anything. You could come back as a dog next life so please treats dogs how you would want to be treated.
Nature is holy and divine. There'a a power/energy in Nature and deserves to be reverenced  The power/energy acknowledgment takes my beliefs a step beyond Pantheism; there's something more. Its tied back into how I feel about Magick.
I want to celebrate the changing in seasons and the Wheel of the Year as my Holidays and developed a spiritual celebration to go with each.
That sums it all up nicely.

Onto raising my child Pagan. I want Phina to be raised with a reverence for Nature and respect of animals, with my beliefs, as I was raised with my parent's beliefs. If Phina questions what she beliefs as a teenager, I'll do as my mom did and give her that space. Respect of animals is a core of who Bryce is so he would be better at imparting that to Phina. I want her to have sense of connection to her family and I believe beliefs, rituals, and traditions help build a strong family bond.