Pagans, do you ever feel like you're in a fantasy novel?

Question

Sometimes I get to feeling like I am, like when I told children at Samhain to stay away from the cupcakes with names 'cause those are for the ancestor feast. I have a hard time sometimes explaining how I celebrate because I'm afraid it'll sound weird to monotheists or atheists. How do you get around it, if you feel that way?

Oh, and monotheists and atheists--*do* you think it's weird, or are you sincerely interested?

What I do has meaning to me and the others I work with; it's just hard for me, when non-Pagans ask, to answer the question "So what do you *do* on Samhain?" or "How do your rituals work?" without feeling self-conscious.

Oh, and Moiraes, thanks everso for the support. *Really.*

Answer 1

lol :)
(((hugs)))
no, as a pagan, i don't. if i am talking to someone who i think may have trouble with understanding my ceremonies, i simply say that we like to celebrate old traditions etc.
for example, i was asked at work if i would be taking part with my children for halloween, or would they go to a party at school etc. instead of explaining that we have a kids halloween party AND a samhain celebration, i said that yes, we ere having a party, and did they know it was traditionally the celtic new year, so we would stay up to see it in?
i explain to my kids that it is part of our heritage and culture, and that most of the sabbats/rituals/ceremonies/festivals etc were renamed by christians, and that i like to keep old traditions alive, therefore we have more parties!
ie, we do both winter solstice and xmas, etc etc
so thats how i "get around it"
good luck, and have fun!
blessed be
)o(

Answer 2

If something feels wierd to YOU, identify the reason why and then either address that reason or stop doing it.

If you're just uncomfortable explaining your practice to non-Pagans, make your practices less public. There's nothing that says you have to parade your food for the anscestors in front of everyone.

In short, if you feel like you're acting out a fantasy novel, you probably are. We shouldn't be doing something just because some other Pagan says this is what you should do at a certain time. Everything we do should have meaning to us.

Edit: In response to your additional details...

Seriously, if you feel self-conscious about your answers maybe for the moment you should be less public with your religion. There is NOTHING that says people have to know what your religion is. Religion is between you and your gods. If you're not comfortable talking about that relationship, for whatever reason, then just find a more private way to worship.

Again, however, if you're feeling that your explanations sound fantastical, I really do urge that you examine WHY you feel that way. It's really easy to be caught in the hype and do something just because you think its the Pagan way or the Wiccan way and not realize that it really doesn't make sense to you. Been there, done that, felt a little silly upon realization but glad I did.

Answer 3

Sometimes, I really wished I was in a Fantasy novel, but that's just the geek in me wanting to be Aragorn kissing Arwen (LOL). As far as Monotheists are concerned if you don't believe the same way they do, then your weird, especially down here in the bible belt. I find the best way of dealing with it is not dealing with them, because all they want to do is save my soul from the devil. It's not like I don't talk with Monotheists, I work with them all the time, but when religion is brought out, I just look for the nearest exit. It just isn't worth my time or effort. Hope you had a happy Samhain!

Answer 4

You know, I don't think so.
I think that there are many who take things from a fantasy novel and think it's Paganism, but it's not.

It's like the Christians who try to tell people that Harry Potter is what Wicca and Witchcraft are all about. We tend to get defensive because we not only have to explain what our faith is, but what it's not about. We don't have to merely explain what we do, but we are constantly fighting the misconceptions that are spread about us in Chick tracts and by those who spread lies about us.

How many of us have heard from Christians that we worship the "god" samhain and offer sacrifices to him? How many of us have heard that we worship the devil?

It's difficult to explain what we do not only because most people don't have a context in which to understand it, but more so because they think they already do. We're supposed to be the ones offering poison candy, sacrificing cats and dogs and all the other crap that we get blamed for.

By the time we get through explaining what we DON'T do, there is often little energy left to explain that the concepts of "white witch" and "black witch" don't really exist. People have heard about "duality" and think that it means that we believe evil is necessary.

In the end, our beliefs are no stranger than those of the Christians who celebrate the ultimate HUMAN SACRIFICE. We often have a hard time explaining that The Goddess does not require sacrifice. To many a God (or Goddess) needs a sacrifice.

Christians are caught up in the concept of sin. They don't understand that we don't embrace that concept; that our deities don't view sin as something that can separate us from deity, but instead becomes a debt that needs to be repaid.

Christians don't understand death and the afterlife the way we do. They believe that one dies once only. We view things in a longer time-frame.

I don't see what we do as fantasy, merely different. We don't have faiths that can be compared easily. Still, there have been those who have taken our practices and wound wonderful fantasy tales around them. Perhaps the most notable of these might be "The Mists of Avalon". In the same light though, there has been a good deal of Christian fantasy.

When people ask me to share my faith though, the concept of fantasy doesn't really come up. People might ask "Do you cast spells and stuff", and I'll likely respond with "Do you pray and stuff?" They are really the same thing, it is just a different methodology.

Answer 5

No no longer probably. i've got faith existence is as complicated in any era. it extremely is the character of venture that ameliorations. different generations had to stand conflict, some had to stand poverty, on the instant we've unemployment, the following day we could be threaten with planet extinction (wow that constructive sounds constructive lol!)...(To make amends) we are able to consistently look for romance and creativity and happiness yet with a distinctive way. The human venture is almost a similar. and then some issues tend to be provided in novels ameliorated. i like the fewer stressful rhythms of existence of the nineteenth century yet i does no longer % to marry at sixteen and have like 7 infants and then die at 40. regardless of if if I were born in that era in all possibility i does no longer whinge because of the fact i'd get used to stay like honestly all of us else and could no longer tell the version or if I were asked with regards to the widespread era i'd have theory that no longer stand the noise in residing in a huge city. besides i do no longer bear in mind all and sundry asking me in the previous delivery to % my century so because it is and we would desire to learn from it :).

Answer 6

No not really. I don't really have too many monotheist friends. And I just explain my little quirks with a smile, like pouring out the first and last of my first beer to the gods. Most of them just brush it off. A majority of my friends are pagan, so they don't think anything about it.
I'm sure I DO sound weird to monotheist. But it doesnt' really bother me. LOL They sound pretty weird to me sometimes.

Answer 7

tell them you honor the dead instead of explaining rituals. say its like the day of the dead in hispanic countries, because even though the two are not the same, it puts things into terms that can be understood by atheists and monotheists. i think the "dumb supper" (aka ancestor feast) is normal, in fact, i had one samhain this year.

)o( blessed be

Answer 8

i deal with it by not talking about it...seriously.

if i make something special for "cakes and ale" i put it aside so it's not a temptation for small hands (and some bigger ones to...lol).

there is no reason to feel weird, and children don't need to know everything. i don't really know your situation...if these are your own children, or neighbor kids. that would affect how i talked to them.

do what you feel is right.
bright blessings to you.

edit
after reading your added details i think i understand a little better what you're trying to say.
if i think someone is genuinely interested, and they're not just using it as an opening to tell me how evil i am, i will try to explain somewhat.
i won't invite them to watch or participate unless they are seriously considering becoming pagan.
even then i will tell them to start by reading. i hope this helped a little. goddess bless.

Answer 9

I've never felt that I was living in a fantasy novel. Of course I'm embarrassed when a fluffy tries to make an esbat sound like something out of a fairy tale novel, but yeah...

Be proud of being pagan! Don't be afraid that your faith will sound strange to other people ^_^

Answer 10

I think it's actually really cool that you celebrate the old holidays like Samhain. I have no problem with it, as long as you don't start forcing it on people who don't want to celebrate it.