Religion, Spiritualism, Supernatural, ect.

ok, im getting a "bit" irritated (ok "EXTREAMLY" irritated) with my mom. she's so...whats the word..."closed minded" i believe. she focuses the stuff she learned in the past instead of new infos in the "now" period and thinks everything is involved with the devil. im not saying anything bad about any religions, unlike my mom, i have an open mind and belive that all religions and beliefs are diffrent yet connected (ok cmon im not the only one who sees this right? theres like, 3 diff BIBLEs out the?! each has a bit of diff info but they focus on the same basic stuff, one says Jesus is God's son, ones says otherwise, and the other i didnt realy pay any attention to. all these are involved with the peoples conflicts in the middle east so you should get what im saying about the bible part, if not try to do some research) anyways, she thinks that wicca/pagans are followers of satan, i say "no mom, there is a god with horns but he's not "satan", they have a belief in the magic of life and nature" then she says "tarot cards will hurt/kill you" which then i says "no mom, tarot cards just predict past, future, and present. no harm is caused. ouiji boards sometimes do that but thats because no one blesses them first and casts a protective circle around them" do you see what i mean?? its getting very tiresome. i belive there is truth in much beliefs and religion, i also belief that perhaps there is more than one higher being. it doesnt mean that anything thats not part of your religion involves with satan. what do you guys thinks?? lets try not to get too judgmental an be kind and "open minded" plz.

I'm gunna try and be as respectful as possible here by starting this by saying we live in america a place where everyone is free to say and do what they want. Free to believe in what they want free to not believe in what they want and free to discuss it with a level head and with respect to everyone or to flat out make a fool out of themselves and completely ignore any rational thought. Now I am a strong follower of christ and what is taught in the christian bible. That said I do not consider my self a christian in the way that I go to church every sunday or read my bible everyday or have even read the whole thing through. I don't go to church because I have gone to 3 different churches and felt out of place/been stared at/had bad experiences in all of them. The older generation seems to think if you don't wear a suit and tie like metal/anime/etc. even if your christian they think your doing something wrong.

Now that I have given you a little of my back story let me tell you what I know about what I believe and what I have been taught. First I have friends who believe and do the same things as you. Wicca, tarot cards, ouiji boards I've heard about all of them even haunted houses and all that. I my self believe there is a supernatural world as it is stated in the book I believe and as it mentions nothing of what directly happens after we die other then that our bodies will be in a deep sleep I have no idea if our souls wonder or what. this said I don't mess with that sort of thing I find it dangerous as you could get contacted by a "non violent" spirit or a "violent' spirit or what I would consider a demon. Even just in the my faith there are a decent amount of ways to have God protect or help you with such things but I figure why get in the situation in the first place. Plus I'm mexican and if you know anything about south america we are a very superstitious group of people. Every Hispanic or Latino person I've met doesn't mess with that stuff you couldn't pay them to mess with that stuff and I'm not different.

So anyways at least from my understanding by the book I believe in there is only one God and I shall put no others with him or above him or even under him he is the only one. Also from what I am told from my book any powers of future sight are ether from God in witch case it wouldn't happen on command and just be something that sort of happens randomly not while you are using cards or they are from the devil as your mother said as wants people to be distracted and led away from the path. I the case of the cards or any kind of future sight the distraction would be "I have God why do I need to worry about my future" but they are much less dangerous then ouiji boards those things can be nasty. (I've heard stories from friends and family) All this said I am not gunna get down on you about what you believe or say that what your doing is satanic rituals and I don't think your mom should ether unless your doing it in her house in that case I'd suggest you do them somewhere else. The way I understand it wicca is not in any way worshiping the devil at least by their/your beliefs it is a worshiping of a few different deities that have control of different parts of nature and life in bad or good ways.

Last on I promise. The last thing I would like to bring up is that you are right when you say that there is a deity with horns and stuff in your faith and that's probably were our idea of the devil came from. Many artists in the Renascence and before during the catholic and crusade times gave us what we think of as the face of Christ and that of the devil and his demons. That's why we have a Jesus that looks like a scrawny white dude and demons that portray "pagan" Gods as it was a easy way to get those who had just joined the catholic belief like the Scotts and Celts to try and get them to believe their gods were bad and that the catholic god was good. When in actuality we don't know what demons look like for sure and we do know Jesus was a Jewish carpenter and was probably pretty strong and dint look like a white dude at all. This all to say I respect everyone's beliefs and their right to believe it as long as they do the same for me. I hope your mom doesn't disrespect you anymore just because you believe differently and even if she does you have people on here like me who don't XD. hope everything works out and I didn't offend.

im not saying my faith is wicca, im just interested. im the kind that kinda believes in everything and thinks everything is interesting XD but yea, your cool

You're right Inuka23, a lot of Pagans and Wiccans have been judged as evil because most people aren't open minded. At one of my previous jobs my supervisor was Christian, and she was under the impression that Pagans were evil and all that. Of course that all changed when she found out that I was an eclectic Pagan and I was able to teacher her to understand that our beliefs are much the same. Most religions have the one basic belief, or the Golden Rule of treating others as you want to be treated. Most people seem to also think that Pagans don't believe in God, but that is not true. We call it the Great Unnamed, because really how can you define something like that by human standards. Personally I used to have a very bad view on Christians when I lived in South Florida because I had only met the very close minded ones. It wasn't until I moved up to Washington that I learned there were actually some that are accepting and practice what they preach. Sadly back them I was just as guilty of not understanding them as they were of me.

I actually get made fun of for being a follower of Christ where I work XD and actually in general where I live with my age group I'm the out cast. Kinda weird how that works lol. I just don't let it effect me & laugh it off. The people are all my friends and it's nothing that is like totally just bashing on my faith. They just don't understand why I do what I do I guess so it's no biggy. Plus then it makes it extra special when I find someone with similar beliefs. ^_^

i just wish there was some way to help everyone actual see in all the religions than what they learned as they grew up and so forth. then there wouldn't be so much cruel judgment and it would be more peaceful. so much conflict is started up because people become so confused ( or just plain rude) and let their fears control them, that there is the biggest issue in all religious people is fear. because they fear what they dont understand they begin to cause conflict or try to "guide the lost" back on track which isn't really working.