Back to schooler.

Well, it has definitely been a busy week for me. School started this week, and I'm way to motivated about it. I've already done almost two weeks worth of school work, just this week alone. My goal is to get half a month to a month ahead in school work and stay there. That way there is no stress if I get distracted or something happens and I can't do work for a few days.
All my classes are online, so that's how I'm achieving this. I honestly don't think I could go back to standard classes, with long lectures and tons of homework. I'd rather be assigned the readings, that way you know the text books you're buying are worth it, and write papers. I'm at the point where I try to avoid classes that have mid-terms and final examinations. I'd rather there be a long paper at the end of the semester over everything I learned. I think that shows more of my breadth of knowledge then some multiple choice test, and memorizing dates and begging for study guides.
The classes I'm taking are Terrorism, Women and Social Action and the Sociology of Work. Very interesting semester indeed. 

I've also done a bit of reading recently too. I read the entire Traitor Spy Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. If you haven't read it and you like a good fantasy series I highly recommend it. It was captivating, and told a great story. I'm now going to read more of her books, because I really like the world she set up for her stories. It's impressive.










I also read The Goodly Spellbook by Dixie Deerman and Steven Rasmussen. I read it pretty much in one day. I liked the writing style, it was very informal, but not all attempting to be sparkly and ooh the audience. The book cover's a wide range of history, as well as their personal experiences and growth in the world of magic. I like how the book also covered sigils and went into detail about the moon phases and planets. Though I think they went more indepth on the planets than moon. Which was nice, because I hadn't ever studied much on that. The spell section didn't have as much in it as I thought it would, given the title of the book. And some of the spells require a lot of ingredients. Then, like all spell books, some of the spells I pondered if they were even real (and worked). I sometimes wonder if pagan authors throw in fake spells just to keep people on their toes. But I overall am pleased with my purchase due to that it wasn't a basic 101 book, I'm a bit tired of those. I've read quite a bit of them over the years. But yet I'm not quite ready to just do my own thing yet. I feel like something is missing...

The book I'm going to start next is Mythology by Edith Hamilton. It was a bit difficult to pick a mythology book to read, there were a few I wanted. But I think this is a good start for now. I didn't read any reviews on this before buying it, but the cover says, "Classic best seller". So it can't be too bad. :P


I'm a bit tempted to actually start writing decent reviews of all the books I read. I might not publish them all, but it would be something fun to do. And maybe in the writing of the review I'll come to a few revelations that I didn't get from just going through the book. I remember in high school we used to do literary analysis of books we read. Most students hated it, but if it was a book I was interested in, I loved it. Mainly because a lot of things that occur in stories I just take literally. I don't expound upon the symbolism or hidden meanings of a lot of things. Or how it reflects things that happened in history or societies views. So in doing a literary analysis I felt like I was understanding the story better, and the intent the author had in the book.
And I might just be too stupid to understand things on my own. I don't know.

Arm-Chair Pagan.

Well, here is my next. Looks like it's going to be another discussion post.
Ewwww, I'm sorry.
I did do a few projects in the past week, I'll share those in a post eventually. I wanted to talk about something that's been on my mind recently.
My religion?
I am, by no means, a 'religious' person. I am not extremely devout, I am not strongly opinionated overall and I've always had a list of reasons why.
5-10 years ago my reasoning was that my parents didn't approve, I didn't have the money to buy the things all the beginner books say you need, and I rarely had any free time.
After high school, I briefly spent time in college before joining the Marine Corps. And then it was a matter of me not having anywhere to practice, or being too exhausted from all my training.
Over the years I've slowly collected objects that I use on my altar.
And except for two years in the past ten years, I've always had some sort of altar set up. Most of the time it was merely meditational. When I was in Japan I started making it seasonal, or for the different holidays.
But I never devoted the time I felt I should to be able to call myself Pagan.
Like celebrating the moon cycles, the sun cycles, spending time connecting with deities, or even doing simple spells. I've done some circles here and there, a few ceremonies. I've wrote my own rituals, joined some pagan forums, but I don't avidly practice.

And for some reason this makes me feel guilty, like a christian skipping church.

One of the facebook groups I'm a part of and read regularly, once used a term called "Arm-chair Pagan" to essentially describe people who read lots of books, but don't actually do anything.
It was a knife through the ribs, almost.
I do my share of internet research, I own a few books, I have an altar I take care of and use, but am I an 'Arm-Chair Pagan'?

One of the big things that I always find myself stopping at is the connecting with the Gods. I thought about it for a while, meditated on it intensely, and I believe I am a hard polytheist.
 I read Scott Cunninham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. And in the book he says something similar to that Gods and Goddesses are complimentary, equal to one another. They can be named or nameless.
I understand that a God and a Goddess are equal, and that there are people who worship a 'God' and a 'Goddess', and then there are those who have specific deities they worship. But one of the things I thought about after reading that was are all Gods and Goddesses separate beings who who reigned originally over their part of the world, spreading out as ideas and concepts where shared culture to culture? I've always believed in multiple Gods, but just narrowing it down to two seems like cheating, being lazy. Unless it is more of a simple way of honoring all the Gods at once? You're not saying literally there is only two (Unless it's as if it is the aspects of them you're worshiping).
You are honoring "The Gods" male and female who watch over you. Until maybe one day they name themselves to you...
Though the phrase still makes me pause. Two perfect lovers, in harmony and spiritual parents to us all. It's a nice thought, but it feels more of an idea, a wish. But ideas hold real power. So perhaps we shall see. Maybe the "Gods" and "Goddesses" are the power from which all Gods come. The Ultimate ones. All other deities come from them. So they are part of, but separate?
The possibilities are endless.
Some discuss that the different deities are aspects of the single  God and Goddess. Different views of them, like personalities. Pantheons or deities, all separate, but make up the ultimate. 

See my problem? I get caught up in the strangest details. Here I am writing an essay on the origin of Gods and if they are truly the same or different. Because when you look at the pantheons you see the same ideas over and over again. Are they the same deities with different names based on culture? Or are they individual beings?

And then most eventually have their patron deity. I don't even know where to start with that. I can't even pick a pantheon I was to initially focus on. So I just go with a generic God and Goddess approach. It works (I think?).

But to do magic you don't have to use the specifics of Gods. There are witches who practice magic, but don't consider themselves to fall into a catagory of pagan (Such as wiccan, druid or so on). They are practitioners. The whole saying about how not every Wiccan is a Witch and not every Witch is a Wiccan, you can be one or both. That's where that comes into play.

But then the things I do throughout my day could be considered part of my beliefs. I say affirmations, I meditate (think hard and focus) on ideas and problems, I have good luck charms, I believe in cleansing areas, I do a bit of energy work here and there, grounding myself when I feel jittery...
But I don't think about it as "Oh! I'm doing pagan things!" To me that's just part of my life and how I do things.

So am I not an arm-chair pagan after all?

Do I over think things? (yes!)

To be honest, I've considered just giving up on the whole "Having a religion" thing. Just call myself agnostic and go about my life, being a good person. But I can't. I had my entire Marine Corps contract as an opportunity to do that, and I can't. I always get drawn right back in, or feel like something is missing from my life.
I guess you can't help some things about yourself.
But I don't think the negative things picky people say should make me feel guilty because I don't come out of the woodworks to celebrate the Sabbats (they have a name for people who just do that too), and I don't do divination every week, and have a fancy collection of Wiccan things.

I do things in my own way, however small, or grand I choose. I do have a life of chaos to live. And I hope others who struggle as I did to overcome those thoughts and feelings don't get deterred (Or attacked on a forum).

What things have other's struggled with throughout their time, I wonder?
I mean, I've been a student for ten years, but I feel as if I'm just a child at this, which I suppose is normal. We are talking about something literally beyond my scope of existence.

Litha