A Little More About Me -- Religion

Some interesting facts about what I believe:

1. I consider myself part of the 1% of Americans who choose to not consider themselves part of any particular religion (statistical information from US Religion Map).

2. I do, however, believe in a universal creator, who is most conveniently referred to as God.

3. I was raised Catholic and went to catholic schools until the end of tenth grade. I was agnostic until that time. Then I left Catholic school and started a spiritual quest. It's been about 4 years and I'm still on that quest. I now consider myself non-practicing Catholic.

4. By not affiliating myself with a particular religion, I simply mean that I disagree with the dogmatic ideals of religion - the rule, the ritual, the manipulation of the people. When a priest tells his congregation how they should and should not vote, there's a problem people.

5. I often refer to my beliefs as 'a la carte', meaning I pick and choose. So here's a list of some of the things I believe in:
-Ghosts, Spirits and Angels
-Reincarnation and past lives
-An afterlife, which I will refer to as The Other Side
-Personal energy (more on this later)
-Psychic feelings - i.e. getting vibes
-A universal creator, whom I refer to as God though it is not the traditionally Christian god
-Karma, and the wiccan tenet 'an' it harm none, do what thou wilt'
-The idea that love prevails over all, and if you do anything with love in your heart it is only wrong if it causes someone else to hurt.
-Killing is wrong.
-Eating meat is wrong.
-Forcing my beliefs on anyone else is very, very wrong. Respect is key - live and let live is the tenet.

6. I like to dabble in things relating to the occult. I love Tarot cards because of their many-layered meanings and the way they respond differently to different people. I believe that they interact with the personal energies of both the reader and the person who the reading is being done for, but I also believe that tarot only tells us things we already know or can easily deduce from our lives. It's not mystical answers, nor is it a source for solutions. However, it's a very useful guide that can help clear a cluttered mind.

7. Tarot is often associated with other 'occult' religions like wicca and other forms of paganism. I'm really not much of one for rituals and spells, especially since that's what turned me off of Christianity - the obligation to go to church to be near god. I find myself closer to the universe when I'm sitting by a waterfall or somewhere else peaceful, not from chanting, formal prayer or having to light a bunch of candles and burn stuff. Also, a lot of the things a spell can do, I can do with energy and without the material aids.

8. Faith is something that functions differently for everyone. Some people need the ritual as a focal point for their personal energy, others like the order and structure. And while it really doesn't work for me, I will not criticize anyone for doing what works for them. Again, it's all a matter of respect. I refuse to disrespect someone if their beliefs are different from my own. That said, anyone who chooses to disrespect me by telling me I'm going to go to hell for my faith... well, then they just lost my respect.

9. I'm open to a lot of new things, and like having polite, calm debates about religion and faith. So feel free to drop me a line sometime to chat about that kind of thing.

10. Okay, Energy. Basically, energy is a person's life-essence, an invisible force that allows us to think and feel. It is possible to do things with energy, like help a person who is feeling unhappy, a form of guided meditation, a method of protection. Energy can be positive, negative, or somewhere in the middle. Energy affects the way we interact with each other. So yeah, I've been experimenting with energy as a mental healing technique and as a way to get more in tune with myself and the universe. I'm sure it'll come up more as I blog, when I talk about other people's energies and how they interact with mine.

That's about all I have to say about this right now. I'm a ridiculously open-minded person, but I don't respond well to the close-minded. So yeah, be prepared to read about some interesting shit.

Liz