{"id":7971,"date":"2013-05-01T01:10:53","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T06:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=8243"},"modified":"2013-04-22T21:17:57","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T02:17:57","slug":"spiritual-seeker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2013\/05\/01\/spiritual-seeker\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Seeker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/spiritalseeker-april2013.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8247 aligncenter\" title=\"spiritalseeker-april2013\" src=\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/spiritalseeker-april2013-258x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pagans generally think of themselves as very spiritual folks. We are supposed to be in tune with nature, respectful to a multitude of gods, and open-minded about the beliefs of others. But, believe it or not, Pagans can also experience a crisis of faith.<\/p>\n<p>First, I\u2019ll tell you a little bit about my religious history. I was raised Presbyterian. Not strictly, but I did go to Sunday school and learn my Bible stories. As a young teen I decided to read the whole Bible, and came to the conclusion that Christianity wasn\u2019t the right path for me. So, after some looking around, I settled on Wicca, believing the basic framework but not totally wedded to all the ritual. After university I married a wonderful Catholic guy, and continued to be a semi-practicing Wiccan for many years, but once I had my son, I sort of found myself at loose ends.<\/p>\n<p>Today I\u2019m mom to a wonderfully curious little boy who attends Catholic school, and I\u2019m trying to answer questions about what happens when we die and just who exactly this Jesus guy is. The little man is being exposed to a pretty liberal set of religious beliefs\u2014God may be a man or a woman according to him. But I\u2019m still trying to figure out what I believe.<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019ve made up a list of books that I want to read over the next 12 months in an attempt find my path. It isn\u2019t exhaustive, and if you have any suggestions, I\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Lotus Sutra<\/li>\n<li>The Christian Bible<\/li>\n<li>The Qur\u2019an<\/li>\n<li>Descartes\u2019s Meditations on First Philosophy<\/li>\n<li>The Seeker\u2019s Guide by Elizabeth Lesser<\/li>\n<li>Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m also planning on working through the New Age\/Buddhism-inspired book Everyday Dharma by Lama Willa Miller. Meditation and yoga are also on my list of practices to resume, along with prayer and who knows what else.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m hoping that I can find some way to incorporate my sort of free floating Pagan beliefs with some sort of great whole. I need to find a path to walk, rather than continuing to beat my way aimlessly through the underbrush. This column with be about this journey, about the books I read and the steps I take in trying to figure out what I believe and how to bring these beliefs into my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pagans generally think of themselves as very spiritual folks. We are supposed to be in tune with nature, respectful to a multitude of gods, and open-minded about the beliefs of others. But, believe it or not, Pagans can also experience a crisis of faith. First, I\u2019ll tell you a little bit about my religious history. I was raised Presbyterian. Not strictly, but I did go to Sunday school and learn my Bible stories. As a young teen I decided to read the whole Bible, and came to the conclusion that Christianity wasn\u2019t the right path for me. So, after some looking around, I settled on Wicca, believing the basic framework but not totally wedded to all the ritual. After university I married a wonderful Catholic guy, and continued to be a semi-practicing Wiccan for many years, but once I had my son, I sort of found myself at loose ends. Today I\u2019m mom to a wonderfully curious little boy who attends Catholic school, and I\u2019m trying to answer questions about what happens when we die and just who exactly this Jesus guy is. The little man is being exposed to a pretty liberal set of religious beliefs\u2014God may be a man or a woman according to him. But I\u2019m still trying to figure out what I believe. So, I\u2019ve made up a list of books that I want to read over the next 12 months in an attempt find my path. It isn\u2019t exhaustive, and if you have any suggestions, I\u2019d love to hear from you. The Lotus Sutra The Christian Bible The Qur\u2019an Descartes\u2019s Meditations on First Philosophy The Seeker\u2019s Guide by Elizabeth Lesser Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor I\u2019m also planning on working through the New Age\/Buddhism-inspired book Everyday Dharma by Lama Willa Miller. Meditation and yoga are also on my list of practices to resume, along with prayer and who knows what else. I\u2019m hoping that I can find some way to incorporate my sort of free floating Pagan beliefs with some sort of great whole. I need to find a path to walk, rather than continuing to beat my way aimlessly through the underbrush. This column with be about this journey, about the books I read and the steps I take in trying to figure out what I believe and how to bring these beliefs into my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}