Witchvox Article

Author: Ailm
Posted: September 20th. 2009
Times Viewed: 2,714

It first occurred to me when I went to church. At this point, my brief phase of Christianity was well behind me, so my attendance was due to no sense of religious obligation, but because I was staying at a friend�s and she went to church each Sunday. I hadn�t even stepped into a church for close to ten years before I discovered Witchcraft.

Needless to say, it was strange to sit in church, and a little awkward, but not unbearably so. In fact, it was quite beautiful, and the songs were touching in their honesty and reverence. Out of respect, when the time came to pray, I didn�t pray to the God and Goddess. Instead I sat, head bowed, and thought. What occurred to me then had me confused at myself: I was a Witch, and I supposedly didn�t believe in the Christian God.

So why exactly did I refrain from praying to the Lady and Lord? And why was it that I found myself silently offering a greeting to the Christian God out of a strange urge to be polite?

That afternoon prompted me to rethink what I previously just assumed to be my beliefs after reading other people�s life stories in various books on Witchcraft. I�ve had to do this on several occasions, not with religions but things a little more mundane, like why I hated maths, when really I had no problem with it (I realised that I only hated math because everyone else said they did; I just followed suit) .

What I realised in this situation was that I did in fact believe that the Christian God existed, though I still didn�t believe in him, a distinction I�ll clarify later. This left me with a little conundrum: How was it that myself, as a practicing Witch, could believe in my Lady and Lord and the Christian God, especially when they so dissimilar (at least in my eyes) ?

This is my theory.

Heard the old phrase, �You create your own reality�? Well, this is the basis of my belief when it comes to other Gods from other religions. You see, just as most Pagans believe in the old Gods from ancient polytheistic religions (Egyptian, Greek, Norse etc.) , I believe that the God (as in Christian) , Allah, and all the more mainstream Gods also exist.

After all, doesn�t it make sense that if we�re going to believe in the Old Gods, either in their own right or as facets of the God and Goddess, we should also admit the existence of the Gods from the monotheistic religions? To me it is only logical, and I believe that each God and Goddess exists equally.

I am not saying that we should all begin following all the various doctrines. After all it can be hard enough following one! What I�m saying, or trying to say anyway, is that we all choose, or are chosen by, our religions, and that we are subject to that particular religion�s rules.

For example, as an adherent to the Wiccan Rede, my actions are subject to the Threefold Law, but my fictional friend Laura, as a practicing Christian, is instead subject to the Ten Commandments.

The important thing is choice, because it is our choices that create our reality. To choose a religion is to submit (and I use this word only for a lack of another as it sounds too subservient for my liking) ourselves to its rules and place ourselves under that deity�s/deities� guidance.

However, while I believe that these other deities exist, they are not mine and I don�t follow their laws (such as the Ten Commandments) . It�s just like while I admit that Bill Gates exists, I don�t have anything to do with him. I don�t follow the rules in his house. However, just as I greeted the Christian God on entering the church, if I did go to his house, I would show respect for him as the owner.

I�ve always believed that there is more than enough room for everybody�s religion. So to say that only one is correct, even if that one is Paganism, always seemed a little unbelievable to me. However, in my quest to resolve all my previously unnoticed and unrealised beliefs, I created another problem.

As I considered the impact my new theory had on the whole life-after-death issue, I realised it had an unpleasant result on my belief of reincarnation, a belief I wasn�t prepared to give up as it always seemed the most likely and most pleasant.

According to my theory on the existence of other Gods, if you are a Christian and are therefore subject to those laws and restrictions, you will go to heaven if you obey them, hell if you do not. That is your reality.

But by the same token, you can only reincarnate if you believe that you will do so, and this is the problem. Say that you are an incarnating soul, and that in your first five incarnations you believed in reincarnation, thereby allowing you to reincarnate.

But say that in your next life, you no longer believe in reincarnation and instead you are a Christian, and believe in heaven and hell. Does this mean you will no longer reincarnate?

If in my next reincarnation I believe that there is no life after death, will my soul, the essence of me, simply disappear?

It seemed ridiculous to me that because of a single lifetime you would stop your evolutionary journey and forever live in peace in heaven or burn in hell or cease to exist.

Well, at this point I was running short of explanations that upheld all my beliefs without causing inconsistencies (I really don�t like inconsistencies) , so I decided that it was time to reward my lengthy, and rather uncharacteristic, bout of logic. So, in a decision based upon� well, I guess the term is arrogance, I decided that as reincarnation seemed so likely and universal, it would supersede all other beliefs of life after death.

So, if one is a Christian this time around, perhaps one will spend the time in between reincarnations in either heaven or hell. That afterlife would be Summerland if you�re Pagan, and so on. Well, at least that�s my theory.

To be honest, at this point I decided to give this train of thought a rest, as it�s increasing convolution begins to confuse me and give me a headache. Thinking about what happens after physical death always leaves me intensely irritated and curious:

We can�t know anything for sure or understand the details until we experience it ourselves. And then it seems that we are fated to forget it all once we�re back on the physical plane again. For me, that is so incredibly frustrating!

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Ailm

Location: Clayton, Victoria

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