While I do recognize Yule over Christmas as my choice of celebration. I would like to clarify that the information I posted is taken from a website online, and not from my actual way of celebrating the holiday. I do not see God's in my life, and Goddesses in the fashion that is mentioned in these examples. I do not see God as a individual or person, God to me is nature and life. God is Spirit. That is just my personal view.
whyhideit
JoinedPosts by whyhideit
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16
Is Christmas Pagan or Christian?
by whyhideit inas the christmas holiday approaches, it brings out the comments from my witness family members to attempt to belittle our practice of enjoying the holiday.
when we first left the jehovah's witnesses and decided to celebrate christmas, we still considered ourselves to be christians.
so the argument of choice from our relatives was, "how can you call yourself christians and celebrate such a pagan holiday.
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16
Is Christmas Pagan or Christian?
by whyhideit inas the christmas holiday approaches, it brings out the comments from my witness family members to attempt to belittle our practice of enjoying the holiday.
when we first left the jehovah's witnesses and decided to celebrate christmas, we still considered ourselves to be christians.
so the argument of choice from our relatives was, "how can you call yourself christians and celebrate such a pagan holiday.
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whyhideit
I once read a book, title escapes me, that basically showed that everything we say, do and use, can be rooted to Pagan customs and beliefs. To be free, we would need to not speak, not eat and not even see other people. For fear that we may step into a level of Paganism. Pagan practices are a fact of life.
I wanted to add this above, but I will put it here. This is a ritual used at Yule. I find it interesting, as I actually could trace elements of this to ancient Christian prayer and ritual.
Yule Fire Ritual
On the darkest night of the year gather three dried leaves of holly and pulverize them into powder. On a clean, four-inch by four-inch piece of parchment paper, write a single word in red ink that represents what quality or trait you would like to be born within yourself along with the newborn Yule sun. Sprinkle the holly powder into the center of the paper and twist it closed with the holly powder inside. Light the wick of a red candle, and from this flame light the holly filled paper on fire. As it burns see your wish fulfilled. The spell is done.
Edited by - whyhideit on 22 December 2002 16:47:57
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Is Christmas Pagan or Christian?
by whyhideit inas the christmas holiday approaches, it brings out the comments from my witness family members to attempt to belittle our practice of enjoying the holiday.
when we first left the jehovah's witnesses and decided to celebrate christmas, we still considered ourselves to be christians.
so the argument of choice from our relatives was, "how can you call yourself christians and celebrate such a pagan holiday.
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whyhideit
As the Christmas Holiday approaches, it brings out the comments from my Witness family members to attempt to belittle our practice of enjoying the holiday. When we first left the Jehovah's Witnesses and decided to celebrate Christmas, we still considered ourselves to be Christians. So the argument of choice from our relatives was, "how can you call yourself Christians and celebrate such a Pagan holiday." Then as the years went by and we came to find we were more in tune to Pagan thinking and believes, the family became aware of this. So this year they decided to try something new in their efforts to strike fear into us. This is the argument they expressed, "how can you choose to celebrate something that is seen as such a Christian holiday, when you consider yourself Pagan" (Pagan or Neo-Pagan, term used to describe a more earth and nature-based religion or philosophy . Not really a title, more of a generalization). So I am confused, when I was a Witness I was told Christmas was all Pagan and now it seems some times they can accept it as Christian. Oh well, we do not really celebrate Christmas anyway. We celebrate Yule*, which was yesterday and was very enjoyable. We will be celebrating Christmas with our Christian relatives on Wednesday. So I guess we get the best of both world, Christian and Pagan, and both seem to be a reason to avoid something, if you are a Witness. By the way, the way we answered both attempts was to say, "because we find it enjoyable, and we have fun."
*Yule: the Winter Solstice, Yuletide (Teutonic), Alban Arthan (Caledonii) Around Dec. 21This Sabbat represents the rebirth of light. Here, on the longest night of the year, the Goddess gives birth to the Sun God and hope for new light is reborn.
Yule is a time of awakening to new goals and leaving old regrets behind. Yule coincides closely with the Christian Christmas celebration. Christmas was once a movable feast celebrated many different times during the year. The choice of December 25 was made by the Pope Julius I in the fourth century AD because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.
The Christian tradition of a Christmas tree has its origins in the Pagan Yule celebration. Pagan families would bring a live tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm during the cold winter months. Bells were hung in the limbs so you could tell when a spirit was present. Food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat and a five-pointed star, the pentagram, symbol of the five elements, was placed atop the tree. The colors of the season, red and green, also are of Pagan origin, as is the custom of exchanging gifts.
A solar festival, The reindeer stag is also a reminder of the Horned God. You will find that many traditional Christmas decorations have some type of Pagan ancestry or significance that can be added to your Yule holiday. Yule is celebrated by fire and the use of a Yule log. Many enjoy the practice of lighting the Yule Log. If you choose to burn one, select a proper log of oak or pine (never Elder). Carve or chalk upon it a figure of the Sun (a rayed disc) or the Horned God (a horned circle). Set it alight in the fireplace at dusk, on Yule. This is a graphic representation of the rebirth of the God within the sacred fire of the Mother Goddess. As the log burns, visualize the Sun shining within it and think of the coming warmer days. Traditionally, a portion of the Yule Log is saved to be used in lighting next year's log. This piece is kept throughout the year to protect the home.Edited by - whyhideit on 22 December 2002 16:38:18
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The Elders, part two
by Princess inthe elders came over this morning as promised.
he called before to explain why so as not to show up under false pretenses.
he said yesterday when he called, he was with a service group so he said he was an "old friend" and wanted to come visit.
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whyhideit
From your description, it sounds like you and your husband handled the situation in a very classy manner and showed them in subtle ways that their actions could only be based on the direction of an oppressive organization and not on the actions of your families life. Trust me. They will think about that visit later when they see you around and know you are good people, and wonder inside what makes you worthy of the shunning.
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Who believes in Ghosts?
by El Kabong ini watched a movie on tv the other night called "the others" with nicole kidman.
it got me thinking about ghosts.
of course, my jw thinking automatically kicks in and tells me that its.........come on, you all know the answer.......demons.
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whyhideit
To begin, I would like to say that I do believe in an existence before and after our physical life. As for the thought though, that it would seem disturbing to know that loved ones and friends may be trapped in some post-physical life existence. Have we ever thought of it this way. Maybe that TRAPPED description that is used so often, would be more fitting to our current state. Since the descriptions of ghost, spirits and post-physical life, as described in many of the worlds religions and philosophies. Seems a little less limited, then the life we know today. I like to think of people I knew that passed, as moving to a higher frequency of living and this makes me more at ease with the idea of death.
Edited by - whyhideit on 22 December 2002 15:39:13
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This is unRAEL
by donkey inanyone followed the raelians?
i find them fascinating.
http://www.rael.org.
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whyhideit
Kenneson
I have read that before, or something like it. I never swallow the whole UFO idea as complete truth, without looking into information from both sides. I just find it to be interesting conversation. Have you ever looked into the Samaritans? I found that interesting, although I am not going to go worship the thought. I have come to the conclusion in life that everything can be disproved if we look deep enough. I am starting to wonder if I am even really here now.
Want to really mess with your mind? Take some time to check this site out.
Just read it as something interesting, and not something to believe it. This woman is obviously into seeing everything as possible. I respect that, but it does not mean I am going to see everything as real. One of my favorite thoughts, when thinking about Bible accounts, UFO experiences, Super Natural Events, and such. Is that it all looks good on paper, but unless I was there to see it. It is nothing more then someone else's account, and people do say what they want, to sway people to their beliefs.
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This is unRAEL
by donkey inanyone followed the raelians?
i find them fascinating.
http://www.rael.org.
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whyhideit
Just shows that everyone has the right to think what they want. Personally, I think there is life outside of the realm of earth and it is entirely possible that they have visited this planet throughtout our history and maybe even had a impact on some cultures. Take for example the landing strips in South America, built long before flying vehicles. The pictures on the walls of Egyptian temples of creatures flying in disk shaped vehicles. The Assyrian mentioning that man was slaves to a alien race that came here from another planet. When you place all of these together, you have to wonder at least a little bit. Not that I would think they are the source of the God concept. They could have played a role in human development though.
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New Religion or Fix it
by JH indo you figure that the watchtower only needs a bit of fine tuning, small minor ajustments, or do you believe that they are completely off the track as far as biblical knowledge is concerned?
i ask this question since many don't seem to find any other religion to replace this one.
so maybe this religion only needs fine tuning, or many small minor ajustments that would solve most of their problems.
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whyhideit
It does not seem possible to make one religion that will please everyone. To think that is possible, is to ignore histories evolution of religion. If you have ever played a guitar and placed two side by side, then you know that when you strike a cord, if it is in the same tune as another on the other guitar. That cord will vibrate, as well. To me that is what religion is like, in that not all thoughts inspire thoughts in us. So as a life search, we have three choices in our search for religion. One, stays in the one we were raised it, with no questions asked. Two, find a religion that means something to us. Three, have nothing to do with religion and move onto other things. Basically, adjusting the Jehovah's Witnesses to our taste, just means we would have to take it out of tune to someone else's life and they would then be where we are today, asking the same questions. Besides, if a religion claiming divine enlightenment is so wrong, could we ever put our trust in them in the future if they claimed to be corrected? I don't think I could.
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Am I oversimplifying?
by Gig ini'm fairly new here but regularly i read posts that recognize the significant lack of love among jw's.
would i be speaking too simply to say that since god is love... they just haven't truly accepted him into their hearts rendering them incapable of exibiting pure christian love in their lives?.
love isn't something we do for him, it's something he does through us.
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whyhideit
Every person in any organization, has to be looked at individually. There can be some really loving people in any organization or religion, and the complete opposite. I do not know if I would make up my mind on the love in the Jehovah's Witnesses based on a board of Ex-Jw's. You would have to see both sides to understand.
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God is nature
by joelbear ini believe god is nature, which includes all of us and that god uses our sensory mechanisms to experience everything.
at some moments god can actually experience everything as one time.
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whyhideit
Were part of nature, not seperate from it. So if we see God as nature, then we see ourselves as part of God, equal to God and more in control of the image of God.