Hmm... where to even begin? (I'm great with honest-to-goodness questions, but ask me to ramble and I... get kind of pointless.)
Well, first, because this all started with wicca, but that isn't so much me anymore, here's the wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca) on wicca... I haven't read it all the way through, so I'm working under the assumption it's remotely close to accurate. If something sounds really awfully weird, ask me to clarify. So I discovered wicca (basically a modern nature-based-polytheistic (usually) religion, but ask 10 witches what they believe and you'll get 14 (at least) different answers) back at age 12 or so. And was very intrigued. But not in the "I wanna do that" sorta way. Until later I was. And then I came to college, and met more people who actually were pagan and wiccan (wiki article on "pagan" here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan) - again haven't read it all the way through, but I trust the wiki, mostly) and continued studying it. But it's a very fluid culture, with a LOT of room for your own personal opinions and very personal spiritual experience. So no two people really see diety the same way. And the basic system works with just about any mythology (I even know some "christian" witches. And Jewish witches.) Kind of like how a sonnet is a poetic structure, and sonnets are built the same, but the words/ideas are different from writer to writer and poem to poem.
Anyway, I felt a deep kinship with the Greek Gods and mythologies. And I guess I interact with them similarly to how most people interact with however they interpret god. Despite some inclination to more formal, ritualized practice, my actual nature lends itself more to just experiencing things... I kind of lose some of the "message" if something is too structured. (Which I don't like about myself, because intellectual I love structured. It just doesn't work for me. Possibly because I'm lazy. Or maybe for some other reason entirely.)
I don't work with just Dionysus (he was just who was most relevant to the above ideas), but also with Persephone, Kore (which is where my name comes from, though my parents didn't do that on purpose, they just liked it), Artemis, Zeus, Hades, Hecate, Hestia, Hermes and Mercury (one of the very few Roman gods I work with at all), Athena, Hera, Aphrodite, Kalliope and the rest of the muses, Demeter (some), and by extension most of the rest of the pantheon from time to time. And whoever I'm (probably) forgetting right at the moment. Because I'm bad about that.
(this is certainly one reason I'm so in love w/ BSG right now. it's rare to see my religion (even in a slightly skewed form) depicted in shows. It's kinda cool, really. I just about cheered when Leoben asked Kara about Artemis and Aphrodite. ::G::)
Feel free to ask me questions, I'm more than happy to answer. ::g::
no subject
Well, first, because this all started with wicca, but that isn't so much me anymore, here's the wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca) on wicca... I haven't read it all the way through, so I'm working under the assumption it's remotely close to accurate. If something sounds really awfully weird, ask me to clarify. So I discovered wicca (basically a modern nature-based-polytheistic (usually) religion, but ask 10 witches what they believe and you'll get 14 (at least) different answers) back at age 12 or so. And was very intrigued. But not in the "I wanna do that" sorta way. Until later I was. And then I came to college, and met more people who actually were pagan and wiccan (wiki article on "pagan" here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan) - again haven't read it all the way through, but I trust the wiki, mostly) and continued studying it. But it's a very fluid culture, with a LOT of room for your own personal opinions and very personal spiritual experience. So no two people really see diety the same way. And the basic system works with just about any mythology (I even know some "christian" witches. And Jewish witches.) Kind of like how a sonnet is a poetic structure, and sonnets are built the same, but the words/ideas are different from writer to writer and poem to poem.
Anyway, I felt a deep kinship with the Greek Gods and mythologies. And I guess I interact with them similarly to how most people interact with however they interpret god. Despite some inclination to more formal, ritualized practice, my actual nature lends itself more to just experiencing things... I kind of lose some of the "message" if something is too structured. (Which I don't like about myself, because intellectual I love structured. It just doesn't work for me. Possibly because I'm lazy. Or maybe for some other reason entirely.)
I don't work with just Dionysus (he was just who was most relevant to the above ideas), but also with Persephone, Kore (which is where my name comes from, though my parents didn't do that on purpose, they just liked it), Artemis, Zeus, Hades, Hecate, Hestia, Hermes and Mercury (one of the very few Roman gods I work with at all), Athena, Hera, Aphrodite, Kalliope and the rest of the muses, Demeter (some), and by extension most of the rest of the pantheon from time to time. And whoever I'm (probably) forgetting right at the moment. Because I'm bad about that.
(this is certainly one reason I'm so in love w/ BSG right now. it's rare to see my religion (even in a slightly skewed form) depicted in shows. It's kinda cool, really. I just about cheered when Leoben asked Kara about Artemis and Aphrodite. ::G::)
Feel free to ask me questions, I'm more than happy to answer. ::g::