We are human beings; I know that you wouldn’t have guessed if I hadn’t told you but I do have a very valid reason why I raise this point. Why BEINGS? What are we BEING?
(Originally published 13/04/2017)
The dictionary definition of ‘being’ is
a) existence – living, life, aliveness, actuality, essential nature, lifeblood, vital force
b) the nature or essence of a person – soul, spirit, psyche, inner-self, quiddity (inherent nature, peculiarity)
and this is exactly what we are BEING, we are being our true selves; our actuality, our vital force, our essence, our quiddity (I like that word because we are all a peculiarity, a curiosity, a mystery; something rare, unique and precious).
There is a problem though, we are missing something, we have forgotten that we are beings – we know that we are missing something and in our quest to discover what is missing we have turned ourselves into ‘Human Seekings’; constantly striving to find that meaning in our lives. We no longer believe the hype of mainstream society; that the latest gadget will bring us happiness, satisfaction and fulfilment, so we run around trying one thing after another, constantly seeking and searching for that missing factor.
One of the latest ‘fashionable things’ to grab hold of in this search is ‘Paganism’ and here we find a whole host of bigger problems (as if we needed any more!); Paganism, as it stands today, is confused. It is confused by so many things; from some of the concepts of modern Wicca and Witchcraft (including the brigade who MUST have the ACTUAL ‘Book of Shadows’ from Charmed – because Charmed is real you know), especially where those concepts espouse that ‘theirs is an age-old system’ not realising that Wicca, for instance, was introduced in 1954 by Gerald Gardner (nothing wrong with following Wicca, just don’t get confused) – to elements of ‘New-Age’, smile benignly at someone whilst patting them on the arm and explaining ‘that you only work with love and light, you couldn’t possibly work with anything negative’ (highly unbalanced).
This is just highlighting two of the areas of modern Paganism that are causing problems both leading to the same tendencies, turning us into ‘Human DOINGS’ – as long as we are ‘doing’ rituals, waving sharp pointy things (wands) or bright sparkly things (crystals) then we are ‘Pagan’ and we have it cracked. Do we?
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘Pagan’ as being “A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions, especially nature worship” – no sharp pointy or bright sparkly things (in the past the term was used in a derogatory sense to denote anyone who wasn’t a Christian), it also traces the word back to its origins in ‘Late Middle English’ from the Latin word ‘Paganus’ – a villager or rustic, and the word ‘Pagus’ – a country district. This takes us back to the Old Ways of our ancestors who were country dwellers living in close relationship to and harmony with the land and nature; this relationship and the knowledge of ‘how everything worked’ (both in this world and the Other-world, both mundane and magical) infiltrated every aspect of life and has been passed down to us (especially in rural areas) by both word of mouth and by being hidden in plain sight in such things as our customs, folk-lore and practices.
This also brings us back to the beginning of this blog; BEING. Our ancestors knew the art of ‘Being’; the art of knowing exactly who you are, your relationship with the natural world around you and how the whole thing ‘hangs together’, we need to rediscover it. It isn’t about ‘bells’ or ‘whistles’, it isn’t about a right way or a wrong way, we are all unique and we understand things and make sense of things in our own way (so long as you have the fundamental ‘relationship with nature’), it doesn’t matter if you understand deity as being ‘Polytheistic’ (many gods) or ‘Panthesitic’ (everything in the universe is the same energy, so the whole is deity). How you make sense of things is up to you – Quiddity, always remember QUIDDITY (knew that I would get to use that word again lol).
Go on – give it a go – try BEING, don’t let anyone else tell you that they are right and you are wrong, that theirs is the ‘right way’; because of Quiddity, if they are right it makes every single other person wrong.
Go on then – what are you waiting for? Try BEING, you will be surprised at what comes to you.