Religion

[Black Shuck]

If wiccan and celtic tradionalism didn't fit me, I'd probably go ecletic as I believe in a lot of stuff like you do. I want to be a religion that I agree with and makes me feel alive and connected, whether it's to the universe or or to some good people. I want it to make me feel happy and give me hope when I need it

[Scott Gardener]

Wicca is like Linux. It comes in many distributions. There are die-hards who want to bash the other system that most people use, and there are those who work hard to develop a means of networking the two together or even dual-booting both on the same system. It's very modular and adaptable, but it takes a bit more work and requires a bit more geekiness to employ even for basic tasks, whereas the other system is offered as one that is easier to use.

I guess the faction of Fundamentalists who pass out those fliers every Halloween about the "dangers" of real-world Witchcraft are kind of like the SCO group. And Jews the MacIntosh users? OK, the analogies are getting silly.

[Black Shuck]

lol, I like those Scott- pretty witty!

[Shadow Wulf]

woah woah woah,.........woah ............woah.............................woah
whats a wicca and what linux and whats a celtic.

[Fenrir]

The celtic religeon is the original religeon of the English isles i believe and that's were the name Epona came from, but little is known about it

[Black Shuck]

woah woah woah,.........woah ............woah.............................woah
whats a wicca and what linux and whats a celtic.

I can't descibe Wiccans very well so I'll let someone else take that one over. Linux is a computer system (again, someone else can explain it more clearly than me) and Celtic (something I can explain, Yay!) is an ethnic group. Celts lived in Northern France, Northern Spain, and the British Isles. They're more well known as Irish, Welsh, and Scottish.

Here's a link to something I drew: http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b277/ ... /Cover.gif Scanned all shoddy I guess, but you get the idea

Celts drew a lot stuff like that. They believed that you weren't supposed to replicate something the Higher Powers created, so they went all creative and drew knots and stuff. Supposedly, they made Stonehenge, but the people that created it were there long before the Celts were.

One thing the Celts were known for was that they fought naked, except for the woad (blue plant that makes you crazy) smeared all over them. They also took the heads of the people they fought and were exellent horsemen (they even had chariots). They are also one of the 7 (or whatever little number it was) Great Barbarian Tribes, even though they were very hygenic.

Yes, I am a freak (when it comes to history type stuff )

[vrikasatma]

[Black Shuck]

Gold star for you! Just so I can watch myself type some more, there are seven Celtic nations, being: Breton, Galacia, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall. However, they also lived in other places on the mainland of Europe

Sorry, I'm rather obsessive when it comes to Celtic stuff, so I'm probably getting annoying throwing all of my useless knowledge around I'm just knowledgable on something for once, lol

[Shadow Wulf]

ok, I know Lniux is a computer system (the one with the pinguen, right?) I just thought it was a kind of religion. I guess they might have the microsoft religon.

[Black Shuck]

Linux is probably a religion amongst the technically enabled (aka computer geeks) I like the computer here though- they go don't on and on and on and on and on about computers like the kids at school do (what is the point of having a Windows XP desktop or whatever it is look like the desktop dealie for Macintosh? I just don't find being able to make WIndows look like Mac that interesting I'm sorry)

[vrikasatma]

[Black Shuck]

[Black Shuck]

Edit: Okay, so here's the question — I was assuming you meant the Basque when you said the Celts were in Iberia. I was under the impression that the Euskadi were their own unique ethnicity (having a near-monopoly on the O-negative blood type, the "raccoon eyes," joined eyebrows). The Celts, as I understand it, came out of the Caucasus and were related to the Scythians — which also gave rise to the Prussians — but the Euskadi were supposed to actually *be* Cro-Magnon Man and the original European natives. Which is it?
For the record, the characteristics of pure Spanish blood include red hair and green eyes.

All I know, because I focus more on the British Isles, is that Galicia is one of Gaelic nations and that that's in Northern Spain. I haven't been to been that region of Spain, but I was in Zaragoza when the Basque Liberation Army bombed the airport in June (no one was hurt and I wasn't even near the airport, didn't even know about it until I got home )

I suppose that since those with pure Spanish blood have red hair and green eyes, they'd be the Celts and part of that group moved on the 'Isles seems how Irish people are suppose to have red hair and green eyes.

I am so freaking clueless now that I better shut up before my hole gets deeper

[vrikasatma]

[vrikasatma]

Also (just thought of this) the Celts had a very equal society regarding men and women. Women could fight in battles if they needed to and were seen as equals among men (or I've read anyways). I need to stop blathering before I get all mixed up again

Most of the so-called "barbarian" European peoples had the concept of sexual egalitarianism down. Scandinavian women held land and their female descendants carried their names with the suffix "-dottir" (as opposed to "-son" or "-sen"). It was in Roman (and also Greek) society where women were regarded and treated in a similar fashion to the way they are in many Arab countries these days: slightly better than slaves, though not as nicely as animals.

The Mongolian empire enjoyed sexual equality (as well as freedom of religion), too. And Western civilization is based on the Greco-Roman model, HA! No wonder we're so messed up...

[Black Shuck]

I meant Galicia, I can't remember how things are spelled today I'm cleared up about the Gauls now (my mind is becoming clearer, lol and I don't feel quiet so clueless hehe). Hmm Catalonians are in Southern Spain, like Barcelona. We got into our civilazation/bloodline thing because Shadow Wulf wanted to know what Celtic was and I went and blabbed my useless knowledge and you joined in I only call it useless because my school doesn't care for subject (they don't teach anything about it anyways). Me being an angry teenager, lol. I prolly deserve to have a duckie thrown at me too Hmm I think I'll pick this one for headgear!

[Black Shuck]

Most of the so-called "barbarian" European peoples had the concept of sexual egalitarianism down. Scandinavian women held land and their female descendants carried their names with the suffix "-dottir" (as opposed to "-son" or "-sen"). It was in Roman (and also Greek) society where women were regarded and treated in a similar fashion to the way they are in many Arab countries these days: slightly better than slaves, though not as nicely as animals.

The Mongolian empire enjoyed sexual equality (as well as freedom of religion), too. And Western civilization is based on the Greco-Roman model, HA! No wonder we're so messed up...

I knew Norse women held land, but I didn't know about the Mongolians. I wonder how the time periods mesh together for these groups? I thought the Celts haveing equality was some first or something...but the Vikings were around the time of the Celts because of the art influence and whatever....Bah, nevermind *quiets self again hehe*

[Scott Gardener]

The questions were already answered quite eloquently, but, I'm great at redundancy. So:

Wicca: a religion. It's nature-based, and a sub-group of Paganism. It's a contemporary reconstruction and update on some of the oldest tribal religions, as well as on numerous historic belief systems. A Google search will tell you more, but basically it's about nature worship, a pair of God and Goddess figures with various sub-personnas, and a belief in both harmonization with nature and the use of ornate rituals to engage in an equivalent of creative visualization to bring about desired effects--in short, witchcraft.

Linux: An open-source operating system, made available in numerous different "distributions," each variations produced by different groups or individuals. Its creation laid the groundwork for the open-source movement, and that is its principle claim to fame, though some distributions of the operating system itself have such a strong reputation for stability, versatility, and security that it has been the OS of choice for many servers, developers, and techies. I'm on it right now, by the way, though most of the time I've been on Windows like most of you. (Brownrigg, by the way, is a Mac person.)

Celts: A group of people who occupied the Brittish islands, influencing Scottish and Irish pre-Christian cultures. Though they have a reputation for aggressiveness, they were a very intellectual culture, and one noted in particular for their male/female equality; some of their greatest leaders were women, including Bodacea, who led an invasion and brief occupation of Rome in response to injustices brought against her people.

I compared Wicca to Linux in the sense that Wiccans follow different "traditions," which like Linux are based on the works of different groups or cultures, but follow the basic core architecture of the underlying belief. Celtic Wicca is a particularly popular tradition, and it is one that I myself follow.

[Spirit of the Wolf]

no religion here unless you count being a Therian as one.

[hydrocarbon]

Are we talking Galatia or Galicia?

I dunno, but the first thing I thought when I read that was Galactica. Too much sci-fi for me!

[Searif]

If wiccan and celtic tradionalism didn't fit me, I'd probably go ecletic as I believe in a lot of stuff like you do. I want to be a religion that I agree with and makes me feel alive and connected, whether it's to the universe or or to some good people. I want it to make me feel happy and give me hope when I need it

*nods* yeah thats why I chose to be a wiccan, it fits what I believe and what-not

[Terastas]

Wow. I didn't think I'd be getting a history lesson this early in the day. And as someone with both Celtic (Scottish) and Nordic (Norwegan) descent, I'm embarrassed by how little I can contribute to this.
Er... Don't mind me, carry on.

[Searif]

Wow. I didn't think I'd be getting a history lesson this early in the day. And as someone with both Celtic (Scottish) and Nordic (Norwegan) descent, I'm embarrassed by how little I can contribute to this.
Er... Don't mind me, carry on.

dont be, im scottish and british but I know almost nothing about the two

[Silverclaw]

I'm a celtic wolf (Have ancestors from Ireland and Scotland )
Does anyone know of any good websites about paganism and what its all about?

[Set]

I don't really have a religion. I believe what I believe, and to me there's no point in slapping a label on it. Some things I do believe in are: reincarnation (due to various, sometimes painful memories), various gods and goddesses (they're fun to talk to), mythical creatures (some of you may remember me ranting about Fenris), and multiple versions of the "great beyond" (meaning there's more than one place you can go to. Valhalla, Summerland, ect...but not everyone stays. There's no "heaven" or "hell" though - meaning there's no place where good people are rewarded and bad people are punished).

Some of the things I don't believe in are: one all-powerful god, the devil (Satan, Lucifer, whatever...), and karma. In my experience none of these things exist. By a human's standards my soul is very old. I've had lives as humans, and lives as animals. In none of them did I ever see any evidence of those things existing. What I did learn is that the universe is incredibly random. Almost nothing happens for a reason. What lives you get, what form you inhabit, where you end up...it's all chance. You roll the cosmic dice and whatever you get you're stuck with. There's no karma. No heaven. No hell. Just...chance.

I don't worship anyone. I could compare it to beauty pageants, most people are either ok with it or don't care. I on the other hand find it to be quite degrading. I do not consider a conversation with the divine to be the same thing as a prayer either. I don't pray.

As far as gods go there's a certain group of them that I am quite close to. The Egyptian gods and goddesses have always been there with me. I've had several lives in Egypt and I still consider myself an Egyptian even though the last time I was there was ages ago and my ancestors don't include even a drop of Egyptian blood. So you can see why it's that group and not another.

One god in particular is very special to me. Most people know him as Anubis. I would tell you why he's so special to me but it's kind of complicated. I'd probably sound like a complete loon anyway...ah hell, I'll just tell you. Anpu is my Papa. I'm not sure exactly how it works but that's what he told me. I remember reading something about people who follow something similar to the old Egyptian religion (I think they were calling themselves Egyptian Pagans) believing that a god or goddess creates you and is therefore your parent. That's well and good and all, but it's not the same thing. Like I said I'm not sure exactly how it works. It's...complicated.

Sometimes I wonder if he's the reason behind a nickname I'd acquired in one of my past lives. People called me the Jackal King, but I could never figure out why. I carry a piece of him with me wherever I go. He's always there for me whenever I need him. He's even given me a name. It's Japanese so I'm not sure why he picked it, but it suits me. Anpu calls me Hiro.

I kind of rambled a bit didn't I? Oh well.