In a riverside meadow in the Dorset town of Weymouth, a witch is using a broom to sweep a sacred circle in the grass.

The rest of the coven stand, some in hooded gowns, in a circle around an iron cauldron where a fire is burning.

They've met to celebrate Samhain, pronounced "sah-wen": the turning of the year from light into dark.

Many think of Halloween as a time of ghouls and ghosts, and for some retailers it has become the third most lucrative event of the year.

It is the time of year when some churches remember the souls of the departed.

For the witches of Weymouth it is one of their most important religious festivals, a time when they believe the barriers between the physical and spiritual worlds are at their thinnest.

More here (and a video clip) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11652512

chairman bill wrote:It's amazing the shit that people can make up, isn't it? The difference, the only difference really, is that Wiccans don't insist I should give them special privileges or respect, whereas most other religions do. As supernaturalist mumbo-jumbo nonsense goes, it's pretty harmless. Mad as a box of frogs, but mostly harmless.

Pretty much.
What baffles me about that - though - is that they don't even have the excuse of being born into that weird crap. I couldn't make my brain go that way if my life depended on it.

That article is a bit confused because the ritual video seems to be Wiccan, but the text talks about Paganism and Druids which are both different. I'm not and never have been affiliated with any of the above religions, I'm an atheist and a sceptic but some my ideas of the universe have got a bit odd since the meltdown of RDF. I may post about it at some point, don't worry I've not gone screaming mad just yet, I don't think I can break or bend the laws of the universe for my convenience and I don't take liberties with science.

Wiccans do make me chortle because generally they're wankers who can't even get the basics right. It's Freemasonic woo dressed up as nature worship. And personally speaking I'd rather not think that my penis is symbolically a sword.

chairman bill wrote:

electricwhiteboy wrote:... I'd rather not think that my penis is symbolically a sword.

Which begs the question, would you prefer your sword to be considered a penis?

Even Sigmund Freud knew: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Mazille wrote:

chairman bill wrote:

electricwhiteboy wrote:... I'd rather not think that my penis is symbolically a sword.

Which begs the question, would you prefer your sword to be considered a penis?

Even Sigmund Freud knew: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Only to excuse his own personal phallic-oral fixation.

Speaking of people who just made shit up ... but that's another topic.

Weaver wrote:

Mazille wrote:

chairman bill wrote:

Which begs the question, would you prefer your sword to be considered a penis?

Even Sigmund Freud knew: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Only to excuse his own personal phallic-oral fixation.

Speaking of people who just made shit up ... but that's another topic.

Mazille wrote:

chairman bill wrote:It's amazing the shit that people can make up, isn't it? The difference, the only difference really, is that Wiccans don't insist I should give them special privileges or respect, whereas most other religions do. As supernaturalist mumbo-jumbo nonsense goes, it's pretty harmless. Mad as a box of frogs, but mostly harmless.

Pretty much.
What baffles me about that - though - is that they don't even have the excuse of being born into that weird crap. I couldn't make my brain go that way if my life depended on it.

Well, as someone who DID go into it, I can tell you it is out of basic yearning for a spiritual side to life that does not involve having to repress natural desires.

A hell of a lot of pagans, in my experience, are actually apatheist. I never was, but had no literal belief in the gods, just that they were represnetations of the One Great Spirit.

When I realised I could no longer sustain even that belief I became a naturalist pagan, and now worship Nature for what science reveals it to be. I still value being a part ofc the pagan community, simply because I find that their values are so much better than those of my wider society and because of the beautiful artistic aesthetic and sense of celebration that exists within it.

zulumoose wrote:

I became a naturalist pagan, and now worship Nature for what science reveals it to be.

Worship in what way? I would have thought that since science does not attribute any kind of personality or will to nature, standing in awe of it as a whole might make sense, but not worship, which implies a belief that a consciousness is involved.

A consciousness is not involved. But consciousness is. You and me for example

Is a belief in an external consciousness necessary for worship? I know plenty of people who enjoy religious ritual without holding supernatural beliefs. (And would count myself in that camp, although I wouldn't go and label myself with any particular religion, any more than enjoying a hike through Northumberland would make me a Northumbrian.)

Radical theology has the "non-realist" version of God. He doesn't exist in any sense we'd usually say something exists: cloak and dagger atheism, basically. Or at its most honest, what cursuswalker says: human consciousness exists, and the thing we call "God" has its roots in there.

What is "worship"? Some positive action, I think. Being in awe of nature isn't enough to count IMO. But expressing that awe through some kind of applied ritual would do the job.

Its just an excuse for an orgy, isnt it?

james1v wrote:Its just an excuse for an orgy, isnt it?

That is just an additional benefit

Byron wrote:Is a belief in an external consciousness necessary for worship? I know plenty of people who enjoy religious ritual without holding supernatural beliefs. (And would count myself in that camp, although I wouldn't go and label myself with any particular religion, any more than enjoying a hike through Northumberland would make me a Northumbrian.)

Radical theology has the "non-realist" version of God. He doesn't exist in any sense we'd usually say something exists: cloak and dagger atheism, basically. Or at its most honest, what cursuswalker says: human consciousness exists, and the thing we call "God" has its roots in there.

What is "worship"? Some positive action, I think. Being in awe of nature isn't enough to count IMO. But expressing that awe through some kind of applied ritual would do the job.

^^^
This