Personal stories
Stories of people who have changed paths or are leaving their religion.
-
Deep magic
Read more: Deep magicChanging Paths challenge day 17 — deep magic The deepest magic that I know is love. Not sacrificial love, not romantic love, but the everyday magic of connection, nourishing and soul-satisfying.
-
Stories
Read more: StoriesChanging Paths challenge day 16 — stories. The power of stories to change and challenge a person’s worldview is immense. My worldview was definitely informed by reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Writing on the Hearth by Cynthia Harnett (now sadly forgotten by…
-
Things I don’t miss
Read more: Things I don’t missChanging Paths challenge day 12 — things I don’t miss about the traditions I have left.
-
Lover of leaving
Read more: Lover of leavingChanging Paths challenge day 11 — why I left I left Unitarianism in the end because of archetypes. The archetype that fits me the best is that of the witch, and it’s an archetype that sits uncomfortably in the Unitarian path. (The combination may work for others: didn’t work for me.) I left Christianity because…
-
Still friends
Read more: Still friendsChanging Paths challenge day 10 — still friends. I’m still friends with several Unitarians, either in person or on social media. Last September two of our longest-standing Unitarian friends from the UK came to visit us in Canada and we had a great time together. A quote from one of them found its way into…
-
Old friends
Read more: Old friendsChanging Paths challenge day 9 — old friends. Although Unitarianism * / Unitarian Universalism wasn’t my path, I still value many of their ideas and values. They’re green, they’re LGBT+ inclusive or at least welcoming, they were the first to ordain women ministers (the Universalists in 1860, the English Unitarians in 1904), among the first…
-
Blogging/photo challenge
Read more: Blogging/photo challengeThe Changing Paths challenge for May 2023. Feel free to skip a day or post something different from the topic of the day, but if you do the whole thing, I think you’ll arrive at a new perspective on your path.
-
“I won’t kneel for their god anymore”
Read more: “I won’t kneel for their god anymore”James Gardner Davis has written an amazing reflection on changing paths in response to my guest appearance on the Missing Witches podcast. Their candid discussion of how religious trauma is a catalyst for people to seek out more inclusive spaces, typically outside of Christianity, is so useful for so many people who are seeking out…
-
Patron deities
Read more: Patron deitiesThe concept of patron deities in polytheism caused me a lot of trouble back in the day. I was on a polytheist mailing list and it seemed like everyone on the list had a patron deity who had approached them personally. They were also adamant that the deity approached them and not the other way…
-
I’d rather be “left behind”
Read more: I’d rather be “left behind”There’s a good article in The Guardian today about the nasty psychological effects of being exposed to constant propaganda about the rapture and being “left behind”. Trigger warning if you’ve been exposed to that kind of bad theology. Thankfully I left the evangelical nonsense before the trend for making these movies happened.
-
“a little bit of a weird outcome”
Read more: “a little bit of a weird outcome”From six-year-old Tibetan monk to teenage Ibiza raver: a Spanish boy’s incredible journey. Osel Hita Torres joined a monastery after the Dalai Lama declared him a reincarnated spiritual leader, but at 18 he broke free and moved to Ibiza. A new TV series tells his story. Ashifa Kassam
-
Escape from Scientology
Read more: Escape from ScientologyTW: Scientology, religious trauma. ‘At 52, I abandoned everything, every friend, every family member’: the top official who escaped Scientology (The Guardian) When he was certain that he wasn’t being followed, he caught the tube to the National Portrait Gallery, where he sat on the grass outside and let his heart rate slow to its…
-
Repost: My spiritual journey
Read more: Repost: My spiritual journeyI came to terms with being gay in 1996. At the time I was an evangelical Christian and tried to keep my faith for two and a half years. It didn’t work. I realized that even if I accepted I was gay, my upbringing had taught me to hate myself and see myself as worthless…
-
A change of perspective
Read more: A change of perspectiveThere was a guy in one of my classes — let’s call him Jonathan — who was openly gay. I had never knowingly interacted with, or even seen, anyone gay before. … He just stood and sang, a capella. It was honestly beautiful in its own right — Jonathan has a great voice. But, as…
-
Reblog: Marking the seasons
Read more: Reblog: Marking the seasonsA really nice post about discovering that you can enjoy the cycles of the seasons without needing to believe in the gods: you can be an AtheoPagan. I realized I could do anything that I wanted to do. For someone raised in an oppressive religion, this thought is life changing. And what did I want…
Changing Paths 