This Spiritual Path

I realized last night that I've been heading down this spiritual path for quite some time, possibly longer than I thought I had been.

I've had key moments in my life that have added up to where I am now and where I'm headed tomorrow, and I've had no idea about the weight these events would have in my life while they were going on.

I'm stunned and oh so thankful that my life has led me here. I thank the Universe for sending me those little nudges along the way to get me to where I am today.

It's been a wonderful journey so far and I can't wait to see where tomorrow leads!


Blessed Be,
Love and Light.
-Aphaiawyn

Speaking in Tongues

I always thought speaking in tongues was primarily a Christian practice, and it still is as far as I know, but I think other faiths may be opening up to it as well.  I also always thought that speaking in tongues was for crazy people.  Here's why.


Growing up I was told that Pentecostal Christians were those crazy people that wriggled around on the floor during church and rambled gibberish and had all sorts of crazy notions about God.  I'm not meaning that statement to offend any Pentecostals who might happen upon this blog; I'm only sharing what I was taught as a kid from my parents.  It is interesting to note that my father was raised Pentecostal for a short time.

My parents saw the act of speaking in tongues as a joke.  They basically believed that these people who claimed to be able to speak in tongues were frauds.  I came to believe this, too.

My Episcopal priest gave a sermon on speaking in tongues one Sunday that I remember.  He explained the act of speaking in tongues by using the old testament story about the Tower of Babel as part of his defense for his position.  For those who may not be familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel, it was told that all of Earth's people spoke one language at the time.  The people basically attempted to build a tower that could reach God in Heaven.  God was angered by this and as punishment He "confused the language of the whole world." (Genesis 11:9)  My priest explained this to be when other languages came about and how come some people speak English while others speak Hebrew and others speak German, and French, and on and on.

The reason my priest used this as a foundation for his sermon was to set the stage for Jesus' disciples and their acts after his crucifixion.  He basically explained the miracle of speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit touching a person and giving that person the ability, temporarily, to be able to speak fluently in a language foreign to them for the purpose of prophesying Jesus' message all over the world.  This explanation actually made sense to me; it gave a concrete and functional purpose to the gift of speaking in tongues.  I still believe to this day that truly speaking in tongues is this act by the Holy Spirit that my priest spoke about, and I'm not even Christian anymore.

I know that there are plenty of Christians out there who will discount my belief and give personal example of speaking in tongues as evidence.  What I would like to make clear is that I'm not trying to discount their experiences to say they're not spiritual ones; I just wouldn't label the practice as speaking in tongues.  Every persons' relationship with God or Goddess or Spirit or Deity is individual and personal.  If a person feels closer to God through letting their mouth and their tongue make whatever sounds it's going to make, I can accept that as a truly spiritual act.  In fact, it's much like meditation but through the use of one's voice instead of the use of one's third eye. It also hearkens to the Pagan practice of chanting to bring about a higher spiritual experience.


There are many other points I thought about making, but the overall idea of this post is to simply give my opinion on the act of speaking in tongues and what I believe the actual act is.  I believe fundamentalist Christians have misunderstood the reason behind and the meaning of speaking in tongues and have in turn stumbled upon another spiritual practice and have mis-labeled it.

The Nature of God/dess

Recently, I emailed CricketSong of Lunar Wisdom (youtube channel) a question that had been weighing on my spiritual life for some time: what is the nature of God/dess?  I loved her reply so much, I asked her permission to share it on my blog, and she said yes!  So, without further ado, here's her eloquent answer:

You pose an interesting question. Here are my thoughts and opinions on the question of the nature of god/goddess.

My belief is that God Herself is transcendent immanent and manifested. Everything that exists on this physical plane of existence is a manifestation of God Herself. The nature of deity is spirit or energy and essence that cannot be touched physically but rather emotionally.

God Herself is all-powerful, omniscient, supremely understanding and loving as well as perfect, however what is important to understand is that perfection is subjective. We understand these words from a very human perspective and even then we each understand perfection from a personal perspective that is tainted by our own human experiences. God Herself is beyond this, though she is also of each individual human experience because we each are of and are part of what makes God Herself.

What is different between Wicca and Christianity is that we understand that God Herself IS within each of us but we ARE God Herself as well because we ARE manifestations of God Herself. There truly is no difference between humans and deities. Deities are personifications of God Herself so that we can easily relate to the qualities and attributes of The All. When we look at immortality we also understand that we, too, are immortal. Our physical bodies die but we are reborn. Personally I do not believe that God Herself requires worship. Worship is not a word I use when I discuss my relationship with deity. I work with my goddess and god. I also remember that I am a manifestation of them and treat myself with respect and love.

Many blessings of abundance and love!

~ CricketSong ~

This answer explained so much for me, and it really helped me understand where I was having a hang-up in my spiritual journey.  Thank you again to CricketSong for the wonderful answer, and I hope her explanation can help someone else, too!

Navigating the Pagan World While Living in the Bible Belt

Maybe it's because my hubby's extended family members are mostly (if not all) Southern Baptists, but I've found that being Pagan in the south can be quite draining.  I'm out of the broom closet to my parents and Hubby's parents specifically, and "Pagan" is my posted religion on Facebook, but I haven't come out and plastered it everywhere.  Sometimes I wonder if it would be better in the long run to be blunt about my religious position, or if I'm going about it the right way as I am.

I posted a status update this morning asking Spirit for guidance.  Two people, one a family friend and one an extended family member, posted comments questioning my usage of the word "spirit."  Of course, the extended family member who is a Southern Baptist commented that I should be careful what spirits I contact and that I should only ever be led by the Holy Spirit "through the written word of God."  Because I believe that when I talk to Spirit, The All, Goddess, etc. I am speaking to the same entity worshiped by Christians and other peaceful religions, I simply explained that my use of the title of Spirit was meant to be gender-neutral since I believe that God has both masculine and feminine qualities.  That answer seemed to appease the formerly mentioned family member.

God as Perfect

In Christianity, God is perfect.  He is all-knowing, all-powerful. He is omniscient.  I may be wrong on this, but for the most part when I've looked into other polytheistic mythologies and pantheons, the gods aren't all-powerful, and they're actually rather human in nature.  The biggest difference between humans and gods in many pantheons (such as the Greek and Roman gods) is that gods are immortal.  They're not even invincible, they just won't die of old age.

They're also not all-powerful.  Each god has a special ability over nature or an aspect of human culture.  Poseidon rules the ocean, Zeus rules the sky, Ares is the god of war, Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty, etc.

It's a little weird to think of deities that have limits after being raised to believe in one all mighty and limitless god.  Rather, I've learned to believe each god or goddess to be an aspect of Spirit, a face of the All, just a piece of the overall puzzle of deity.

But it's still weird.  If Spirit doesn't have limits (debatable? I don't know) then why would any of Spirit's faces or aspects have limits?  Is it because that aspect is balanced by another aspect to nullify Spirit's limits?  This thinking can become confusing and complicated.

Anyway, God as perfect is still more or less an Abrahamic idea as far as I can tell.  Any Pagans or Buddhists or Hindus or anyone of a polytheistic view who would like to expand on the biology, makeup, or other aspects of Spirit/God/Deity, please feel free to comment!  Also, any monotheists who have a mind for input, please include yours as well.  I would, however, appreciate civility and politeness when commenting.  Any comment I receive that I deem to be inappropriate will be deleted.


Thanks all!

Tamra