hello

[deathmetalfan6]

hey everyone i am a 20 year old pagan atheist germanic (mostly) male from the US. this is my first time using a forum like this.

[Loki]

Welcome to the forum! :)

[Skjaldemjøden]

Welcome!
How exactly does pagan atheism work?

[Era]

hey everyone i am a 20 year old pagan atheist germanic (mostly) male from the US. this is my first time using a forum like this.

Welcome. I read that as mostly male and then realised it was mostly german :D

[Dr. Robotnik the Subbotnik]

Welcome, you seem cool (democratic socialism as your politics make you seem cool to me, because I am a pan leftist). Also, 1/8 native american is a lot, that's pretty cool.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Hi

[Qara]

Hello.

[deathmetalfan6]

yeah i probably should have switched it around before i posted lol. and back to Skjaldemjøden's question about pagan atheism, paganism isn't so much it's own religion as it is a constellation of different belief systems that take many forms, from believing in the actual deities, seeing them as symbolic archetypes, etc. in my case, i follow asatru or germanic neopaganism but i see the norse gods (odin, thor, loki, tyr, etc) as aspects of the self and not as actual dieties, basically it all depends how certain pagans perceive the concept of deity.

[Leo Iscariot]

Salutation.

[Wild North]

Welcome!

[♥ Lily ♥]

Hi. :) This is my first and the only forum I've ever joined too. There's a lot of interesting topics and diverse subject threads here, such as music, architecture, technology, art, weather, food and drink, news, psychology, nature, wildlife, discussion groups, etc, and the site layout is very good too.

I take it by your username that you like death metal which is awesome. :) Who is your favourite death metal band? Do you like other genres of metal too?

I'm a bit confused by the term Pagan-Atheist.

I've taken a lot of interest in Paganism in the past, read books on the history and philosophies of Paganism, energies, Witchcraft, tarot, crystals, herbs, dark neo-Pagan books and books on ghosts too, and I've also met people with degrees in Witchcraft and History for their discussion groups on the subject where psychologists and historians attended the discussion groups too, but I was still sceptical about life after death and wanted evidence that it was real. My emotions could relate to the thought of an afterlife, but my mind was still doubtful.

So I attended a few guided tours of supposed haunted sites led by a Master of the Black Arts and Witchcraft with a degree in the subject, after I noticed leaflets about him and his spiritual tours in a witchcraft bookshop, and he's also a herbal healer, a fencer, and he's authored several books on the subject of Dark Paganism and he's contributed his knowledge to 3 films, and so after seeing all his credentials, I contacted his number and arranged to meet up with him for guided spiritual tours of haunted sites in London, and it was 1-to-1 meetings since nobody else showed up, and after paying him a small fee for his talks and guided walks, I'd ask him questions about metaphysics and energies, but I didn't actually see any ghosts during his guided walks, although he'd point out where the ghosts were and he knew a lot on the subject of witchcraft and energies.

He showed me some newspaper clippings of himself once whilst we were taking a break from our walk of haunted sites and sat down in a supposed haunted old pub. The newspaper article he showed to me with his photo in the paper had branded him as being a bit of a fruitcake which he found humorous. Then he was explaining that the old pub we were sitting in was haunted. I thought to myself that the only spirits I could see were the ones being served at the bar. :P

I was disappointed not to see any ghosts as I wanted to believe in an afterlife, especially after my partner suddenly died and I went to identify his body, and then I was in shock and distress and doing so much spiritual searching after their death and wanting to believe he was still 'alive' and hoping I could spiritually find a way to connect to him still, sitting in graveyards, feeling lost, doing intense thinking and reading books about death and ghosts for a year or two, lighting candles and going along to discussion groups on Paganism and guided tours of haunted sites.

He said to me that he took a group of people to see a supposed vampire in Highgate Cemetery, London, and that the group of people told him they couldn't see the vampire in the graveyard. He said to me that he'd told the group of people that the reason why they couldn't see the vampire like he could see it was because they didn't have a 'third eye' like him to see it, and that's when I thought to myself, 'ok.... eyes are eyes; if the vampire was there and he could see it, other people would see it too.' :rolleyes:

All was not lost from those walks with him though since he showed me some unusual and hidden architecture during his guided spiritual tours of haunted sites, and his discussions were interesting.

Then I went to stay in a beautiful old village and a small cottage-style hotel in one of the most haunted villages in England with a friend, and some strange things happened whilst we stayed there, but there could be logical explanations for the things I saw, such as mirages.

I'm an Atheist now (simply because I don't believe in life after death, nor creationism or a caring god sitting in the sky, (not when I look at the reality of nature, accidents and deaths happening, sick children being born, dinosaur skeletons in museums, autopsy videos, geology videos, etc,) and after much intense thinking, searching, sitting in graveyards and searching for evidence of life after death and finding nothing, I started reading different philosophy books which weren't based on theories, but factual books by Doctor LaVey related to the real world.)

I'd like to believe in life after death and that our loved ones are still alive (who wouldn't like to believe in this dream?!) and I've tried searching for evidence of spirits and ghosts and didn't find much evidence of it, let alone proof of life after death, and trying to find a meaning to existence, but now I've found new strength in accepting mortality and focusing on the real world and that keeping the memory of a person in your heart is a way of keeping them 'alive' in a more tangible way.

If I wasn't an Atheist and if I was able to be tempted into believing in the magical dream of an afterlife as a sugar-pill to escape from reality, I know I'd choose to be a Pagan as it's a very natural belief system which makes a lot of natural sense. I consider myself as an Atheist but I still give support to Pagans as they're not harming anyone else in connecting to the energies around us in nature, and I think it's their human rights to be able to have their natural, ancient, and gender-respecting beliefs of Gods and Goddesses, High Priestesses and High Priests, etc, without persecution or vilification from the abusive, misogynistic and totalitarian Abrahamic religious groups. I take an interest in both nature and science, so I think we have something in common with our beliefs.

Anyway, sorry for the babble, I just wanted to let you know I can understand the appeal of some branches of Neo-Paganism too, even though I'm an Atheist like you.