Which religion do you follow?

[Piparskeggr]

Hail all;

I am Asatru.

I was raised to be Roman Catholic; baptism, confession, communion, confirmation...but I gave up the Church for Lent after a Jesuit priest imparted some very odd (to me at the time) teachings during "Sunday School" the evening of 16 March 1975: reincarnation, past life recall, human auras/energy fields, feeling and controlling same. Didn't quite seem "orthodox" to me, who had already been questioning.

Late in the evening of 9 July 1989 I was participating in a sweat lodge with some friends. The text of the ceremony accompanying the experience was quite Germanic and Kurt (the sweat leader) encouraged us to use the time for meditating and, perhaps, gaining a vision. The sweat was the first of 3 parts in a ritual rededicating ourselves as friends within an SCA fighting household.

To this day, I believe that Uller gifted me with a visit to his lodge in the Yewdales.

Over the past 20 years I have had experiences of Uller and others of the Holy Powers, which have helped me and inspired me.

As to whether or not my beliefs are worthwhile; my parents think I am a better man for having them, though they are still Catholic.

[Will]

Other

I am uncertain. There is an atheist side to me but also one which believes that humans are more than their bodies, electrical beings perhaps who carry on into the 'afterlife'. Perhaps that is the side of me which wants to live on somewhere else and not simply end.

Either way, I do not worship any higher being(s).

[Gooding]

No preferred religion.I honor nature, I'm aware of many wonderful theories from the scientific community regarding the creation of the universe and I've been involved in so many religions, I've come to believe that religion is subjective.At death, I believe that parts of my personality will rub off on the people I come into contact with and my physical and psychological genes will be inherited by my children and their descendants.My body will either disintegrate or turn to cinders, to be scattered to the wind.Nothing special, I'm just like any other organism! I do try to keep an open mind, but not one so open that my brain falls out. Afterlife? Any objective recording of such a thing? Nope.Anything's possible, but as personalities can alter dramatically even from one month to the next, I don't believe in some personality suddenly static and immortal because the brain and heart ceased to function.Dead is dead, although we do live on in the minds and hearts of those closest to us.Any energy we disperse is recycled back into the earth.I can only hope that once my body's absorbed into dust, some descendant might have the common courtesy to plant some high grade marijuana or some corn to be used for moonshine in my soil.. I'd like to think my remains would be put to some constructive use.

With that said, I've got to throw my persistent fondness for the Roman Catholic Faith I was raised in into the picture.Aemma and Solwyn said it better than I could, so I know that they'll understand me when I say that although I do have my own set of beliefs, I could never truly say "good bye" to the Catholic religion as it does form a good part of my identity and it is part of my heritage.I still have a couple of rosaries in my desk that my wife, despite her loathing of the Christian religion, will not dare throw away.That isn't all, as I do retain a fondness for certain American Indian spiritualities that led me to Asatru.I do retain the reverence for this land that I developed during that period of time as I retain the respect and sense of belonging to the Catholic Church that was molded into me decades ago.See how complicated things get when put under dispassionate analysis?

[Angantyr]

With that said, I've got to throw my persistent fondness for the Roman Catholic Faith I was raised in into the picture.Aemma and Solwyn said it better than I could, so I know that they'll understand me when I say that although I do have my own set of beliefs, I could never truly say "good bye" to the Catholic religion as it does form a good part of my identity and it is part of my heritage.I still have a couple of rosaries in my desk that my wife, despite her loathing of the Christian religion, will not dare throw away.That isn't all, as I do retain a fondness for certain American Indian spiritualities that led me to Asatru.I do retain the reverence for this land that I developed during that period of time as I retain the respect and sense of belonging to the Catholic Church that was molded into me decades ago.See how complicated things get when put under dispassionate analysis?

Clearly, it is a common thread to many. In many ways, I am vehemently anti-Christian and anti-Abrahamic in general. Yet, the Catholic Church is an integral part of my Quebecois heritage. And I lovingly keep some very old rosaries as a tie to my ancestors...but not as items with a religious purpose.

[Cato]

I think that we all have some residual attachment to the religions of our birth, even if we've moved beyond them. I was raised in a Methodist household, but I've moved beyond Christianity into a religious belief system that can only be called other. My views of Christianity are, at the best of times, ambivalent (I've got more respect for Jesus, even if he never existed, than for Paul; I've got more respect for the Old Testament than for the New; Jehovah, whoever he is, may or may not be God, but he still deserves respect; I've got the belief that even an incorrect belief in God is better than no belief at all, and yes, there is a single correct belief in God [and it's not Christianity nor atheism]; etc.). Yet, I still retain a modicum of respect for the influence and power of Christianity (or another other deeply-rooted belief) to change a person's life, for good or bad.

[Bari]

Officially i am roman-catholic. Myself i am atheist.

[Barreldriver]

I'm starting to head down a more Celto route. I've been reading more Celtic myths and legends than Germanic, and it seems more "natural" to my tastes.

[Guapo]

I've been "agnostic" since losing a child a few years ago.I've lost all faith that I had before while most people turn to it during bad times.I'm slowly trying to gain it back.

[Mrs Ulf]

I picked other. Mostly because I can't really classify my religion appropriately. I started out christian, but mostly because of upbringing.

At an early age I found great solace in traditional ways of thinking. It started with Native American culture. I enjoyed the traditional ways they looked at the earth and the animals. I had no idea my own heritage had its own traditional ways.

Next was witch crafty stuff, I did that for a little while. I laughed at the Wiccan rules, and was turned off by their harm none do as you will crap. I found it all too 'nerd at a renfaire'-ish, to even be classified as a religion. I however did find my love for herbalism from that.

When I did first learn about the whole Heathen/Asatru world I was pretty happy. I was mostly excited about the fact that my heritage had a past, and that I had something old and beautiful to be proud of.

However, I am the most unsatisfied unless I'm searching for something new, but my past still brings me to my current self. The gods are my strength as I carry myself into the unknown territories of my inner being.

If I were to pick a word for the faith I have, it would be Traditionalist. My being is a collective of faith and heritage that I fully intend to investigate to the best of my ability. I will continue to further myself and my faith as I go through life.

In short, I really do hate to commit myself to a single word or path, knowing full well I'll be a constantly changing person through every year I have here.

[Hrafn]

It is very hard for me to say what i am. I wouldn't call myself one of those names like traditionalist, perennialist or some newly coined names such as ''radical traditionalist''. I am neither futurist or post modernist and what to say about being a modernist.
I consider myself syncretist between certain practices, beliefs and traditions which are rooted in Europe (Goths,Cathars,old Viking beliefs, pre-Christian Alpine traditions, beliefs of ancient Germanic peoples altogether) which have roots in Vedic India (especially Vaishnavism) and very ancient Persia. To make it easier I consider myself adherent of Indo-European, precisely Indo-Germanic beliefs.

EDIT: With that in mind I symphatize and follow works of groups and people like: Geza von Nemenyi of GGG or Germanische Glaubens Gemeinschaft, Christopher Gérard of Société d'Etudes Polythéistes,then Northvegr Foundation and to some extent Rune Gild of Stephen E. Flowers. I very much like and read as well Alain De Benoist and his GRECE and i do like some ideas and concepts of Dr. Pierre Krebs and Thule Seminar (i don't quite agree with him on issue of Russia and that he is also member of Artgemeinschaft, but hey, you can't be perfect) and Dr. Tomislav Sunic ( again i have some issues with some for myself too extreme ideas and thoughts, but that is his ''problem'' and his view, not mine) who has whole corpus of interesting texts and books in Croatian and English language.

Many other people have big influence on me. Certainly probably most important is Ernst Jünger whose works i take nowadays as most crucial for my further spiritual growth.Not to forget in the end people like: Croatian Dr. Milan pl.Sufflay and Dr. Ivo Pilar (both of them early Croatian heathens and intellectuals),another Croatian prof. Kerubin Segvic who had his book on Croatian connection with the Ostrogoths,Julius Evola,Oswald Spengler,Mathilde Ludendorff,Ram Swarup,Henryk Skolimowski,Ludwig Fahrenkrog,Herman Wirth,Georges Dumezil and Mircea Eliade.All these people helped shape my spiritual outlook and belief.



Personally, i don't find any kind of Christianity (except perhaps what Cathars, Bogomils and Patarens did teach to some little extent - i really admire Cathars) at all interesting, Judaism and Islam (obviously), Buddhism and modern Hinduism or any other religion, sect or belief. Those don't interest me at all and i never had any interest in them.
I have to admit that i am fascinated by one Jesus Christ deity. It is one which depicts Jesus as a warrior king and not as some crucified sissy. Jesus is more depicted on that sculpture as Odin. There he looks very similar to sculpture of Odin at House Atlantis which is now sadly gone.
http://jeffdiehl.com/haus.htm

Sculpture of Jesus as warrior can be found in the crypt (crypt is actually part of old Viking place of worship/church) of Church of Our Lady in town of Aarhus, Denmark.