Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

I recently started reading about druidism after spending the majority of my life an atheist. I found myself missing the spirituality side: rituals and a connection for meditation/introspection, which druidism provides (all revolving around nature, earth, moon, and sun). Additionally, druidism has a lot of neat math/science roots that I find pleasing, such as the eight holidays and the wheel of the year.

Druidism has a really loose belief system and offers a couple of options for you to choose from: mono, poly, and pantheism. I reject most "god-like" things, but I think I could become something of a pantheist (the universe is God).

I don't believe any religion knows what happens after you die, and frankly I don't really care. We aren't supposed to know, it's the great mystery, and instead we should focus on ensuring everyone lives their best life. Druidism has a theory about the after life and how you go through various lives until you become a good person, but it's not something I spend time thinking about. As an aside, Iris DeMent's song Let The Mystery Be perfectly describes my thoughts on this: https://youtu.be/0gQVS2fCsek

I also miss the spirituality side. I miss rituals for milestones with my kids a lot. Can you provide some references?

For learning, I started out reading the book The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer and /r/druidism. From there I explored various parts of Druidism and some paganism that interested me--elements (not science elements, spirtual/symbolic ones like air/wind/fire/earth), tarot, and living with nature.

For rituals, you can choose how far you're willing to stretch your imagination: a contemplative walk in the woods, or trying to commune with trees. I started doing tarot cards as well, which for me is less divination and more perspective. It hacks your minds pattern matching and forces you to think about situations from a different angle. It can also be fun or intimate with other people. My family celebrates the wheel of the year which gives you tons of opportunities for fun festivals/connecting with each other and nature. All of the holidays fall outside of traditional Christian holidays, so it's really easy to celebrate them without upsetting your extended family as well.

I recommend having an open mind, I'm highly skeptical in general and definitely had to sift through stuff to figure out what makes sense to me. Which is OK with druidism, it's kind of like a Linux distro/DIY spirituality framework.

On “the universe is God” - there’s a great video of Carl Sagan answering the question of whether he believes in God.

And - if you are to perceive God - where is it? Up? Around? Inside?

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