A question for Pagans and Wiccans...?

Question

"Every day's a holiday when you're pagan."

It's a bumper sticker quote but that is one of my favorite quotes because it best describes, to me, one of my favorite things about being Pagan...being allowed to be happy...with life and with who you are...everyday is a celebration, if we choose, we have the power to make our days better. I have many more favorite quotes, I'm an addict, lol, but that one always seems to pop in my head first.

~ What do you like most about being Pagan or Wiccan?

~ Do have a favorite quote or poem that describes this for you?

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Answer 1

I like the songs,  We all come from the Mother and we are a nation of women with wings.

Answer 2

I have to echo what many have already said. The freedom, the obligation to myself to take responsibility for my actions, the connection to the earth and all its energies... this all makes me feel so alive. I love ritualing, creating spells, learning, gardening...

One of my favorite books is "Illusions," by Richard Bach. Not a Pagan book per se, but so many of its ideas are very Pagan:

"You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them."

Answer 3

The main thing I like:  No orthodoxy, I can do my own thing, I love my Gods, and I like the connection with everything.  And it just feels so natural.

One poem I think describes it well is the prayer said by the Valkryie Sigdrifa upon her awakening in "The Lay of Sigdrifa" from the Poetic Edda:

Hail Day!  Hail the sons of Day!

Hail Night and the daughter of Night!

Gaze on us with Gracious eyes;

Award us victory, we who wait.

Hail the Aesir!  Hail Asynjur!

Hail the all-giving earth!  And grant

Wisdom and fair speech for us, far-famed,

And hands of leechcraft while we live.

Answer 4

What do I like most?  The freedom to believe what's in my heart.  

I don't really have a quote to describe that, but here are a few of my favs:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye"--Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince)

(to the Christians) "Your Bible can be destroyed by the wind and the rain...my Bible IS the wind and the rain"--Native American (not sure who atm)

"Prejudice is the child of Ignorance"--William Hazlett

edit: 3 guesses as to who thumbs-down everyone...but I bet you only need one...can everyone say a Christian?  and they wonder why Pagans are aggravated by Christians...

Answer 5

Because I feel at peace with myself, my life, and my direction. While I can and have found those with out the gods, I find it better and more colorful with them.

Answer 6

ive seen heaps of bumper stickers that are pretty cool.

The Goddess is coming....and boy is SHE pissed

My other car is a broomstick

pagans do it all year round

Answer 7

I love being free and open-minded. Not having a fear-based religion.

"Be nice to your Wiccan friends, they worship the ground you walk on"

Answer 8

i like pagan people. They're more interesting and fun than those of other religions... but the downside is potential for flakyness. there's 2 sides to every coin... but Pagan people are the kind of people I like.

Answer 9

What do I like most about being Pagan? Everything. Really and truly, everything about it. The freedom to think for myself, the freedom to express myself, being seen as sacred as a woman, not as sin. Having that personal one on one relationship with the Goddess and knowing that She has always been with me, not that hateful stuff they taught in church when I was a child. Being able to grow and become wiser as a better human being on my own terms instead of being held down with someone else's dogma.

Favorite quote. Hmmmm?  I have a pretty wicked sense of humor and my car , this one and my last one, are found by the bumper stickers I have. Top ones...

"If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic"

"I'm not shy, I'm just examining my prey'

"My Goddess gave birth to you God"

"Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup'

My girlfriend's bought me one that they say sums me up perfectly.

"Easily distracted by bright and shiny objects"  (Not that I carry Fairie or anything like that! LOL!)

Last one to leave you with...

" I haven't sold my soul to Satan, however, we have worked out a rent to own deal"

Answer 10

The first time I saw the bumper sticker "Isis, Isis, Ra Ra Ra"  I laughed so loud that the people in the car next to me gave me on of *those* looks.

As a Pagan, I have balance in my life and that makes me extremely happy and content.

Answer 11

My belief system is only quasi pagan but since I facilitate pagan rituals from time to time I guess I qualify. What I love the most is the fellowship and love amongst my tribe of fire. I'm a major fan of alchemical fire circles. I love the fire, the drums, the dancing and singing.

I had to search a bit since I'm not into poetry much.  Here are some lyrics from a favorite song of my tribe that were written by a friend, Abbi Spinner McBride.

Fire of Creation

~~~~~~~~~~~

It starts very quietly. It starts with a spark.

It starts in the center. It starts in the heart.

Fire of creation.

Fire of purification.

Fire of transformation.

Fire of illumination.

Illuminate us. Create us anew.

Purify and transform. Make us like you.

See an alchemical fire circle at the link below.

Blessings

Answer 12

Freedom from needless guilt, and the strength that gives me.  Being the wolf amongst the sheep.

"Betimes a man must rise and

claim another man's wealth,

for lying down, the wolf never got the lamb

Sleeping, the wight never slew his foe."

-Havamal

Answer 13

answer: my pagan path of Heathenism reveres honor, loyalty, courage, wisdom, self responsibility (and a lot more virtues).  It also encourages and demands learning, questioning and teaching when called to do so.

The research junkie in me loves that!  I love the deities, the religion, nature, my connection with animals (especially cats - yeah, one stereotype I fit).

"Fight your battles and dare the odds

drink some mead and praise the gods!"

"Cattle die, kinsmen die

you will die

a man's name and reputation live on."

Answer 14

I'd have to say the most wonderful thing about being Pagan is that no one can judge me but myself.

In other words, there isn't some hierarchy or law that I have to abide by to be deemed as worthy of being a Pagan.  Only The Creator can adjudge me.  Not some bloke with a funny hat; not some fundie spruiking their version of the truth.  No one can emphatically prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that the truths that I hold as self-evident are wrong or incorrect.

As for my favourite quote or poem... Invictus [William Ernest Henley].

... It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

      I am the captain of my soul.