The title of my blogspot is "My Homecoming" for a reason. Home can be defined as many things, but to myself home is where I find the "real" Donna. That inner part that stays consistent, no matter where this outer shell travels, or what it encounters, or how lost it can appear to be....that very core that is "me". That is home. I once read in a book by Frank MacEowen about a Lakota medicine man saying, "Sometimes a man has to travel to the edge of his being to find his center." That center is what I consider to be home. I have travelled to the edge, have dangled my toes off quite a few times, and am slowly beginning the process of making my way back to the center, back to "home".
As for the purpose of this blog, I am by no means deluded into thinking that my thoughts or views will in any way "change the world". I do, however, hope to add a little insight into my take on things and in doing so, perhaps help others to see things a little differently. And perhaps in the process shed a little light into why I think and act the way I do...though at times that scares even me. This process of self-discovery, this journey "home", is by no means an easy process. I have discovered things about the world and people around me, even things about myself that have made me ashamed and sad and angry. I have also seen and experienced some of the most profound and beautiful things...glimpses of what Parthas (paradise) could be.
I am an Irish polytheist. Irish due to ancestry, not because I was born there. I am Irish-American by birth and Irish-Republican by choice. Polytheist because I do believe in and honor more than one god/goddess. There are degrees of polytheism...I am what is considered a traditional, or "hard", polytheist. I believe the gods are just as real and separate as you and I, which they function in this world individually, and with us, and as for my pantheon that I am descended from and not "created by" them. They are my ancestors. As opposed to someone who is a "soft" polytheist, I do not believe the gods and goddesses are all just representations or rays of the ultimate divine. This is important to understand as it explains why I struggle with ecclectism so much, but also why I can completely believe in the Christian god, among others. To me, all gods are just as real as mine; I just do not honor or worship them. Since I believe that all exist individually, it is hard for me to wrap my small mind around the concept of ecclecticism. However, if one believes that all gods are just representations of the ultimate divine, honoring Isis and Brighid together makes sense.
I wanted this first blog to be somewhat of a baseline, so that you the reader can understand my thought process when I begin the next blogs. You will not find not a theological or historical classroom here on these pages. What you will find, however, are the views of a simple woman who has walked this path a while and wants to share her views in a way that most layman can understand. If I believed in the Maiden, Mother, Crone phases (which I actually do not), I would say spiritually I feel I am reaching the Crone stage. And as such am feeling compelled to share a little of what I have learned. Síocháin leat mo charas.
