It seems rather pompous and arrogant to go into the world and share a new path, with a new name. Quite truthfully, it is something I struggled with quite a bit.
Basically, what it boiled down to, was being a round peg trying to fit into a square hole.
A religion is this: Someone has an idea or revelation regarding a certain spiritual path. This could be divine insight, deep knowing (Gnosis) , or simply an educated (or uneducated) guess. This idea or thought is shared with others, and it resonates with others. Others realize that this makes sense to them also, and then decide to trample along the same path.
Yes, this is a huge over-simplification, but in essence that is what it is.
I am not a guru. I am not a professional scholar. I do not hold the key to your inner peace nor do I do spells for people.
What am I then? Well, I am a not-quite-but-almost middle-aged woman who was born into a relatively atheist family. I was brought into the Jewish Faith at 5 years old. Later in life, I explored Christianity via Roman Catholicism. I read a lot. I prayed even more. I always sought out the ‘Experience’ that many seemed to have while on their spiritual journey. It seemed always just out of reach. Often tangible, but not quite graspable.
As some years passed I found myself still in love with the ritual of the church, but could no longer stay in a tradition that seemed formed around too many inaccuracies. I ended up finding myself being drawn to a Pagan path – rather an easy thing when living in beautiful British Columbia. I studied along-side my (now) husband and a good friend of mine, in a Gardnerian tradition and together we founded our first coven.
We ran the small coven for a few years and during this time I was still busy learning about other religions – and in fact religious studies is almost a ‘hobby’ of mine. I began reading this and that, and before I knew it, I found myself quite absorbed in Gnostic writings as well as varied Hermetic writings.
I decided to become a minister within what is now called the Universalist Fellowship of the Sacred Path. Their mission statement is:
“Our mission is to support the spiritual journey as individuals on a pilgrimage to the Divine. We seek to encourage the spiritual journey as a uniquely individual path while recognizing that none of us can contain all of the Divine Truth. As a community we seek to support our journeys upward, inward, and outward.”
The UFSP is a fellowship of people and clergy from many different traditions – men and women who want to dedicate themselves to walking the Sacred Path, and who agree to abide by certain tenets when working within their particular Tradition.
I had a very profound experience one afternoon – that can be read about here..
Well, that was when I realized I needed to begin walking a new path. I knew that there was MUCH truth in many different paths. I could not find only one, which was a hard fit and try to squeeze myself in. Likewise, I also knew that I could not cast off a spiritual path altogether, because bumbling along aimlessly had lost its charm and I felt very compelled to take things in a particular direction. That is how Divinaturism was born. It draws on the common truths found in many paths. This is not a Celtic Wicca, nor anything period/geographically bound. This is a tradition that is evolving and flowing.
Blessings.
