Religious/spiritual labels

[firecat]

Initially posted as a comment in elynne's journal.

If asked to label my religious/spiritual leanings, I call myself:
shamanistic Buddhist pagan or pagan shamanistic Buddhist.

Shamanistic: I talk to entities who help me heal myself and others.
Buddhist: I believe that focusing on the extent to which things (and the contents of my mind) are illusory and transitory helps me understand the right way to live and act.
Pagan: Some of the entities I talk to are pagan deities; I like learning about various deities and thinking about their traits and abilities; and I find that doing candle-work and other kinds of "spells" helps me.

I don't include "agnostic" because I think that's covered by "Buddhist." (In this I am influenced by an excellent book called Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor, which also discusses the background of the concept of agnosticism.)

Comments

[snickerpuss.livejournal.com]

Ah, see, I was going to post a comment here saying, "Sorry that this is totally off topic, but that user icon is amazing!" However, it appears that someone has beat me to it.

We just recently adopted a new kitty (from the side of the road) a little over a week ago. My other cat hasn't totally adjusted to the idea yet (she's ten years old), and I'm worried they won't ever really come to be friends. There seems to be a gradual decline in the level of hatred emanating from the older cat towards the kitten, but she is definitely not happy about the whole scene.

[firecat]

Glad you like the icon!

Your new-cat experience sounds about par for the course. Older cats often don't like kittens. But sounds like things are heading in the right direction.