Welcome to my new look.

About me I really don't have a name that I can apply to myself or to my beliefs. I can only say that my beliefs are very eclectic. I was raised to be a Christian, and I found many truths there. But there were a lot of things that I was told in the churches (primarily Southern Baptist and Christian Science) that I could not accept. For instance, one Sunday in Sunday School, we were told how great God's love was, and that we were all His children. Then in the church service, right after Sunday School, they had a guest minister, a real hellfire and brimstone type. He stood there, jumping up and down, foaming at the mouth (literally), pounding on the pulpit with his fist and screaming at the congregation that we were all sinners and that we were going to burn in hell for eternity. And I remember thinking, "that is great love, to send your children to eternal damnation? I could not punish one of my children that way. So that meant that my love was greater than that god's love, so why should I worship some god that was less than I?" I never went back to that church. Then there was Christian Science, where all healing was to be done through faith. You were not even supposed to have an aspirin in your house! And I knew that aspirin worked! I became an atheist. Even though I had decided that there was no god, I did believe in life after death, my grandfather had seen to that, he had appeared to me just as I had known him at his healthiest and as I remembered him. And I used to tell people, "I don't believe that there is a god, but if there is, and if he wants me to know about it, then when he gets damned good and ready, he will let me know!" And I believed that. I had always been fascinated by the Greek/Roman gods and by the Norse gods (and I am using the term "gods" as non-gender specific). I thought that they were cool. I didn't really think that they were real, I just thought that they were really cool. And my love of science fiction and fantasy had kindled an interest in the psychic. I had tried with some small degree of success to develop some of those abilities. But this was in the late 40's through early 60's and not a lot had been written that would give any clues on how to go about it. Then about 1967, I became involved with a program called "the Inner Peace Movement". This was a multifaceted program. They taught psychic awareness and how to develop your innate abilities. There was a lot of psychology used in the program, we learned to get rid of a lot of our hang-ups and other psychological problems. This resulted in our really learning to love ourselves, and consequently, others. It was also a leadership training program, we learned to have self confidence. As an example, I was once called upon, with no preparation and no prior knowledge to talk in front of a group of about 150. I had no problems at all. And lastly there was the spiritual aspect to the program, it was through that program that I first became acquainted with my own Spirit Guides. It was probably in 1968 that I received a phone call one day. When I answered, a friend, with a voice full of awe, told me, "I was just told (by Spirit Guides) that you are about to have a visitor. Gabriel." I remember thinking, "Oh, yeah. Sure." We hung up. Now I was alone in my apartment, the windows and doors were closed because I had the air conditioning on. Suddenly I became aware of a presence in my apartment beside myself. I saw nothing and heard nothing. But the feelings that bathed me were incredible! If you have ever felt divine love, then I don't have to describe them. If you have never felt it, my trying to describe it will do no good because there are really no words to describe it. Needless to say, someone had decided that it was time for me to realize that there really was a Divinity. I bawled like a baby for at least a half hour. One of the national leaders in that program also told a friend about an organization called Astara and she told me. Astara is a mystery school. I got involved as a student. They had what were called degree lessons. I think that the call them life lessons now. I learned a lot from them. One of their creeds was, "An Astarian can find truth in any religion." And I have found that to be very true. I studied with them until about early 1972, I got married. If you are interested in looking at Astara, they can be found at http://www.astara.org/ or click HERE One thing I discovered was that not all truths are eternal. There are truths that you simply outgrow. This does not mean that they were false or any less true or valuable, it simply means that as your level of awareness and understanding changes, that they will be replaced with new and "greater" truths. I have looked at many religions and spiritual beliefs, some of them I just skimmed over others I looked into more deeply. I have found truth in many of those beliefs, and where ever I find truth that fits in with my other truths, I adopt it. I know that most pagans don't believe in "evil." But there have been times that I found myself being confronted by some extremely evil spirit beings, and found myself in an energy battle, and not one of my choosing. I did know some others about the same time that this was happening to me that also found themselves being confrounted by evil. It frightened them and they turned away. I guess that I was just too stuborn to be frightened away from my pursuit. So what do I believe? I do believe that there is a supreme Divinity that is the Father and Mother of all or the lessor divinities. I believe that He/She is the Father/Mother of Venus and Hera, of Zeus and Odin, of Mars and Thor, of the Goddess and the Christian God, of you and me. That makes all of the various gods and goddesses simply our older brothers and sisters, our siblings. And that also makes us gods and goddesses in training. I believe that there is a part of each of us that is christ-like. I think of this as the Christ spirit, and I do believe that Jesus probably manifested that Christ spirit better than 99.9999% of all the rest of men that have ever lived although I do not believe that Jesus was the only begotton son of god or that he is or should be my savior. Rather I think of him as an older brother, a great spititual teacher and leader. I also believe that the highest part of each individual is god-like, and that is the real us. I have also started a spiritual organization on line that has grown beyond what I thought it would when I first started it. It was started here on this site, but soon outgrew its parent and needed its own site which at this writing is over 700 pages. And we have grown from our original 14 members to well over 600. I could write a couple thousand more words telling you about Spirit Circle but I will simply invite you to visit the site. Most of it is for members only, but there are several pages that you can browse to learn about us. I could probably go on a lot longer, but this is already over 1100 words and three pages long, so I will bring it to a sudden close. If you still have questions after all ot this, feel free to ask. Charles