Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Dirt Heart Witch

Home
About
Archive Index
- Agora: The Dance of Pagan Recovery

Home
Pagan
Jesus and Me ~ A Pagan Love Story

Jesus and Me ~ A Pagan Love Story

Last updated on: April 1, 2015 at 11:43 am by Jenya T. Beachy

Jesus and Me ~ A Pagan Love Story 2015-04-01T11:43:42-07:00 Jenya T. Beachy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When I was a small child, my family celebrated Easter by dressing up and going to church, followed by a family egg hunt at Grandma’s house. In the afternoon, there was the big ham, potato salad, cakes, ice tea made from that powdered stuff, and Grandma’s home-made chocolate covered cherry eggs.

I can remember those eggs, my white patent-leather Mary Janes, my Grandfather’s deep voice, but I can’t remember anything about the church.

My mother was raised Catholic, old-school, 3 hour mass in Latin and all. My father was raised Baptist. When they got married, he had to take catechism classes and sign a note promising to raise their children Catholic.

After we moved away from my mom’s family, I didn’t go to church anymore until I was a teenager in high school. When my Grandfather died, Mom felt a need to reconnect with the religious practices of her childhood. So we started at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church.

Attending this church every Sunday for some years, I got to see how it worked. Folks would do whatever they wanted to do all week and then come pray for forgiveness. They were angelic to each other’s faces and demonic behind their backs. It’s the same story so many others have told, of hypocrisy and misogyny.

My best experience of ‘Christianity’ was when my family got the Jesus Christ Superstar album and we played it over and over and over again, to the point that my brother and I can still sing nearly every song, in order. I saw the movie of JCS and I loved it. I wished my church could be like that! Revolutionary!

But it wasn’t. My church never talked about the Jesus who was a long-haired, barefoot, thrower-out-of-money-changers.

So I didn’t think about the son of god for a long time, during which time I recognized my path as Paganism/Witchcraft.

When my husband Matthew and I got together (which notion was blessed by the fact that we *both* could sing all the songs from Jesus Christ Superstar*), he had a relationship with Jesus. He saw him as a god of forgiveness. I was surprised that a Pagan priest had the prince of peace in his heart, but I was willing to learn.

Matthew did a meditation with me, to reconnect with Jesus and feel his presence, not as what the church had made of him, but as a being in his own right. It was a standard, close-your-eyes, trance-journey, “now you see this person before you” sort of meditation, and when I beheld Jesus in my minds-eye, I broke down in tears.

The message I got from him was of strength and resilience and quiet power. Of doing what needs to be done for the greatest good. Of loyalty and trust. I wept for how lost and confused his story had become. I wept for how his words and actions were turned into hateful rhetoric. I blessed him and his pain and invited him into my life.

So, am I saved? I welcomed Jesus into my heart, there to take his place among the other spirits of compassion. I asked him to share the strength of his revolutionary spirit with me and to teach me how to rise again. I don’t think that’s what they have in mind when they say “saved”, but I could be wrong.

I’m still learning about loving (and being) a child of the gods.

*We discovered later that Matthew knew the *movie version, while I knew the Broadway version. We got over the difference. Eventually.*

Greatest Love Story Ever Told?

Previous Post

March 27, 2015

We Are the Earth ~ A Spring Chant

Next Post

April 1, 2015 On Water ~ A Poem

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Air Animal Products Arts and Crafts Author Big Gods Books Buddhism Celebs Chickens Comestibles Deep Well ~ Great Heart Society Dirt-Heart Farmette Drink Earth Elemental Practices Fauna Festivals Fiction? Fire Flora Food Goats Holidays-Holy Days Homework! Invocations Jenya T. Beachy Justice Kitchen Witchery Meat Birds Meditations Moon Magick News Off-Topic Ole Time Good Spell Feri Pagan Tent Revival Poetry Practices Prayers Predators Queer Rant Recovery RIP Rituals Saints and Prophets of Shapeshifter Seasonal Shapeshifter Tradition Small Gods Songs and Chants Spellcraft Stories The Secret Country of Yourself The Village The Witches' Toolkit Travel Turkeys Uncategorized Updates Urban Pagan Homestead Videos Water

Select a Month February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 August 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 January 2017 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus turn water into at a wedding?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bread Fish Wine Milk