I spent some years in a Catholic school and was fascinated by the colourful spirituality of Catholicism - the devotion to Mary and female saints like St Elizabeth and Therese impressed me as a girl and left me feeling that strict Protestantism is too male-centered, too authoritarian. But then, Catholicism is very authoritarian, too. Catholicism makes rituals so beautiful. I don't need the Pope and dogma to be inspired by paintings, church architecture and other visual expressions of belief.
When I discovered a specific historical chapter of the area I grew up in, I had a feeling of coming home. When Germanic, Celtic, Roman and early Christian religion and cult melt and mixed, I must have been present somehow. The eclectic, undogmatic meeting of different religions in the area of today's Germany, Netherlands and France around the year 0 speaks to me with a powerful voice, especially matron shrines. When I visited their temples, I knew that Christianity alone would never be enough for me, in spite of the strong influence Protestant ethics had on me (exemplified in J.S. Bach's religious music). This Gallo-Roman culture fascinates me. (While searching for links for this post, I saw that tomorrow is another Archeological Day at the place where I bought my Venus statuette - and I can't be there! Maybe I'll ask a friend of mine to go there...)
Already as a child, I loved mythologies, especially Greek mythology - the idea that a spirit lives everywhere, that nature is more than it appears, that it has a life of its own. The most wonderful part was not the many stories about different Gods, although I loved them too and had a large hand-drawn genealogical tree of the Greek Gods next to my desk at home... the most magical part was the idea of nymphs and other nature spirits living around us. (I did have two invisible friends as a child, a male spirit living behind the radiator and talking to me, and a puddle girl appearing in front of my window when it rained... but that was before I learned about Greek mythology). We had some wonderful family holidays in Greece and the temples impressed me deeply. My favorite was and is the Bassae temple.
The Roman religion interested me, too, although it didn't touch me as deeply as the Greek did. I was surprised and happy to learn many years later that [urlhttp://www.deomercurio.be/en/veneri.html]Venus [/url]and Isis reached up to the area where I grew up. I cherish a copy of a Venus statuette found in a village close to the place where I grew up - it symbolizes for me the universal character of the Divine Feminine.
I have often been called a witch, starting in childhood - and over the years, the image of the witch has turned into a very positive one, and I have read a lot about hedge and hearth witchery and identified with it. But I can't belong to a coven or align myself with Wicca etc - there we have the rules and customs again. But I grow my own herbs, collect stones, shells and crystals, and believe in the magic of the hearth, and of self-made shrines and rituals.
Another strong influence on me is astrology and astronomy. If there was a cult of star gazers, celebrating celestial events, I'd be there immediately. I found it's important for my spiritual practice to align myself to celestial events: moon phases, planets, constellations, stars. I connect to the ancient history of the human consciousness and to science, too. The ability of the human spirit to recognize patterns, causalities, correspondences etc - the ability to ask questions, give answers and doubt them again.
Obviously, it was easy for me to connect to Jung's psychology that recognizes these powers, too, and gives them their place in the human experience.
Over the years, I have come to a very personal spiritual practice that includes my Protestant ethic and the idea of a creative force in our universe, the Catholic idea of the Saints as exceptional humans whose spirits remain approachable, the nature religious idea of Earth based spirituality, a special reverence for the maternal principle, a spiritual interest in amateur astronomy (amateur comes from the Latin root amare, to love...), and in the end, the only word I can find for this eclectic mix is Eclectic Pantheism. The ability to perceive and recognize the Divine everywhere, and to connect it to my life. I reached this Pantheism through an eclectic journey, and I practice it alone. I should call it Eclectic Personal Pantheism
and found a new world religion 
of which I'm the only member! I was inspired to write this post by my card for today. It's Friday today, the day of the Nordic goddess Freya... very similar to Roman Venus. I'm a Taurus, and Venus is "my" planet. The deck is Lisa Hunt's wonderful Tarot of Ghosts and Spirits, and as Hermit she chose to depict a dryad. So in this card today, everything comes together for me. Tarot, the rhythm of the week and the planets, my own personal planet, the Hermit archetype that connects to my solitary practice, the belief that trees and brooks and every growing thing has a spirit - it's all there.
