How My Beliefs Evolved: from God to Goddess
I grew up in a Greek Orthodox family: going to church almost weekly with my mother and sister, participating in summer church day camps, Sunday school, preteen youth group and Christmas nativity plays. Ironically, although I just outlined an arguably large portion of my “impressionable years”, this religion didn’t fully resonate with me. It was a hugely community based experience and that’s what I resonated with, but I didn’t always buy-in to the idea of someone having a closer connection to the divine than I did… even as a young girl, the idea of a man telling me how to interpret historical texts didn’t seem right.
As I grew older and less attached to the idea of going to church because of normalcy/routine became very less attractive. Some might have tried to pull it in closer, but I simply retreated. I got busy with academics and extracurriculars, distracted by life, but still always curious about knowing the unknown. I went off to college, and met those with new points of view that further opened me up. My true journey with something other than christianity didn’t come to me until after graduating from university. While throwing myself in the beginning whispers of my career, I started to become fascinated by the esoteric. I explored and learned about crystals, tarot cards and the moon cycles; eagerly telling people about my fascination while batting away comments about my “devil cards”.
I fully accepted my own beliefs when I dove into my journey with therapy and mental health. I used this fledgling beginning of my belief system as a tool and fuel to move through the deeper struggles I was going through. As my exploration of mental health dipped beneath the surface level, my spiritual journey also mirrored that. I learned about anxiety, reincarnation, panic, soul evolution, astrology’s mirror to our lives, and eventually the somatic feminine arts. My approach to religion/spirituality is a buffet of options, but I only put what resonates with me on my “plate”. This tailor made practice is invigorating because nothing is done out of oblationary ritual, but only with the purest joy and reverence.
