Creating your own religion

[art-vark2323]

Curious to see if anyone here has a religion they created themselves or otherwise heavily altered what is "traditional" to fit themselves. Did you discover a deity, for instance? I've asked this in other forums and gotten some interesting answers from people, say, worshipping river spirits and giving them or receiving personal names for them.

For me, I usually just call myself Wiccan, but I feel as if some of my experiences and what I choose to call the Wiccan God and Goddess are very personal to me and not something I share with anyone else. I don't really relate to the gods and goddesses usually ascribed to them.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Nope. I personally consider all spirits to be egregores, so would not worship them, let alone build a religion around them.

 

[Sedim Haba]

Curious to see if anyone here has a religion they created themselves or otherwise heavily altered what is "traditional" to fit themselves. Did you discover a deity, for instance?

Yes, not created but heavily altered. Looked at all the Abrahamic religions and found them lacking, but took a long time to figure out what exactly.

Spoiler: Spoiler Alert

The Divine Feminine is what's lacking.

 

[Saint]

My religion is 'myself'.

I've came across situations where I should have name what am I practicing, and I found no word to it. For a while I thought I should know, since I am practicing actively for decades, but I realised, it is pointless.
ㅤI does not consume books to know how to smear words all around, and force acts and systems into categories, because I needed none of it, for what I was and am doing is working terribly well. Always did, still does, and will; and as I grow I understand more of what truly matters and what does not. I don't try desperately to 'belong' and 'attach' my experiences and knowledge to systems put onto pages, and that expect people to firmly get followed. I am fine with making sense of reality on my own.

As for 'companions'. I does not pick who I'm working with based on 'how' or 'where' a deity, Infernal, Angel or spirit is categorised, neither worship any one of them. They call for me and I either respond, hold or skip. They are a significant part of my life, but not in a 'worshipping' way.
ㅤThe only being I 'worship' is myself, and I put a lot of work into doing it right. Not out of pride or ego, but out of respect for the value I am responsible for; myself and what I possess. Who am I? An important questions everyone will come to conclusion sooner or later.
It's not the body I (mhm) possess, not the mere, limited human consciousness, but the soul. It is 'me'. No being is more responsible for me than myself. This is something must be understood eventually.

 

[Ohana]

Yes, not created but heavily altered. Looked at all the Abrahamic religions and found them lacking, but took a long time to figure out what

I agree with the spoiler. Its feels so masculine. I'm comfortable with masculine energy but even I think that abrahamic religion went way to far with the masculine energy. Needs to tone it down.

I kind of made a religion which is little bit mix of everything. I think I believe in what I need to believe. I believe in future lives because it calms me down. If I thought that this was my only go at life then I would get really stressed out by that idea. So it feels like a benefit to my own mind that I believe in that. That is so I can go about my day to day and not have an existential crisis every 30 minutes.

I had one of those not to long ago for a couple weeks and it was not fun. I could barely do the work I needed to do.

 

[Amadeus]

When I was a kid I wanted to do that, to create my own religion, a sect. I thought of it as an opportunity to sell nothing to gain everything, to retire early and buy some mansions. My mother still remembers how we were outside and I said "I wanna be a sect leader and scam people", and others around were staring.

The Divine Feminine is what's lacking.

I got approached by some Korean missionaries and they started talking about their Christian faith. It was something about divine feminine and god being feminine. Some kind of a sect I guess.

I don't really follow any religions I just use whatever I like from there, mixing together practices from different faiths. It's always about "take what is useful and discard the rest". I have thought about creating something but never really got to it.

 

[Nell]

My religion is 'myself'.

I've came across situations where I should have name what am I practicing, and I found no word to it. For a while I thought I should know, since I am practicing actively for decades, but I realised, it is pointless.
ㅤI does not consume books to know how to smear words all around, and force acts and systems into categories, because I needed none of it, for what I was and am doing is working terribly well. Always did, still does, and will; and as I grow I understand more of what truly matters and what does not. I don't try desperately to 'belong' and 'attach' my experiences and knowledge to systems put onto pages, and that expect people to firmly get followed. I am fine with making sense of reality on my own.

As for 'companions'. I does not pick who I'm working with based on 'how' or 'where' a deity, Infernal, Angel or spirit is categorised, neither worship any one of them. They call for me and I either respond, hold or skip. They are a significant part of my life, but not in a 'worshipping' way.
ㅤThe only being I 'worship' is myself, and I put a lot of work into doing it right. Not out of pride or ego, but out of respect for the value I am responsible for; myself and what I possess. Who am I? An important questions everyone will come to conclusion sooner or later.
It's not the body I (mhm) possess, not the mere, limited human consciousness, but the soul. It is 'me'. No being is more responsible for me than myself. This is something must be understood eventually.

My religion is 'myself'.

 

[Johny111]

When I was young and foolish, I fancied the idea of creating my own religion, but then I matured and realized that I didn't want to have anything to do with other humans. With people, there always come various problems and unpredictable situations. However, the idea of 'my' religion didn't leave me. So, I ended up inventing certain rituals and began carrying them out in combination with prayers to the Moon, the Sun, the Earth, certain planets, stars, and constellations, without naming any specific spirits or gods. And things started to happen. In that sense, there is a certain pattern. So I can say that 'my' magical religion is an invention for my personal and completely individual use and devotion, without involving other people.

 

[Kepler]

After watching The Testament of Ann Lee some granular aspects of starting a religion from sharing a spiritual experience came into sharper focus in my ongoing thoughts.

It does restate that once a path of spiritual experience is traveled that it's possible to convey it to others as shared structured religious worship branching off from an established system.
It's avoiding the traps of a personality cult that's been personally concerning, but revision to the Abyss in an immanent model of nature with letting go aimed by know thyself is liberating of encumbering idolization for a flourishing of others and conscientious alignment in the spiritual inheritance.

Also in starting a religion, rather objectively stated, there's gathering the fiery tinder, witnesses to a resurrection in a transfer of the spiritual flame from a regimen of devotional friction, as it were...

 

[Morell]

No. Work with pop culture stuff is not founding a new religion. Besides in my opinion religion requires more than one person.

 

[Johny111]

No. Work with pop culture stuff is not founding a new religion. Besides in my opinion religion requires more than one person.

Yes, but it also requires charisma and personal power. And it is not enough just to be crazy, it is necessary to be completely crazy.

 

[rice candy]

I've used Taylor Ellwood's Pop Culture Magic Systems book to devise an entire system based on a pop culture I liked. But it wasn't ever called a religion. Perhaps it can be considered a religion though, since there's a hero worship aspect of specific guardian deities and other people are in on it as well. The operative aspect in my opinion is that it's shared amongst other people, not just one's self.

 

[System Error Message]

Curious to see if anyone here has a religion they created themselves or otherwise heavily altered what is "traditional" to fit themselves. Did you discover a deity, for instance? I've asked this in other forums and gotten some interesting answers from people, say, worshipping river spirits and giving them or receiving personal names for them.

For me, I usually just call myself Wiccan, but I feel as if some of my experiences and what I choose to call the Wiccan God and Goddess are very personal to me and not something I share with anyone else. I don't really relate to the gods and goddesses usually ascribed to them.

i think wicca is well established than to be called a custom new religion from someone.

I have thought about bringing a new religion, you can easily make a guide on helping humans to do well, the issue is humans are picky. They want a guide that suits them, not a guide that suits humanity, and they want supernatural proof which causes blind faith. I remember looking at various instances of what if angels were to descend upon humans, and the issue is, humans changing their perspective, faith and opinions from that would be dishonest instead.

When a religion becomes established by children being brought up, it solidifies that religion no matter how terrible that religion is. I wish teaching ESP, critical thinking and science was commonplace.

 

[𝕳𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊]

I've only been spirtual for a short time, so I'm still developing my spirtual ideas.

My beliefs are based on my observations of reality, my personal life experience and spirtual practices from various cultures.
I believe in something vaguely similar to Gnosticism, but without the Gnostic cosmology. I don't believe in the demiurge, archons, Sophia, emanations, or a supreme benevolent creator. I believe that the thing that created reality is heinouslly evil, more evil than any evil spirit, person, or product of the imagination. I visualize this thing as blackness, or nothingness. I do not worship it, I viscerally despise it. Evil is much more abundant than goodness. Goodness is so sparse and exists in such small quantities, that most people never encounter it and would be unable to recognize it if they did. Evil is way more powerful than good, that is why every attempt to fix the world is crushed. I've met people who say the opposite. Those people have an extremely perverse sense of right and wrong. They visualize an IDF soldier and shooting a 6 year old Palestinian child and they see a righteous hero slaying evil subhuman larva. Early in my spirtual development, I met an African who liked Rudolf Steiner. He told me that Colonialism was proof of the correctness of Christianity. He ended the Discord call by telling me that good is much stronger than evil. The average person is evil. They are blood thirsty predators held in check by their fear of punishment. Many people have very low empathy, many more are full blown psychopaths. Most people are evil. People would revert into murderous cannibals if there weren't controlled. Less than 1% are good. I've met 2 good people in my entire life. I don't know of any good spirits. The best beings in existence are the tiny handful good humans alive today. Most people are throughly brainwashed. They will never think an original thought in their live. Their arrogance will trick them into believing that they're not brainwashed. People are evil an sadistic because they've been taught to behave that way.

I love freedom and I hate order. I hate following rules and I hate laws. I hate heirarchy. I hate authority and I hate police. My craving for freedom is the primary driving force in my life. I am an extreme hedonist and a libertine. I reject asceticism. I am extremely sexual. People are extremely prude. We've never seen a world were human sexuality has been fully expressed. I love transgressive behavior and breaking societal taboos.

I am an animist. I love plants and animals. I'm a tree huger. I love nature, but I do not submit to it. I refuse to submit to the creator and their creations. I believe that every deity from every religion, ghosts, and every spirit from folklore are real. I completely reject the psychological model of magick, mainly because that concept isn't from African Traditional Religions. The rejection of the psychological model and the wholehearted embrace of the spirit model is a fundamental aspect of my beliefs. The people who came up with the psychological model didn't have the internet, or access to Vodon practioners. The psychological model, along with the introduction of Abrahamic religions and Atheism are the worst things that ever happened to western spirituality. The 20th century was a dark age for western occultism. It's only starting to recover in the 21th century because of the internet.

I believe in reincarnation, but I have no idea how it works. I believe that there are many different ways to spend an afterlife. Some people reincarnate, become various kinds of ghosts, get trapped in physcal objects, go to a demon's personal hell realm, get trapped in a nganga, become a zonbi, become evil spirits, become demons, become gods, transfer their souls into other living people, reincarnate with all of their memories perfectly intact, etc.

I love cults. TLC shows demonizing cults brainwashed western society. Normal society is a bad joke. Cults provide an alternative society. Some cults are very boring. They involve slave labor, asceticism and sexual abstinence. I'm not interested in those cults. I like fun cults with parties.

My mundane ethics and spiritual ethics are not the same. I'm a very empathetic, humble and compassionate person in my mundane life, but I'm willing to to do anything for spirituality. I love animals and I advocate for veganism, but I believe in the efficacy of animal sacrifice. I've never tried it, but I wouldn't be surprised if animal sacrifice Is extremely effective. Eating meat is completely unnecessary for 1st world people. People do it, because they're sadistic. The only time killing an animal makes sense is for magickal rituals. Everything done in ATRs are completely legitimate. I take ATRs much more seriously than western occultism.

I reject YHWH, Abrahamic religions and Kabbalah. I will develop my spirtual beliefs without those things.

I acknowledge the legitimacy extremely transgressive and taboo forms of magick.

I believe in fixing humanity and our world. The creator gave us a hell realm to suffer in. A minority of humans are better than that thing and they can make this place utopian.

I don't know what the creator is.

I don't know what spirits are.

I don't know if we live in a pantheist reality, or if the creator and spirits are somehow external.

I'm not going to revisit this thread, because I like the beliefs I'm developing and I want to develop them further without unwanted outside influence.

I'm not going to revisit this thread, because I like the beliefs I'm developing and I want to develop them further without unwanted outside influence.

 

[FireBorn]

Interesting topic, as well as some interesting perspectives. Some I agree with, some I dont.

For me, I wont kneel, I dont worship. I have yet to come across a spirit (including deities) that expected or demanded such.

Regarding religion; I have a dim view of religion personally (dogmas, control and all that). If someone finds peace and guidance through a religion, good for them. I choose not to go that route.

Creating one? I dont think so. Who do I think I am to create a system of beliefs for others? Seems massively arrogant to me. My path is evolving as I grow, so what I believe today is likely to morph and change as I do, so creating something concrete seems like a fools errand to me.

I put in lots of effort to keep myself from slipping into delusion with my encounters as it is. I mean some are absolutely wild, some are just meh. But i refuse to create a mythos around them, I refuse to think I am somehow special, or more special than others. I work really hard to keep my spiritual integrity intact. I question hard. I allow mystery to stay mystery when I dont have answers. That's work.

Now, with all that said, if someone came to me and told me they created a religion, I would hear it out, but its not my thing. If they seemed rational and grounded, I would congratulate them without judgment. To each his/her own.

 

[Nagaram]

How do you define religion?

If we think of religion as a shared metaphysical truth. I.e. Jesus is god and died for our sins. Then you would probably struggle to start your own religion unless you can convince a bunch of people of some metaphysical truth or alleged truth (I guess it doesn't have to be true).

Now if you consider religion as just having a set of practices and rituals based on a metaphysical truth then I would argue all people who believe in the metaphysical have their own religions since almost certainly no one has the same belief structure. Maybe we agree that Jesus died for our sins, but we may disagree that Jesus was actually always god. In my eyes that's a different religion. A personal religion

I claim to have my own religion because it takes the place of religious practice but doesn't have any truth claims of normal religions other than the atheist stance that god isn't real. It may even be fair to call it a spiritual practice over a religion, but those are basically interchangeable in my eyes.

What else is personal to your practice?

 

[StoatCatcher]

Did you discover a deity, for instance?

Funnily enough, I had a moment in my life where I thought that was the case. But here I am a few years later and I think it was all crap.

I don't want to create a religion for the simple reason that my spirituality is based on my own understanding of things for my own benefit and personal meaning of the world and no one else's. There is no point in trying to spread it to other people.