What do I believe?

I came across this essay in an old journal dating to 1997. At that time I was living in Florida, active in Runehaven Kindred, and facing possible medical discharge from the Navy. I fought the discharge and won.

Spiritually I was probably at my most content of my entire adult life. Given my current semi-seeker status, I thought it might be good to contemplate what my 20 year old younger self believed.

What do I believe?

1. I believe there are many paths to spiritual fulfillment.
2. I believe we have many lives in which to learn the lessons of this world.
3. I believe the Gods are those who walked the path before us, then turned back to show us the way.
4. I believe I must walk my path myself. I may get a nudge every now and then, a hand to help me when I stumble, but I must make the journey under my own power.
5. I believe in adhering to the Nine Noble Virtues: Truth, Courage, Honor, Perseverance, HOspitality, Self-reliance, Fidelity, Industriousness, and Discipline.
6. I believe Freya and Odin especially are my guides on the path which is becoming.
7. I believe there is much to be learned in this life.
8. I believe the world is a good place, and getting better all the time.
9. I believe the cosmic purpose of the human race is to spread terrestrial life into the galaxy, and will forward that goal in any way I can.
10. I believe children are the greatest legacy anyone can leave the future. All the accomplishments we have achieved will mean nothing if we are extinct.
11. I believe the human race is still evolving.
12. I believe love is to be shared with many and not just one.
13. I believe there is safety in numbers. It is good to have companions when travelling my path, though some parts I must travel in solitude.
14. I believe we we will suffer another major setback--the Third World War, Ragnarok. I will work in every way I can to delay this, then I will do my share to fight the good fight.

So, that was my spiritual manifesto at age 20. How does it match up with now?

1. The same. The problem remains figuring out which path I belong on.
2. THe same, pretty much. Really I'm pretty agnostic on this point.
3. Notable to me is that at my most content with my religion I didn't actually view the Gods as the Divine, per se. Actually had very little thought about Divinity at all, at least in my manifesto. Now? I lean towards monolatry: the Divine shows us many faces to help us on our path, these aspects being referred to as the Gods and Goddesses of the different religions. I also wonder if I'm spiritually mature enough to bypass the myriad faces of it and directly contemplate the Divine.
4. I still believe this. Indeed, I'm getting nudged now.
5. I still consider these virtues important and at the core of my expression of morality. Not that I'm always very good at adhering to them.
6. I maintain my special relationship with Odin, but not so much with Freya as my life has changed. I'm no longer a single woman and a warrior, I'm a matron and a mother. I think I'll always be a scholar and creative with words, my other bonds with Odin, though, regardless of whether I think he's a God, a face of the Divine, or an ancestral spirit who turns back to give me a helping hand.
7. The same.
8. More or less. I'm not quite the optimist I was in my youth.
9. I still rather believe this, but I don't think it will be our civilization that pulls it off. We have too many problems here to fix first. It certainly won't get going in my lifetime.
10. Absolutely
11. Yes, but with the caveat that evolution is not directional. We are evolving, but not necessarily on some sort of inevitable upward/forward path.
12. Yes, but I have also come to realize that it is only the rare and fortunate who are blessed with multiple partners, and that love is work, too, when you love people and not just your idea of them.
13. Yes, but I've been on a lone road spiritually for quite a while now. Really could use some of that companionship again, but need to figure myself out and what this nudge means first.
14. Sort of. In keeping with my recognition of the lack of directionality to evolution, I see the rise and fall of human civilization as somewhat cyclical. Hopefully the next curve will proceed in a spiral and not just loop back on us. Though frankly as a mother I have other priorities than fighting the good fight if it comes to it. I'll get out of Dodge first, and/or concern myself only with the defense of my kin. I'll fight for the future of my daughter and any future children with all that's in me. The rest of the world can go to metaphorical hell in a handbasket.