SPIRITUALISM

I would like to thank Amy for all her hard work. This was a great discourse and a great discourse to help with my ministering.

One thing I learned was that, with metaphysical discussions, you can’t move too fast or too soon or you will scare off science minded people. It is easier to minister to heart minded people. Heart minded people are easier because they intuitively feel the truth of the message. We must remember that we are ministering to people who are searching for meaning. It is important, therefore, that we learn to minister to all people.

Things to look for in heart driven people: feeling oriented, intuitive, receptive to spiritual ideas, touchy-feely, warm and compassionate, accepts contradictions freely and they accept things on faith.

Things to look for in mind driven people: they are analytical, rational, and somewhat distant, reject any contradictions, logical, does not believe what he cannot see, and thinks faith to be an illusion.

I learned that it was important for the person you are ministering to, to seek knowledge. Remember to be patient, kind, accepting and remain alert to signs that you are beginning to push someone too far too fast.

This discourse talked about a lot of philosophers and their viewpoints. Some of them that were covered are: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Immanuel Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte, Hegel and most influential are Karl Marx, Freud and Darwin.

Another point I learned was, with greater understanding of the forces motivating the people we minister to in this society, it gives us a greater ability to help them in their times of need.

Spiritualism has a lot to do with faith. We have learned many ways to minister to those who are logically minded and who reject spiritual ideas, simply because they don’t understand faith even if they reject faith.

Here’s the bottom line for me. God teaches through people. I can convey what he compels me to convey. I can be kind and giving and love all people, but I allow the power of God to flow through me, for I have no qualifications myself to minister without God. 

Rev. Nancy Rutledge

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

Druidism

Having been a practicing pagan for several years, and a practicing druid for about three years, I decided to take this course for three reasons, none of which were to actually learn anything new. I took it to see what kind of courses and what quality of courses ULC Seminary offered, to reaffirm the ideals and beliefs that I had already had and ultimately as a step towards completing the ULC Seminary Program. Having taken the course I can honestly say I learned some new things that I had not originally thought I would.

The course in general was a good introduction to Druidism and its beliefs. I felt that some of the things covered were historically inaccurate, especially parts the involved roman writings. As we know much of what was written by the Romans was done so to either convince the Roman populous that that war was worth fighting because the Celts we barbarous heathens or was written by early Catholics as a way to demonize and eliminate the pagan religion that was competing with them for followers. The parts of the course that analyzed Celtic society were exceptionally useful in that they give you and idea of what the druids may have been like and may have done. Although this is also no proof that any of it is true because almost everything we know about the druids is tainted by outside sources. The few things we know about them that aren’t directly tainted by outside sources are found in their legends which are of course inflated truths of imaginative writers and have been translated several times by people with little or no actual knowledge of Celtic society or of the druids which in turn leads to a misinterpretation of the text. Another modern misconception is that all Druids were male and that there could never be a female druid. The Tain Bo Cullainge, a text quoted in the discourse and frequently used in place of historical fact, for example, contradicts this by talking about a female druidess who teaches the young Cúchulainn about the magic and fighting. 

Rev. Justin M. Oles

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics, as well as courses in Mystical Christianity, Buddhism and Comparative Religion. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.