Tirzah Roxie

Hello and Happy Saturday!

First up, I wish to thank Muslimah for sharing her perspective with us. I found it very informative and quite interesting. And thanks for fielding all the comments as well Muslimah! Great job!

This week we have a new participant. Please welcome Tirzah Roxie.
Tirzah is Catholic and I know you will enjoy her post as well!

Here Is Tirzah Roxie's Introduction:

I am Tirzah Roxie but Rox to friends & family, wife, mum of 6 & granny. A survivor of many of life's trials. Always been an old soul & do best in the natural world. I'm also a wisewoman, curandera, intercessor. I don't really like labels or being put into a box because I often get stuck. A romantic dreamer & most say an optimist. I love learning & teaching. I love elders so very much. I fall alot but falling is often what helps me get back up. Love little birds, sunshine, sandbars, camping, dancing, watching & listening. I do not like talking much. I love reading & writing and will not get through most rooms in the house without looking at a book. I do not spell well & I despise editing! I long to leave the inner city & return to the bush, the forest where my family is from. I love grey hair & aging gracefully. You can see I love the word love ☺.
I am slow & really enjoy silence, prayer & contemplation. I love thinking! We homeschool unschool our children & I love this because it keeps me in a constant state of learning always. Music I love & my dh is a musician. We love afrocuban, jazz, soul is my fav, old country, boogaloo, classical too, if it is good music we like it .
http://thenaturalcatholic.blogspot.com/

1) What religion do you practice?
Catholic ( not the roman kind either ) which means universal

2) Did you convert or were you born into this religion?
I do not like the word convert so much in the sense that it is used. Conversion means change so I love the word in that context because I love change but I feel people are created who they are, yes we can choose our religion but if we make the wrong choice we are not being us who we are created to be. If God created me a Hindu then living my life as the best Hindu I can be is what is truly how it is to me . However I was baptized a Christian in the high Anglican church.
However my parents only attended weddings & funerals. I got most of my religous instruction in public school & my gramma. I enjoying continuing conversion, I hope I always do .

If you converted, what did you need to do to convert?
I had to approach the church first which is right across the street from us! I was blessed I had a really good instructor to start off with, he had actually been studying to be a priest but then got married. He told me God is neither male nor female, just God. He was very calm & open & answered all my concerns & questions .

And what did you practice prior to converting?
well I think part of discovering I am a Catholic is I always did ritual as a kid, I would have an altar in my room. I loved the narnia books when they came out and they greatly influenced me. I'd put out little bowls of dried fruit, light candles etc. I always was encouraged to think of & talk to my ancestors, Aboriginal ( Native American ), culture was a great part of my life in the young yrs. I always talked to my dead grandfather & great-grandmother so the concept of spirits, angels, saints was very real to me. I pray to the 7 directions, influenced by many of our Aboriginal elders & attend an Aboriginal Catholic church . I know many of my friends would say I was Pagan but I don't really think so because I also always believed in Jesus Christ since I heard about him as a child .

3) Would you consider yourself a moderate, conservative or other.
I am for sure a bit of everything & when I am most balanced I am always in the center. I have very liberal views to some, say Catholic Americans, than to my Pagan friends I may seem conservative. Again I don't like boxes. This could also come from being a Canadian where conservatives here are quite liberal minded compared to the American republicans .

4) In your opinion, what makes you moderate/conservative/other?
well it is hard to say because I think I like to blow those stereotypes out of the water. Like I believe in prolife but also it doesn't bother me at all about gay marriage yet it does my dh who says he is not a Catholic and thinks himself very liberal and is quite anti Catholic at times. I think people like to fit in and go with the flow. I think we all have opinions, some of which could be and can be wrong. I think we all each and every single person has prejudices and what is more important is I can see them in myself and work on them, so again I'm in the center.
5) In your opinion, what makes someone conservative? What makes someone moderate?
again no clue because I know gay Catholics, I know gay prolifers, Pagan prolifers , Pagan republicans, Catholic hippies, etc. Some very liberal minded people are prolife, some very conservative minded people feel racial profiling is wrong. I consider people to be people, we are all unique and not one of us is the same. Common interests, morals, beliefs but we are not all the same either.

6) What's your heaven/paradise like?
I think it is true freedom, release. I don't think it is a place but a state of the soul perhaps. I'm not really sure. I think we all have been given glimpses of it though perhaps.

7) In your opinion, does everyone make it into heaven/paradise? If they do not, why?
I think heaven, nirvana, summerlands is for those souls which have reached true peace, true release. No I don't think someone who has raped a child or committed suicide or been in a huge car wreck etc. would go straight to heaven. There are many steps to heaven, healing. I believe when a soul passes we then have none of this world, the stuff that has kept us stuck here. Our fear is gone or we are given the means and ways to work on our stuff that kept us stuck here. Those I know who chose to take their own life, they can now not be afraid and all the reasons they made the choices be it a result of abuse, addiction etc. is all out in the open, no more fear involved. Yet a soul must still have choice. I think about that at times- do all souls have remorse? Like the sociopath? We just will never know it all.
I don't believe in if you didn't work it out here on earth thats it . I believe a soul heals after passing. I believe this is open to everyone, whether all souls heal, well I don't know if that happens or not. Many religions believe in the concept of a heaven & hell, a dark place & a light place. I learned because in my intercession work that in the Lakota way a soul has a soul keeper that not all souls go straight to heaven.

8) What makes your religion a good fit for you?
I am truly being me when I am the Catholic I am created to be ☺. It keeps my ego down, keeps me humble, strong and it is just the way it works. I get the best results when I'm truly living my religion. I love learning with saints & wonderful catholics like Hildegard, Brigid, Nicholas Black Elk, Kateri Tekawitha etc. When I do I am truly being me. They all help me so much.

9) What are your holy days and what do you do to celebrate them?
My all time fav day is All Soul's day . It is very special to me because our first All Soul's day was in Michoacan MX. 26 yrs. ago. It is a very strong place of protection and of the Aboriginal people there celebrated this day as all Soul's Day before Christians came there. They believed the return of the monarach butterfly represented the souls of their ancestors. All the way up here in Canada, the butterfly represents the soul of little girls & dragonflies that of boys! I work with souls passing so this is all very special to me. I love this sameness of all religions, how spread out all over the world the concepts are the same! We started to find out more about Celtic Christianity in Ireland, Wales etc. They celebrate all the festivals there like Ostara, Beltane etc. St. Hildegard had very strong Celtic roots and wrote alot about the 4 elements etc.

10) Do you consider people of other faiths to be your friends?
of course! my sil is Neopagan but she will be the first to tell people I am for certain a Catholic lol. People always wish to squish others into boxes. I consider myself Catholic in the sense of before the influence of Pagan Rome. Back to the beginning when women were bishops & priests etc. and when the essnsses had a deep influence on the teachings of Jesus. Back to the beginning of what Jesus first gave to us. I like to help inform people as many of us have just been ignorant and if we are open we will always be given more information. We need to be able to admit we are capable of not knowing it all though. Being aware our own ignorance is a must in order to learn. Like most people believe all Aboriginal peoples were/are Pagan. Not all were. Many many tribes believed in one God. I watch this great show called The Voice of Hinduism. The teacher is a really great elder. Hindus do not consider themselves Pagan and in fact refer to the ultimate God often. A great priest told me Krishna is Jesus. Jesus is Krishna .
Many baptists think Catholics are Pagan. We pray to beads you know ☺.
I guess I always grew up with the influence of not all is European way. A Christian in fact has nothing to do with being European or having a white picket fence, merely we believe in Jesus. That is Jesus is God. That one belief nothing else. So you will have gay Christians, Christians who believe in abortion, Christian witches, etc.
I like to tell people this little story of how one day I was making a prayer stick for my sil for her birthday. My ds Indigo, then 11yo said to me ( I don't know mum if aunty Summer will like that, she's not catholic you know. " lol. It was so funny because he had no idea that most of the world would consider making a prayer stick a pagan thing. Remember my sil is neo pagan, but to him my ds, this is mum, his catholic mum and who I am being when closest to God is exactly that, making things like prayer sticks ☺.

11) Would you ever join people of another faith to celebrate one of their holy days? Please explain why?
Yes, because like Mother Teresa who told leaders of other countries to build more temples & mosques etc. so the people could have more time with God. That is what I think, if people could focus, and have more time with their God, our Creator then their minds will be taken away from fighting, help others etc. I think it is really important to encourage others to celebrate.

12) What are your thoughts on the burka, and Shariah Law?
I like the burka however Shariah Law is not Canadian law but we have begun to have Aboriginal law here for Aboriginal communities. I think I would have to say I'd like to hear from people who would be greatly effected by these laws. I've heard a bit mentioned here on the news but I'm not that informed about it. I think the burka is a choice. I think if someone decides to dress up in a burka to conceal an explosive device well that is their choice. It will not stop them from making a wrong choice if the burka is illegal. I work in the area of abuse too, people make all kinds of poor choices out of desperation & hate. People have abusive character not because of race, religion, economic status etc. I don't believe in a system based on punishment etc. We are big advocates of restorative justice so maybe that will give you an idea of my belief .

13) What are your thoughts on women not being allowed to become priests?
it is really dumb lol. Is that simple enough of an answer? It is totally a hypocritical thing too because the roman church says that the eastern churches are inline with the RCC yet priests in many of those Catholic churches can be married etc. Women were once priests in our church, they should be again. It was the influence of pagan rome actually that brought on that practice of women not being priests. People don't want to see that bad ideas, poor choices come from all religions. People are people after all. Anyway yes women should be priests if it is their calling.

14) Does your place of worship segregate? If yes, how does this make you feel?
I never really expereinced the whole someone judging me because of my sex not for along time. I'm used to people, including our priests, seeing me as a whole . Then I found a priest who judged women who treated us different just because of that fact. It was wierd so how am I to respond. I didn't take part in it, this is who he is . He isolated himself more because of it though because in the Aboriginal community many women become and are leaders. He lost respect of many people.
Our church on a whole does not but we are a poor church, Rome definitely segragates people!

15) How much does your religion affect your daily life and how much thought do you give it when making a decision? Does it affect in any way your decision on abortion, gay marriage, etc?
religion is a part of my daily life in ritual, prayer even what I read I guess , but my views & belief on issues of abortion or gay marriage are my belief even if the pope told me abortion was now ok, I would not beleive it or put it into practice. I already said what I feel about gay marriage. My church leaders are people, they are not always right. The view that someone is holier than others because of status, what you wear, where you live, if you are celibate or not is a farce. It is not true. I think people need to see people for people. There are gay catholic priests, married gay catholic priests, women priests too just the main church in Rome has not accepted them. Then there are people who say they can't believe I am a Catholic after all I am a survivor of abuse etc. Well for one I am a Catholic because I am created that way. Change will not come if people leave and I can want to be a hindu all I want, but wanting to be is not being ☺.

16) How would you react/feel if your child wished to marry outside your religion?
she already did! It was a great wedding! Edith Piaf playing in the background, an outdoor wedding, a 1940's theme. I question more if a couple really is meant to be married in the first place, so many people are not even supposed to be together.

17) In your opinion, if someone is not of your faith, will they go to hell?
it has nothing to do with being a religion I don't think. I think it depends on the state of ones soul.

18) Who do you think is not a practicing ----- in your religion and why? ie who in the public domain claims to speak for your religion? Do you agree with them or not?
the Pope! and most of Rome! Do not speak for me and do not reflect my Catholic religion. I don't believe in hierarchy but rather in leadership. There are always leaders for people, presidents, chiefs etc.
Then there are really great people groups like PAX Christi, Development & Peace, Sister Elaine a nun who runs a yoga & meditation in the prison system here for over 20 yrs! My brother is in that system so I know how great programs like this are. There are people who work to help children not be abused too & help in healing from residential school abuse as well like returning to spirit program .

19) Have you ever been the target of a hate crime? Please explain.
I have to deal with people who have hate for Catholics even my dh, but I have to look beyond. It has nothing to do with my religion, it is always about a fear that was placed there. We all expereince this. Think how hard it is for a priest to see beyond the hate. People hate a priest just for being a priest because of abuse that happened to a family member etc., it takes great humility just to go on and not take it personally, but reality is if we are truly living our religion be we Catholic , Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, we will never be able to be enabled to be a victim or a persecuter. We will be able to be defend in a non pushy or bullying way. I know my dh has a hate in his heart for the Catholic church because his father was abused by a priest. His mother hated Catholics, so he got it from both parents. All the fear & hate isn't even that of my dh, it was passed on.

20) Do you ever feel like your religion devalues you?
not really, it has helped me become me more and more.

21) Does your religion give you peace of mind?
yes very much so, I have much contentment

22) Do you believe in reincarnation? Why or why not?
I guess I do, that it exists but not for me. I think possibly reincaration is the version of hell in someway, yet coming back in another form, your soul remains always who you are.
Yet you see I don't need reincarnation because my soul will heal when I pass, there is no need to return here. I also believe that God gives some of us the gift to see ahead or behind. So maybe it isn't a past life but rather time travel. I know God lets me do this so why would he send me to another life when in the here and now He could send me to visit that which is needed to be seen.