Introductory Post
Hello! Gosh I haven't posted since 2018 on here! Anyways I go by Rejina, I am 23 y/o, and I use she/her in english, elle in french, ella in spanish, and xi/xia in my conlang sankto.
I came to Tumblr mostly for shitposting, but I found a lot of amazing posts and comments about polytheism especially con-religions. It seems stupid but I thought I was the only one, especially since 2013-2018 tumblr was very anti-neo religions except for wicca.
I apologize beforehand this is going to be very very long, and TW: very brief mention of abuse and su1c1de towards the end of "Where did I start and why?"section.
Where did I start and why? (Beware I ramble, sorry!!!)
Short version:
My family is very white and gave up our native cultures to assimilate into the very hateful white society as well as latching tightly to southern american branches of christianity that clashed with my identity and sexuality. 2013-2018 Tumblr was my introduction to pop culture paganism, the multiverse theory, and conlangs which eventually led me to con-religions and that just clicked far more than christianity, especially since they answered my prayers far more.
Long version:
Since the beginning of my life I've felt ... displaced? No culture, no religion, no ancestors, just plopped into a drug trailer fresh out of the womb. It wasn't until I was older that I was introduced to Southern baptist by my maternal great grandmother and I latched onto it tightly, after all this was the only thing my family had to offer about our identities and I took it. So I made it my entire life until around the age of 13 I discovered a spellbook in my moms closet, where I coincidentally found out I am also a really big queer, these didn't align with my families neat little christian perspective as expected so I began to doubt. Now my mother was more of a free spirit in her family which is why I was raised without a religion for most of my life, but she still had the imprints of her southern raising and hid this spellbook away, and when I found it she tossed it into the dumpster.
But heres the thing, I am hard headed and I was raised as the youngest child most of my life so I went into the dumpster and got it out, and I hid it, never relenting on my mother to please just let me read or buy something related to the topic. Eventually she broke and agreed but boy the ass whooping I got when I revealed the (stolen and now a little stinky) spellbook was one that I will never forget.
Anyways fast forward, the spellbook that started me on this journey was a new age rip off wiccan spellbook with very heavy Christian and angelic ties, but this made me thirst for more knowledge on magical things which eventually led me to magical alphabets, latin, sigils, ceremonial sorcery, you name it I've probably tried it. And after a few failed after school covens and knowledge hoarding my way through middleschool and most of highschool I discovered three more things:
The Multiverse Theory, Pop Culture Paganism, and Conlangs.
This was an exciting change for me, as I had a love for languages by this point in my life, especially because I was a massive massive nerd (D&D, Skyrim, any elder scrolls content, etc...), any fantasy language or even natural language and I was borderline obsessed, so when I found out you could make your own I practically exploded. And the same thing happened when I found out about pop culture paganism and the multiverse because again I was a massive nerd and was thrilled to discover I could worship gods unfamiliar to me.
This led me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, identity crisis one after another because eventually I wanted to get into ancestor worship but ... what ancestors did I have? My maternal great grandmother only knew her mother emigrated from Germany when she was young, knew nothing of her father and would not dare speak of her ex-husband who left her and her kids. On my father's side anything past his mother and father was a complete mystery so that was no help either. So I decided to just stop, I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere, I wanted to belong to something because I missed the community of church and I seen all my friends who had their very alive cultures and faiths and I was envious. So I started to make my own, my own culture, my own religion, my own language, I was carving out a space for me to belong.
This was going on in a very difficult time in my life, without getting too much into details there was abuse of all types going on, and eventually a very suspicious su1c1de. Anyways this is when I discovered that my con-religion and its gods were very real and it was also around this time that because off all the stuff going on in my life I dropped them once more.
What is the gist of my con-religion?
Short answer:
The gist of my con-religion is that it was built to provide a sense of belonging, attempting to maintain a balanced (though it can be feminine leaning) view of divinity, rooted in animism and immanence where the gods are not above us or transcendent, where they are among us and with us, aligned with science as part of the divine, and built from similar patterns in religions across the globe.
Long answer:
So as I had said before, I created this religion, culture, and language out of a want to belong, and yes that is true. I primarily made it for me and others who don't have a culture or ancestral religion to link back to, but I also made this religion because I really did not align with a few things in ancient and modern religions.
Firstly, I am tired of male centered narratives, they are important yes, but after thousands of years dominating major cultures, beliefs, and governments I think we should reconnect with our roots in a more balanced system. I really did not vibe with the patriarchy concepts in a lot of religions including my favorite, the hellenic pantheon/polytheism.
Secondly, I wanted a religion that also aligned with science instead of the two being at odds, I feel science is just part of the divine we understand and what we don't is something that one day we might come to understand but it is still divine. And this is part of my animism/immanence perspective because the divine and the mundane should never be separated, they are intertwined.
Thirdly, this isn't a gripe or a complaint, but an observation I suppose? Across the world cultures and religions have so many similarities, and in building my con-religion I want to zone in on these wide-spread similarities as I think that at its source perhaps it comes from the original culture of all humans, because I also believe in evolution and believe that we came from the cradle of humanity.
So the gist of my con-religion is that it was built to provide a sense of belonging, attempting to maintain a balanced (though it can be feminine leaning) view of divinity, rooted in animism and immanence where the gods are not above us or transcendent, where they are among us and with us, aligned with science as part of the divine, and built from similar patterns in religions across the globe.
So what is the purpose of this account? Can others practice? What is it called?
The purpose of this account is to introduce this religion to others, and it is mostly for me to put all my thoughts in one place. If people want to follow it sure alright but if not, cool its mostly a religion that aligns with my views of the world anyhow.
Yes others can practice but its still very early in development, the only people actively worshipping my gods and my religion are me, a close friend, and my partners and children. And the results have been amazing.
So far it does not have a name, I have just been calling it the same name as my conlang; Sankto. And its followers as Sanktuloy, because in my eyes, the language, the culture, and the religion are inseparable from one another.
Thank you for taking the time to read this if you made it this far, and I hope you stick around for further developments <3.