Crisis of Faith and the Importance of Why

A crisis of faith can shake even the most dedicated practitioner, but it rarely comes out of nowhere. This episode explores how doubt arises, why it’s a natural part of spiritual growth, and how understanding the why behind your practices becomes the anchor that carries you through uncertainty. Drawing from real temple experiences, we break down how purpose, meaning, and clear teaching strengthen a practitioner’s foundation—whether in ritual, meditation, ethics, or seasonal observances. We also look at how covens and temples can better support their members by teaching not just what to do, but why it matters. If you’ve ever questioned your path or struggled to stay grounded, this conversation offers practical, honest insight into rebuilding confidence and reconnecting with your spiritual roots.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:15

Welcome to Pagan coffee talk. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating and following our socials. So you've been delving into a topic here lately about crisis of faith.

Speaker 0:35

Yes.

Speaker 2 0:36

They do happen. They do happen, and they happen to everybody at some point. Yes. What brought you to this topic? Let's start there.

What A Crisis Of Faith Feels Like

Speaker 0:45

Well uh well again, it's a it's a topic I I we haven't really covered it, but I was thinking maybe we should and maybe give some temples some suggestions on how to not fix, I don't want to say, but relieve or to help with these a little bit better, things that temples can do ahead of time to maybe help people with those w when they're having crisis of faith. If you sort of pre-plan ahead of time. Again.

Speaker 2 1:16

True, yeah.

Speaker 1:17

All right. Because we I mean again, what causes a crisis of faith though?

Speaker 2 1:22

Well, I tend I tend to see a crisis of faith as like a test of your beliefs.

Speaker 1:29

Understand.

Speaker 2 1:30

And I guess I guess that kind of helps me get through when I have a crisis of faith. Because then it it allows me to, you know, examine my beliefs and where I where I think I stand on things and kind of go from there and you know talk to people and kind of work it out.

Speaker 1:53

Well, I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure everybody sits here at some point and goes, are we sure we're doing this right? Are we sure we're not getting ourselves into more trouble than we're again, all these thoughts come across people.

Speaker 2 2:06

I mean, you know, not to have doubts is a little weird, but Well, I think you've I think it's human nature to have doubts.

Speaker 2:14

I I I think it is too.

Speaker 2 2:15

There's not even if you firmly believe da-da-da, X and X and X, whatever, at some point you're gonna be like, mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:24

You know, well again, that person on the other side sometimes gives a good argument, make you sit there and go, Well Right. All right, now Maybe I need to rethink. Maybe I need to rethink. It those things happen. Again, they bring up questions. So that that leads me to the thing, what can temples do to relieve or to help start to get rid of this?

Speaker 2 2:48

Gotcha.

Speaker 2:49

All right, or to help people faster along this. It's sort of where in the world this was going.

Speaker 2 2:54

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:55

And what I basically found out is is the more of the whys we put back there, the more it helps relieve crisis of faith. It don't fix it, it doesn't stop them, but it makes it a little bit easier to get through.

Speaker 2 3:12

Okay, so what do you mean by the whys?

Speaker 3:16

Well, why are you casting circles? Why are you doing ritual? Doing this stuff, doing the stuff that we do with no meaning behind it is empty and hollow.

Speaker 2 3:31

Okay, so purpose, function, all that good stuff. I mean then intended outcomes, why why?

Speaker 3:38

All right. I mean, right now we're around Astara, right? Yes. Why celebrate Astara? What's the point? Are you are you with me? And again, I know a lot of people will sit there and go, well, duh, you're talking about, you know, the Harvet and this and the seasons and yes, but again, I ask again, why do we celebrate? Why do we actually celebrate this?

Speaker 2 4:04

What are we hoping to get out of this? Right?

Speaker 4:07

Yes. What what is it that we're going to get? What purpose does it serve? Now, the majority of the times I want to sit here and say the purpose of ritual is to spend time walking among the gods. Right. All right, and and that's the point of it. It is to be in that divine presence of these beings, especially at these times. We also believe that these also help us attune ourselves to the natural rhythms of nature. You know, and I know a lot of people probably sit back going, Well, what do you mean? Well, I don't know about you, but and I know it don't seem completely unhelpful, but yeah, you can sort of tell what sort of colors the leaves are gonna turn before they do.

Speaker 2 4:51

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4:51

Yeah. You can sort of see it in your mind before it actually happens. You sort of see the snow before it comes.

Speaker 2 4:59

Right. You can see the you can see the buds on the trees before they actually form.

Speaker 5:03

Right. To be really weird about it, and it's gonna sound a little it's sort of like a form of gaydar, but for nature. For nature. Nature's gone. I d I mean I don't it it makes you a little bit more aware of certain things going on. Okay. But yes, there is a purpose, and that purpose does help us continue to move forward and to learn because again, we're more observant about nature after we've done accelerated it. So it's pretty fresh in our mind, so we're sort of looking for those things.

Speaker 2 5:35

Okay. And without the why, everything becomes a little empty. Right. Like rituals don't mean anything.

Speaker 5:46

Yeah, I mean, w what's the point of full moon? Why should I do it?

Speaker 2 5:51

It's right. Doubt has nothing to um anchor itself to.

Speaker 5:58

Right.

Speaker 2 5:59

Or that's not the right word.

Speaker 6:01

I mean, it's just it's just again, you you have no way to ground the doubt.

Speaker 2 6:07

Yes, yes.

Speaker 6:08

Without the whys behind that.

Speaker 2 6:09

That's what I was looking for, yeah.

Speaker 6:11

All right. So again, even in our temple, all right, the mechanics and the way we cast circle, there is knowledge there that we do have a process, we have a theory in which I can sit here and go, here's our theory. This is how we think this works. Right.

Speaker 2 6:28

This is why we do this.

Speaker 6:29

This is why we do circle casting this way.

Speaker 2 6:32

Right.

Speaker 6:33

When sit back, here's our ethics. This is why we do our ethics this way. All right. What we're sitting, this is what we're doing. And again, these things help.

Speaker 2 6:44

Well, they're the foundation.

Speaker 6:47

Right.

Speaker 2 6:47

And without the foundation, things just fall apart.

Ritual Purpose And Nature Attunement

Speaker 6:50

Right. Again, without those, without those touchstones, without somewhere to stand, crisis of fates become a whole lot worse. Right. You know, and again, I'm not really knocking any temples or anything like that, but at the same time, I sort of am, because we do have temples out there, we do have covens, we do have teachings out there that are a little shallow. Okay, or a lot shallow.

Speaker 2 7:12

Well, and and then you've you know, you've got the groups that are, well, that's just how it's always been done.

Speaker 7:19

Yes.

Speaker 2 7:20

And not realizing the whys behind there. You know, it's it's kind of like the story you like to tell about the roast cutting the ends off of the roast. Oh, yeah. I was, well, I don't know, ask your mother. That's the way she's always done it.

Speaker 7:32

Yeah, little girl sitting there, little girl sitting there, and she thinks her mom makes the best roast.

Speaker 2 7:37

Right.

Speaker 7:37

So she goes up to her mom one day and goes, Mom, why does your roast taste taste so good? Because I cut the ends off. How does cutting off the ends of the roast make it taste good? I don't know. It's the way your grandma did it. When she gets here, you can ask her. Grandma shows up. Grandma, she calls up in grandma's lap. Why does cutting off the ends of the roast make it taste better? I don't know. That's what your nanny did. When she gets here, you can ask her. Great grandma shows up. Sometimes, Nanny, getting a little tired of this, but why does cutting off the ends of the roast make it taste better? She sat there, she thought about it, and thought about it. She's like, Lord child, I did that just to make it fit in the pan. Right. This is what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 8:21

Right.

Speaker 8:22

Without the whys, we start doing stuff and there's no real reason behind there. Right. You know, and I I hate to be this way, people have a bad habit of not asking the whys. They just automatically assume.

Speaker 2 8:37

Right. They assume or they just, well, this sounds like a good thing, so I'm just gonna go with it.

Speaker 8:43

Right.

Speaker 2 8:43

I mean And they don't delve deeper into it.

Speaker 8:46

Well, I mean, this might be some of the people's problems with like meditation. They don't understand the why behind it. Could be. And because they don't understand the why directly, they're not willing to do it or they have a harder problem doing it. Okay, because again, when you're when you're doing stuff like that, nine times out of ten, you never notice what's going on. Right. You never notice yourself getting better, you never notice yourself handling such it's everybody else.

Speaker 2 9:15

It's everybody around you, yeah.

Speaker 9:16

All right, so doing not trying to get off the top, but doing meditation is kind of like working out. Everybody else will see the benefits before you do. All right. I are you with me? The why behind there needs to be taught.

Speaker 2 9:34

Okay, so how do we how do we get to that point? How do we start incorporating the whys, the reasons, the purpose? How do we start incorporating that into our traditions? Well, what do what do we need to do?

Speaker 9:48

Look, let's use the example of circle casting, right? Depending on how you do it, whatever, all right. If generally speaking, you you do a scribe first. My question is, can you answer why you have to do that scribe first? Why we have to psychically draw, then you gotta ask yourself the next thing. Then what normally is what's the elemental dance where we go around with the salt, water, and all that. You need to ask the question, why do you do that? What's the purpose behind it? Okay. Then you're gonna have to ask yourself the next question. Okay, the the next stage in that is calling the quarters. Why are you calling them? Are you calling them to protect you or to protect or to somehow protect them against you? Are you with me? These are the questions you need to ask and start to answer. Why are you doing this? Why are you calling the quarters?

Speaker 2 10:42

Okay.

Speaker 10:43

Am I making sense? So you literally you have to sit there and think of everything you do.

Speaker 2 10:48

Right.

Speaker 10:49

And I don't care the tradition. I mean, if you if you're a druid and you don't cast circles, whatever y'all do, you need to be able to, okay, this is why we do this in this order, and this is why we're doing each of these steps this way.

Speaker 2 11:01

Right. This is why we don't use a circle. This is why, you know, whatever.

Speaker 11:06

Right.

Speaker 2 11:07

This is why we do, and not it's uh think of it on a on a some more simple example. Think of it like lighting a candle, and correct me if I'm wrong on this. It's like lighting a candle.

Speaker 11:21

You don't just light a candle, you light a candle and it becomes a symbol, it becomes a guide, it becomes Well, it it it can become a ritual because, first of all, you've got again, if we're gonna light a candle more the traditional way, you're gonna strike the match, light the candle, put the match out, relight the match, put the candle out, then relight the candle again. It becomes a whole ritual.

Speaker 2 11:48

But then you still need to you still need to know why you're doing it that way.

Speaker 11:52

Why are we doing it that way? Because sulfur out of out of the matches, the sulfurs that are put in the matches tend to purify areas of all energies. Right. So that first burn is just to burn the sulfur off so we can get a pure candle that don't have any sulfur mixed in with it to begin with.

Speaker 2 12:10

Right.

Speaker 12:11

That's all we're trying to do. We're trying to burn the sulfur off.

Speaker 2 12:13

Yep. But at least now you know why.

Speaker 12:17

Now you know why.

Speaker 2 12:18

So, yeah. And it's that simple. You just yeah, same with the circles, same with anything else you do, just why do you do it? Why do you do it?

Speaker 12:27

What what's the point there?

Speaker 2 12:28

If you can't say why you do it, then maybe you need to make a reason why. Well you need to figure it out.

Speaker 12:37

You need to figure it out. I mean, these and again, if you're running the temple and you're dealing with and you're dealing with people, these things, these touchstones, these places, all right, these cornerstones and stuff which we're talking about are places where in the world, when these people have these fear, they can go back and they go, okay, no, no, no. This is why we're doing this, this is why we're doing that. There is a purpose. Because you still gotta remember, how often how often do pagans get accused or told to their faces, oh, y'all just godless, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 13:08

Right.

Shallow Tradition And The Roast Story

Speaker 13:10

But we're not. I mean, technically we got more gods than we know what to do with half the time. But are you with me? But I I can see where people saying that will put doubts in people's minds, but they need to go, no, no, no. I know we are, because again, we're spending time with them in circle, we're we're in their presence.

Speaker 2 13:30

Right. I think if you if you look at it, taking ritual for an example, if you look at it as a language, if you're not teaching the translation, it it kind of gets lost. Right. And for somebody that's having a crisis of faith, that communication, that dialogue helps is going to be the key factor in either helping them get through it or changing their mind that, okay, no, maybe this isn't for me.

Speaker 14:01

Well, uh why would anybody do anything if the if there's not something there? Why am I going to practice a faith that is not sitting there trying to promote or getting me motivated to be a better person?

Speaker 2 14:14

Right. Well, I mean, even when it is, you know, just like when I was when I was in the church, I felt like I was being the best person I could be. Right? Right. I did things for other people. I, you know, I didn't feel like I was being selfish a lot of times. Of course, there were times when you are, but um, I think that happens all the time anyway. But I felt like I was generally a good person, and I contributed that to my my faith in God and you know, my Christian teachings. But at some point, I did, I had a crisis of faith. It led me somewhere else.

Speaker 14:56

Well, well, again, and you have those crises of faith, and yeah, it's it's a little disheartened when you're sitting there and you're just told that's the way it is.

Speaker 2 15:07

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 15:08

Because God wanted it that way.

Speaker 2 15:10

Well, and and that's part of what led me somewhere else, because I didn't have those whys. I didn't have the reasons.

Speaker 15:17

So again, causes a crisis of faith, caused people people to leave the faith or do other things. All right. Now, again, we're not talking about these ex-witches that you see on the 700 club and Lord no. All right. But again, we are talking about people really having we're we're talking about the those moments where you're in the bed and you're sitting there thinking, going, oh my God, could I possibly be going to help?

Speaker 2 15:44

Right.

Speaker 15:45

But when you got a bag of why you're doing what in the world you're doing beside you, that tends to fade away pretty fast, I think.

Speaker 2 15:55

Well, again, it's it's the foundation of whatever it is you do, whatever it is you believe.

Speaker 16:01

Right.

Speaker 2 16:02

You know, it's I mean, that that's we tell people to journal all the time. Write down what it is you believe.

Speaker 16:09

Well, how many times have I told you why do you believe it? Well, how many times have I sat here on the podcast and going, hey, you know what? What's the best way to start? Today I believe. Yeah. And then write down what you actually believe.

Speaker 2 16:21

Well, yeah, that's exactly it. I mean, during that process, you're also writing down why you believe what you believe at that particular time. If you do that on a regular basis, maybe once every three months, once every six months, whatever, if you do it on a regular basis, you're gonna start seeing, oh, well, I've changed my thinking here. Why did I change that?

Speaker 16:46

Right.

Speaker 2 16:46

Because again, what changed?

Speaker 16:48

Because here's one world happens. If you sit there and you're going through this and you're like, well, if I believe this, if I believe in A, B, and C, that means that over here I said this, but these two start to con. And it gives you a chance to sit there and work out why do you think these two different thoughts or concepts work good for you? Right. And how that and how they interact with each other. This is the stuff we're talking about.

Speaker 2 17:16

Right. And if you're part of a if you're part of a coven, if you're part of a temple, a group, whatever you want to call it, um, you've got those folks to kind of back you up as well.

Speaker 17:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:27

You know? And as long as everybody knows why they're doing what they're doing. And why they believe what they believe, guess what? You've got that foundation again.

Speaker 17:38

Right. And again, I am not saying this will eliminate prices of fates. Absolutely not. It will make it for a it makes it easier for the individuals if priests and priestesses think ahead of time going, well, if we don't tell them why, and it's just some because I told you to, it don't really have a good place to hang out.

Speaker 2 18:02

No, it doesn't.

Teaching The Why Step By Step

Speaker 18:03

So go figure. Yep. Anything else?

Speaker 2 18:10

So, yeah, I guess it comes down to if you want people to stay, just don't just teach them what you do. Teach them why you do it. Teach them what matters.

Speaker 18:19

Right? And and with that, I want I want to know why I don't have more coffee.

Speaker 2 18:24

Well, we can definitely rectify that. Let's go get some coffee. Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pegan Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary. Please visit us at life templeseminary.org for more information, as well as links to our social media: Facebook, Discord, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit.

Speaker 1 18:49

We travel down this trodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by a sea of blazing fires, and so it is the end of our days, to walk with me till morning breaks, and so it is the end of our days, to walk with me till morning breaks.