What's your witchy background?
A very long time ago, when I was 20 year old, I got out of the military and came home to be a
"civilian" again. I was adrift... the military and I had not gotten
along well enough for it to be a permanent career. I felt adrift
spiritually as well... not comfortable at all in the pentecostal
christian church I'd been a member in, or really any christian church.
Like most people, I never knew of any other options... it
was simply assumed to be a choice of which christian denomination I would join, or atheism.
For
months and months, I worked part-time jobs and read books, mostly
science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy. I found this novel on the shelves at the public
library, and being a fantasy story and having something to do with a cat
and magic, I thought it sounded like a good read.
That book, that fictional fantasy, changed everything.
You
see, that story included modern people that called themselves
"witches". Normal men and women with jobs, lovers, families. They
weren't bad or evil just because they were witches. And their lives were
full of interest, mystery... magic.
Now I knew a little bit about authors. They write about things they
know... things they've researched. What if... what if these authors had
researched REAL people calling themselves witches? I had to know more.
And I knew a little bit about researching too, so off to my public
library I went.
It
might have ended right there, except that my local public library had a
librarian who (unknowingly to me) happened to be pagan, and had the charge of buying books for the
"occult" section. Of course, this was 1988, and there were few and far
between books on modern paganism available. But there was Diary of a Witch
by Sybil Leek. And there were a few books by Scott Cunningham. (pagan,
witchy and wiccan friends, you may roll your eyes all you like at Scott
Cunningham (or even Sybil Leek) books, but when you are a closeted introvert in 1988, have no
money and no internet, and at that point, Cunningham is ALL that was
available at the library... well this blogger has fond memories,
and still has most of his books) I kept Earth Power checked out from the
library for months before I finally got the courage (and money) to go
looking at the bookstore.
By 1990, I had not only
gotten hired on at the public library, and made friends with a certain
librarian, I had devoured every current witchy book I could get my hands on.
Between what the library had, and the staff discount for buying books
via the library, that was a LOT. By 1991, I had met local pagans and witches (other than the librarian). A local coven offered "Wicca 101" classes, and I took those and any other classes they offered, even going so far as continueing self-taught "classes" with my classmates. By 1994, she had joined that coven as a dedicant, and eventually initiated in that coven.
I learned much about magic, goddess and god, ritual, pagan festivals,
coven and group dynamics. My experiences were transcendental,
wonderfully positive and some negative as well. My coven had initiatory degrees (initiate, elder and High Priest/ess), and I became elder, considered ordained. The coven was
also "out of the broom closet" so I had to grow into the ability to
teach others, be willing to "out" myself, even becoming less of an
introvert and growing far beyond what I'd ever hoped to be.
As
life happens, I married, had a child, changed jobs. When my job
schedule began to interfere with the coven schedule, I parted ways
with the coven to walk my path on my own for a while. I create my witchy world on my
own for now, still making magic, talking to goddess and god, still
planning to attend pagan festivals, still finding the Sacred in
everything.
Edited to update (9/2013): I have recently become part of a newly formed coven. It's an entirely different sort of coven from the previous, more formal tradition, and good to be part of a group again!
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