Your Wiccan/Pagan Path...and How Did You Know?

[Tirissana]

I’ll erase this feeling…
I still have a long life don’t I?
kono omoi wo keshiteshimau ni ha
mada jinsei nagai deshou?

I know I made a post saying what my experience is, and I want to make a slight update.

I'm still an eclectic neo-pagan, however I kinda have an idea on what my path will be. I have been looking into the Norse deities a little. And I do feel a little drawn to them. However I am going to continue my research and see where it takes me. I have picked up a few fluffy bunny books, however somethings, like how to do rituals or set them up are sorta a guide, but not a definite. I can probably tweak many of them.

I’m missing the feeling…
so this pain is also welcomed!
natsukashiku naru
konna itami mo kangeijan

 

[TheHangedQueen]

I had heard Wicca and Paganism mentioned several times in my life and when my family was talking about it, my curiousity was officially piqued. I've always been naturally inquisitive and I'd never felt 100% comfortable as a Lutheran but that wasn't something that was apparent to me until I began researching Wicca and Paganism and found that it struck home with me in ways Christianity hadn't. Since I was in seventh grade and still very afraid of my parents and how they'd react to know I'd strayed from the religion they taught me, I wasn't very serious about it. I was also scared that I was going to go to hell. I did adopt the belief that the Greek gods were real and instead of directing my prayers to God, I would pray to the greek gods, mostly Artemis and Poseidon. (I remember specifically that one time during this period, my father and I had been fishing and I noticed he was getting upset about not catching anything (we were in a tournament) so I prayed to Poseidon and told him that if my father could catch some fish, I never had to catch one for the rest of my life. About five minutes after that, my dad caught a decent sized fish and caught two more before the end of the tournament. We got 8th with the one fish I'd caught before my prayer added to the three my dad caught. For about two, almost three years, I hadn't caught one fish. That changed this summer though, when my siblings and I went fishing with my dad and I caught four. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean but I'm glad that my prayers had been answered.)
In 8th grade, I became friends with a girl named Caity who was a self-proclaimed Wiccan and she kind of gave me the final push I needed to become serious about the Wiccan/Pagan path. (I felt competitive with her because she seemed to know so much. sweatdrop I wanted to kind of show her up, as ridiculous as that sounds. xD)
I'm happy to say that I have learned a lot about myself in these past couple of years and am happy to be on the path I am. I feel balanced and at peace. I know a lot of people, particularly my mom and brother, don't take me seriously and think I'm just going through a phase but it doesn't make me angry that they don't take my beliefs seriously. I feel a little sad that our opposing beliefs have driven a wedge between us but I mostly am not bothered by it. (I only get angry when my mom acts like a control freak and tells me that I'm not allowed to change my beliefs until I'm 18.)
((hahaha I just realized how much I typed. xD lol I like to talk a lot...lmao))  

[AnnaWolfP]

I still realy don't know what my path is and/or might be but i think i'm slowly going more to the Wicca and i think its right for me because i love nature so much just being by myself in the woods makes me feel so alive and here in the city...i can't seem to focus so i might say Wicca is best for me.  

[Esiris]

xXAngel Wolf PrincessXx

I still realy don't know what my path is and/or might be but i think i'm slowly going more to the Wicca and i think its right for me because i love nature so much just being by myself in the woods makes me feel so alive and here in the city...i can't seem to focus so i might say Wicca is best for me.

Wicca is more fertility centered than nature centered- you might want to check the sticky in the main guild.  

[Scorpy-Sue]

Well, Heathenry is my path now, which several members in this guild and the Sacred Grove helped me discover was the right path for me (thank you heart ).

When I was eleven, I was in a dance class with a girl who was dabbling in "Wicca". She gave me links to old websites that I could visit and I started studying what is basically general NeoPaganism/New Age. I wish I could remember that site, but it taught me all about astral projection, candle magic, and similar stuff. I knew I was called to something like that, and I never forgot what I had learned, even after my mom made me throw out all the stuff I'd printed out to study (she called it "Devil stuff"). It's taken me nine years to find the right path, but I have to thank that misguided girl who showed me that there was something other than Catholicism out there.  

[-MysticCherri-]

I grew up in the American bible Belt, but in middle school i started feeling like the Christan god was just a faerie tale..(i mean at this time humpty dumpty and other mother goose stories started making more scene then the bible...) around sophomore year my friend told me that she was a pagan and what i explained to her what i believed in sounded pagan. (by the way at this point i thought pagans were wiped out by the early christian church) this made me curious and i started digging a little. my digging led me to Wicca. a title to me at this time but i kept digging every path i found out about made me more and more curious. Celtic, bardic, druidism, Norse, Wicca Hellenistic, Egyptian. every thing started making more and more scene. my year and a day of research was around in the middle i still hadn't chosen a certain path. then this dream kept repeating itself over and over again. it was about to drive me nuts! about after a month and a half i final tell a friend about it (whom is a Wiccain) about it and she told me that sounded like mother moon.

the dream
it was a full moon night middle of a raging sea
i am falling out of the sky for some reason and i land in the water.
a beam of light shoots out of the moon next to me a boat with no one on bored appears.
i climb into this little boat and i find a silver pentagram amulet on a bit of black cord so i put it on.
the boat takes me to this densely forested island and i dock at a small dock. which a trail though the forest came out to.
i start walking and soon i'm in this forest that looked like humankind has either never touched or it's been a few centeries since.
i'm just walking along trying to figure out where i am and this bear confrounts me looking like he wanted to invite me to lunch in the worst kind of way. then as the bear crept closer and closer anouther beam of light shot form the moon. this time a goddess like figure appears and shoos the bear away thus saving me from becoming dinner. she turns to me and starts speaking to me in a strange langauge but for some reason i understood her perfectly.
what she said to me whould sound like giberish but i basically got this out of it if translated to english "fear not, for i will protect you. your path and destiny await you. wonder not off the path and do not doubt yourself."
basically.
she vanishes and i have a shocked and yet relieved feeling and so i continue upon my path until the forest ends i step out of the forest and I'm teleported to stonehinge for some reason. that's were the dream ended every time, stonehinge. it fades to black.
i told another friend about it (today a matter of fact) as it was bothering me which goddess it was that scared the bear off. she thought it was Hecate since it dealt with the moon so much in my dream.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Lux Excelsior

i told another friend about it (today a matter of fact) as it was bothering me which goddess it was that scared the bear off. she thought it was Hecate since it dealt with the moon so much in my dream.

A lot of goddesses are linked to the moon. There are, like, three within Greek mythology alone. I think you should probably ask the goddess, as from what you've said, there's not really much within your dream to indicate what religion you should follow. Even the pentagram isn't all that helpful.

Stonehenge is pre-Celtic British... I don't think we know much about the builders except they were neolithic and they farmed. We don't really know anything about their religion.  

[-MysticCherri-]

Sanguina Cruenta

Lux Excelsior

i told another friend about it (today a matter of fact) as it was bothering me which goddess it was that scared the bear off. she thought it was Hecate since it dealt with the moon so much in my dream.

A lot of goddesses are linked to the moon. There are, like, three within Greek mythology alone. I think you should probably ask the goddess, as from what you've said, there's not really much within your dream to indicate what religion you should follow. Even the pentagram isn't all that helpful.

Stonehenge is pre-Celtic British... I don't think we know much about the builders except they were neolithic and they farmed. We don't really know anything about their religion.

alright, if anyone would know it's The Goddess no doubt. well i think the current symbolism of Stonehenge and what we do know of it made a bit more scene.
but let's have a little fun, lets beak down my dream it's basic symbolism.

the moon being one of the more obvious symbols.


The Goddess chose the Moon as her symbol and the God the sun to remind the inhabitants of the Earth of their fashioners.

the moon bit turned my attention to Wicca and also a deity i keep calling "Mother Moon" if this rings any bells please, do tell. (I'm serious it's been in my head for three or more years...)

the falling i think this means something like the conversion i went though.

the sea itself perhaps the element water?


the bear, the challenges of being a nonchristan in a society that thinks your a devil worshiper which your not at all and nuts to them i say. (i live in the southern united states you'd have to be either American or have simply been here for a little while to if you aren't that is i'm amusing your in europe or else where being it's like 4 am here....people here are not as tolerant as they seem. )

the trail being a time line of sort. or maybe it's literally the path i choose to follow.

the forest, a symbol of nature?


and the pentagram said to me to follow a path either the same or similar as my ancestors. (i was looking at Buddhism, and Shinto at the time.)  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Ah, you're Japanese?  

[Lady Keigh]

A close friend of mine showed me her books on meditation and Wicca, and it felt right. But now that I've been poking around a bit more, I'm starting to notice I'm more of an eclectic pagan. I seem really connected to norse and greek gods and godesses.  

[Morgandria]

Lux Excelsior

alright, if anyone would know it's The Goddess no doubt. well i think the current symbolism of Stonehenge and what we do know of it made a bit more scene.
but let's have a little fun, lets beak down my dream it's basic symbolism.

the moon being one of the more obvious symbols.


The Goddess chose the Moon as her symbol and the God the sun to remind the inhabitants of the Earth of their fashioners.

the moon bit turned my attention to Wicca and also a deity i keep calling "Mother Moon" if this rings any bells please, do tell. (I'm serious it's been in my head for three or more years...)

the falling i think this means something like the conversion i went though.

Conversion to what, though? One doesn't become Wiccan through dreams, or simply by choosing to apply the title to one's self.

Also, the Goddess Wiccans speak of is a single, individual Goddess. Not the soft poly "All Goddesses are One Goddess" concept. She is a deity with associations with the moon. This does not mean you can put any moon goddess in her place and accurately call it Wicca.

If anything, Stonehenge should be associated with the Sun - it tracks the path of our solar star, not the moon. I'm also having a hard time making a connection between Hecate and Stonehenge.

Lux Excelsior

the sea itself perhaps the element water?

the bear, the challenges of being a nonchristan in a society that thinks your a devil worshiper which your not at all and nuts to them i say. (i live in the southern united states you'd have to be either American or have simply been here for a little while to if you aren't that is i'm amusing your in europe or else where being it's like 4 am here....people here are not as tolerant as they seem. )

the trail being a time line of sort. or maybe it's literally the path i choose to follow.

the forest, a symbol of nature?

It's hard to say what the water means. It's the element of the emotional, of intuition, of psychic work and healing. That your sea is rough and dark may simply be your subconscious's way of expressing how unsettled you are. After all, the subconscious is a Water-y thing on its' own.

Not quite so literally, the sea is sometimes seen as a symbol of the boundary between realms - the land is the Middle World, Sky the Upper World realm of the Gods, and the Sea is the Lower Worlds. Sometimes travelling by water, or sudden entry into water, can represent a journey to the Lower Worlds - or simply a journey into the emotional psychic plane.

I don't honestly understand the bear. Part of dream interpretation is knowing -personal- symbolism, and I have no idea what you think and feel about bears. For me, bears are sacred - a family totem - and when they show up it is either as protection, or as healing. Bears in Native tradition are associated with the West, so for me it would be a further association with healing, and water. But it's likely you're not native, and this doesn't work for you.

Also - If the goddess is at all related to the Goddess of the Wica, I don't know why she'd kill the bear. The bear was associated with the Goddess in England, and is considered to be a creature of Earth in Wiccan correspondance. I personally consider it, along with a few other animals, to be the spiritual 'totem' animals of the British Isles. It seems odd to me she'd do that if it was indeed the Lady of the Wica.

So I want to think this is not about the Wica at all. But only you can figure it out, exactly. I don't have your personal symbolism to work with.

Thinking about the 'path' as timeline: you should be aware that time doesn't nescessarily move in a straight line. There is a school of thought amongst astrophysicists, and associated physics fields, that time moves in a spiral. There's some evidence for it, at any rate. I personally find it makes more sense than linear time, in my worldview, but your mileage may vary. It will probably become easily apparent to you whether the path is a journey to something, or a symbol of time, so just wait it out.

And returning to your forest, after entering the dream in the sea, might be returning to the Middle World from your journey.  

[-MysticCherri-]

Morgandria

Lux Excelsior

alright, if anyone would know it's The Goddess no doubt. well i think the current symbolism of Stonehenge and what we do know of it made a bit more scene.
but let's have a little fun, lets beak down my dream it's basic symbolism.

the moon being one of the more obvious symbols.


The Goddess chose the Moon as her symbol and the God the sun to remind the inhabitants of the Earth of their fashioners.

the moon bit turned my attention to Wicca and also a deity i keep calling "Mother Moon" if this rings any bells please, do tell. (I'm serious it's been in my head for three or more years...)

the falling i think this means something like the conversion i went though.

Conversion to what, though? One doesn't become Wiccan through dreams, or simply by choosing to apply the title to one's self.

Also, the Goddess Wiccans speak of is a single, individual Goddess. Not the soft poly "All Goddesses are One Goddess" concept. She is a deity with associations with the moon. This does not mean you can put any moon goddess in her place and accurately call it Wicca.

If anything, Stonehenge should be associated with the Sun - it tracks the path of our solar star, not the moon. I'm also having a hard time making a connection between Hecate and Stonehenge.

Lux Excelsior

the sea itself perhaps the element water?

the bear, the challenges of being a nonchristan in a society that thinks your a devil worshiper which your not at all and nuts to them i say. (i live in the southern united states you'd have to be either American or have simply been here for a little while to if you aren't that is i'm amusing your in europe or else where being it's like 4 am here....people here are not as tolerant as they seem. )

the trail being a time line of sort. or maybe it's literally the path i choose to follow.

the forest, a symbol of nature?

It's hard to say what the water means. It's the element of the emotional, of intuition, of psychic work and healing. That your sea is rough and dark may simply be your subconscious's way of expressing how unsettled you are. After all, the subconscious is a Water-y thing on its' own.

Not quite so literally, the sea is sometimes seen as a symbol of the boundary between realms - the land is the Middle World, Sky the Upper World realm of the Gods, and the Sea is the Lower Worlds. Sometimes travelling by water, or sudden entry into water, can represent a journey to the Lower Worlds - or simply a journey into the emotional psychic plane.

I don't honestly understand the bear. Part of dream interpretation is knowing -personal- symbolism, and I have no idea what you think and feel about bears. For me, bears are sacred - a family totem - and when they show up it is either as protection, or as healing. Bears in Native tradition are associated with the West, so for me it would be a further association with healing, and water. But it's likely you're not native, and this doesn't work for you.

Also - If the goddess is at all related to the Goddess of the Wica, I don't know why she'd kill the bear. The bear was associated with the Goddess in England, and is considered to be a creature of Earth in Wiccan correspondance. I personally consider it, along with a few other animals, to be the spiritual 'totem' animals of the British Isles. It seems odd to me she'd do that if it was indeed the Lady of the Wica.

So I want to think this is not about the Wica at all. But only you can figure it out, exactly. I don't have your personal symbolism to work with.

Thinking about the 'path' as timeline: you should be aware that time doesn't nescessarily move in a straight line. There is a school of thought amongst astrophysicists, and associated physics fields, that time moves in a spiral. There's some evidence for it, at any rate. I personally find it makes more sense than linear time, in my worldview, but your mileage may vary. It will probably become easily apparent to you whether the path is a journey to something, or a symbol of time, so just wait it out.

And returning to your forest, after entering the dream in the sea, might be returning to the Middle World from your journey.

my conversion wasn't the dream i know that much.
she didn't kill the bear she scared it away...
this is true about time...
sweatdrop  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

I reckon the Badger would be a totem animal of the British Isles. Badger is very British. And theoretically the Lion, due to it being so heraldic, but it's not like it's ever been native there, even as far as I know back when the European Lion was around. Possibly the robin? The bulldog!

Churchill interlude:



*glee*

Totem animals of New Zealand.... I reckon Tuatara. Because it's been here for sooooo long. And maybe.... Kakapo, kiwi... Kauri and Pohutukawa as totem trees.  

[Esiris]

I think Raccoons are pretty special.