How did you learn of Paganism and decide to follow it?

[MOD66]

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[Nihilistic Seraph]

Pretty cool ^.^

I think my story is good. Now, I had my group of friends in high school, and we all had a basic belief in the supernatural, but nothing special. One day, one of my friends started saying that she thought spirits were attacking her, sending her nightmares. There was this one that allways came up in her dreams and would rape her. So, the rest of us being her friends, wanted to try to help. I mentioned that there were a couple books on witchraft/the occult at my house(my grandmother was a big feminist, so when we got her books there were a bunch involving paganism and witchraft/magic). Reading about it triggered soemthing, and I started to see auras. Differently though, it would see it as a shinning bit of light aroud the person's chest. I might have been actually seeing a chakra, I'm not sure.

Turned out, the spirits were actually just part of my friends subconscious, adn she dealt with what was bugging her and they went away. By this time, I was super interested in the occult and was set to start up a circle with a couple friends. High/Ceremonial magic didn't cut it for me though. While it is very powerful, and interesting, it lacked the spiritual side that I wanted. I poked around in paganism, and after I graduated, I joined the Pagan club at my college. The rest is history.  

[Jameta]

I was actually Catholic-by-name, Agnostic-by-nature for a while; in fact, I really didn't even care from the time I was about 11 or 12 to 15. Probably due to all the grief my peers gave me and internalizing it. confused

Anyways, during one summer, I volunteered at my local library. I stumbled upon a few witchcraft and Wiccan books (notably one of Fiona Horne's xp ). I started reading into it, and after some discussions with my mom and a few users online, here I am. razz  

[Neko_Bast]

I remember that the first thing I told my mom I wanted to be when I grew up was a Witch.....lol blaugh I have always been able to sence spirits/ghosts/fay since I was 4 and saw read eyes in a mirror that was in my bedroom. As I grew older (about 13) I started to sence electrical fields and use them for energy. I also started to sence auras. It wasn't untill I was 16 that I even knew you could be a Witch. I was shoping and saw "To Ride a Silver Broomstick." I bought it and well, the rest in history. ^-^ I looked it up on the web, bought lots more books and started talking to people. biggrin  

[The Bookwyrm]

Alright, Gypsy is about to show just how big of a geek she is... redface

I was in the 8th grade, so that made me, what, 14? Something like that... Any way, I was going through my documentary phase. Loved the Discovery Channel. Love The Learning Channel. It was during our exams in January that TLC was running a special documentary series; there was a different show on every night documenting the historical origins of vampires, witches, werewolves, all that spooky stuff. I was big into ghost stories and the horror movies my parents really didn't want me watching, so I couldn't wait to see these shows. Regretably, they were on after my bed time, but I taped them. I'd come home every day after my exam and watch what I had recorded the night before, and on the documentary about witchcraft I began to learn that witches weren't what I had thought they were. They were real, and not monsters.

So I hit the internet. I read everything I could find online and absolutely ate the stuff up. I was incredibly lucky that many of the sites I stumbled upon were credible and had good information; I became familiar with names like Ravenwolf, Cunnighnam, Cabbot, Star Hawk... They didn't mean a whole lot then, but they did later when I started looking into books. Naively, I asked my parents if I could become a witch, because what I was learning about fascinated me; it seemed wonderful to be able to connect with nature and witht he divine like that. I had been raised a Catholic, and never really connected with my faith, I realize now. My parents, of course, blew a gasket. I wasn't permitted to read any more about WitchCraft and Wicca.

But I did. I got books. My first book was Theresa Moore's "A Beginners Guide to WitchCraft." It wasn't a great book, but for the first while, it was my bible. Then I got a boyfriend. Absolutel nut job who actually turned me off to Paganism for a while. He had pulled a stunt that at the time (I was 16) I was convinced he was being possessed by two different spirits. I realize now he fell out of the loony tree and hit every branch on the way down. After I was confirmed a Catholic, I just got really upset with my religion; couldn't hack it. It contradicted itself so much, and I so so many hypocrites within the congregation that I couldn't do it. I started reading on WitchCraft again, and Wicca. I got Teen Witch and my love for Paganism was rekindled. I kept it under wraps until I got to university, and I am now proud to call myself Pagan, my parents know about it and have accepted it and it only took eight years for my dad to come around.  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Ahh, good old Starhawk...  

[LunaInverse]

Born and raised Roman Catholic. I still have the damn school uniform somewhere (used for Halloween parties...or to screw with my very sexy guy friends... xd ).

I was pretty jaded with the Church by the time I was about 13. I would even go so far as to say I was very angry with God (there was a bunch of stuff going on in my life at the time). And when I turned 18, I told my parents I wasn't going to church anymore. They tried to force me, but I stood my ground.

My mother still hasn't forgiven me for that.

Now, on to the meat of the story. I met this guy who claimed he was a shaman (he wasn't, the lying, manipulative p***k...) and he did all sorts of screwed up things to me, including convincing me to use hallucinogenic drugs. After I was done with that relationship, I sort of was in a spiritual fog for a few years. I knew I could never go back to the Catholic Church, even though my anger towards it was gone. And I certainly didn't want to walk down the ex's path.

And then I had a dream. I've always had a knack for interpeting dreams, but this one's meaning was so obvious anyone could have figured it out. Now, I've had a few spiritually significant dreams before, and I can always tell which ones are important, because I remember the entire dream...including my feelings. This one was no different.

I had woken up in the middle of the night. It was around midnight, and a thunderstorm had just started. I got up and closed my windows, and went back to sleep. And the dream began. Within the dream I awoke, and noticed the lights had gone out. So I lit a few candles, and my brother came in, a little panicky. I reassured him that everything was ok and he went back to bed. And then I went back to sleep...and awoke a little while later, panicked because I had left the candles still lit and had fallen asleep. Fire hazard and all that. But when I looked around the room, I saw a soft glow from the other side of my room, but it wasn't candle light. The candles were out, but my room still was being illuminated by...something.

I got out of bed and slowly walked across the room, and saw this plant with these beautiful blue flowers. The flowers were the glow. As I pondered the plant in my room, and old woman walks in and comes up to me. I'm nto afraid of her, because I sensed that she was supposed to be there at that time. She looked at me and said "The power is within you". And then the plant began to grow and enveloped me, embracing me in it's soft glow.

And then I woke up.

You don't get more obvious dreams than that. The rest is history.  

[Vertigo_Kiwi]

I never really had religion in my life, besides my mom telling me a little about god and the point of Christmas and Easter. Other than that I never had to read the Bible or go to church. My sister bought a book about Wicca about 5 years ago, at first I didn't really care about it. Then one day I actually read the book (not that I remember what it was) and it was something I was really interested in. For 2 years I was a fluffy Wiccan, then I slowly went into Eclectic Paganism. That's about it for my pagan biography.  

[MysticalBlueRse]

My story is a bit on the embarressing side.

I was 11 or so I can't remember exactly, I just know I was in middle school, when I sunk into such a deep depression I wanted to kill myself. i would pray every night ot just not wake up everyday. I know realize I was very selfish back then and probably should never had trouble, my life was never that hard.

During my depression I began believing God turned his back on me, I spent tons of time at Church, bible school, and I was a good person. All I could ask was, "Why wasn't God helping me?"

Around the time I turned 13 I was in full "gothic" form. I was always into Fantasty, fiction, ghost. But I had never thought to become a Witch, then I saw "Charmed", not the best thing to look at for the Religious stand point of Witchcraft, put it paints witches in a better light then most movies.

So I began looking into the religion more and more. My mother, who has never been a "bible-thumper" actually bought me my first book for my birthday, one of Silver RavenWolf's (Teen Witch), she also bought me my first, and still the only, Tarot Deck I use.

For a long time I thought I was a witch, but upon deeper thinking and reading I have come to the conclusion I am just a Pagan, maybe a Wiccan. I don't do spells often, actually I have casted one in my whole life. ^-^;

The other day I actually hugged my mom and thanked her for being so willing to let me do what I have done in my life and not stopped me. (No she was not irresponsable I have never done drugs, drank alcohol, smoked and I am still a virgin and just a week ago I celebrated my 19 birthday)

After joining this guild, and reading peoples infos I was glad to inform my mother that was an eclectic pagan (Sp?) and after hearing what it was she was glad to take on that term for her religion.  

[MOD66]

MysticalBlueRse

My story is a bit on the embarressing side.

I was 11 or so I can't remember exactly, I just know I was in middle school, when I sunk into such a deep depression I wanted to kill myself. i would pray every night ot just not wake up everyday. I know realize I was very selfish back then and probably should never had trouble, my life was never that hard.

During my depression I began believing God turned his back on me, I spent tons of time at Church, bible school, and I was a good person. All I could ask was, "Why wasn't God helping me?"

Around the time I turned 13 I was in full "gothic" form. I was always into Fantasty, fiction, ghost. But I had never thought to become a Witch, then I saw "Charmed", not the best thing to look at for the Religious stand point of Witchcraft, put it paints witches in a better light then most movies.

So I began looking into the religion more and more. My mother, who has never been a "bible-thumper" actually bought me my first book for my birthday, one of Silver RavenWolf's (Teen Witch), she also bought me my first, and still the only, Tarot Deck I use.

For a long time I thought I was a witch, but upon deeper thinking and reading I have come to the conclusion I am just a Pagan, maybe a Wiccan. I don't do spells often, actually I have casted one in my whole life. ^-^;

The other day I actually hugged my mom and thanked her for being so willing to let me do what I have done in my life and not stopped me. (No she was not irresponsable I have never done drugs, drank alcohol, smoked and I am still a virgin and just a week ago I celebrated my 19 birthday)

After joining this guild, and reading peoples infos I was glad to inform my mother that was an eclectic pagan (Sp?) and after hearing what it was she was glad to take on that term for her religion.

thats great. my parents are in ful suport of my religons too but they make me buy the books gonk mainly because my mom only uses the office credit card so "A Witch Alone" wounld look good for a Prison fellowship ministry xd  

[[ Aradia ]]

My Italian/Native American mother grew up in a home that was a very strict Catholic home. My father was Scotch/Irish and grew up in a very Pentacostal home. I grew up in a home where my mother said that if I ever wanted to go to church to get my dad. My dad was too lazy to take me anywhere let alone church. My spiritual search began when I was 12 years old. I began aching for something more. I knew there was somethign out there that I was grasping at but was just out of reach on. I had been interested in Native American Shamanism but couldn't quite find the stuff I was looking for about it. A few years went by and I was volunteering at a library when I found the book Simple Wicca by Michele Morgan. Not too bad of a book but some of the stuff really spoke to me. I began to dig deeper and deeper until I finally found something that made sense. I've been to church once in my life and to be quite frank, it didn't appeal to me. My mom and I had to leave out home and everything in it because my father busted her up retty badly. The church sermon was about how even if someone does something to you or anyone you love, you're supposed to love, forgive and keep them as a part ofyour life anyway. Don't htink so. To me, some thing can't be forgiven. While I don't have my father in my life, my spirituality has allowed me to forgive myself and my mother and move past things so that I we can be happy. That's what matters most. As a whole I have been very fulfilled by my spirituality and even my boyfriend, who had falen to the wayside is getting back into it because he feels a small void as well. My mom supports my decision, and even believes some of the same things I do. So we've finally been able to find some form of harmony.  

[[[_+Rain~Dancer+_]]]

I was raised in a very very conservative prim-and-proper christian family. I was the kid who screamed at you and pointed, saying "You just said God's name in vain!!!" and then proceed to force you to repent. I only did this because I "was supposed to" it "was the only right religion" but as I grew older, and my life had taken a turn for the very worst imaginable (rape, murder, child abuse, suicide, attempted murder, all at four and up to ten) When I met a wiccan named Kara. One day, when I was upstairs in her room, playing barbies (-cough-) she said casually "I'm a witch" Every christian-fanatical-conservative bell,whistle and alarm went howling in my mind, so I ran downstairs, and said rushedly to her mother, Dawn "Your daughter thinks she's a witch" and she smiled and said "Well, actually, dear she's a wiccan." It was there that I was told I was a natural witch. I have the powers of foresight, electrical field sensing, being able to move and transfer energies, telepathic communication, and sometimes I can actually stop time. But My powers are sissy-like and sometimes I feel one-inch tall compared to the people here. I always wish for something bigger...something incredible....why? Because I was always told I wasn't anything even near special.

 

[Azana Brown]

Let's see...

I had had an interest in magic for a long time, even though for a while it was stage illusion. I loved pulling magic tricks with cards and watching the fantastic performances of Lance Burton, Max Maven, etc. I had an imaginary friend who would make himself known by blowing leaves or garbage in a circle. I still think of him whenever it happens.

It's a vague memory, but I remember my mother and father doing Tarot in the living room a long time ago. I didn't pay much mind to the confusing method of divination, but I didn't know better.

I was in the Young Adult section of my local library when I found one of Silver RavenWolf's books. Yeah, I actually got my start on a RavenWolf book. I snuck it home after checking it out and read it from cover to cover. Unfortunately, the resources there died out quickly...until I found the adult section with books meant for my intellect. I'd check them out three or four at a time, reading them often. I'd read psychism books by Hewitt, and buy magick books often. Half Price became my best friend once I learned to drive, since that store's occult selection has been growing by leaps and bounds.

So, why is the vague memory so important? I inherited some of my mom's books and that very same Tarot deck. (I basically swiped them before they vanished...)  

[phantomkitsune]

My mom is a member of the United Church of Canada, and sees auras. So I grew up with a very broad acceptance of most things spiritual.

Apparently, when I was young I had medium abilities, but when I was five, I had a traumatic experience with a middle-aged Regency guy, so blocked that off. Actually, most of the year I was five is blocked off in my memory (things I have nightmares sometimes but don't remember include divorce, rape, and getting into a lot of trouble in Faerie).

What I do remember is that the summer I turned 11 and hit puberty, I started seeing auras, and dreaming precognitively, and traveling in dreams. I had a passing interest in the occult after that, but no one to really talk to about it. Four years later, I move to where I am now. About the middle of last year, I started being able to talk to my friends here about things. And now, we have a full-blown circle.

I don't really see myself as being specifically pagan. I attend church, am being confirmed next week, and am working at a Methodist summer camp this summer. Also, I do Tarot readings for the week ahead, celebrate the Sabbats, and do spellwork.  

[Shadow Chyld]

Truthfully I left my former religion, Catholicism, out of anger. Bad way to leave, yes, and I have reconciled with it, but that's how it is. I was mad for a lot of reasons - for the church not accepting my sexuality being the main reason. This happened when I was seventeen (I'll be nineteen in August). I spent about a month or two flirting with the idea of agnosticism, but I had had too many other spiritual experiences in the past. I had practiced other "occult" methods while a Catholic - the Tarot, psychic skills, shamanism - so I knew there was something out there. January of last year I felt a pull, a "psychic tug" if you will, which pulled me into the New Age section of our local book store (a place I'd only glanced at growing up). I grabbed The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft. I bought several other books later, most importantly for me Sons of the Goddess by Christopher Penczak, and the rest is history. 3nodding