FAQ: Why Be Wiccan?
Thursday November 20, 2008
I got an interesting email the other day, and wanted to share it with you. I believe the writer really is trying hard to understand, but is laboring under the Dominant Religion Lens Factor, so I took the time to answer her question. She asks, "I'm not Wiccan, and I'm trying to understand why people are leaving Christianity to follow Wicca. What is it that makes people turn their backs on a God of love and peace to worship Wiccan gods?"
While I could have just said, "We became Wiccan for the fabulous potluck dinners," I truly think it's important to address the question, and here's why. The writer appears to be under the misconception that Wiccans are simply people who got disgruntled with Christianity, and that's just not the case. It has nothing to do with who has cooler gods. Read on for my response to her: Why Do People Become Wiccan?
Want to share your story? Why did YOU become Wiccan? Post a note in the Comments below, and tell us what drew you to Wicca.
While I could have just said, "We became Wiccan for the fabulous potluck dinners," I truly think it's important to address the question, and here's why. The writer appears to be under the misconception that Wiccans are simply people who got disgruntled with Christianity, and that's just not the case. It has nothing to do with who has cooler gods. Read on for my response to her: Why Do People Become Wiccan?
Want to share your story? Why did YOU become Wiccan? Post a note in the Comments below, and tell us what drew you to Wicca.
Comments
I personally came to Wicca and Paganism, because of the deep belief that Man is not superior to Woman. I cannot believe that I am inferior and that I must have a man to lead me to God. Once I looked into a faith that did not promote the male over the female and found the equality of the old gods, I was compelled to follow this new faith. I do not believe that Woman is superior to Man either. The duality of the pagan faiths is the foundation of my beliefs. You cannot have one without the other. Light & Dark, man & woman, life & death. All are balanced.
The duality of male/female, indeed the dualistic nature of life, is one of th ethings that appeals to me. I was raised secularly Christian, your typical WASP, and was baptist for some time as an adult and was quite drawn to the spiritual qualities but quite repulsed by the hypocrisy; the assumption that non-christian = primitive, ignorant, and inferior; and the male chauvinism. I am still struggling though as my needs for community are not being met.
I was raised without going to church, but my Dad (parents divorced) would constantly tell me that my mother and I were going to Hell because I wasn’t raised “properly”. I moved to Wicca/Paganism because I didn’t like the fact that a religion who claimed to have a loving “God” would punish you for not going to church every Sunday (or Saturday). I liked how it meshed with my beliefs about the environment, equality of the sexes, it’s non-judgmental atmosphere, and it’s openess to everyone…no matter where you come from. I too am having problems following my path, but am making some headway with meditation and perserverance. I have told only the people I trust the most, and not my Dad’s side of the family (save for 1 cousin).
I came from a mixed marriage. My father was a Roman Catholic and my mother is a Congregationalist. Because she was not Catholic she had to sighn a paper saying she would not interfer with my father’s teachings of “the truth”. This left me in the middle of two completely differing views. I had lots of questions about the faith I was taught in CCD classes. None of which were being answered and most of my questions were discouraged in the Catholic church. When I attended my mothers church my questions were encouraged even when no one had any answers. While I felt better I still had a problem. I did not get along with my father on Earth, and Christianity wants me to put my faith in a father I can’t see. So I sought and found the Goddess a mother I can relate to and who speaks to me everyday. I still go to my mothers church in fact I joined the Congregation and have since found two other sister Christian witches. Together we find we serve Goddess and the God since as we all know balance is everything.
I love Rowan’s explanation. That is a big part of it for me, as well. Add to that the importance of Nature, and people taking accountability for their actions (instead of Divine Will or Fate), and I feel as though I’ve finally come home!
I know I still have TONS AND TONS to learn, but I’m happier learning about Wicca and Paganism than I ever was learning about Christianity. It just seems to fit.
Thanks for the great discussion starter, Patti!
I changed from Christianity to Wicca
When it made more sense to me.
In Christianity the Devil was always the fall guy! Noone took responsibility and also I didn’t like the fact that the church held power to knowledge. In Wicca.
We are our own Priestess and Priests and we take responsibility for our own actions whether good or bad. We follow the Wiccan rede Harm none do what though will.
And we get back three timed greater what we send out onto the universe.
So it doesn’t make much sense to send out negative energy out there.
Only to receive it back!
Whereas if you send out positive energy to the universe. It will return it back to you three times greater. But also I found like in everything, there are those who do not honor the creed.
I do not consider them witches but I do consider them warlocks (scotish for oath breaker)
I came from a VERY Christian background, and I found that the things that the bible was trying to teach were far from complete. When I asked a question, no one ever seemed to be able to answer it!, So I began to search, And search. Finally I found Wicca and several other forms of Paganism. I found that I was relying on the wrong people for any kind of answers. The answers that I needed weren’t others to give, they were for me to discover.
I have found that alot of what we ask for is given freely to us, but with Religions such as Christianity, they tend to get in the way of the truth because it would hurt their oganization. So instead of relying on a Preacher or such, I go straight to the source!
God and Goddess are inside of us all!!!!
I was never really Christian. My mother and father both came from Catholic backgrounds, but as a child I would feel the spirits of nature trying to ’speak’ to me. I was more comfortable and at one with ‘God’ when I was alone in my treehouse than I ever was at church. There, I had to be quiet and listen to some man tell me how without him, I would be damned to an eternity of hell. I felt there was no way one entity could have created everything – how could the same thing that created butterflies also create pedophiles? As I was from a very small Christian town in Florida, literature that promoted Wicca or Pagan religions were almost non-existent. My local library either had ‘Occult’ or ‘Mythology’ sections, and I was forced to find the truth of the religion on my own through much trial and error. As a teen in the 80s and early 90s, I got into multiple groups who said they were Wiccan, but were really practicing only the destructive element of Witchcraft. Also in the beginning, I believed that in order to be separate from Christianity, I had to worship only the Goddess in her many forms and could not acknowledge a god. Now, it is easy to find literature that promotes the dual-nature of Paganism, and I am comfortable with my pantheon of male and female gods.
Des i Wicca trwy astudio Dewiniaeth. Ar ôl imi ddarllen am Wicca, a darllen hyd yn oed mwy (!), mi benderfynais i gerdded y Llwybr, a byth wedi edrych yn ôl.
I became Wiccan through studying Witchcraft. After reading about Wicca, and reading more (!), I decided to walk and Path, and have never looked back.
Glenn
I was baptised Protestant but I grew up very confused as to what that really meant. When I was young, we went to church infrequently and although my mother is a pretty devout Christian (who incidentally does not believe that a pastor is needed to talk to God but that she can talk to God whenever and wherever she wants), this probably left the door open for me to be open-minded about a lot of things. It probably started with my interests in Native American religion and anthropology when I was about 10. When I turned 15, I decided that I wanted to find something different. I’ve always known there was something more out there but I never knew what I believed. As I start studying different religions, I finally came upon Wicca and after some years of study and contemplation (I do not take tying myself to one religion lightly.) I decided this was what fit. I love the emphasis on being self-reliant. I love the connection to Earth that it gives me. I love the open-mindedness and the peaceful nature of it all. I have severe anger, depression and anxiety disorders, as well as some health problems and I find that whenever I start to sag back into my old routines of anger, hatred and depression, Wicca provides me an attitude to move positively forward out of the muck and back into life. And probably the most important aspect is the idea that if I fulfilled my sometimes suicidal thoughts, it would get me nowhere but back in the same situation the next life. That is, I wouldn’t escape my troubles because I’d simply have them again in the next life. In this way, I sometimes say that Wicca has saved my life and given me a sense of purpose.
I tried to find the perfect Christian church for so many years, and never seemed to fit in, could never fully buy into the doctrine, was betrayed by members of the churches, etc. I just thought I was a bad person to not be able to live as was expected by most of the Christian religions I experienced. Then at a time when I really needed it the Goddess came to me in so many ways on a vacation…and I’ve been learning and reading and studying and practicing a Wicca inspired path ever since.
I came to Paganism, Wicca initially, because of a melt down in my family. I was raised by devout Christian parents. I believed and whole-heartedly LIVED it with them. 30 years later, my Mom cheats on my Dad and the ensuing divorce turned into a very messy, and very hurtful, meltdown of our family structure.
My mom and dad always used to point out disintigrating families around us when I was young and say “See that Mike” thats what happens when you don’t have Jesus in your life.” Ok…so they had Jesus in their lives and why did it happen to them? Every solution for evey problem they ever had in my entire life was “take it to Jesus.” They both quit trying when it came to trying their solution for this problem.
When the very foundation of EVERYTHING you’ve ever been told, taught and shown your whole life comes crashing down…where do you go? Luckily, I had a Wiccan friend who shared her beliefs with me and I understood. Not only did I understand, I, in my logical mind, saw the truth in Wicca. Earth, Air, Fire and Water are real…tangible and undenyable.
The sun and moon, the four winds, day and night, the four seasons and the pagan DNA that Christianity has…they all pointed to the truth for me in ways i couldn’t deny. When people ask me “How do you know Wicca is right?” I just tell them “I can prove to you that Earth, Air, Fire and Water exist, Can you prove that Jesus exists?”
During my journey into Wicca, I did a family trace and found my roots go bad to Germanic tribes and Norsemen. I have embraced my Norse / Odinist paganism and it has suited me well as a deployed Marine in harms way. I am truly grateful for Patti Wigington’s blogs and webpage here because it provides me with so much while I am away. Thank you, Patti. If anyone should like to Email me, you are more than welcome. (I don’t get any mail from home anymore since I’m a “Heretic.”)
Have a blessed week everyone. Enjoy your peaceful holiday.
Blessings,
LCpl. Mike Marts USMC (proudly serving in Iraq)
nie_ewig_hssh@yahoo.com
I became a Norse Neopagan (not really Asatru, not really Wiccan) after a lot of trials. I never felt connected with my Christian family or with their God.
Also, I was struggling with my sexual orientation.
The day I decided to break away from Christianity, I was at my aunt’s Bible study. My aunt, her husband, and my mom’s good friend were talking about how “sick” queers were and how they were all going to hell. They were even laughing!!
It took a long time before I totally gave up on Christianity, but I feel happier and more free. I like my new path for several reasons:
1. Women and men are equal.
2. I get the opportunity to honor my ancestors and the Earth.
3. My deities accept and affirm me and my lesbianism.
I feel alive within my spirituality. I take responsibility for my actions–there’s no Devil to blame it on. I am empowered instead of grovelling.
There are billions of people on this Earth. They all think differently, see things differently, and have different opinions. Supposedly God made them all like that. How could anyone expect all thes people to believe the same way when it comes to religion? Impossible!
Quoted: “I’m not Wiccan, and I’m trying to understand why people are leaving Christianity to follow Wicca. What is it that makes people turn their backs on a God of love and peace to worship Wiccan gods?”
Please, no offense intended to anyone’s religion or choice thereof, but the bible that you hold so dearly hardly explains this god to be of love and peace. How can you read that book, decide that it’s all literally true, then proclaim that god to be one of a loving, peaceful, kind nature?
As for my own path, I was always told by a disturbed mother who refused professional help that Christianity was the only “true religion” and that I must abide by it to avoid a tortuous lake of fire, pain, screaming and other horrendous things. As a child, I can remember going to sleep each night crying, begging and pleading to this god to spare my life and not send me to a lake of fire for my sins, since I’d heard Mom say we were all “born sinners”. I was nervous and distraught all the time, feeling that I was wrong, bad and a sinner who was doomed to eternal hell. I was three.
As I got a bit older, I realized that I wanted to learn answers instead of being told what I must do in the name of religion, followed by “because that’s the way it is.” None of it made sense to me and I certainly didn’t feel any spiritual enlightenment from this repressive religion. I studied the occult and everything related to (the occult simply means “the unknown”): everything from UFOs, spirits and ghosts, arcane writings and languages and non-mainstream religions intrigued me. When I finally began to study Paganism (Witchcraft and Wicca in particular), I felt as if I’d now found what and who I always was and I didn’t need to feel out of place anymore. I wasn’t out of sync, I had simply been attempting to adapt to a religion that wasn’t right for me! I studied Witchcraft and the newer Wicca intently. All the concepts of magick made perfect sense and the spiritual side of the religion was loving, non-threatening and gave me a feeling of finally coming home.
I still have the same mother, of course, and she still chastises me for my choice of religion and threatens me with the wrath of her god. She still refuses to get mental help (please don’t think that I am saying she needs mental help because she’s Christian; it is much, much deeper than that) and even though I don’t live in the same state, she still stresses me out with a constant flow of negative letters. Yesterday I received a letter from her stating that I was a snake-worshipper (I had sent her a picture of myself and my pet boa because she’d asked for candid photos) and it was all Wicca’s fault that I was now a snake-worshipper. She informed me that my (non-venomous) snake would bit and kill me and I would certainly go to hell. She asked me “what kind of man could my husband be to let me be involved in Paganism”? Yes, she blamed him for “letting me be involved”, which he finds humorous in itself. Nobody “lets me” do anything. (But, for the first time in my life I have a good life, a husband who loves me and I am happy!)I wrote mom a final letter — even though it breaks my heart, I have to look out for the sanity of myself and stand up for my husband. I told her that I can no longer take her abuse and that if she doesn’t get professional help, that her letters should stay in her own mailbox. I should have done this years ago; I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest. If there is anything that I have learned in my years of study, it’s that you can’t fully heal yourself unless you deal with the source of your pain, forgive it and cut it loose. I have done that — and the Goddess and God are definitely helping me through any difficult parts of life (and hey, They are also there in the great parts of life!) I can feel their presence in a circle of hundreds or in the room with me when I am alone. Anyone who has studied Witchcraft or Wicca knows that a part of it is self-help techniques and also squelching negativity and keeping your life in order. If I hadn’t come to this religion, I’m afraid I would have remained lost. Those who fear this religion should take time to educate themselves by reading some good books on the subject. Nothing will change the minds of some people, but I do believe education would make a difference. Blessed Be!
I have always been Pagan, but didnt put a name to it. I was ‘raised’ roman catholic, and when I was young, we were taught to FEAR their God. Then years later, their God became a loving God. The devil issue was yet another thing I had trouble with. What happened to personal accountibility?
I believe Paganism affords balance in my life. God/Goddess, light/dark, etc. There is an inner comfort, and Paganism, makes sense in my world.
I have heretofore been an atheist but that’s only because no one told me about the fabulous potluck dinners! Where do I sign up?
You gave the emailer a very nice and thoughtful response and I hope she appreciated it. But, to borrow a christian phrase, I believe it was pearls before swine. Her email reads like an attempt to sway your opinion. Like you would read it and say to yourself, ‘OMG! I didn’t know that the christian god was of love and peace!’ Perhaps she even felt that she was spreading the good word.
My parents were Christian, Baptists, but as I grew older they went to church less and less although we have weekly bible readings. One set of grandparents were Catholic and the other Jehovah’s Witness. But even though I had all this exposure to various Christian doctrines I felt it did not match my inner beliefs.
I became Agnostic for awhile, knowing something was out there but not finding it.
Recently I have moved to another state and found new friends and in doing so found what I had been searching for all my life.
I am now studying Wicca and finding inner peace for the first time since I was a child.
“What is it that makes people turn their backs on a God of love and peace…”
I know Christian doctrine and theology well; I went to a Christian high school, a seminary after that; I taught Sunday School and I preached.
The god of the Old Testament is misogynistic and genocidal. He sends everyone who disagrees with him to a “hell” of his own creation. He repeatedly sent his chosen people out to rape, kidnap, and destroy entire towns, including the women, children, and animals.
I’m sorry, but fail to see anything loving or peaceful about the Christian god.
I got tired of the superficiality of it. The lies, the backstabbing, the lies, the guilt, …did I mention the lies??!! The fact of the matter is, I`m not upset with the god-head thing, I`m angry with the ignorance and dominance of the followers of the “christianized” religion. They`ve twisted and perverted EVERYTHING in the religion to exact a perfect fit into their way of belief so there is NO MIDDLE GROUND!! It`s their way or not. I cannot live by that way of thought, it`s too restrictive. Not to mention, christians have a sort of “God” complex to their personality that gives them the sense that everyone should bow down to them when they appear!! I bow to my God and Goddess, but not to mortal man!!!
I was raised Serbian Orthodox, I always had questions that nobody could or would answer. After I went to college, I really never was real religious, and really never thought about it must. The in my early 40’s I started reading about Wicca and Druidism, It peaked my interest and did answer some questions but not all. So now pushing 50 I’m still reading and still looking for my path to follow. It’s been said “it’s not destination but the journey there that’s the most in lightning”. So far it’s been a wonderful journey.
I haven’t labelled myself, and maybe I never will. But the Path I’m travelling now is one which I’ve been searching for, a long time. I have felt and experieced the Divine among the manifestations of divinity, to me they are embodied in Water, Fire, Air and Earth. And, Spirit. It’s real, not fairy stories. I feel more in harmony with the world than I ever have. I haven’t found this sense of spiritual belonging in any religion, and I’ve looked everywhere. I need to be responsible fro my actions, so I can learn from them if I err. I don’t need to say ’sorry’, be forgiven, and do it again. That gets me nowhere. So, fro me, the Pagan path is the right place to be, the place where I feel comfortable, and one I can believe in with a whole heart. I haven’t turned my back on any ‘religion’, because they have never shown me anythng I wanted or needed. I loke the balance, and the solid, good common sense and logic of Paganism.
There’s so much raw energy around, plenty for all, and it is beautiful.
I’ll bring a cheesecake to the potluck. Cherry or strawberry?
Blessed be,
Noldy
I was raised Catholic by a Mother who had issues with the church from her childhood and a Father who I never once saw go to church. My Grandmother was Christian, very devout. My brother became a priest, my sisters both married men who then became Lutheran Ministers.
I always took issue with any type of organized religion. Men who claim they are the only ones who can tell me what God says. Men who tell me I should feel guilty about everything I do, I should be ashamed of what I think and feel. Men who tell me what religion is right and what religion is wrong.
I was Agnostic for some time. I believed there was some higher power, but I just couldn’t agree with the Christian teachings. Why would a “loving” God treat me this way?
When I found Paganism it spoke to me. And the fact that it was around before Christianity spoke to me as well.
I too became Wiccan/Pagan due to the duality of the nature of the religion. Plus I love mythology and also believe that honouring the cycles of nature and the seasons is an integral part of spirit. Love ourself, love the earth, love people, and all will be balanced.
I became a Wiccan because I felt that a monotheistic religion was wrong for me, I had ceased to believe in a christian god a very long time ago — the result of listening to so-called christians talk about one another after church services where I was a choir girl (Cof E) I felt apalled that people could be on their Knees asking for forgiveness and as soon as they stepped outside ofthe church they were gossiping. The final staw was a visit to Rome as a somewhat romantic teenager who was shocked by the avaricious nature of the Vatican money-making machine. Moreover, many mainstream religions be they Christian or … are religions of violence the god is a god of retribution and domination. I do not believe in good or evil and the devil is a ridiculous notion thought up by the early church based on Cernunnos(like many other paga/Wiccan things that they ‘borrowed’). Christianity (historically)is a religion that has been manipulated by people wanting power to control the masses and which has become rich at the same time. The Church of England came into existence because Henry VIII wanted a new wife.
The old religion is surfacing because people want something that is less ego-centric, patriarchal and oppressive. Wicca is an holistic, environmental and caring belief system and is non-heirarchical. It’s exponents for the most part (and there are always exceptions to the rule) are gentle, caring and fulfilled in what they believe which is so aptly expressed in the wiccan rede ‘an it harm none do what you will’. I feel calm and connected because I am empowered.Personal responsibility for one’s own actions coupled with respect for other people and mother earth. Blessed be!
Oh forgot to mention that as a child my mother tried to teach me from the Bible,she was Episcopalian, my step father was an Atheist and burned my children’s Bible in front of me,wouldn’t let allow grace to be said at meals or prayers before bed (which I did in secret of course),but I wasn’t raised with any religion in the home after the age of 6,we never went to church, all the religious celebrations became secular without the religious significance. It wasn’t until my teens I found out my cousin was a practicing Wiccan and then my interest grew from there but I didn’t start practicing myself until my later 20’s and now in my 40’s have been practicing almost 14 years.
i feel like it chose me. nothing else has ever fit and has actually somehow had detrimental repercussions when i’ve tried to participate. one day this fell into my life and here we are.
Question:
It is said that only the Sith deal in ultimatums…does that make Jesus a Sith Lord?
Yeah that got me in trouble at church, too.
I went to church with my parents when I was younger and never could understand all the politics, (yes, politics) that went with being a Christian. I was never comfortable in church. Who was this man standing in front of me jumping up and down and telling me that if I did this or that then I was doomed to eternal damnation.
I’ve always had a love of nature and the earth. It wasn’t until one morning as the sun was coming up and I was sitting in some brush waiting for my big turkey to come down off of his roost so I could shoot him that I realized that I didn’t need a building with a steeple on it with some preacher jumping up and down in it to find my sense of peace with my world. The dew on the grass, the sun peeking its head up over the horizon and listening to the world as it woke up was my “heaven.” I couldn’t have asked for more peace than what I was given that day. Its just something that has always been there and it didn’t call me to its reaches. I came to it. I hold no judgements against Christians or Buddhists or anyone for what they believe in. Its not for everyone. But I feel that as long as you believe in SOMETHING, no matter what you call it, then that is where your faith lies. Many blessings to each and everyone.
I can’t say that I became Wiccan/Pagan because of the pot luck dinners, since I was raised Methodist and they would have Pot luck dinners for every event possible lol.
I was raised in a very Christian home. My aunt and uncle were both Methodist ministers, and my grandparents and mother were/are very involved wtih the church. Church every Sunday, Wednesday, and whenever else they were meeting. As much as my family was involved, I never felt like I fit in. When I was a teenager, I went to our minister to talk to him about some religious questions I had, and walked out of there branded a “heretic”, because I wanted to know why there was only a male god, why wasn’t there a goddess. I tried real hard to fight the questions I had, and got deeper involved with the church, but noting seemed to work. I always seemed to be looked at as “bad”, and was treated as an outsider in the church that my family had attended for almost 50 years.
I wanted to make my grandmother happy, so I kept trying. I tried the “being saved” thing, but I never felt like I was saved from anything. I read the bible through a couple of times, and I felt that the messages were very conflicting when regarding “God”. My grandmother died when I was 35, and almost immediately, I started searching for where I belonged. I googled Goddess religion, and found several websites on Wicca/Paganism. After reading about it, I felt like I had come home! I found my place, finally!
I love the connection to nature and feeling like I am one with the earth. Having Gods and Goddesses makes much more sense to me than just one god, and I love the ability to believe what I believe without having to conform to what a bunch of other people are telling me that I have to believe. My beliefs are mostly wiccan, but I also believe things that maybe others in my coven don’t quite buy, but they love me and accept me anyway.
My husband was raised Roman Catholic, but is now what I call a lapsed Catholic, since he hasn’t set foot in a church for many years.My sons who are 12 and 10, love Pagan events, and volunteered this year for Pagan Pride Day in our area. My husband is fine with this, since all he wants is for our sons to be happy. They chose to follow this path on their own, and it makes sense to them and makes them happy. My daughters, who are in their 20’s, still go to the Methodist church, as does my mother. My mother is also very accepting of my beliefs, and has actually asked me to do some spellwork for her. I no longer have contact with the aunt and uncle who are ministers, but it has nothing to do with me being pagan, more to do with the way they treat people in the name of their god, and their hypocritical ways. I think I am blessed, I am able to be who I am, and I still kept my family. It is saddening to hear of those who lost family and friends because of what religion they are. I am very blessed.
I was raised going sporadically to church, as a young adult, I became very dissatisfied with christianity when everyone told me I was going to hell because I wasn’t baptized and didn’t attend church regularly. Since I always thought hell was here on earth, I didn’t believe in church doctrines even then. And then becoming very dissillusioned with christianity when certain tv preachers started screaming for money and sinning all over the place and another looked like a hooker……… Then one whose name I will leave out stated that fat people were not allowed to attend his college…… I rebeled. Then met some pagans and started studying wicca and decided that made more sense than anything else I had ever heard. It just made more sense to worship Mother Nature than some unknown entity who is supposed to sit up in the sky and look judgements down on us. I was never normal anyway, and really enjoyed learning wicca, so just took the final step and jumped right in. that was over 20 years ago and I’m still going strong and a whole lot happier and peaceful.
I am not Wiccan yet, but hope someday to understand the ways of Wicca enough to become one. I am interested in Wicca because its ways more readily identified with my own personal beliefs than Christianity and I like that there isn’t any of the confining rules of Christianity. I still believe in God, I just believe that there is a better way for me to worship him. Also, I got fed up with the hypocrosy(?) I kept seeing in my own church. The last time I set foot in it, I was pregnant with my first child and not yet married to the father. I couldn’t stand the whispering that went on behind my back. I was 16 at the time BTW. Hope that helps!
I found this subject very near to my heart. I was a christian for over 30 years….infact I was being considered by the church for ordination. But as much as I tried to conform to their very rigid and in some cases outdated rules and regulations…something didn’t sit quite right within my soul,. I have always held the belief that there is more going on in the universe, than just the ruling of one single male deity
Over the course of my life I have looked for a path that is right for my human condition and felt right in my soul. I have tried many different christian denominations and paths such as druid buddhism…but nothing brought me into the state of harmony and peace that wicca does. I feel in tune with the universe and in balance with nature, which is to me the best state of being.
I like the balance of male and female, and the fact that this is not a completely man made religion with rules that are difficult at times to live up to.
I was training to be a priest…but now I am priestess and forming a beautiful coven here in Ackton.
Time to give the institution of the church a run for it’s money….minds need to be opened and souls need freedom to be all they can be.
I feel that the church need to stop being so single mindedly set in their ways because it leads to huge misconceptions that this is all there is.
I have no problem with anyone who is a christian because that is where my journey began, but believe me guys…there is much more going on out there…so lets open our eyes and help others to do the same….the universe is a mysterious thing….so get used to it.
Much love to you all
Blessed Be
Lady Moonrain
Being raised between two different faiths can be a very difficult thing’ All it does is confuse the kids. While I believe in God, I also believe in Goddess. I don’t feel I need to go to church to speak with either one, I can’t fathom if God created us that he would want to kill us if we misbehave. What parent would want to kill their own child? Learning more about wicca and other earth based faiths helped me to be a better person and parent, my ex-wife still tells our daughter that if she does’nt believe in the bible she’ll go to hell and that I already have a spot there reserved. Thankfully my daughter has her own mind made up and refuses to fall into the same trap, all people are equal’ As long as your blood is red and you put your pants on one leg at a time, you’re human. Why not just leave it at that? We’re just human beings, and no one is superior over anyone else’ Its just that some of us no longer give anyone or anything control over us, we think freely” Blessings to all”
I was raised Roman Catholic. I played guitar and sang in church, I taught Sunday School. However, I felt the Goddess calling me while in my mid-teens. Because of my Catholic upbringing, I tried to fight this (who wants to go to a flaming hell and be with the devil?), hence the attempting to immerse myself in the church. I found I could not ignore my calling so I studied and learned, and to this day, I continue to study and learn. I could tell you several personal experience stories that portray the hierarchy of the church in a very negative light, but to take the high road, I will just say I left the church years ago and have never looked back. I am a daughter of the Goddess and am grateful to be so. I feel complete, end of story. Blessings to all, SusanMorgaine
I think that’s an excellent question. I grew up Christian, went to chursh, the whole 9 yards. But, even at that age I knew something didn’t feel right about Christianity (I’ll spare you all the details). So, while in my middle 20’s I got my first home computer (that was a while ago) and starting going to different chat rooms that were about pagans/Wiccans/withes, etc. I still remember to this day what happened next. I was speaking to an older Wiccan woman about my personal beliefs , thoughts and feelings. And that’s when she told me that in her oppinion I sounded very much like a pagan in Christian’s clothing. As she told me more about her Wiccan beliefs I started shaking and crying. This is what I was looking for, what was missing from my life! I now knew that my beliefs were some of the same as other pagans. I felt complete. So, I’ve been studying and learning as much about Wicca as I can. So, I didn’t just wake up one day and think “Wow, I want to be Wiccan from now on” it was an actual spiritual journey and I’m finally complete inside thnks to Wicca.
I have always been drawn towards nature and the outdoors. I never felt comfortable getting dressed up and worshiping in the church. I also found a lot of prejudice in the christian churches I attended. So, I decided not necessarily to follow wiccan but to find my own spiritual path and through meditation and and open mind and heart I ‘found’ wicca. I am a solitary practicing wiccan which follows my belief that we ALL need to find our own path and I do still believe in a single god/goddess that is a universal energy that we all come from and we all return to. I have never been more at peace and I find that being wiccan and following the wiccan rede ‘if harm none, do as you will’ has made me more forgiving, compassionate, responsible, open-minded, and accepting of others beliefs.
I’ve been asked this question before, and my response has always been the same. I was never REALLY Christian, and I wasn’t happy pretending that I was.
Sure, I went to church, became confirmed, and all of that, but it never sat right with me.
My main thing was that in order to be thought of as a good person, I had to change myself. I had to act, think, and essentially BE a certain way. It was as if I was being forced to be someone else.
Another thing that always bugged me was the idea that sexuality was something wrong or immoral. My personal belief has always been that sex is a natural facet of our identity, we’re all sexual beings, and while we probably shouldn’t share it with everyone we meet, it’s something to be embraced and accepted. To deny it is to deny ourselves.
And, like many others, there was the issue of man being superior to woman, which seemed wrong and unfair.
After a while, I officially referred to myself as an agnostic, since I wasn’t sure what I believed in anymore.
When I met my former boyfriend, who is Pagan, I told him about my beliefs in the powers of nature, the connectivity of all things, the spirits that are around us and watch over us, his response was, “By definition, you’re Pagan.”
The more I read and learned about Celtic Paganism, the more it made sense. This was everything I’d been hoping for, and that I had already believed.
And better yet, when I began to learn about the Celtic gods and goddesses (Rhiannon in specific), I felt as if I was being welcomed home, that She had been waiting for me to wise up for a long time.
But one of the main reasons I know I did the right thing, was that I constantly feel loved for who I am. I know that I am never alone, and that I have many deities watching over me, and wiling to give me the support I need to succeed.
I got tired of all the hell-fire and damnation that every Christian church I ever went to preached. I was tired of the intolerance and hate they showed towards people of others faiths, lifestyles, etc. When I was nine my pastor told me my aunt was going to hell because she loved a woman-I left Christianity and I’ve never looked back. Their god is about ruling with fear and intimidation not love so why would I follow? And I don’t agree that women are inately evil, I certainly don’t feel evil when I wake up in the morning. And really what is so wrong about Eve wanting knowledge-she is a woman of course she wants to improve she isn’t content to lay around like a man and do nothing! But that is neither here nor there. The point is that I found a beautiful and tolerant religion in Paganism that has brought me joy and love. I’ve learned a lot about myself and been helped thru some really dark times.
Pagan and Proud,
Nicole
I was a Fundamentalist Christian. I became increasingly dissatified with the inconsistent messages in the scriptures. I did some scholarly research and discovered basically Christianity is a religion not too different from many. The power brokers win and decide message. Wicca is an empowering religion that makes you take responsibility for your own actions, and it has its own golden rule and morality. Wicca isn’t as judgemental as some religions, it is more inclusive and diverse and more environmentally sound.
I was raised in both Catholic and Baptist enviornments and found that neither one truly called to me. I went to several different denominations of Christian churches and found that not a single one was able to draw me in or answer any of the questions that I had about faith.
That was from the time I was 8 until I turned 27. I continually searched for what I could relate to and “feel” comfortable with. When I finally found Paganism in general and began to learn about Wicca. I discovered that I had finally “Come Home” so to speak, and it was a wonderful feeling.
I never turned my back on Christians, but changed my outlook on what religion meant to me and discovered what was and IS right for ME, not what others think is right or say is right for me. Because in te end, we are traveling to the same place, we just have to choose our own route to that place.
One of Many
Ooh, so hard to say in a short comment section like this, but here are the bullet points:
Somewhere in the course of my Christian (Episcopal) life, and especially upon becoming a Lay Minister, 2 things happened. 1) I endeavored to become more knowledgeable in my own faith, not just the passages and buzz phrases they go over in Sunday School. 2) As I was now living on the edge of the Bible Belt and exposed to a lot more Evangelicalism, a lot more aggressive, “Our God is right and yours is wrong,” the commandment “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” kept popping into my head.
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
“Measure yourself by the same standards you would measure others.”
“Scrutinize and criticize other religions only insomuch as you are willing to scrutinize and criticize your own.”
Why were we considering non-Christian religions to be ‘false?’ What kinds of things would make me doubt their validity? Things like:
- If they pick and choose to promote the peace and love parts of their holy book, but other parts of that holy book are equally violence and hate.
- If that doctrine, either actively or passively, promoted that you shouldn’t learn about other religions. The only reason someone has for saying, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” is because there’s something about that man behind the curtain that will prove him a fraud.
- If nearly all aspects of that religion which its followers tout as original are plainly and traceably copied from religions past. If your god is ‘real,’ why isn’t his biography at least unique to all the supposed heathen gods that came before him?
All these points and far too many more to fit here, describe Christianity. A lifelong feeling that something about Christianity didn’t ‘fit’ my life no matter how hard I tried, came to life when I truly embraced, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
For the sake of my own conscience, I could no longer live the lie. And I especially could not promote it – evangelize it – to other people.
Wicca/Neo-Paganism, more so than any other spiritual path, fit my conscience and my own personal beliefs about divinity better than most I’ve found. Namely; I do not believe in any separate-consciousness-from-you-and-I sentient god looking down on us. I believe in the interconnectedness of all things. You are God. I am God. My cat is God. The rock my cat is perched upon is God. The wind is God.
While Wicca does have specific god-images which I don’t believe in literally, they make for good visual references. We humans have a hard time envisioning atomic energy without putting color, light, a facial analogy on. Which, it would seem, is how our ancestors came up with images like Jesus in the first place.
Perhaps most importantly, I try to keep myself open to new realms and possibilities. Tomorrow, I might stumble upon another path that suits my Rational-Empiricism-in-need-of-Artsy-Metaphor better than Wicca. But since the point of Wicca is to incorporate most anything and everything that suits your fancy … who knows?
- Mary
I grew up in a Christian household. Our Church was all male oriented and women were considered lesser creatures. Every sermon was basically telling us that we were evil and were going to hell unless we followed every rule set down for us, and that we were ALL sinners. I never felt the “loving” aspect of this type of religion. So, I began searching for a way to be more involved with nature, with the feelings that I felt inside me. And after many years of searching I found Wicca. Our small town local library only had books that seemed to stress the dark side of Wicca, magic and witchcraft. And this just didn’t make sense either. So I bought books online, I searched chatrooms for members who could direct me to other methods of study. And after researching and reading I found my true path. All my life these feelings were there and I couldn’t understand them. Now I feel more calm, more grounded and closer than ever to my Goddess and God. – Something I never felt as a “good” Christian. I also like the fact that each of us can follow this path in our own ways. We aren’t stuck with strict rules to follow. We aren’t required to do everything like everyone else does, and that the Goddess and God appreciate our uniqueness.
like a lot of commenters i too felt a bit adrift being brought up a catholic. it never really fit, or maybe i didnt fit it!! the more i learn about wicca the more i realise the chants and symbols i used to make up as a child were the expression of my paganism. the more i learn the more i become myself and never feel i have to conform or squeeze myself into something that doesnt really fit. the duotheistic nature of wicca also suits me plus the beliefs about sex and marriage also merge nicely with my own. i never really felt i could love a god that was so scary and that was always watching and being critical. i much prefer a god/goddess that is nurturing and loving.
blessed be x
I have been a Wiccan Priest since 1983 and have been Wiccan about 10 years longer. The Goddes I worship is loving and carng.
My father was a Baptist minster and Missionary. His God was a cruel God The Cristian God asks for blood sacrifce, subjugation of women, annihilation of cities in wars, slaughter of multitudes and unquestioned obedience. The Cristian God condoned the cruel murder of his own son. He destroyed the earth by flood and I am told he plans to destroy / murder all of us by fire.
And you wonder why I am not Cristian???
merry meet everyone,,,,
how i learned about wicca i really dont know but it happened about five years ago and it was from picking up a book and from them i have discovered such beauty that i wish everyone could discover….and see for themselves..
My family are christian and the type who would go to mass every sunday for many years i was a devout christian and i went to mass every sunday even did alter serving for 2 years but i felt empty like something was missing and nothing ever made any sense every time i was in mass i would want to go again…..
but then i discovered wicca and it all made sense like coming home in a way everything made sense and i noticed the beauty in verything that evrything was alive and why i thought are people worshipping something whom we dont know to be real when we are surrounded by the beauty of the entire world trees.moon,changing of the seasons,love, so many things and the goddess and god…
i am now inniated 1 month and i have found my loving partner through wicca and a coven whom i have met so many beautiful and fantasic people so with wicca so many things have opened up in my life and the power of everything around us is real and when you feel it and feel the love of the goddess and god you want to share it with everyone….so wicca ,paganism is my path and im glad i have discovered it cos i would be feeling very empty otherwise and i am not surprised to hear so many people are joining wicca/paganism everything is a balance including man and woman either of one gender is better than another to begin a life it takes two so why???do some people believe men are ferior to woman such as the christian religon its annoys me…
love and light
xxxx
I was raised *gasp* MORMON. I never felt comfortable in church and still don’t feel comfortable with some aspects of that religion. I don’t like the idea that unless you go through certain “rituals” in the temples and have a husband, you can’t reach the highest tier in heaven (well you can, but you’ll be servant to those that are married, or be a second, third, fifty-sixth… wife of one of the few worthy men). They do believe in a Heavenly Mother, but she is never talked about and it’s discouraged to ask about her.
It’s very hard to leave the beliefs you’ve grown up with behind, and I still struggle with it. I don’t align with any particular path at the moment, but traditional Wicca seems like a good fit eventually. I have to stay in the broom closet for now as I have to live with a devout Mormon relative and I just don’t want the problems (I have enough already!).
I remember as a child and even teenager casting “spells” for positive things to happen, it just felt right. That’s what you have to go on for the best things in life, is what feels right. Simple, yet complicated
My own personal epiphany, well I had 2, that woke me up at a ripe old age of 9. With all the life trials that we must experience during our years, why would the test ‘do you accept Jesus?’ be the only test that mattered?
The 2nd one came at a lovely Pagan celebration in mid-summer. If Jesus were given the choice to spend the day sitting in a church with Christians OR spending the day in a field with nature loving Pagans, I’m certain that he would be sitting in the grass with a drum and feeling completely accepted and loved for who he was and what he believed.
We are all children of the Divine yet I have never felt that sentiment from being in a church. Instead I felt oppressed, discriminated against, and felt guilty for being born…. guilty until proven otherwise.
I’d rather follow a path of light and love.
Blessed be.
I have been studying Masonicmetamystiphysicalmumbojumbo since I first read Magick In Theory And Practice by
Aleister Crowley when I was 13 years old. It was then I started to question my Christian upbringing.
Just because I choose to be Wiccan does not mean I can not follow the TEACHINGS of Jesus Christ. Which I try and do as any good Mason would.
I believe *Christianity* was corrupted by the dark sorcerers of Rome who promulgated what I call the Paulean Heresy which was to deify a man and androgenize the feminine principle of divinity. Christianity is a plagiarized religion. More specifically that of Egypt who had a Father-Osiris, Mother-Isis and Son-Horus. To call the Feminine principle of God the Holy Ghost is mysogenist just like Peter and Paul would have wanted it.
Jesus IS Horus and so am I. Isn’t that what Jesus was teaching? We don’t need a priest to have communion with the divine. Funny how when Rome was conquering the Celts and other tribes of the Norse they were told that they could keep their Mother Goddess but instead of calling her Diana, Bridgit, or Freya to call her Mary. The Mother of God. BB
Chrisianity teaches the 10 commandments of Moses and has lost the First Commandment God gave Adam which Wicca refuses to forget.
Be good stewards of the Earth.
Why would anyone question that the god/goddess is not “one of love and peace” too?
First and foremost, I do not have anything against other religion’s. I respect the true meaning of those who practice and believe in their religion of choice. I did grow up with Christianity in part of my family, but I never felt comfortable with the fact that there is an actual God who can codem your soul to hell for all of eternity.
Becoming a Wiccan has been the best choice that I have ever made in my whole entire life. It makes sense to me. If I as a human being sin, I will pay for this myself without worrying about going to hell. Reincarnation makes more sense to me than dying and going to heaven. Becoming Wiccan just feels absolutely natural to me and I will never convert back.
I used to be Batist and even taught sunday school and vacation bible school but I never felt content or at ease. I have always been into nature and animals. I always felt a sense of belonging and calmness outside. After years in fact when I got into my thirties I found out that all the things I believed in and held close was actually pagenism/wicca. I remember meeting a lady and going to her house,(she was wiccan) and the sense of belonging and an excitement and a eace that I had never felt . I finally found my calling and where “I” belonged. It is a wonderful feeling. I am truely at home.
I had parents that encouraged us to explore other religions. My Dad took us to different churches and he finally settled on Theosophy. I continued to explore different religions always feeling that the Christian churches I attended were missing something. In my 20’s I was studying Astrology at a shop and found a flyer about a study course in Wicca. I knew almost from the start that this was what I had been looking for for so many years. It just fit. That was almost 40 years ago and I am happy and fulfilled by my religion and continue to honor the Goddess and all that entails.
Well, honestly, it started out as simply wanting independance. I’d never heard of Wicca before, and the fact that it was so diffrent from my own religion (and my parents) interested me. I did a lot of research, and I started to really like the beleifs and ideas. I went through a long period where I didnt know who I was, or what I really beleived. Then one night, my friends grandmom was admitted to the hospital. The first thing that came out of my mouth was “may the Goddess watch over her”. It was so natural, and I felt so right. Not to mention, with Wicca, I don’t have to hide any part of myself.
For well over 25 years I was involved with the Christian church. I tried different denominations but just felt like a square peg in a round world, I just didn’t fit. Particularly when it came to the unbalance doctrine of the church between male and female. I was always searching. Then when my son “Came out of the closet” and told us he was gay our pastor tried to pray the “gayness” out of him. Ok, that was the last straw for me. That is my kid and there is not a darn thing wrong with him. So Mama Bear decided it was time to do research and find a loving and accepting atmosphere so I found a Wiccan/Pagan group on a military base that I went too. First I was surprised that there was one on the Base. That showed me how accepting the Chaplains were. So I contacted the Reverand of the Open Circle and decided to go. Immediately I felt welcome and accepted as did my son. This was a revelation to me. I had found my path. I learned so much and feel like this group is my family.
Blessings to All. I am a recovering catholic and found the hypocrasy of christianity was galling to me. Christians killed out most of paganism but not all of it and these holy beliefs now flourish in people who can think and see for themselves. We embrace the Old Religion and find much spiritual support from tha Natural World and other Wiccans/Pagans. I just got a bumper sticker that says “Born Again Pagan” Suits me perfectly. Owlwoman
I never “turned my back on” Christianity or anything like it. My parents let me discover my own spiritual beliefs, and from a very young age, I saw the higher power that I believed in as feminine as well as masculine. I also had a strong inclination toward ritual; I had a little ceremony for the first snow of the season and the first rain of the season as young as seven. As soon as I was old enough to understand, I knew that Christianity wasn’t going to be for me.
Personally, I think the person writing the letter was ignorant of what the “Wiccan Gods” are and what they represent.
Overall, the Wiccan “Gods” and such aren’t “bad”. I don’t understand why people just don’t get it *shrug*. If they actually do their own research, then their ignorance will disappear.
I was Wiccan and didn’t even know it! All the while being raised Southern Baptist, I collected and carried stones and gems in my pockets and felt a “power” from them. Nature and animals were my refuge. I lit candles to get my mind focused for meditation….things that Christians don’t generally approve of. When I finally read some Wiccan literature, its like OH MAN, that’s ME, that’s who I’ve always been!
Whilst not a ‘Wiccan’, (too fluffy for me), I would say say I’m somewhere between Sorcerer and god. Way cooler.
My motto in life is; “There Is No God But I”.
Christianity enslaved me when a teen, and it has taken literally decades to overcome the guilt and shame instilled into me by them.
I ask the question: Are we not allowed to choose our own Spiritual Path, even when we fall into a religious trap?
Pity these poor people. I do.
First I would like to say that I truly enjoyed reading the responses to this interesting question. I feel a kinship to all who have written. Here’s my story.
I was brought up in a “non-religious’home. A Protestant mom and Catholic dad in the late 50’s was a big thing during that time. They had such disdain over their religion, my siblings and I were brought up with no religion.
I was interested in Wicca in high school and college, but due to the secretiveness, and lack of self esteem, I read and practiced alone. Looking back, I should have followed my instincts. But I was tested….
I fell in love with a man of Catholic faith, married and went through RCIA and became involved with the church (CCD, acting in plays, committees…). For a time, I was a big fan of EWTN. Yet there was a yearning that was not being met.
Changes in my local church woke me up and I realized that my faith was not in or of this church. It was in the woods, the land, of the sun and moon. I have seen signs over the years that I have ignored but now I am embracing.
I am in my infancy state of Wicca. I am willing to learn. My dearest friend, her brother and her friend are in the same state as I, so we bond together, learn from each other.
I learn from Patti’s website, from Arial’s podcasts, and I am beginning to gather reading materials. I can finally say that I feel peace in a world torn apart by labels.
I personally moved to Wicca because throughout my life I noticed that none of the other religions made any sense to me. After doing a lot of research online (google.com) those beliefs I had on how the world was came to make sense.
As A small child I sought comfort within the Chirtian church It wasn’t until I became older did I realize The Bible was written by man for man that women had no real say in it I knew in my heart this wan’t right for me So I looked at alot of different religons.I found Wicca it felt right.But having married a man who was raised Catholic I had to surpress who I was after a separation My husband was hospitalized and me and my family were the only ones to stay by his side through out his illness.No priest came to give him comfort none of his Catholic family came.Just a bunch of Wicca’s and Pagans.We are now living together and taking care of each other.And he now allows me to worship openly No longer does he beliving it is evil and we will burn in hell.He has seen through example how being true to oneself and loving ones self and the world around us isn’t evil.Whats wrong is preaching all about these sins that will get you sent to hell and then these same poeple turn around and go out and do these sins agianst humanity.
As an adolescent almost 50 years ago, I was serious enough about my Christianity to enter a church related college as a “pre-theo”, to prepare for seminary study. Two years later, I was told by a panel of clergy that my beliefs made me ineligible for seminary and, in fact, I was not even a Christian. (I learned much later that my beliefs would have been just fine if only the Gnostic viewpoint had prevailed in early Christian history.) So I left college with intent to be the best “existentialist humanist” that I could.
The truth is that my adult “productive” years were a spiritual vacuum. Totally incomplete and unfulfilling.
In my second adolescence (mid-40’s) I set out searching like The Fool in tarot, looking for my spiritual soul.
The first gemstone I found was “Witchcraft: The Old Religion” by Leo Martello. I learned I had been a Pagan all my life (sound familiar?) and was literally Born Again.
A month later, I found “A Witch Alone” by Marian Green. I put more of myself into that one year self-initiation program than I did 6 years of collegiate study combined.
I am saddened by friends who have distanced themselves from Wicca, while keeping their Pagan identities. (Too many witch wars, too much commercialization and superficiality, too many teen-agers just rebelling, etc.) I will not abandon a religion that has given me such a beautifully fulfilling spiritual life for my later years.
I too am a reformed Wicca. I came to Wicca because I felt something was missing in Christianity. It felt so oppressive at times. I always felt that something else was out there, pardon the pun. I didn’t like the fact that women are seen as somthing that closly resembles the plague, it’s not right. I also was an egyptian in a past life, so that’s probably another reason why. I loved being christian, before i found wicca. Once i found wicca, i knew i could never go back. I love the equality of the religion and i love the freedom to be who i want. My mom isn’t a Wiccan and isn’t open to the idea, so she doesn’t know. My sister is open to other religions and is even considering becoming wiccan herself. What drew me to it was the fact that it felt Magickal. I could feel the magick and that makes me happy. I love Wicca and i know I can never go back to Christianity. My magickal feelings would be lost and i hate that feeling.
Like Topaz I was raised Mormon. After I was excommunicated for being gay I moved onto Roman Catholicism and even spent time in a Benedictine monastary. In time I left because it wasn’t working for me. Years later I partnered with another young man who was a Pastor in the Metropolitan Communty Church. By then I had realized that I just could not accept one very basic Xian doctrine….the atonement. The incarnation- no problem; the real presence- no problem. I just could NOT accept the idea of an angry, jealous, punishing god. Why would a god create a beautiful world, fill it with people with free will and then set standards so high that they are bound to fail. Most scary is that this same god will only accept the brutal murder of his only child in atonement for humanity’s sins. I find him just too touchy and hateful. And I’m supposed to “love” him? It just doesn’t work for me. I understand that many of my friends are still believers…and few try to convert me. Sometimes I go to church for the music. I’m not interested in being offended so I just laugh off attempts to get involved. I’m not interested in converting anyone so on those rare occasions when someone asks “What do you believe?” I’ve been known to answer “I believe that the ground of being is multiple in nature is immanent rather than transcendent, manifesting itself in the lives and interpersonal relations of its creations who are able to achieve unity through ritualized interactions.” More often than not the questioner gives me that deer-in-the-headlights look and changes the subject.
Worshipping Gods who are a real immanent part of my life, who want to have a close personal relationship is very satisfying. For me paganism just works for me.
To the person who asked the question…I dont’ know what God you are talking about, but I’ve nver seen the Christian God as loving. Throught the entire bible he is asking “His” people to kill and wipe out other nations. According to your belielfs, he sent his only son to death basiclly. Don’t even get me started on the way woman are treated in the Bible. No, I don’t see “Him” as loving at all. Those are some of the reasons I’m not Christian. There are may other reasons I am following the Wiccan path, the equality, the peaceful outlook, the gain in self respect, the never-stop-learning of it; I love to learn, the connection with nature, oh and the magic. You take responsiblity for your own actions, there is no “devil” to fall back on when you need to blame something you or someone else did bad.
I was raised in ahome that I was forced to go to church. Anytime I asked questions, I was told,”Because that’s what it says in the Bible, stop asking!” It seemed that no one was willing to answer my questions. And when I did get someone to talk to me,for example the talk about who actually wrote the bible. “It was God Himself” right….ok
And don’t get me started on Genesis.
I was raised mainline Christian, kind of. Every few years, my mom would decide we needed to start going back to church. Born Catholic; mom was born Lutheran; we went through Baptist, Mormon, holy-rollers, etc. I’ve frequently made the joke that I’ve been baptized so many times, I couldn’t go to Hell if I tried.
Religion never fit for me. I didn’t have the “spiritual” experience so many spoke of, at least not in church. I had experienced the presence of what I perceived to be Christ, so I knew that there was something to this spirituality thing… I just couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t having the same experience and sense of peace I kept hearing about. I saw too many hypocrites, and it was always used as a guilt trip to keep people in line. Mainly kids… “don’t do that, or Jesus won’t like you”. The last straw came when I was in the process of leaving a very abusive marriage. The pastor called and tried to talk me out of it, saying, “Divorce isn’t in God’s plan for you.” Screw that…. I decided that if God’s plan was for me to stick around and get abused, and for my kids to live in that environment, I wanted nothing to do with Him.
So, I knew that Christianity didn’t fit, but had no idea what to believe instead. During that time, I happened to meet a new friend who disclosed to me that she was Wiccan. That sent me off exploring alternative spiritual paths. I now identify as Pagan, because that’s what fits my beliefs the best. But it’s hard to put on a label that really explains what I feel and believe. I have a strong sense of the existence of what people call spirits and spiritual energy, but at the same time I have a very scientific view of it all. I honor deities, but don’t see them as actual beings…. more like archetypes within myself that I choose to focus on for whatever spiritual task I’m doing at the time.
Over the years, my attitude toward Christianity has evolved greatly. Through my Pagan studies, I’ve also had the chance to become aware that not all Christians are the narrow-minded, illogical people that I was raised with. I have the joy of having many wonderful Christian friends, who truly embrace the spirit of Christ. My appreciation of who He was has grown so much. I’ve discovered the non-mainstream teachings of Christianity, such as the newer theories around Mary Magdalene, and what they mean for the Church and for the world. I still practice my Pagan religion, but part of that is honoring and accepting ALL paths and deities, including those of the Christian faith. Surprisingly, one of the entities that has entered my life as a spiritual guide appears to me as the Angel Nathaniel. I figure if Jesus had an issue with how I believe and practice, he wouldn’t be sending one of his own to look out for me.
I hope this is helpful to some of you folks who are seeking to understand us non-Christians, and opens up some interesting discussions.
Blessed Be!
I became Wiccan because I realized this has been a strong religion in my family for generations. I wanted to learn more about my family history and realized this is how I believe. I don’t believe you have to go to church for God to love you. I believe nature and the energy around us can help us understand ourselves. The Gods are always with us and so are the spirits around us. Being Wiccan makes me feel like my life has meaning. I’ve tried going to church and being a Christian. I never felt like I belonged. I felt I had to follow their rules. Our main rules are to never hurt another and to work with the elements, not against them.
i’m not wiccan, but i’m trying hard to be. it’s just a tad hard in the society i live in. i’m studying now, and hopefully, soon, i hope to find a coven somewhere. the reason that i want to be a part of wicca is quite hard to verbalize. i grew up in a roman catholic household, and i felt like i never really understood anything, like i didn’t belong. up until a few years ago, i believed i was an atheist. i didn’t believe in the god that catholicism placed into everyone’s minds. i stumbled upon a book, about a girl and her stuggles through becoming wiccan. the book called to me. after that, i researched wicca, and i found that i loved everything about it. the beliefs, the values, the spirituality. even more, i actually felt a longing to belong. with the continued research, i found myself more able to see myself practicing wicca. it as almost like i didn’t find wicca, but more like wicca found me.
The question I would pose would why be Christian, and than proceed to point all the negatives of Christianity. But I’ve also been told I’m a “B”
I religious thoughts and feelings have already been given by the other people on this board (or close enough,) so the only thing I can add to this discussion is my journey.
I have to say I was always pagan. When I was 3 I was holding rituals with my stuffed animals that were taught to me by the faeries. We didn’t realize this was what I was doing until many years later when my mother and I went to a festive and my mother said “Oh my god, that’s what you were doing when you were 3.”
When I was 5 I had a vision of Jesus and his father saying “Stop bothering us with your childish problems you are not ours.” I thought this was the devil tempting me. Well, ok that is what the priest told me (Roman Catholic, for the sake of clarity.) Being 5 years old I believed him. And that I just needed to be good and pray more. I was also severely bullied by my peers from ages 6 to 14. I prayed, was a goody two shoes, was involved in church youth programs, and was sent to a Catholic school.
It got worse as all the bullies were in the church groups and school plus any adults I went to for help said that I was bullied because I was different and female and if I prayed to God to make me more like a man and would only share the same interests as everyone else, it would get better. It didn’t. If anything I was left emptier and alone.
By age 10, I started praying to the Virgin Mary do to the deafening silence I got from Jesus and Big G God. In the Catholic Church praying to the VM is ok since she has demi-god status, even though no one would ever admit it. She gave me comfort and helped me live through each day. She told me, none could fix my problems but me and she would always offer a shoulder to cry on. Which some days meant the entire world to me. In fact she saved me from killing myself. Some of the Saints were also very helpful during this time. (The Saints are the best part of Catholicism IMHO!)
I have always been a bookworm and read anything and everything. I always read mythology for the simple reason that it had far better literary qualities than the Bible. Through my reading for almost every book in the school library, I learned a lot.
During conformation classes (the sacrament Catholic children undergo at 13ish to become a spiritual “adult.” It doesn’t do jack for your standing in the church btw.) I was able to hold my own in a spiritual/literary debate with the head priest. He later told my parents that he was very impressed by my spirituality and understanding of things, but I rocked the boat a lot so it would be better to have me sit in the back and remain silent. My mother was upset by this conversation and told me what had occurred. At this point I told my parents I was not going to church anymore. They respected this and the only time I now go to church is when we take my grandparents on holidays. If it makes them happy and at 80+ years, it’s the least I can do.
For a year or so I called myself an atheist because it was ‘cool’ and ‘rebellious.’ Remember I was 13 at the time. However, I know there was more to the universe because during the same period, the old gods were calling me. The faeries also returned in my life (they had left during the bad years.) Since than I have been on a journey to better myself and the world. Plus I keep meeting more horrible Christians (condescending, rude, uneducated in their faith, petty much what everyone else has said.) that anyone else. That being said there are many good Christians out there and I have much respect for many of the Catholic “boots on the ground” but I’m smart enough to know when I’m not welcome.
I found Wicca and Neopaganism, and while I don’t consider myself Wiccan (more Wiccan-inspired) I as everyone else who has answered finally found someplace where I belong.
I was raised Penacostal and my grand-mother was my sunday school teacher. I went to church every sunday and on wednesday nights. I even raised my eldest in the Christian world.
But growing up I had many questions and no answers. When I got to be old enough to sit in the sanctuary (which I thought would be a more enlightening experiance due to age, I discovered they spoke of the same thing, over and over. We would burn in hell if we didn’t obey the word of god. And then our god is a loveing god. Lets not forget, vengance is mine saith the lord. How about those 10 commandments? Nobody adhears to them. They go to church the next weekend and all is forgiven. And yes, if you have sex with anyone or a “relationship” with anyone other than the oposit sex, you will burn in hell.
While I am not gay, I have many gay friends. The “church” is full of bigotry. They say that we are created in gods image. Then why is everyone judgemental over color and everything else that makes you an individual person?
I lost my “faith” in my twenties. Never baptized my children. Relegion is for them to decide.
I discovered the Goddess in my thirties and have been happier since. I am on my 3rd marriage, to a Pagan, and we have been together longer than my other 2 marriages.
This is just a very small portion of a much bigger picture. I walk the path of the Old Way. Older than Christianity and tolerant of all.
May the Godddess bless you all
So Mote it be!
)O(
Why I am wiccan. Is because the Goddess called me to hear her. Like every other Wiccan/ Pagan/ witch.
The goddess whispers to us all, but most ignore her call. too much male & no female in any religion isn’t good.
I always felt. We’ll, if we are all made in gods image, then God has to be a duality god of both male & female.
Also! The male god could NOT create the earth and all it’s creatures. Only the feminine can, and has. A concept that has been smothered by MEN to make them feel more powerful to WOMAN. The Great mother should always get the respect of being the creator.
One more thing. Christian have Pagan roots, which they stool, and people are smart, and don’t take a book written by man, as a complete truth.
It’s ok to come to the otherside, we won’t run you out of the Pagan faith. We allow all in. The Gods will chose your worthiness or not. They after all do know what’s in your heart.
Blessings
Enchantress
I came to the wiccan/pagan path when talking to a cousin about how dissatisfied I was with my life, it was a few years after my Mom who was a Christian who lived her faith (walked the walk but didn’t preach or push it at me) had died after suffering with breast cancer that moved to the bone. It took a year for her to die, after a stroke and then a move to a nursing home. She was so independent and I knew that it drove her crazy to be so dependent on others for everything. Everyone kept telling me it was Gods will. How could a loving, all powerful God let a woman who so truly believed in him die such a horrible death. My cousin is Pagan and started talking to me about her beliefs and I started researching and low and behold I felt like I had finally come home. It just seemed to make so much more sense. After all these beliefs in some form were there long before Christianity and they work for me. That there was a lesson my Mom had to learn in this life before she could go on to a new life I can accept.
As a person who is enthusiastic about both the spiritual and the scientific, I would say that my reason is: it’s psychologically pleasing to me. And while, yes, that’s pretty much just a way of saying, “Because I like it,” it’s more than that. I look at religion as a combination of two basic needs: answering questions we don’t have an explanation for, and providing a moral code. It’s, from an outside perspective, a tool for controlling minds. Which, like magic itself, isn’t a bad thing unless misused. Think about it: if you had a society with no moral structure, and no way of reassuring them when the inexplicable happened (I.E. an eclipse, a rainbow, a natural disaster), things would be “out of control,” right? But, when that control comes from someone who abuses it, seeing it as power over lesser minds, the balance goes just as sour in the opposite direction. That’s part of what sparked my distaste for most structured religion. The hierarchy problem. I like making informed decisions of my own. If I’m going to knowingly use a mind controlling tool, I’d like the security of knowing it is “self-control,” you know? That it’s, to use a popular movie for an analogy, a matrix of my own design, that I can connect to and disconnect from freely.
There’s another story to it, though. The spiritual side of my choice. Looking back on it now, the signs that I was in the wrong faith for me were obvious from day one. I was 5, playing pretend with my neighbors, like usual. They asked me a question. I thought it was just part of the game, so I agreed. Then, we said my first prayer. The question had been “Do you want to be a Christian?”
My parents were a little upset. They, being loosely observant Christians themselves, nonetheless wanted me to make that particular important decision when I was old enough to understand it. But, they started trying me out with it anyway, just to see how I’d take to it. By third grade, however, they couldn’t justify the financial cost of keeping me in private school any longer, so I started going to public school. One of the first parts of that was a basic knowledge test, to check for any gaps in my education. One question in particular stuck with me: Why does the Earth go around the Sun? I didn’t even know the Earth went around the Sun, much less why, so I answered like I had learned everyone does in that situation: “Because God made it that way.”
Isn’t that just sad? In three years, a small child had already picked up on such a cruel subtlety, that the miracle of creation was psychological code for “I don’t know.” But, the truth is, even as a small child, I had about as much faith in the stories of the Bible as in the stories of the Brother’s Grimm. My parents stopped trying so hard after that. They still worked on instilling a good sense of right and wrong in me, but church was no longer a part of our lives. I was a Christian in the sense that I knew I wasn’t anything else I had heard of. I recognized a divine power in the universe, and called it God, and now and then I prayed, but that’s about as far as it went.
By the time I was in middle school, I had a sense that something was missing. I started looking into other beliefs. This worried my parents, what with pubescent rebellion all around me. They insisted that it was evil to worship things other than God. But I was smarter than that by then, and I knew that they were just scared for me. So I reassured them the best way I knew how: with patient and thorough study of the major life choice I was making. I didn’t just sign up for the first thing that sounded cool (which, incidentally, was Buddhism), I learned about it, and then I kept it in a mental “maybe-list” before moving on to the next interesting sounding flavor of faith.
I found that I agreed with a lot of what a lot of them had to offer. Even Satanism has it’s strong points. But I just couldn’t find any one path that wholly and fully resonated with me. Then, High school. I went to an alternative learning center, at the recommendation of my middle-school counselor, because I tended to loose hope surrounded by all the drama and social politics of standard schools. That was how I met my first Wiccan friends. About two thirds of them were the typical teenage fad-followers. You know, the type who’s commitments tend to last about as long as the make-up they bought when the made them. But, there were also some true faithfulls. And they honestly seemed fulfilled by it, too. The more I heard, the more my curiosity was aroused. I started researching like mad. After, ironically, about a year and a day (it was leap year, ha ha !), I knew that this was where I would be the most comfortable, where I felt “home.”
I didn’t feel the various pressures in Wicca that I did in other places, I felt free, and at the same time, grounded. I could take all the bits and pieces I had learned of that felt mostly right, and apply them together, without the parts I felt were confused or incorrect for me interfering, or any higher-ups telling me it was twisted or wrong just because it was from outside their system. More than that, it felt less like I was a handful of puzzle pieces looking for the puzzle I was missing from, and more like I was already a completed puzzle that just happened not to be very square. I can see where the term “coming out of the broom closet” comes from, both the obvious and the more subtle connections.
I came to Wicca after leaving Christianity (I was Baptist, to be precise). I had more questions than the Baptist church could, or would, answer, and I knew there was more out there than what I was taught in church and school (yes, 7 years in Baptist school, and 10 years in church), so I went searching. I read books on crystals, numerology, astrology, and found D.J. Conway’s “Celtic Magic” and felt like I came home. That was in 1994. In 1995, after reading a not so popular author’s book, I did a self dedication ritual and here I am, 13 years later, proud to be a Witch.
I always had this sort of emptiness inside myself. I tried to fill it with Born Again Christian, Methodist, and many other religions, specifically Christianity. None of them fit. Then one day, I came upon a “spellbook” in the grocery aisle. I read the spells, and cast a few. They didn’t turn out so well. I started thinking about polytheism. Why couldn’t there be multiple Gods/esses for everything? Then I became set on finding a religion that accepted my belief of polytheism, magick, and many other Wiccan ideas that I had no clue were Wican beliefs. Then I came upon Wicca, and having done so, I have never felt more at home, I have felt a connection with my ancestors, and love my life more. There aren’t as many restrictions and contradictions (ie be fruitful and multiply yet sex is bad or do unto others as you would have them do unto you yet act superior and call people names[yeah that last one might be a bit personal]). But there are other contradictions, just think. I also found out that my family came over on the Mayflower and they came from Ipswich, which was where most of the accused witches came from.
Patti: There is something that bothered me that no one seemed to address. The person who wrote you the question. S/he said: “. . .What is it that makes people turn their backs on a God of love and peace to worship Wiccan gods?”
This seems to assume that Wiccan Gods and Goddesses are not endowed with the virtues of Peace and Love; maybe I am misreading the question, but it seems to me that it perpetuates the stereotypes of all Wiccans being into evil, dark magic, etc. And to that I must humbly say: bollocks!
I recently came to Wiccanism and Withcraft because of the Wiccan Rede: Harm ye none, do what ye will. It is a philosophy which I have been living all of my life but without a religion behind it. This is because the religious beliefs I knew were not living up to this creed. I came across Wiccanism and felt drawn to it. But also, because the God of Peace and Love which s/he so blithely asks about is also the God over which every war that has ever been fought has been waged in the name of. I know no religion that does not have the “Golden Rule”, yet every religion claims that theirs is the one to follow and will go to war to ensure that people do. This was not the type of God I wanted to follow – to me, the Goddesses and Gods of Wicca symbolize the true meanings of peace and love, the balance that exists in nature between man and woman, between light and dark, between good and evil. These are the Gods and Goddesses I wanted to learn about and from and still am learning on a daily basis.
I became Wiccan because it meshes perfectly with my outlook on life. Try as I might, I had an extremely difficult time finding other Christians who were even the least bit concerned about the impact of humans on the natural world, which I think is an extremely relevant concern. I also did not like the fact that so many Christians automatically assume that their faith is superior, and by extension, so are they. I do not feel that any single path can possibly be right for seven billion human beings.
There are potluck dinners? Darn, I’m missing out! I gues that’s what happens when you’re Solitary.
How did I come to be a wiccan? Hmm… well, my mum (single parent family with NO input from my father) sent both me and my brother to Sunday School when we were kids… I went to a Catholic secondary school and I had a Protestant confirmation when I was thirteen.
I was close to the nuns at my school and we’d talk about religion and life views. But I was badly bullied and my Headteacher told my mother that that was caused by the fact that she was divorced and we weren’t Catholic (direct quote despite the fact that two-parent families were a rarity, not the norm.).
I left the school system and went Home Educated at fourteen which taught me to re-examine what I was told and to seek my own questions and answers.
When I was sixteen, I asked my mother’s permission to study Witchcraft indepth. She has always maintained that forbidding things merely makes them more desirable and so she gave her permission. I have practised Witchcraft ever since, giving me nine years of experience. Now, when people ask me why I am a pagan, I compare religion to a mountain.
Although there are many paths up the mountain, there is only one summit. Many people chose to take the well-marked routes to the summit, but there are those of us who find it more rewarding to strike out on our own and forge our own path. In the end, we are all striving towards the same place but the journey is different for all of us.
I wasn’t really raised christan, my folks let me goto church for the community, to give me a chance to be around other people. I struggled with belife that there is only a god with out a goddess, even at the very young age of 7 I felt that the goddess was missing. I tried asking about this and was told that I was not to ask questions but to only have faith and to believe. Well, I needed to know what it was I was believing and that led me to wicca. In wicca I was incouraged to studdy, and studdy, and learn, and studdy. I am incourage to seek my path and to find my place in the sceem of things. I discovered the goddess, who I had been looking for and a release for the guilt for not being a proper christan.
I have been Wiccan for a long time; in some ways I think my whole life without truly being aware of it. With Wicca I found what I was searching for in spirituality, in myself. I truly found love not just in others but in the whole universe, in all things, seen and unseen and in myself. I feel that not only have I found a true connection to the source of all but that I continue to learn, discover, and feel a trueness in myself.
I have enjoyed reading the comments of others who echo much of my own feelings. I found wicca and continue to study and learn, when I needed to understand why the world works the way that it does. When my Father died very suddenly, I felt lost and began to seek answers. A very magical friend helped me with gentle nudges of where to find some answers, never dictating that I believe in a certain way. I purchased the book “Simple Wicca” and a statement hit home. That statement was ” Did you ever feel out of place when in a church?” I always felt like somethng was wrong, that I really didn’t belong there.I have found such peace in my life and have concurred some of my fears as well with wicca. I’m far from knowing it all, but I’m so much more content knowing what I do.
it fit me! i had a hard time as a kid. i was raped and was told by some “kind soul” that god gives you what you can hadle and deserv. I was 5 years old and right there i knew that there god was not for me, because i could not think of anything i could have done to deserv that. MY mom always said follow your heart and i did and i lead me to Wicca!!
I was raised a Baptist, but my mom really was never into conformity. She went only because her parents went. So my mother was very open to me exploring other religious options.
The reason i didn’t enjoy going to church was because i was an odd child to begin with, and i felt that the people within the church always told me everything i did wrong; that i wasn’t good enough and i had to change for God to be happy with me.
I also felt that there are so many different people in the world, in different locations and situations. They couldn’t all be wrong in their choice of religion, and only us right. So i explored other religions such as Mormonism, Buddhism, and i finally came to Wiccanism and it called at my soul like none other had before.
Wicca accepted me. told me that i would be loved as long as i loved back, and harmed none. Wicca isn’t just a religion i chose but i life style i live daily. It’s not just getting up on certain day of the week to worship, but its a love deep in my heart for others around me, for the earth and all her inhabitants, and for the divine! Blessed Be!
I was born and raised in a Christian home. I was always scared of something bad happening to me. When I was 9 my Mother asked me if I wanted to be saved. Well I said yes because I did not want to find out what would happen if I said no. Then came the day for me to be baptised (our church had an indoor pool) and I was next in line and I just started bawlin and backing up. My auntie just told me it would be ok. Later (when I was grown) I realized that I just did not understand what I was doing. Later that year or around my 11th birthday one of my uncles (the whole familiy is religous, I don’t think anyone was brave enough to do otherwise)was preching hell and damnation. I remember for a whole week, I was afraid to go to sleep because I was sure that I would not wake up and if I did I would wake up in hell. I forced myself to stay awake. Later in my adult life, I married a so called minister of God. Well, is a minister of God supposed to hit his wife and take a gun and shoot it at her and her son, and then lie about it? This is Gods will??????
I have many more horror stories about growing up Christian but I will stop here. I just belive that Wicca found me this past summer, I was not looking, came across a book and in just 5 short months I have been happier and more at peace with myself than I ever have been in my life. Yes, I have turned my back, AND, I don’t feel guilty about it. But I will never judge someone else for believing in God. Bottom line is it is a PERSONAL choice!
And it harm none, do what thou will!
Blessed be!
Goddess Aseneth
I’m actually not sure what I am right now, but i do know that I am no longer Christian. I have accepted Jesus Christ to be only an extremely… well amazing… PERSON. Nothing more, nothing less. As for why I am slowly converting, i believe that i might have always been pagan. I have been able to see auras for quite some time, since early childhood in fact and that already began my distancing from Christianity. I have a healthy appetite for questioning beliefs which (quite obviously) isn’t very compatible with Christian doctrine, and on top of all of this. . . I have some connection with nature that just draws me to plants and animals. I don’t think it’s odd at all, it’s just
indescribable.
Anyways, the true reason I cut my ties to Christianity is because of its inability to accept new truths. It does not focus at all on personal growth and spritual development, and all these doctrines have come off to me as, are gates in which people enclose themselves, a small list of ideals that may or may not be true. There is no room for exploration of the truth, and I know that many might argue about my opinion but about this, but this doctrine is much to close minded for me. I don’t like being limited when it comes to matters of the spirit and of the heart. . .
Did i repeat myself a lot? Darn, I did. Anyways, I hope this helped answer your question
Born and raised Wiccan. Always been happy with it. I love my life on all bases including religion.
I am a little confused, and the world is full of lies. I know that Aleister Crowley had a credo “Do what thou will.” But throughout my life, I have heard it in many altered forms by Wiccans and other Pagans. In the 90’s someone added “but harm no one but one’s self.” This I could believe, but heavily doubted that Crowley actually added to his own personal credo. Now recently an old friend that is a firm believer in Wiccanism and Paganism corrected me and told me that the actually Aleister Crowley quote was “Do what thou wilt, but harm no one, including one’s self.” This last version of the quote seems completely opposite from any thought that Aleister Crowley ever had. Sounds more like Politically Correct bullshit, which is sad. Especially when my tolerance for Wiccans and Pagans was clouded by the fact that the majority of the women that I have known belonged to these groups ALL (Every last one of them, at least 20 to 30) believed themselves to be some sort of high priestess. I guess it is sort of like the fact that no one ever finds out that in a past life they were an idiot, or a bum, or a nobody. So, the question is, why do you people keep changing that quote to fit the current moral standards and times? Honestly, I think that Crowley would be ashamed.
merry meet
I grew up in a irish cathlioc house, until i was about7 0r 8, i found a book on wiccan while staying at my friends house, me the courious little one i was, and asked my friends family some questions ( her mom was wiccan) it made sence to me then, what i was being taught at church didnt.i to this day ( im 17) say it feels right. i under stand how she could ask why would we stray from god, my question to her would of been why do you embrase god? she will never understand why we choose our path, as i may never understand why she choose hers.
blessed be )o(
I came to Wicca initially because I liked the fact that it was tolerant of different beliefs and religions. I was raised a Christian, but it never seemed to work for me. Although there was just that one reason at first- tolerance- over time, I’ve found more and more things about being a Wiccan that I love. Equality between men and women for a start, a better connection with nature, acceptance of homosexuality (I’m bisexual myself) and the sense of personal responsibility. I never liked how Christianity basically blamed everything wrong in the world on Satan. From where I stood, it looked more like the world was doing fine before humans showed up.
Growing up, if someone suggested Wicca to me, I would have stared at them in horror and perhaps come out with something along the lines of what this lady said in her e-mail. Now I smile happily and say ‘yeah, great, isn’t it?’ Finally I’ve found a religion that I’m actually proud of.
(… wonders if she gushed too much.)