Witchcraft and Paganism 101 - What makes a Pagan? a personal ramble

What a first proper discussion heh?

I put this in as a start to the Witchcraft and Paganism 101 class, obviously I cant comment on how other people have become pagan but if they want to put their story here they are welcome.

As you can see from my home page I am 45 years old (in 2008), Mam and Dad were and are nice people, Church of England / High church upbringing so attended sunday school and went to church, even was in the prayer group at school and choir (though to hear my voice now you wouldnt know it).

When I was 6 a hand came out of the wall and tried to strangle me, I was in bed at the time but wide awake, as you can imagine I screamed the place down, mam and dad came charging up the stairs and said I had had a nightmare but the hand and the figures kept coming to see me even with the light on and me awake in bed or in the garden, lots of places, until one day I saw a girl wearing a sparkly blue coat who told me how to imagine one around myself, I did and the bad things went away, I asked the girl her name and she said 'Ellie' and went away after saying see you later.

So far there is nothing in the above that would tell you about me being a Pagan I know, just laying the groundwork, however you may notice that there is a lot about an emerging medium in the last paragraph.

The nice shiny blue coat trick worked and I got good about wrapping myself up in it, I didnt wear it all the time.

Around when I was 17 I started asking all the questions of why and started to look at my faith and came to the conclusion that while I believed in some all great emcompassing force I could not believe that the universe would be so unbalanced, so I started reading up on other faiths and asking people of other faiths, no internet at the time and no real home computers so the library got hammered. In 1981 there was not a lot that I could find really so was about to give up when I met someone who became a friend and eventually told me she was a Pagan, I did the usual all the laughing and saying about the dancing naked round a fire bit but once I had calmed down we had a talk, and talked and talked, I didnt agree with everything she said and took a lot with a pinch of salt but thought that it might be good to know more and said so, she invited me to a meeting and things went on from there.

I started learning about things under a metor who helped me in learning about things which while have been around for a long time had been by and large supressed or forgotten about except by a few, Celtic Gods and Godesses, spirits, elements, I was like a sponge and soaked it all up, I practiced grounding and finding my center, pathwalking and all sorts, I enjoyed every minute, I also learnt that no they didnt dance naked round the fire, in Scotland with thistles and midges in summer and snow in winter brrrr.

At this time the spirits and ghosts came back, and made their prescence known with a vengence, I asked my mentor for help and we cleansed the house but they kept coming back, again I was about to give up and go mad when two things appeared, first was my totem animal, a horse, and Ellie, they helped me through the crisis and get my shielding working properly.

I was eventually initiated into a coven and practiced my solitary work, times and work interferred with the coven and we eventually split, still friends with some of them though and more solitary work appeared, I was going to join another coven at one point but a nasty problem came along and my personality changed for a while, a virus, unfortunately I am still reaping the reprocussions for that but as they say this too shall pass.

In my 27 years learning, and I am still learning I have seen many things and heard many people saying thay are Pagan when in fact they are wannabees, some people I knew wanted to be the centre of attention and worshipped by their own little (or large) coven and lots of inbetweens.

Lots more but that was just a brief synopsis of where I am up to now, if you want to know more send me a mail, reply to this or just chat when you see me on the message boards.