Day 1. Overview of my Journey

Yay! I'm finally able to make blog posts again! Not that anybody knows who I am, because I coincidentally had to leave right around the time I decided to start this meme :D

Today, I will talk about my journey to Paganism. I'll make it brief, because I've written about it so many times and have kind of gotten sick of it.

When I was 19, I met a group of people, some of whom were Pagans. They were all in their 20's, so you know, they were adults about it. I had recently been questioning my spirituality. A lot of things in my previous religion, Catholicism, didn't make sense, or went against my personal values. I started to learn about Paganism from these people, and was amazed at how similar their beliefs were to my own personal beliefs.

I knew about Wicca, but had never been interested in it before, thus didn't really know what it was all about. Then, through a series of events, I decided I needed to learn how to use magic. I realized I had the ability to manifest things, and I was afraid to have this ability without knowing how to properly harness it. Back then, I thought Wicca was just witchcraft and magic. Upon meeting these aforementioned people, I learned that it was a type of Paganism.

These things made me decide to do a little research. Most of my early research was done on the internet, or in a major city's library, where they had tons of older books. Some were archaeological in nature, others were decades-old books about Wicca. I've never been able to trust newer books; it's like anybody with a little internet research can publish one these days. At least if I'm reading something ON the internet, I already know to take it with a grain of salt.

I had two spirit guides back then, one male and one female, and one day I read something that went, "The Goddess will come to you in a form you recognize." I realized my guides had so much in common with the Wiccan ideas of deity, and was instantly converted from reading that sentence. 

Since then, a lot has changed. My guides aren't as strong now, I suppose because I don't really need them as much, and I have a third one. I also have a better understanding of an all-encompassing God/dess vs. personal deities. I've studied a multitude of Pagan traditions in order to find the one that suited me best, and I still keep coming back to Wicca. Through all of this research and introspection, my world view was dramatically altered, and it was very liberating. 

I've also gained a lot more knowledge and skill. Most of what I have learned, I've learned on my own, through solitary practice, meditation, introspection, and automatic writing. I've only been to a handful of group rituals before, and have never actively worked with a circle or coven. I still feel I have learned a lot of valuable things on my own, though. 

In the future, I'd like to network a lot more and get involved in group activities and ritual. I'm very picky, though. We need to be very similar people in order to click. I wish I could change that to make things easier, but it's just who I am.

The end. And yes, this was the short version. Hmm.