 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Lotus Butterfly
I was raised Baptist. Everyone in my family is Baptist, and my grandmother thinks that if you are not Baptist you are wrong. So we'll start from there. As far back as I can remember, I attended Church every week, and on holidays, as a child. Sunday school, and then the boring part where we had to sit in the pews and listen to the pastor tell us about being a "good Christian" and eternal damnation if we weren't "good Christians".
This never did sit completely well with me.
Neither did what my parents told me about faeries, dragons, ghosts, etc. not being real. I always seemed to be searching for some proof that I was right, and that magical and supernatural creatures do exist.
As I was saying, I attended church weekly, and even joined the church choir. Truthfully however, I joined the choir because I wanted to sing. Not to "raise my voice up to God". Either way I was very strong in my belief that my given religion had to be right, because my parents told me it was. So, when I was about 11 years old I decided to get baptized.
I did not feel a spiritual uplifting, I felt cold and wet. But what did I know, I had never been baptized before, And none of my friends that had been baptized had ever reported such a phenomenon either.
So, after that I continued (convinced that all other religions were wrong at this point, mind you) attending Church on a regular basis. Sundays. holidays, whatever the reason, I was there. I even attended one of those gatherings where you pray to be saved. My heart was in it, however, once again, I felt no great uplifting.
Anyway, this all continued until I was about 13 or 14 years old. That's when I decided that I didn't believe everything that the Baptist church was teaching me. So, I went out on my own. I was still Christian, just nondenominational. I read the Bible, prayed for a spiritual awakening, and proudly proclaimed to everyone that I was a Christian. I did however have a few unconventional beliefs. First of all, I believed that God was gender-less. As it would be useless for God to have genetailia. Also,I refused to believe that God would send anyone to Hell for circumstances beyond their control. For example, people raised with in other religious belief systems. I also didn't think that homosexuals would go to Hell since I personally believe that usually our sexual orientation is not a choice we make. I believe that we are born strait, gay, or bisexual, for the most part. And even if someone does make the decision to change their sexuality, that doesn't make them a bad person. Certainly not bad enough to go to Hell!
OK, back to my story. As I was saying, I carried a few beliefs that not all Christians, especially ones in this part of the country agreed with.
It was at about this point in my life (I was about 16) when I began noticing other religions, and studing them. I had become friends with a girl at my school who was Celtic. She told me that she believed in God just as I did. However she worshiped many Gods and Goddesses instead of just one. This struck me as odd, but I was still sure that my religion was the correct one, because I had always been told that all of the other Gods and Goddesses were just myths.
Shortly after that my entire life, as well as my outlook on life, changed.
A friend of mine introduced me to Crow. He and his girlfriend at the time were regular customers at a pagan shoppe that had opened in town a several months earlier. So one day my friend and I decided to give the shoppe a visit, and see what exactly it was that they sold. Oh, I forgot to mention, that while I was a "good little Christian girl" I had always been fascinated with witches. As a child I would read any thing I could find on them. particularly the witch trials. Also, I was constantly in search of spells. I wanted to be able to use magick so badly I could taste it. I did run across a few, and the ones I tried did work. As well as the ones I concocted myself. I was also in the habit of charging stones by the full moon, using pendulums, numerology, etc.
So anyway, My friend and I went to The Makes Scents Shoppe. And if I remember correctly, both Treehugger and Azrael were there that day. We spoke to them for hours. It was mostly my friend asking all the questions, but I looked around the store in awe. This was exactly the type of store that I had always hoped to find. I didn't even know that they existed until that moment, because I had always been taught that witches weren't real, much less a religion. I was amazed that they actually had spell books, as well as the ingredients listed in the spells. Also, everything they said about Wicca made perfect sense to me. The belief system in Wicca was almost identical to the one that I had held all of my life. There were of course a few things that I hadn't thought of, such as there not being a "fire and brimstone" Hell at all. But, it all made sense, regardless. From that point on Treehugger and Azrael became my mentors. They held a Wicca 101 class, and with my parents permission, I began to study Witchcraft.
I have now been a practicing Eclectic Wiccan for almost 6 years, and have never doubted my religious choice, even when I was only a student of Wicca.
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Web Site design by:Adept Web Wizards
