Last week I wrote that a few Pagan Blogs are having a 44 question/answer challenge that I would try to do. Its more like a prompt and I answered question 35 last week. I think I am going to be all traditional today and answer question one:
What is your Witchy Background?
As a child I really loved Fairy Tales...
Now don't dismiss that. I didn't love the fairy tales for the princess or the prince or the witch . I loved the stories. I was starved for stories and I would read and re-read fairy tales to pass the time. The visions that I had in my head as I read them was definitely the stuff of dreams. They opened my mind to new possibilities and solving problems in a way I hadn't thought of before.
When we started studying Ancient History in 6th grade I was fascinated with the Gods and the civilization of Sumer, Egypt, and Greece. I never liked the Romans. I thought they killed off alot of creativity in conquering Greece and they just glorified war and men. I enjoyed reading the Bible and I was very excited to find out that Jesus was REAL. A wonderful, peace-loving and magical man had walked the earth. To me, that meant that the other stories I read could've been real too.
I went to Catholic School for 12 years. They did a good job of showing me that the stories weren't real and that they never were. I did have a few great English teachers who taught me about metaphors and how the lessons in the stories were real. And that they all boiled down to the one lesson that I have taken to heart all these years "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
I didn't discover Wicca until I was in college. I had 2 beautiful women point me in right direction. One of them was a manager at a bookstore that I worked at. We were talking about history and God and she asked me "Why can't God be a woman?". The other was my roommate at the time (and she would be my Maid of Honor at my wedding) bought me The Spiral Dance from Starhawk and told me that I needed to read it. I really opened up to Wicca when I read about Karma and the one rule "Harm None but do as you will".
I did alot of soul searching (and had many sleepless nights thanks to Catholic Guilt). One of the things that I always loved about Catholics was the devotion to Mary. So I prayed to Her to help me figure out my path. In praying I found that She is Goddess. Simple as that. The fairy tale stories came to life for me then. I recognized the archetypes of the Gods and Goddesses, of Heroes and Villains, of Fools and Witches. I vowed that I would be a part of this place. Why? Because it keeps magic alive in the world (and it makes me happy). Didn't Jesus say to come to Him like a child? Isn't a child fascinated by the magic of the world? Who is to say that we shouldn't approach everyday with the love and fascination of a child and discover our inner God/dess?
In my travels of trying to find like minds I came upon a beautiful little witch shop. They held open circles in the back, in a little backyard grotto, every Monday. That is where my physical training to be a Priestess happened. My true training started long ago in loving fairy tales.
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