What was the single best resource for you when learning about?

Question

your alternative religious beliefs?

Was it a book, a mentor, the internet, a friend, parent, sibling, course?

I know that I started to practice and be interested in voodoo/hoodoo by talking with Anna at her wonderful store in New Orleans....Erzulies (www.erzulies.com) and by reading a book she recommended to me, "Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau".

What is the single thing that got you going?

PLEASE NOTE: ALTERNATIVE religious beliefs only.

Answer 1

It was a combination of things. I'd been looking into witchcraft for a while, but it didn't quite ring true for me; at about the same time, I'd made a new group of friends, having recently moved, and brought up to them a number of odd experiences I'd been having. A few of them were magicians, and began teaching me, while at the same time I'd stumbled across occultism as a practical study and threw myself into that as well (i.e. lots and lots of books). I finally came across a website (which, sadly, is no longer in existence, but I've pulled most of it off of internet archive and have been slowly putting it up on my own website) that detailed the basics of chaos magic, and I found that it was more or less what I'd been practicing anyway.

Answer 2

I'd read and studied many religions and came away from them all thinking, "There's nothing there for me." The main reason for this is the fact that I'm female. I'm not 2nd., 3rd., or 4th class, nor am I anyone's property. As there is no significant place set at the table for those of my gender in most religions "out there," I took a pass. I was unhappy with this situation because I could not find a means of expressing my spirituality within any given religious community. Until...

I read "Spiral Dance" by Starhawk. That happened nearly 11 years ago and it changed my life. I haven't looked back. Since that time I've done a lot of learning, a lot of studying, and have become a practicing Wiccan.

Answer 3

The thing that started it all was a little book called "2150AD" by Thea Alexander that came out in the mid-70's. And I've been reading ever since. The book that helped me the most in my current path was "The Apple Branch" by Alexei Kondratiev. The internet and having an active local pagan community has also been a big help.

Answer 4

Meditation is the best practice I've ever known of. We are the church, temple, mosk, or whatever... when you get you, you'll get God and the spiritual understanding that comes with that kind of knowledge. Books???? There has never been a written word that has come to us without the filter of another human's thought process. Which is why some great thinkers never wanted their words written down. Meditate... I can't say it enough.

Answer 5

Basically the bible was my best resource when I was becoming atheist. Each reading made me more and more convinced that its a load of crap.

I am taking "alternative religious beliefs" to mean one different from your current one; for example someone who is converting from one religion to an alternate one (or abandoning religion completely).

Answer 6

Reading, "The Truth About Witchcraft Today" by Scott Cunningham got me started on my path.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 7

becoming friends with a pagan, I already held the beliefs before I even knew what one was. She is a fantastic woman who is a High Priestess and a clinical psychologist to boot.

Answer 8

Take a college level class in Comparative Religions or in the Philosophy of Religion. You'll be more the wiser for it.

Answer 9

The Idiot's Guide to Buddhism.

Answer 10

Although your question suggests you have already made a choice, I would suggest you go to the library and get an encyclopedia of the world religions.