Pagans and Wiccans: What introduced you to your faith?

Question

For me, it was a combination of the book Positive Magick, by Marion Weinstein and meeting a really cool guy who was Wiccan, after a couple years of being an "apatheist." It led me into Wicca. Later, I hankered after something a bit older, and so began attempting to apply the Old Ways to my modern life. I now identify as a Pagan.

How did you first learn about it? Book, website, friend, or something else altogether?

Answer 1

As a child I was interested in Greek mythology, and also in parapsychology and the paranormal. I used to love to read books on ESP, ghosts, and UFOs. In my early teen years I was actually a Born Again Christian! But the more I read, and learned, not only about my own religion, but about the world outside my paradigm, the more I began to question. It was the hypocrisy and pushiness of some Christians which pushed me away. What drew me to Paganism, Wicca, Druidism, and Magick was a special that Pat Robertson did on Halloween -- he made Wicca and Druidism look so cool! I later met a girl in High School who was Wiccan, and what she believed was a lot of what I had already believed my entire life. It was like coming home. I started out in Wicca, but later moved on to Greek Paganism and Ceremonial Magick. But looking back, I don't really see much of a conversion. Just getting back to who I naturally was.

Oh, and Repeat O's answer is just so freaking funny. It brought a smile to my face it really did. :-)

Answer 2

Hi,

For me it has always been there I think I have always been very enchanted by mythology and the supernatural. However I didn't really start to find my way until I was in high school and girl that I was firends with was right into witchcraft, she would lend me books by Raymond Buckland etc. From there I just started reading the more new age books as I got a bit side tracked when i moved out of home with partying, but about 5 years ago I started in a learning and devlopment circle and it has just progressed from there. I have been in couple learning circles but would always feel like it was not where I wanted to head with my spirituality. Finally I found an ecclectic group which I have been with for about 2 years. I am also a student of a Magus learning Ceremonial Magick and Preistess Training. I am also learning Druidry. It has taken me a while to find my way but now I am learning and very happy.

Answer 3

I feel like I have always been pagan or wiccan. But I learned the most in the last five years or so. I first got into authors, Scott Cunningham and Raymond Buckland. Now my personal library is huge and I study eveyone I can find on the internet and in book form. I don't have any fellow Wiccans or pagans near so I am a solitary and for protection I am pretty much in-the-closet as far as my community is concerned. Blessed Be.

Answer 4

I had a personal and externally unverifiable (and therefoe not for public consumption) experience with the divine, and went to Wiccans I knew to help better understand it.

If I'd met Wiccans like the majority of public Wiccans today, I'd probably not be Wiccan, but things were different 20 years ago.

About 10 years back, I realized that while Wicca was fufilling the role of the civic religion for me, I also needed involvement in an ecstatic cult (in the anthropological terms, not the perjorative) and now I am happily both a Reconstructionist and a Wiccan, and realize they fufill different noncompeting needs in my life.

Answer 5

I was basically agnostic and at some point started reading Norse mythology. I started putting a Norse bent on how I viewed the world, and considered myself "spiritual, but not religious."

Through the course of several years and a series of events I drifed away from the Norse pantheon, and eventually met some folks who practiced Wicca (with a Kemetic influence). I discovered that a lot of what I believed deep down was in harmony with Wicca, so I did more reading and learning. There were several things that I read that resonated with me... things I already believed and felt, but that someone else had put into words and writing and put a name to.

Even though I'm not with that group anymore, I am very comfortable on my religious path. I call myself "Pagan, with strong Wiccan influence", and am basically an eclectic solitary.

Answer 6

Something else all together. *wink* And then study of the old religions, starting with Greek/Roman and then to Egyptian... finally ended up in Celtic. Most of the books I have read deal more with archeology and history than modern books about the modern view of Paganism. I was Wiccan from about 12 till 22, Agnostic (you just get tired of all the crap, ya know?) and then, a bit later, Pagan.

Answer 7

I grew up with Mom and Dad sending me to Sunday school and church every week (even though they didn't go themselves). I even went to a christian school for 7th and 8th grade. It never felt right to me I have always been inquisative so I question everything lol I really started questioning when I went to the christian school because I read the whole bible and we had to memorize passages each week, I drove the Pastor/Principle and teachers nuts with all my questions about the discrepencies in the bible which there are alot but other questions as to stuff not mentioned like dinosaurs, cavemen etc. It did not make sense to me so when I got older I started doing research on religion/spirituality etc. which lead me to paganism which felt like to me being on vacation for so long and finally coming home, like an epiphany of sorts. I read everything I could get my hands on and settled on Wicca as it seemed to fit I am eclectic and I use what feels right to me religion and spirituality is a very personal choice and it isn't the same for each person you have to choose what feels right, for me it is wicca for someone else it's christianity, catholicism, etc. I feel All Gods/Goddesses are one, but there are many paths that lead you there. I hope I made this short enough LOL.
Brightest Blessings,
Starr

Answer 8

A nurse who was temporarily deployed to the hospital I worked at was a delightful Wiccan. I was already pretty well versed in monotheism and it's history, etc. and her involvement in Wicca had me putting her to the question often and both of us answering all kinds of religious questions by the more "fundamentalist" people on the ward in our free time, which wasn't all that often. Lively conversations ensued, a few minds were opened and about a year later I started studying Wicca myself, actively.

It certainly opened my eyes up to exactly how fundamentalist and closed-minded some "Christians" could be and how dangerous some versions of home-schooling can be, on top of what she taught me about Wicca.

_()_

Answer 9

For me, I think I was always Pagan, at least in the way I thought and acted. As a little girl I used to sit outside and talk to our willow tree in the back yard and told my mom that the forest had spirits.
I wasn't introduced to the term or religion of Paganism till I was 14. There was a girl in my grade who said she was a witch. I got interested, looked into and by the time I turned 15, I was very deep into studying Paganism, at that time mostly Witchcraft and Druidism. I was raised Catholic, but I knew that wasn't the religion for me at a very young age.
Now, I am my own brand of Pagan, I don't feel I really fit into a category, but that is fine with me.

Answer 10

My introduction?
Oy!
There I was sitting in my cave watching the lights in the heavens when one fell ......................................... oops, too far back.

Truthfully I had lots of hints and nudges my whole life that I ignored and shied away from as I tried to be the "Good Christian", and tried to fit what I was seeing and feeling into that framework, but it was like a suit that just didn't fit. To be blunt, I never ever really felt "Christian"

I became a Pagan in the late 70's, learning what I could on my own, there weren't a whole lot of books and most folks were still firmly in the broom closet.

From Pagan I made the realization I was a witch, from witch I decided to join a Wiccan coven so I could talk to folks who were like me and learn more.

The journey continues.