Welcome to my Wicca page! If you're new to Wicca, I invite you to start with my Frequently Asked Questions page. This will provide you with a brief introduction to my understanding of what Wicca is and is not. Then, I invite you to return to this page for more about the role of Wicca in my life.
For over 7 years, I've been exploring a growing interest in Paganism. At first, it was little more than fantasy to me. I enjoyed computer games, movies, and books that dealt with themes of magic and earth spirituality. I didn't know why at first, but I was drawn to such tales like the tides reaching for the moon. It was fun and exciting to experience play-magic, especially when it was in the context of deeply meaninful spiritual themes.
When I went to college, I discovered a group called Universal Spirituality. I wasn't sure why I was drawn to it, and I don't even remember how I first heard about it. But somehow, curiosity got the best of me, and I found myself walking a long way across the still-unfamiliar town of Carbondale to meet with a group of strangers.
At the US meetings, I had my first encounters with people who considered themselves Pagan. I'll admit that I wasn't instantly hooked. I didn't make any deep personal connections at first -- in part because I used to have quite a bit of social anxiety, and in part because their approaches to spirituality still seemed a bit foreign to me. Why did they have all of these Goddesses and Gods? What was the meaning of all of these Rituals, these Sabbats, these various charms and spells, these countless personal nuances of their spiritual paths? Even the more earth-friendly spiritualities that I had embraced in the past had been very transcendental in nature. The path of these people, however, was clearly rooted in an intricate soil of immanence that at first didn't appeal to me.
However, I was instantly intrigued. I had a gut feeling that the magic that they talked about was real, and I somehow I knew that this was the start of a very long and rewarding journey.
I went back to the US meetings off and on for several years. Throughout those years, I became active in environmental causes that lead me into the great outdoors, eventually spending an entire summer doing forest defense work in the Big Wild of central Idaho. Before I knew it, I was calling myself a Pagan and taking every opportunity to learn more about this new spiritual path.
For my first few years as a Pagan, I was simply an unassociated, non-denominational, solitary Pagan like so many people I come across. Then, I became interested in Wicca.
At first, I experienced some serious approach/avoidance in relation to Wicca. I was deeply fascinated by local Witches talking about divination, psychic abilities, magick, and so on. But was it right for me? Something about it struck a chord in me, but I was completely unaccustomed to any sort of spiritual practice whatsoever, much less one involving goddesses and gods, ritual tools, special holidays to remember, etc. My interest was piqued, but the time still wasn't right.
Not that long after September 11, my interest in spirituality in general deepened. This event and its consequences triggered a very complex mix of feelings and experiences that left me pursuing a deeper meaning in life. I had always sought some such meaning, but my search hadn't usually taken such a spiritual direction. For years, I'd been working to serve others through various ecological and political causes. Now, with my burnout rising and the state of the world declining, I felt a need to rediscover my purpose in life.
This spawned a renewed interest in Wicca. I became a Solitary Witch, pursuing my own independent studies in Wicca through whatever books I could get my hands on and whatever information I could glean from Universal Spirituality and SIPA meetings. But still, there was something missing. My studies in Wicca still lacked focus, and faded into the background for a while as I focused on my studies in spiritual healing.
As I neared completion of my first year of healing studies, I received a message on the SIPA mailing list that a local Coven called Divine Mysteries Coven was accepting Candidates for membership. Once again, intuition struck, and I knew in a heartbeat that I wanted to join this Coven.
At that point, my only experience of the Coven had been a single presentation given by their High Priestess at a Universal Spirituality meeting several months earlier. It had been an impressive presentation, and I'd felt an unexpected connection with the High Priestess. So, when the impulse came to follow up on this Candidacy invitation, I had some rational excuse for doing so. But really, it was more of a gut feeling. On some level, I knew that this would be the next stage in my spiritual journey.
Sure enough, it was. For several months, I was a Candidate for Coven membership, engaging in a steady course of studies with my fellow Candidates to prepare myself for initiation into the Coven. During this time, we all came together quite nicely as a group. This gave me a wonderful sense that I really had made the right choice and was entering into a loving new spiritual family. Once the Candidacy period and all of my requirements were complete, I was initiated into the Coven.
Since my initiation, the role of the Coven in my life has become even more clear to me. I've made some lifelong connections, both within the Coven and in our broader Living Tapestry Tradition. I've learned a great deal in Coven, and the transformative effects of this learning have carried over into my personal practice and my life in general. I'm healthier, happier, and better able to face the challenges ahead. I've experienced my second degree initiation, with the third one one the way. I've also formed a deep connection with Brighid, an Irish Goddess who I expect to journey with for the rest of my life. At the heart of all of this learning, growth, and joy lies Wicca -- an initiatory path that has transformed my life.
To me, Wicca in general and my involvement in the Coven in particular has been a reawakening. I had always feared that my spirituality set me apart from others. Now, it's a deeply human endeavour that brings me closer to people both inside and outside of Circle. I had always been afraid to get too caught up in the particulars of any spiritual practice, preferring instead to keep it as general as possible. Now, I'm relishing in the deep details of Wicca - experiencing Deity as Goddess and God, learning the rich meanings of each Sabbat, getting to know a group of fellow seekers, sharing my experiences of magic and spirituality in an intimate group setting, building confidence in my own abilities, and more. What an experience! Sometimes I don't even fully appreciate the magnitude of it until I step back and consider what a new and wonderful thing this has brought into my life. Then, I can really feel the magic. And it's all just beginning...
If you want to hear more about how it's going for me, or if you have any other comments, let me know!
