What Drew You To Paganism?

Hi Rose! Long time no see!

Well I was raised Catholic untill I was 8 then we converted to Southern Baptist. We went to church every Sunday and every holiday untill I was 16. We moved to a new and smaller town and tried a few churches there, but found out very quickly that it wasn't about church it was about if you wore the same dress 2 sundays in a row. So we stopped going. I was never very comfortable in church anyways so I was slightly relieved. By the time I was 16 I had read the Bible cover to cover 3 times and although it was a wonderful story thats all it was to me. It had no spiritual meaning what so ever. Around the same time I went to visit my grand mother and while I was helping her clean out her attic I found my great-great-great grandmothers truck that she brought with her from Ireland. It was full of dried herbs, homemade candles and tons of other really neat things, but what caught my eye was her book of shadows. After I found that I started reading up on different pagan religions and when I turned 22 I became a Wiccian.

P.S. Theres way more to the story, but I don't want to bore anyone. There was a lot of soul searching and A LOT of personal fighting before I made my decision.

Some could say it's ridiculous but after my sister and I have seen the movie The craft we did research and try to find what modern witches are and do,belief and all things we could find.It was more interesting then fiction hollywood offer and greater.

At some point , being educate in the christian mind , in the case of my family close mind ,I was not beliving anymore in god.I was angry and have lot of ???Learning paganism help me to reflect on myself , taking the time to know what I want and the value were so close.There is many things I'm not agree with in paganism and what people could find as source of information .I didn't find the answer for everything but paganism help me a lot to find the balance I need to live call inner peace.

Hey Celeste! How are you?! Hope you are doing well. Good to see you and read your story, albeit short. I don't think you would have bored anybody if you had shared more. Choosing any spiritual path is not an easy task. I was raised Catholic, left that and dabbled in paganism for awhile, read everything I could get my hands on about other religions, read the Bible and from there became a Christian. So you see we all have stories to tell and I would bet that all of who have searched in our spiritual lives it has not been easy and included a lot of struggles mentally and emotionally. Thank you all for sharing your stories. I am enjoying reading them.

Isn't it interesting, that is one of the same two movies that got me to studying the truth behind Wicca, and in turn, paganism. The other one being Practical Magic.

Ok, so I am answering a post from years ago, it caught my eye.

I was drawn to Paganism when I met my neighbor while having a major health issue. She started talking to me about her religion and using natural therapies instead of the chemical ones. I was very intrigued. I would sit like a sponge and absorb everything that she had to say. I even started going to the discussion group that she started. That did it! I was hooked. I was never comfortable in the Christian realm, now I am very comfortable and very happy.

I blame my mother....its her fault.

I started out without a religion for the first four year of my life, my family was suppose to be Catholic, though it was more a mix of loose Christian ideas and Irish superstition (i.e. Faeries and ghosts and such). I was never baptised or attended church or anything, and my mother did not follow a particular religion, though she held on to the "Christian" label. When I was about 4 or 5 I was put into Catholic religion classes and Bibles studies. I was still never baptised, but was allowed my first communion. Then when I was around 8...I think...yeah, about that age, I was taken out of Catholic religion classes because I was getting scolded for bringing up concepts I was raised with (I would ask where faeries and ghosts fit into it all, and I was scolded for believing in them at all). My mother was starting to get into "alternative" spirituality and New Age philosophy. She had a couple books on Wicca, but more books on psychic work and New Age things. When I was in 3rd grade, I started taking her books on Wicca to school to read. I don't remember how things worked out exactly back then, but eventually I started reading books on mythology, especially Egyptian. Then I shifted to Greek mythology, and then not long after I found Celtic. I ended up connecting more with Celtic Mythologies because of my Irish heritage and this is when I started looking for a specifically Irish tradition. I ended forming my own blend of witchcraft practices and Irish mythology (yes, at that young of age) and stuck with this until I was about 13. At 13 I found contemporary Druidism which I pretty much just skimmed over and that somehow led me to Celtic Reconstructionism when I was 14.

Celtic Reconstructionism clicked for me. I am now an Irish Celtic Reconstructionist (I usually just say Gaelic Polytheist) and am 17. I am a part of a couple organizations, and am active with a group called Neimheadh an Srutha in Minneapolis, MN.

The end....well kinda.

When Jesu was asked by his followers where this kingdom of his was he lifted a rock and pointed beneath it and said " here is my kingdom" he then pointed to his followers and said " and here is my kingdom" he then made a gesture that was all inclusive of the heavens and the earth and said " and here also is my kingdom....".

Shadows, thank you so much for adding this. It is wonderful and how I have always felt. Why wouldnt everything be His kingdom? Now I know part of the reason why those books are not included. It goes against the grain so to speak of what religious leaders want us to beleive. Jesus' kingdom was only supposed to be that of Heaven.

This section of the forum is something I have long waited to see. Somewhere I can put my beleifs without being shunned.

I to had "odd" ideas growing up. My Mum was pretty religious and my Dad went thru spells which he still does to this day. He beleives in God but also attends our events, Beltane, Mabon etc. He said it fills in a lot of things. He also beleives in reincarnation. Odd man.

I always felt there was something missing as well. I dont know if it is because of my Scot/Irish background or just something telling me that there is more. I had mixed feelings of heaven and hell as well. I was always told that if I do something wrong I would go to hell. Gee, I am sorry, we are all human and we do make mistakes. No one is perfect so why be condemmed to hell because of that. I have only been Pagan for a few years and I am now more at peace than ever before.

I get the biggest kick out of when Jehovahs Wittnesses come to my door and happen to notice my necklace. The eyes get very big. They start preaching thier beliefs and I have to stop them. I let them know I am Pagan and the chin drops to the ground. "Oh, you beleive in the devil?" "Do you do things you shouldnt?" I let them know I dont beleive in the devil and then let them know that the Rede says to do no harm etc. I tell them I believe in God, Source, Universal Being or what ever one wants to call the "Supreme Being." I let them k now that it is okay for them to believe how they beleive and also that I feel if everyone went back to the old ways and worshipped not only thier "God" and lived the way they should live then maybe things would not be as bad as they are now. They kind of look at me like ummmm, maybe so. But then, thier beleif comes back to them and they start preaching out of the Bible.

I have had them tell me that Christ was born and that is why we have Christmas. Well, sorry, Christ was born in Sept approx and Yule was the original Christmas and a lot of Christian holidays were taken from the Pagans and turned around to fit the "Christian" way of life. I have been asked why it was Yule so to speak. My brief knowledge tells them that the old way was centered around seasons and that is how people lived. I guess one of the ladies had a brief knowledge of Beltane and wanted to know why we celebrate it with nudity and promisscuity. I told her that not everyone does to begin with and then went on and said Spring is the time of life, a new beginning. People wanted to bring life into the world, animals bring it into the world then and that was the time for planting so why not celebrate it the only way they knew how. Of course, things were much dif then than now. But, life if life and it continues no matter what, crops grow and if the old ones felt that doing something to encourage life then what was wrong with that. The original reason we were here was to be fruitful and multiply.

Anyway, I love my new life. I love being kind to my brothers and sisters. I love being kind to Mother Earth and whose to say we didnt have many Gods and Goddesses at one time and whose to say they are not still here or where ever they are just like God. I feel it is high time for every one to look beyond the Bible which is actually stories written down the way ones persception allowed them to write them down at that time. If all of that were to happen again now the stories might be written down completely different.

Well, if I didnt mix anyone up with my rambling this is just my idea on how I feel. The old ones couldnt have been completely wrong now could they.

I was raised Catholic, knew it wasn't for me, tried other forms of Christianity; same deal. Went through a range of religions, even tried various New Age ideas. Nothing work. All that was left was paganism.

What is it that the say? Its always in the last place you look? Well, that was for me and paganism. Certainly, everything I had held true from a young age could be found in the particular path I now follow.

It was an long and winding search. When I found it I knew I was home. I had found my tribe.

I was raised into it, my family follows 3 different paths (all three heritdary); Germanic, Celtic and Native American. I follow all three myself while path searching still with strong ties into Earth Magick. Yes though, raised.