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Author Topic: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft  (Read 11455 times)

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Tinevisce

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Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« on: September 26, 2015, 05:47:07 AM »

Since I've been feeling fairly chatty lately (must be the long weekend I'm spending doing absolutely nothing :D), thought I'd try to instigate some discussion here on PJ!

If you're comfortable talking about it, what were the initial reasons that drew you to the Craft/witchcraft/witchery/mysticism/occultism or whatever you call your spiritual path? It's possible that you were raised in a tradition from birth (which would make for a very interesting discussion), of course...but coming from a mostly atheist/agnostic set of generations, it's usually the case that setting yourself on a path of active mysticism (where you can't just "go through the motions" but have to actually participate) requires conscious choice. What made you make that choice?

I, somewhat sheephishly, admit came from decidedly "fluffy" origins. If I have to use euphemism to describe it, I'd say I started out wanting to develop a witchy skill set. Ahem. Wouldn't being able to cast spells be the coolest thing ever?! Pyrokinesis and telekinesis, anyone?  :whistle:

Over the years, though, I seem to be attracted to "practical" magic less and less. Don't get me wrong, I still think witchcraft is the COOLEST thing ever (TM), it's just that now my definition of cool seems to include more things like being able to perceive energy clearly; having a strong, focused relationship with Deity; journeying to the Other Worlds and so on and so forth.
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earthmuffin

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2015, 11:32:52 AM »

I was raised atheistic/agnostic in the Bible Belt of the US so I felt awkward not having religion. This led me to read the Bible but I also had a wider worldview than most of my peers as my father was a world traveler and brought back tales and religious symbols from Asia and my parents being transplants from a big city on the West Coast were much more liberal than the general populace in the small southern town where we lived. The way that Christians dismissed the religious views of others did not sit well with me, for why would there be such a diversity of thought if only one way was truth? I took some world religions classes in college out of interest and went on to my life of science (which can be a religion to some) without a whole lot more thought on the matter until mid-life. Rather out of the blue, I had a spiritual crisis/mental breakdown/spontaneous kundalini awakening? after which I stumbled onto shamanism, wicca and religious mysticism as I found that thoughts that arose to me during that period that were entirely novel to me were what mystics have been saying for years. In my case, I wouldn't call it so much of an active choice as much as having been forever changed by that powerful experience. In the aftermath of it, I've been left to reconcile my former self and my new more spiritually aware self, which has not been the smoothest of roads; however, my life-long fascination with and love of nature makes it easy to embrace it both through science and spirituality. 
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vordan

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2015, 10:20:23 PM »

It has called me from an early age, I tended to see and experience odd things since early childhood. The universe was obviously to me not as cut and dry as my atheist father believed neither did it fit into the Christianity I tried to adopt. It has been a journey for truth, I ended up with a very pantheist view somewhat Taoist, somewhat Wiccan, a little Christian, a little agnostic. I discovered the divine spirit inherent in the universe, I found that there are many mysteries. In short I found more questions as I found answers. I would never trade my spiritual journey, it has been a wonder, it has been a great gift, to explore the mystery freely. I had a dream once where my life took a different path and I got some of the things I thought I had wanted early in life, had a more normal life. That version of myself was less happy and much less interesting then the mystic me.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2015, 11:13:22 PM by vordan »
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DawningFox

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2015, 05:00:27 PM »

I knew Christianity wasn´t for me at an early age. I turned to Paganism for a more spiritualistic approach. For something more personal & hands on. I´ve never felt better or more confident in a path. It was something I set in my own way & I could learn what I needed without pressure from outside sources, or a ¨higher figure¨ trying to push me into one straightforward path & damn me for asking honest questions.
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Tinevisce

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2015, 10:43:32 PM »

Thanks for all the responses guys! :)
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Athena

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2015, 03:02:08 AM »

I don't remember when I got the calling but I remember being drawn to tarot reading during grad school. I learnt it and then left practicing for a really long time. However during all the downers in my life, I had this feeling that there was a never-ending source of light/energy which kept me going. And despite coming from a rigid family of Brahmins (since you are an Indian, I hope you'd understand it better than our other friends here), I was inclined towards nature worshiping since childhood. Thankfully, my family has been fair to me in acknowledgment and acceptance of my views.

My first brush to wicca and magi and witches came through a Paulo Coelho book - Brida, which I still carry around with me for an instant pick-me-up. It got me interested, as many things described in the tradition there matched to my personal experiences. I studied wicca as a religion for about an year, learning about the roots and passage in the history. However, I was never confident or courageous enough to follow the path.

A significant personal emotional loss recently, made me question myself a few months earlier. And I decided that to be fair to myself and to understand the finer threads of life, to answer my own questions, I need to go beyond the theory and start practicing what I had believed and ignored all these years.

Spells and magick, of course, are brownie points. But on a deeper level, it is more about healing and knowing for me.
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DragonsFriend

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2015, 11:25:52 AM »

The magikal path is a reflection of life. No one is born running. You must first learn to crawl and then to walk before you run. Learning and practicing the basics is the foundation upon which your life is built. Entering into the magikal life is rarely easy but it is rewarding in ways that that extend from the mundane to the spiritual.
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Tinevisce

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2015, 12:17:21 PM »

I don't remember when I got the calling but I remember being drawn to tarot reading during grad school. I learnt it and then left practicing for a really long time. However during all the downers in my life, I had this feeling that there was a never-ending source of light/energy which kept me going. And despite coming from a rigid family of Brahmins (since you are an Indian, I hope you'd understand it better than our other friends here), I was inclined towards nature worshiping since childhood. Thankfully, my family has been fair to me in acknowledgment and acceptance of my views.

My first brush to wicca and magi and witches came through a Paulo Coelho book - Brida, which I still carry around with me for an instant pick-me-up. It got me interested, as many things described in the tradition there matched to my personal experiences. I studied wicca as a religion for about an year, learning about the roots and passage in the history. However, I was never confident or courageous enough to follow the path.

A significant personal emotional loss recently, made me question myself a few months earlier. And I decided that to be fair to myself and to understand the finer threads of life, to answer my own questions, I need to go beyond the theory and start practicing what I had believed and ignored all these years.

Spells and magick, of course, are brownie points. But on a deeper level, it is more about healing and knowing for me.

Oh, hi! You're the only Indian I've ever come across on this forum or its pe-cursor: hail and well met, as they say!  :cheer: If I know Earth Muffin well enough, she'll be really excited to meet you. :)

I don't know how much "organised" divinity is a part of your path; but I found my own Bramhin upbringing (not as orthodox as it could have been, thank goodness) to be a great help regarding my relationship with Deity...I didn't have to spend a lot of heart-ache and uncertainty trying to decide a God/Goddess/Pantheon to call my own- I already knew them quite well.

That, and divorcing the core of our scriptures from the surrounding orthodoxy really helps me along my spiritual path. :)
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thegeekwitch

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2015, 01:06:58 AM »

I certainly started from the "fluffy" aspects of the Craft.  I was 11 or 12 years old, had just seen "The Craft" with my sister (6 years my senior) and wanted to do what these chicks in the movie were doing, basically.  Around this time was when we also got the internet on our home computer,  so a lot of my time was spend on Witchvox and other witchy websites (some of them not so great, in hindsight) and I started writing things down, copying things out of library books, etc. and building my Book of Shadows.

It wasn't till after the first 12 months or so that I came to realise there was a spiritual aspect to the Craft, and so I studied more and more about it, and that lead me to Wicca and learning the basic principles of it.  I identified as Wiccan for probably the first 6-7 years, until I realised I was veering off a Wiccan path to what I call a more Eclectic Pagan way of thinking/being.  After meeting with local Pagans in 2008, and learning more and more from a group of people rather than what I could read online or from books, I have since "defined" (bad word because it's certainly not definite!) myself as "Eclectic Pagan with Druidic, Wiccan and Shaman tendancies" :P :P
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Tinevisce

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Re: Reasons for Getting Into the Craft
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2015, 11:14:42 AM »

I certainly started from the "fluffy" aspects of the Craft.  I was 11 or 12 years old, had just seen "The Craft" with my sister (6 years my senior) and wanted to do what these chicks in the movie were doing, basically.  Around this time was when we also got the internet on our home computer,  so a lot of my time was spend on Witchvox and other witchy websites (some of them not so great, in hindsight) and I started writing things down, copying things out of library books, etc. and building my Book of Shadows.

It wasn't till after the first 12 months or so that I came to realise there was a spiritual aspect to the Craft, and so I studied more and more about it, and that lead me to Wicca and learning the basic principles of it.  I identified as Wiccan for probably the first 6-7 years, until I realised I was veering off a Wiccan path to what I call a more Eclectic Pagan way of thinking/being.  After meeting with local Pagans in 2008, and learning more and more from a group of people rather than what I could read online or from books, I have since "defined" (bad word because it's certainly not definite!) myself as "Eclectic Pagan with Druidic, Wiccan and Shaman tendancies" :P :P

I think The Craft, Practical Magic and Cate Tiernan's Wicca series (Sweep for the US folks, I guess) did it for me. This was a year or so before I had internet at home, and I remember going to cyber cafes (I dunno what they're called outside India- those places you go to for Internet and you pay an hourly rate for surfing and other services) and trawling through witchvox and such like.

The first "spell" I unearthed on the web was a rather involved ritual to promote a bountiful harvest and naturally far, far away from anything that I would ever need to do- I was so bummed thinking about how complicated spells would have to be going by that lone example. :)

Remind me to dig out my old magickal journal the next time I go home...I think I should cut out the pages and paste them on my new Grimoire.

So many happy memories!
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