Finding the Path of a Witch (11/19/08)

On an email group I'm in, someone asked the question: How did you find your path?

It's so funny, because people ask how I came to the path, and I've told at least 2 different stories. I realized this a few years ago, and so I guess a few things led me to a Craft path.

My great granny practiced folk magick, could see ghosts, and 'knew' things, in addition to being a midwife. Everyone would go to her with their problems, and if she couldn't help them, she would take them to another woman who would. Sounds kinda strange just typing that. Weird. Weirder even is that she died on my birthday 2 years before I was born. Probably doesn't mean anything, but I thought it was cool when I found that out.

Anyway, I grew up in a household that was Christian, but we never went to church, and my dad's agnostic- though some of the folk magick trickled down via my grandmother, and sometimes my mother. At one point, my mother almost died and turned to some new age concepts. So, I grew up being open to crystals, runes, that sort of thing. My mom always said to me, "thoughts are things, and things are real." And I believed her- cause when I'd pray, stuff would come true. I didn't understand why other kids didn't believe in God, cause He always answered my prayers. One time, my mom wouldn't let us turn on the slip and slide- it was summer. I decided that I wanted it to rain, so my friends and I did some "rain dance" that I made up. Clouds rolled in and it rained. My mom called us all in out of the rain. Never did get to slip and slide that day. That kinda sucked.

I have always had some "energy" issues. Polterguiest activity (which I believe is usually a manifestation of human energy rather than ghosties), and that sort of thing. Growing up, things would move by themselves. Only when I was in the room, or if it was just me and my mom. Mirrors would bump against the wall, 20 pound weights would rock back and forth, doorknobs would jiggle. Glasses sliding off of a table, lightbulbs popping and going out,etc. Usually when you have polterguiest activity, you have a teenager- usually female. It went away, of course after awhile. Or at least died down. Lately, it's picked back up, but I think its cause my hormones want me to get ready to have a baby. The stuff that's been happening sounds pretty unbelievable, so I'll just abstain from explaining. Oh, and if you don't want to believe me about my weird experiences, thats totally okay. I probably wouldn't believe it either. I'm really skeptical- an open minded skeptic.

So, backbackback... I had graduated from high school and was hanging out with a then-bf at hot topic. I had found $5 in my pocket that I had no idea how it got there, but I was broke so- yay. I came upon a book called True Magick by Amber K. I thought it looked hilarious! How stupid that people thought that magic was REAL. It just so happened that it was $5, and so I bought it for a laugh. Reading through it, it wasn't funny at all. Well, it was funny in the sense that it made sense. It felt like I was coming home. It took my childhood experiences and tied it in to the energy stuff I'd experienced. I was always a nature girl (Girl Scout 12 years, yo!) and so things started making sense. I don't think that that people are born "witches," but I think that some people are born with a talent for energy manipulation. Some end up witches and embrace that talent, some don't. Not like you need to have "talent" to be a witch, like singing, it can be taught- IMO. I think I might be one of those energy talent people- had some unbelievable experiences. I think I might have liked to have a talent for singing instead, though. I like to sing, but I'm pretty bad.

I think the toughest thing for me was the label of Wiccan. I had studied and practiced probably for 2 years before I was comfortable making the transition from calling myself Christian to calling myself Wiccan. Once I had studied for awhile, I looked at some book recommendations, and they sounded familiar. My mom had a Cunningham book and the Celebrate the Seasons book by Laurie Cabot. So, I stole them.

I've been actively studying/practicing since 1996. I started a small online coven in 2000 that ran like a RL coven (since I didn't find a suitable coven in our area) and learned that you can do powerful energy raising with women in different locations. Something else I didn't really believe before having tried it. I hated having to give that up, but had to when I took on the priestess role in a local coven in 2003.