Thursday, August 30, 2012

My spiritual evolution... in a nut shell!


          So my journey on the path of Paganism started many many many moons ago. So many moons it kind of scares me to think about it. I thought it would be good to talk about where I started and how I got to the point of where I am. Perhaps this will help people understand my points of views on things.

          So I was born in April 1974, at just the right time to have both my sun and moon to be in Taurus… yes… that means I am doubly stubborn and at times totally unmovable about things. I come from a family that from the outside view are Southern Baptists but also practice Appalachian ‘mountain medicine’. Some see this as a form of Witchcraft and I could not disagree with that at all. So I grew up with learning about herbs and home remedies for health issues.

          I was one of those children that were way too smart for their own good. It didn’t help that it appeared at a very early age I had a prophetic ability. I never met a stranger and still really do not. I am a very open accepting friendly person with an unnatural ability to charm people and animals a like. Thanks Gran!
So being too smart for my own good I asked far too many questions at the local Baptist church my mother took me to. So it was asked at one point that since I was so disruptive, please not bring me back. I guess my little child questions broached to adult of topics for them. So I really didn’t have much ‘Church’ growing up, which was ok because there was just so much I learned about Christianity that I did not agree with. I knew it was not for me.

          Then in middle school we had world history where we covered the topic of the Witchcraft trails in America. That really made me start spending time in the library doing research on Witchcraft. That led me to researching Paganism. Well, before long I had found a religious/spiritual path that really called to me.
So I found a local group with practiced Ceremonial magick. I studied with them, some of which were friends I knew from High School. That of course led me to finding Wicca when I was in high school myself. So I studied Wicca for a long time while still searching for that I was looking for.

         In 2005 I had joined a Yahoo spiritual group for gay men… well they were such a Mystery that no one could even find each other. Someone from that group private messaged me and asked me what I was looking for. This started a very long conversation and friend that I cherish greatly. Later we found out we were from the same small town in north Georgia and were distant cousins.

         Well he ran a local ADF Druid Gove, which he introduced me too. My ritual made the largest impact on me than any other religious experience ever had. Being from a Ceremonial Magick and Wiccan background I was very use to the casting of circles before any activity started. That was NOT the case at this ritual which made me a bit nervous. One of the members had explained that offerings where made to beings called the Outdwellers and this prevented any issues from occurring during the rite. I was so skeptical I nearly cast a small circle around myself just encase. The offering was made to the Outdwellers and you could FEEL all the energy and beings moving to the offerings. And there they stayed until the end of the ritual. I joined them for several more rituals before realizing that this was for me!

         So I joined ADF officially on May 31st of 2006. I completed my Dedicant Path Program on December 27th 2007. Very shortly after that I joined the Clergy Training Program which I am still working through. So that is my spiritual evolution in a nutshell. So you can see I moved through different beliefs, many too short a time to even mention, before I got to where I currently am.

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