Although confirmed in the Christian church, I had stopped going to church for any reason other than singing in the choir some years ago, and had recently stopped going, period. This was all around the same time I came out and started going to cégep (junior college), both of which opened pretty much everything in my life to question, so I was at a bit of a loose end.
It was around this time that I happened to encounter Starhawk’s book The Spiral Dance: A rebirth of the ancient religion of the Great Goddess while shelving at my school library, where I worked. Having seen it referred to in the Straight Dope (no lie!) I took it out and began to read it.
Although I didn’t fully understand its content, nonetheless it stirred something important within me, and when I began to perform some of the exercises and rituals, they seemed very intense and connected to me. I started to read more.
It was essentially an intuitive decision to begin with; when I first performed a Samhain ritual, first crafted my tools from available materials (the wood of a recently cut-down tree, a vase full of salt, an antique sword I found in my house, a stoneware wine cup) and worked my first spells, I was working more or less entirely on intuition.
Later, I met my first Real Live Wiccan (Hamish) and we quickly made friends and began to discuss matters of religion/philosophy/metaphysics (all kind of the same thing for me). I reread The Spiral Dance several times, did my own research and thinking, read other philosophical works. From its watery birthplace in my intuition, the religion started to solidify and gain intellectual structure as I grew to consciously understand and develop more of my ideas about it. It was very exciting.
My parents are devout Christians in a liberal Protestant denomination (the United Church of Canada). At the time their church life was quite important to them; in fact, my mother was finally baptized a few months after I became Wiccan. It was therefore somewhat more difficult for them to accept my religious beliefs than for them to accept my homosexuality. My father had serious concerns about whether I was becoming involved in a cult. However, I quickly dispelled those concerns and we’ve grown into a truce.
(My father sometimes tries to exhibit a sort of jocular tolerance of my beliefs - adding “and Lady” when he says grace, with a little grin at me - which I find patronizing. If he is going to pray, I wish he would just get on with it.)
Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance was excellent for me; however, a lot of people have problems with her, as she incorporates a great deal of radical feminist and left-wing analysis into her description of Wicca. I simply ignored or altered for my own purposes the parts I didn’t agree with, but others may find they poison the well.
I can also recommend Wicca for Solitary Practitioners by Scott Cunningham and 21st Century Wicca by Jennifer Hunter.
I would stay clear of books that are mostly spellbooks unless that (as opposed to the religion itself) is what you are interested in. Many uninsightful authors tend to treat Wicca as fancy spells, a lot of “bright blessings” and “so mote it be”, some holidays, and not much else.
Yes.
Want half my cookie, SqrlCub? C’mon.