# Is there a Wiccan/Pagan in the House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 31, 2001, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766 "2001-10-31T19:41:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/1 "2001-10-31T19:41:38Z")
I have had a burgeoning curiosity lately with these two alternative religions. I am not sure why the interest, but I feel this need to satisfy my curiosity. I was raised catholic, but escaped [sup]TM [/sup] and have been interested in a variety of religions ( Buddism and Hinduism will be the subject of my next thread) For those who are wiccans or pagans, I would like ask: Why are you? Were you some other mainstream religion before? Why did you change? How did your friends/family take the news? Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? Thanks alot. ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/2 "2001-10-31T20:26:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > Why are you? Were you some other mainstream religion before? Why did you change? I guess for me I got tired of the general hypocracy in most Christian denominations. I grew up Southern Baptist, and spent a lot of time in Penecostal, Methodist, AoG, and Catholic churches. I found that a majority of them did not meet _my_ spiritial needs. I spent a lot of time wandering before I found my path. > [@](#): > > How did your friends/family take the news? As with a majority of Southern Baptist families, my mother took it very hard, but understood that my path was different than her’s. She was proud that I was going to go to Seminary and become a pastor (yes folks, **robgruver** was going to be a preacher. Can I get an Amen!), but when she found out about my new path she freaked. After a two hour conversation she finally relized that I wasn’t going to hell, and my belief’s had not changed, but become different. > [@](#): > > Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? Anything by Scott Cunningham is well worth the time. Also try some Pagan newsgroups or groups on Yahoo for more information about Pagans close to you. > [@](#): > > Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? I don’t like the word popular. To negative for me. But Paganism is becoming more and more accepted. ---
**Author:** ![seawitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@seawitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seawitch)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/3 "2001-10-31T20:36:23Z")
Hiya, **Shirley**. There are actually quite a few Wiccans and other sorts of Pagans around - I’m sure there will be more along shortly. Beliefs and practices are widely varied, so the below answers are intended to apply to myself only. > [@](#): > > Why are you? Not really sure. I had the beliefs first, and found Wicca second. I was actually pretty surprised to find others that shared large portions of my world-view. > [@](#): > > Were you some other mainstream religion before? I was raised as a Catholic, but never practiced it as an adult. > [@](#): > > Why did you change? It was less of a deliberate change from Christianity than it was finding a religion that fit me better. (For one thing, I’ve never perceived God as either singular or exclusively male.) I’m too much of a contrary individualist for most organized religion, but paganism in general seems to support individuality. > [@](#): > > How did your friends/family take the news? Surprisingly well. It is a little scary to adopt a religion for which you can reasonably expect persecution. All my friends know, but if my boss found out I’d be kissing my job goodbye. > [@](#): > > Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? [Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D014019536X/103-5682386-1916602) is a pretty good overview. She examines a number of different types of paganism. A lot of people new to Wicca read books by Scott Cunningham, such as [Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875421180/ref=pd_sim_books/103-5682386-1916602). I find that he has a clearer, easier writing style than many authors on the subject. I also like [The Witches’ Voice](http://www.witchvox.net/) website. It’s a good way to find a local group, many of which offer classes. > [@](#): > > Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? I’ve heard that again and again. In fact, according to [this page](http://www.witchvox.net/wotw/groups_a/california_ga.html) of Witches’ Voice, there are currently 139 group listings for California. Lots of groups aren’t listed, since it’s done by voluntary submission. (Mine isn’t there.) This is probably offset by the temporary groups - say, those who’ve watched _Charmed_ one too many times. Those circles don’t last long. However, since a lot of pagans are not “out”, and since there are a lot of solitary practitioners, I don’t know how anyone would ever get an accurate count. For that matter, most of the groups are small covens. There isn’t any organized central church office that keeps records. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/4 "2001-10-31T20:50:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **Why are you?** The simple reason: 'cause it makes sense to me on a visceral level that other religions don’t. And we get really cool clothes. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **Were you some other mainstream religion before?** Yup. Born -n- bred Roman Catholic. One of the first female altar servers in the country, youngest Lector in the Diocese. I was a HUGE fan of Catholicism. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **Why did you change?** Many reasons, some of which are personal and I will not share here. But other reasons… well, there were things that just didn’t make sense to me. Worse, there were things that I was ‘supposed’ to believe that I, in good conscience, couldn’t, and if there’s anything I hate it’s a hypocrite. I couldn’t reconcile my personal beliefs with my faith. And no amount of MamaBobkitty telling me ‘God is bigger than the church’ helped. I believe in divorce… I believe in contraception… I believe in a woman’s right to choose… I believe that homosexuality is okay. I wondered why the hell the Bible couldn’t get the story of the ressurection right. I didn’t think that some old guy half a world away who had never had sex could tell me what I could and could not do with my body. When it came down to it, I was not a very good Catholic. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **How did your friends/family take the news?** Eh. They weren’t really surprised. MamaBobkitty insists on calling me a witch, which I keep telling her is inaccurate, but she will NOT use the word Pagan so I’m stuck with it. She did stand up in the middle of church and yelled at the _bishop_ “My oldest daughter’s a UU, my youngest daughter’s a witch, and it’s ALL YOUR FAULT!!” Ah, to be a fly on the wall for that. 😃 > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful?** Scott Cunningham’s books are wonderful. A lot of people like Starhawk, but I believe she’s _way_ overrated. I prefer DJ Conway. For a really concise history, I suggest Margot Adler’s **Drawing Down the Moon.** Sun Bear and Jamie Sams have great books on Shamanism, if you’re interested in that. Witchvox is a great site for information, and they have tons of links. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > **Do you think your religion is gaining popularity?** Last I checked, paganism was the fastest growing minority religion. So, yeah. 😃 That help at all? -BK ---
**Author:** ![Simetra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Simetra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simetra)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/5 "2001-10-31T20:53:42Z")
I can’t answer your questions **Shirley** , but I did want to clear something up that tends to irk me. People often refer to paganism as it’s own seperate religion. It’s not: > [@](#): > > _From [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com)_ > pa·gan (pgn) n. - 1. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion. 2. One who has no religion. By this definition, I am a pagan. And I like calling myself one. However, I appreciate not being lumped in with the Wiccans. Thanks. 🙂 FWIW, I’m a Henotheist. ---
**Author:** ![seawitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@seawitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seawitch)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/6 "2001-10-31T21:18:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bobkitty \* > Witchvox is a great site for information, and they have tons of links. That’s the same as Witches’ Voice site I linked to. Always good to find yourself agreeing with a Doper with claws. 😃 [sub](Although I personally feel free to use the term “witch”. It explains so much. Heh.)[/sub] **Simetra** is correct, as well; that’s why you tend to hear the word _Neopagan_. Plus, he gave us our word for the day. > [@](#): > > **henotheism** : The doctrine that all gods and goddesses are aspects of a single underlying divine source. Classically, the worship of a single god or goddess without denying the existence of others. Did I get it right? ---
**Author:** ![Simetra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Simetra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simetra)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/7 "2001-10-31T21:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by seawitch \* > \*\*Did I get it right? \*\* Yup. You get a cookie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SqrlCub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SqrlCub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SqrlCub)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/8 "2001-10-31T21:22:16Z")
Heya Shirl, (I can call you Shirl, right?) \<\<\\>\> “Why are you?” I didn’t have a religion chosen for me. I chose one that suited my needs and and had a structure of beliefs I actually believed. Were you some other mainstream religion before? Not really, most of my family is southern baptist (unintentionally left uncapitalized) though my mother is a hippy and my father was a beatnik which allowed for more spiritual exploration. Officially my parents were baptist, but in practice it was more like agnostic. For what it is worth, my mother practiced witchcraft off and on but did so decidedly behind closed doors without ever influencing any of her children. She wanted us to choose a religion on our own, not because of her. Although, she hasn’t practiced to my knowledge in at least ten years. Why did you change? I didn’t change so much, since my family was basically without religion as finally found the religion that suited my beliefs. How did your friends/family take the news? No one was surprised. They already knew I was a nature loving anarchist ™. 🙂 Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? [http://www.witchvox.com](http://www.witchvox.com) which is linked earlier, is by large and far the biggest and best informed site out there. I find it is very pro Wicca, which is ok. I am not a Wiccan so I typically don’t read it. Gaypaganfriends at [yahoogroups.com](http://yahoogroups.com) is a mailing list I read every once in a while. It was entertaining when there was still a lot of theological discussion going on, then the Gardnerians took over which ended the theology portion of the board for the most part since the majority of the people that talk now, agree with what the other is saying. Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? Wicca is most definately gaining popularity. I am as decidedly un-Wiccan as I am decidedly un-Christian. Now for Wicca 101. Wicca (especially Gardnerian Wicca, others may feel free to dissent) is basically a religion of polarities similar to Taoism. IE, for every force there is an equal and opposite one. The biggest and most basic tenant of Wicca (remember there is no dogma) is the theory of the god taking over the goddess and the eventual rebirthing. This theory follows the cycle of the moon, typically. The horned god is the moon when it is below half, and the goddess is the moon when she is full. Throw in some holidays and a few wacky tenants (magick for the uninformed, etc). Ta da, you can now start a lunar religion of your own. 🙂 (That isn’t meant to sound as irreverant as it does. Oh well, the Radical Faery in me shines today.) That doesn’t go for all of Wiccanism and is horribly simplified, but you get the idea. There are a lot of other pagan religions to belong to. I myself would fall into ranks as a solitary druid. I believe that everything is alive and has a soul and is thus part of the divine. I also take things as I see them at face value. I do practice ceremonial magick and what not, but my theory on magick doesn’t work anything like it does when most people think of it. Basically to me magick is a form of ritualized prayer. Nothing more, nothing less. Take it as you will. May you find a religion that suits your needs. HUGS! Sqrl ---
**Author:** ![moi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@moi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/9 "2001-10-31T21:48:53Z")
Why are you Wiccan? Like **seawitch** , I first decided what I believed about my universe and later found Wicca. As I’ve grown older and my ideas about the world have changed or matured (if you want to be positive about it), the religion has allowed for that, which is necessary to me. Were you some other mainstream religion before? I was raised Roman Catholic, but only got as far as my Holy Communion. I was never confirmed. Why did you change? Simply put–and I guess this is hard to understand unless you’ve “been there”–it didn’t speak to me. How did your friends/family take the news? Since I made the swap early in life and my family was far from religious, I’ve never dealt with repercussions from my mum. Most of my friends IRL have never known me before I came to believe in the God and Goddess. Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? I would just like to second some of the suggestions already made (Cunningham, [Witch’s Voice](http://www.witchvox.com)) and add [Hedgewitch](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0709048513/o/qid=1004564560/sr=8-1/ref=sr_aps_b_1_1/026-1896284-6903644) by Rae Beth to the mix. The book is written by a solitary witch as a set of letters to a individual curious about starting in Wicca. Both the act of reading the letters and Rae Beth’s informal take on the practice make this a good read. Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? Yes, it seems so. Since I am what is known as a “solitary” witch, I find myself less affected by this than those who are part of covens or other groups. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/10 "2001-10-31T23:23:46Z")
I didn’t search it out–it kinda found me. I was talking to a friend of my husband’s, who is Wiccan. She was telling me abou it, because, well, I’d heard of it, but didn’t really know much about it. As she was explaining it to me, I had one of those moments–that “Hey, that’s the way I’ve _always_ thought, but nobody ever named it!” moment. Most of my family doesn’t know, and as much as I love them, I don’t care to tell them. My mom knows, and she’s fine with it. My sister also knows, but she’s also Pagan (she and I were traveling along the same “path of discovery” at the same time, without each other knowing it. It was cool when we found out :)) I called myself a Christian before, but I was never really comfortable with it. Nothing against it, it just wasn’t _me._ I didn’t belong to any particular church or denomination, nor was I ever baptized. As for reading material, I highly recommend Scott Cunningham. His writing style is (actually should be “was,” since he’s dead now) geared toward the beginner, but he doesn’t “talk down” to his readers. I don’t call myself a witch or Wiccan yet. Nothing against the word–I’m just busy trying to work and raise a family, and don’t have as much time as I’d like to study. Calling myself a witch at this point would be like calling myself a auto mechanic, when all I know how to do is pump gas. So, I call myself Pagan. 😃 I’m working on the spell stuff, and I’ll get there eventually. ---
**Author:** ![SavedByJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SavedByJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavedByJesus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/11 "2001-10-31T23:47:26Z")
I think it’s really scary to see all you smart and rational people turn away from God so dismissively. I understand that smart people can have differing opinions on the nature of things, and that man is fallible in his search for the truth, but please, give Jesus a chance to live inside your heart so that you don’t have to die. I believe that Magic is possible, and that really scares me. People forget that Satan is not ugly, he is absolutely beautiful, capable of empowering a person beyond their dreams, but it is only a taste of what can be offered in the next life. Give God a chance! SBJ ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/12 "2001-10-31T23:52:18Z")
See people? YOUR superstition is silly and evil while SBJ’s superstition is totally correct. How simple it all is! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/13 "2001-10-31T23:56:39Z")
**SavedbyJesus,** the place for statements such as yours is Great Debates. Please read up on what belongs where before you post. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![seawitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@seawitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seawitch)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/14 "2001-11-01T00:02:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SqrlCub \* > > Now for Wicca 101. > > \ Hmm. That’s pretty different… I always think of the Moon as feminine, regardless of phase - whether Maiden, Mother or Crone. The Horned God is something else entirely. On the other hand, > [@](#): > > (That isn’t meant to sound as irreverant as it does. Oh well, the Radical Faery in me shines today.) I know when not to nitpick, upon risk of being bitchslapped. 😉 Want half my cookie, **SqrlCub**? C’mon. ::skips away munching cookie from **Simetra** :: ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/15 "2001-11-01T08:46:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SavedByJesus \* > **\** Ummm… troll. God Bless the Pagans! ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/16 "2001-11-01T12:34:03Z")
**Moderator’s Notes:** What the hell is wrong with you people? All of you are aware your bile does not belong in this forum. As you may have noticed, I’ve deleted the more egregious comments, those being SqrlCub’s second post and Whammo’s only post. Mr. Gruver, yours almost went, too. And a special note for SavedbyJesus, please reread the forum descriptions, witnessing and proselytizing belongs in our Great Debates forum, not MPSIMS. Now everyone knock it off. Right now. Do not post to this thread if you cannot control yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/17 "2001-11-01T17:26:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\*Why are you? > > Were you some other mainstream religion before? > > Why did you change? > > How did your friends/family take the news? > > Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? > > Do you think your religion is gaining popularity?\*\* For the why, it was because I couldn’t find my answers anywhere else. It made sense to me. As for previous religion, it’s a little complicated. My mother was Anglican, my father was a strict scientific rationalist, and my neighbourhood was filled with extreme fundamentalist Christians. Somehow, the neighbours really affected me, and I was terrified of their God. At twelve, I became a very cynical rationalist, but I slowly learned there was something more. I began studying the world’s religions, and I was most drawn to the old European pagan religions, but I had no idea people practiced any of them still. When I moved in with my sister I found out about Wicca. It basically felt like I already was Wiccan, and now I had a name for the view of the world I’d had for years. I’m barely on speaking terms with my parents for entirely other reasons, but on this one issue they’ve been fairly supportive. But then, I come from a very multi-religious family. My grandmother is really supportive, but then she’s Baha’i, and was living in Iran when the Ayatollah came to power, so she knows what religious hatred is like, and wouldn’t inflict it on anyone. Most of the books I didn’t find useful, because most of them are about magick, and it was the faith, the philosophy, the worldview I found important. I did enjoy _The Women’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets_, even if Barbara Walker’s scholarship is a little fuzzy. She at least forces you to thnk about things. I still haven’t had a chance to read _Drawing Down the Moon_. And I think Wicca is growing. I mean, there are people at the meetings every time, more people converting. And very few convert out. Someone once tried to tell me it’s the world’s fastest-growing religion, but I really don’t believe that. It’s mostly limited to the first world. But I think it does have a lot of the answers people are looking for, which none of our other major Western religions seem to help with. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/18 "2001-11-01T17:49:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > Why are you? > > Were you some other mainstream religion before? > > Why did you change? 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. > [@](#): > > How did your friends/family take the news? 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.) > [@](#): > > Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? 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. > [@](#): > > Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/19 "2001-11-01T17:52:25Z")
Why are you? \ It’s hard to say exactly. The best answer is that it’s simply what I am…but that’s not terribly informative. I suppose the best way to express it is that Wicca encompasses many of the beliefs I hammered out on my own long ago, and is flexible enough to accomodate others. These include immanence, reverence for nature, and the belief that there must be balance in all things. Were you some other mainstream religion before? A little different from the previous respondents, here–I was neither raised in nor had any other religion previously, although I grew up in a community that was primarily Southern Baptist. Why did you change? Because my clothes were starting to smell funny? 😃 (This question is irrelevant, but it’s just not me to pass up a chance to be a wiseacre.) How did your friends/family take the news? My mother never knew, but I think she would have accepted it. My father thinks I’m a bit too much of a goody-two-shoes. My brother shrugs. My best friend (a Catholic) thinks it suits me, and finds it amusing that I often had to spring to his (and other Catholic friends’) defense against “Devil-worship” rumors in high school. No one else really knows; it’s not a secret, but it doesn’t come up in conversation very often. Do you have any links (magazines/books)that you find particularly helpful? In addition to the links already posted, [http://www.religioustolerance.org](http://www.religioustolerance.org) has some very good information on a wide variety of religions. For books, I second all of **bobkitty** ’s recommendations. Do you think your religion is gaining popularity? I think we’re gaining wider acceptance, but since most of us don’t do anything like proselytize, and there are no reliable counts, it’s hard to say if our numbers are growing. ---
**Author:** ![robgruver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@robgruver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robgruver)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766/20 "2001-11-01T21:20:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UncleBeer \* > \*\* Mr. Gruver, yours almost went, too. \*\* Mr. Gruver is my dad, not me. My apologies. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-wiccan-pagan-in-the-house/90766.md?page=2)