Heathens, Pagans and Witches discussion

Since I'm still pretty young and have been delving even deeper into pre-Christian European studies and researching pagan practices as well as learning about my own ancestry, I have found that my religious practices have changed quite a bit and I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with myself and what I truly believe in.

I started out in this group as a Wiccan, but am now a Hellenic Pagan witch who delves into herbalism and alchemy. It's been an interesting journey so far, and I'm just getting started. My research has even inspired the major I'm currently striving for my degree in at college, so I am looking forward to what the future has to offer.

What about the rest of you? Have any of you found yourself changing around, exploring other practices, or completely changing what you thought you believed in?

Oh yes, my beliefs and practices have changed a LOT in the last decade. I definitely started my path with some heaving leanings towards Wicca and the overall hue of Neo-Paganism but very slowly and definitively started moving into a more eclectic and more magic focused path with a lot less paganism and deity involvement.

Growing as a person and gaining more awareness about the world also influenced my practice - I try like heck not to appropriate from closed religions or disrespect the spirits of certain cultures. I would NEVER in a million years have a dream-catcher in my home that wasn't made by an actual Native and while I do some form of smoke cleansing, I definitely DON'T smudge anymore.

I do interact on the regular with spirits and some ghosts, but deity involvement in my practice is minimal if there at all. The Norse Trickster bothers me from time to time, but I definitely wouldn't call myself a devotee of his....

Yes, I would definitely say my beliefs are continually evolving! My identification with nature began as a child, my parents never tried to take me to church. I loved being in nature and had a lot of interesting spiritual experiences. In my teens, my dad connected with his pre-Vatican II era Catholic beliefs and tried to take me to church, but it never really "stuck." In my twenties, I always felt more spiritual and connected in nature, and was very intuitive, but I had a hard time finding my own path. I have spent many years trying different pagan and Eastern beliefs (Buddhism, yoga, Tarot, books on pagan and nature religions etc). All of these resonated with me on some level but never felt complete....

In the past decade (I am now almost 50), I have really engaged with nature through my hobbies (as a birder and amateur naturalist...you might not believe how I have come to understand Wiccan/pagan beliefs like the quarters/cross-quarters/Wheel of the Year simply by observing birds!!), and really connected with my spiritual time in nature...what might be called a non-specific pagan, perhaps??--in addition to my initiation in level one and two Reiki.

I think I am still evolving. I definitely consider myself pagan but the rest of it is a continual learning experience.

Yes, I would say evolve, rather than change because it is really about consistently refining your viewpoint of the truth, your truth! Sometimes there are so many layers to explore in this process. My spiritual path shifted dramatically upon the realization of some of these layers dissolving about 25 years ago, and I am inching toward mid-50's now. The process of layers continues to reveal a brighter, truer expression each time. It is like leveling-up! ;-)

My practice has definitely changed. My base practice is in martial arts, but I have added Incan medicine work, American shamanism, and Incarnational Spirituality. I have bits of witchery, conjure, huna, and working as partners with beings in other worlds. Trying to understand the possibilities has led me to work on figuring out what all of these practices have in common. I believe trying to express our soul is at the center of all of the practices.

Our practice improves as we clean up our soul through all its incarnations and clean up the blood lines we received from our ancestors. We may stumble on something that needs to be changed or we may actively go looking for things to clean up. When I find something, I fix it if I know how. When I don't have the tools, I trust the synchronicity of the worlds to provide me with understanding and techniques.

That's how my practice evolves. As I search for ways to repair damaged parts of the worlds, I am shown and hopefully learn what I need to know.

Yeah seems to change a lot for me too I was wicca at one point and now at the moment I am chaos magic because I kind of like to try at everything and learn all I can about magic basically chaos magic is based around a little of everything

I think so - very gradual changes for me mind you!

Maybe it would appear so - but only, I feel, in the way that awareness and understanding of any other thing changes over time.

That which we call experience bids our minds change in deeper understanding, so that when we compare our view of the world when we were but sprightlings to our modern, older, wiser selves, we will find a vast cavern of difference, whereas our day-to-day view differs very little.

Rare, I think, is the profound and fundamental shift that is not backed by years of reflection, and where it exists at all, there have for years been left casualties in its wake.

Love your story. Sounds similar to mine. Be blessed!

Yes, yes and a resounding yes! I would think most people on some kind of "pagan" path feel that they are evolving continuously! Part of the reason most of us come to this path is due to searching for a greater understanding of the intricate connections of all the Universe! I am in my late 40's (holy shit! Did I just have to say that?) and my path changes continuously. I feel that the more I learn, the more I strive for more! My yearning to connect more deeply with the Universe and all her energies leads me to always look for ways to learn how to delve in even more.
I too started out on a Christian/Catholic path which I now believe instilled some of that drive to know more. I grew up with statues of Saints, incense for cleansing, prayers to specific Saints/Entities for different intentions and that is all before I chose to leave the Catholic church! I then became more of an Evangelical Christian in my search for truth. When that judging left my heart empty I moved on to Wicca/Norse Paganism and on to what I would describe as a Nature based Eclectic Pagan Practice.
Just as you refine your personality traits to match your values, I hope we hone our spirituality through growth! Good question! Thanks for the catalyst to think of the answers for me! Blessings!

No, I just expanded my circle of magickal knowledge. In fact, I find going back to the topics that I studied at the beginning of my magickal journey very exciting and productive. There's always more depth to them to explore.

I'm someone who is quite fond of labels. They say a lot about you and they put you on a 'team' with similar people. I like being part of a team and standing with the team through thick and thin.

'They' do say Change is the only Constant, and I've definitely changed in my practice as I've grown in knowledge and experience.
I came to Craft (lineaged Gardnerian) in the seventies, when there was a lot of experimentation with ceremonial magic and altered states, then for a long time (20+ years) was fairly eclectic, having had contact with African and South American magickal practices.
In seeking worthy folk in the UK to circle with, Anglo-Saxon and Norse styles contributed to the mix, but when I started my first WICA coven in the 'noughties, my then HP and I made the decision to "go back to basics". Since then I feel I've almost come full circle (?spiral?), re-discovering a passion for Meditation, Magick, and Quabbalah, amongst other things. It's All Good. BBx

This question that resonates with me pretty deeply actually. I am in the midst of a big change in my practice. I have been on eclectic which with largely Diane it routes for years with some change but not as much as maybe some others have experienced but recently have felt called to explore Middle Eastern and African goddess representations and incorporate those on the practices that come with them into my personal rituals. This I think is part of and larger call to connect with my ancestry but I am honestly not sure what it means for my practice as a whole.

D wrote: "This question resonates with me pretty deeply actually..."

Maybe deities relevant to your ancestral background are reaching out to you due to your background (or due in part to it). Maybe it's like how in a lot of spiritual paths, the ancestral spirits keep an eye on their kin. With very few exceptions, you can always politely turn down a deity who shows interest in working with you if you don't want to work with them.

That is good to know but for now I am just researching, looking into the traditions and seeing what speaks to me. I don’t want to close the door on something before I have a sense of what I am closing the door on if you know what I mean.

I kept thinking I wanted to follow the Celtic Mythos but as I delve deeper I am drawn more to the Norse Mythos - I suppose it isn't that much of a change of direction but it is a change nonetheless!

Hilary wrote: "I kept thinking I wanted to follow the Celtic Mythos but..."

I used to think I wanted to work with Egyptian goddesses. I thought it was resonating with me, until I invoked other deities (outside of large, somewhat impersonal group rituals). Turned out I like Greco-Roman male gods.

I think the need to change my "style" quite often is one of the reasons why I love Chaos Magick and the reasoning behind it.

There are areas I thought I would have never ventured into, and yet now here I am exploring them. For example, I thought I could never resonate with Anton LaVey, now I am reading his Satanic Bible and it is making a lot of sense.
On the contrary, I thought Crowley and Thelema would be fascinating but, while I appreciate Hermetism, I find Crowley's rituals and obsession with precision a little bit unappealing.

I like to read about a variety of paganism related things and am always finding new things that catch my interest. I have been into natural magick for many years. I like to keep things simple and I like and enjoy making my own pagan supplies as part of my practise.

Definitively. I'm one who has started from the realm of Christianism (where I didn't quite fit, and kept changing that path to fit my inner sense of spirituality), and have been evolving, moving on and on. For me, it's more like an old dial radio, where you have to go tuning the signal carefully until you hit the right wavelenght. I'm still tuning.

my path has changed so much I wouldn't recognize myself if the person I was years ago looked forward to now