Raised Pagan ?

[DustinHayden]

I for one was brought up pagan. My mother was a solitary witch until she was born again. I can only recal one or two books of hers. But she made sure i respected the Earth and everything living on it. I can recall being punished for killing spiders and what not ( sorry little guys ! ) But then my world changed around 97 or 98, when my mother left her path for another...what a change that was lol.

Whats your story ? If you where not raised pagan, did you have a member of your family that opened the door for you ?

as for what my faith is i have no idea other then calling it a Earth centrered religion with heay tones of celtic. The more i read and learn, the more i find myself becaming drawn to the path of a the Druid. But i need to take my time and not force a thing. I need to listen to myself and stay true to myself. Something i have not done in well over a year. Back to long hair and long beard !

[Caelia]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I grew up in a family where it was acceptable to be psychic. It led to some interesting debates especially when it came to magic (that has an interesting story too) given how a good portion of them are Christian in some fashion.

[Medusa]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I was raised in a very Hispanic Catholic home. My mother and her side and my father's side were all Catholics. I was baptized at 2 and it was a very big deal etc. I had a Nino and Nina etc. But..my father, though spiritual, was not religious in the 'normal' sense. He drove my mother and I to church on Sundays, but never attended. He enrolled me Bible study classes with Jehovah Witnesses. He had me be friends with the neighbors who were Hindi. He had a bible and it was marked with tons of passages. So I know he read the bible. His son became a Baptist Minister. But he...I guess he was just a spiritual person.

He died when I was 11 and I stopped going to church. My mother and my family never knew I was a Satanist. But they knew I was not a Catholic and didn't ask beyond that. It wasn't hidden. I just never talked about religion with them, nor with anyone else for that matter. I only talk about it here in context. Though some of my co workers and all my friends know though. I guess my family never bothered me.

[Celtic Tiger]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

According to an Evangelical I used to know, I was raised pagan. The Catholic church would disagree.

No family members specifically opened the door, but an aunt that I was very close to loved witches and fairies. She also told me a good number of things that helped me in the path that I have found myself on. Not the least of which was that you don't need to go to a church to worship God.

[Keeperofthesun]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I too was brought up a Pagan. I was accepted into my families circle by my Great Grandmother at a ceremony at the Spring Equinox. Due to circumstances beyond my parents control, my branch of the family had to move away.

My training began at the age of 9, at which time I was having problems with older boys at school. I was asked, " The question do you want to be like them or do you want to be different?" I chose to be different. Since that day all those years ago, I have walked hand in hand with the Old Religion. I am a child of Mother Earth and dance under the gaze of the Father.

I have been exposed too many different religions, even Southern Baptist Seminary School, so I could converse intelligently on others views. I served in the Military from 1983 to 1992 when Paganism was not an accepted Religion. I had many meaningful conversations with wonderful open minded individuals. The open mindedness came to an end in July of 1991. I was assigned to a squadron of Christian Holier than thou individuals who found the thought of my religious preference to be disturbing. I was accused, tried, and convicted of being in there words, " A Witch and detriment to Squadron Morale." I was also sent for a Mental Psych Evaluation. Such was the end of my Military Career.

In the years following my time has been spent, raising my children with my wife of 25 1/2 years. Sadly neither of my two children have chosen to be different. It's my Goal to acquire as much information as possible, so my two granddaughters can make an informed decision later in life to possibly walk with the Mother Earth, and the Father Sky.

[Ementine]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

You're story interested me very much. My mother let me choose to be whatever I wanted and when I was about 13 I learned my mother is Wiccan and I was born into it. My real name is native american and my nickname is the name of a hindu Goddess. I asked my mom for the pentagram that she didn't wear anymore and since then I have had it. I also were a lot of rings, they help me express who I am;all my friends know about my alter that sits next to my bed. I have a few friends who are also Wiccan and I am very close with one of them, we have performed some rituals together and it makes me so happy to be able to share my love of the Lord and Lady.

[Jembru]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

My family is pagan, but for me it was the reverse. I found paganism, then my parents looked into it to see what I was getting involved with. My dad and sister chose to follow pagan paths too, my mum is on the fence. She likes the ideals and is very proud to have witches for daughters, but she is unable to let go entirely of her Christian past (although she never raised us Christian and isn't exactly what you'd call 'practising').

My sister isn't raising her daughter pagan as such, but we're letting her know there are alternative religions from which to choose, and she likes to celebrate the sabbats if she gets the choice.

[Spragyria]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

My mother was the one that had brought my sister and I up as pagans. She was very nature centered, always telling us to be respectful of all things in nature and of the natural spirits of things. Me being a small child at that time didn't know really what she was talking about, but I eventually came to understand.

My mother herself was raised in a traditional Guatemalan home, and her grandmother apparently practiced some form of paganism (I never found out what it was, All my mother ever told me was that is was extremely earth centered, and it involved traditional indigenous magic.) and this highly influenced her beliefs. And without a doubt my mothers lessons to me in the sanctity of nature and her other pagany teachings influenced me. And although I don't follow what my mother does, (I am a heathen and an Alchemist) I still do have her influence that no doubt lead me to this path.

[Jennii]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I grew up in a very Agnostic household where religion wasn't really discussed that much...however since my father is Haitian, I'd occasionally hear about Vodou and about family that practiced Vodou so that was my first real exposure to anything Pagan. As a result, I'm still very into Ancestor worship and honoring spirits.

[Sarkana night]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I was not raised pagan. I actually don't now what I was raised as.... i think my dad wanted me go be an atheist, but I ended in an catholic school and got catholic friends. But I always had an interest in the pagan ways of living, maybe I can say that I had a pagan life-vision before I even knew what a "pagan" was. My mom religion is hard to describe, it's a mix of maaany different religions, but I think she might have been wiccan once (I doubt she've told my dad) 'cause I've found a few books about wicca that she may've tryed to hide. Well the books got me started and I searched for more information about wicca and paganism. I stayed pagan for a while but after I've started to study to become an archeologist, I've realised that the aztec pantheon was the right for me

[earthgirl]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I was raised as a lot of things, my mom went through religions like some people go through socks. When I was 2, it was Scientology. We so much as move to Seattle, where she worked for SeaOrg as an executive. For the record, Scientology really is as messed up as everyone says, in my experience anyway. For example, a very distinct memory of mine was that one of my mom's friends at the Org pushed me down the stairs, and then told me that being in pain and crying was my fault for having Thetans in me. And everybody thought it was just hilarious, how hard I cried, that the executive's daughter was rittled with Thetans and a weenie besides. They also made fun of me constantly for having a pretty thick Texas accent and told me I sounded like a "little retard". I was 2-3 years old. At any rate, my mom finally woke up to the fact that those people were psychotic, abusive freaks and decided to leave, tried to de-convert some of her friends, and got put on the list of Suppressives, so we had to leave Seattle pretty hastily.

She got into New Age spirituality after that, went to a meditation group and tried to teach me how to find my spirit guide, played with those pseudo-Native American fortune telling cards with the animals on them, and about a million other things she never properly explained and which I found very peculiar as a child. (As an adult, I think some of it is a bit misinformed, silly, or at worst racist.) Around that time, my grandmother decided it was time to teach me about Jesus, who she told me loved me a lot and that I should pray to him and the Father. And that is something which has stayed with me ever since, though I don't believe in the same Jesus my grandmother taught me about.

After that, my mom decided she was an atheist for a few years. I had learned to read by then and discovered Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace is Every Step, and I started meditating and learning as much as I could in my six year old capacity about Zen, and I independently decided I was a buddhist and did my best to be one in practice. It made me one hell of a weird kid, but I was already a weird kid, so the "hell of a" was hardly noticed by my peers. Then my mom moved us to a smaller town, and on my first day at the new school, I got called a heathen and told I was going to hell because a little girl asked what religion I was, so I told her. Big mistake. It had literally never dawned on me before that moment that a whole lot of people will hate you forever if you're the "wrong" religion. I didn't think I was going to hell, but she planted a seed of paranoia deep, deep within me at that moment, that I was doing something wrong by not being just like everyone else.

Because of this, I was half grateful when my mom decided that we were going to start attending church, our denomination picked on the basis of "that one starts pretty late in the morning." It happened to be a Southern Baptist church. I would like to say that it was a shocking experience, and it was, but not in the way that most people are shocked when they abruptly and inexplicably convert to Christianity. I was shocked that people could claim to believe something that demands they adhere to very strict standards, not remotely adhere to those very strict standards, and then condemn other people who also don't adhere to those standards, but also don't claim to believe in them, either. I was introduced to the word hypocrisy, by the pastor, at my own asking for a word meeting that definition, and he referred me to a passage wherein Jesus pretty well summed up my feelings about it. I really liked Jesus and the way he suggested people operate, with humility, dignity, and kindness, and I added that to the buddhism because I didn't see any particular conflict in doing so. (And I still don't.) Our pastor was a pretty cool guy, really, he walked the walk, took my mom and me in when she lost her job and the house, and found someone within the congregation who would be able to help us out. He was perhaps the most gentle human being I've ever known, never said a hateful word about anyone, even the gays. He was a good man, and the reason why I clung to that church as a kid for as long as I did.

It became unfeasable to go to that church when we moved to another tiny town about thirty miles away, though my patience with Christianity in practice was wearing pretty thin by that point. The youth minister and his wife returned from a mission trip to China, and claimed that roving gangs of armed buddhists routinely slaughtered Christian congregations all across Asia as human sacrifices in their violent religion, which was such an obvious lie that I honestly cannot believe that whole lot of well to do, college educated adults bought it without flinching. I also got sick of my Sunday school teacher telling me that I was inferior because of my sex and that I had better start acting like a lady or I'd never have a husband to validate my existence. So I went to a different and very liberal church in the city for a while, but it just wasn't the same. Their pastor was a good man, too, but I missed my old pastor and I still couldn't properly reconcile Jesus's actual words in the bible with how people in the church behaved towards one another and the world at large. So I left. It hurt a lot, but I already believed that god was ominpresent, and that there were always two in fellowship because of that; I became my own church, just god and me, a solitary practicing buddhist who believed in Jesus. I was 12 years old. My mom decided she was vaguely agnostic, and that was it for her and religion, so I was left to explore my own philosophy without much guidance. I drifted further away and eventually stopped calling myself a Christian because I just wasn't. I was "spiritual but not religious" and I only believed in the divinity of Jesus because I believed in the divinity of everybody.

Things changed again when I got a computer and the internet. By that time, I had started to believe some very pagan things, and after talking with people on the internet about it, I found out that broadly, I was a pagan, and I started to read about different pagan religions and practices, and best of all, magick. Some of the things my mom did during her New Age phase made more sense, and a whole world of wonders opened up before me. I could not help but explore it. And I still explore it, to this day, eleven years after that door opened.

Now, I'm not fond of labelling myself, but broadly I believe a lot of buddhist philosophy, Jesus was a hermetic magician, I like the ideas of Thelema, and I see the spiritual principles of existence expressed physically in nature and the universe. And a lot more than that, but those are the bones. I don't know (and I don't want to know) what that makes me specifically; labels are arbitrary things and serve only to limit, and I don't dig that paradigm. So "generic eclectic pagan" is as far as I'm willing to go with labels. This is where I am comfortable, this is where the world makes sense to me. What more could I ask?

[Just_Wondering]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

I was raised nothing. My family never went to church, and aside from a few rare instances where we said grace before a holiday dinner at my grandma's house, we never participated in any religious ceremonies. My grandmother left the church when she was young after they told her to stay with her husband even though he beat her on the daily.

My aunt was into new-age stuff, she had a shelf full of books and she liked crystals and such. Truthfully, they scared me and i thought she was weird.

Then my dad and i moved in with his girlfriend who was a massage therapist and she was into different kinds of healing and angels and stuff. I also remember her having brass divining rods and Good Faeries/Bad faeries on her coffee table, which is probably why i'm obsessed with Brian Froud.

My mom isn't particularly religious at all but she's really misinformed about witchcraft in general. Just a bit ago, she called me ranting about my longtime friend being "freaky" and a practicer of "Dark Wicca", whatever that is. I lolled.

[Dral]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

Raised Southern Baptist. Left that path and found the one I'm on now. As far as religion is concerned where I grew up you were either Southern Baptist or dead so needless to say I led a solitary path until moving away at 18.

[Just_Wondering]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

Raised Southern Baptist. Left that path and found the one I'm on now. As far as religion is concerned where I grew up you were either Southern Baptist or dead so needless to say I led a solitary path until moving away at 18.

hahahahaha. Good choice.

[tseringdolma]

Re: Raised Pagan ?

It was through a mixture of routes that opened my eyes to paganism, When I was 12 my father started to take me to folk festivals with him, at these I began jamming with my mandolin, communicating through the means of music beside the campfire, it was through some of the people I was jamming with I first heard about paganism, it really kindered a spark in me, all my childhood wonder at nature, energy and other such concepts felt like they fitted somewhere. At the age of 19 I became really unwell and had to leave my first flat, I went to stay with her and her father, her father is a practicing pagan and my friend was brought up pagan, it was here that I really began to practice the values of paganism.