Day One: What lead you to start practicing witchcraft?
I have always felt called to magic. My favorite movie is and was The Wizard of Oz. At age four, I insisted that all my family members dressed up as characters, even roping in an aunt. I grew up Catholic, and the beauty of Catholic ritual, with candles, holy water, sacraments, saints, rosaries, and incense deeply influenced how I perceive religion and how I learned to see magic. My dad is a voracious reader, so I read all his books, some of which included a book on how to be a ninja that he bought from a comic book as a kid, books with information about different Native American peoples and their spiritual beliefs, and a book on voodoo. I practiced my ninja skills in the backyard, wished that I could be a Native American or at least help them get people off their land, and became increasingly interested in trying out voodoo for myself. In fourth grade, I got a friend to agree to photocopy more voodoo books at the library and do voodoo with me. Thankfully, none of this panned out, because I think I'd be a terrible Native American wannabe-ninja-voodoo priestess.
In middle school, I befriended a very cool girl who was also interested in magic and vegetarianism. She liked The Crow and listened to Erykah Badu, which was a breath of fresh air in my sheltered suburban life. We read all the poorly researched "Wicca" books, and those were very influential in my beliefs at the time. She gave me a famous middle book from a famous 3-part series and a sage "smudge stick." It was not the kind of start that I would want for myself today, but at the time it was just amazing to know that there were others out there. I stashed the book and the sage in between my mattress and box spring. I read and reread the book over and over again whenever I thought I could get a moment of privacy. I smelled the sage through the plastic bag, never daring to light it. My friend and I watched movies, ate veggie burgers, emailed each other constantly, and did small spells together when she had weekends at her mom's. This continued through high school, though we drifted apart into different groups of friends by the end.
I drifted away from both witchcraft and vegetarianism in college. In the past four years, I have circled back to being the grown-up, better researched, more critically thinking version of that girl I was.
In middle school, I befriended a very cool girl who was also interested in magic and vegetarianism. She liked The Crow and listened to Erykah Badu, which was a breath of fresh air in my sheltered suburban life. We read all the poorly researched "Wicca" books, and those were very influential in my beliefs at the time. She gave me a famous middle book from a famous 3-part series and a sage "smudge stick." It was not the kind of start that I would want for myself today, but at the time it was just amazing to know that there were others out there. I stashed the book and the sage in between my mattress and box spring. I read and reread the book over and over again whenever I thought I could get a moment of privacy. I smelled the sage through the plastic bag, never daring to light it. My friend and I watched movies, ate veggie burgers, emailed each other constantly, and did small spells together when she had weekends at her mom's. This continued through high school, though we drifted apart into different groups of friends by the end.
I drifted away from both witchcraft and vegetarianism in college. In the past four years, I have circled back to being the grown-up, better researched, more critically thinking version of that girl I was.
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