Another Wiccan holiday upon us. It always makes me a little bit crazy when my social media feeds are full of Sabat greetings...
I may have studied and practiced witchcraft for almost 20 years but I have never followed a witchcraft religion and I do not follow the wheel of the year. When these holidays occur I always feel as though some part of my path is lacking - or more to the point - that others feel that my path is lacking.
I've just never felt it. I'm Australian, we have a limited history and culture. The heritage that I can lean on (Irish/English and further back French) just doesn't blend well with my Southern Hemisphere environment.
I tried practicing the witchcraft religion and it felt forced. My heart wasn't in it. So I leaned to the practical side of witchcraft and its where I feel most comfortable.
When I see those in "my" online community wishing each other a "Happy Ostara" (or whichever festival it happens to be at the time) I feel like its not my community at all.
I dunno... it just serves to remind me of how different my path is to the typical witchcraft path and that reminder pops up every few months.
I think you just gotta go with it-- there is no religion that was not decided upon by human beings, so you can be the human being that decides upon your own traditions!
ReplyDeleteI've had the same feeling in the past, and friends suggested to me that perhaps I should try some different labels, and at some point I got so fed up with feeling like I didn't fit in that I dropped the word "witch" altogether. You might feel more at home among "herbal healers" or "medicine women" than among the neopagan witches/wiccans. I found dropping the identification of "witch" and distancing myself from the witchcraft community gave me space to reflect and grow.
ReplyDeleteHey. Yes! That's exactly what I've done. I've never called myself a witch or a Pagan. I "practice witchcraft".
DeleteMy early experiences with the online witchcraft community were back in the days when Yahoo groups were our only interaction. Those days were invaluable and I'd never turn my back on those amazing people. But I see exactly where you're coming from there!
The today, only ten years later the online pagan community is a very different animal!
I identified as "Wiccan" for nearly 20 years, but it never seemed entirely accurate. I always felt it was not completely honest as a spiritual or religious manner & I always had several consistent qualifiers, particularly, like you, around locality. Later, I opted for "Witch" because I felt it reflected my orientation towards Magick with more freedom for religious interpretation. It was only a couple of years ago that I dropped all the "W" words & did a pagan label free fall. That's when I finally "got it."
ReplyDeleteI follow what speaks to me, quite literally most of the time. The Solar events, like this Equinox, are important to me b/c I do Solar devotions -- the Sun as lifebringer -- but not because some people somewhere at some point said that's the way we should do it. I think it has to make sense & bring you into relationship with the spirits, your landbase, the gods, whatever you call Them. Just my two cents. ;)
Same! I mark the solar events too. And its so true that when we drop the labels we free our selves up to grow.
DeletePart of my issues with practicing witchcraft and not following a withcraft religion is that I don't worship deity. Not believing in the god and goddess can make things awkward. LOL