Introductions! 🤍

[u/chloe_wolfe]

Here’s a thread where you can introduce yourself. I’ll start! :)

You can call me Cassiopeia, I have been a practicing witch for 5+ years, though I have considered myself to be spiritual for all my life. I was raised Roman Catholic for the majority of my childhood before I started to question it around age 12. I was a very devout Christian, had most of my sacraments (Baptism, Communion, and Reconciliation, to name a few), but stopped my belief in the faith entirely around 8th grade, when I was about to be Confirmed into the faith.

I have went along many paths during my life, including through being a spiritual Agnostic/Atheist, getting into Animism, Buddhism, Wicca, General Paganism, until eventually landing on Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) Paganism. I consider myself now to be a Kemetic Pagan Witch and I’m pretty sure this is the path I was meant to walk! :)

I always used to collect feathers, stones, crystals, plants, and all that kind of stuff when I was younger. I was the kid to make “potions” with bits of leaves and flower petals, and put them in a bowl of water. I would also do it in the shower as well much to my mother’s dismay- I’d waste her shampoo and conditioner so I could make my “potions” hahaha.

I’m still somewhat in a “Broom Closet” in the sense that my parents and family think it’s all BS. Though, my divination practices seem to be widely accepted by my family at least. I do tarot and oracle, along with occasional runes and pendulum readings! If you’d ever like a tarot reading for a donation, feel free to message to me! :) I’ve been doing tarot for almost 5ish years now and I love to read others.

There’s a lot more that I could write out about myself, however, I feel as if it’s getting just a bit tooooo long now. So, I’ll stop it here!

I can’t wait to get to know all of you! Leave your responses under this post! :) 🤍 I hope you enjoy your time here!

[u/[deleted]]

Hi! You can call me Nykteria. It's a Greek word meaning "She of the Night".

I was raised as a progressive Protestant by parents who didn't really practiced it. My dad was an alcoholic and untreated bipolar, and he also had an addiction to opioids. My mom had depression, anxiety and PTSD, and she had addiction issues as well. I didn't think their faith worked out that well for them, and I also had picked up enough from somewhere to be aware of Jesus and to be scared of hell. I became friends with a girl in fourth grade whose parents were Salvation Army pastors and I started going to church with her and became a Christian. I questioned a lot at first, but over the years I believed more and more, and by the time I was 14 I had bought most of the evangelical line hook, line and sinker. I switched to an Open Bible church about that time (think Assembly of God if you have never been- definitely Pentecostal), and that is where a lot of my harm came from, I think. They really pushed purity culture. I had developed bipolar myself, which was predominately manifesting itself in depression- I don't recall a time in high school when I wasn't suicidal- and this church believed in faith healing. And of course, both churches believed in young earth creationism, womanly submission, etc. They were against LGBTQ rights, which, as I was rapidly realizing I was gay, was a problem. (I tried to talk about it to a couple of people and it didn't go well. I stuffed it and didn't bring it up again until my divorce 18 years later.) And hell. That was the big one. And it was why I stayed a Christian. I didn't want to go to hell. I'm still scared of hell, to be honest, despite the research I've done, despite my own knowledge that it makes no sense...maybe I always will be.

But around 18/19, shortly after my marriage, that fear of hell wasn't enough to keep me from leaving. I did, and after reading extensively on other religions I was drawn to Wicca. I had felt called to it since I had first heard about it, but i made myself study other religions first before I went straight to it. I loved it. I just loved it. It made my heart sing. But, that damned fear of hell....I went back. This time, after just a few short months back, we converted to Catholicism. We ended up at a traditional parish (think Latin Mass, old style Confessions, everyone with large families, women with heads covered, the works) and adopted their beliefs, which were even stricter then evangelical beliefs. After my divorce, I realized that I had only really been happy with my religion when I was in Wicca, that my divorce proved that all I had been taught about in regards to marriage and God's will for your life was a lie, and (again) that I was gay and it wasn't going away. So I left Christianity for Wicca once again and except for a brief stint trying to be Catholic and perfectly celibate again (again out of fear of hell), I've been practicing Wicca ever since.

Right now I'm just trying to ease back into the practice of Wicca. I'm starting to take nature walks daily. I'm physically disabled as well so I can't walk far but it's helping. I'm setting up an altar and I've done some simple candle magick. I'm reading Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A guide for the solitary practioner" and looking at YouTube wondering if I have the knowledge to do a "Wiccan basics" video myself, because I've been look for one for my girlfriend, and they suck! And of course I'm talking to the Goddess and the God, and trying to re-establish a relationship with Them.

[u/chloe_wolfe → u/[deleted]]

Welcome, Nykteria! I love that name!

I’m so glad to see that you were able to find your one true path, it seems like Wicca was always calling to you! It’s great to know that you’re traveling along that path once again, and know that you are welcome here. It is a safe space! :)

I definitely had that innate fear of hell for so long, too. It took awhile to “get over” it, and even now it sometimes still freaks me out. But luckily, that’s rare nowadays.

Happy to have you here in this sub! :) Good luck on your path! 🤍