Wiccan, Pagan, and New Age Stories
Life on the Food Chain
I am Pagan. I am also a 25 year old Gay man. In that order. Paganism has filled in the gaps in my life very well and helped me to get through some very rough patches in my life. I have indeed found a spiritual path that fulfills all of my needs and leaves nothing lacking. As
a Pagan, I worship Nature as the physical manifestation of God(s). Pagans believe that God/dess exists within everything in nature, and that all things that exist in nature are of course natural. This includes homosexuality, which exists in
every mammal on the planet in some fashion or another.
Through the Pagan path, I have discovered whole other levels of being which exist all around us, and which we interface with on an unconscious level all the time. There are worlds within worlds. I have also come to feel connected to everything and everyone I come in contact with, kind of like being actively aware of the food chain. I have come to realize that every person in my life has something to teach me, especially those with whom I do not get along. Those people show me the darker side of my self, my bad habits, etc. Through my spirituality, I have come to a place of healing within myself. I have healed my self of the trauma of childhood rape involving a family member. That in and of itself speaks volumes as far as I am concerned. You asked the question: Can you be gay and spiritually fulfilled? My answer is yes. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not endured. My path showed me that.
Blessings,
Willow
Why Wicca?
I never had a problem with being gay and being a spiritual person. I grew up in an areligious household. We only went to church to "marry'em" and "bury'em." I experimented with Christianity on and off in the 1970s and 1980s (including Catholicism). However, after studying the Bible and reading a great deal of history, I concluded that most of what is taught as infallible truth was, in fact, lies based in irrational prejudices, history and myth twisted in an effort to have power over others, and an attempt to redefine the nature of man from a position of almost supreme ignorance. Indeed, the final decision to abandon the Judeo-Christian-Islamic occurred after I read two books by author Gore Vidal:
Creation and Julian.
I've been a member of a nature-based religion for 11 years now. As a pagan (a Wiccan, to be precise), I have no need to reconcile my sexuality with my spirituality, as mine is a path that has but one tenet: "Do as you will, but harm none." I have gone on to co-found a queer men's pagan worship group. Queer peoples have been a part of the spiritual and religious fabric of their communities since the dawn of time. I encourage people to read Blossom of Bone by Randy Conner to quell any doubts they might have that this is the case. We are an old people, we are a new people, we are a queer people stronger than before.
Blessings,
Essus
Out with the Goddess
I am a thirty-two year old lesbian, interfaith minister, and practicing pagan who has found in my initial spiritual struggle the foundation upon which to live my life as a out, proud, and content lesbian.
As a child I was easily frightened by the supernatural. Then, miraculously, with puberty came a fierceness I had lacked before. I chose to conquer my fears and began investigating the occult. At the same time, I was retrieving books from the library on Greek mythology. By the time I reached college, I discovered paganism and witchcraft in the basement of the Borealis book store in Ithaca, New York, that carried literature and Tarot cards. I began to study in earnest. By the time of my graduation, I was a self-proclaimed pagan.
Today, ten years later, I have journeyed through the deaths of two parents, discovered that all religions are the same truth with different faces, and have endeavored to remove the mask of intolerance from any who will speak with me, from atheists in the bar to Jehovah's witnesses who come knocking on my door. My father's late-life discovery of Christ moved me to help others see that we all need a face to put on the god or goddess, but they are all equally valid. Thus, I became an interfaith minister, focusing on spirituality rather than religious dogma. For my own heart, the goddess is the face through which I see the truth.
My sexual outing is still a work in progress. I've been out of the broom closet for a number of years and, with the recent discovery of my true love in the face and body of a woman, have found beauty and acceptance of all forms of love and the form of woman in the goddess. I live out at work and in my personal life. I have tried to use the same gentle encouragement to let others see past the labels of a lesbian, pagan, witch, interfaith minister, to the truth that I am, just like them, another imperfect soul struggling to find peace and happiness in the journey of life.
Rebecca
Celtic Magic
Well, obviously, I am Wiccan. A fifteen year-old wiccan too, if the truth be told. Wicca changed my life. When I first found out I was gay, I didn't handle very well. I started doing drugs and all this crazy messed up stuff. I thought of suicide everyday, at least three times. Then I found a book. It was called Celtic Magic. I can still see the cover of it, with a woman on it, smiling up as fairies and little ethereal dragons toyed with her hair. I picked it up, and didn't put it down until I was done. I learned that there is other stuff to believe in, like yourself, and that drugs and negative thinking hampered this ability. So I quit. Cold turkey too. All my friends were amazed that I could quit so much bad stuff that I had done for so long, so quickly. I loved it. Now, I am happy. I can honestly say that life has shined upon me, and I have no doubt in my mind that Wicca was the cause of it. It saved me in so many ways. Now I know that I am better off being myself and not trying to be anyone else.
I still think back on what I could have been, had I kept with the drugs, or tried to kill myself successfully. But I don't dwell on it, I learned from my past. And I won't ever have to repeat it. So all I can say to anyone else out there, religion is not some kind of lawbook, or omniscience. It is who you are inside, which is the strongest thing anyone can believe in.
James
Open Up
I found my spirituality in exploring the Pagan and New Age communities. I found paganism so personal and connecting that it has endured with me to this day in my own personal form. The archetypes of the god and goddess have merged in my mind and heart to one being with two faces. Paganism beckons you to open up and see is all around you: the air, the sun, the trees, animals, the plants, the earth, water, heat, cold, wet, dry, the environment inside and outside you. It's hard not to feel love and feel loved. In the new Age communities I have mostly researched things of a metaphysical nature, reading channeled material's and a lot of "how to's" from different people. I like to appreciate most information I come across and see another perspective with the same eagerness that I bring to my own
Green Dragon Fly
Gay This Time
I am involved with quite a number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and affliated straight persons who are part of the loosely called "New Age" spiritual movement. This movement is very open to diversity and in fact it is interesting the number of GBLT persons involved with it, doing healing and other work. In my case, I do some regression work and past life work.
I never had an issue merging my sexuality with my spiritualism as the two go hand in hand. As I live in the belief that we live many times, I am very centered in the choice of my being gay in this life so that I can be part
of this rights movement.
David de la Tour
Washington, DC
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