As I grew up I was VERY active in church activities. I was the director of the Puppet Production Troupe, from Jr. High through College. During and after High School I taught ages 3-8 at Sunday School. I also was a counselor for the Jr. High grades. I was a counselor at Jr. Fine Arts Camp in northern Arizona for the Church camp and taught theatre, puppetry and Recorder. During this time I had met a nice lesbian girl at the Nursing Home that I worked at and we had started hanging out together. Eventually we decided to get married for financial reasons and because we were not OUT to our families. This arrangement lasted 5 years and then we divorced. It was at this time that I came OUT to my family. I had been OUT to my friends for years. I also met a wonderful young man by the name of Mark and we were together for 7 great years. But people change and he was ready to move on. So we parted best of friends and still have a wonderful friendship . After I came out the Church told me that I was a unforgivable sinner and would burn in Hell. They fired me from all of the programs that I had been doing at the church. And the parents of the children that I taught said that I was not to be trusted with their kids any longer. I could not believe that these were the same people that had known me since I was 4 years old saying this stuff to me. I had grown up my whole life in this church and was now being treated as if i had become some kind of a monster not to be trusted. Well, I am thankful for that, for it showed me just how wrong and unChristlike these people were who had helped to raise me in their community and it showed me that this was NOT the path for me. So, I started looking for a new path.....I took a class on World Religions at one of the Jr. Colleges in Phoenix, AZ. and saw bits and peices of several different religions. But the one that spoke truest to me was the Wiccan path. I've always believed in a duality in nature and since we are a part of nature why shouldn't the creator be of a dual nature as well. It made sense to me. And I started studying that faith. I found that the more I studied the more parts of it sounded like stuff that I was already doing. I already used herbs for healing purposes and for aromatherapy. And I used healing touch when I gave massage to my patients in the Nursing Home. I often lit candles and said a little prayer for added healing for my patients as well.....well, this was spellwork and I had already been doing it without knowing that I was doing so. I found that one of the most helpful books for me was Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. But I found that I needed a group to work with .....I had a hard time practicing by myself but I didn't know how to go about finding any covens in the area. As fate and the Mother and Father would have it some friends of mine invited me to a ritual at their house for the upcoming Samhain....and I didn't even know they were pagan. I had known them for about 8 years and never known their path. So I went to the ritual and started going regularly and then my work schedual changed and I had to stop going to circle. Then I formed another group with a person that I had met on AZWitches (an elist) and that lasted for about a year but it soon fell apart. Then I found a great group that was called Temple of the Triple Goddess it had been around in the valley for a good ten years and for some reason there was problems with the core members of the group and the Temple closed it's doors. I had just about decided at this time that my path was starting to take a turn toward a more Shamanistic path and I met a Wonderful man by the name of Wayne Young. He and I started dating and his path was also of a more shamanistic path with a little bit of Eastern religion thrown in. We were handfasted this past September 2000. He also introduced me to RFD Magazine and it was wonderful. It was all the things that I wanted toward a spiritual path. A group of gay men who identified themselves as fairies and circled together for gay men's spirituality. Unfortunately, there is not a group here in Arizona. So I guess that I would say that my path now is one that is a combination of a wiccan shamanistic faerie path.
Wayne and I have decided to move to New Orleans.
As it turned out when we arrived in New Orleans and started looking for pagan groups to socialize with....we found that they had a strong Radical Faerie group going here. So we have joined with this group.
I have also started looking into the Voodoun area of spirituality. I believe that a place has a spirit as well.....and Voodoun is a very prominant part of the culture here in New Orleans. So I am incorporating some aspects of the Voudoun religion into my spiritual path as well. |
