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Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
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sea witch
- Oct 2005
- 11651
- relational theophysis and bioregional witchery
- coastal Georgia
- *a little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika*
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Originally posted by Aeran View PostStart out by finding a teacher who can do what you want to do, knows what you want to know and lives how you want to live, then train under them and only under them - don't waste your time trying to make sense of things through hundreds of contradictory books until you have a solid grounding in the basics.
...and by the time one figures all of that out, if a person is at all self-motivated, conscientious, and diciplined, they might find a teacher superfluous. Teachers are just as contradictory as books.
The first thing you need is to know yourself, right there, in that moment...if you know that, knowing what you need will follow.Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
sigpic
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Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Originally posted by Aeran View PostStart out by finding a teacher who can do what you want to do, knows what you want to know and lives how you want to live, then train under them and only under them - don't waste your time trying to make sense of things through hundreds of contradictory books until you have a solid grounding in the basics.
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Head Above Water
- Dec 2011
- 3034
- Ecletic Pagan
- Southeast Michigan
- There is no mastery--only constant improvement.
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
That it's all right to be uncertain and that it's called a "path" for a reason: you're going to keep traveling along it, and discovering new things along the way.
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Thane
- Mar 2013
- 896
- Celtic/Germanic Polytheism
- Ontario, Canada.
- Come join the murder, Come fly with black, We'll give you freedom, From the human trap.
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Absolutely nothing, learning is the whole point.White and Red 'till I'm cold and dead.
sigpicIn Days of yore,
From Britain's shore
Wolfe the dauntless hero came
And planted firm Britannia's flag
On Canada's fair domain.
Here may it wave,
Our boast, our pride
And joined in love together,
The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
The Maple Leaf Forever.
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Sr. Member
- Jan 2015
- 284
- Eclectic solitary witch
- female
- Norway
- "Life isn`t a matter of milestones, but of moments." - Rose Kennedy
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
In the beginning I thought I had to follow the same path as my grandmother and mother, but I figured soon out that I could choose my own path Still I got ask a lot which path I would choose, so I did a lot of digging into a lot of different paths. Then later on as I have grown older and hopefully wiser I understood just as Iris that it is ok to jump around, and do not make anyone else tell you what to do
Still all my experience and searching has made me stronger and has been very important in order for me to develop into the person I am today, and I love the fact that learning and developing never ever ends.
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Jr. Member
- Mar 2015
- 17
- Pagan
- female
- Lost in Space
- Here I am, there I will be; no one follows, I'm Just Me !
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Off-hand...the only thing I wish I could change is:
Being able to know all this info would not stick in
my head, like those herb books I have no use for.
Other than that, I believe I have grown spiritually
because of some the info I've ingested sticks.
Good thing I still have books I can go back and
re-introduce myself to that info ! Anymore, I'd
have to read, write, read again, and write again
for at least some to stick. This side-effect of
accident makes me frustrated when I cannot
retain it right off the bat.
Gentle Light
MsMollimizz
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Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
I would've beaten into my brain the fact that we create our own guidelines. No dogmatic ploys. I finally accepted that id never go back to Christianity because it wasnt home for me and since been bouncing back and forth from Norse to Hellenic pantheons but never really committing. I follow the Pre Greek Goddess, Hekate (hence the interest in the Hellenic Pantheon) but even now, like everyone had been advising me to do what felt right to me, im just a witch. That's it. No more, no less. So i figure i'm gonna go with the flow and do what i damn well please with no one preaching to me about right and wrong ways to do something that should come so naturally.
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Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
I wish I'd known that it's not necessary to have all the answers right away. I'm one of those people who has a bad tendency to jump into things and be sure of how I feel about everything NOW NOW NOW, and it's actually really harmful.
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Member
- Mar 2015
- 38
- Eclectic Pagan with Celtic and Kemetic Influence
- female
- Ohio
- Fear Not the Weapon But The Hand That Wields It.
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
That its okay to make mistakes and that its okay to take it slow and let things come to you. I used to struggle with impatience because I would freak out if I didn't get an answer right away.
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Jr. Member
- Dec 2014
- 17
- Agnostic Polytheist / Mystery Flavor Pagan
- female
- New York
- It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not. - Andre Gide
Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
I wish I would have realized that science and religion really do answer a different set of questions about life and the world we live in, and that those answers are equally valuable and meaningful. And, despite what my Atheist Friends(tm) preached for years, you can indeed be a theist who trusts and respects scientific research and thought.
If I had understood these things 10 years ago I would have been spared a lot of grief over my interest in science and persistent suspicion that the divine actually does exist. Silly me thought I could only pick one or the other.
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Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Everything you learn in the first months will be utterly transformed, evolved, or become irrelevant in the long run. But you need to start somewhere. So read as much as you can, as often as you can, and always keep your mind open and follow what resonates with you the most.
Also, take good notes.
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Re: Things you wish you knew when you first started your path?
Originally posted by LjubezenEverything you learn in the first months will be utterly transformed, evolved, or become irrelevant in the long run. But you need to start somewhere. So read as much as you can, as often as you can, and always keep your mind open and follow what resonates with you the most.
I wish I had realised quicker that even if I followed a religion with a dogma, I'd still be creating my own path as everyone does interpret and often twist the teachings of their religion and a lot of people, let alone the translators, have already done so before me. So there isn't necessarily anything 'purer' in an organised religion than there is in Paganism or some other 'freeform' spirituality/philosophy and every single kind of religion does require some kind of self-reflection and cherry-picking (unless it is a cult).baah.
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