Coming out of the Broom Closet

[fatal222316]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

None of my family knows but my father is psychic and very open minded don't think he would like it but he knows my interests in pagan culture he just does not want me to open a portal of some kind haha its true.

[Volniy]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

Never be afraid to be yourself. When you have very few years, you're still young - as a rule, if your family is religious and adheres to religious traditions, in particular, this is especially true of Christianity, Islam - the parents starayutsya child to follow these traditions. On the one hand - it seems to be right, but on the other hand - the child impose what he does not understand. The fact that he can not understand.
Usually, people that they do not understand - this fear. Because of their ignorance, or ignorance, religious fanaticism, they can not make an objective assessment of areas such as paganism, shamanism, witchcraft. They are suspicious of those who call themselves Pagans, witches, shamans.
Why do you explain that a person who has a negative attitude will advance to ensure that you believe?
Most importantly - never impose my views to anyone, including religious ones. And do not settle out of courtesy, if you try harass someone else to impose their religion or point of view. It is better in this situation, silently leave. Without quarrels and scandals.
To argue with a fool, ignorant man, or a religious fanatic, you're goin 'down to his level.

[Volniy]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

Never give up, even if you're alone. Engaging in self-development and self-improvement - you will realize that you do not need anyone. Someone might not agree with my point of view, but it usually happens that the people who usually are seriously engaged in shamanism, magic, witchcraft - almost always alone. Those people who accidentally come into their lives - do not stay there for long.

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[LadyDorothy]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

I came out of the broom closet two days ago during a road trip with my mother, we started discussing religion and I decided that it was about time that I told her that I'm not a Christian.

Not only am I not a Christian, I'm pagan. One of those people she hate more than gays. That was fun explaining.

It was interesting.... she's thoroughly convinced that me being pagan means that I don't believe in God, a fact that I find funny because were polytheistic.

However, I'm surprised that she didn't freak, the most she does now is make little snide comments about how I can't pray, something about the goddess, ect.

It's better than I expected, but its still kinda painful.

[Chessa]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

I've told everyone in my extended family that I know will accept me. Now I just have to tell my mother and fundamentalist/Tea party Republican father.

[Heka]

Re: Coming out of the Broom Closet

I've never been in the broom closet really, when people ask I tell them. But for some reason I always feel weird admitting it, like its wrong, or I should be ashamed... I'm not, but I feel weird saying it every time.

[Gleb]

Re: Coming out about your religion

I know how you feel. I feel the same. Unfortunately, I can't tell anyone I am a pagan. I told my friends I trust the most that my religion is different. I am afraid to tell them I am a pagan, I am afraid they will start hating me, and it's the same with my family.
The idea of keeping my religion as a secret is troublesome for people like us. But being a pagan is not necessary bad. There are people who choose the "bad" gods, and there are people like us- those who try to become better persons.
My advise is next:
Don't tell somebody such a big secret if you are not sure about the result and the behavior of the person. Best of luck to you.

[Nordic_Wolf]

Re: Coming out about your religion

i haven't told anyone i am heathen except my sister, and my close friend. i try to avoid conversations about religion with family, but if they specifically asked me about what i believe, or if i was christian, i wouldn't lie to them (or anyone, for that matter). i kinda keep it a secret, but i wont lie about it.

[EclecticWheel]

Re: Coming out about your religion

My family does not practice religion. My mother and step dad don't really know what they believe, but my mom has a Baptist background and my step dad was raised Jehovah's Witness. I am Episcopalian which in itself is not controversial for most people, but I keep quiet about religion when visiting because it can turn into chaos.

My mother is aware to some degree that I have an eclectic spirituality. She has seen my altar set up when I visit -- I have a portable altar -- and complimented it, but she's not sure of what I believe and worries sometimes that I'm doing something evil. I realized my altar/prayer space is not really for show, so now when I visit it, I make a temporary altar out of a dresser drawer where I sometimes open it for brief devotions. For longer devotions, I set it up outside on the peer over the river or on the porch when I have privacy.

Overall, no one in my family pries too much into my spirituality and it is not a problem for me, but I am not loud about it. I mostly just don't talk about it to others except for a few spiritual friends.

[Gleb]

Re: Coming out about your religion

I have this problem too, and I can understand how you feel.
First of all, you should understand that paganism is not very spread in the world. People may find it strange and unacceptable.
Being a pagan is not necessary being connected with something evil. But before you tell somebody about your beliefs, you must be certain that you trust him / her!
Even my parents and my best friend don't know I am pagan for sure. They only know my religion is different. I am afraid of the outcome. Because of these I can't tell my friends and relative people about my religion.
Best of luck!

[Riddle]

Re: Coming out about your religion

Although I am relatively new to it, I do intend to stick with Paganism in one form or another, and it is something that I never intend to tell my family. Southern Baptists are scary, and I am the certainly the black sheep lol.

[Claude]

Re: Coming out about your religion

My Mother
She found one of my altars when I first started diverging from mainstream Christianity. It was a Christian mystic altar with angels and Judeo Christian symbols and everything. She took me down to wear it was told me I was worshiping the devil (ironically I was praying to God Mary and Gabriel) then she threw water on it because part of it was chalk. We spent the next fifteen or so minutes erasing and throwing away literally everything having to do with the altar. After that we went to the YMCA to get out memberships. Later that night she came to my room and tried to go threw my notebooks. I snatched those suckers out of her hands and held on to them for dear life. She said "Are they appropriate?" meaning something closer to "Will they be used to light your fiery pit in Hell?" I just ignored her question and she gave up. That was a little over 8ish years ago. Since then I've never spoken to my mom about my religion even though I frequently criticize her for being a bigot based on a religion that she has no understanding of.

My Father
Back when I was still using a lot of magic and really delving into that aspect of paganism I was lazy and left a circle up. I thought "Hmm dad leaves for work before I leave for school and I come home before he does. I can just leave the circle and clean it up when I get home." Well little did I know dad got sick at work and came home. He was doing laundry. Noticing that he had some of my clothes in his clean load he went up to my room and saw my lovely circle. He waited for me to come home then took me to it and sat in my desk chair. He tried acting like he was angry because I didn't talk to him about my religious beliefs but come on what kid wants to talk to their parents about anything? I lied trying to get out of trouble. I blamed one of my friends that I reckoned I'd never see again because we had recently moved. In retrospect it was a stupid cowardly lie. He didn't buy it and once again everything having to do with my altar/circle was thrown away. As soon as the pagan purge ended I went to my desk and frantically searched for my journals. When I couldn't find them I went downstairs and saw my dad sitting there reading them like they were the Sunday morning news. I rage went through me that I'd never felt before and rarely felt since. We got into a huge fight which basically ended in him telling me I have no right to privacy ever. He made me leave my door open for a week regardless of what I was doing. One day he took me to work with him after school to pick something up. He went in and I grabbed my journals and ripped all the pages I had written on out. I was praying that he hadn't read my personal journal or my poetry journal yet. I was perfectly fine with him reading about philosophies and deities that he had no prior knowledge of. There was a better chance that it would go over his head. Father used this first pagan purge as an excuse to express his inner homophobia. A few days before all this happened I came out to him with my school social worker but he hid his true feelings about the matter. Well that all changed after this. He took my phone too and went through my messages. There was this guy I was talking to. I really thought we were going to go somewhere and I was so excited. He sent him a text threatening to call the cops on him. When I found this out another rage went through me and I promptly took my dad's keys and threw them down a storm drain. Probably not the most mature way to handle it but Gods did it feel good. Because of that I blame my dad for the five years of hell that I experienced with that guy. He started treating me badly and trying to bully me and what not. It wasn't like I could avoid him we were guaranteed to have two classes together because we were both in Chamber Choir. Okay so that was the first time.

The second time dad was in my room trying to see if the wall was hollow for a chimney or something. Anyways he found a very very small statue and offering I left out to Aphrodite. He flipped out. I called up his girlfriend hoping that he wouldn't become his troll self and hit me or something. After calling me a Wiccan (which I found insulting) and telling me all about how I was going to burn in Hell he asked me what do I think will happen when I die. He was probably hoping that I'd say something like I'll get taken away on Barney's chariot and live in the Fairy Forest with the busty Goddess and the Horned God. You know just something completely ridiculous. Well I told him about the Three Judges and a brief idea of the Underworld. He just didn't let any of it sink it. He got up and left my room without purging it again. Ohhhh wait hold on at some point during this conversation my dad quoted the Bible saying "Suffer not a witch to live" I just looked at him in disgust and told him "Kill me then"

Since then I've had at least two permanent altars set up. Currently I have six altars in my room and two altars outside. He's tried taking my door off again as punishment for being pagan or being gay. My response is to pray loudly in Latin at odd hours of the night. In my opinion if he takes my door he's just opening my world to his so he must be curious. I should share right? His girlfriend told me he found my tarot cards on my bed and wanted to go through and throw everything away because "You shouldn't mess with that evil crap" He used a harder word than crap. Luckily he trolled his way back to his room and not mine.

My Friends
I've told five friends, my brother and one random person. I've also hinted to nearly everyone I've ever gotten into a religious conversation with. My friends really didn't care. Here are my friends reactions

-Didn't care because she didn't understand it. It probably helped that I dated this chick and we had become really close.

-Took a huge interest and asked me a ton of question. She kept telling me she wanted to understand and how what I was saying made perfect sense. I defend my religion with logic not dogma.

-At a party I told another and we were both rather drunk. I'll be honest I don't remember much of her reaction but I do remember us talking about sacrificing a goat together. This person is easily my closest friend and I'll miss her so much when she moves.

-The other friend I told back when I was still heavily into magic. She started a coven with me that last about a week and then she went back to solitary practice. I had no clue she was a witch before that night.

-The last friend I told really didn't care. She doesn't ask very many questions but she does ask me sometimes for a reading or a spell. I'll do them for her no problem.

Okay so the random person I told was my step sister's martial arts instructor. He was one of the pompous atheist butt holes. I mostly told him to make him uncomfortable because he was ranting about how he's atheist because Christians are stupid. He was also implying that Christianity is the only religion and that the philosophers were all atheists too. Well I laid down a big ole history lesson right on his booty. His jaw dropped and then he left me alone for the rest of the practice.

My brother really didn't care. He asks me a lot of questions and even wanted me to teach him the Runes.

[EndlessCravings]

Re: Coming out about your religion

My mom find out bcuz my sister told her I was on a chatroom,and I had to explain to her why. Well, it didn't go well. She was very upset(mostly over the chatroom). I was pissed bcuz I wanted to tell her when I was ready,not for my sister to tell her,she said it was a accident,but everyone knew it wasn't. She calmed down a bit after she looked up some stuff about it,she doesn't exactly understand it,but she doesn't hold it against me. My mother told me that she would always love,that I would always be her child. Regardless of my religion or beliefs.

[Riddle]

Re: Coming out about your religion

I also had a terrible time with a very closed-minded environment, and do sympathize with you. I am bisexual and was atheist at the time. The first they will also never know about but I had a terrible time when my mother found out I was atheist. While I do wish you luck with your family circumstances, which I can understand to an extent, I am sure the Wiccans here would like to know why you found that insulting.

[Malflick]

Re: Coming out about your religion

I also had a terrible time with a very closed-minded environment, and do sympathize with you. I am bisexual and was atheist at the time. The first they will also never know about but I had a terrible time when my mother found out I was atheist. While I do wish you luck with your family circumstances, which I can understand to an extent, I am sure the Wiccans here would like to know why you found that insulting.

I think I can answer that for them: its insulting because their Dad lumped them in with another group of people, ignoring the distinctness and difference of their own beliefs. It would be some someone thinking I was a Baptist, Muslim, or Jew. Being those things isn't bad, in fact it can be awesome (waves at Dumuzi!) and that's not whats offensive about it. Whats offensive is someone thinking that you are exactly the same as something else, just because the person speaking to you doesn't know any better.