This week, our question was: What drew you into the occult, and how has that viewpoint changed/been reinforced?
Well, to be really honest, I was "drawn to the occult" because I thought it was cool. I was about 12 when I stumbled across Wicca. It was 1999 and I was in my first year of junior high. I had moved to a new school so I didn't know anyone at first. Over the first few months I became really good friends with two people, one of whom ended up telling me that her sister was a witch. I outright laughed at this. I thought that witches were found in movies or cartoons, with green, warty skin and long, crooked noses, wearing pointed black hats and black robes, riding brooms. Yep. I had no idea real witches existed. I'd never heard of the Salem Witch Trials or the Witch-hunts during the Reformation. So, you can well imagine my surprise when I found out there were actual witches - people that looked like you and me. I was fascinated, and naturally, wanted to learn everything I could. I scoured the internet, discovered the local "witch" shop, and spent some time in the library looking for books. Remember though, I was 12. So essentially, I found a handful of websites that didn't really have a whole lot of information on them, went in the shop a few times and didn't really buy much beyond some jewellery and incense, and took out one book from the library.
At that time, I was most intrigued by spells. I was a 12 year-old pre-teen girl, so of course that's what I'd be drawn to most. After doing that initial "research", I decided that I would try a spell to help my Dad's computer stop crashing. What harm could it do? It was an inanimate object and I wasn't hurting anyone, so it should be fine, right? Well...about a week after my "spell" the computer ended up messing up so badly we had to get a new one. Was it my spell, or did it need to be replaced anyway? Whatever the case, it freaked me out enough to put a stopper in my wonderment with Wicca for a year or two.
In my last year of junior high, we had an orientation at the library one day. The librarian was telling/showing us some new books they'd gotten in, when she came to a book called Blood Witch, which was the third book in a new series called Sweep. It sounded neat to me, so I decided to give it a go, and as a result of reading that book my interest in Wicca was sparked again. This time though, I was in it for the "right" reasons. Everything I was reading now seemed to click. The holidays, the duality of the divine, the elements - everything seemed right to me.
So to get to the question at hand - I guess you could say that spells drew me to the occult. Where as when I first discovered things I just thought it was "cool", now I understand the purpose of spell craft and it means a lot more to me now than it did back then. It was just something fun to try and dabble in at first, but now I see spells as prayers rather than something to try out for fun. Through my own self-discovery and learning, my view point changed dramatically. I also think that 14 years of "growing" might have something to do with it too.
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