Pomona's bumping up of her brilliant "Living with a Witch" has beaten me to it by a whisker (but made it topical so ta muchly)

I was curious to know how many of us are living with fellow pagans of whatever persuasion or with "others".

The Ancient Mariner is a muggle (highly sympathetic muggle but muggle nonetheless) and in some ways I am quite glad of it. He tends to be a very stabilising influence and sometimes it is good to have a totally opposite view to bounce against. Having to explain (justify?) things to him has forced me to work them out for myself beforehand because he is a formidable debating opponent who takes no prisoners if there is a flaw in the argument.

The only time we have had two pagans in the house was the 18 months that my moonson lived with us and then the A.M. was a very grounding force - if there was a tendancy for Gell and I to go all Niel from the Young Ones, the A.M. would wade in with a tidal wave of common sense. "No, no, Gaia is not angry with you, the thunderstorm has tripped the fuses, that's all" (slight exaggeration but you get the idea.)

I'm not saying I wouldn't like to be paired off with a like minded soul ...... in fact, well ..... long hair a must, photo appreciated, reply to my email address ....

Yup I am partnered with a muggle too. He is understanding and likes my spiritual side but we don't discuss much so in a way I am much alone. Would I like a similar minded soul in my life, yes but friendship is ok, would like to do some joint celebrations and go to places of a pagan nature without having to worry about the other person so much. A bit selfish maybe but being with a non pagan can be difficult in some cases.

A Therevada Buddhist ex-teaching ex-monk

Not sure what the worser half counts as.

He's interested and open-minded,comes along to moots, joins in the odd ritual and likes nothing better than ferreting out stone age sites but overall I think he's quite happy sat on the fence.

It suits me; I'm sure we'd get on fine if he were pagan, but I like him as he is. The main point is that he's not Christian.

I'm currently single, so I can do what I please (again, long hair preferred, photo appreciated ). However, my family is of the Christian variety (some more practising than others) and most of my friends are the usual "non-spiritual" people (BTW why do we suddenly have a couple of generations of people who believe in nothing?) or Christians (of the nice variety - yes, they do exist, honest! ) with one Buddhist I know.

There is one friend who is pagan - entertainingly realised it at about the same time that I did, cue a very very funny conversation - and it's nice to at least know someone, but since we're both very new to all this, it would be nice to have some more "experienced" pagan friends (does that sound dodgy? )

I'm wondering if the next bloke in my life will work it out for himself, will already be pagan, or will go "What's that?" if I tell him. If it's serious, then I'll tell him - I couldn't go out with anyone long-term who didn't share or wasn't sympathetic to my path.

Maybe I'll print out Pomona's post as a kind of "Boyfriend to Pagan 101"....

My husband is a lifelong Catholic, though he hasn't been to church since we took on the hotel and he hasn't been able to take communion since we got together (sin etc). I really find the Catholic church so anti-progress I can't sympathise with his attachment, but I do respect that it's given him enough spiritual reward that he wants to stick with it.

He is also totally in tune with doing homemade rituals and minor magic, honouring the spirits of place etc, which I put down to his Scottish/Irish ancestry. He used to be an altar boy and is very good with incense. I think what we share is an understanding that religion can feed spirituality and that spirituality goes beyond religion.

I'm all for ecumenical progress, me. By the by, when we sell the hotel, the house we are proposing to buy is opposite a Catholic church. That will be interesting.

My husband came to paganism the same time as me, so it is something we have grown in together. I tend to do more reading & researching about religion & spirituality though. But he's very open to hearing about & discussing things I "discover" (as long as the football's not on!!)

My partner is pagan. His path is darker and more chaotic than mine and his ways in some measure parallel mine whilst also diving off at some extreme tangents. Although it wasn't something we discussed when we met, it was something that we gradually grew to know and understand about each other and it is a very essential part of our closeness... that some things need not be spoken, they are already understood. It is a relief not to have to justify and explain my beliefs constantly. The dissimilarities are a stimulating ( mostly ) irritant and the similarities enrich the relationship considerably.

Not sure how to describe mine, vaguely christian I suppose. Although her beliefs are christian based, they also include elements from other paths. She has a vague idea of my beliefs, but it's not something we discuss, more a case of each to their own.

Most of the spiritual discussion tends to be with my youngest. She doesn't hold any particular religious beliefs, but she does take an interest in what I'm doing, and has bought me 'pagan' presents for xmas, etc.

Err, tolerant!



I think Vert really defies any definition - he tries himself without success to be succinct about it, but basically he believes in something, probably, but holds that the human mind is too inadequate to really understand and comprehend what any divine may be, so has to narrow it into almost "bite-size" chunks. And that those chunks fall far short of what the truth really is.

He's a born-again cynic, is how he'd describe it, but if pushed will say that many of the ideas of Paganism come closer to how he perceives the universe than other religions.

But that's about as definitive as I can be!

We have great conversations where he holds forth on the view that humans can really have no conception of the extent of god/gods and I tell him that as a polytheist I see them as very distinct and separate and they very definitely let me know their extent thanks very much!

Pagan, heathen infact. Very vocal about it too but you all know him so why I'm even replying I have no idea except it's another oppertunity to shout 'HEY! That gorgeous Viking type is MY BLOKE!'

Lucky sod. I'd only roll over a Viking to get to Jack Sparrow - notice the running theme - all bloody sailors, every one of 'em.

T

Watch it Thunar, when I roll over someone, they stay rolled over!

Mine's a Spiritualist, which makes for very interesting drunken conversation. The rest of the time, it doesn't get talked about much.

mine's a muggle, but then again I don't actually class myself as a pagan...more of a student of the occult arts.

my bfs a......a........ must be a muggle....but then again..he doesnt believe in ANYTHING!!...religiously he is "in puris naturalibus" if it cant be scientificly proved then it doesnt exsist! he's one of those people who love telling kiddies Santa clause isnt real!

Losing interest in gaining an insignificant other a while back I have to go with my group of friends.
One of my friends is spiritual in nature, and is becoming more interested in spellwork.
The rest, some are agnostic I'd say. Some are non-religous.

My flatmate hates organised religion in any of it's shapes or forms. Can't stand it. At all.

My fiancé started out as 'other'... Sitting on the fence, tolerant of what I did, and every now and then he'd join in, or come to a moot, etc.

But in the last year he's decided to research Thelema and Hermetic magic, so now he classes himself as a Hermetic Magician.

Raising the kiddies should be interesting (when we have them)... We've already planned a family temple, with 'Daddies' shed-temple outside the house for when he does the really crazy magic (Abramelin sequence anyone?)

Blessings,

Kim

Mine's a catholic.

Mine classes himself as a pagan, but doesn't follow a set path. He's reading books here and there and generally soaking up information, but tbh I think he's quite happy as he is (and so he should be - he's lovely )

I'm sure you all know who my far better half is as she is also a member here, the lovely lady Danae classes herself as a pagan and is finding her own path.

Storm Raven

I'll never forget the time me and Him Indoors were at the Respect Festival in Hackney a few years back and we filled in a questionnaire for somebody and he ticked Pagan as his religion. It made me feel all warm and gooey inside.

But I think he leans toward Shamanism more than Paganism; he has a great interest in psychodelics, mushrooms and the like and how they're used to commune with Spirits. It does give us some great drunken put the world to rights conversations!

Single at present but my family is open minded and dont mind.

Mine is not really a Muggle, he was an atheist, now he calls himself "Pagan Friendly" LOL!

Ex is bugger all. He's too involved in playing online games, Starwars, Unreal Touramment etc to notice there's a world out there! So I'd say he's beyond Mugglehood!

So he's a 'Virtual' then?

Mines an ex moon beam for Satan wannabe...then he turned awfully normal on me. Though he does still dig every weird arse conspiracy theory going...so salvagable in the oddity stacks.

Q

Mine's an atheist, though if you ask him he'll just say he believes in nothing - doesn't see why he should be labelled and rightly so!
He does have an interest in folk stories and old celtic tales, and finds himself drawn towards megalithic monuments and the like.
If pushed I'd say he is more Pagan than anything but as he is against labels we'll never know!

Oh, mine's a sailor too- or rather, I should say a man of the sea or some such nonsense Mine all mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erm....mine is non exsistent

I do however live with an atheist, a catholic, a sort of spiritualist and a two year old
my ex/now very good friend is a erm...ritual magician I guess so I do get to talk/argue about spiritual stuff lol