i just read in some book that when u become involved in witchcraft that most people get a "coming home feeling " because u was a witch in a past life so u would be drawn to it becuase its ment to be,

to tell the truth i didnt know if i should laugh or if i agree? just woundering what other people think i mean it could be possable but if it was wouldnt there be more documented evedince i know that a lot of it was lost or that poeple couldnt write back in the day but wouldnt there be a tiny bit more, as im not really sure if i belive in this garderner bloke as well i know that he excisted but how can u find fact from fiction, dont knw why im questioning it so much maybe a change is a coming??

I felt a 'coming home ' feeling but if I recall it wasn't any book by Gerald Gardner, just a dawning realisation that Pagansim was for me, and Witchcraft also, actually it was Rae Beth and the Farrars books that did it for me.
Official records were just being kept from the 1800's so I doubt if you'll find a previous birth/death certificate for yourself from an earlier life, even if you knew a name from a past life. Nothing may be that clarified anyway, as past life regressions /memories would be very nebulous, its this life now and we have to live it well and fulfillingly.

Like Sherrington, it was an ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... so thats my path, thats who I've always been!! I just didn't know the name was witch and the
path was pagan!!.. I had to get over the stupid proganda stuff, of the pentacle and then I went on and have been reading ever since!! LOL

I've always believed in astrology, reincarnation.. my mom was always into those things and believed in ghosts, etc.. The strange thing, is now that I'm on this path, she won't talk about it and has gotten um going to bible studies.. LOL and

Also, I was told in my early 20's, that I had powers and it was strange, at a restaurant I worked at, one of the girls there was known as a strong witch and she wasn't um particulary nice.. One night, tho she just looked at me.. said something to me.. and then she stayed very far away from me, like she was scared of me!
Lol..

I started, before this path with reading Shirley MacClaine books,
Mary Summer Rain books~ great author! and was into Creative Visualization, Affirmations. for a looooooooong time... then gasp, along came the net, explored more..found a pagan chat group and forum and 5 yrs later, here I am ~ at UK.. Yay!!! lol !!

Just follow your heart and gut... go slow, doesn't matter when it began, but you're here now!

blessings Whispered~


ps: as far as past life things go, who cares? It is the present that matters.
I do remember some past lifes, vaguely. Was I witch in them.. no, but it doesn't mean that there weren't past lifes where I was or maybe I wasn't? lol
Heartwise, I'm guessing always pagan. or evoling to this pt.

I can't really say that I felt like I was coming home, but I did feel very comfortable with being a Pagan, and I didn't even know that they had a name for it. I just thought I'd gone off religion. I was a Methodist growing up and had to go to Bible school. And even in my childhood years, I just wasn't comfortable. (Also went to RC once in awhile as that was Dad's religion. Mom was a methodist) To say I was a bit confused is an understatement which may have had something to do with me being uncomfortable.

So I decided to go off on my own spiritual path or at least look for something I could be more comfortable with. Even at that time and now, I was an agnostic regarding a 'one' God.

Just doesn't make sense to me. Why would God or a superior being just play with creation? Doesn't seem to be around does he? Oh, prayers, but then again, to me prayer is a form of meditation and it's focusing on yourself and what it is you want to change or have happen in my life.

To me Gods and Goddess are more real because the ancients imbued them with human qualities as well as some 'super' powers and I honor them as my ancesters may have done. And they are here to guide IMHO anyway

Realising I was pagan made me feel that I found my way home.
The more I explore the more I feel I am getting home.
I am not there yet but I am getting closer

Dont know about coming home, but certainly a feeeling of contentment. I was told by the woman who innitiated me that once a witch, always a witch also.
It is a difficult one to answer personally but in my case i think there is a lot going for that train of thought.
This is certainly one topic i will follow closely

At the time I certainly felt that this is something I've always believed in but did not have the words to articulate that belief.

However, as time goes by although I am still sympathetic to Paganism I am becoming more and more cynical towards great chunks of it, particularly with regard to the wiccan tradition. I'm also becoming more logically attracted to Humanism even though it is a one trick pony, as it were.

... agree. Definately have that sense of 'coming home' feeling, a sort of contentment. Am still very new to this path but am learning and reading as much as I can and just taking it sloooow. In fact, this is my first post and I've been a 'read only' member for a while.

I'm feeling particularly contented and grateful today as have had a bit of a scare this week - my baby (male) cockatoo escaped on Tues evening but was returned to us yesterday by the RSPCA (thank goodness for such organisations). I sat in the light of the moon during the week and prayed that he would stay safe and be returned to us. The chances of this happening, I knew, were very slim. But he is back home, with us now (and his female companion) completely safe and sound - having had quite a 30 mile round trip/adventure...

Sorry, back to original discussion - yep, it's a sort of aaaaaahhhh feeling.

Blessings.

Think most of us go through a 'Wiccan' stage, just a part of the Path, not the whole of it, actually on my more benign days I regard it as Kindergarten, and we grow, develop and move on

Never thought of it like that - I'm sure you're right!

Not sure about "coming home"... *thinks* .... but it feels right. Paganism is a wide definition and sometimes I get sort of confused about it. People with black hair and white faces call themselfs pagans, people with wands and robes call themselfs pagans, people with knives and leather caps call themselfs pagans, people with a black cat and herb garden calls themselfs pagans. It could be a language thing. In my language the word "pagan" does not exist. You could be a "hedning" or a "häxa" or a "gudinnedyrkare", among other things. Pagan is too wide... and I don´t really know where in that definition I fit in!
But when I connected to the "old believes" I certainly felt I belonged there. That is the female mother of all, the wonder in natures creation and the importence to keep it sacred and in honour. I felt a connection all the way back to my ancestors and that, in a way, is a homecoming.
(Am I responding to the wrong thing?)

Different language , same meaning!!!!

I describe it more as finally realising what I am. I disagree with Gardner though about being a witch in a past life. Poppycock I am what I am.

Old Ma was very careful to try and bring me up to "fit in" - didn't work, obviously. Despite teaching me all the witchy things she did, she insisted I went to church and synagogue etc .... my coming home feeling came when I read Mists of Avalon and realised that there was a name for it.

Then discovering it still existed and there were other people out there who felt like I did ... ooooooooooooooh! New tribe!

And totally YES with Sherringham - Wicca for me was introductory and a very good stepping stone onto finding my own particular path. I don't even resent looking like a complete berk in the uniform for a few years!

When I realised I was pagan I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders! Things became clearer and I understood why I did certain things. Now I feel free and very content with my beliefs.

I wouldn't say it was like coming home, it was more like remembering me and yes, it is my belief that it was reincarnation and meant to be.

I don't think everyone has to feel this way, I don't think every witch is a reincarnated witch from a past life. I also don't think hereditary witches have a better undersanding of witchcraft than a witch who has found the path on his/her own. So mote it be covers all and as witches, we follow our path as part of what mote be.

Blessings
trw

I think the biggest relief to me is in not having to justify myself to anyone (except perhaps in my choice of reading material - pagans are a tolerant bunch but some draw the line at Harry Potter ), so in that sense it is like "coming home": that feeling of relief and relaxation that people not going to dismiss my beliefs out of hand, that exploration and enquiry is actively encouraged, and also the joyous sense that no one has all the answers and anyone who says they have should be treated with massive suspicion.

I haven't had a "Wiccan Phase" - possibly because I came round to this later in life and from the Buddhist direction. The ceremonial aspects don't really appeal, although I may start to include circles and quarters in ritual work, depending on what I fancy.

But it's up to *me* what I do, and that is sheer bliss - never again am I going to have *anyone* dictate to me what I should or should not believe! And for that, let me raise thanks up on high

I so agree - I know loads of witches who claim no heredity and have studied so much more than the "seventh daughter of seventh daughter " lovlies who don't feel that they have to work at it. Somehow it was born in their blood - no sorry - everyone has to work at it, even if they have a witch in the family!

yup. it's in my Blood, and I'm no better than anyone else I've met here. you still have to work hard at it. I've met people with no background in it who are naturals, and other people with a family connection who have no instinct whatsoever.

being born into it doesn't make you bigger, better or stronger.

it just might mean that you started younger.

but not always.

"Coming Home" ? Nah, just being me and finding a convenient and generally accepted label for it after my first twenty years or so of simply not realising that this particular label fits as close as any. I've always been "home", I just didn't realise it.

Nah not coming home. Just a realisation and acceptance of what I am and no longer trying to find my niche, so to speak. Some aprehension as well, particularly, when I finally realised there is an awful lot of studying to be done, lots to learn.... I found it a little daunting at first, even off putting - I'm one of those people who tends to pick things up quickly and become expert (further reinforced by my work life of being the person who learned software etc, then became expert enough to write office manuals and do the training of the staff)

I tend, also, to get bored easily - perhaps because I'm a gemini.. one day, tho, I woke up and suddenly realised the vastness and richness of this path I'm starting on and the excitment kicked in; the knowledge that I'd never get bored - oh there are parts I struggle with, feel intense frustration, parts I'm tempted to jump over and move on.. although perhaps thankfully, I'm also stubborn as well as flighty and I don't believe in short cuts.

Nope, not come home, for me I've put on my coat and starting off on a very very long journey, one its doubtful I'll complete in this lifetime.

Not so much coming home as packing my bags for a long journey. Still kind of coming to terms with this thing, but feels comfortable - a bit like putting on my boots after a long time in the house. I guess my real problem is making time to give this some conserted effort, but that's entirely up to me and inertia.

Blessings.
Here Here!!
I was a young lass when I finially found my place, even tho my mum was a Witch.
Wandering around, and not getting any help from her, I turned to reading books.
I picked up a book called the Magick Cauldron, and could "feel" I belonged there.
Id always had a passion for egypt also, so it just kinda happened. I use to think by accident, but not so!
Pity she never shared her gifts with me, all she could tell me when I bought my first (er) black candle, was "be careful, you dont know what your messin with".
Gee thanks.
I have children of my own, and grandchildren, and thank the gods/goddess I share my knowledge. And guide all I can along the way.
I belive also Wicca is a good stepping stone, it might help open up the direction we are ment to travel.
I feel I have a real family now, where before I had none, and Im happy Im "home" here.
Love, LadyP

I had the coming home feeling when I was studying Druidry. This was after I had studied Wicca for quite a while. I do not read anything into it though as I since moved on to Heathenry which I have been studying now for roughly seven years.

Singe

No it didn't feel like a homecoming for me.

I am probably the first practising pagan in my family for over a thousand years. It does feel right though.

Hi Elmfire,

"Coming home"? Yes, definitely, from the first time I found other Pagans to talk to. A feeling that hasn't changed at all in the years since.

Hi Rev. Nick.

"At the time I certainly felt that this is something I've always believed in but did not have the words to articulate that belief. "

Yes, that was very much my feeling too. A sense of not so much discovering my path but of rediscovering it. Of bringing up into the conscious mind something that I already understood in my bones.

Hi Sherringham.

"Think most of us go through a 'Wiccan' stage, just a part of the Path, not the whole of it, actually on my more benign days I regard it as Kindergarten, and we grow, develop and move on"

Why the hostility?

Like any other Pagan path, the spiritual validity and power of Wicca is largely dependent on the the hard work and devotion each individual practitioner puts into learning to understand themselves, the Goddess(es) and God(s), and the techniques that can help to develop forms of relationship between the two. What is done, experienced and learned is more important than the labels attached to the process. In many ways, Wicca is more a kind of Mystery 'school' offering techniques for opening doorways and exploring pathways within Pagan religion, than a self contained religious tradition. Being experiential rather than doctrinal, it does not so much teach you things as give you the opportunity to learn them for yourself - if you're willing to do that. Which in turn means that you can find Wiccans who've developed in many different directions while remaining unambiguously Wiccan.

Like most Wiccans I know, I deplore the tide of trite 'pop Wicca' books that flood the market. Most bear very little ressemblance to anything I've ever actually seen with my own eyes. They are useful only in the way that exposure to infectious diseases in childhood is necesary to the proper development of your immune system! In practice, there seem to be many forms of Wicca, some overlapping with each other and some not. Some very much rooted in this earth, and some seemingly on other planets as yet unknown to astronomy!

Wicca is not something you pick up from reading a few books or trying to cast a few spells. Wicca (in the strict sense) is something you become part of by being initiated into an effective coven and spending many years studying, worshipping, learning and developing within the community that gives access to. I don't believe there are any shortcuts. I do know folk who have practised Wicca with serious commitment and devotion for 40, even 50, years. With all due respect to those concerned for the wellbeing of others, anyone trying to put them into kindergarten might find the experience a profoundly educational one.

You say "we grow, develop and move on." To a large extent I'd agree with that but would like to make the point that whatever path we follow, this is something we have to do through our own will, piety and hard work. It is not something our chosen path will do for us, we have to do it for ourselves. Our moving on may carry us deeper into one path or into other, perhaps many other, paths. That's as it should be, for folk differ greatly in their spiritual needs, abilities and experiences.

I'm not saying all Pagan paths are the same. I'm not knocking your experience of your tradition. I'm not saying Wicca is better than any other path. I am saying that for those who find it calls to their heart and who seriously devote themselves to it, it can bring that degree of understanding of self and cosmos, that experiential knowledge of the Goddess(es) and the God(s), and even that bit of wisdom which can recognise the wholeness and fulfillment of living as life should be lived, which other people on other paths, whether they're practitioners of different forms of Pagan Witchcraft, Druids, Heathens, Shamans or other traditions also seem to experience with what calls as strongly to them.

BB,

John Macintyre