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So What's A Nice Catholic Girl Like Me Doing With A Website Like This?

My parents raised me to have a healthy respect for religion; I've always felt that all that Catholic School and Saturday-morning Catechism were in large part responsible for the ethics and morals I have today. And it's not that have many issues with what I was taught to believe. So why now, at 30, am I looking at something which is so different from the faith I was raised in?

It has a lot to do with recent events in my life (sorry, no details!), and the feeling that I was unprepared to deal with them in a responsible and healthy way. That, coupled with the fact that I have long since lost most connections to the faith of my childhood, made me want to reclaim in a conscious fashion, the spirituality that I still feel, but only in a very nebulous, background sort of way.

Examining Wicca is for me, not a fad, or a straw to be grasped at. This is actually a revisitation to ideas I had found to resonate within me, yet still be somehow dissatisfying, over ten years ago. This time, I'm hoping to sort out what attracted me, and what disappointed me, and to form it all into a whole which represents the spirituality which has always been present in me.

Even should I not find all the anwers I'm looking for, I won't have wasted my time. Anything we do in this world, regardless of the outcome, is an opportunity to learn about ourselves. At any rate, we'll see how it goes...

A Word About This Site

I have a Message Board on this site, and I welcome comments and encouragement from anyone who might visit. However, I have been discouraged of late because it seems that people aren't "getting" the purpose of my website. Let me state, in no uncertain terms: I am no expert on Wicca. I'm a beginner. I don't know any spells, nor how to celebrate most of the Sabbats. I don't have a Book of Shadows, and I don't know where the best place to find one is.

What the site is, is a place where I can document my journey. If you're a beginner like me, and want to share your similar experiences, or if you are more experienced and would like to offer me guidance, that's all good... But if you are going to tell me that my site is boring, because I don't have all the answers you are looking for, or spells, or rituals, then you are looking at the wrong site. Please just go on to the next one, as opposed to telling me how my site is lacking.

That's the same as telling me to skip the groundwork of discovering why Wicca calls to my spiritual side, and going straight to pretending that I know something I don't. Performing spells or rituals, without understanding, seems to me to be a fraud and waste of time. Since I'm not in this for show, I'm not into that. So if you can relate to what I'm saying, by all means, drop me a line...

You Might Be Wondering...

So, it might occur to you that I haven't identified myself thus far. Not going to, yet, either! I'm a cautious kind of a person, and am usually loathe to completely submerge myself in anything before I'm ready. So I need a little space for now. But I will say that I live in Winnipeg, and do have friends that are in the pagan community. One reason I'm not saying anything much about me for now, is that I want to make sure that what I'm doing, and the path I take, is for me - not just what seems obvious because that's what my friends are doing - we are all guilty of acting a bit like sheep at some points in our lives!

So for now, I will remain anonymous, or you can call me Penniah, which is from my e-mail address, but is also an old family name. It's special to me because in my genealogy research, I know many names and dates, but seldom find the details, of my ancestors' lives. A woman named Penniah Pride was a many-times-great-grandmother to me in Nova Scotia. I've often wondered what she was like, what she held dear, and what challenges she faced. There's really no way to know, but using her name as a handle is a small way that I can somehow remember her.

Details on the Website

I'm not one for keeping a journal - but I do love the web... so this appears to be a good way to put it all together, and encourage me to keep a record of my journey. I've just thrown this page together in a few hours, and it's pretty bare - just me rambling. It will be interesting to see how it changes as I learn more, and make the site represent what I've discovered.

Random Quotations on Women:

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Big time disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing the validity of the sentiments expressed in all of these quotations. Some make me want to cheer, others make me want to throw things - but they all make me think!