About me

I started these introductory posts too early – I am running out of things to say before the beginning of the course. So I will take the opportunity to talk about myself a bit.
I started on my path as a pagan something like 15 years ago. At that time, I did not know anything about internet, but I had read a lot of self-help books and stumbled over a copy of Starhawk's “Spiral Dance”, and Z. Budapest's “The holy book of Woman's Mysteries”. Both books influenced my spiritual path enormously, but it took years before I became aware of the vast community of Wiccans and pagans around the world. Over the time, I have read pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I was fascinated when I discovered the Church of All Worlds because I had read Stranger in a Strange Land before and had been impressed by it. Contact to a traditional Gardnerian coven made me much more aware of the history and traditions of Wicca, and through the huge amount of information on the web I learned a lot about the positive and negative aspects of Wicca.
However, I became increasingly aware that British Traditional Wicca was not the right path for me: I had a tendency to think and question too much. I was also unhappy with the superficial and magic-oriented approach I encountered on the other end of the scale. My search finally lead me to a more scholarly oriented tradition that emphasises religion over magic and knowledge over dogma – Universal Eclectic Wicca.
Today, I believe the important part is to lead a meaningful life, within the ethical bounds of my religion, and to honour the Divine in its many manifestations. Everything else is optional. This is the spirit in which I write this blog – but I will write a lot about the optional part.

The importance of practise

Most religions have a (more or less clear) definition of what makes you a member of that religion. You have to be baptised to be a Christian, or initiated for some branches of Wicca etc.

For me, the important question is not whether somebody is officially recognized as a member of a religion or tradition or whatever. The important question is: Does it make a difference? Am I influenced by the ideas about Divinity, about the world, that are part of my religion, or is my life disconnected from my believes?

There are two areas where a connection can be recognized most easily. The first one is ethics: Are my choices, my decisions, influenced by the ethics of my religion? Or am I preaching one thing and doing the other? The most important prerequisite for this is theoretical knowledge about the ethics of my religion and awareness in those situations when I have to make decisions.

The second one is practise. A practising catholic goes to church on Sundays, fasts during lent, etc. What do I do as a practising Wiccan? That is what I want to explore during this year. Of course I will include the wheel of the year, but mostly, the idea is to get away from those “special” days and reach towards a daily practise that is not dependent on outer circumstances but furthers our contact with the Divine constantly.