Please ignore that last message, it obviously went to the wrong NG (it was
supposed to go to alt.religion.wicca.moderated)

You can answer it if you like, though :-)

I didn't go looking for Felinology, they found me. Before long, I found
myself a full convert, and wouldn't be allowed to leave even if I wanted to.
They won't let me!

Yowie

I'm not fully Wiccan, but rather follow a mixture of Wicca and
shamanism, which is something I got into heavily whilst I was in Belize.
In my case it was more a set of spiritual beliefs that I could subscribe
to, understood and seemed to fit my personal ideology.

Helen M

I'm Wiccan and I never actually set out to become one.  I was raised a
Lutheran.  All my life though I have had prophetic dreams, seen
spirits, and other general weirdness.  The Fundamentalists thought I
was in Satan's power and the Lutherans thought I had a blessing from
God, but they had no idea of how to tell me what I was supposed to DO
with it.

Meanwhile, in my late teens I began feeling a real lack of connection
to God and it bothered me.  I had trouble concentrating in sermons and
when I joined my university church group, I got annoyed that their
focus seemed to be on saving the gays, atheists and members of other
religions from hell rather than on being in touch with Deity.   I also
clashed with them on some of my inborn religious beliefs that I've had
all my life, such as that animals have souls and that God isn't "male"
or "female" but either/both/neither.

So I first started reading Wiccan books in order to address the
dreams/visions issue, and ended up realizing that spiritually, Wicca
was pretty much what I'd believed all along.  I've found designing and
performing my own rituals to be much more satisfying than sitting and
watching someone else do it.

I'm also a member of the Universalist Unitarian church--a church
community WITHOUT dogma, with respect to different ways of thought,
that encourages you to think, debate, discuss.

--Fil

I was raised in a Disciples of Christ (yes gang, the same group that James
Jones started out in) Congregation.  I realized that as much as I wanted to
believe, most of the members were a bunch of hypocrites.  So, other than
dabbling in Evangelism, Seventh Day Adventistism and Mormonism, I remained
heart free.  I just knew that I feel closer to God(ess) outdoors.  I didn't
have a name for it, just knew that Witchcraft was looked on with horror by
every church I'd been exposed to.  Then a friend of mine announced that she
had left the Episcopal Church to become a Wiccan.  I wanted to understand
what she was talking about and started out by reading Scott Cunningham's
"Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner."  I realized that it was close to my
beliefs, but not quite a great fit.  So I guess you can call me an Eclectic
Pagan.

Pam S.