Thread: Fellow pagans, how have you been treated, based on your religious/culture beliefs?...

...good/bad. tell your story?
sometimes you don't even need the book to learn about paganism you can learn from it from family members, or friends. i am not 14, and i am a practicing pagan. most pagans i know are over 18.

So far I've been treated okay, I suppose. My parents respect me and most of my friends are either also Pagans or don't really care what religion anyone belongs to. Seriously, when I told my best friend I had converted, she just said "Okay" and we went on to a new topic because there was just nothing else that needed to be said. On the other hand, I always feel like I have to be really careful about where I talk about my beliefs or who I tell. For example, I can't tell my mom's side of the family because my grandmother is a strong Italian Catholic who just wouldn't get it and the rest of the relatives, though no longer so strongly Catholic, just wouldn't get it either. Their reactions could range from mild shock to totally disowning me, and I'd rather not deal with those things. I'm not sure about my dad's side because we didn't have much contact while I was growing up, but from what he's told me about them lately they seem like a pretty liberal bunch who would just shrug and deal with it.

I also feel like I have to be really careful around my town, because it's a small town and there are some really conservative folks living there. I'm afraid to wear my little pentacle butterfly earrings in town (which is really sad because they were a Christmas present from my mom right after I converted but before she knew about it....long but highly amusing story if you really want to know). When I bought my first pentacle pendant I made sure it wasn't an obvious design, just in case I run into the wrong people while I'm wearing it. I suppose I'm being a bit paranoid, but I'm also fully aware of just how hard it can be to stand out in a small town setting and of how dangerous it can be to stand out for doing something as "different" and misunderstood as being Pagan, so I'd rather keep my beliefs private and thus run a lower risk of bringing harm upon myself or my family.

My beliefs, as far as I am concerned are private so no one in the community knows unless I tell them. I have found that I have no problems with others as long as I don't use the word Wicca in any conversation.
On here however I have been told by Fellow Wiccans/Pagans that despite my over 30 years of research that I know none of the truth and that I believe what another wiccan group says who, according to the first group, are such liars (seems it takes one to know one), and they are the "Only True Wiccans" or that "Wicca is a New age or New religion". That goes without saying who or what, but I am sure they know who they are. Another reason I preferred being a solitary. I have also been sniped by many so called Christians... Did they realize that Christianity is based on the teachings of a man who was Jewish? Most of the time though I get along with most groups.

I've seen both sides. My mother in law gave me crap for a while. And when religion comes up, she slams me for it. But most people have been fairly decent and non judgmental about it.