Pagan Journaling Practice: Week #1

While playing around on Pinterest I came across a pin for a blog called Nature Bound Pagan which sent me to these posts that featured weekly journaling prompts for Pagans (the link will lead you to this exact spot, but I do recommend checking out the rest of her blog; it’s well done). I thought this concept was a great idea, especially for someone who is just starting a blog, like myself, and also starting their path (or already started, but still learning).
I do still plan on doing Yule focused posts throughout December, but a weekly blog prompt will help me keep up on posting and studying.
So without further ado, I will start off my Pagan Journaling Practice – Week 1:

• I came to know about Paganism because… of a friend in middle school who introduced me to it. I’m not totally positive where she first discovered it, but that’s how I was introduced. I stayed on the path from about 8th grade through to my first year of college, then I fell off. I recently decided to get back on track after realizing the disconnect I felt to a lot of things, mostly the world itself, and discovering that I had subconsciously created an altar at my desk at work (lol), so I knew what was missing from my life after that.
• Three things about Paganism I don’t understand or that concern me are… Part of me is concerned about not having a pantheon, as far as ritual goes. I am concerned about accidentally drawing attention to negative energies/spirits or trickster type deities lol, I’ve got enough drama in my life. And, I don’t know if this is a Paganism concern more so than just a personal concern, but trying to balance my Pagan life and my mundane life, since I’m in the broom closet (but with an open door).
• Three things about Paganism I would be interested to study further are… The Sabbats and how to properly celebrate them as well as performing solitary rituals. I’d also hope to study Cottage Witchcraft further. And I’d love to learn more about Pagan afterlife beliefs; so far I know of Summerland, reincarnation, and Valhalla, but I’m curious to know more since I’ve always had an interest in the different ideas people have about what comes after death; if anything.
• My religion before I was Pagan was… Nondenominational Christian, I suppose. My parents did not raise my brother and I to be a certain religion and we never attended church (at least not until we got older and friends would invite us and we could decide if we wanted to or not). If we had questions, our parents would respond honestly with what they believed, but made sure to specify that that was their idea and not the only idea. They could be wrong and not everyone believes that same thing and that’s okay, etc. So I feel really lucky to have grown up in a family that didn’t believe in indoctrination of any belief system.
• Five things I appreciate about my previous religion are… I wasn’t super into my previous “religion” so I guess…I like that it taught about peace, loving everyone, and accepting everyone for who they are. I think that’s all I can come up with haha
• I appreciate these things because… They are the way a decent human being should act and think, regardless of religious beliefs (or lack of religious beliefs); love and peace and understanding should be practiced each day. Hate and anger are so exhausting and serve nothing.
• Three things I wish I could have changed about my previous religion are… That people of that faith would actually follow the philosophies (or teachings) of Jesus Christ and not cherry pick the bullshit in the Bible to suit their preference to hate on others for being different. I don’t like the notion people got that Christianity was the only true religion and I really don’t like the whole Hell thing. Never believed in it.
• I am attracted to Paganism because… I like that it’s more nature based. It gives me a sense of connectedness not only to the Earth, but actually to the Divine. I feel that my worship is actually personal and meaningful. It forces me to practice mindfulness and inner peace through my own motivation vs fear of being “punished” for erring.
• The Pagan tradition I am most interested in right now is… Yule (and all of the other Sabbats and Esbats/Esabbats; I love celebrating and decorating)
• The reasons why I am interested in this tradition are… Yule, in particular, because it’s that time of year so I can really focus my studies on it. However, in general, I’m interested in learning the celebrations so that I can create fun traditions and be better about focusing on the virtues and meanings behind each Sabbat for myself and the way I live.
• The reaction of my friends and family to my interest in Paganism is… Only my husband knows right now and his reaction was supportive. He definitely doesn’t share my beliefs, but he has been great listening to me talk about it which I really appreciate. I think my parents and brother wouldn’t care too much. Some of my friends might raise an eyebrow (since I work in the STEM field), but I probably wouldn’t lose real friends over it. I do have some family members though, that I’m sure would be a bit weirded out by it. I was raised with the belief that religion was a private, personal thing, so while I’m fine sharing it under a pseudonym, I would feel uncomfortable shouting it out in RL. No one’s business, but my own.

Well, that’s all for this week’s prompt. I’ll work on finding some Yule material for my next post (hopefully I’ll have something by this weekend!)
Blessed be!

Lark