Print

[garcelt]

Wow! I've finally found the courage to ask this on a website! Having done so, I'd better start off with my own story. For me, it was a desire to be able to feel at peace with the All in a way I could never while still following the Christian path. Choosing Wicca was definitely the wisest choice I've ever made. Here is proof to back up this bold statement. A few years after having made the change I had (in 2008) a sudden medical emergency. I nearly crossed over, but it was not my time. During the whole extremely unpleasant experience, I did not in any way experience even the slightest trace of fear. I very much doubt if this lack of fear would have been there if I'd still been a devout catholic. That was not an isolated incident. A few months later I had a similar experience. The All has removed "fear of dying" from my present earthly life. Wicca has given me the ability to no longer feel that my present human imperfections are something that might be a barrier between me and the All. This positive change in my life did not occur when I was still a devout catholic, despite years of striving for various spiritual improvements. I have no negative feeling for the Christian path, it's just simply not for me. Blessings and Peace! - garcelt

[claudette]

I was a Christian (in name only) for most of my life, even though I never really felt a connection.  I think I was too hung up on all the man-made traditions instead of the simple truth.  In other words, I spent more time ranting about all the organized part of it and less time listening for the real message.  In my early 40's I began making changes in my life and began searching for what was really important to me.  I studied Wicca for several years and various other paths.  Now, here I am in my mid 50's and I've found my way back to Christianity. Trust me when I say no one has been more surprised than me.  I still like to celebrate the seasonal changes and appreciate the different phases of the moon.  I'm not sure if the term "Christo-Pagan" fits me, maybe something more like "earth-based Christian".  Who knows?  I just know I'm on the right path for me and it feeds my soul.

[Nixie]

A quote from The Nexus on what made me move from Christianity

I first began to question what people were telling me at the age of 11, my granddad had just died and even though I knew what had happened to his physical body, I began to wonder what would happen to his spirit/soul. After his funeral I asked my family questions about God and what the Father had been saying in church, what they were telling me was making little to no sense at all. Seventeen months later my Nan passed away after a long hard battle with cancer. This time I was asking the same questions in a different way, but I wasn?t asking my family, I was looking elsewhere for answers.
When I was 16 I got extremely ill and this was when the faith I had built since I was 11 began to wane and I began to lose touch with the answers I had found. While stuck in hospital beds, I began reading books and looking on the Internet and my path began to change, morphing into what it mostly is today.

[marisol]

I was raised in the methodist church, my grandfather passed when I was approx.12 yrs old.
After that I could find no answers that made any sense to me. I knew there was something
out there. Which I began to call the Divine. Then I met someone who was wiccan, talkingto her
made everything fall into place. I had found my calling, wicca is my calling.

[cheese]

I didn't really move from Catholicism to paganism, more like Catholicism to me. 

After years of trying to not be me, I allowed myself to be me, and found that I didn't fit inside Catholicism.  My experiences with Divinity did not fit inside the template of Christianity or Catholicism, so I left. 

I've found Unitarian Universalism a useful home while I figure all this stuff out.   

[dark magus]

When I see a title to a thread like this one, I always wonder just what the OP considers to be wicca.
And I always hope that they understand that "wicca" is a specific religion.
You don't need to be wiccian to be a Witch, Druid, Shaman, Animist, Hindu, Buddhist or any other non Abrahamic faith.

And for the record, I'm not wiccian. I'm an Animist of sorts.
I've been on a number of paths over the years, including wicca. But some "darker" paths as well.
Not sure I was ever really Christian. Mom and Dad split when I was around 8 so Sunday school stopped the same time. School still had morning prayer and bible class once a week but that was banned due to a constitutional challenge by an atheist back starting in 59 and by the supreme court in 62/63. So for 8 - 9 years, I had no exposure to any form of belief in any thing that you couldn't see or hold in your hand. Around 17, I found the occult, demon worship, followed by wicca for a short time, moving towards Buddhism until finally evolving to a self styled Animism. Along my way, I discovered a number of truths, which have formed the beliefs I currently hold.
Been on this road for damn near 44 years and every now and then I round a new turn and gain a slightly different view.
What I do know is that my truth is "the" truth, but you lot just haven't seen it yet.
You'll catch up some day, but I'm not waiting for ya!

[Serpentium]

I was never a Christian, and I'm certainly no Wiccan.

[NyghtReine]

Funny thing is I have always felt that in my earlier years I was both more Christian than my family and less so at the same time. I remember very distinctly at the Calvary Lutherin Church in Lake Arrowhead, CA at age 4 when the Priest was telling about the story of the virgin Mary. I remember thinking "That's stupid, a woman can't have a baby without a man."

I just remember being jaded about it from the very beginning. I felt like that God was this invisible being that was watching me, marking off tallies on a big chalkboard for whenever I did bad things like swear or lie to my dad or grandmother. Then I got older and I remember being at a book store, looking at all different religions. Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim...all sorts of things. As I read more into them, I found what I believed and what I didn't believe. I believed that Jesus lived at one point, but I don't believe he was the son of God in the sense that he was--I believe we are all sons and daughters of that which we call God. Honestly, I think that Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children everywhere. And then I found Wicca.

It was the book Making Magick by Edain McCoy. I'll never forget looking at it and picking it up. I read three pages and bought it right there. It was nine days before my thirteenth birthday(coincidence? I think not), and I read and read and read. Finally, I found something. Finally, my beliefs had a name. That is, I had always known what I was and what I had believed, but I had no idea that other people believed it too--and I had no idea that it had its on name.

I feel I have, in a way, gone from Christianity to Wicca because of the inconsistencies, the people that I wish not to associate with...but I just think that what made me make the official switch was that I never felt Christianity in my heart. I didn't even feel right calling myself a Christian or a Catholic. I grew up with Catholocism, sure, but I never connected to it. I just felt like Church was a place for telling boring old stories, not for feeling the grace and power of God.

So what I'm trying to say is that I moved from Christianity to Wicca because I was never Christian in the first place, and I didn't want to be lying to myself or my family anymore. I moved because I knew now that my beliefs had a name. I knew now that it was okay to believe and know what I believed and knew. I moved because I felt the God and the Goddess in my heart. I felt the Earth moving and pulsing, I heard the wind whispering my name and running its fingers through my hair.

"If it's not real you can't hold in in your hand, or feel it with your heart, and I won't believe it."

It's a lyric from the song "Brick by Boring Brick" by Paramore. I never felt Christianity with my heart. But my heart has always been Wiccan.

[Starrry_Night]

i wouldn't classify me as either but a nature-based path makes more sense to me and i feel more at peace. I grew up in a very strict christian family (dad's side) but my mother (parents divorced when i was young) let me find my own way and i had started asking questions to her about religion and found that she believed in a nature-based path as well. then i took a religions of the world class in college and realized that many of them were the same but had little minor details that differed,but they ALL have a sect that believes in a nature-based path or a "magickal" one (ex: kabballah). I personally believe that there must be balance as in good and evil, man and woman but to each their own.

[Em.O]

Well I considered myself Christian up until grade nine. The problem with it was I focused a lot on the, let's call them "rules". You know, sins and such. I never really thought of it like that though. Just one day I was talking to someone about something or another (I suppose the topic of conversation led to this though I don't recall what we were even talking about) and out of the blue I said, "I'm not Christian." That was it. I wasn't Wiccan either, I had never heard of it at the time. Then life just felt better for me. Like I said, it was because I was associating Christianity with only the very limiting aspects of it.
A bit later I heard about Wicca through Foamy the Squirrel but didn't know what it was so I didn't exactly get the skit, so I Googled it! I liked that it doesn't restrain you and pretty much allows you to do whatever you feel comfortable with. Eventually I grew out of even considering myself that, and now I just have my own beliefs where some of them fall under different religions and philosophies and whatnot. I even remember when I revisited the thought of Christianity and realized that without all the silly technicalities telling you what to do and what not to do (I could go on forever about how and why those were most likely made but that would take, well, forever) it was really not bad at all. I find almost all religions have more or less the same concepts once you get rid of all the technicalities so I find it unnecessary for me to define myself as one religion or another, I just like discussing concepts with people because without the label of a religion people are more open to discussing stuff logically and unbiased.
I'm sorry, that was longer than I intended.

[marisol]

I still feel like I did when I was 12 yrs old-that all paths lead to the divine. Wicca is a safe haven
for me. I have felt that I should explore another path, but I am fearful of change sometimes.

So I do look in another direction at times and wonder what is over there, maybe I should just go
look and see.

[Serpentium]

Come over to the dark side Luke!

[Scorched Eartha]

I just remember these two amazing sages...one of them saying "Above all, be excellent to each other" .....backed up by some some pretty horrendous garage band type metal guitar work and before I knew it...

Oh no hang on...that was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure wannit?


Anyway watch out for Wyld Stallyns in your path.

The buggers will mow you down if you don't see 'em coming.

[Black Hat Guy]

What?  I wasn't a Christian, dude.  I was a Sikh.

[HordaksPupil]

it's kind of hard to say for me, I always have been open minded about Wicca and mysticism and seen them as valid ways to find the creator (I believe all that paths lead to God and don't believe that one group has all the answers). I well I was examining my own beliefs and talked it over with my parents who are very supportive of me in whatever I do. A few weeks ago, I had a dream where the Egyptian goddess spoke to me (I know it's cliche but that's what happened) and though I can't remember what was said in the dream I felt attracted to her and began to see her as part of divinity and started praying to her. I have never felt so close to the divine than I do now.