inadequecy

[anasia*la*fae]

I must admit that I'm a little bit jealous. By interacting on this site, I realize just how many people out there are lucky enough to have several generations involved in witchcraft. Before, I thought it was just the occasional author with the windfall of fortune. Now, I feel a little more left behind the times- in a manner of speaking. All of a sudden, my magic feels a little less, I don't know, 'authentic' for lack of a better word. I suppose this feeling is normal.

Partly, I guess I'd like to know- what is it like to grow up with magic around you?

[jcldragon]

Everybody is growing up with Magick all around them. We live on a most magickal planet in a very magickal Universe. I suppose I might complain that everybody hasn't noticed this yet...

[ap Dafydd]

Everybody is growing up with Magick all around them. We live on a most magickal planet in a very magickal Universe. I suppose I might complain that everybody hasn't noticed this yet...

Well said!

Although Wicca has been around for long enough to make it entirely believable that someone can be a second or even third generation Pagan, most of us aren't. Maybe an ancestor back there somewhere followed a cunning path or was a charmer, but all too tenuous to trace.

Ultimately of course all Europeans have pagan ancestors!

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

[jcldragon]

Physical ancestry has little to do with it. What you've done with all of your many past incarnations, most certainly does. And from this very long perspective, we really are all the same age. When I read the texts of the Ancient Wisdom from all of the Traditions around the world, I can't help but wonder how much further along those authors are now...

[aeroeng]

I think what the original poster was trying to get at was... wondering what it would be like to grow up in a household where one or both parents practiced magick. How that might feel (or what it might be like) in comparison to being pagan in a christian household for example.

I know I've kind of wondered that myself. I didn't grow up in a religious household by any means. We celebrated the bigger christian holidays. But for me, it was more about spending time with family than any religious doctrine that went along with that day.

I certainly don't feel any less adequate or anything (but i'm not formally practicing magick yet, still reading and learning). I know that when I'm ready, the more of myself I can put into the spells and rituals, the stronger and better results I'll achieve.

[jcldragon]

Well, my Grandfather was a Presbyterian Minister. He was also a Master Mason, did Civil Rights work in the 20s & 30s, supported people like Norman Thomas & Eugene Debs in the Socialists Party, and climbed 46 peaks during his incarnation. I suppose that could be termed Magickal. I Channeled him when he died, so he could watch his own funeral... hehehe

At the time, I hadn't even heard the word, Channeling, but I knew my Grandfather, so I knew it was OK. As I later found out, when I learned how to read the Akashic Records, he & I have had several incarnations in which we had much to do with each other. He was even one of the Christian Mystics who was excluded from the Council of Nicea at point of sword, (Well, actually, they killed him, and I saw it happen), and that's when the Christian Church sold out to the Roman Empire to get official backing, and totally went South, so to speak.

Having parents who are Metaphysically aware, is a big boost for the development of the kids they will have, but you have to earn the Karma that will land you into that situation. That is what people who post on message boards like this, are in the process of doing. I know some Pagans who have kids who have done this. Those kids are a real handful, indeed. You see, it takes a great deal of intelligence & imagination to screw up like these kids do. Mere mortals, just aren't up to it! ;)

[BeachWitch]

The Love Spell, Phyllis Curott

Curott says that a Witch is someone who pays attention. Having mother and grandmother witches as teachers and mentors simply means the act of paying attention is reinforced at an earlier age than other non-magical folks.

Just like a son of a carpenter is going to learn construction techniques at an early age, so too the daughter of a witch learns habits and recipes at a very early age.

That doesn't mean the carpenter is any better, just trained longer. It's rather like saying a man from a military family is a better soldier than a man who enlists in the army off the street. They receive the same training and are of the same rank, why would one be a better soldier than the other based on family origin?
(Of course I'm speaking from the POV of a family trained individual)

I highly recomment Curott's memoir. She did not have magical parents or influence at an early age either.

[Cindlady2]

Having parents who are Metaphysically aware, is a big boost for the development of the kids they will have, but you have to earn the Karma that will land you into that situation. That is what people who post on message boards like this, are in the process of doing. I know some Pagans who have kids who have done this. Those kids are a real handful, indeed. You see, it takes a great deal of intelligence & imagination to screw up like these kids do. Mere mortals, just aren't up to it! ;)

Ahhh.... you've met my youngest!!! LOL!!!!


Actually, for the most part, life goes on like it dose for everyone else!
Good times, bad times, rough times, school, jobs etc. All the same old boring stuff. We don't go running to 'magic' to fix every little thing and for the most part we are like everyone else.
About the only thing that might be more 'magical' for us is the 'awareness' I tried to instill on my kids. To them it is perfectly normal to have an entity in the house. To make the wind shift for a bit. To talk to and draw energy from the elements. I guess allot of what some people have to learn (or learn over) my kids were always aware of. To me, that's enough, If and when they are ready for more.... they will ask.

[anasia*la*fae]

I think what the original poster was trying to get at was... wondering what it would be like to grow up in a household where one or both parents practiced magick. How that might feel (or what it might be like) in comparison to being pagan in a christian household for example.

I know I've kind of wondered that myself. I didn't grow up in a religious household by any means. We celebrated the bigger christian holidays. But for me, it was more about spending time with family than any religious doctrine that went along with that day.

I certainly don't feel any less adequate or anything (but i'm not formally practicing magick yet, still reading and learning). I know that when I'm ready, the more of myself I can put into the spells and rituals, the stronger and better results I'll achieve.

that's exactly what i meant!

thanks aeroeng

[anasia*la*fae]

The Love Spell, Phyllis Curott


Just like a son of a carpenter is going to learn construction techniques at an early age, so too the daughter of a witch learns habits and recipes at a very early age.

That doesn't mean the carpenter is any better, just trained longer. It's rather like saying a man from a military family is a better soldier than a man who enlists in the army off the street. They receive the same training and are of the same rank, why would one be a better soldier than the other based on family origin?
(Of course I'm speaking from the POV of a family trained individual)



i agree, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't help to start learning earlier. take languages for example. there is a certain learning curve associated with age. the younger you start learning a second language, the easier it is to learn because you 'absorb' it. it also makes learning a third and fourth language later on easier.

[Lunacie]

None of the Pagans/Wiccans/Witches that I know were raised in that kind of family. We all seem to be the black sheep of the family. I don't think I've ever met anyone who was raised by witches and continued the family tradition.

[MysticWitch]

I never grew up with magick. No one ever taught me and none of my family approved of it. I admire those who had guidence as their path blossomed but in no way did I feel inadequit. Its appart of me and will always be and Im forever learning new things and screwing up too. Thats apart of growing. :wave:

[jcldragon]

I never grew up with magick. No one ever taught me and none of my family approved of it. I admire those who had guidence as their path blossomed but in no way did I feel inadequit. Its appart of me and will always be and Im forever learning new things and screwing up too. Thats apart of growing. :wave:The things you get wrong may be more valuable for your development, than the things you get right... um... after you suffer the consequences.

[Tanya]

my mother's side of the family are hedge witches, and christians, at least were til my mother and i got sick of that Christian stuff..

it meant to me, quite a lot of herbalism, and gardening with my grandmother and great grand...little things like.. chants and spells to make someone love you, or to make the flowers grow or call the bees to the apple trees.

all of them were fine woodswomen, big on hiking and natural history with a sense of the earth as mother always being in there culture. I remeber going out with my great grand looking for fairies in the river gorge near her home...she had all these stories about fairy rings, and what fairies used different plants for....she was the most amazing herbalist I've ever met... and was the little towns 'female' Dr and mother conffessor.


they all knew every wild flower and tree in the place they all grew up, and gave me that.

they sang little spell songs to make the bread rise and the butter come....

what they didn't give me, that I want to give my daughter is an unadulterated pride in being female. they were always very reticent about being witchy, and female... physically strong, mentally able but always shy about appearing to be so.... that's a crime I lay at Christianity's feet.... the disempowerment of such gorgeous fine women.

[anasia*la*fae]

my mother's side of the family are hedge witches, and christians, at least were til my mother and i got sick of that Christian stuff..

it meant to me, quite a lot of herbalism, and gardening with my grandmother and great grand...little things like.. chants and spells to make someone love you, or to make the flowers grow or call the bees to the apple trees.

all of them were fine woodswomen, big on hiking and natural history with a sense of the earth as mother always being in there culture. I remeber going out with my great grand looking for fairies in the river gorge near her home...she had all these stories about fairy rings, and what fairies used different plants for....she was the most amazing herbalist I've ever met... and was the little towns 'female' Dr and mother conffessor.


they all knew every wild flower and tree in the place they all grew up, and gave me that.

they sang little spell songs to make the bread rise and the butter come....

**what they didn't give me, that I want to give my daughter is an unadulterated pride in being female. they were always very reticent about being witchy, and female... physically strong, mentally able but always shy about appearing to be so.... that's a crime I lay at Christianity's feet.... the disempowerment of such gorgeous fine women.**

i'd touch your karma but it wouldn't let me, especially about the last paragraph. why should we be so afraid to appear as strong and capable as we are?