Kaye Sweetbriar
March 23rd, 2010, 01:46 PM
Hello to all,
As you can probably tell, my name is Kaye Sweetbriar; feel free to call me Kaye. I am a third year college student here at university studying English and history, with a focus on the classical and medieval eras and am currently the Vice President/Treasurer of my university's Pagan student group.
I've been interested in Paganism for what amounts to, essentially, my whole life but have only been studying it for the past few years or so and have only recently begun to actually practice. I say my whole life because I have always be interested in symbolism, magick, herbs, the elements, etc, ever since I was a young girl.
I ran into Wicca in high school when an online friend of mine mentioned her own dabblings into it to me and I began to do some research into what it was, what the beliefs were and the like. What I found when I began my research was that my own beliefs were extremely similar to many of the things that I was reading. I began to do heavy amounts of research into it but ended up getting side tracked for a few years only to stumble across some of my own research the summer prior to attending university. I renewed my research and began to formulate a more clear idea of what Wicca and Paganism were, in my mind, and began to seek out others of a like mind.
Here at university, I have run into many individuals who are interested in and practice Paganism, though I have personally been lucky enough not to run into any hatred/disdain for my beliefs so far. I tread carefully, however, as I do not wish to be confronted about it just yet, but I will not back down from a discussion about it if someone desires to incite one.
As for the provided icebreakers, I figure I should probably answer them just to give you a better idea of who I am:
1) Is there a story behind your user I.D./screen name?
Kay was the name of a family friend. My mother has called me Kay, since it can be construed as a derivative of my own given name, since I was a very young child. I added the "e" to the end a few years ago as I prefer that spelling and it helps to differentiate between myself and the family friend, who has since passed away, sadly.
Sweetbriar was the name of a street near where I lived that I kept seeing and the name stuck out in my mind. I would find myself thinking about it from time to time, about how it has a dual meaning ("sweet" relating to niceties, general positiveness and "briar" relating to thorns and danger, etc). I see myself as a duality, a person of at least two conflicting halves. Probably only enhanced by the fact that I'm a Gemini.
2) How'd you find us here at Mystic Wicks?
I stumbled across the link from another forum.
3) Do you follow any certain path (spiritually)?
I'm an Eclectic Pagan.
4) Would you like people to send you a private message saying "hi" if they see your profile and want to get to know you better?
Sure, feel free. I reserve the right to not answer a question if it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I will be sure to state such to the inquirer.
5) Do you use incense, and if you do, do you have a favorite scent?
No, I do not as I have a sensitive nose and strong scents make me sneeze.
6) How about "totem animals"; is there any certain animal with which you most identify?
Totem animals: Crow, Wolf, Squirrel, Coyote
Animals I identify with: Coyote, Wolf, Fox, most other canines.
7) Is there anything else you think we should know about you, or that you'd like to share?
Nothing that I can think of.
As you can probably tell, my name is Kaye Sweetbriar; feel free to call me Kaye. I am a third year college student here at university studying English and history, with a focus on the classical and medieval eras and am currently the Vice President/Treasurer of my university's Pagan student group.
I've been interested in Paganism for what amounts to, essentially, my whole life but have only been studying it for the past few years or so and have only recently begun to actually practice. I say my whole life because I have always be interested in symbolism, magick, herbs, the elements, etc, ever since I was a young girl.
I ran into Wicca in high school when an online friend of mine mentioned her own dabblings into it to me and I began to do some research into what it was, what the beliefs were and the like. What I found when I began my research was that my own beliefs were extremely similar to many of the things that I was reading. I began to do heavy amounts of research into it but ended up getting side tracked for a few years only to stumble across some of my own research the summer prior to attending university. I renewed my research and began to formulate a more clear idea of what Wicca and Paganism were, in my mind, and began to seek out others of a like mind.
Here at university, I have run into many individuals who are interested in and practice Paganism, though I have personally been lucky enough not to run into any hatred/disdain for my beliefs so far. I tread carefully, however, as I do not wish to be confronted about it just yet, but I will not back down from a discussion about it if someone desires to incite one.
As for the provided icebreakers, I figure I should probably answer them just to give you a better idea of who I am:
1) Is there a story behind your user I.D./screen name?
Kay was the name of a family friend. My mother has called me Kay, since it can be construed as a derivative of my own given name, since I was a very young child. I added the "e" to the end a few years ago as I prefer that spelling and it helps to differentiate between myself and the family friend, who has since passed away, sadly.
Sweetbriar was the name of a street near where I lived that I kept seeing and the name stuck out in my mind. I would find myself thinking about it from time to time, about how it has a dual meaning ("sweet" relating to niceties, general positiveness and "briar" relating to thorns and danger, etc). I see myself as a duality, a person of at least two conflicting halves. Probably only enhanced by the fact that I'm a Gemini.
2) How'd you find us here at Mystic Wicks?
I stumbled across the link from another forum.
3) Do you follow any certain path (spiritually)?
I'm an Eclectic Pagan.
4) Would you like people to send you a private message saying "hi" if they see your profile and want to get to know you better?
Sure, feel free. I reserve the right to not answer a question if it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I will be sure to state such to the inquirer.
5) Do you use incense, and if you do, do you have a favorite scent?
No, I do not as I have a sensitive nose and strong scents make me sneeze.
6) How about "totem animals"; is there any certain animal with which you most identify?
Totem animals: Crow, Wolf, Squirrel, Coyote
Animals I identify with: Coyote, Wolf, Fox, most other canines.
7) Is there anything else you think we should know about you, or that you'd like to share?
Nothing that I can think of.