How did you come to be interested in the craft?

[Victoria Mnemosyne]

Just wondering how everyone was first introduced to paganism, witchcraft, wicca, shamanism or whatever it is that you're a part of. What made you first decide to "get into" magic? What are your beliefs and how did they come about?

[Seigna]

You could probably say I grew up with it - not exactly, but almost. I learned my first spells from my grandfather, and he (and my grandmother, too) taught me many other things about my current tradition as well. Those customs, traditions and little bits of knowledge were the foundation for my path, and the rest came through my own research and studying. It's impossible to tell what first made me interested in it. Many little things just pushed me towards this point.

[Victoria Mnemosyne]

What tradition did your grandparents teach you?
Is it an unbroken family tradition, or did someone initiate it down your line and pass it on?

[Seigna]

I'm a Finnish recon and a trad witch. I wouldn't call it actually a family tradition, more like a cultural one. Many of my grandparents' generation are somewhat familiar with it. My grandparents didn't even practice much, except my grandfather using some spells every now and then, but they had some knowledge and some traditions that were passed to me. I went further from there.

[WitchyLady506]

to put it simplest I was brought up by my grandparents. I was in close contact with my grandmother's mother whom was Cherokee and taught be many of the traditions and many things that I later found out were very similar to witchcraft. When I found this out and expressed an interest in such, I got introduced to family who practice folk magic and Voodoo. I was encouraged to look into every other type of witchcraft I could get information on.

[mamma bear]

My mother and my aunt were always interested in fortune tellers, tarrot cards and crystals. So even though we were catholic there was always that exposure to "new age" things. Of course I didnt find out untill a few years ago that my great grandfather was reported to be a shaman. My grand mother didn't really talk about her past so I'm not sure she would not have talked to me about it. I'm still trying to figure out what path is my path though. Not sure if I should head toward the shaman or just working with crystals.

[Wiccan Z]

I was always around it, but Just recently started to practice; because a really good insperational friend of mine in my life is Wiccan.

[Seaspirit]

I was lead to it by my gifts. I got sick of telling people...'I told you so' after premonitions kept coming true. Kept getting sick of spirit visitors, and could not understand how I kept influencing people through mind influence.
So, I decided to ......well try anyway.....to take control of my abilities, rather than have them happen so randomly. I'm still trying to take control...they tend to have a mind of their own
handball

[Chatters]

My Mam was very interested in tarot and palm reading. My Mam has always been very intuitive which has rubbed off on me. My Mam and I have always had dreams that have come true. My brother is quite intuitive and has seen spirits many times, although this frightens him. So I have always been interested in the afterlife and divination since an early age. I have had an interest in witchcraft for a long time, kind of been a natural progression there. However in the last few years I was seeking a more natural spirituality that was not based around god worship. I found this in paganism a few years ago. This led me to further study witchcraft, I am still studying three years later.

I now practice a green earth based witchcraft and folk magic which is very natural, quiet and very practical, without any type of elaborate ritual. This suits my nature very much.

[missmelodygrace]

My family are catholic ... when I was a little girl of about 8 I told my grandfather I didnt believe in God and didnt want to go to church ... he said that what i believed was not as important as having faith and if I could show him what my faith was I did not have to attend church

It took until I was 14 to truely discover what I believed .. with my grandfathers support I studied many religions and belief systems and settled on a mixture of paganism and magick

Im not wiccan and do not believe in Gods and Goddesses but I have a strong faith.

I have been strong to my faith ever since ... and thats been a long time

[Kaimira]

after my car crash and my parents died and my self nearly died, i saw my spirits of my parents. telling not to give up. since that day my third eye opened and followed the path of wiccan, later on in life i turned from wicca, but i still study wicca although i'm pagan.

[Starwitch Stone]

I saw spirits as a child and had out-of-body experiences as a teenager and adult. In my search for answers as to what I had experienced, I wound up on a path of spiritual exploration and research which eventually led me to Wicca and paganism.

Goddess worship really appeals to me because I'm a feminist and I have a lot of animosity towards the patriarchal church and society we live in. I like the idea of having a female goddess instead of a male god.

And I love the nature aspect of paganism too. The Earth, Sun, and Moon created everything we are and everything we have on this Earth. I see no reason to invent invisible sky-gods (like the Abrahamic faiths do) when the Earth is right under our feet and we can connect with it/Her any time we want to. It just makes so much more sense to me.

I've also learned that Jesus Christ was originally a sun-god (like all the other pagan gods) and that his identity was lost over time and followers started to think of him as a real man instead of a spirit/Sun.

Bright Blessings,
StarWitch

[Victoria Mnemosyne]

I was also raised as a Catholic, but Catholocism, at least from what I was exposed to, felt very constricting and guilt-laden. I couldn't accept it and never really believed in it. For a long time I called myself an Atheist and I still call myself that, but now I recognize it is not entirely accurate.

I believe that there is more out there than most people recognize, but I don't believe in literal spirits or dieties. I believe that there are forces that science can not yet explain... note I said YET. I believe and hope that one day science will explain these things.

The way I got into witchcraft, well ever since I was a young child I had a fascination with ancient mythologies, as young as 10 years old I spent a lot of time reading anything I could find on Greek, Egyptian and even Norse pagan traditions. I had always felt attracted to the mysterious and occult.

I used to have dreams that would come true, and i experienced premonitions. Usually simple stuff, "Aunt Laura is going to call you", that sort of thing.

Around the age of 12 or 13 one of my closest friends was dabbling in Wicca and I became introduced to it that way. From there, I started researching different variations of witchcraft, paganism, and shamanism. While my friend has reverted back to being an Agnostic, I continue to research and practice witchcraft, but I'll readily admit to being a beginner.

Anyway, that's my story.

[reikihealer83]

My interest in the Craft came when I was about 17 years old. It was shortly after my Junior year of high school started and I started to see things and be able to know some things before they happened. I thought I was going nuts and tried to bury it for a long time. I started reading a lot about psycokinesis and mediumship and figured out that I was a medium by all accounts and that it looped into the Craft easily. I started studying and then I did some family history/geneology digging and found that it was possible I was a Druid and put all the elements (no pun intended) together and that is how I got into my study of the Craft and it has grown with me.

[Celtic_Luna]

I have always been drawn to certain natural things. It was mainly crystals. Some would make my hand tingle even before they were in it.

Later on I started getting Visions and I knew there had to be more to all this than I was ever told (my grandad is a vicar, my grandparents very christian, my mum is atheist)

I made a friend in secondary school and I went back to her house one night and started talking to her mum with whom I instantly felt a connection.

She's a Wiccan and she explained a few bits and bobs to me which then made me persue it further.

I now class her as my "earth mother" as she was the one that brought me fully into the world of magick.