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(ing for something that made sense.)Tj
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(enough for the purity of God preyed upon my low self-esteem. As much as I)Tj
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(dent thinker, thanks in great part to my wonderful mother. Although it took me)Tj
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(awhile, I eventually realized that something wasnt right. The clincher was)Tj
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(watching a television program on cults and finding that my church qualified. I)Tj
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(left and never looked back.)Tj
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(That experience soured me on religion for a long time, and when I was ready)Tj
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(to begin my spiritual journey anew, I started fresh. I opened myself to every-)Tj
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(thing, not just different denominations of Christianity. In reading, I stumbled)Tj
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(upon something called Wicca, an Earth-based nature religion that proclaims)Tj
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(itself to be the practice of modern day witchcraft.)Tj
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(Wicca is the fastest growing religion today. Followers of Wicca worship a)Tj
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(God as well as a Goddess. Its practitioners revere the Earth as an extension of the)Tj
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(Goddess herself and aspire to live in harmony with nature. Wiccans believe in)Tj
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(reincarnation, but not as the Hindus believe. Wiccans believe that humans come)Tj
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(back as humans.)Tj
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(Wiccans believe in magic. Chanting and meditation are used to achieve an)Tj
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(alternate state of consciousness to better commune with the Goddess and the)Tj
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(God. Spells are used in much the same way a prayer is, with one great difference:)Tj
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(whereas a prayer is most often a linguistic appeal to a higher power to grant a)Tj
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(request, in a spell the practitioner uses visualization to direct unseen energy to)Tj
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(achieve the desired effect.)Tj
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(There are eight holidays that make up what is called the Wheel of the Year,)Tj
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(and many customs from such holidays as Halloween, Christmas and Easter)Tj
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(actually come from the pagan holidays of Samhain, Yule and Ostara. These)Tj
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(holidays are often based on ancient harvest or fertility festivals celebrated in)Tj
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(Britain, when the people lived close to the land. Apart from the Wheel of the)Tj
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(Year are esbats, which are rituals that celebrate the different phases of the moon.)Tj
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(It was in learning about this Earth-based nature religion that I realized what)Tj
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(had been missing to me: anything feminine and positive. As a woman, I felt left)Tj
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(out of male-dominated Christianity, although I didnt realize it at the time. I)Tj
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(simply didnt feel completely satisfied, never understanding why.)Tj
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(As much as this religion seemed to answer my questions, however, I was)Tj
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[(afraid to let go of Christianity. There was so much guilt and fear, as the idea of)]TJ
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(ing church, even sporadically. There was also the very real fear of practicing a)Tj
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(religion that most peoplein the South, at leastequate with worshipping)Tj
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(I found some interesting viewpoints, even coming across something called)Tj
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(who has an idea about Jesus that is close to what you are looking for him to be,)Tj
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(whether that is the Son of God or an Egyptian priest or a Jewish mystic or even)Tj
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(the first hippie!)Tj
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(The opinion I found myself most agreeing with, however, was that of the)Tj
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(Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Sprong, who claims to see Jesus not as the)Tj
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(literal Son of God but as a man who attained such a high level of spiritual)Tj
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(transcendence that he became one with God. I also came to believe that the oral)Tj
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(tradition corrupted the real story of Jesus before it was ever written down, and)Tj
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(therefore the Bible cannot be taken as the literal truth. I sadly concluded that we)Tj
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(will never know what real Christianity is or who the real Jesus was. Too)Tj
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(many years have removed us from it and him.)Tj
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(Once I formed those conclusions and added them to my views on God)Tj
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(\(whom I by then saw as an entity both male and female\) and reincarnation \(as)Tj
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(opposed to going straight to heaven or hell\) and Satan \(as a metaphor for the evil)Tj
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(within man rather than an actual being\), I found I could no longer call myself a)Tj
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(Christian. I went back to Wicca, afraid but determined.)Tj
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(I had originally thought that Wicca was based on the ancient pagan practices)Tj
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(of pre-Christian Europe, but as I dug deeper into the religion, I realized this was)Tj
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(ticed in occultist secret societies such as The Golden Dawn. I learned about)Tj
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(Wiccas founding father, Gerald Gardner, whose claim that he was initiated into)Tj
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(my reading, I discovered that Gardners true influence came from many sources,)Tj
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(including mythology, Freemasonry, and secret ceremonial magic orders. He)Tj
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(read books about folklore and magic and based his rituals on these sources.)Tj
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(Basically, he took a little of this, a little of that, and called it Wicca.)Tj
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(Today the most widely practiced tradition of Wicca is called solitary Eclec-)Tj
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(However, I didnt really understand what it meant.)Tj
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(I found that there is another type of witchcraft. It has many names: hereditary)Tj
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(witchcraft, natural witchcraft, hedge witchcraft, green witchcraft, or kitchen)Tj
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(witchcraft. Whatever name it goes by, it differs somewhat from Wicca in that)Tj
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(it is actually closer to what pagans practiced long ago. It is not as structured or)Tj
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(organized, there are fewer rituals and tools used, and it relies more on nature than)Tj
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(ceremony. Whereas many Wiccans have indoor altars, the temples of natural)Tj
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(witchcraft are sandy beaches, grassy meadows, flower-dotted pastures, and tree-)Tj
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(filled forests.)Tj
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(I learned from reading more scholarly histories of paganism as opposed to)Tj
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(books written by practitioners of Wicca that there has been no evidence found)Tj
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(of unbroken lineages of witchcraft dating back to pre-Christian Europe. Wicca)Tj
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(is simply based in part on these practices. However, this is not to say that all)Tj
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(claims of hereditary witchcraft are fraudulent. It is a fact that even after the spread)Tj
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(of Christianity throughout Europe, there were village wise women who used)Tj
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(herbs and plants for medicinal purposes. Many of these home remedies have)Tj
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(been passed down through the ages and are experiencing a resurgence today in)Tj
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(the wake of rising health care costs and pharmaceutical drugs that seem to be)Tj
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(losing their effectiveness. But most family traditions cannot trace their customs)Tj
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[(back farther than the 1700s, if that far.)]TJ
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(This family tradition is what is usually called hereditary witchcraft, and)Tj
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(although it is not actually inherited genetically, the practice has been passed)Tj
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(down through generations. An example of this is the folk magic practiced in the)Tj
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(hills of the Appalachian Mountains. The majority of the people who settled in)Tj
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(this area came from Ireland and Scotland and brought these customs and super-)Tj
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(stitions with them. Yes, what we consider hillbillies are actually practitioners of)Tj
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(witchcraft, although they would never call it that, as over time it has been)Tj
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(Although family members have not passed down this natural witchcraft to)Tj
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(me, it is what I now practice. Some will express doubt over what it is that drew)Tj
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(member. As my family is Irish in its roots, I took it as a sign. I cannot explain it,)Tj
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(through the generations rather than passed down.)Tj
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(So that is the road I am now following, and because life is not traveled in)Tj
-1.5 -1.2 TD
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(straight lines, I am certain that detours will be taken along my journey. Until)Tj
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(then, I continue to study and learn, for our true destination cannot be known)Tj
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(until we are on the other side. However, after all the complex reasoning used)Tj
T*
-0.0002 Tc
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(in researching Wicca and witchcraft, I find it ironic that my true path was)Tj
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(discovered and I found peace in my soul only when I trusted my heart and my)Tj
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(intuition.)Tj
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