(That's my "Damn, this woman is GOOD!" face!!)
Thanks, WT, you rocked with that. I winged what I wrote, just off the top of my head, but you covered it in such wonderful depth.
Yes, I'm an Ecclectic Solitary, who would very much like to stop being a solitary.
Oddly, one of the most difficult things about Wicca is that sneaky little "respect all Paths" thing. We go out into the world, knowing we must do that...and also knowing full well there's absolutely no way we're going to get it back. Also, some of the Paths out there seem to go out of their way to make it difficult to respect them. I personally have *severe* problems with any religion that practices "shunning." (Note: a "cult" is *not* a path, and doesn't fall into the "respect all Paths" thing.) I also get a little uptight with religions that declare themselves "the one *true* religion."
It's also very difficult belong to a faith that gives you such peace and joy...knowing that so many people are going to have a knee-jerk reaction to it based on incredible and often insulting ignorance.
One of my favorite stories about one of my daughters is her search for her own Path. She was in her room, reading about Wicca and came storming out. She grinned at me and said "I CAN'T be Wiccan...I'm not NICE enough!!!"
We are nice people. It's part of the whole deal. (In other words, we're supposed to be nice.) Therefore, having somebody ask you something about killing babies kinda makes the blood boil. We're not scary and we don't do anything anybody else couldn't handle if they took the time to learn about it. OK...San Diego has a "Witches Night Out" on Samhain, and we tend to "dress" for the occasion. There's a lot of long skirts, cloaks and pointy hats involved. There's a reason for the pointy hats...but we also have a sense of humor about ourselves.
In fact, one of the books I read said "don't be afraid if a ritual goes silly and you laugh in the circle." Laughter is beloved of the gods.
I had a real problem at first understanding the whole Goddess/God thing. Then something occurred to me. I was raised Catholic, which means I got a very solid dose of "the Holy Trinity." One Being, in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You know what? That never made any sense to me. I could never get my head around it, no matter how many Catechism classes I attended. So, back at the beginning of my conversion, I thought to myself "you were over here, where you were miserable...and didn't get something." Hmmmm.... Now you're over *here,* where you feel as if you've come home, you're at peace, you're full of joy...and you don't get something. Okie dokie. I can live with that.