Life

Hello!

I wanted to give an update on what's going on, since I haven't posted recently. I was sick with an extreme cold last week and this week I've been playing catchup in my mundane-life. This coming weekend I am fortunate enough to be going to two Imbolc rituals and will hopefully have some time to get my magical-life back in order. Chao for now!

The Personality Pentacle

I'm excited! This is the first worksheet I've created for the Broom Closet Escape and it's one of the things that I was most anxious to do when I first started this blog. The idea for this worksheet first came to me from Tahlea Moonwater's podcast The Geek Witch (www.geekwitch.org). She poses a similar exercise to her listeners in order for them to explore what makes them who they are. I've tailored and added to this idea and turned it into a worksheet so that it can help myself and hopefully others as they come out of their broom closets.

I've filled out a work sheet and will post my answers below. To download a copy for yourself to complete please download it here.

My Personality Pentacle (Click images to enlarge)

From Broom Closet Escape

From Broom Closet Escape

A Very Nice Pamphlet

So, the brochure I read this week was the HRC's Resource Guide to Coming Out (link provided below). Although it's written to help GLBT people come out of their closets, there is a lot to be gleaned from this pamphlet for a pagan preparing to escape the broom closet. It gave me a lot of talking points to work off of and I highly recommend you give it a read! The link below will take you to the HRC's PDF copy of it.

Resource Guide To Coming Out

What I'm Working On

To start, I'm a member of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and I truly believe in equality for all...sexual preference, religious choice (or non-choice in some cases), or other. One of my best friends is a gay man. Knowing him and watching him transform from freshly un-closeted (when we met he hadn't been out for too long) into openly gay member of society has been terribly inspirational to me. Hopefully I can be a strong as he's been when it comes time for me to officially come out at the end of the year. He does a lot of good in his community thru volunteer work and by living as a good person; I have the utmost respect for him.

I think we pagans have a lot to learn from the GLBT community. They've faced similar challenges (as their opponents tend to come from the same group of people as ours tend to) and have faced similar fights (being recognized and acknowledged legally). By supporting their quest for equality, I feel it also furthers my pagan community's also.

Now, fortunately for me, the GLBT community is pretty organized (a place where the pagan community tends to greatly differ) and the HRC's website has a number of resources for Coming Out (of the Gay closet) and I'm reading thru those publications these days to see what would be useful for me in my Coming-Out journey. I'll share what I find with you all.

Bright Blessings!

Reclaiming Fulfillment

Going back to work after and extended vacation kind of sucks. I'm attempting to amend my usual pessimistic ways however, and face this year with a more optimistic perspective. Unfortunately I work for family (my in-laws), particularly Christian (very) family. So, I don't really get to be myself at work, but I'm hoping to face this year with more grace than the last.

My husband's not ready to come out to his family as a witch. I truly respect and understand his choice, but one of the reasons why I'm coming out of the closet to my family is in order that I may be more of myself in my life. The best times (read most fulfilled) have been those times that I was able to thoroughly express myself as a witch without having to hide or just flat out lie. These times were fleeting however, for example I spent my high-school summers at camps with little to no supervision. It allowed me to freely talk to other campers about my beliefs and to read whatever I wanted and to sneak out for midnight rituals in the woods. But then summer would end, I'd hide my books and supplies and go back to playing a Christian-daughter. I've never been as open as I was during my high-school summers and I've spent a lot of time since then trying to be the person other people want me to be; I'm ready to be myself.

Hopefully as I figure out the coming out process I can find, compile, and make a resource that will be helpful to my husband and others as they decide whether coming out of the broom closet it for them or not. I can imagine situations where it wouldn't be appropriate and it certainly shouldn't be done until one is sure they're ready. More on this in my next posting.

Bright Blessing!

A Hint of Optimism?

So, last night I was listening to pagan podcasting (I've only recently discovered pagan podcasts and I'm really enjoying catching up on a number of the shows). I'm listening to the Geek Witch right now (link in the left side bar). The hostess is an adorable Aussie Witch named Tahlea. She's very genuine and honest in her broadcasting and it feels like you're listening to a friend. In her first show she shares her coming out of the broom closet story (specifically to her mother). First of all, I recommend listening to the episode (link below); Secondly, she made me realize that as much as I'm dreading actually coming out to my family (particularly my parents, particularly my mother), there is actually a possibility that it could end well. Thanks Tahlea for adding a hint of optimism to my coming-out-process.

http://geekwitch.org/2008/04/podcast-1-coming-out-of-the-broom-closet/

Moonlit Creations

Mojo and Sparrow on their podcast The Wigglian Way mentioned Moonlit Creations (a pagan jewelery maker). It's beautilful work, check it out:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MoonLitCreations

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New Year, New Goals

I currently live over 600 miles away from my family, but I miss my home town and would love to move back. My husband really loves the area too and we can see ourselves being very happy there. One of my concerns moving to the area however would be how my parents/family would handle finding out that we're Pagan. To this point I haven't told my family because I was afraid they'd freak out and disown me, but I'm starting to feel that I can't let my fears control me. Hopefully we'll be able to move 2-3 years from now. If my family ends up to not be accepting and understanding I should know before making such a major and expensive move. And if they end up being cool about everything, then it would put my mind at ease and make my husband and I feel even better about moving.

I want to be able to tell my family by the end of the year. Honestly, putting a time line out like this is terrifying to me. It makes me wonder if this last (wonderful) Christmas we spent with them will be the last. And that just makes me sad. But it needs to be done. If my family ends up being the kind of people who won't be accepting and tolerant of other beliefs then I wouldn't want them to be in my life anyway.

I need a plan though, I need to figure this out from as many angles as I can and then sometime in December of 2010 I can let the cat out of the bag.

Here are my goals (I'll be going over each point in depth in future blogs):
Obstacles:
i. My family's Christian beliefs.
ii. My family's tendency to only associate with other people sharing their beliefs.
iii. My fears/possible misconceptions.
What I Believe:
i. I know what I believe, but I want to write it down and be 100% confident in my ability to convey it clearly and concisely.
How to Tell Them:
i. I'm not sure telling them in person is really the best plan, when I've had to share bad news with them before I've done it in emails. I need to thoroughly consider my options and make sure I'm making the best choice.


Phew! Well, I think it's a good start. For now, at least, I can think of it being an entire year away.

Happy New Years

Happy New Years! Best and brightest wishes for the new year.

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