Beginnings and Where you are now

[Tyrannical Princess]

Hmm, interesting thread Nuri. I like it. smile

EDIT: Crap, I gave you alot of info that doesn't quite fit what you asked for below. HA! This'll answer your questions specifically though:
1. Various, then Ravenwolf and Conway
2. I'd recommend various texts depending on what someone is interested in. For Paganism or Witchcraft, I don't know. I haven't found much beyond the source texts that are of any value, although I also haven't looked very hard recently
3.For something along my lines, I'd suggest Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism by Kurt Rudolph. He gives a pretty summary and it's a really easy read compared to alot of the other texts out there (and according to one reviewer on Amazon.com "This book is NOT for 4 to 8 year olds". I found that amusing)

I grew up in a conservative Church of Christ family and never had access to anything actual religious texts but the Bible growing up, although I was always a fan of Mythology in general and I studied in depth when I could get my hands on it. I had access to alot of information on Roman religion during High School while I was taking 4 years of Latin. I also got my hands on a few books about runes and the Futhark and some other crap.

Through High School, I evolved from a Christian to a Deist and from there into more of a generic transcendentalist. When I got into college, several of my friends claimed to be Wiccan (they were eclectic neo-pagans) and we had many discussions about their religious ideas and actions. Three of them were very, very fluffy and the fourth I ended up becoming very close to. The fluffy ones suggested that I read some Ravenwolf, which I did, but puked up immediately and the fourth suggested Conway's "Celtic Magic". I wasn't too aware of just HOW bad her lack of research was, but I had an idea.

At around that time, I started meditating and getting involved in what some people would refer to as magic. The less fluffy of my friends did some great tarot and often we would attempt to see how our "spirit spotting 6th sense" would correlate. I went to college in that year Galveston, which seems to be a very spiritually active place, and we'll just cut it short and say that I experienced some strange and powerful things.

I eventually decided that fluffy bunny Wicca was not for me (I still did not quite realize yet that they weren't Wiccans at all, but did catch on that they had some ideas that didn't quite correlate to common sense).

Since I was getting a Religious Studies minor, I continued to study in and out of my classes. Eventually, some of the ideas in Gnosticism hit a chord and didn't outright conflict with some of the world view beliefs that I still held (and still do hold) from those Freshman year experiences. I wouldn't say I'm religious now, but my belief system is somewhere along the line of Areligous with gnostic and neo-pagan influences.  

[MaddLlama]

The first specifically Pagan book I read was Solitary Wicca, but before that I read a lot of Greek and Native American mythology.

I still think that Solitary Wicca is a good resource, and though it's out of print, Bonewits "Essential guide to Wicca and Witchcraft" is also a good book.  

[Calixti]

The very first would've been what I had access to as a kid: Disney movies, my mum's two favourite shows (Hercules and Xena), the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the encyclopedia, and the complete tales of the Brothers Grimm.

After Disney's Hercules came out when I was a kid, I think I was nine or ten at the time, I got interested in Greek mythology and started bugging my mum to take me to the public library during the school year instead of just summertime because the school library didn't have any books on mythology. I loved that stuff as a kid. That summer, I got a book of Norse myths for my birthday which I think I still have, though it's at home with the majority of my books.

I can't really recommend anything because my first sources were, well, bad. sweatdrop Disney and nineties television shows are NOT good sources. Luckily, all they did was spark interest, I knew from reading the Brothers Grimm that any movies or television shows would be incredibly different from source material.  

[MoonJeli]

The first resources were my mom and dad, and their library of sacred texts of various religions. The first book on the subject that I read was probably the I Ching when I was very young. The Bhagavad-Gita, and several books on Zen Buddhism were next. One major sacred book we didn't have in the house when I was small was the Bible -- I didn't read that until Jr. High. (My neighbor had one, and it had those super thin rice-paper type pages, and gold edges, and a soft leather cover, which was all very appealing, and we would sneak it out of the house and read bits of it. For some reason we thought it was naughty and hid the activity from our parents.)

For a beginner? The top resource I'd recommend is this Guild. Heh!  

[Autumnal Light]

I got my beginnings in early high school when a friend who considered herself Wiccan lent me a copy of To Ride a Silver Broomstick. Yep, I got my first lessons on neo-pagan religions from Ravenwolf. sweatdrop To be honest, it really appealed to me at the time. I liked the ideas of a religion that discouraged violence, allowed for creating one's own altar and sacred space, and came with a world view in which magic was considered real. Of course, having never received proper training in any religion prior to this (playing with the Noah's Arc toys in Sunday school doesn't really count) I had no way of knowing that these concepts weren't restricted to the faux-Wicca that I was reading about.

What saved me from turning into a serious fluffy bunny was merely my own natural skepticism on certain points. For example, all good Wiccans supposedly wore pentacles due to the elemental symbolism, but I never liked wearing jewelry. Would that make me a "bad" Wiccan? On a more gut level, it all struck me as a little too romantic. Even if I liked the ideas, some of the promised outcomes (becoming more peaceful, enlightened, successful, etc.) just struck me as too good to be true.

I wound up going online and eventually found the forums here and began to develop my own personal bullshit-o-meter, in part from seeing some people get taken down on M&R (I'm looking at you TeaDidikai!). mrgreen

I've been neglecting spiritual stuff for a while, but have been getting back into studying recently. I tend to lurk around discussions, search the internet for resources (of admittedly variable quality), and so on. Now that I have some kind of overview of various beliefs, I'm beginning to get a yen to check out more source materials. I'm currently taking a class on Buddhism and am developing a strong interest in the philosophies presented (Mahayana Buddhism in particular).

I'm not currently attached to any particular religious paradigm or worldview. Interestingly, the more I study, the more attracted I get to the basic philosophy of chaos magicians: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."  

[Violet Song jat Shariff]

The first book I read when I got into Paganism in general was "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" I'd still recommend it, but like Nuri said, with some extra notes and things to think about.

My first Norse Pagan book was..."The Poetic Eddas" (Hollander Translation) I think. I bought that and "Essential Asatru" by Diane Paxson at about the same time. I'd obviously recommend the Eddas, and I enjoyed Paxson's book as well. I think recommending Paxson's book would depend on the individual in question.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

Gosh, I'm not sure I can remember. Besides grammar school instruction in Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Japanese, Aztec, Mayan, and Sumerian myths, I'm sure I was rabbiting about on the internet in early high school at some point. I looked at one of those online witch schools, as well as the late WhyWiccansSuck.com, through which I found something called "Witchcraft from the Ground Up." I think I poked around with CAW and the Zells a bit. I never got to Ravenwolf or Starhawk. Raven Kaldera's website was a fairly early resource, with his tales of worldwalking and being ripped apart and rebuilt by Hel. Most of my early information I got from the pagan group at my high school. My Sacred Circle Tarot booklet has a lot about British tradition, I've had that for awhile.

I'm still partial to Embracing the Moon by Yasmine Galenorn. Urban Primitive looks good from what I've read of it on Google Books. A Book of Pagan Prayer by Ceisiwr Serith has been inspiring.  

[Mirenithil]

In 1994 (that was probably the year, though I'm a little hazy now and it could have been '95) I met a guy who claimed to be a witch though a group of friends at a coffee house. (I'm old, too *sweatdrop*)

We talked about it all evening long, and the next time I saw him he had Kisma Stepanich's Faerie Wicca books and a spiral sterling neclace with a stone in it that he claimed was important somehow. I think he said it was proof of his degree. I remember there were two volumes. These he lent to me - and then, after that night, disappeared. I never saw him again. I guess he left town, though I never heard why, so the books and the necklace became mine by default.

I read them through avidly. I thought the 'faerie' thing was a little overboard but this was the only exposure to anything even calling itself Wicca I'd ever had and so I didn't know any better.

I THINK my next books were Scott Cunningham's - at least, they're the next ones I remember reading for sure. Shortly thereafter and continuing for quite a few years I had everything I could find on bookstore shelves about Wicca and, considering that most everything was Llwellyn (i.e. from a publishing house that had absolutely no standards and would publish anything at all by anybody so long as it sold) despite all my reading I was of course still desperately clueless. When the Internet really rolled around for the mass public in like '95 or '96 naturally I took my studies there.

Anyone who visited witchie sites during the first several years of the early internet will tell you that pretty much every site you went to were largely alike. Everyone was reading the same (mostly Llewellyn) books, after all. XD Nearly every site had a Never Again The Burning Times banner, nearly every site talked about OH THOSE EVIL CHRISTIANS PERSECUTING US, and nearly every site assumed that the reader was new to THIS ANCIENT AND MYSTERIOUS RELIGION THAT STRETCHED TO US IN AN UNBROKEN LINEAGE STRAIGHT FROM THE STONE AGE IN BRITAIN. *laughing* Pretty much all sites offered a Wicca 101 course. Why yes, borrow anything from any culture you like, ancient or modern! And overall most sites were as shallow as birdbaths.

Yeah. *wincing*

I have not been active in the Wiccan or Pagan community for at least four years now, so I don't really know what's been published. However, I LOVED "The Triumph of the Moon" and would emphatically insist any newcomer to the path read that alongside anything else their coven would assign to them.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

For non-Eastern faith stuff, because I know Nuri doesn't count Buddhism as Pagan...for light introduction, a children's book of Egyptian mythology I no longer remember the title of. It had neat pictures of the gods and spawned an overall interest in old faiths and folkways on the whole.

For serious scholarship, probably Drawing Down the Moon, actually. I found it somewhat incidentally while wandering the religion section, and took it home along with an armload of vampire mythology (I freaked my mom out with my library trips a lot as a teenager). I honestly don't remember much of the book - it has been over 10 years since I cracked it - but it did help me understand at least a few things, such as 'these guys aren't evil, they're kind of neat'.

It helped undo a mythology, really. For years I'd been told witchcraft was bad...and there, I found it wasn't. They were ordinary people with an interesting faith system.  

[Cirrus Mystallow]

My parents have always had sort of neopaganish beliefs but when I was about 11 I sort of had a freakout about how witchcraft could not exist. This took me on a journey to the internet in which I read some information on Pagan beliefs and of course Neo-Wicca, My first books were Ways of Wicca and sorry to say I was badly informed by an occult shop owner on buying Teen Witch.

I have grown up from that (and my beliefs have extremely matured in the last 8 years) and met my fiancee who initiated me into her beliefs and we now follow a sort of system of her families beliefs combined with some of my beliefs.  

[Taliah]

My interest in mythology in general helped lead me to this scene.

When I was about 10 or 11 (maybe younger), I spent long hours looking up Greek gods and their stories. I eventually moved from Greek to Roman, to Egyptian, to Sumerian, and then to Norse. The last three are probably the ones I know the least about. But I found them absolutely fascinating because they had human qualities, flaws, and personalities, unlike the Christian god that I knew.

About halfway through my Senior year of High School, I considered myself not a believer of Christianity, and started hitting the books. I found a book called The Wiccan Bible, which was basically a general information guide on Wicca-where it started, what it's beliefs are, etc. After that, I looked into Cunningham's Wicca: A guide for the Solitary Practitioner, and Living Wicca. My college Mythology class and World Lit helped me to read texts like Gilgamesh, Metamorphoses, The Illiad, The Prose Edda, all of which I had a fun time learning about.

Right now, I'd suppose I'm categorized as an Eclcectic Neo-Pagan. I like the belief systems that I find here, but right now I'm searching for what I truly believe, and if I have a niche anywhere.  

[Ulfrikr inn Hrafn]

Heilsan,

First resource, that would be Norse Magic by D. J. Conway... complete and utter shite. Was great at the time, but now I just look at it and laugh.

What I recommend for beginners, the Poetic Edda. Simple. Why, because you need to understand the stories first, before getting in deeper, otherwise most people have no cultural connection, and that leads to all sorts of issues.

For anyone interested in Witchcraft per se, I recommend a Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, has more practical advise in it than 90% of 'pagan' authors.

Ver thu heil  

[Ainwyn]

The first thing that probably got me into older religions and traditions was a book of world folklore (which I still have on my bookshelf, but can't remember the name of it). Plus, my parents have always encouraged my sister and me to learn about different religions (most notably from my childhood being the various indiginous religions from the Americas).

I truly recommend that people who are interested in paganism in general, or especially recon religions, read as much folklore and mythology as they can get their hands on, as that's all we really have left of many older beliefs. Trying to find the best translation is the real tricky part though. And then, when you've narrowed down your path and you've found whatever intrigues you the most, read things written by anthropologists and historians. Try to find a journal, get on JSTOR through your school. I realize that a lot of this stuff is dry, but if you find good sources in the acedemic world, you're not going to be dealing with all the money making, popularity s**t that comes through a lot of pagan publishers.

TeaDidikai

It's a bit tricky for me. On the one hand I would say my family traditions were my first sources, however, the context wasn't fully present. For that, I needed to turn to anthropologists who looked at Roma history and culture.

Who would you say is the best when it comes to this sort of thing? I found a lot of sources online, but would like to know what's the best before investing my time and money in any of them.  

[Morgandria]

I started out...somewhere. And I've ended up being somewhere else.  

[Nomad of Nowhere]

I think the groundwork was largely laid for me when I was a child. My mother was wonderful enough to read Greek mythology to me for bedtime stories. I was hearing about the Greek gods at the same time I was going to Jewish preschool. I never really chose my religion until much later though. I rejected Christianity outright; I didn't buy it. It always seemed like a pagan bastardization of Judaism to me. I suppose I never really considered breaking away from monotheism until I heard about Wicca, or a kind of it. I did some research, and was almost immediately distracted from Wicca drawn deeper into the Asatru websites that I discovered instead. I think even then I was more drawn to real Polytheism. It was part of my reasoning in rejecting Abrahamic religion in the first place; I just saw many forces at work, I saw the conflict of multiple entities. This caused me to land myself in an unpleasant situation when one of the first Wiccans I ever tried to learn from mentioned the lord and lady, and I tried to name their Norse "Equivalents". She wasn't any better; she called the lady Hera.

I made some bad decisions in books, and like Ulfrikr, eventually read Norse Magic by D.J. Conway, as well as some others, and I was a little confused for awhile. I tried to apply Wiccan concepts to Polytheism, but it kind of bugged me. Maybe I wanted it to be more like the stories my mother read me, a true pantheon with all of it's various deities. Add that to the fact that I wasn't as interested in the Occult aspect as my ideas developed, and I've recently ended up ditching Wiccanized interpretation altogether. If I were to define, say, Cernunnos, I would define him as a fertility god whose existence I accept, but not as the "Lord".

I was sort of on the fence. Then I ended up going back to mythology, and it was the gods of the Canaanites and the Babylonians that actually pulled me in. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I read that some Hebrews had come to worship them. Apparently some of them began to take other gods, foreign ones, what between fighting the Canaanites and being invaded by the Babylonians. Then I found out that so many stories, like that of the flood, down to it's very details; where the bird is set free to find land and everything. They show up in pagan form before they show up in the Old Testament. Of course, I was already taken with all the gods, from all of these mythologies I had studied, and I couldn't say goodbye to any of them, so I had to be eclectic. This was reinforced by my discovery of how often polytheistic cultures, upon meeting, tend to transfer their gods to one another. It seems as though it was hardly unheard of; Temple to the Thracian Bendis in Athens, the cult of Dionysus-Osiris, the worship of Diana in modern day Romania, the fusion of Isis with Astarte in some circles, etc.

I finally ended up looking into Shinto, and that, coupled with so many European examples of natural spirits that blurred the lines between gods and apparitions, and I eventually found my way into adopting a very liberal stance on deities, accepting that there might be more of them than I can comprehend, and that everyone's gods exist in one form or another, though I as a worshiper can only understand the nature of some. The Abrahamic god offers a problem to that way of thinking, but he could be taken as a fusion of all deities, and with less effort than you might imagine; In genesis, many of the things he does are done by multiple Sumerian gods when they create men and the world. It would appear that each of these roles were simply designated to one being later on.

Of course, as it turns out from a test my mother did, we're Ashkenazi's. An undeniably Caucasian people who converted to Judaism at an unknown date. Everyone always said it was strange for me to be blond and blue- eyed, but I shrugged it off. Anyway, so much for their conversion. I suppose I'm undoing what they did. I don't really go by ancestry much anymore, though I am trying to learn more about Slavic mythology for partially genealogical reasons, but out of interest, and not to practice it as a pure tradition, you understand. At this time, I am closest to Sumero-Babylonian and Graeco-Roman mythology, although I include the Thracian mystery religions, particularly Orphism, which has impacted me significantly, as "Greek", due to their Hellenization.