A Walk on the Pagan Path
MeadowMoon April 1st, 2010
A while after I started studying paganism, I introduced it to my children. I mainly explained to them that I was on a different spiritual journey and I wanted to explain the term paganism to them and how it differed from Christianity. As a child, Christianity was shoved down my throat. This was taught to me to be the only religion in the world and anything else was a deceitful act by the devil. Once I started doubting Christianity, I knew that I didn’t want my children to be sheltered when it came to their own beliefs. I really wanted them to understand the term Freedom of Religion. Therefore, even today as I practice witchcraft and read all the many books I possess, I do this openly in front of my children. I explain to them what I am doing and why. I allow them to ask any questions they may have. One thing I don’t do is have them participate with me. I let them get involved if they show interest.
At first, I wasn’t sure if this was the right approach to take. However, I see now that this was the best option. If I had always been pagan and then had children, I have no doubt that they would have been raised as pagans. But, since this was clearly not the case, all I knew to do was to leave a door open and a window cracked. They would enter on their own or they would pass it by altogether. On that note, I have seen great interest from both of my sons. My 14 year old has had endless discussions with me on various pagan topics. He is trying to figure out where he stands on his beliefs. He has even danced around the idea of atheism, but came back to me with more questions showing a bit of uncertainty on this idea. He is always curious as to what I am studying and enjoys the discussions triggered from my current insights. As for my 8 year old, he doesn’t discuss spiritual topics too often, but when he does, it makes me stop in my tracks because it is often out of the blue that he brings things up. He has informed me that he believes there are many deities and he enjoys talking one on one with his natural environment. He also has found a strong liking to my set of runes. He tells me he doesn’t understand why he likes them but he feels good when he holds them in his hands. I find that I enjoy seeing my children explore their spiritual side. I am glad I have provided them an opportunity to do so.
Now I would like to hear from other pagan parents. Share with me how you have approached paganism or any other spiritual belief with your children. If you currently do not have children, share with us your plans on how you will handle this in the future. Feel free to share how you share paganism with any children.
Thank you all for all the wonderful comments left for last month’s article. I have enjoyed reading the comments left and appreciate you taking the time to share your opinions with me and the other readers.
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Your chosen way of raising your children concerning which path to follow is precisely what we had chosen to do. I was raised christian, went to church each week, christian school and christian summer camp. My husband was raised christian as well but in a less rigid way. I’ve been a Pagan for a number of years now, my husband for a few. We decided to give our children the choice to chose. They attended church with their grandparents until they decided they didn’t want to go anymore. This gave them the basis to start their journey. They watched us attend various pagan events, and they asked for various books such as Greek or Egyptian Mythology. We didn’t hide what we did but we did ask them to refrain from blabbing all over school that their parents were witches. As they grew they asked more questions, talked to their friends from different faiths (Catholic, Atheist, Jewish, ect) about various belief structures. My youngest son who is now 18 describes himself as an easy going pagan with a dash of the Nordic traditions (he also loves the runes). My oldest is now 20, attending a Franciscan Catholic college and describes himself as Agnostic with leanings towards the Greek/Egyptian. Both have been in Circle with us and respect what we do. It isn’t important that they pick a path and give it a name, just that they are on the journey. The most important thing that we could teach them is manners and respect, for themselves, others and our world.
I do see a common thread here, and that’s good. I too was raised christian, but chose to follow my true heart and seached out paganism. When my child was very young we sent him to a christian pre-school, and he attended church with us. Then we stopped going to church and over time and research, started walking the pagan path. He too is researching and exploring many paths, and likes my goddess altar. The theme in our house is “live and let live”, “to each their own”, “harm none, do what you will”, you get the idea!
I really enjoyed this article,as it brought back memories of raising my own two and the problems I had over the RE issue.
It began when my daughter started secondary school and mentioned Paganism, at which point the teacher went off on the usual ‘devil worship and satanism’ rubbish. My daughter came home bewildered and upset, so I went up to the school to enquire what was happening, and proposing to remove my child from RE class. Things got worse, and I made complaint after complaint, eventually removing my daughter from that school. I later found out that the teacher also left at the same time!
The next school was worse at first, with RE teachers saying they would ‘pray for her’. I made an appointment with the head of RE and asked him if a Muslim child would be subjected to this. He was puzzled, because he hadn’t heard what had gone on, also quite upset, as he was Jewish! He had words, and even asked me up to the school to give a talk on Paganism.
I didn’t remove my daughter from RE, because singling out a child like this could have led to her being even more bullied but she had no more problems, and the Head of RE and myself became quite friendly.
My son, when he joined the school two years later had no problems, but it affected my daughter to the extent that she could give Richard Dawkins a run for his money! My son has followed my lead into Paganism.