Pagan Coming Out Day Love

Today (May 2nd) is International Pagan Coming Out Day. Having had a weekend of celebrating Beltane, I was thinking this morning about what being out as a Pagan means to me in light of that celebration.

You see, for Beltane we had a phenomenal ritual. Seriously, a knock-your-socks-off fabulous ritual. It’s not something I can write about though. Not because it’s oathbound but because it would sound very dull and disappointing on paper. I can’t convey that experience via the internet. It’s an impossible task.

Yet I think I can convey it face-to-face. I think I can describe that energy, that emotion and that transformative experience by voice, gesture and touch. I believe I can take that joy that I received from that rite and pass it on to another person who is in my physical presence.

I can’t really do that if I’m closeted. I can’t convey that experience to someone who isn’t aware of what the Pagan movement is if I’m closeted. I can only “preach to the choir’ and although there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not enough.

It’s my hope that I can sit with the energy of this Beltane and make it part of my answer when people ask me about my religion. If there is anything I can share with someone about what it means to be Pagan, it is my goal that it conveys some small part of the joy, community, healing and love of the Beltane ritual I participated in this year.

I’ll admit I found the date for Pagan Coming Out Day confusing, but now I get it. As Saint John says, perfect love casteth out fear. Having just been filled to the brim with Perfect Love and Perfect Trust in action, I’m not only proud to tell anyone I’m Pagan today, but I’m happy to be able to share with them the joy, love and peace my path brings me.

May you make good choices in how you identify. May those of you who come out to any degree find acceptance and love. May those of you in the closet one day find the freedom to be more open. May all of us go forth with the love of the Gods always in our hearts.

Special thanks to my amazing family at  Grove of the WillowWood and House of RavenStone for not only an amazing Beltane, but also for supporting me being an out, loud and proud Pagan. I quite literally could not do what I do here at Patheos without their love and support.