Why I Am a Pagan

Patheos has asked writers to explain in 200 words why they practice their religion.

Had anyone told me I would be a Pagan a day before Midsummer, I would have laughed in disbelief.  I was a guest at a Midsummer Sabbat. When it finally started, over two hours late, I was happy mostly because that meant it would eventually end, and I could go home without insulting the person who invited me.

A circle was formed in a glade by participants and guests. The priest walked to its center and invoked the Goddess. She came. Her presence was the most beautiful, loving, and powerful experience I ever had. “Here’s a religion where they ask their God to come and She does,” I thought. She carried a sense of meadows, forests, and nature and somehow seemed more real than me or my day-to-day world. My fascination with power dissolved and never came back as I realized, “With love like this, who needs power?”

I began to study our religion soon afterwards, eventually to join a coven. But later, people told me that my real initiation was conducted by the Goddess Herself. I have been a Pagan ever since.

More responses from the Pagan Channel: Yvonne Aburrow, John Beckett, Aine Llewellyn, Angus McMahan, Jason  Mankey.