C is for Change

Over the years I've been an open Pagan I've been in three different circles, plus a mentor-student and student-mentor relationship. My first group's leaders were the same age I am now, putting things together on thier own, from their own hearts and minds as best they could. That circle ultimately fell apart due to infighting though I managed to come out relatively unscathed (except for maybe my deep skepticism and high walls when it comes to letting new Pagans in to my own inner barriers). Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

After that, I kept on as a weekly student with my teacher and mentor Amanda for years, until she went away to get her Masters degree. She taught me the importance of academic rigour and figuring out sources, and of myth. We spent a lot of time on Campbell and because of her I journal to this day. When she came back from school she was inspired by a Pagan group she'd met down south and we decided to form a Pagan association, performing public rituals and having monthly brunch. Man I miss those brunches! That was my life for the next few years, and during that time our relationship morphed from mentor/student and friends to equals and friends (though I'll always look up to her and still poke my head in for guidance now and then). I also had a student of my own during that time, for a year or two  I can't quite remember, who eventually I ran out of things to teach. One Beltane we had a little ceremony for him and he 'graduated' to walking his Path on his own, but still a part of the association.

Image copyright Kyle Cardoza

 When I came to the Island I immediately touched base with a group of local Pagans who are now my Circle. My Circle, as I'm their Priestess, though that is changing too with the move to Victoria next month. The thing that hasn't changed through all of these years and different faces is the feeling I have when I'm with 'my people'; it comes very close to family, and sometimes crosses right into it. The companionship and trust, the comraderie all comes through clear as daylight when we stand together to honour the Sacred and connect with it in a way our ancestors used to every day.

She changes everything she touches
and everything she touches changes
Changes! Touches! Everything She touches changes!