The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

So if anyone wants to be my mentor, or has any helpful information or support for a lost and struggling Aussie girl, it would be much appreciated.

 
Welcome to The Cauldron!

It can be pretty confusing when we're just starting out.

TC has a Pagan Primer with useful information about different pagan topics.

One of our members, Jenett, has a Seeking website which I really love and recommend. I was just reading there yesterday for a refresher on shielding, actually!

Welcome again from a fellow Southern Hemisphere Pagan who shouldn't be up at 2am (except that it's finally not too hot and it's peaceful and quiet).

So if anyone wants to be my mentor, or has any helpful information or support for a lost and struggling Aussie girl, it would be much appreciated.

Greetings, Scarlet!  Emerald and HarpingHawke have provided you some great advice.  Something you might want to ask yourself is if there is any particular culture, mythology and/or set of deities to which you feel exceptionally attracted.  Do any in particular stand out to you?

Hello,
I am new to Paganism

Hi and welcome to TC!

If you are new to paganism, you are not alone. Everyone has to begin somewhere and everyone has questions. You've already gotten some great suggestions (a couple of which are repeated below), but here are a few more ideas to help you get started:

TC's Pagan Primer: This is a resource designed as an introduction. It includes basic information and links to more specific info on a variety of pagan topics, including "Common Questions About Paganism".

TC's Teens and Paganism FAQ: This resource was originally intended to address the kinds of questions teen pagans struggle with, such as talking to parents about religion. However, the final product turned out to include a lot of great info that is useful to new pagans of any age, including many links to very useful resources.

Seeking: First Steps & Tools:  This is a well organized and user friendly resource dedicated to providing the kinds of information and explanations that many new pagans don't even know they need.  The author, Jenett, is a long-time Cauldronite and experienced practitioner of a small religious witchcraft tradition.  (You can read more about Jenett's background in the "About Me" section of her site.)  The Seeking site includes detailed discussions of:
the basics of paganism
reaching out to other pagans
specific practices that are found in many pagan paths
some of the common questions asked by new pagans
a suggested reading list
a description of Conscious Awareness of Religious Environment (CARE) -- a method for evaluating pagan and magical groups for problematic behaviors
Each section includes numerous links to additional relevant material.

TC's Religious Special Interest Groups: In addition to folders on a wide variety of paganism-related topics, this forum also includes Special Interest Groups (SIGs) dedicated to the discussion of specific pagan paths, including practices based on the traditional religions of specific cultures. There are "sticky posts" on resources specific to each path at the top of the SIG folder, so you can easily find additional, in-depth information.

As you probably know by now, TC is a discussion and debate forum. That means posters are free to challenge assumptions, correct faulty facts, and generally disagree. This can be a bit intimidating for people who are new to paganism. So we have created three areas specifically intended as "safe spaces" for beginners, where you can ask questions about any related topic and receive answers from posters who understand that you are not yet as experienced in paganism as many Cauldronites. The beginner-friendly folders are:
Paganism for Beginners
Books and Other Resources
Magic and the Occult for Beginners
Please be sure to read the sticky posts that explain the special rules for participating in threads in those folders.

A piece of advice: TC is a bit different from most other online forums, even other pagan forums. So, we generally recommend that people who are new to TC spend some time reading threads to get a sense of the board culture here before posting questions or comments. That will help you understand how posters interact here and help you avoid unnecessary anxiety about appropriate responses.

If you have any questions about TC, our rules, the board culture, how to post, or anything else, please feel free to post them in the Board Questions, Suggestions, and Feedback folder or send a private message (PM) to any staff member.

Welcome to TC!

~ Aster
TC Staff

P.S.  Please let me know (preferably via PM) if you find any broken links above.