The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

With so much information and so many different paths, how did you choose which one to follow? Did you always know one religion was right for you, or did you experiment with different ones? What did you base your decision on?

I ask because I'm stuck between two paths and I don't feel right combining them or practicing each one separately.

 
It took a lot of poking at things and trying things to see if they worked. I'm still doing both to be honest and sometimes I followed some paths that led me to other paths and honestly, I guess the biggest thing to remember is that a spiritual path is a /path/ and not a destination since you're going to keep finding new information and learning about things. Also that it's not a race.

Also, the question that I've seen suggested by various people to ask one self is "does this work for me now?" to see if something is right for you at that moment and to accept that the answer may change in the future and that answer wasn't always the same in the past.

I guess the biggest thing to remember is that a spiritual path is a /path/ and not a destination.

 
YES.

Wander the path. Stop to smell the flowers, or flip over rocks to see what's underneath, or take a side trail to see what's over that hill over there.

With so much information and so many different paths, how did you choose which one to follow? Did you always know one religion was right for you, or did you experiment with different ones? What did you base your decision on?

I ask because I'm stuck between two paths and I don't feel right combining them or practicing each one separately.

 
I began studying and practicing in my late teens. I started with general Wicca then was drawn to Celtic Wicca. Later on, I was drawn to Norse Wicca, then finally I found my true path which is Egyptian Wicca. It depends on who you are and what you are drawn to. If you are drawn to more Celtic deities, you might try Celtic Wicca. I found Egyptian Wicca when I was getting over my fear of the dark and Lord Anubis came to me. You may want to try one path then the other. See if one draws you more.

With so much information and so many different paths, how did you choose which one to follow? Did you always know one religion was right for you, or did you experiment with different ones? What did you base your decision on?

I was Catholic up until the year after I left college. (I was working for my college that year, so stayed in a campus religious community I really loved.) But it was clear by the end of that that I needed to look at something else. At the end of that year, I moved half way across the country, and gave myself a year to figure out what I wanted out of my religious life going forward.

So I spent a year doing a lot of general reading, and a lot of thinking about what I wanted in a religion - which was partly about beliefs, partly about practices, partly about what felt like satisfying religious ritual to me and what didn't. And while I looked at several things that weren't Pagan, by the end of that year, it was pretty clear to me that some strand of Paganism was probably where I should look first.

I was pretty clear that one of the things that I wanted was a group of people to do things with (because group ritual does things to my head that solo ritual doesn't, even though solo ritual is also important to me.) So I started by looking at what groups were near me, and what they were like, as part of my narrowing things down process.

I spent the next year doing a lot more specific reading, going to some public rituals and other events, and then ended up exploring a couple of groups in more detail. (I was very lucky in having a lot of choice: I'd ended up moving to an area with a wide-ranging and active Pagan community without knowing it in advance.) And then I did intro classes with one of them, liked them, and kept going.

(I'm now a 3rd degree priestess in that tradition, and while I'm now living nowhere near anyone else in my trad, and my current ritual practice has a lot of variation, that experience is something I deeply value and is a strong undercurrent in everything I do now - work, home, personal religious practice, everything)

If you're trying to figure out what kinds of things might matter to you, I have a list on my website of questions to think about. It's aimed at people specifically considering groups, but it works nearly as well for general paths. (It starts with the practical stuff, like what can you get to, and you can skim through that if you're not looking for a physical group.)

The other thing you might think about is - if you're trying to decide between different paths, which one is going to give you more options down the road?

In some cases, picking a very narrow path may limit some options for you (places you could find help, or maybe a teacher or group to do things with, access to resources. Some specific practices may not be a good fit for your own personal health or other things you want to do - a deeply ecstatic practice where you lose yourself in trance, for example, may not be a great fit if you have a job that means you're on call a lot of the time.)

So if you're trying to decide, and you don't know which to pick, I'd suggest trying out the one that has more options for you, at least to start. If it works for you, great! If it doesn't, you can try the next thing, or you can add elements of the other things you want, depending on how things fit.

With so much information and so many different paths, how did you choose which one to follow? Did you always know one religion was right for you, or did you experiment with different ones? What did you base your decision on?

 
It took a lot of time, a lot of research, and a lot of experimenting. A lot of actually doing ritual to find what formats felt right to me. A lot of reading about mythologies, folklore, and stories of the gods. I didn't stay with Wicca because its myth cycle did not sit right with my experiences, but other mythological cycles of other religious traditions did.

And, to a certain extent, a lot of interaction with a community. I might've continued to describe myself as Hellenic if it weren't for a less-than-positive reception of my secondary practices towards Roman and Celtic gods. I drifted into Religio Romana mainly because the Roman recon communities I've interacted with have been more receptive to syncretism.

With so much information and so many different paths, how did you choose which one to follow? Did you always know one religion was right for you, or did you experiment with different ones? What did you base your decision on?

I ask because I'm stuck between two paths and I don't feel right combining them or practicing each one separately.

 
Here, where I am, there's not that much information on non-christian religions. In school, we learned a bit about the Dacians and their worship of Zamolxis, but back then, I didn't care much because I was a teen and hated everything to do with religions (or school for that matter). 'Growing up', and being fed up with christianity, I figured I'd look for something different, so I started exploring the ancestral roots of my people and stuck with the Thracians/ Dacians, because I love my country and generally love traditions and customs. I just felt drawn to it because everyone else who came into our land (Greeks, Romans, Goths, Slavs, Turkics)...well - they came - they weren't native, therefore, not something I wanted to look into.

You were probably already asked this but I'll ask again (because I'm kinda lazy) - what two paths are you following?

I deliberately went shopping for religions, almost went with Buddhism, and then found neo-druidry and was like YES. THIS.

I'm still keeping my Christianity (loosely) for now, but druidry kind of thwapped me with how right it felt.

Personally,the feeling part is most important for myself..Mainly how I came to where I am right now..